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Revised February 22, 2013
ZENIMAX MEDIA ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY
ZeniMax Media Inc. and its divisions and subsidiaries(collectively, "ZeniMax") are committed to protecting your privacy online. To further this commitment, we have adopted an Online Privacy Policy that guides how we collect, store, and use the information collected about you when you visit one of our websites (collectively "Sites") or in conjunction with your use any of the products, services, features or games available through our Sites (collectively the "Services").
ZeniMax Media Inc. has received TRUSTe's Privacy Seal signifying that this privacy policy and practices have been reviewed by TRUSTe for compliance with TRUSTe's program requirements including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information. TRUSTe’s certification covers all Sites that link to this privacy policy and display the TRUSTe certified privacy seal. The TRUSTe program does not cover information that may be collected through downloadable software. If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or practices, please contact us at privacy04@zenimax.com. If you are not satisfied with our response you can contact TRUSTe here.
Your personal data may be transferred to and processed in countries outside of the European Economic Area. To ensure an adequate level of protection for personal information as required by European data protection law, ZeniMax is a participant in the U.S. - E.U. and the U.S. - Switzerland Safe Harbor frameworks as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce and agreed upon with the European Commission and the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner of Switzerland, respectively. ZeniMax has certified that it adheres to the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access, and enforcement. To learn more about the Safe Harbor program, and to view ZeniMax’s certification, please visit http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/.
Whenever you visit a website that displays the TRUSTe certified privacy seal and links to this privacy policy, you can expect to be notified of the following:
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Exactly what information may be collected and how it will be used;
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The consequences, if any, resulting from your refusal to provide personal information;
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Public Information Including User Generated Content, Online Forums, Blogs and Profiles
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What is ZeniMax’s policy regarding links to third party sites;
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What choices you have with regard to the use of your personal information;
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Whether and how information is collected from children under 13;
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How a company ensures data security, quality, and integrity; and,
What types of information does ZeniMax collect and
how will it be used?
In order to give you the best experience on our Sites or while using our Services, ZeniMax may collect personal information about you. You may be asked to provide information to us through one or more services we provide through our Sites. This information may include personally identifiable information, such as, for example, your name, age, email address, address, country, and telephone number.
For some activities, we may ask you to create a username and password, and to provide personal information such as your age and date of birth. In some instances, we combine personal and non-personal information in order to improve your in game experience, or for security, system integrity, or enforcement purposes.
Additionally, we may collect information provided by you and your computer through use of our Services, embedded within messages to you, within social media, in some of our products, and otherwise. Your web browser and/or client software may transmit certain geographic information (such as IP address) or information regarding your computer (capabilities, game data processing, and so on) to ZeniMax. ZeniMax may use this information to generate aggregate statistics about our user community, personalize your experience for your geographic area and may provide such information to our service partners in order to personalize your experience on our Sites, improve your gameplay experience, including to provide tailored customer service support, security, system integrity (preventing hacking, cheats, etc.) or to enforce this Privacy Policy, our terms or our legal rights in accordance with national law. You may opt-out from the use of your data for user profile purposes by contacting privacy04@zenimax.com.
Note that, depending on the ZeniMax website that you are visiting, many of the activities listed may not be available and, as such, personal information and/or non-personal information may not be collected. Additionally, we do not require this information to gain access to our Sites; however, you will not be able to utilize certain products, Services, or features that require registration or receive materials such as newsletters unless such information is provided.
We may ask a user to submit personal and/or demographic information, typically in the form of either: (1) customer support and Service-related assistance; (2) community forum registration, including Tell-A-Friend Services and social media features, including Facebook and other OpenID providers; (3) contests, sweepstakes, and promotions, or event registration, (4) internal marketing, profiling or demographic purposes; (5) anti-cheat and fraud prevention and detection; (6) beta testing or other product participation and evaluation; and (7) in other business-related capacities (e.g., resumes submitted through our recruiting service provider’s page). The types of information that may be requested for each activity and the way the information may be used are detailed below.
For certain products, ZeniMax may enhance or merge the personal information you provide with data from our partners in order to perform market analysis or improve or products, Services, or systems. While this information may be shared with our third party partners that assist us in developing and improving our products, we do not sell this information to other companies or organizations.
- Customer Support and other Service-related Assistance
You may submit a question or problem to our technical support team regarding any problems you are encountering with a particular product, or, for some of ZeniMax’s products, may request in-game customer service support and assistance. In order for us to provide support, you may be asked to provide personal information such as your name, phone and/or fax number, home address, email address and non-personally identifiable information such as the kind of operating system you own and a description of your problem. The information you provide us for this purpose is used to respond to your problem in a timely and accurate fashion. The information that you submit during product registration may entitle you to limited warranty protection and technical support set forth in connection with your purchased product. If you voluntarily request it, we may also use your registration information to notify you about updates to our products and Services.
In the event you request customer support, we may send you emails or communicate with you by telephone, in accordance with and in response to your inquiries, to provide the Services you request and to manage your account.
For some of our products, ZeniMax may send to you Service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so, such as in the event that the product Services are temporarily suspended for maintenance. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications in these circumstances, as they are not promotional in nature.
- Forum Registration
To register in any of our online community forums, we may ask you to provide personal information such as your email address, and to create a username and password. We may also collect demographic information about you, including your occupation, hobbies and interest, and other preferences. The information that you submit to us for this purpose is used to give you access to our community forums and other community features, to allow the moderators and administrators of the message boards to contact you, and to improve our games and other products and Services.
Some of our forums are product-specific and may require you to create a game account. In these circumstances, you are not required to play the game. However, should you use features of and/or play the game in connection with forums use, information you provide to us during the game may be combined with your forum username and demographic information.
Please note that the information (e.g., email address, username, occupation, and interests) contained in your profile (i.e., that you provide when registering) may be viewable to other users of ZeniMax's Services. We cannot and do not guarantee that this information will be kept confidential or private. If you do not want the public to see this information, please leave the information blank at the time of registration or choose to make your email address and other information inaccessible to other users of the forum. To request removal of your personal information from our community forum, contact us at privacy04@zenimax.com. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information; we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.
- Tell-A-Friend
From time to time we may allow you to tell-a-friend about our website and we will ask you for your friend’s name and email address. By providing your friend’s name and email address, you confirm that you have obtained your friend’s consent to send such email. At your direction, we will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the website. ZeniMax does not store this information and uses it for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of our referral program.
- Third Party Social Media Features
Our Sites includes Social Media Features, such as the Facebook Like button and Widgets, such as the Share this button or interactive mini-programs that run on our website. These Features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our website, and may set a cookie to enable the Feature to function properly. Social Media Features and Widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our website. Your interactions with these Features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
- Other OpenID providers
Some of our products and/or Services integrate third party tools and/or you can log in to our Sites using sign-in services such as an Open ID provider. These services will authenticate your identity and provide you the option to share certain personal information with us such as your name and email address to pre-populate our sign up form. These third-party services give you the option to post information about your activities on this website to your profile page to share with others within your network.
- Contests, Sweepstakes, and Promotions
From time to time, we may run contests, sweepstakes or other events or activities (collectively, "events") on our Sites. Information collected for these events may include personal information such as your email address and may be collected by or shared with a third party sponsor, co-sponsor, or other third party (e.g., marketing or promotional partner, contest administrator, software licensee, or game developer). While we have no control over the third party's use of such information, our contracts with these third parties require them to agree to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of any personal information we share with them (or that they collect through our Sites). If you do not want your information to be collected by or shared with a third party, you can choose not to participate in these events at the time the information is collected.
- Internal Marketing, Profiling, or Demographic Evaluation
In some of our products and Sites, ZeniMax may generate aggregate statistics about our user community through the use of Google Analytics, a web analytic service offered by Google Inc. ("Google") and Adobe Omniture (including Adobe Social), a web analytics service offered by Adobe Systems Inc. (“Adobe”), including their respective affiliates, which collect information when you use some of our online products and services and/or play our games on your PC. In addition, we may collect information on your interaction with us on social media sites. We may also use these services to collect and analyze publicly available information that users post about us on various social media sites.
These analytics providers help ZeniMax evaluate whether a user’s experiences are consistent across the company’s Sites and marketing campaigns, as well as within social networks. These tools and technologies use server log files, local stored objects (LSOs) web beacons, cookies, tracking pixels and other technologies to collect and analyze certain types of information including: IP addresses (including for purposes of determining your approximate geographic location); browser type and language; referring and exiting pages and URLs; platform type; click information; information about your media; landing pages, pages viewed and the order of those pages, as well as the date and amount of time spent on pages within the Sites; game state and the date and time of activity on our Sites or games; and information about how you use our games, including game metrics and statistics, feature usage, and similar information.
The third party analytics companies who collect information on our Sites and in the context of our online products and/or services may combine the information collected with other information they have independently collected from other websites and/or other online products and services relating to your activities across their network of websites as well as online and/or mobile products and services. Many of these companies collect and use information under their own privacy policies.
For information on how to control cookies and other tracking, please see the "Tracking Technologies" section below.
- Anti-Cheat and Fraud Prevention Technologies
In an effort to provide a safe and fair gaming environment to all players of its games, ZeniMax employs “anti-cheating” software or applications during the use of certain online products and Services to prevent fraudulent activities and behaviors that may negatively affect the experiences of a player.
When creating a profile for certain products and/or Services, ZeniMax may collect data about your personal computer in order to create a hash of machine components. Information collected is not stored in retrievable form. ZeniMax may use this machine hash for the prevention of fraud, security and for authentication purposes only and not shared with any third parties except as part of the vendor software.
- Beta Testing and/or Product Testing
From time to time, ZeniMax may offer opportunities for consumers to test, submit feedback, and/or provide opinions on unreleased products. You may be asked to provide personal information such as your name, phone and/or fax number, home address, email address, gender, and non-personally identifiable information such as the kind of operating system you own and your gaming preferences. The information that you provide us may be used to identify compatibility in our product tests. If you qualify for product testing, you may be asked to provide additional information, such as your opinions on the product and your IP address, which may be stored in our records. Your system specifications (such as OS, RAM, video card, monitor, system configuration, crash data, etc.) may be reviewed/recorded by us for the purposes of analyzing and optimizing your game experience and in order to provide you with customer service. Based on the product and/or Service, ZeniMax may collect additional information as described above (such as internal testing, profiling, and/or demographic evaluation or through anti-cheat and fraud prevention technologies) to permit ZeniMax to evaluate your gaming experience. If you do not want this information to be collected, do not sign up to be a beta or product tester.
- Business Capacity
ZeniMax utilizes a third-party applicant tracking system to receive candidate applications interested in employment. Personal information collected from resumes will be used for the purpose of accepting and evaluating candidate submissions for job postings and may therefore be shared within ZeniMax and its affiliates.
Unless noted otherwise, we may also use any of the information we collect about you for our marketing, demographic research and analytical purposes, so we can constantly improve the products and Services we provide you.
No matter what method we use to collect information and no matter how we use that information, we will only collect the information deemed reasonably necessary by us to respond to your online requests, offer our products and Services and fulfill our legitimate business objectives.
What happens if I refuse to provide my personal information to ZeniMax?
You can always choose not to submit personal information to us. However, if you choose not to submit personal information when requested, you may not be able to participate in certain activities or access certain products or Services on our Sites and may considerably limit the Services we can provide you. For example, if you refuse to provide your email address when registering, you will not be able to use our message boards.
Does ZeniMax or third parties use cookies, track IP addresses or use other passive means to collect information?
Tracking Technologies
Cookies
ZeniMax and its third party service providers may use cookies to improve the use of our Sites. A "cookie" is a small file or record-keeping device that websites often store on a user's computer. Storage of cookies on your system provides an easy and convenient method for us to personalize your experience on our websites. For example, cookies allow you to log in, allow us to remember your screen name, tell us that you have visited our website before, and may contain information that will make your next visit to our website more enjoyable and for these reason our cookies may be tied to personally identifiable information we have collected about you such as your email address. You can always disable or delete cookies or set your browser to alert you when cookies are being sent to your computer.
We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. We use session cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our website. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. We use persistent cookies to track aggregate information about user's activities in our games and on our Sites. For information about how to control cookies, consult the "Help" portion of your internet browser or visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
Third Party Cookies
The use of cookies by our tracking utility company is not covered by our privacy policy. We do not have access or control over these cookies.
Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
We also have third party advertising partners that employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage content on our Sites by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on webpages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence and cannot be disabled through your browser's hard drive. Some of the information gathered by clear gifs (such as email address) may be tied to your personally identifiable information to obtain general website traffic information and evaluate user functions for marketing purposes.
We also use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. You may opt-out of future communications by following the unsubscribe instructions included in the promotional email.
Flash LSOs
We use local shared objects (LSOs), also known as Flash cookies, to store your preferences such as volume control or high game score, and to display content based upon what you view on our website to personalize your visit. Third Parties, with whom we partner to provide certain features on our website or to display advertising based upon your website browsing activity, use Flash cookies to collect and store information. Our Privacy Policy does not apply to their collection and use of your information.
Flash cookies are different from browser cookies because of the amount of, type of, and how data is stored. Cookie management tools provided by your browser will not remove Flash cookies. To learn how to manage privacy and storage settings for Flash cookies click here:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html#117118
IP Addresses
ZeniMax may also collect your IP address for safety and security purposes. ZeniMax may also use your IP Address in order to learn more about your interests and how you browse our Sites in order to offer you content that interests you. An IP address is a number that is used by computers on the network to identify your computer every time you log on to the Internet.
Log Files
Other non-personal information collected by ZeniMax is in the form of logs - files that record website activity, including how many "hits" a particular webpage is getting (a.k.a., "click-through data"). For example, log file entries are generated every time a visitor clicks the "Online Shop" icon on our website. These entries enable ZeniMax to assess overall Site activity, track interest in advertised sales, track interest in purchase behavior, and troubleshoot technical concerns.
Through the use of log files, we may also collect certain demographic information such as the type of browser you are using (e.g., Firefox, Internet Explorer), the type of operating system you are using (e.g., Windows 7 or Mac OS), and the domain name of your Internet service provider (e.g., America Online, Earthlink).
Advertising
We partner with a third party ad network to either display advertising on our website or to manage our advertising on other websites. Our ad network partner uses cookies and web beacons to collect non-personally identifiable information about your activities on this and other websites to provide you targeted advertising based upon your interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may opt-out by clicking here. Please note this does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads.
Third Party Advertising
On some of our Sites, we may allow third-parties to serve ads. When you view or click on an ad a cookie will be set to help better provide advertisements that may be of interest to you on this and other websites. You may opt-out of the use of this cookie by visiting that company’s privacy page.
Who is collecting my personal information?
ZeniMax Media Inc. is the data controller of the personal data processed in connection with our Sites and is used in the manner specified above.
With whom does ZeniMax share my personal information?
ZeniMax may employ and share your personal information with entities that use it solely to provide support for the internal operations of our Site(s), games or Services (e.g., message board operation, and technical support processing). Our contracts with these service providers do not permit use of your information for their own marketing purposes.
ZeniMax may also share your personal information with our subsidiary or affiliate companies for purposes of internal marketing, analytics, research and demographic studies, which help us improve and tailor the products and Services we provide you, and, if you have consented, to notify you about other products and Services offered by ZeniMax and its affiliates.
Other than as explained in this policy, we may disclose personal information in the good faith belief that we are required to do so by law, or that doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with legal processes; when we deem it necessary or appropriate to disclose personal information to law enforcement authorities, such as to investigate actual or suspected fraud or violations of law, breaches of security, or breaches of this Privacy Policy; to respond to any claims; or, to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of ZeniMax, our customers, or the public.
In addition, information about our customers, including personal information, may be disclosed as part of any merger, sale, transfer of ZeniMax assets, acquisition, bankruptcy, or similar event.
Public Information Including User Generated Content, Online Forums, Blogs and Profiles.
You may choose to disclose information about yourself in the course of contributing user generated content to ZeniMax Sites or games, or in online chat rooms, blogs, message boards, user “profiles” for public view or in similar forums on ZeniMax Sites. Information that you disclose in any of these forums is unencrypted public information, may be accessed or recorded by ZeniMax employees or users, or members of the public. You should have no expectation of privacy or confidentiality in any information you post in our forums or games, or your profile, or that you otherwise make available on our or through our Sites and Services.
You should be aware that any personally identifiable information that you submit in the course of these public activities can be read, collected, or used by other users of these Services, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to make public in any of these forums.
What is ZeniMax's policy regarding links to third party websites?
Our websites may contain links to third party sites that are not owned or controlled by ZeniMax. We are not responsible for the collection and use of your information by these third party sites. Because we cannot guarantee that the privacy policies of these websites meet our high standards and the requirements of TRUSTe, we recommend that you read the privacy policy of the website to which you link before you submit any personal information.
Can I choose how my personal information is used?
If you prefer not to receive marketing information from our Sites, email notices from our message board operators, or any other communication from ZeniMax, please do not "opt-in" when you register or at the time you submit your information. If you've already opted-in, but you wish to stop any further communications, just let us know by sending an email to: privacy04@zenimax.com or follow the unsubscribe instructions included in each promotional email.
Service-related Announcements
We will send you strictly Service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our Service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an email. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to deactivate your account.
Your California Privacy Rights
If you are a California resident, you may request a list of the third parties to which we have disclosed personally identifiable information about you for their own direct marketing purposes. You may make one request per calendar year. In your request, please attest to the fact that you are a California resident and provide a current California address for your response. You may request this information in writing by contacting us at via email at privacy04@zenimax.com, by phone at (301) 963-2000, or by regular mail at: Privacy Coordinator, ZeniMax Media Inc., 1370 Piccard Drive, Suite 120, Rockville, MD 20850 USA. Please allow up to thirty (30) days for a response.
How can I access my personal information?
If you have registered for a game-specific bulletin board on our website and wish to update your profile, you may do so online by visiting the "profile" section found at each game forum on our websites. You may be required to submit your login name and password before you can access your profile information.
If you wish to review, update, or delete any other personal information that we may have collected about you, please send an email to our Privacy Coordinator by email at privacy04@zenimax.com, or by regular mail at ZeniMax Media Inc., 1370 Piccard Drive, Suite 120, Rockville, MD 20850 USA. We will respond to all access requests within 30 days.
Does ZeniMax collect personal information from children under 13?
ZeniMax does not knowingly request or collect personal information such as name, address, or email address from children younger than 13 years of age. To determine who is under 13 years old, we ask all users who wish to register online for a particular Service (e.g., product, forum, or technical support registration) to submit their date of birth. Those visitors that indicate that they are under 13 are not allowed to register online.
We recognize the importance of safeguarding the privacy of children and encourage parents to check and monitor their children's use of online activities regularly.
What safeguards does ZeniMax use to protect my personal information?
While ZeniMax takes reasonable precautions against possible breaches of our Sites and customer databases, no website or Internet transmission is completely secure. Consequently, ZeniMax cannot and does not guarantee that unauthorized access, hacking, data loss, or other breaches will never occur. ZeniMax urges you to take steps to keep your personal information safe by memorizing your password or keeping it in a safe place (separate from your account information, logging out of your user account, and closing your web browser).
ZeniMax maintains safeguards to protect the security, integrity and privacy of the personal information we collect. Personal information collected by ZeniMax is stored in secure operating environments that are not available to the public and is only accessible by authorized employees. In addition, we utilize third-party websites to sell our products and they use industry-standard encryption to prevent unauthorized electronic access to sensitive financial information such as your credit card number.
We also have security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control (i.e., maintain data quality). Before we allow website users to access their personal information, for example, we verify their identity by prompting them to submit information such as their login name and password.
We will retain your information for as long as permitted for legitimate business purposes. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you Services contact us at privacy04@zenimax.com. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
How do I ask a question or file a complaint?
If you have any questions, complaints or comments regarding our Privacy Policy or practices, please contact us via email at privacy04@zenimax.com, by phone at (301) 963-2000, or by regular mail at:
Privacy Coordinator
ZeniMax Media Inc.
1370 Piccard Drive, Suite 120
Rockville, MD 20850
USA
You may also contact TRUSTe here
By using this website, you signify your assent to the ZeniMax Online Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use this website. We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy. If we make a material change to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting the change on this website or in this Privacy Policy and, if necessary, give you additional choices regarding such change prior to the material change becoming effective. All non-material changes to the Privacy Policy will be effective when posted. Please check back from time to time to ensure that you are aware of these changes. Your continued use of this website will signify your acceptance of, and agreement to be bound by, these changes.
Updated 02/22/2013
