This is the Web site of POPULAR MECHANICS magazine.

Our postal address is
300 West 57th Street
New York, NY USA 10019

We can be reached via e-mail at pmwebmaster@hearst.com
Or you can reach us by telephone at 212-649-2850

Purpose of this Privacy Policy
This privacy policy describes how Hearst Communications, Inc., its affiliates (collectively "Hearst"), and Communications Data Services, Inc. (the company that fulfills magazine subscriptions for Hearst treat the personally identifiable information that is collected about you when you visit the magazine ( "Magazines") web sites to which this policy is linked, and the information collected on the Magazines' behalf to the extent we use third-party service providers to host the web sites or collect information about site users. For purposes of this policy, Communications Data Services, Inc. and Hearst are referred to collectively as "Hearst ".

What is Personally Identifiable Information
"Personally identifiable information" is information that we can use to identify you as an individual. Personally identifiable information includes your name, address, telephone number and any other information that is connected with you personally.

Information This Privacy Policy Does Not Apply To
This privacy policy does not apply to information collected about you by anyone except Hearst and only applies to the web sites to which this policy is linked. Any information you provide when you visit web sites other than those covered by this policy (including other web sites affiliated with Hearst and its magazines) or when you purchase any products or services that may be offered or advertised on our web site by companies other than Hearst is subject to the privacy policies posted on those sites. Except as specified herein, this policy also does not apply to information you may provide to us offline; however please do be aware that if you subscribe offline to one of our magazines, from time to time we make our subscriber lists available to companies that sell goods and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you would rather not receive such mailings, please send a current mailing label or exact copy to Mail Preference Service, PO Box 7024, Red Oak, Iowa 51591-0024.

Collection of Personally Identifiable Information
Hearst generally collects personally identifiable information with your specific knowledge and consent. For instance, when you enter a sweepstakes or contest, complete a survey, make a purchase, request back issues, subscribe to our magazines or subscribe to our newsletters, you will be asked to provide information such as your e-mail address, name, phone number, and sometimes shipping address. Optional information such as your age or gender may also be requested. This information may be collected by third party service providers with whom Hearst contracts to host the web site or to fulfill requests for services; in that event, Hearst asks such service providers to make the personal information available only to Hearst for Hearst to use in accordance with the terms of this policy and not to use the information for any other purpose.

Hearst uses this information to provide you with the service you have requested. If you subscribe to any of our Magazines, we may use your e-mail address to send you a confirmation notice and your mailing address to send you your magazine. Similarly, if you enter online sweepstakes, we will use this information to notify you if you are a winner.

We might also send out e-mails to users to announce special offers, services and announcements from our sites and/or our advertisers. We may also use any personal information you send for marketing and promotional purposes and we may combine information we receive online with outside records to enhance our ability to market products or provide services that we believe may be of interest to you. Additionally, we may share your personal information with third parties who may choose to contact you via email to promote their own goods and services. If you want us to stop sharing your personal information with third parties in this way, click here and let us know. if you do not wish us to share information with companies who would otherwise contact you at your mailing address, you may notify us in writing by sending a notice to Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 7024, Red Oak, Iowa 51591. Also, you may elect to stop receiving email messages from a Hearst magazine (other than transactional messages relating to any accounts you may have with us) by notifying us at pmwebmaster@hearst.com.).

In addition, we may use information you provide us through emails, Q & A, and in response to polls for editorial purposes, and may use your name and any stories you provide us in articles published in our magazines. Please be advised that any such submissions become the property of Hearst and may be used by Hearst for any lawful purpose.

• we utilize third party service providers to provide products, services or functions on our behalf (such as sending emails or processing credit cards or fulfilling subscriptions), and ask these service providers to agree to maintain the confidentiality of your personally identifiable information and not to use your personally identifiable information for any reason except to carry out the purpose(s) for which we hired them;
• You have entered a contest or sweepstakes sponsored by a third party, in which case the information may be shared with that third party for their use in their discretion, including direct marketing (if you don't want your name shared, you should not enter the contest or sweepstakes);
• we publish a magazine to which you subscribe through a joint venture or licensing arrangement with a third party (such as Smart Money and Marie Claire), in which event our third party partner may use your personally identifiable information to the same extent that we can;
• the entity to whom the information is disclosed is one under control of, or under common control with Hearst (for these purposes, a company controlling 20% or more of the voting stock of another entity shall be deemed to control such entity);
• the entity to whom the information is disclosed is hosting web sites associated with our magazines or magazines we publish in conjunction with a third party, other than those web sites covered by this policy;
• we need to protect our legal rights (for example, if we are trying to collect money you owe us);
• we must comply with applicable laws, regulations, or legal or regulatory process; or in connection with a sale, merger, transfer, exchange, or other disposition (whether of assets, stock, or otherwise) of all or a portion of the business conducted by the web sites to which this policy applies.

Cookies
Hearst (or third party service providers on our behalf) may set and access cookies on your computer. A cookie is a small amount of data (often including a unique identifier), that is sent to your browser from a web site's computers and stored on your computer's hard drive. Hearst uses cookies to understand site usage and to improve the content and offerings on our site.

We may use cookies to control the display of ads, to track usage patterns on the sites, to deliver editorial content, to record requests for subscriptions and to personalize information.

Our cookies may contain personally identifiable information and such cookies may be shared with others to the same extent indicated above.

Hearst (or third party service providers on our behalf) may also use cookies to collect aggregate information about web site users on an anonymous basis. We may share aggregate demographic and usage information with our prospective and actual business partners, advertisers and other third parties for any business purpose.

Some of our advertisers may serve you cookies as well. We do not have control over cookies placed by advertisers. Ads appearing on some sites may be delivered to you by Doubleclick. Information about your visits to those sites, such as the number of times you have viewed an ad (but not your name, address or other personal information), is used to serve ads to you. For more information about DoubleClick and how to "opt-out" please click here.

If you don't want cookies, most Web browsers include an option that allows you to not accept them. However, if you set your browser to refuse cookies, some portions of our sites may not function efficiently.

IP Address
Your Internet Protocol ("IP") address is usually associated with the place from which you enter the Internet, like your Internet Service Provider, your company or your university. We may use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our servers, gather broad demographic information, and administer our website.

Fair Credit Billing Act
We aim to make every online transaction you make with us as safe as possible. You will pay nothing if unauthorized charges are made to your card as a result of shopping at our online store. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, your bank cannot hold you liable for more than $50.00 of fraudulent charges. If your bank does hold you liable for any of this $50.00, We will cover the entire liability for you, up to the full $50.00. We will only cover this liability if the unauthorized use of your credit card resulted through no fault of your own from purchases made while using the secure server. In the event of unauthorized use of your credit card, you must notify your credit card provider in accordance with its reporting rules and procedures.

Kids And Parents
The sites covered by this policy are not intended for use by children, especially those under age 13. No one under age 13 is allowed to provide any personal information or use our public discussion areas, forums and chats. Minors between the ages of 13 and 17 must get the permission of their parent(s) or legal guardian(s) before subscribing to any magazines on our sites.

If your children disclose information about themselves in our public discussion areas, they may get unsolicited messages from other parties. Accordingly, you should tell them not to do so.

If you're worried about your children's activities or their privacy on our site, we encourage you to e-mail Hearst at pmwebmaster@hearst.com.

Esquire Magazine
If you elect to visit Esquire Premium, your visit will be hosted by our partner Keep Media, and the terms of their privacy policy will apply. Keep Media's policy allows for the sharing of your information with Esquire, so any information you provide to Keep Media will also be provided to Esquire, and we will use that information in accordance with this policy. If you don't want your personal information shared with Keep Media, you should not visit Keep Media.

O The Oprah Magazine
Notwithstanding anything herein to the contrary, we do not share personally identifiable information concerning readers and subscribers of O The Oprah Magazine with unaffiliated third parties for direct marketing purposes.

Non-U.S. Users
If you are located outside of the United States, please note that the information you provide to us will be transferred to the United States. By using this web site, you consent to this transfer. You also consent to the adjudication of any disputes arising in connection with this website in the federal and state courts of, and in accordance with the laws of, the state of New York.

Blogs and other user-generated Postings
If you elect to post material to any blogs, forums or other community boards that may be offered on our sites, you will be solely responsible for all content, messages, text, files, images, graphics, photos, audio clips, sounds, video or other materials (the "Postings"). You agree that any Postings you post to the sites will be true and accurate and will not infringe the proprietary rights of any third person. You agree not to furnish any Postings to which you do not own the rights. By furnishing Postings, you give the Magazines and their affiliates the right to use such Postings in any manner and in any media now known or hereafter invented.

Please be aware that the Magazines do not and cannot monitor all of the Postings made to the sites, and therefore the Magazines will not be responsible for the content of any Postings. However, the Magazines do reserve the right to delete or edit any material in any Posting that is offensive, obscene, harassing, offensive or otherwise objectionable and not in keeping with the community standards of the Magazines. We also expect our users to adhere to certain rules of the road. Therefore, you agree not to post, email, or otherwise make available Postings:

• that are unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, pornographic, libelous, or invasive of another's privacy, or harmful to minors in any way;
• that harass, degrade, intimidate or are hateful toward an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability;
• that include personal or identifying information about another person without that person's explicit consent. that are false, deceptive, misleading, deceitful, misinformative, or constitute "bait and switch";
• that infringe any proprietary rights of any party, or Postings that you do not have a right to make available.

Because the Magazines do not monitor the Postings, you agree to use and rely on them at your own risk. The Magazines cannot make any representation or warranty about the material contained in the Postings.

California and Canadian Users
California and Canadian residents have the right to know how their information may be shared with third parties who engage in direct marketing activities and this policy explains our practices and how you can opt out of having your information shared for such purposes. From time to time we may make our customer lists available to companies that sell goods and services that we believe would be of interest. We may compile these lists from customer orders placed both offline and online. Customers have the option of having their names and identifying information removed from those lists (subject to certain exceptions and limitations in applicable laws) by contacting us at pmwebmaster@hearst.com.

We may also from time to time make our customer lists available for direct marketing purposes to other entities that are affiliated with us. If you would like to be removed from those lists, contact us at pmwebmaster@hearst.com.

Copyright Infringement
In accordance with the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 USC sec. 512, our magazine sites have designated an agent to receive notices of claims of copyright infringement: Debra S. Weaver, Esq., 959 Eighth Avenue, New York, New York, 10019, tel: 212-649-2047; copyright@hearst.com.

Changes to Privacy Policy and Notice
Hearst may change this policy from time to time in its discretion. Your continued use of our sites indicates your consent to this privacy policy and any amended versions of it. This policy was last updated on January 18, 2006.