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Revised April 30, 2012
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 online.
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 websites that link to the 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.
ZeniMax is a participant in the U.S. - E.U. and the U.S. - Switzerland Safe Harbor frameworks developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Union and 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, please visit http://export.gov/safeharbor/eu/eg_main_018475.asp 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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What is a company'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 site, ZeniMax may collect
information about you, but only if you voluntarily provide it to us.
Typically, we may ask a user to submit personal and/or demographic information,
and it will usually take the form of either:
(1) product and warranty registration;
(2) community forum registration, including Tell-A-Friend services;
(3) contests, sweepstakes, promotions and/or event registration,
(4) technical support;
(5) the purchase of a product or service at our digital marketplace;
(6) beta testing and/or other product participation and evaluation;
and/or (7) personal information submitted in a business capacity (e.g., resumes submitted to through our recruiting service provider's page).
We also implement on certain websites social media features, including Facebook and other OpenID providers. he types of information that may be requested for each activity and the way the information may be used are detailed below. In the event that demographic information is requested on the same page as personal information, the demographic and personal information may be combined.
- Product and Warranty Registration
To register on our website, we may ask you to provide personal information such as your name, email address, home address, and telephone number. We may also collect demographic information including your age, information about the product you purchased, the type of console or PC hardware you own, and the types of games you enjoy playing. The information that you submit during registration may entitle you to limited warranty protection and technical support set forth in connection with your purchased product. We may also use your registration information to notify you about updates to our products and services.
- Forum Registration
To register for membership 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 and to allow the moderators and administrators of the message boards to contact you.
The ability to participate in the community forums by simply logging in is available to only those Web users that have already created a password during an earlier visit to the community registration area of our website. To login as a member, we may ask you to submit your username and password. This information is collected so that you can access and participate in the community forums without having to reregister.
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 message boards. 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 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, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.
- Contests, Sweepstakes, and Promotions
From time to time, we may run contests, sweepstakes or other events or activities (collectively, "events") on our websites. 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 websites). 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.
- Technical Support
To submit a question or problem to our technical support team regarding any problems you are encountering with a particular product, 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 troubleshooting problem in a timely and accurate fashion.
- Digital Marketplace
Visitors purchasing goods and services will need to provide a valid credit card number and expiration date, in addition to name, mailing and billing addresses, phone number, and e-mail address. This information will be used to fulfill your purchase requests and may be used to assist you with questions you may have about an order.
In order to provide you with added protection, ZeniMax employs a security technology known as a secure-socket-layer ("SSL") to protect the transmission of payment information to the website. Unless otherwise specified herein or on the website where you make a purchase, credit card numbers are used only for payment processing and are not retained for marketing purposes.
- 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 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 non-personally identifiable 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.
- 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.
- Social Media (Features) and Widgets:
Our website 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.
- Facebook Connect or other OpenID provider
You can log in to our website using sign-in services such as Facebook Connect or 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. Services like Facebook Connect give you the option to post information about your activities on this website to your profile page to share with others within your network.
Unless noted otherwise, we may also use your personal and/or demographic information for our internal marketing and demographic studies, so we can constantly improve the products and services we provide you and to better meet your needs.
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 to fulfill your online requests and 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 on our website 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. To simply use our website, however, you do not need to give us any personal information.
Does ZeniMax or third parties use cookies, track IP addresses or use other passive means to collect information?
Tracking Technologies
Cookies
ZeniMax may use cookies to improve the use of our websites. 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 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 such as your email address. In addition, ZeniMax will not use cookies to retrieve information from your computer that was not originally sent in a cookie. You can always disable 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. You can remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browser's "help" file.
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 website 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. 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 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, also known as Flash cookies, to store your preferences such as volume control or high game score, or 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.
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. 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 website 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 website. 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 (link to TRUSTe opt-out: http://preferences.truste.com/ ). 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 website, we may integrate third-parties that publish ads on that website. 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?
Any personal information that you disclose while visiting any of our websites is collected by ZeniMax or its vendors, and is used in the manner specified above.
With whom does ZeniMax share my personal information?
From time to time, ZeniMax may employ and share your personal information with entities that use it solely to provide support for the internal operations of our website(s) (e.g., fulfillment of contests or online purchases, 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 and demographic studies, which help us improve and tailor the products and services we provide you.
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; 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.
What is ZeniMax's policy regarding links to third party websites?
You should be aware that while you are on a website operated by ZeniMax, you may be directed to other websites that are beyond our control and for which we are not responsible. Because we cannot guarantee that the privacy policies of these websites meet our high standards and the requirements of the 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 websites, 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.
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
Since 2005, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits our customers who are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. For inquires regarding our disclosure policy, 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.
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 websites 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 Statement 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 can 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. All 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 04/30/2012
