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Privacy Policy
Thank you for visiting a website of Christianity Today International (CTI). Protecting your privacy is very important to us. To assure you of your privacy, we provide this notice to help you understand our commitment to security, what kinds of information we may gather about you when you visit the site, how we may use that information, and how you can correct the information.
Our Commitment to Security
Safeguards
We have appropriate physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards in place in our physical facilities to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of any information you may have provided at our site. We always use industry-standard encryption technologies when transferring and receiving consumer data exchanged with our site. When we transfer and receive certain types of sensitive information such as financial information, we redirect visitors to a secure server and will notify visitors through a pop-up screen on our site.
Credit Card Safety
Ordering online with us is a secure transaction. All online transactions in CTI's online stores are handled with industry-standard SSL encryption. This means that when you enter your credit card number into the order form, it is transmitted across the Internet in an encrypted (scrambled) form, and then decoded when it gets to us.
E-mail Addresses
When you provide CTI with your e-mail address, we will use it only for the purpose for which it was provided. We do not rent, sell, or exchange your e-mail address with any third party except to provide the services you request or as set forth in the "Other Entities" section below.
Information We Collect
Automatically Collected Anonymous Information
When you visit a CTI website, certain anonymous information about your visit is automatically logged as it is at most websites, which may include information about your IP address, domain name, browser type, access time, and referring website address. This information is not personally identifiable and is only used in aggregate (not in any way that personally identifies you).
Personally Identifiable Information
Personally Identifiable Information is any information about you as an individual that would enable someone to contact you; for example, your name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address.
CTI will not collect any personally identifiable information about you unless you provide it. Providing any personally identifiable information to CTI is voluntary. If you do not want CTI to obtain any personally identifiable information about you, do not submit it.
How We Use This Information
We will use your information only as permitted by law. Aggregated information may be used in many ways. For example, we may combine information about your usage patterns with similar information obtained from other users to learn which pages are visited most or what features are most attractive. Aggregated information may occasionally be shared with our advertisers and business partners, but cannot be used to contact you individually.
Personally identifiable information will be used for the purposes for which it was given. We also may use it to notify you about updates to our website and to contact you for marketing purposes.
You can visit and browse CTI's websites without revealing personally identifiable information about yourself. You may also choose to disclose personally identifiable information about yourself for the purposes described below.
E-mail Newsletters
When you request a free e-mail newsletter from us, we will collect and store your e-mail address to provide you with the requested newsletter. We may also send you occasional special offers and information from CTI and other select sources we think would be of interest to you. You may change your subscribed e-mail address, opt-out of receiving special e-mailed offers, or remove yourself from any mailing list by following the instructions contained in every newsletter. We do not rent, sell, or exchange your e-mail address with any third party except to provide the services you request or as set forth in the "Other Entities" section below.
Requests for Magazines, Products or Services
When you request a magazine, product, or service from us, we will collect and store your name, address, credit card number, and other basic personally identifiable information to provide you with the requested product or service and for billing purposes. We may also offer you, by direct mail, products from CTI and other select sources we think would be of interest to you.
Your e-mail address will also be obtained during the online ordering process for the purpose of corresponding with you about your purchase and to occasionally notify you of additional online shopping opportunities. You may opt-out of receiving any subsequent shopping opportunities by following the unsubscribe information found in each e-mail announcement. Again, we will not rent, sell, or exchange your e-mail address with a third party for any purpose except to provide the services you request or as required by law.
Third Party Direct Marketing
We occasionally rent our customer list (not including e-mail addresses) to other organizations to offer you products that may be of interest to you by direct mail.
Opting Out of Third Party Direct Marketing: After receiving the product or service requested, you may "opt-out" of receiving Third Party Direct Marketing offers by sending an e-mail stating your request to opt-out along with your complete name, mailing address, and the name of the CTI magazine, product, or service you have received. This information is necessary so we can accurately process your request.
Surveys
CTI occasionally conducts reader surveys to better target content to our audience. We sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our advertisers and partners. We never share with any third party information collected via surveys about specific individuals.
Contests and Sweepstakes
CTI occasionally offers contests and sweepstakes. These contests and sweepstakes are conducted in full accordance with federal and state laws. The full rules for our contests are clearly posted during each event. Information gathered is used by CTI only to verify user identity and to contact winners and/or prize recipients.
CTI occasionally may offer contests or sweepstakes that are sponsored by or co-sponsored with third parties as identified in the contest or sweepstakes' Official Rules. By virtue of their sponsorship, these third parties may obtain personally identifiable information that visitors voluntarily submit to participate in the contest or sweepstakes. CTI has no control over the third-party sponsors' use of this information.
Other Services
CTI offers free services such as "e-mail this page" and e-cards. We collect the domain name, e-mail address, and name of visitors who choose to use these services in order to fulfill their requests. We also collect the e-mail addresses and names of the people to whom our visitors choose to send pages or e-cards in order to enable our visitors to send the pages and e-cards they have chosen and for no other purpose.
Other Entities
Companies that are independent from CTI operate many of the online areas that you may visit via links from ChristianityToday.com. Although CTI will seek to require that these independent companies (e.g., information and paid subscription service providers, advertisers, merchants, and contest or sweepstakes sponsors) adhere to our strong privacy principles, CTI does not bear responsibility for their policies or actions. Please read their unique site privacy policies.
Certain CTI Internet services and websites are co-branded (such as ChurchSiteCreator.com and Faith in the Workplace) and offered in conjunction with another company. If you register to use such services or subscribe to their e-mail newsletter, both CTI and the other company may receive the information you provide.
Many CTI online stores are hosted by Yahoo! Store. Yahoo! hosts the store pages, ordering system, and order data. Yahoo! automatically collects order information but may only use this information in the aggregate. If you access one of these stores through Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! also automatically collects information about your shopping experience. Please see the Yahoo! Privacy Policy for more information about how Yahoo! uses this information.
In the event of a sale, merger, assignment, joint venture or other transfer or disposition of a portion or all of the assets of Christianity Today International (including, without limitation, in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings), information you have provided may be transferred as part of the business assets but will remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Notice (unless, of course, you consent otherwise).
CTI reserves the right to cooperate with law enforcement officials in the investigation of alleged unlawful activities of our customers related to electronic communication transmitted on our site. CTI will have no legal liability for such disclosures.
Cookies
Cookies are a technology that helps us serve you better. Our cookies collect no personally identifiable information. We use cookies to help us know when and how many people visit our site; to store your personal preferences for paid online subscription services you may subscribe to, in order to provide you with the best experience possible; to ensure that visitors are not repeatedly sent the same pop-up ads; and to record session information, such as items that consumers add to their shopping cart.
Information for Children and Parents
Kids and Teens
Be sure to ask your parents for permission before sending us any information about yourself. If you are under 18, you must have your parents' or guardian's permission to order any products or services from us. If you are under the age of 13, do not use our chat and message boards. If you are between the ages of 13 and 18, you may use our Teen message boards, but never post your full name, address, phone number, or school name on any message board or in any chat room.
Parents
CTI's Internet sites are general audience sites, and CTI does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. Any information collected online by CTI from children under 18 is used only for the purpose of delivering the requested product or service. Please instruct your children to ask you for permission before providing any information about themselves to CTI, and visit the Federal Trade Commission website for more information about safe Web surfing.
How to Update Your Information
E-mail Newsletters
You may subscribe and unsubscribe to our newsletters by going to http://myaccount.christianitytoday.com/. In addition, each CTI newsletter you receive will have instructions on how to unsubscribe prominently mentioned in it.
Magazines, Products or Services
Upon request, we provide site visitors with access to contact information (e.g., name, address, phone number) that we maintain about them. Choose an option below:
- Magazines: go to this page and click on the appropriate magazine
- Products & Services: send your request to Store@ChristianityToday.com
- PreachingToday.com: click here to send your request
- ChristianityTodayLibrary.com: click here to send your request
- ChurchSiteCreator.com: click here to send your request
- ChurchLawToday.com: click here to send your request
- ReducingTheRisk.com: click here to send your request
Your California Privacy Rights
Beginning on January 1, 2005, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 requires CTI (1) to enable its customers who are California residents to request certain information regarding its disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes or (2) to offer the opportunity for customers to opt out of having their personal information disclosed to third parties for the third parties' direct marketing purposes. We have always offered the second option, as described above in the "Third Party Direct Marketing" section. If you prefer not to receive such direct marketing offers, please feel free to make your request known as explained above.
Updates to Privacy Policy
From time to time, we may update this privacy notice. Please check this page periodically for changes. We will notify you about any changes in the way we treat personally identifiable information by placing a notice on our site.
The Privacy Policy posted on this site was updated on or about October 7, 2009.
CTI welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us.
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