Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how your personal information is collected, used, and shared when you visit thenorthstar.com (the “Site”), including without limitation any information you may provide through our Site when you request information, purchase a product or service or sign up to our newsletters.  Your personal data includes information such as:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Telephone number
  • Email address
  • Other data collected that could directly or indirectly identify you.

By providing us with your data, you warrant to us that you are over 13 years of age.

The North Star News Group, Inc. (“The North Star”) is the data controller and we are responsible for your personal data (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

When you visit the Site, you may provide two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse the Site.

  • PERSONAL INFORMATION YOU CHOOSE TO PROVIDE.
    1. Registration InformationYou will provide information about yourself, your firm or company, and your practices by filling in forms on our Site (or otherwise) or by communicating with us by mail, phone, email or otherwise, including when you: when you purchase our products and services, register for forum support, or register for email newsletters and alerts.
    2. Purchase Information

Additionally, when you make a purchase or attempt to make a purchase through the Site, we collect certain information from you, including your name, billing address, shipping address, payment information (including credit card numbers, email address, and phone number. We refer to this information as “Order Information.”

  1. Email InformationIf you choose to correspond via email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and the responses.
  • WEBSITE USE INFORMATION. Similar to other commercial websites, we automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, IP address, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device. Additionally, as you browse the Site, we collect information about the individual web pages or products that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Site, and information about how you interact with the Site. We refer to this automatically-collected information as “Device Information.”

We collect Device Information using the following technologies:

  • “Cookies” (see explanation below, “What Are Cookies?”).
  • “Log files” track actions occurring on the Site, and collect data including your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.
  • “Web beacons,” “tags,” and “pixels” are electronic files used to record information about how you browse the Site.
    1. SOCIAL MEDIA INFORMATION.   When you engage with our Site through third-party social media sites, you understand that you may be allowing us to have ongoing access to certain information stored on those social media sites (e.g., your public profile, friend list, people you follow or who follow you, your email address, birthday, work history, education history, interests, current city, religious and political views, website, personal description, and likes, and your friends’ birthdays, education histories, personal descriptions, and likes). We may receive certain information about you which is stored on social media sites if other users of those sites give us access to their profiles and you are one of their friends or connections depending upon your settings on those third-party social networking sites. We may also receive other information (e.g., content viewed and information about the advertisements within the content you have been shown or may have clicked on, etc.) from your interaction with our Site. You agree that we may share your video viewing with or obtain information about your video viewing from analytics providers, advertising partners and third-party social media sites for two years or until you withdraw consent. The information we have access to from the third-party social media websites varies by website and is controlled by your privacy settings on that website and by your consent. The information that may be passed to analytics providers and advertising partners is via cookies and tracking technologies. Please see our Cookies Policy page for information including your choices in relation to these technologies. By engaging with our site through third-party social media site, you are authorizing us to have access to this information, you agree that we may collect, use, and store information from these websites in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
    2. SUPPLEMENTED DATA.  Supplemented Data may be received about you from other sources, including publicly available databases or third parties from whom we have purchased data, in which case we may combine this data with information we already have about you so that we can update, expand and analyze the accuracy of our records, identify new customers, and provide products and services that may be of interest to you.  If you provide us personal information about others, or if others give us your information, we will only use that information for the specific reason for which it was provided to us.

    When we talk about “Personal Information” in this Privacy Policy, we are talking about all Website Use Information, including Device Information, all Personal Information you choose to provide including Order Information, all Social Media Information and any Supplemented Data we receive from other sources.

    HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

    1. Operate Our Site:
      We use the information collected to (i) respond to your requests; (ii) provide customer service (e.g., to resolve disputes, problems with the Site); (iii) personalize your experience by providing content on the Site, including targeted advertising that we believe may be of most interest to you; (iv) improve the Site; and (v) provide you with a safe, efficient, and customized experience.
    2. Analyze and Aggregate Non-Personal Information:
      We use aggregate information about our users and non-personal information to analyze Site and user behavior and prepare aggregated reports.
    3. Communicate With You:
      We use your information to contact you to maintain the Site, to comply with your stated communication preferences, to provide other services requested by you, as described at the time when we collect the information from you, to send you marketing communications, or contact you for other purposes authorized by law.
    4. Mobile Data:When you access the Site on a mobile device, we may use the information collected for any purpose set forth in this Privacy Policy. For example, we may use this information to provide you with location-based services, such as advertising, search results and other personalized content.
    5. Order Information:

    We use the Order Information that we collect generally to fulfill any orders placed through the Site (including processing your payment information, arranging for shipping, and providing you with invoices and/or order confirmations). Additionally, we use this Order Information to:

    Communicate with you;

    Screen our orders for potential risk or fraud; and

    When in line with the preferences you have shared with us, provide you with information or advertising relating to our products or services.

    1. Device Information:

    We use the Device Information that we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and more generally to improve and optimize our Site (for example, by generating analytics about how our customers browse and interact with the Site, and to assess the success of our marketing and advertising campaigns).
     
    SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
     
     Information collected on the Site may be shared with:

    1. The North Star Corporate Family:
      We may share the information we collect about you with The North Star corporate family, including The North Star News Group, Inc., and our affiliates and subsidiaries, as well as with third-party suppliers. The information may be disclosed to: (i) provide joint content and our services (e.g., registration, transactions, analytics and customer support); (ii) help detect and prevent potentially illegal acts, violations of our policies, fraud and/or data security breaches; and (iii) guide decisions about our or a third-party’s products, sites, applications, services, tools and communications. Members of our corporate family will use this information to send you marketing communications and you will have the opportunity to opt-out in email communications.
    2. Service Providers and Other Third-Parties:
      We may disclose your information to service providers under contract who help with our business operations (such as, but not limited to, order processors, fraud investigations, advertising, site analytics and operations).  For example, we use WooCommerce to power our online store–you can read more about how WooCommerce uses your Personal Information here: https://www.woocommerce.com/legal/privacy.  We also use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site–you can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.  
    3. Other Entities with Your Consent:
      Other third-parties to whom you explicitly ask us to send your information (or about whom you are otherwise explicitly notified and consent to when using a specific service). On the Site, you may have opportunities to express interest in or register for other services. If you do, we will provide information about you to those third-parties, or parties working on their behalf, to implement your request.
    4. Legal:
      We may also share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights. In such events, we will only disclose information relevant and necessary to the investigation or inquiry, such as name, city, state, zip code, telephone number, email address, user ID history, IP address, fraud complaints and anything else we may deem relevant to the investigation.
    5. Change of Control – New Owners:
      We may share your information with other business entities, should we plan to merge with or be acquired by that business entity. Should such a combination occur, we will make reasonable efforts to request that the new combined entity follow this Privacy Policy with respect to your personal information. If your personal information would be used contrary to this policy, we will request that the new owner provide you with prior notice.
    6. Ad Networks:On the Site, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s (“NAI”) educational page at http://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work.  For more information about third-party ad servers at our Site and your ability to opt-out of targeted advertising from such third-parties, please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/. The effect of an opt-out may be to stop targeted advertising, but it may still allow the collection of usage data for certain purposes (e.g., research, analytics and internal online services operation purposes).
    7. Companies in The Mobile App Industry:
      If you access the Site through a mobile device, we may also share your information with carriers, operating systems and platforms.
    8. Information You Share on the Site
      If you post information or content, such as by posting photos, commenting on content, or participating in online forums or communities, or when you interact with our Site through social media sites, plug-ins or other applications, depending upon your privacy settings, this information may become public on the Internet. We cannot prevent or control further use of this information. You can control what data you share through privacy settings available on some social media sites. Please refer to those third-party sites’ privacy policies and terms of use to learn more about their privacy practices, which we do not control.

     
     DO NOT TRACK

    Please note that we do not alter our Site’s data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser.
     
    YOUR CHOICES
     

    You can control how and when you want to receive notifications from us on the Site by following instructions within the notices.

     

    WHAT ARE COOKIES?

    When you visit the Site, we and our business partners may use cookies and other tracking technologies for a variety of purposes and to enhance your online experience, for example, by remembering your viewing preferences from a previous use of our Site, for when you later return to the Site.

    A few additional important things you should know about our use of tracking technologies (e.g., cookies, HTML-5 stored technologies):

    • We offer certain features that are available only through the use of tracking technologies.
    • We use both session and persistent tracking technologies. Tracking technologies (e.g., cookies) can either be persistent (i.e., they remain on your computer until you delete them) or temporary (i.e., they last only until you close your browser). You are always free to decline tracking technologies if your browser permits, although doing so may interfere with your use of the Site. Refer to the help section of your browser, browser extensions, or installed applications for instructions on blocking, deleting, or disabling tracking technologies such as cookies.
    • With your prior consent as obtained through your use of this Site.
    • You may encounter tracking technologies/cookies from our third-party service providers that we have allowed on our Site that assist us with various aspects of our Site operations and services, such as Google Analytics.
    • You also may encounter tracking technologies from third-parties on certain pages of the websites that we do not control and have not authorized. (For example, if you view a web page created by another user, there may be a cookie placed by that web page.)
    • We may target and track the videos you view on the Site. You consent to our tracking of your video viewing through the Site or third-party social media for up to two years or as permitted by applicable law or until consent is withdrawn.>

    For more information about the use of cookies and similar technology on our Site, please review this Privacy Policy and our Cookie Policy [INSERT LINK]

    Notice to California and European Economic Area Residents

    1. Residents of the State of California may request a list of all third-parties to which our Site has disclosed certain personal information (as defined by California law) during the preceding year for those third-parties’ direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident and want such a list, please contact us at privacy@thenorthstar.com.  For all requests, you must put the statement “Your California Privacy Rights” in the body of your request, as well as your name, street address, city, state, and zip code. In the body of your request, please provide enough information for us to determine if this applies to you. You need to attest to the fact that you are a California resident and provide a current California address for our response. Please note that we will not accept requests via the telephone, mail, or by facsimile, and we are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, or that do not have complete information.
    2. How We Respond to Do Not Track Signals for California Residents: California Business & Professions Code Section 22575(b) (as amended effective January 1, 2014) provides that California residents are entitled to know how we respond to “Do Not Track” browser settings. We do not currently take actions to respond to Do Not Track signals because a uniform technological standard has not yet been developed. We continue to review new technologies and may adopt a standard once one is created.
    3. Notice to EEA Residents:If data is processed in the European Economic Area, you may be entitled to request information from us regarding your personal information stored by us and to have your personal data corrected, deleted and blocked by us in accordance with applicable laws. Please contact us by using the contact information as set out above.

     

    CHILDREN’S PRIVACY

     

    The Site is a general audience site and it is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information via our websites, applications, services, or tools from users in this age group.

     

    INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER

     

    As we operate internationally, and many of our computer systems are currently based in the United States, your personal information may be processed in the U.S. and elsewhere where data protection and privacy regulations may not offer the same level of protection as in other parts of the world, such as the European Union. If you create an account/profile, you consent to the collection and/or processing in the United States of your personal information and tracking technologies/cookies as described in this Privacy Policy.

    UPDATES

     

    From time to time, we may update this Privacy Policy. You agree that we may notify you about material changes in the way we treat personal information by placing a notice on the Site. You should check the Site frequently for updates.

     

    DATA SECURITY

     

    We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know such data. They will only process your personal data on our instructions, and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

     

    We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

     

    WHAT ABOUT OTHER WEBSITES LINKED TO THIS SITE?

     

    We are not responsible for the practices employed by websites linked to or from our Site nor the information or content contained therein. Often links to other websites are provided solely as pointers to information on topics that may be useful to the users of our Site. Please remember that when you use a link to go from our Site to another website, our Privacy Policy is no longer in effect. Your browsing and interaction on any other website, including sites which have a link on our Site, is subject to that website’s own rules and policies. Please read over those rules and policies before proceeding.

     
     
     
     

    YOUR CONSENT

     

    By using this Site you consent to our collection and use of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. If we change our privacy policies and procedures, we will post those changes on this Site to keep you aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it.

    DATA RETENTION

    When you place an order through the Site, we will maintain your Order Information for our records unless and until you ask us to delete this information.  We retain Personal Information as long as it is necessary and relevant for our operations. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by emailing us at privacy@thenorthstar.com.

    CONTACT US

    If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about our Privacy Policy, our practices or our services, you may contact us by either of the following means

     
    Contact Details

    Our full details are:

    Full name of legal entity: 

    The North Star News Group, Inc.

    Email address:  privacy@thenorthstar.com
     
    Postal address:  ATTN: DATA PROTECTION OFFICE
    1000 Whitlock Avenue, Suite 320 #351
    Marietta, GA 30064
     
    Telephone number:(404) 480-0882
     
     
    LAST UPDATED: MARCH 28, 2019