Privacy Policy

The Fire Dog Lake Company owns and operates the site Firedoglake.com (the “Site”), and guarding your privacy when you visit the Site is very important to us. This privacy policy lets you know about how information is collected from you when you visit the site, how we use that information, what we do to protect it and what you can do to control its collection, use and disclosure.

Scope

This privacy policy applies only to the Site. It does not apply to links to other websites that you may click on while visiting the Site, so please refer to the privacy practices of those sites to see how they collect information.

What information the Site collects

1. Information you provide to us: You don’t have to provide information merely to view the site. However, when you register to comment, post a diary at MyFDL, sign a petition/letter we are sponsoring, become a member, contribute to FDL or an FDL campaign, or correspond with us, you will provide such items as your name, e-mail address, and possibly other contact information such as mailing and billing address, ZIP code, credit card data, phone and/or cell number. If you comment on the Site, you’ll have a username and password, and you may leave information in comments or diaries you write. Information may also arise from interactions with community and interactive online sites. And any searches you conduct on the Site may leave information.

2. Information the Site collects when you visit: When you visit, the Site automatically “sees” your computer’s IP address, browser type and operating system; web pages you just visited or leave to, pages and links you click on, software and capabilities of your computer, video views, whether you view videos and other information obtained by cookies and similar devices/technologies.

3. Information we collect from other sources: If you click on ads, information is gathered on click rates and frequency. We are not responsible for cookies and other information that may be placed or collected by third-party ads on the Site. If you’re accessing via cell phone or similar devices, you may leave your device’s identifier numbers and physical tracking information.

4. Information we collect when you respond to an email, sign a petition or use our organizing tools: We may ask for personal information such as name, email address and zip code when you sign a petition, enroll in a local meetup, or send and email or a fax to a designated target through the Site. We may use embedded images in emails to track open rates for our mailings, so that we can tell which emails are the most successful with our community. When you sign petition or otherwise take action with our organizing program, we may treat your name and location as public information. This is a standard industry practice in such situations. In no such case will we disclose your email address or phone number without your permission. We may also make your comments, along with your first name, city, and state available to the press and public online.

How we use the information the Site collects

1. Statistical analysis

In order to better serve our members, we use cookies and periodically analyze web logs. We may collect IP addresses to better understand where our traffic is coming from, and to provide customized services to members. We may also use third-party services such as Google Analytics. This helps us understand traffic patterns and know if there are problems with our website. We may also use embedded images in emails to track open rates for our mailings, so that we can tell which mailings appeal most to Firedoglake members.

2. Email communication

Firedoglake will send you updates on this and other important campaigns by email. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from our email list, you may do so by emailing act [at] firedoglake.com with “unsubscribe” in the subject heading, or unsubscribe here: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/unsubscribe/

3. Advertising

We display advertisements on the Site, many of which are targeted based on information about you. For example, using information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other sources, we may use demographic data or information about your online activities or interests to display targeted advertising that may be relevant to your preferences. Through this process, advertisers reach Site visitors who are most interested in their products, and you see advertising for products or services in which you may be interested.

Third-party advertisers and advertising platforms also may serve targeted ads on the Site. Some of the advertisements you see on the Site are selected and delivered by third parties, such as ad networks, advertising agencies, advertisers, and audience segment providers. These third parties may collect information about you and your online activities, either on the Site or on other websites, through cookies, web beacons, and other technologies in an effort to understand your interests and deliver to you advertisements that are tailored to your interests.

Please remember that the Firedoglake does not have access to, or control over, the information these third parties may collect. The information practices of these third parties are not covered by this privacy policy.

These third parties may offer you a way to choose not to have your information used for advertising purposes. For example, some of these companies are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”), which provides a single location where you can opt out of receiving targeted ads from member companies. To opt out, please visit the NAI’s website at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp. For more information about disabling cookies completely, please visit the “Your choices” section of the privacy policy.

Please note that if you choose to opt out of having your information used to deliver advertisements tailored to your interests, you will continue to see advertisements on the Site, but these advertisements may not be as relevant to you.

4. User accounts and personal profiles

Information and content submitted in the comments section and personal profiles on the Site are displayed publicly, so please exercise care in deciding what information and content you wish to disclose. Because this information is publicly displayed on the Site, it may be included indexed and accessible through “search” tools. In many cases you will not be able to remove or revise the information or content that you submit, and content may remain on the Site even if you delete your account. The Site does not allow the public posting of personal contact information. We have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor any activity and content provided by users on the Site.

5. Phone Contact

From time to time, Firedoglake staff or volunteers may contact you by telephone. If you have provided your telephone number to us through our website then you may be contacted by one of our volunteers or staff members (each of whom are bound by the terms of the Firedoglake privacy policy and will not use your personal information for any other purpose). To be removed from our call list, please complete this form and you will be removed within 10 business days. http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/donotcall

How we share information the Site collects

1. Information that does not identify you may be shared with third parties who help us develop content. Third parties may also independently collect data about you through cookies, links that you click on, or advertisements you view while on the site.

2. Third parties may perform site-related services like data base management, maintenance, analytics, marketing, programming, email, donation and online organizing functions. These third parties have access to your information only to perform these tasks on our behalf.

3. You may choose to share information publicly by developing a profile or engaging in public forums.

4. Information you direct us to share with recipients: With your explicit permission, we pass along certain of your information (per standard practice) with the President, legislators, news publications and others when you choose to use our organizing tools to sign a petition, enroll in a local meetup, or send an email or a fax to a designated target. We will not make your street address publicly available, but we may transmit it to the designated target as part of a petition. This is a standard industry practice in such situations. In no such case will we disclose your email address or phone number, without your permission. We may also make your comments, along with your first name, city and state available to the press and public online. Firedoglake is not responsible for the content or use of your email address by campaign targets.

5. Information shared between affiliated organizations: The FDL Writers Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization that hosts the FDL Book Salon and promotes writers. FDL Action PAC is a federal political committee that engages in a variety of activities aimed at influencing the outcome of elections. These organizations are separate from The Fire Dog Lake Company. When you provide your personal information to the Fire Dog Lake Company, we may share it from time to time with these affiliated organizations, with the exception of any credit card information you may provide.

6. Information we provide to process credit card transactions: The Site requests certain information if you join the FDL Membership Program, make a donation or a purchase. This information is used for billing purposes and to contact you from time to time. If we have trouble processing a transaction, this contact information is used to get in touch with you. The Fire Dog Lake company uses the services of Authorize.Net as our default method of accepting and processing payments via credit card. We provide Authorize.Net with your credit card and billing information through our secure online payment system in order to process your payment. Authorize.net may also securely store credit card information in their system if you authorize them to do so, in order charge regular renewals at the start of every billing period. The Fire Dog Lake Company does not retain credit card information

6 Law enforcement: We may share information about you to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety or other rights and interests of any person, violations of the Site’s Terms and Conditions, or as otherwise required by law. We may also share information about you to respond to subpoenas, search warrants, judicial proceedings, court orders, legal process, or other law enforcement measures, to establish or exercise our legal rights, or to defend against legal claims.

How we access information through third party services

We do not currently allow you to log in to the site through third party services like Facebook or Twitter. If we choose to do so at a future date, we may share information about you with these third-party service providers when you allow us access.

How you can control the collection of information

1. Change the settings on your computer to control the collection of cookies

2. Unsubscribe from our email list: If you do not want us to contact you via email, you can opt out by completing this form. http://action.firedoglake.com/page/unsubscribe/

3. We do not have control over the collection of cookies by advertisers and service providers. Additionally, the information practices of third parties are not covered by this privacy policy. For more information on opting out of online advertising data collection, visit the NAI’s website.

How you can update or amend your contact information

If you choose to share contact information with us, you may amend this information by logging in to your account and updating your profile information. Your member name and password are required to do this. If you have forgotten your password, you may reset it by clicking the “Lost your password” link on the login screen. A new password will be sent to you at the email address you provided when you registered.

If you need help, please contact us at info@firedoglake.com

How we protect the confidentiality of your information

We take care to limit access to any data collected from you in any fashion to those employees and service providers who need it in order to do their jobs. We also adopt physical, technical and administrative policy procedures to protect all information from loss or misappropriation.

However, we are aware that no data protection system is guaranteed to be 100% safe. While we want you to know that we strive to keep your information confidential, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us.

U.S. Governing Law

The Site is governed by and operated in accordance with the laws of the United States. When you view the Site or provide us with information, you consent to the collection, transfer, storage, and processing of information to and in the United States, and are subject to U.S. law.

Children under 13

The Site does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13 years of age. If we are notified that we have collected any personal information from a child under the age of 13 without parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe that we may have collected information from a child under 13, please contact us at privacy@firedoglake.com

Changes to the Privacy Policy

The Site may revise or amend this policy at any time. If we make any substantive changes in the way we collect or use information we collect from site users, we will post a prominent announcement on our home page in addition to posting changes on this page. Please visit this page periodically to review our current policy.

Effective Date: March 7, 2011