Privacy Policy
This privacy policy applies only to the websites controlled by
Discovery Communications, LLC and/or its subsidiary and affiliated
entities ("Discovery," "we" or "us") where this privacy policy is posted
(collectively, the "Sites"). This privacy policy does not pertain to
information that is collected offline. BY USING THE SITES, YOU CONSENT
TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND TO OUR PROCESSING
OF PERSONAL INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES STATED BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT
AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY, PLEASE DO
NOT USE THE SITES.
A. Information Collected
This privacy policy applies only to information collected on the
Sites and does not apply to information collected by Discovery through
any other means. For details on the information collected and used from
children under the age of 13, click here.
We collect two types of information from visitors to the Sites:
(1) Personally Identifiable Information; and (2) Non-Personally
Identifiable Information, such as your IP address or cookies.
(1) Personally Identifiable Information
"Personally Identifiable Information" is information that identifies
you personally, such as your name, address, telephone number, email
address, or company name. Discovery collects and stores the personally
identifiable information that you have provided to us. Here are some
examples of manners in which we may collect your personally identifiable
information on the Sites:
- We may collect your email address, first and last name and zip
code if you sign up for an online newsletter;
- We may collect your email address if you contact us with a question;
- We may collect your first and last name, date of birth and email
address if you choose to participate in a contest or sweepstakes; and
- We may collect your first and last name, your address, and your
credit card and billing information if you make a purchase of a product
at the Discovery Store.
The above list provides an example of the personally identifiable
information that may be collected on the Sites. If you do not want
Discovery to collect your personally identifiable information, please
do not provide it to us.
(2) Non-Personally Identifiable Information
"Non-Personally Identifiable Information" can be technical information
or it can be demographic information, such as your age, gender or interests.
Non-personally identifiable information does NOT identify you personally.
Here are some examples of the non-personally identifiable information that
is collected via the Sites and a description of how this information is used:
- Internet Protocol (IP) address -- Your IP address is a number that lets
computers attached to the Internet know where to send you data -- such as
the webpages you view. We use this information to deliver our webpages to
you upon request, to tailor our Sites to the interests of our users and to
measure traffic within our Sites.
- Cookie -- A "cookie" is a small text file that may be used to
collect information about your activity on the Sites. For example,
when someone visits a page within the Sites, a cookie is placed on the
user's machine (if the user accepts cookies) or is read if the user
has visited the Sites previously. You may set most browsers to notify
you if you receive a cookie, or you may choose to block cookies with
your browser, but if you do, you may not be able to take advantage of
the personalized features enjoyed by other users to our Sites.
- Web Beacons (also known as "clear gifs," "web bugs" or "pixel tags")
-- "Web Beacons" are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in
function to cookies, and are used to allow us to count users who have
visited certain pages of the Sites and to help determine the
effectiveness of promotional or advertising campaigns. When used
in HTML-formatted email messages, web beacons can tell the sender
whether and when the email has been opened. In contrast to cookies,
which are stored on a user's computer hard drive, web beacons are
embedded invisibly on web pages.
- Demographic Information -- "Demographic Information" may be your
gender, age, zip code and interests, which you voluntarily provide to
us on the Sites. We use this information to provide you with personalized
services and to analyze trends to ensure the information provided by the
Sites meets your needs. For example, we offer personalized TV schedule listings
and program reminders for Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery
Health Channel or any of our other TV offerings if you tell us which programs
and topics you're interested in. Please note that we also consider aggregated
information, which is not personally identifiable, to be non-personally
identifiable information. The above list provides an example of the
non-personally identifiable information that is collected via the Sites.
B. Use of Information Collected Via the Sites
(1) Personally Identifiable Information
We use your personally identifiable information that is collected
on these Sites primarily for the following purposes:
- To deliver services, such as educational programs, information,
newsletters or software you request or purchase;
- To alert you to special offers, updated information and other
new services from Discovery, or other third parties, or to forward
promotional materials;
- To complete a transaction or service requested by you;
- To fulfill the terms of a promotion;
- To ensure the Sites are relevant to your needs;
- To help us create and publish content most relevant to you;
- To notify you about a material change to this privacy policy
or the Visitor Agreement, if necessary;
- To allow you access to limited-entry areas of the Sites; and
- To contact you in response to sign up forms such as Contact Us or Order Inquiry.
(2) Non-Personally Identifiable Information
Non-personally identifiable information is used as described above
and in other ways as permitted by applicable laws, including combining
non-personally identifiable information with personally identifiable
information (except with respect to non-personally identifiable information
collected from children under the age of 13).
C. Sharing and Disclosure of Information
(1) Personally Identifiable Information
We may share or disclose your personally identifiable information
in the following instances:
(i) To fulfill a service to you. For example, if you choose to
watch an educational program on the Sites, we may share your personally
identifiable information in order to provide the program to you. In addition,
if you email us a question, we may use your email address to process your request
and respond to your question. Also, if you are entering a sweepstakes or contest,
we may use your personally identifiable information in order to fulfill the
terms of that promotion. This means that we may share the information for
prize fulfillment purposes or mail carriers. We also may share your
information with the co-sponsor of that promotion.
(ii) To affiliates, strategic partners, agents, third party marketers
or other unaffiliated parties who are offering products or services that
we believe may be of interest to you or who require your personally
identifiable information for research, administrative and/or internal
business purposes. These parties may use your personally identifiable
information to contact you with an offer or advertisement related to a
product or service, or they may use such information for their own research,
administration or business purposes. If you do not want us to share your
personally identifiable information in this manner, please do not provide
us with this information.
(iii) To unaffiliated third-party service providers, agents or
independent contractors who help us maintain our Sites and provide
other administrative services to us (including, but not limited to,
order processing and fulfillment, providing customer service, maintaining
and analyzing data, sending customer communications on Discovery's behalf,
and entry collection, winner selection and prize fulfillment for contests,
sweepstakes and other promotions). We seek to ensure that these unaffiliated
third parties will not use the personally identifiable information for any
other purpose than to provide the administrative services for which they
are responsible. Because such unaffiliated third-party service providers
that help us administer our Sites will have access to users' personally
identifiable information, if you do not wish for our unaffiliated third-party
service providers to have access to your information, please do not register
or submit any personally identifiable information to us.
(iv) To complete your purchase. If you choose to make a purchase on the
Sites, we may collect from you your credit card number, billing address
and other information related to such purchase, and we may use such
collected information in order to fulfill your purchase. We may also
provide such information, or other personally identifiable information
provided by you, to unaffiliated third parties as necessary to complete
your purchase (for example, to process your credit card).
(v) To comply with the law or in the good faith belief that such action
is necessary in order to conform to the requirements of law or comply
with legal process served on us, protect and defend our rights or property,
including the rights and property of Discovery and its family of Sites or
act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of our end users.
(vi) To third parties as part of any corporate reorganization process
including, but not limited to, mergers, acquisitions, and sales of all or
substantially all of our assets.
(vii) To track and analyze non-identifying and aggregate usage and volume
statistical information from our visitors and customers and provide such
information to third parties.
(viii) To protect against potential fraud, we may verify with third
parties the information collected from these Sites. In the course of
such verification, we may receive personally identifiable information
about you from such services. In particular, if you use a credit card
or debit card to purchase services with us, we may use card authorization
and fraud screening services to verify that your card information and
address matches the information that you supplied to us, and that the
card has not been reported as lost or stolen.
Except as described in this Privacy Policy or at the time we request
the information, we do not otherwise use, share or otherwise disclose your
personally identifiable information to any third parties.
(2) Non-Personally Identifiable Information
We use non-personally identifiable information collected on the Sites
in the manner disclosed above, in the Section A (2). We may share this
non-personal information with third parties.
(1) Collection of Personally Identifiable Information Collected from Kids
In most instances, Discovery will only request the first name and
email address of the child in order to complete an immediate request from
the child. The information that is collected will only be used for the requested
purpose and will be deleted immediately. Discovery will not store or otherwise
use that information. Here are some examples of instances in which Discovery
may immediately delete the child's information after the completion of the
child's initial request:
- If the child emails an inquiry;
- If the child participates in a game;
- If the child refers a game to a friend, we may request his or
her first name and email address and the friend's first name and email address;
- If the child wants to receive a postcard on one occasion; and
- If the child sends a postcard to a friend on one occasion, we may
request his or her first name and email address and the friend's
first name and email address.
From time to time, we may request limited personally identifiable
information from kids in order to offer a service, a promotion or other
activity to the kids. In such an instance, we will request that the child
provide his or her email address, as well as the email address of his or
her parent or legal guardian ("parent"). Discovery will use that email
address to send the parent an email letting him or her know about the
child's contact. The email will include details on how the parent may
(i) provide Discovery with consent; (ii) prohibit Discovery from any
further contact with the child; or (iii) delete the child's
personally identifiable information. Discovery will not collect more
information than is reasonably necessary for the child to participate
in the activity at issue.
Below are some examples of instances in which we may collect the first
name and email address from kids on the Sites and require parental consent:
- If the child wants to enter a sweepstakes, contest or other promotion; and
- If the child wants to receive newsletters on a recurring basis.
(2) Use of Personally Identifiable Information Collected from Kids
When we collect personally identifiable information from kids, we will only
use that information for the express purpose for which it was collected. For
example, if a child enters a sweepstakes, we will request the parent's
information (as described in Section D(1)) and will only use the child's
email address to enter the child into the sweepstakes, to notify the
parent of the child's entry, and to identify and notify the child if
he or she is a potential winner. The personally identifiable information
will not be used for any other purpose, and the personally identifiable
information will not be used after the promotion is complete.
(3) Sharing of Personally Identifiable Information Collected from Kids
Except as provided in this Section, we do not share personally identifiable
information collected from kids with any unaffiliated third parties. We may,
however, share a child's personally identifiable information that we have
collected with parental consent in the following limited instances:
- We may share such information with third-party service providers who help
Discovery maintain the Sites and provide other administrative services to
us. We seek to ensure that these unaffiliated third parties may not use
the personally identifiable information for any other purpose, and these
unaffiliated third parties have agreed to maintain the confidentiality,
security and integrity of the personally identifiable information.
- If your child is selected as a potential winner of one of our
contests or sweepstakes, we will notify the parent, via the email
address that the child submitted. If the parent consents, we will
collect and share this information in order to fulfill the terms
of the promotion.
- Finally, we may disclose kids' personally identifiable information
to third parties if we believe we are required to do so in order to comply
with law (including court orders and subpoenas); to comply with requests
from law enforcement agencies or the government; to enforce our Visitor
Agreement; to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property and the
rights, privacy, safety or property of our employees or other users of
our Sites; to protect our operations; and to permit us to pursue
available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
(4) Non Personally Identifiable Information
We collect and store the non-personally identifiable information
that is described in Section A2 of this privacy policy. We do not, however,
link this information to personally identifiable information when it is
collected from kids.
(5) Note to Parents and Legal Guardians
Please contact Discovery at any time regarding privacy questions
or concerns, or to request to review what personally identifiable information
we have collected from a child. Parents may also contact us at any time to
request that we delete the personally identifiable information of a child
or a parent and/or refuse to permit further collection or use of a child's
information. We will take steps to ensure that any person contacting us for
a child's information is that child's parent or guardian.
Discovery Communications, LLC
1 Discovery Place
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Phone: (240) 662-2000 (Legal)
Email: privacy_policy@discovery.com
E. International Transfer of Information
If you choose to provide us with personally identifiable information,
Discovery may transfer that information to its affiliates and subsidiaries
or to other third parties, across borders, and from your country or
jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions around the world.
If you are visiting from the European Union or other regions with laws
governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please
note that you are transferring your personally identifiable information
to the United States which does not have the same data protection laws as
the EU and by providing your personally identifiable information you consent to:
- the use of your personally identifiable information for the uses
identified above in accordance with this privacy policy; and
- the transfer of your personally identifiable information to the United
States as indicated above
F. Opt-Out
We communicate with users who subscribe to our services on a regular basis
via email. For example, we may use your email address to confirm your request,
to send you notice of payments, to send you information about changes to
our products and services, and to send notices and other disclosures as
required by law. Generally, users cannot opt-out of these communications,
but they will be primarily informational in nature rather than promotional.
However, we provide you the opportunity to exercise an opt-out choice if
you do not want to receive other types of communication from us, such as
emails or updates from us regarding new services and products offered on
this Site or if you do not want us to share your personally identifiable
information with third parties. The opt-out choice may be exercised by
ticking or un-ticking the appropriate box if such checkbox is available
at the points where personally identifiable information is collected or
by contacting us. We will process your unsubscribe as soon as possible,
but please be aware that in some circumstances you may receive a few more
messages until the unsubscribe is processed. You also may opt-out of
receiving such emails by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link within the
text of the email.
G. Forums, Chat Rooms and Other Public Posting Areas
Please note that any information you include in a message you post to
any chat room, forum or other public posting area is available to anyone
with Internet access. If you don't want people to know your e-mail address,
for example, don't include it in any message you post publicly. PLEASE BE
EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHEN DISCLOSING ANY INFORMATION IN CHAT ROOMS, FORUMS
AND OTHER PUBLIC POSTING AREAS. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE
BY OTHERS OF THE INFORMATION THAT YOU DISCLOSE IN CHAT ROOMS, FORUMS
AND OTHER PUBLIC POSTING AREAS.
H. Third Party Web Sites
This statement applies solely to information collected on the Sites.
The Sites may contain links to other web sites. We are not responsible
for the privacy practices or the content of these other web sites.
I. Third Party Advertisers
We may use advertisers, third party ad networks, and other advertising
companies, to serve advertisements on the Sites. Please be advised that
such advertising companies may gather information about your visit to
the Sites or other sites (such as through cookies, web beacons and other
technologies) to enable such advertising companies to market products or
services to you, to monitor which ads have been served to your browser
and which webpages you were viewing when such ads were delivered. If
you would like more information about this practice and to know your
choices please click here. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS POLICY DOES NOT
COVER THE COLLECTION AND USE OF INFORMATION BY SUCH ADVERTISING
COMPANIES.
J. Accessing Your Personally Identifiable Information and Privacy Preferences
We provide you with an opportunity to access your personally identifiable
information to ensure it is correct, accurate and current. To edit your
personally identifiable information, please contact our customer service
representatives at 1-800-889-9950. To be removed from our mailing list
or if you would prefer that we do not share your information with third
party marketers, please make sure to indicate that on our My Discovery
registration form at
http://reg.cheetahmail.com/regp?aid=88808939&n=100.
To change your privacy preferences for HowStuffWorks.com, please visit
http://www.howstuffworks.com/remove.htm.
If for any reason you are not able to update or edit your personally
identifiable information at this page, you can access such information
by contacting us as described below. We will make reasonable efforts to
accommodate your request.
K. Assignment
In the event that all or part of our assets or sold or acquired by another
party, or in the event of a merger, you grant us the right to assign the
personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable information collected
via the Sites.
L. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to change this privacy policy from
time to time. When we do, we will also revise the "last update" date
at the bottom of this privacy policy. For changes to this privacy
policy that may be materially less restrictive on our use or disclosure
of personal information you have provided to us, we will attempt to
obtain your consent before implementing the change by sending a notice
to the primary email address specified in your account or by placing a
prominent notice on the Sites.
We will also notify parents if we change the kinds of information that
we collect from kids and materially alter our practices of sharing and using
this information. We will not collect, use or share the information without
parental consent.
M. Security
No data transmissions over the Internet can be guaranteed to be
100% secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security
of any information you transmit to us and you understand that any
information that you transfer to Discovery is done at your own risk.
Once we receive your transmission, we make reasonable efforts to
ensure security on our systems. We use firewalls to protect your information
from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However,
please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not
be accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed by breach of such firewalls
and secure server software.
If we learn of a security systems breach we may attempt to notify
you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps.
By using these Sites or providing personally identifiable information
to us you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding
security, privacy and administrative issues relating to your use of these
Sites. We may post a notice on our Sites if a security breach occurs.
We may also send an email to you at the email address you have provided
to us in these circumstances. Depending on where you live, you may have
a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing.
N. Age Screening
Some parts of the Sites require that personally identifiable
information be submitted in order to participate. For example, if you
want to receive one of our newsletters, you must give us your email
address. Some parts of the Sites will have an age-screening mechanism
to prevent kids from registering. We won't knowingly allow anyone under
the age of thirteen to register with any of our Sites, or to access those
features that require registration, except as explicitly disclosed herein.
If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personally
identifiable information from a user under the age of thirteen other than
in a legally permissible situation, we will delete the information from our
records as soon as we discover it.
O. Contacting Discovery
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy
practices, please contact us at
privacy_policy@discovery.com. All
information you provide in any written communication will also be
covered by this policy.
YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
Beginning on January 1, 2005, California Civil Code Section 1798.83
permits our visitors who are California residents to request certain
information regarding Discovery's disclosure of personally identifiable
information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To
make such a request, please contact us:
Discovery Communications, LLC
1 Discovery Place
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Phone: (240) 662-2000 (Legal)
Email: privacy_policy@discovery.com
Last Update: October 30, 2008