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Privacy policy

Last Updated: April 11, 2021

This Privacy Policy discloses the privacy practices for www.heysocal.com and any other sites that display authorized links to this policy, including all mobile websites (collectively with HeySoCal.com and each a “Site”) and applications (each an “Application”) associated therewith, provided by HEY MEDIA, INC. (“HEY MEDIA”, “we” or “us” or “our”). For individuals in the EU using the Site or Application, HEY MEDIA is located at 125 E. Chestnut Ave., Monrovia, CA 91016, is considered to be the controller of your data. We take privacy seriously and endeavor to update this Privacy Policy to conform with changes in our privacy practices, information handling, and changes in the Law. This Privacy Policy is subject to change. More importantly, we want you to know precisely what information you are providing us for our business uses and to the extent that we provide information to affiliated third parties, what information is actually shared.

This Privacy Policy governs our collection, use, and disclosure of information from and about you, including through your use of our Sites and Applications. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully so that you understand our privacy practices. By browsing a Site; installing, downloading, or using an Application; and/or providing your information to us in any other way, you understand that we will collect, use, and disclose your information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy. Questions regarding privacy issues should be directed to us at privacy@heymediagroup.com or at the address above.

What Types of Information Do We Collect?

The information we gather falls into three categories: (1) information that is voluntarily supplied by users; (2) information that is automatically gathered; and (3) information that we collect from third parties.

Categories of personal information we collect.

Throughout this Privacy Policy, we provide detail information to you regarding the specific pieces of personal information that we collect from and about users of our Sites and Applications. The California Consumer Protection Act (“CCPA”) requires that we provide to you the “categories” of personal information that we collect from users. 

We collect from users a great amount of information: identifiers (such as name, address, email address, IP address, device identifiers, and login information); commercial information (such as subscription and delivery history); financial data (such as credit card information); internet or other network or device activity (such as browsing history or what content you access on our Sites or Applications); geolocation information (e.g., your city and state based on IP address or precise location information from your mobile device with your consent and consistent with your mobile device settings); professional or employment related data; potentially protected classifications (such as gender, nationality, and age); physical characteristics or description (such as when you voluntarily submit a photo to our Site or Application); and other information that identifies or can be reasonably associated with you (such as information you make available on message boards or through email).

We and our service providers and associated affiliates may use the categories of personal information we collect from and about you consistent with the various business and commercial purposes described throughout this Policy. Please see the relevant section(s) for more information.

Information You Provide to Us

If you provide us information then we collect and store information that you voluntarily supply to us.

When you register as a member of our Sites and/or Applications, we collect information including your name, company, title, zip code, e-mail address, password, and information regarding newsletters and author alerts you would like to receive.

When you request information about HEY MEDIA subscriptions, we collect information including your name, e-mail address, title, job type, phone number, organization name, organization type, country, industry field of interest, interested products, and locations of interest.

When you order a subscription to a HEY MEDIA publication, HeySocal.com or pay your invoice online, we will collect all information necessary to complete the transaction, including your name, credit card, and other related information.

When you sign up for one of our electronic newsletters, we collect your e-mail address.

When you respond to our surveys or contests, we will collect all the information requested in the surveys or contests, including any applicable contact information and demographic information such as your e-mail, first name, last name, location, place of employment, type of employment, industry, household income, race, age, and gender.

We also collect information at other points in our Sites and Application which state information is being collected.

You do not have a statutory obligation to provide us with your information. If you are a subscriber to one of our Sites, Applications or any of our publications, you have a contractual obligation to provide us with information necessary to enter into a subscription agreement and provide the subscriber services to you. If you are not a subscriber, you do not have a contractual obligation to provide us with your information, but if you do not, we may not be able to provide you with services you have requested or you may be limited in your use of our services (e.g., if you do not provide us with your e-mail address, we will not be able to send you newsletters).

Information Is Also Automatically Collected When You Visit Our Sites Or Use Our Applications

We also collect and store information that is generated automatically as you navigate through our Sites or Applications.

To make our Sites and Applications more useful to you, our servers (which may be hosted by a third-party service provider) may collect information from your computer or device, including but not limited to:

  • The date and time of your visit and the web pages and content you view and links you click on while navigating within our Sites or Applications;
  • Information about the type of content accessed via our Sites or Applications;
  • The site you visited before and after visiting our Sites;
  • Your Internet Protocol (IP) address (a numerical address assigned to your computer by your Internet service provider so that other computers connected to the Internet can communicate with you online) that can sometimes be used to derive your general geographic area;
  • Search terms you enter using our Sites or Applications;
  • Unique identifiers, including non-global mobile device identification numbers;
  • Information about your computer device such as your device type, screen size, browser type, language and other settings, memory capacity, plug-ins, Internet domain, TCP configuration parameters, operating system, carrier code, time zone and the names, versions and package IDs of software installed on your device; and
  • Information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other tracking technologies (see additional descriptions of these terms below).
  • If you allow our Application to have access to your location information and you have enabled location services on your phone, we collect your precise location information.

We Also Collect Information About You From Third Parties

We may also collect information about you through our non-affiliated third parties, such as market research firms and public sources. Depending on the source, this information collected from third parties could include information such as demographic information and brand and media consumption information. We may combine information that we collect about you through the Sites and Applications with information that we obtain from such third parties for our business and commercial purposes.

Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and other tracking technologies in connection with our Sites and Applications. Cookies are useful for us to improve our Sites and Applications ability to assist users with the use of our site and for the purposes set forth in this paragraph. That is, to make the Sites and Applications more responsive and specific to the needs of our users, we employ a standard software feature, called a “cookie,” to assign each user a unique, random number that resides on a user’s computer or device. The cookie by itself does not personally identify the user; it merely identifies the computer or device with which the user accesses a Site or Application. Cookies help us track user trends and patterns. They also prevent you from having to re-enter your preferences on certain areas of a Site or Application where you have entered preference information before.

When we post videos, third parties may use local shared objects, known as flash cookies to store your preferences for volume control or to personalize certain video features. Flash cookies are different from cookies because of the amount and type of data and how the data is stored.

We also may use web beacons (also known as “pixel tags”) to access cookies and to count users who visit our Sites, use our Applications, or open our HTML-formatted e-mail messages. Pixel tags are graphic images with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, that are used to track online movements of our users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, pixel tags are embedded invisibly in web pages and e-mail messages. We may collect information about your interactions with our e-mail messages, such as the links you click on and whether you open or forward a message, the date and time of these interactions and the device you use to read our e-mails.

Analytics Services

We use third-party analytics services (“Analytics Services”), to help analyze how users use our Sites and Applications. The information generated by the cookies or other technologies about your use of our Sites and/or Applications (the “Analytics Information”) is transmitted to the Analytics Services. The Analytics Services use Analytics Information to compile reports on user activity. The Analytics Services may also transfer the Analytics Information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process Analytics Information on their behalf. Each Analytics Service’s ability to use and share Analytics Information is restricted by such Analytics Service’s terms of use and privacy policy. By using a Site or Application, you consent to the processing of data about you by Analytics Services in the manner and for the purposes set out above. For a full list of our Analytics Services, please contact us at feedback@heymediagroup.com.

We also collect anonymized, cookie-based demographics data from third parties to analyze the composition of our audience.

Tailored Advertising

Our Site also makes use of various third-party cookie data collection and linking services. HEY MEDIA and third-party vendors, including Google and others, may use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the Google Ad Manager cookie) together to (i) inform, optimize, and serve ads based on your past visits to our website and (ii) report how your ad impressions, uses of ad services, and interactions with the foregoing are related to your visits to the Site. In addition, we may use Google Analytics data, including but not limited to, geographic, demographics, and interest reporting information to recognize and understand user preferences, make improvements, and for other business purposes. You can learn more about how Google manages data in its ads products, through which you can learn how to opt out of Google Analytics for display advertising or customize Google display network ads, by visiting the Google Ads Settings page. Learn more about how Teads uses data.

We also may use third-party advertising companies to target and serve some of the advertisements that appear on our Sites and Applications, and these companies likewise may use their own cookies, web beacons and similar technologies to collect information about users of our Sites and Applications. These companies may use that information, to deliver advertisements on this Site, and possibly on other websites (if the third-party advertising company operates an advertising network), tailored to match the perceived interests of consumers. The collection and use of information by these companies is governed by the relevant third party’s privacy policy and is not covered by our privacy policy. If you would like more information about this practice, or if you would like information on how to opt out of these information collection practices, you may visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s Consumer Opt-Out link, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Consumer Opt-Out link or European Digital Advertising Alliance Your Online Choices to opt-out of receiving tailored advertising from companies that participate in those programs.

Notice Concerning Do Not Track

Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. We are committed to providing you with meaningful choices about the information collected on our website for third party purposes, and that is why we provide the variety of opt-out mechanisms listed above. However, we do not currently recognize or respond to browser-initiated DNT signals. To learn more about Do Not Track, you can do so here.

Use of Information

We use the information we collect about you to:

  • facilitate the creation of and secure your HEY MEDIA membership account;
  • identify you as a user in our system;
  • send you a welcome e-mail to verify ownership of the e-mail address provided when your account was created;
  • perform market research to understand the interests and preferences of our existing users;
  • provide enhancements and improvements to our advertisements, Sites and Applications;
  • provide the products and services you request;
  • create new products and services;
  • improve the quality of your experience when you interact with our Sites and Applications, including customizing features to your interests and serve targeted advertisements to you;
  • measure and analyze audience traffic, including tracking user interests, trends, and patterns;
  • send you administrative e-mail notifications, such as security, or support and maintenance advisories;
  • respond to your inquiries related to HEY MEDIA subscriptions, where to obtain a physical copy of our newspaper, employment opportunities, and other questions and requests;
  • send newsletters, surveys, offers, and other promotional materials and for other marketing purposes;
  • help recognize you as a previous visitor and save and remember your preferences and settings and deliver to you appropriate interest-based content;
  • understand whether our users read e-mail messages and click on links within those messages;
  • prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities, comply with applicable law and enforce our Terms of Service; and
  • for any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect your information or pursuant to your consent.

We may create aggregated or de-identified records based on information we collect about you (such as by removing your name). We reserve the right to use such data for any purpose and disclose such data to third parties in our sole discretion. For instance, when you respond to a survey, we may use, disclose and/or publish the responses you provide to us. However, we will not publish or disclose your name in connection with your response without your prior consent.

The laws in some jurisdictions require companies to tell you about the legal ground they rely on to use or disclose your personal data. To the extent those laws apply, our legal grounds for processing your personal data are as follows:

  • To Honor Our Contractual Commitments to You. Much of our processing of personal data is to meet our contractual obligations to our customers, or to take steps at customers’ request in anticipation of entering into a contract with them.
  • Legitimate Interests. In many cases, we handle personal data on the ground that it furthers our legitimate interests in commercial activities such as the following in ways that are not overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the affected individuals: Customer service; marketing; protecting our customers, personnel and property; analyzing and improving our business; managing legal issues. We may also process personal data for the same legitimate interests of our customers and business partners.
  • Legal Compliance. We need to use and disclose personal data in certain ways to comply with our legal obligations.
  • Consent. Where required by law, and in some other cases, we handle personal data on the basis of consent. Where we handle your personal data on the basis of consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent.

By using our Site, you represent that you are at least 13 years of age.

Disclosure of Information

Please also keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily make your information available for viewing by third parties online — for example on message boards, through e-mail or web logs, or in chat areas — that information can be seen, collected and used by others besides HEY MEDIA. We cannot control who reads your postings or what other users may do with the information that you voluntarily post, so it is very important that you do not put data such as private contact information which you do not want to make available to the public in your posts. Once you have posted information publicly, while you may still be able to edit and delete it on our Site or Application, you will not be able to edit or delete such information cached, collected, and stored elsewhere by others (e.g., search engines).

We may share your information with our vendors and other third-party service providers to: provide you with the services that we offer through our Sites and Applications; process your payments; conduct quality assurance testing; facilitate creation of accounts; provide technical support; and/or provide other services to HEY MEDIA and our Affiliates. Our third-party service providers are obligated to only use the information for providing, maintaining, and improving the services on our behalf.

We may share some or all of your information with our parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under a common control (“Affiliates”), in which case we will require our Affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy.

We may share some or all of your information in connection with or during negotiation of any merger, financing, acquisition or dissolution transaction or proceeding involving sale, transfer, divestiture, or disclosure of all or a portion of our business or assets. In the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership, information may also be transferred as a business asset. If another company acquires our company, business, or assets, that company will possess the information collected by us and will assume the rights and obligations regarding your information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Some features of our Sites or Applications may enable you to post content to social networking services (“SNSs”). If you choose to do this, we will provide information to such SNSs in accordance with your elections. You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for your use of those websites and that it is your responsibility to review the terms of use and privacy policy of the third party provider of such SNSs. We will not be responsible or liable for: (i) the availability or accuracy of such SNSs; (ii) the content, products or services on or availability of such SNSs; or (iii) your use of any such SNSs.

Regardless of any choices you make regarding your information (as described below), we may disclose information if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary (a) in connection with any legal investigation; (b) to comply with relevant laws or to respond to subpoenas or warrants served on HEY MEDIA; (c) to protect or defend the rights or property of HEY MEDIA or users of our Sites or Applications; and/or (d) to investigate or assist in preventing any violation or potential violation of the law, this Privacy Policy, or our Terms of Service.

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