Privacy Policy
Effective January 13, 2005
THEOLYMPIAN.COM is part of the Real Cities Network (or "RCN"), a national network of Internet sites serving geographic and common interest communities across the United States. RCN affiliates each have their own Terms of Use and Privacy Policies. Please review all affiliate's policies to understand the privacy terms applicable on their sites. You can view the sites included in the Real Cities Network at http://www.realcities.com/.
When does TheOlympian.com collect my personally identifiable information?
When you register for TheOlympian.com or its services, we collect personally identifying information from you. During registration you are asked to provide personal information, such as your e-mail address. In addition to registration, we may collect personally identifiable information from you when you enter contests and sweepstakes (which may be done in conjunction with site registration), participate in promotions and special programs, register for premium or customized services, make a purchase at one of our merchants or partners, subscribe to one of our print publications, or download a software product or plug-in.
If you are making a purchase or enrolling in a premium service for which there is a fee, we, or a 3rd party working in partnership with us, will collect your credit card, billing address, and other verifying information. In addition, we may collect personally identifiable information from you when you provide content to us for display or use on TheOlympian.com, including but not limited to when you participate in the Reader Network, post messages to comment threads, submit personals or other classified listings, build a home page, report a problem with one of our sites or services, or submit a letter to the editor.
If you use our referral service ("Email and Article to a Friend") to tell a friend about our site, we will ask for your email address and theirs. We automatically send a one-time email to the address you provided. Neither your email address nor the email address you provide is stored or used for any other purpose.
How is my personally identifiable information used?
Our main goal is to provide you with a customized and more relevant experience on TheOlympian.com. We review our users' preferences, demographics, traffic patterns, and other information in aggregate so that we can better understand who our audience is, and what it is you want. Tracking user preferences also helps us serve you more relevant advertising. Please note that we do not share your personally identifying information with the advertiser.
We use a third party to serve ads when you visit our site. This third party ad server may use certain information about your visit to our site in order to provide advertisements about goods and services that may be of interest to you, but they are not allowed to collect or use personally identifiable information about you for their own purposes.
All credit card information is transmitted in an encrypted form, using SSL (secure socket layer) encryption, the industry-standard. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. TheOlympian.com assumes no liability for disclosure of data due to errors in transmission or unauthorized third parties. If you have any questions about security on our Web site, you can contact us at: 1-877-223-7355.
The email address provided by you at registration, or as updated, may be used by TheOlympian.com and its affiliated entities, including The McClatchy Company, to contact you for any reason, including: (1) Your account status (including an email confirmation of registration), (2) Major changes to the website, the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, (3) Participation in user surveys, asking for feedback on the website and (4) notifying you of existing or prospective products and services offered by us or our advertisers and partners. This information helps us to improve our website. The information provided by you at registration may be used by The Olympian and its affiliated entities, including The McClatchy Company to contact you with special offers and promotions.
To update your personal information such as name, or mailing address, you can sign into your account and visit the Update Account page. To update your newsletter subscriptions you either a) visit your newsletter subscription page in your account, or b) unsubscribe by following the instructions within the email newsletter.
If you opt-in to a third party offer on this site then your relationship with the third party will be governed by their respective Privacy Policies. If you no longer wish to receive communication from the third party, then you will need to contact them directly to opt-out. When you sign up for some third-party services on this site, such as free coupons, you will be taken to a co-branded site which may appear to be TheOlympian.com; however if the third party is collecting information from you, the use of this information is governed by the co-branded partner's privacy policy.
What other information does TheOlympian.com collect and how is it used?
Cookies. The Olympian.com uses cookies to store and track your preferences to provide you with a more personalized user experience. A cookie is a message that is sent to your browser from a Web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. Most Internet sites use cookies. You can set your browser preferences to reject all cookies but then you will not be able to participate in most customized services, and you may be required to repeatedly log in to participate in various services, promotions, or product offerings. Cookies make your experience easier by saving your preferences and passwords.
We also use cookies that contain no personal information at all. These cookies, help us estimate our audience size, determine which areas of TheOlympian.com are the most popular, and serve targeted advertising. Third party advertisers and our ad server may set and access their cookies on your computer in accordance with their own privacy policies. If you would like more information about the use of cookies by our third party ad server and your ability to opt out of receiving cookies from this third party, please click here: http://www.doubleclick.net/us/corporate/privacy
Some parts of TheOlympian.com use cookies to collect information about visitors' use of the Web site and to facilitate return visits. Information collected about user activity may be done in partnership using a 3rd party tracking tool. The information collected from cookies is tracked to enhance security and to improve the functionality of the Web site by avoiding duplicate data entry, facilitating navigation, and increasing the relevance of content. Cookies on the site may collect the following information: a unique identifier, user preferences and profile information used to personalize the content that is shown, and membership information to access TheOlympian.com's services. Some cookies used by TheOlympian.com may remain on the user's computer after they leave the Web site.
Most browsers can be configured to reject cookies or alert you when cookies are being sent. Keep in mind that if you refuse cookies, it is possible that some portions of TheOlympian.com may not function exactly as intended.
IP Address. TheOlympian.com may also collect IP addresses for the purposes of systems administration or to report information in aggregate form to our advertisers (e.g. how many visitors logged in to TheOlympian.com). An IP address is a number that is assigned to your computer automatically when you use the Internet. When you visit a particular TheOlympian.com web page, our servers log your IP address. Your IP address is not linked to anything personally identifiable.
Who does TheOlympian.com share information with?
User information is shared within TheOlympian.com in order to provide you with a more integrated and customized user experience. We will not disclose your personally identifiable information to third parties except (1) to the extent necessary to provide you with a requested product or service, or (2) in order to provide targeted promotional offers during the registration process. If you do not accept any of the offers, your information will not be retained by our registration offers partner.
To the extent you are notified of uses of your personal information which are different from those described in this Policy Statement during your enrollment in any particular service, sweepstakes, contest or promotion, the uses of which you are specifically notified will govern that service, sweepstakes, contest or promotion. We may co-sponsor some contests on our site with other companies. If you enter one of these contests, our co-sponsor may receive the information collected. In such cases, we will tell you who the co-sponsor is and notify you the use of this information is governed by the co-sponsor's privacy policy.
We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Web site
What else should I know about my privacy?
You should be aware that if you voluntarily disclose personal information online in a public area, that information may be collected and used by others. We do not control the actions of our visitors and registered users. If you disclose personal information in a comment thread, on your home page, or any other publicly accessible place on TheOlympian.com, you do so at your own risk and you understand that your submitted information may be collected and used by others to send you unsolicited messages, advertisements, or for other purposes.
Please remember that protection of your privacy begins with you. You are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any password you use to register, and you should always be careful and responsible whenever disclosing information online.
This Web site contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by TheOlympian.com. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites.
We encourage you to be aware when you leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information.
This privacy statement applies only to information collected by this Web site.
PRIVACY PROTECTION FOR CHILDREN. In compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we will not knowingly provide access to TheOlympian.com to persons under the age of thirteen (13). If TheOlympian.com later learns that any registered user is under the age of thirteen (13), we will take appropriate steps to remove the member's information from the database and we will restrict this individual from future access to TheOlympian.com. We feel strongly about protecting the privacy of children. We encourage kids to involve their parents in any interactive activity they participate in online. Except where otherwise disclosed, we will not collect or use any personal information from children we know to be under the age of thirteen without obtaining express parental consent. All general information collected from users under the age of thirteen is used only for aggregate statistical analysis.
Acceptance of Privacy Policy. By using TheOlympian.com and its services, you signify your acceptance of this Privacy Statement. If you do not agree or are not comfortable with any policy described in this Privacy statement, your only remedy is to discontinue use of TheOlympian.com. We reserve the right, to modify this Privacy Statement at any time. If we materially change how we use your personal information we will notify you either by email or through a prominent notice on the web site. Your continued use of any portion of TheOlympian.com following notification or posting of such changes, will constitute your accept of those changes. If you have questions or concerns about our specific policies, please contact us at www.theolympian.com.
Want more information? Check out these helpful links...
Electronic Frontier Foundation - a civil liberties organization working to protect your rights online.
Electronic Privacy Information Center - established to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues relating to the National Information Infrastructure.
Privacy Issues Page - from the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT).
Cookie Central -- dedicated to provide full information upon Internet Cookies.
Terms of Use Effective June 27, 2006.
Welcome to TheOlympian.com, a news, information and communication service available on the Internet's World Wide Web. The service combines much of The Olympian newspaper with additional material available only on TheOlympian.com. Both The Olympian and TheOlympian.com are divisions of McClatchy Newspapers, Inc., a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company.
From time to time, we may make changes to these Terms of Use by posting the changes in this location. Such notice will provide a date upon which the changes will be effective. Should you object to any such modifications to these Terms of Use or become dissatisfied with TheOlympian.com in any way, your only recourse is to immediately discontinue use of TheOlympian.com. Otherwise, continuing to use the service after the effective date means that you agree to be bound by the changes.
Cost
At this time, there is no cost for using the basic services of TheOlympian.com. From time to time there may be premium content available via subscription or surcharge, and those areas will be clearly marked. Because this is an advertising-supported service, we encourage you to patronize the advertisers that help to make this service possible.
The Olympian newspaper's electronic archives carry a fee of $2.95 per single article downloaded. Note that most news articles remain available for two weeks in the pages of TheOlympian.com. Additional information, including credt card information may be required to complete this purchase.
Registration
Access to special content, services and features on TheOlympian.com requires users to register with TheOlympian.com. Member registration requires you to provide certain Personally Identifiable Information, such as your e-mail address. Please see our Privacy Policy to learn about TheOlympian.com's information gathering and how we intend to use and share any information we collect. If you become a Member of TheOlympian.com, you accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for restricting access to your computer so others may not access TheOlympian.com using your username or account in whole or in part. TheOlympian.com reserves the right to terminate Membership and deny access to the site to any person who violates this Terms Of Use.
Copyrights and trademarks
Material published on TheOlympian.com, including articles, photos, graphics, comment thread postings, audio and video clips, and other content, is copyrighted by The Olympian, or by other information providers who have licensed their content for use on TheOlympian.com. Additionally, the entire content of TheOlympian.com is also copyrighted as a collective work under the United States copyright laws; the owner of the collective work is The Olympian. You cannot reproduce, republish or redistribute material from The Olympian, the Associated Press or other news services and syndicates in any way without the written consent of the copyright owner.
You may, however, electronically store a reasonable portion of TheOlympian.com content for your personal, non-commercial use by making a single electronic copy on your computer's hard drive, a single copy on a disk or other media or a single copy in printed form. You agree, however, that you will not store or archive a significant portion of the content or create a database using the content.
These rules also apply:
1. You will not in any way violate the intellectual property laws protecting the content accessible through TheOlympian.com. This means you agree not to copy, modify, publish, transmit, create derivative works from, transfer, sell or display the content, including logos, trademarks or service marks, or otherwise violate the proprietary rights of TheOlympian.com or others. 2. You will not reuse, republish or otherwise distribute the content or any modified or altered versions of it, whether over the Internet or otherwise, and whether or not for payment, without the express written permission of The Olympian or a third-party copyright holder. 3. You will cooperate promptly and completely with any reasonable request by The Olympian related to an investigation of infringement of copyright or other proprietary right.
To obtain permission to reuse or republish any material copyrighted by The Olympian, please contact jlloyd@theolympian.com. The Olympian cannot grant permission to reuse or republish material from other information providers, such as the Associated Press or other news services or syndicates. Please contact them directly.
Member Content is any information you provide to us or other users in any public message area (including the comment threads) or through any email feature. You are solely responsible for Member Content, and we act as a passive conduit for your online distribution and publication of Member Content. Member Content must conform to the guidelines set forth under Online Conduct below. TheOlympian.com reserves the right to remove any material that it believes may violate these Terms or Use, or any copyright or third-party rights.
If you believe that TheOlympian.com or any user of TheOlympian.com has infringed your copyright in any material way, please notify us at online@theolympian.com and provide the following information: 1. An identification of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed. 2. An identification of the material on TheOlympian.com that you claim is infringing or is subject to infringing activity, with enough detail so that we can locate the material on our site. 3. Your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. 4. A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law. 5. A statement by you declaring that the above information in your Notice is accurate, made under penalty of perjury, and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest involved. 6. Your physical or electronic signature.
The Olympian, TheOlympian.com and its logos are registered service marks or trademarks.
Submissions
By submitting any Member Content to TheOlympian.com, you automatically grant The Olympian and TheOlympian.com a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, sublicensable (through multiple tiers), license to use, modify, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, publish, adapt, create derivative works of, distribute, transfer or sell any such content, for any purpose, including commercial purposes, without any payment to you, in any type of media or in any form now known or later developed. In addition, you automatically waive and give up any claim that any use of such content violates any of your rights, including privacy rights, publicity rights, moral rights or any other right, including the right to approve the way TheOlympian.com uses such content.
Online conduct
TheOlympian.com encourages a free and open exchange of ideas in a climate of mutual respect. Any action by a user that infringes on another user's right to use and enjoy TheOlympian.com is prohibited. TheOlympian.com reserves the right, but does not assume any obligation, to monitor your online conduct to enforce these Terms of Use. Without limitation, TheOlympian.com reserves the right to suspend or terminate your access to and use of the site if, in our view, your conduct fails to meet any of the following guidelines: a. Members shall not provide any information that is false, misleading or inaccurate.
b. Members shall not use any portion of TheOlympian.com for any unlawful purpose and will comply with all applicable domestic and international laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations.
c. Members shall not use any portion of TheOlympian.com for uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting or otherwise making available Member Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party. Only the owner or a representative designated by the owner may upload copyrighted material to TheOlympian.com.
d. Members shall not use any portion of TheOlympian.com for uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting or otherwise making available Member Content that is harmful to minors in any way, harassing, harmful, threatening, abusive, vulgar, obscene, defamatory, libelous, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable.
e. Members shall not use any portion of TheOlympian.com for uploading, posting, emailing, transmitting or otherwise making available junk mail, commercial advertisements, or any other form of commercial solicitation.
f. Members shall not attempt to interfere with any other persons use of TheOlympian.com.
g. Members shall not misrepresent their identity nor impersonate any person.
h. Members shall not hold themselves out as sponsored by, endorsed by, or affiliated with The Olympian.
i. Members shall not attempt to modify, translate, adapt, edit, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any software programs used by The Olympian or TheOlympian.com in connection with TheOlympian.com website.
To register a complaint about another user's conduct, please send an e-mail message to online@theolympian.com, or write to Online News Editor, TheOlympian.com, 111 Bethel St., Olympia, WA 98506.
Privacy rights
TheOlympian.com takes your personal privacy seriously. That is why we have adopted our Privacy Policy, which explains our position on information gathering and how we intend to use and share any information we collect. Your use of the TheOlympian.com website or our services signifies acknowledgement of and consent to the information practices in our Privacy Policy. Other services, advertisers and information providers that are accessible on TheOlympian.com are provided by third parties, and have their own policies about using personal information. You should contact these third parties directly for their policies.
You agree that TheOlympian.com may access and disclose information about you or your use of our service when we deem it necessary or appropriate to comply with the law, to respond to claims, to protect our systems and customers, to ensure the integrity and operation of our business and systems, or to protect the rights or property of TheOlympian.com or its affiliates. Such disclosure may include, without limitation, Personally Identifiable Information (e-mail address, etc.), your IP address, traffic information and usage history. Our right to disclose any such information shall govern over any terms of our Privacy Policy.
International Users
You acknowledge and agree that due to the international dimension of our company we may use the data collected in the course of our relationship for the purposes identified in the Privacy Policy, for the purposes identified in our other communications with you, or to provide the information to other businesses and selected third parties which may be outside your resident jurisdiction. TheOlympian.com stores and processes your information on computers located in the United States that are protected by physical as well as technological security devices. In addition, such data may be stored on servers located in other jurisdictions. By providing us with your data, you consent to the transfer of such data. If you object to your information being transferred or used in this way please do not use our site or services.
Children's use of TheOlympian.com
TheOlympian.com is particularly concerned with providing a safe online environment for children. In the near future, parents Parents and legal guardians of children under age 13 who register will be able to establish a member account for their child by accessing the Member Center. In the interim, children under age 13 without signed Parental Consent Forms are not allowed to become members of TheOlympian.com. For more information about how TheOlympian.com handles childrens privacy, please refer to our Privacy Policy.
Other services and information providers accessible through TheOlympian.com have their own policies about children's privacy, and you should contact them directly for their policies.
TheOlympian.com strongly recommends that parents supervise the use of the Internet by their children. A number of commercial products are available to help limit access to material on the Internet that you may consider harmful or inappropriate for your child.
Disclaimer
While TheOlympian.com strives for accuracy, it does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information or database on our service. Nor does TheOlympian.com guarantee or warrant that any files available for downloading will be free of defects. Neither The Olympian nor any of its information providers shall be liable in any way to you or the other parties for delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in the material published in TheOlympian.com.
While we take reasonable steps to ensure that no viruses, worms, Trojan horses or other destructive properties are present, the entire risk as to the quality and performance of TheOlympian.com and the accuracy and completeness of any information is with the user of our service.
Likewise, TheOlympian.com does not warrant that our service will be uninterrupted or error-free. TheOlympian.com makes no warranties, express or implied, including, without limitation, those of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose any information published on the TheOlympian.com Web site or any products or services sold through the TheOlympian.com Web site.
Opinions, advice and all other information expressed on TheOlympian.com comment threads represent the individual's own views and not necessarily those of TheOlympian.com. TheOlympian.com does not endorse and is not responsible for statements, advice and opinions made by anyone other than authorized TheOlympian.com spokespersons.
Any investment decisions or other actions that users take based on information available on TheOlympian.com should first be reviewed by a competent financial adviser or other professional.
THEOLYMPIAN.COM SERVICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. WE MAKE NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NONINFRINGEMENT, OR WARRANTIES REGARDING THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENT OR ANY OTHER SERVICE OR PRODUCT ON OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE (INCLUDING ANY LINK TO ANOTHER WEB SITE OR RESOURCE).
In no event will TheOlympian.com be liable for (i) any incidental, consequential, or indirect damages (including, but not limited to, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of programs or information, and the like) arising out of the use of or inability to use TheOlympian.com, or any information or services provided on TheOlympian.com, even if TheOlympian.com has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or (ii) any claim attributable to errors, omissions, or other inaccuracies published on TheOlympian.com.
Indemnification
You agree to indemnify, defend and hold TheOlympian.com harmless from and against any and all liability, loss, claims, damages, costs and/or actions (including attorneys fees) based on or arising from any breach by you of your obligations under these Terms of Use. We reserve the right to defend any such claim, and you agree to provide us with such reasonable cooperation and information as we may request.
Jurisdiction
This agreement between TheOlympian.com and its users will be governed and interpreted under the laws of the state of Washington. Thurston County, California District Court has jurisdiction in any dispute arising from this agreement. In the event that any provision of this agreement is found to be in conflict with the law, such provision shall be restated to reflect the original intent, and all other terms and conditions shall remain in full force and effect.
Arbitration
Any legal controversy or legal claim arising out of or relating to these Terms of Use or TheOlympian.com, excluding legal action taken by The Olympian to obtain an injunction relating to its intellectual property, shall be settled by binding arbitration in accordance with the commercial arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association. Any such controversy or claim shall be arbitrated on an individual basis, and shall not be consolidated in any arbitration with any claim or controversy of any other party. The arbitration shall be conducted in Olympia, Washington, and judgment on the arbitration award may be entered into any court having jurisdiction thereof.
Termination
Notwithstanding any provision of these Terms of Use, we reserve the right, without notice and in our sole discretion, to terminate any or all of the TheOlympian.com service and/or your license to use the TheOlympian.com service, or to block or prevent future access to and use of TheOlympian.com.
Severability
If any provision of these Terms of Use shall be deemed unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these Terms of Use and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
Offices
TheOlympian.com offices are located at The Olympian, 111 Bethel St., Olympia, WA 98506 (360) 754-5400.
Questions and comments about TheOlympian.com
We hope you enjoy using TheOlympian.com. Questions and comments about the content of TheOlympian.com may be sent by submitting an e-mail to online@theolympian.com. We read all comments sent to us and try to respond to as many as possible.
Technical questions regarding your software, your configuration or your connection should be directed to your Internet access provider. TheOlympian.com cannot address questions except those specifically about content and services that we provide.
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