The Upset Sports LLC Privacy Policy
Privacy is important. We believe that the ad-based model of online sports writing (and other commerce) has led us down some interesting paths, not all of them good. By operating a subscription-based site, we are able to scale back a bit on that. While other sites are looking for more demographic information to be able to more effectively sell ads, we just want to make sure the site is clean, easy-to-read, and provides coverage of your local sports teams that is always just a little better than you expect.
But there are a few things that fall under the umbrella of “Privacy” that simply help us make that goal more attainable. One prime example is: it’s hard to charge your credit card if we don’t ever see your credit card number. So, with no further adieu, here is our privacy policy. Thanks to the one extremely libertarian person reading this. This is for you, Ron Swanson disciple. Here’s how we are using your Personally Identifiable Information.
What is Personally Identifiable Information?
Here’s how it is used in US Privacy law: information that can be used on its own, or with other information, to identify, contact, or locate an individual. What follows is our privacy policy, explaining how we collect, use, protect, or otherwise interact with your Personally Identifiable Information in accordance with our site.
What Personally Identifiable Information do we collect from people who visit our site?
When you register, subscribe, pay for a single a la carte article, sign up for the e-mail list, or order a gift subscription for someone else, you may be asked to enter your name, e-mail address, and credit card information. Obviously, if you are only signing up for the e-mail list, you will not be asked for your credit card information.
When do we collect information?
We collect information from you when you register or subscribe on our site, place an order or enter information on our site. We reserve the right to ask questions via optional survey in the future. In the event that we send any survey, we will collect the information that you enter (your answers). If we did not, that would be a pretty lousy survey, asking readers to fling their answers into the never-read void so that we could carry on making whatever changes we were going to make anyway. Enjoy your 280 characters, am I right?
How do we use your information?
The information we collect from you as described above, may be used in a number of ways. In the case of feedback, it may be used to inform our team as we make changes to the site, so that we can cater to the preferences of our readers. In more mundane operations, when you register your e-mail address, name, and credit card information, we may use that information as needed to allow you to register, process your transactions, or sign up for our e-mail list. Additionally, we will use that information to allow you to read the site to which you just subscribed. We also plan to send out weekly e-mails outlining the top stories of the week on The Upset. You can turn that off if you like.
How will we protect your information?
Your personal information is confidential, and will not be shared with or sold to any advertisers or third parties. It is protected behind secured networks, and only accessible by our small team of trusted and loyal web developers, all of whom are required to keep that information confidential. All of your credit card information is encrypted via SSL technology (SSL, by the way, stands for Secure Socket Layer. Did you know that?). We don’t even keep your credit card information on our servers; that is all processed through a gateway provider (Stripe, Paypal, etc.)
What about cookies?
We do use them. Just about everyone does. If this is the first time you’re hearing the phrase, Grandma, how did you get here? Double-click on this link, Grandma, your photos and Candy Crush are all still there.
Okay, sorry, the lawyers are telling me I have to do this. This is the internet equivalent of telling you how to put on your airplane seatbelt, so please at least pretend to turn off your music and listen. *holds up yellow life vest*
A ‘cookie” is a file that a website (perhaps a particularly handsome sports website, for this example) sends to your device’s hard drive, assuming you give it permission, because consent is essential. Those files allow the website’s system to remember you when you return. It’s like a cat rubbing its face on your leg so when you come back in, it recognizes the scent. Kind of. How it works for us is that when you log in so you can read the stories behind the paywall, you stay logged in the next time you come back. It would be super annoying to have to log in every time, right? And hey, If not, you can disable cookies through your browser (Chrome, Safari, etc.) settings.
Incidentally, if you should choose to disable cookies on our site, you can still subscribe or send a subscription as a gift. But every time you close the window and come back, our servers will be like “New site, who dis?”
Lastly, it’s also possible that we could use cookies to compile some data about how users are using the site just so we can continue to make the experience something that appeals to all of you. (“Oh weird, we discontinued the lacrosse section. Turns out we had negative-five lacrosse readers per month”).
Third Party Disclosure
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. Furthermore, we do not allow third-party behavioral tracking. That’s creepy and super weird.
Third party links
We do not include or offer third party products or services on our website, but sometimes we may post a link to an article or story on a website that isn’t The Upset. In the event that you click on that link, you are out of our domain (literally) and subject to the privacy policy of that website.
We will adhere to Google’s advertising requirements, since we might take out an ad at some point to get more people to come to our site. (You can see those here). As for AdSense, we have not installed it on the site, as it would be pretty crappy to say “No Ads.” and then put a bunch of ads. Perhaps we could get away with it, just say one thing and then do another. We’ve seen that tactic succeed on perhaps the biggest stage possible in recent years, haven’t we?
Nah, we’re better than that.
Updates to this Privacy Policy
If we should change this privacy policy, it will be updated here immediately. If it’s something we consider to be a major change (for instance, if our business model isn’t as airtight as we thought and we have to start advertising), we’ll send an e-mail outlining the changes. If for whatever reason, you see something you don’t like, you can always cancel your subscription.
Miscellaneous
– Our site is pretty family-friendly, and your kid might be a big sports fan. Nevertheless, we don’t specifically market to children under 13. Why? Because of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
– Should a data breach occur, we will notify all users via e-mail within seven (7) business days of discovery
– All of our e-mail is through MailChimp, who are fantastic at keeping us in check when it comes to e-mail. They know what’s legal, what’s not, and have a great system to keep us legal. This isn’t an ad (that would be really hilarious, now that we think about it), we’re just letting you know that if there’s a problem with e-mail, we (and they) will be quick to respond and fix it.
If you have any questions about anything in (or missing from) this policy, please feel free to contact us at support@theupsetsports.com