Updated Jan. 10, 2013

This Privacy Policy discloses the privacy practices for roanoke.com and all associated websites owned and operated by Times-World LLC, based in Southwestern Virginia. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, unless otherwise noted, all references to “roanoke.com” include smithmountainlake.com, roanoketimes.com and all roanoke.com-powered websites.

We’ve adopted a set of information management guidelines that serve as the basis for our customer and advertiser relationships. These guidelines have been developed with the recognition that Internet technologies are rapidly evolving, as are underlying business models. We will regularly re-evaluate this policy, and we reserve the right to change these guidelines at any time. Any such changes will be posted on this page in a timely manner. Please note that roanoke.com may contain links to other websites for your convenience and information. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any company before submitting your personal information.

This statement and the policies outlined here are not intended to and do not give you any contractual or other legal rights. For questions or comments regarding this policy, please contact us at customer@roanoke.com or by mail at: Online Editor, The Roanoke Times, 201 W. Campbell Ave. Roanoke, Va. 24010.

How and why we collect information from users

We collect limited amounts and types of personal information from users of our sites. The information we gather falls into two categories: 1) personal information you voluntarily supply when you subscribe, order, complete a survey, register for an online discussion, enter a contest or provide your email address and 2) tracking information collected as you navigate through our sites.

Personal information

How we collect and store user personal information depends on the page you are visiting, the activities in which you elect to participate and the services provided. You can visit many pages on our sites without providing any information. Other pages may prompt you to provide information, such as when you register for services or access to portions of our sites, sign up for membership, request certain features (e.g., newsletters, news updates and other products), sign up for a newspaper subscription, complete a survey or make a purchase. You may also provide information when you participate in a promotion, sweepstakes, contest or voting and polling activities or when you post comments to blogs, message boards and chat rooms and other interactive areas of our sites. We and/or our third-party partners may use this information to process and maintain your account and compile demographic statistics about our users. Please be careful and responsible whenever you are online. Should you choose to voluntarily disclose personal information on our sites, such as in message boards, chat areas or in advertising or notices you post, that information can be viewed publicly and can be collected and used by third parties without our knowledge and may result in unsolicited messages from other individuals or third parties. Such activities are beyond the control of roanoke.com and this policy.

Email

If you supply the Web site with your email address, either by registering on the site, by communicating with us via email, or signing up for promotional offers or emails we may, from time to time, send you information that we believe would be of interest to you via email. This information may be from the web site or sent by us on behalf of one of our quality advertisers. Note: If we send you email on behalf of another company, your personally identifiable information is not disclosed to that company unless you purchase a product or service from that company in which case it may need your information to fulfill your purchase. Rather, the company provides us with the information it wants to send, and we prepare and send the email directly to you. We may use a third party service provider to manage or send emails on our behalf, but that third party is only authorized to use your information as necessary to send our email to you and it is not authorized to sell or transfer your information.

Mobile messaging service

Roanoke.com uses the information collected from your interaction with our sites by Text Messaging Service (SMS) (“SMS Service”) solely for the purposes of improving the SMS Service. The information will not be provided, sold, licensed, rented, assigned or disclosed to Third Parties, except as required by law, nor will we use your phone number to initiate a call or SMS text message to you without your express prior consent. Your wireless carrier and other service providers also collect data about your SMS Service usage, and their practices are governed by their own privacy policies.

Aggregate information collected

Like most websites, we also collect and aggregate information automatically and through the use of electronic tools that may be transparent to our visitors. For example, we may log the name of your Internet Service Provider or use “cookie” technology. Among other things, the cookie may store your user name and password, sparing you from having to re-enter that information each time you visit, or may control the number of times you encounter a particular advertisement while visiting our sites. As we adopt additional technology, we may also gather information through other means. In certain cases, you can choose not to provide us with information, for example by setting your browser to refuse to accept cookies, but doing so may limit your ability to access certain portions of the sites and to take advantage of most personalized services offered. Additionally we may not be able to customize the sites’ features according to your preferences.

Third-party advertising companies

We use an advertising server to display ads on roanoke.com. In addition, advertisers may elect to use third-party advertising companies to serve ads onto our websites. In the course of serving these advertisements, the third-party advertisers may place or recognize a unique “cookie” on your browser. We do not have access to these cookies or any information that they may contain. We do not control the placement or the acceptance of cookies from domains other than roanoke.com.

We use Remarketing with Google Analytics to advertise online. Third-party vendors, including Google, show our ads on sites across the Internet. We and some third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party and third-party cookies together to inform, optimize, and serve ads based on someone’s past visits to your website. To learn more about advertising targeting technology or to opt out from being tracked by participating advertising companies, visit http://www.aboutads.info.

Third-party analytic systems

Roanoke.com is currently using Google Analytics to track and analyze aggregated usage and volume statistical information from our visitors and customers to help us administer our websites and constantly improve their quality. All data collected is owned and used by roanoke.com, and we reserve the right to publish non-personally identifiable, summary information regarding its website visitors for promotional purposes and as a representative audience for advertisers. We reserve the right to change the vendors who provide us with usage data.

Credit cards

Credit card information will be provided to third parties only to provide products and services that you order. We may use the contact information you provide to contact you about your account and/or to send you necessary information directly related to the product(s) or service(s) for which you have registered. Times-World LLC maintains compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) for all payment card transactions that occur within the roanoke.com domain. With your permission, we may use your contact information to inform you of new features and special offers from us. We will not provide your contact information to unaffiliated third parties without your express permission. As part of the registration process, you have the option to inform us that you do not wish to receive information about other special offers and promotions.

Affiliated sites, linked sites and advertisements

We expect our partners, advertisers and third-party affiliates to respect the privacy of our users. However, third parties, including our partners, advertisers, affiliates and other content providers accessible through our sites may have their own privacy and data collection policies and practices with terms that differ from the terms in our Privacy Policy, and that we do not control. For example, during your visit to our sites you may link to, or view as part of a frame on a page, certain content that is actually created or hosted by a third party. Also, through roanoke.com you may be introduced to, or be able to access, information, websites, advertisements, features, contests or sweepstakes offered by other parties. Roanoke.com is not responsible for such third-party content or for the actions or policies of the third parties providing such content. You should check the applicable terms of use and privacy policies of those third parties before providing information on a feature or page operated by a third party.

While on our sites, our advertisers, promotional partners or other third parties may use cookies or other technology to attempt to identify some of your preferences or retrieve information about you. For example, some of our advertising is served by third parties and may include cookies that enable the advertiser to determine whether you have seen a particular advertisement before. Through features available on our sites, third parties may use cookies or other technology to gather information. Roanoke.com does not control the use of this technology or the resulting information and is not responsible for any actions or policies of such third parties.

What we do with the information we collect

The aggregated information we collect is used for a number of purposes including the following:

1. To recognize you, provide personalization and deliver more individualized content and advertising.
2. To improve the content and design of our sites, including by allowing roanoke.com’s editors to consult with readers.
3. To communicate with users about our sites, registration and other customer service issues, our Terms of Service and privacy policy, products and services offered by roanoke.com, the administration of sweepstakes and contests, processing of e-commerce transactions and other topics we think you might find of interest.
4. To conduct research surveys on behalf of Times-World LLC, its subsidiaries and affiliates.
5. To help us understand usage of our sites, including where our users are going and how much time they are spending there.
6. To learn more about the interests of our users, so that we can offer goods and services we believe may be of interest.
7. To enable audit bureaus and third party advertisers to verify our claims of traffic to our sites.
8. To help advertisers, potential advertisers or marketers assess the suitability of the sites for their ad campaigns.
9. To allow advertising to be targeted, based on aggregated, non-personally identifiable usage information, to the users for whom such advertising is most pertinent.

Correcting and updating your private information

The information that you provide to roanoke.com may be stored by us for an indefinite time. You may edit your account information by clicking on the “Customer Care” link in the header of this site. Should you require assistance, please call our toll-free number, 1-800-981-3211.

Children's privacy

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) provides that website operators cannot knowingly collect or store personal information, even in the aggregate, from children under age 13 except as permitted by law. Roanoke.com respects the privacy of children, and does not seek children’s participation in services that require registration. We strongly recommend that parents supervise their children’s use of the Internet. We also encourage parents to instruct their children not to give out personal information in email messages or forums.

By visiting our websites or by submitting any information to our sites, you are representing to us that you are age 13 or older, or age 18 or older as stipulated for individual applications like subscriptions and contest entries.

User-provided content

You acknowledge that roanoke.com includes postings, messages, text, files, images, graphics, photos, audio clips, sounds, video or other materials (the “Content”) that have been submitted by third parties, including other roanoke.com users. You agree that we are a community forum and not a publisher with respect to the Content provided by third parties, and that we are not responsible for reviewing or editing any third-party Content. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information contained in third-party Content are those of their respective authors or producers, and not of Times-World LLC or any of its affiliates, and we do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of such Content. Copyrights to the Content submitted by Online Service users are held by the individual creators of such Content.

You may submit Content provided you do so in accordance with the submission rules below. You accept entire responsibility for all Content that you submit to, transmit through, link through, or otherwise make available through roanoke.com. For all Content that you submit, you also agree to indemnify us as provided below.

License

By submitting Content to roanoke.com, you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive right and license to use, copy, modify, display, archive, store, distribute, reproduce and create derivative works from such Content, in any form, media (print, electronic or otherwise), software or technology of any kind now existing or developed in the future.

Representations and warranties

By uploading or otherwise submitting any Content to roanoke.com, you represent and warrant that (a) you own or otherwise have all necessary rights, including but not limited to copyrights, to the Content and have the right to use it as provided in this Agreement; (b) all information submitted by you is true, accurate, current and complete, and does not violate this Agreement; (c) you have the full right, power and authority to enter into and perform this Agreement, and have secured all third-party consents, licenses, waivers and permissions necessary to enter into and perform this Agreement, including, without limitation, waivers of rights of privacy, publicity and personality from any third parties whose names, likenesses, photographs, animated portrayals, or actual or imitated voices are depicted in the Content; (d) we shall not be required to make any payments with respect to the authorized use of any Content submitted by you, including, without limitation, any payments to you, third parties claiming through you or otherwise, publishers, rights agents, performance rights societies, persons who contributed to or whose names, likeness, photographs, animated portrayals or actual or imitated voices appear in such Content, your licensors, unions or guilds; and (e) the Content submitted by you will not (i) infringe upon or misappropriate any rights of others, including, without limitation, any copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets or other intellectual property rights, rights of publicity, rights of privacy, moral rights or any other proprietary rights of third parties, (ii) violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation, (iii) be defamatory, trade libelous, trademark disparaging, fraudulent, harassing, abusive, threatening, harmful, lewd, pornographic or obscene, (iv) disrupt, place unreasonable burdens or excessive loads on, interfere with or attempt to facilitate any unauthorized access to any portion of roanoke.com; (v) transmit junk mail, chain letters, or other unsolicited bulk email, spam or duplicative messages to other users of roanoke.com; (vi) collect information about other users of roanoke.com without their consent or otherwise systematically extract data or data fields, including, without limitation, any financial data or email addresses, from roanoke.com websites or our computer systems; or (vii) contain any viruses, Trojan horses, time bombs or other programming routines or elements that detrimentally interfere with computer systems or data. You agree that, upon request, you will provide us with evidence, in a form and format reasonably acceptable to us, indicating that the Content submitted by you complies with the foregoing warranties.

Right to reject advertising

Times-World LLC reserves the right to edit, revise or reject any advertising.

Take-down policy

Roanoke.com websites include blogs, forums, photo galleries and other interactive areas in which users can express opinions and share ideas and information. Additionally, we do not control, and are not responsible for, Content submitted by users.

By using roanoke.com, you may be exposed to Content that you may find offensive, indecent, inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise objectionable. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with the use of roanoke.com, including, but not limited to, whether you should rely on such Content.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, you acknowledge that we shall have the right (but not the obligation) to review any Content that you have submitted to the Online Service, and to reject, delete, disable, or remove any Content that we determine, in our sole discretion, (a) does not comply with the terms and conditions of this Agreement; (b) might violate any law, infringe upon the rights of third parties, or subject us to liability for any reason; or (c) might adversely affect our public image, reputation or goodwill. Moreover, we reserve the right to reject, delete, disable, or remove any Content at any time, for the reasons set forth above, for any other reason, or for no reason.

If you believe that any Content on any of the Online Service websites infringes upon any copyrights that you own, please contact us pursuant to the procedures outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (Title 17 U.S.C. § 512) at the following address:

Submission Rules

You agree not to submit Content

• That is unlawful, pornographic, defamatory, libelous, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, or invasive of another’s privacy, or harms minors in any way;
• That harasses, degrades, intimidates or is hateful toward an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, or disability;
• That falsely claims to be submitted by another person or entity, or falsely states or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with another person or entity;
• That includes personal or identifying information about another person, or uses the name or likeness of another person for commercial purposes, without that person’s explicit consent;
• That infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party, or Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships;
• That is false, fraudulent, deceptive, misleading, deceitful, or uses “bait-and-switch” tactics;
• That constitutes or contains “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” unsolicited commercial advertisement, “affiliate marketing,” or “link referral code”;
• That constitutes or contains any form of advertising or solicitation posted in areas which are not designated for such purposes;
• That advertises any illegal services or the sale of any items the sale of which is prohibited or restricted by applicable law;
• That contains software viruses, worms, or any other computer code designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
• That employs misleading email addresses, or forged headers or otherwise manipulated identifiers in order to disguise the origin of Content.



Additionally, you agree not to



• Contact anyone who has asked not to be contacted or otherwise “stalk” or harass anyone;
• Collect personal data about other users for commercial or unlawful purposes;
• Use automated means, including scripts, spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like to download/upload data from roanoke.com; or
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to our computer system or to any other users’ computer systems, or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, interferes with the performance of, or impairs the functionality of any roanoke.com websites.



Termination

Times-World LLC reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to terminate your registration, delete any or all of your postings, or block access to the website and/or any other service. We may take such action, with or without notice, and without any liability to the account holder or user.




Legal agreement

By using roanoke.com you indicate your consent to and acceptance of the terms of this Agreement. If you do not agree with the terms of this Agreement, you should terminate your use of roanoke.com immediately. Roanoke.com is provided for your personal use only. Other than content that users submit in accordance with the terms of this Agreement, most of the material on roanoke.com including graphics, text, design, buttons, logos, images, and icons are the sole property of Times-World LLC or its affiliates. Users of roanoke.com may not modify, reproduce, republish, or distribute any material in any form without the prior written permission of Times-World LLC or the original copyright holder.

Persons and entities accessing this site are prohibited from copying or adapting the HTML code used to generate Web pages or manipulating, deciphering, disseminating or reverse engineering any software that will compromise this site.

Times-World LLC shall have no liability whatsoever in the event any act of God, the public enemy or governmental authority, labor dispute, war (whether or not declared), terrorism, civil disobedience, riot, or other occurrences beyond its control shall in any way restrict or prevent the maintenance of roanoke.com.

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Times-World LLC, its shareholders, directors, officers, employees, agents and representatives, from and against any claims, actions or demands, including without limitation reasonable legal and expert witness fees, alleging or directly or indirectly resulting from your use of the website or your breach of the terms or conditions contained herein. Times-World LLC shall provide notice to you promptly of any such claim, suit, or proceeding and shall have the option to defend such claim with its selected counsel or assist you, at your expense, in defending any such claim, suit or proceeding.

As a user of this you agree that regardless of your location any disputes arising out of your use of roanoke.com shall be prosecuted in the Circuit Court for the City of Roanoke, Virginia, or the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Roanoke Division.

We may disclose personal information if we are required to do so by law or we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to (1) comply with the law or with legal process; (2) protect and defend our rights and property; (3) protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our websites; or (4) protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public (among other things, this means that if you provide false information or attempt to pose as someone else, information about you may be disclosed as part of any investigation into your actions).




Copyright © 2013 Times-World LLC