This Privacy Policy governs gwnews.com. Your privacy is important to us, and this Privacy Policy Notice explains our practices and the options you have concerning the way your personal information is collected and used by WORLD News Group.

The Information We Collect

Through WORLD News Group’s publications, websites, and other media, you can order products, subscribe to one of our products or services, express an opinion, or participate in an online forum. In some instances, WORLD News Group needs to obtain personally identifiable information from you to provide the products and/or services you request. Except for certain supplemental personal information purchased from third parties such as direct-mail marketers, we only collect personally identifiable information that you voluntarily provide to us. The types of personally identifiable information that may be collected include, but are not limited to, name, address, email address, telephone number, and credit card information. To protect your personal information, registered users of WNG/GWP//WW’s websites must also enter a user name and a password.

On some WORLD News Group sites, you may be asked to submit information about a third party. For example, you can submit a person’s name and email address to send them a link to an article from one of our sites. If you order a gift online or offline and want it sent directly to the recipient, you will need to submit the recipient’s name and address. The types of personally identifiable information that may be collected about a third party on these pages include recipient’s name, address, email address, and telephone number.

For certain promotions, only persons who provide us directly with the requested personally identifiable information will be able to order products, programs, and services or otherwise participate in the promotion’s activities and offerings.

WORLD News Group also may collect certain non-personally identifiable information when you visit our websites, such as the type of browser you are using, the type of computer operating system you are using, and the domain name of your Internet service provider.

WORLD News Group also may purchase supplemental personal information from third parties, such as direct mail marketers. Otherwise, we do not collect personally identifiable information about you except when you provide it to us.

When you submit your personally identifiable information on this website, you are giving your consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy Notice.

How We Use the Information

WORLD News Group may use the information you provide about yourself to fulfill your requests for our products, programs, and services; to respond to your inquiries about these offerings; and to offer you other products, programs, or services that we believe may be of interest to you.

We sometimes use this information to communicate vital information to you, such as to notify you when your subscription is about to expire, to let you know the latest issue is available online, to notify you when we make changes to subscriber agreements, to notify you that your automatic subscription renewal option is about to be charged, to fulfill a request by you for an online newsletter, or to contact you about your account with us.

We use the information that you provide about third parties to enable us to send them your gifts or cards. From time to time we also may use this information to offer our products, programs, or services to these individuals. These third parties will always have the option to limit, opt-out, or block such uses. We do not sell or rent to other companies the phone numbers, email addresses or mailing addresses of gift recipients.

If you choose to submit content for publication (e.g., a “letter to our editors”), we may publish your name, city, state, country, and other information you have provided to us.

In order to participate in our online forums, WORLD News Group requires registration using a valid email address, which provides a way for us to resolve technical issues for individual users, enables site managers to follow up on rules violations and keep peace on the discussion threads, and helps ensure that no one else can post comments under your unique User ID. WORLD News Group will not share email addresses collected from our online forums with other registered users, companies, publications, or other agencies. WORLD News Group does reserve the right to offer products, programs, or services from WORLD News Group via email to those who have registered with our sites.

WORLD News Group sometimes uses the non-personally identifiable information that we collect to improve the design and content of our publications and websites and to enable us to personalize your Internet experience. We also may use this information in the aggregate to analyze site usage, as well as to offer you WORLD News Group products, programs, or services.

We will disclose information we maintain when required to do so by law, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena. We also may disclose such information in response to a law enforcement agency’s request.

Agents and contractors of WORLD News Group who have access to personally identifiable information are required to protect this information in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy Notice by, for example, not using the information for any purpose other than to carry out the services they are performing for WORLD News Group.

We may transfer your personally identifiable information to other WORLD News Group offices for internal management and administrative purposes. Your personal data will be transferred to other WORLD News Group offices where necessary for the performance or conclusion of our contractual obligations to you or for your benefit. Transfers of personally identifiable information also may be made where necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that personally identifiable information that we collect will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy Notice. Inadvertent disclosures may result, for example, when third parties misrepresent their identities in asking the site for access to personally identifiable information about themselves for purposes of correcting possible factual errors in the data.

As we continue to develop our business, the occasion may arise where we sell certain parts of our assets. In such transactions, user information, including personally identifiable information, generally is one of the transferred business assets, and by submitting your personal information on WORLD News Group’s websites you agree that your data may be transferred to such parties in these circumstances.

Email Newsletters

When you request a free email newsletter from us, we will collect and store your email address to provide you with the requested newsletter. We may also send you occasional special offers and information from WORLD News Group and other select sources we think would be of interest to you. You may change your subscribed email address, opt-out of receiving special email offers, or remove yourself from any mailing list by following the instructions contained in every newsletter, by visiting our email preferences page, or contacting editor@wng.org.

Privacy Options

If you prefer not to receive traditional mail or other off-line promotions from WORLD News Group, please contact our member services department.

WORLD News Group occasionally discloses some personally identifiable information, such as names and mailing addresses, to companies not owned by WORLD News Group who want to market products or services to our customers. You always have the option to opt out or block such uses. We do not sell or rent the email addresses or phone numbers of our customers. To change your marketing preferences, including opting out or blocking certain usages, please contact our member services department.

WORLD News Group may on occasion combine information we receive online with outside records to enhance our ability to market to you products or services that may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive online marketing information from this or any other WORLD News Group site, please contact our member services department.

WORLD News Group sites will not use or transfer personally identifiable information provided to us in ways unrelated to the ones described above.

Collection of Information by Third-Party Sites and Sponsors

Some of our websites contain links to other sites whose information practices may be different than ours. You should consult the other sites’ Privacy Policy notices, as we have no control over information that is submitted to or collected by these third parties.

Some WORLD News Group online stores are hosted by Yahoo! Store. Yahoo! hosts the store pages, ordering system, and order data. Yahoo! automatically collects order information but only may use this information in the aggregate. If you access one of these stores through Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! also automatically collects information about your shopping experience. Please see the Yahoo! Privacy Policy for more information about how Yahoo! uses this information.

Cookies

To enhance your online experience at our websites, many of our web pages use “cookies.” Cookies are text files we place in your computer’s browser to store your preferences. Cookies, by themselves, do not tell us your email address or other personally identifiable information unless you choose to provide this information to us by, for example, registering at one of our sites. However, once you choose to furnish the site with personally identifiable information, this information may be linked to the data stored in the cookie.

We use cookies to understand site usage and to improve the content and offerings on our sites. For example, we may use cookies to personalize your experience at our web pages (e.g. to recognize you when you return to our site), save your password in password-protected areas (so that you don’t have to login every time you return to the site), and enable you to use shopping carts on our sites. We also may use cookies to offer you products, programs, or services, and we may use small pieces of code to collect anonymous and aggregate advertising metrics, such as counting page views, promotion views, or advertising responses.

Our Commitment to Security

We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use the information we collect.

Credit Card Safety

Ordering products and services through us online is secure. All online transactions in WORLD News Group online stores are handled with industry-standard SSL encryption. When you enter your personal information and credit card number into an order form, it is transmitted across the Internet in an encrypted (scrambled) form, and then decoded when it gets to us.

How You Can Access or Correct Information

To inquire about personally identifiable information that this WORLD News Group site has collected about you, or how to correct factual errors in such information, please contact us.

To protect your privacy and security, WORLD News Group will take reasonable steps to help verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.

Special Note for Parents

The site you are visiting is one of the WORLD News Group general audience sites. For more information about our online privacy practices for our children’s sites, consult the Privacy Policy Notice at the children’s site in which you are interested.

This website is not intended or designed for use by children, especially those under the age of 13. Those under age 13 are not allowed to register and provide any personal information to use our online forums. Minors between the ages of 13 and 17 must have permission from their parent(s) or legal guardian(s) before registering or making purchases, including subscriptions, on WORLD News Group’s websites.

Should children disclose information about themselves in publicly accessible areas on one of WORLD News Group’s websites, they may get unsolicited messages from other parties. The responsibility for monitoring a child’s online behavior rests with the parent(s) or legal guardians and not WORLD News Group.

Changes to This Notice

This Notice may be changed at any time by WORLD News Group. The revised Privacy Policy Notice will be posted to this page so that you are aware of the information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we may disclose it.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about the WORLD News Group Privacy Policy Notice or its implementation, please contact us via email at memberservices@wng.org or at the following address: WORLD News Group, Attention: Member Services, P.O. Box 2330. Asheville, NC 28802

WORLD News Group’s Website Policy

To read WORLD News Group’s Website Policy, click here.

This Privacy Policy was revised 07/19/2023.