Privacy Policy

PRIVACY POLICY

 

Spanfeller Media Group, Inc. (SMG) respects your privacy and the security of your personal data.  This Privacy Policy explains how we treat and safeguard personal information.  Please read this Privacy Policy carefully prior to your access to and/or use of www.TheDailyMeal.com (the "Website").  If you do not agree with the terms of the Privacy Policy, please do not use our Website.

By using this Website, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use.  This Privacy Policy is subject to the Terms of Use, which includes all disclaimers of warranties and limitation of liabilities. All capitalized terms not defined in this Privacy Policy have the meaning set forth in the Terms of Use.

 

Collected Information

SMG does not collect personally identifying information about any individual Website user except when knowingly provided by such individual.  For example, we may ask you for information, such as your name, e-mail address, or other personal details when you register to become a member of the Website.  You may also provide information to the Website in order to enter into a sweepstakes or promotion. We also at time might supplement the data you provide to us with data from data append services. You always have the option not to provide the information we request.  If you choose not to provide such information, you can still visit the Website, but you may be unable to access certain parts of the Website.

 

Registration Information

Registration for The Daily Meal (TDM) may require that you supply certain personal information, including a unique e-mail address to register.

You may register or enhance your profile by linking your Facebook, Twitter, or Google accounts on TheDailyMeal.com. By doing this, you are asking them to send us certain information from those social media accounts, and you are authorizing us to collect, store, and use what they send us in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You can unlink your social media accounts or control what they share from their privacy controls.

Social media registration features may collect your IP address, the page you are visiting on our site, 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 web site.

You can disassociate your TDM registration from third-party accounts at any time when you edit your user profile.

 

User Generated Content and Public Activities (Including Comments, Reviews, and Articles)

We offer you opportunities to engage in public activities on TDM. "Public activities" are any actions you take on TheDailyMeal.com that are designed to be visible to other users, including comments, recommendations, restaurant and bar reviews, contributed articles, ratings or any other items that you submit. Any information you disclose in your public activities, along with your screen name or ID, or any image or photo, becomes public and may be used by TDM for online and offline promotional or commercial uses in any and all media. If you choose to engage in public activities, you should be aware that any personal information you submit can be read, collected and used by other users of these areas. We are not responsible for the personal information you choose to submit in the course of your public activities and we have no responsibility to publish, take down, remove or edit any of your public activities or submissions.

Public activities may be included in our RSS feeds, APIs and other distribution formats. As a result, your public activities may appear on other websites, blogs, or feeds. Keep in mind that we are not responsible for any personal information you choose to make public via your public activities, and you agree that such sharing will be deemed to have been done by you, not SMG. Please see our Terms of Use for additional information.

When you share or recommend links to content on a third-party platform (such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter), that action and any information you share will be covered by their privacy policy.

 

Data Analytics

Cookies

"Cookies" are alphanumeric identifiers in the form of text files that are inserted and stored by your web browser on your computer's hard drive.  SMG uses cookies to track web and advertising analytics throughout the Website and to store preferential information about you.  The data read from these cookies may be linked to personally identifying and non-personally identifying information. 

You may reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to allow your browser to alert you when a cookie is set.  However, if you select these settings you may be unable to access certain parts of the Website.

 

Web Beacons

Web Beacons, also known as pixel tags and clear GIFs ("Web Beacons"), are electronic images that allow a website to access cookies and help track marketing campaigns and general usage patterns of visitors to those websites. Web Beacons can recognize certain types of information, such as cookie numbers, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page where the Web Beacons are placed.  We use Web Beacons in order to recognize users, assess traffic patterns, identify preferred content and measure site interaction.  

We also use a reputable third party to collect information, including through the use of web beacons, browser cookies and other tracking technologies. We may collect via web beacons various data provided by your browser while you are on our site and elsewhere where we may be acting as a 3rd party. This data is collected in the aggregate, but may include or be associated with other non-PII or PII that users have voluntarily submitted.

 

Log Files

The Website and ad servers log information about a site user's IP address, browser type and the current URL the user is requesting. This information is always provided by each and every user's browser. These log files are stored in a secure location and used –in an aggregated, anonymous manner–in our internal analysis of traffic patterns within our Website. This information is automatically logged by most websites. 

 

Use of Information

We collect user information to enhance your experience on our Website.  We use aggregated (gathered up data across all user accounts) information to develop content targeted to users' interests and to better the Website user experience. 

We use data analytics collected by the systems described above to develop and provide content and advertising that is targeted to your interests.  Such technology is used to determine which areas of our Website you prefer based upon the frequency of your visits and engagement with those areas. We may make assumptions based on your browser provided data to target relevant content and advertising to you.  We may also make geographic and demographic assumptions based on your presented IP address to target relevant content and advertising.

To enhance your experience we may provide you with interactive communications or e-mails to the e-mail address that you provide to us.  Such communications are provided only to users who have expressly provided us with their permission to receive them as part of their user profile.

In certain instances we may also share your personally identifiable information with our third-party vendors performing functions on our behalf (or on behalf of our affiliated companies) – e.g., vendors that process credit card orders, deliver our merchandise, administer our promotions, provide us marketing or promotional assistance, analyze our data, assist us with customer service, etc. Our vendors agree to use this information, and we share information with them, only to carry out our requests. In addition, we may share your personally identifiable information with participating sponsors to a program or promotion (e.g., a sweepstakes or contest) you enter via our Website, and with third parties who assist us in using the content or other information you have posted or shared with us via our Website (e.g., production companies we may use). Further, we may share your personally identifiable information with third parties such as our co-promotional partners and others with whom we have marketing or other relationships. Except as provided in this Privacy Policy, our Terms of Use, or as set forth when you submit the information, your personally identifiable information will not be shared or sold to third parties without your consent.

Registered users may change the information stored in their member profile may elect to stop receiving marketing material from SMG or on behalf of external third party business partners. Users may choose to stop receiving such communications at any time by visiting the "Member Profile" page, or by following instructions at the end of any such e-mail received.

You may also request to delete your personal account if you wish to do so. Please email us at the contact information included below. We will respond to your request within 30 business days.

 

Sharing of Information

When you are on an area of TheDailyMeal.com and are asked for personal information, you are sharing that information with TheDailyMeal.com as well as business partners and vendors providing hosting and other services for TheDailyMeal.com.

We use third parties to provide credit card processing, e-mail service providers and hosting services on our site. When you sign up for such services, we will share your personally identifiable information as necessary for the third party to provide that service. These third parties are prohibited from using your personally identifiable information for any other purpose. If you do not want your information to be shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer of your information by not using that particular service.

In addition, if you provide any personally identifiable information via an advertiser promotion, please be aware you are directly providing your personally identifiable information to that advertiser.

From time-to-time we may provide you the opportunity to participate in contests or surveys on our site. If you participate, we will request certain personally identifiable information from you, such as your name and e-mail. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose this information. We use this personally identifiable information to notify contest winners and award prizes.

We may use a third party service provider to conduct these surveys or contests; that SMG will be prohibited from using our users' personally identifiable information for any other purpose. We will not share the personally identifiable information you provide through a contest or survey with other third parties unless we give you prior notice and choice.

We also have features that allow you to send an e-mail to yourself and/or others about an item on our site. If you choose to use our e-mail referral service, you will be required to provide the e-mail address or addresses that will be used in the notification. Upon form submission an e-mail will be generated to your recipient(s) inviting them to visit the URL you have recommended. We do not store this information other than for the sole purpose of sending this one-time e-mail.

 

Information Provided to Advertisers

SMG derives the majority of its revenue from advertising and sharing information is essential to keeping our services affordable to users. In order to attract and retain advertisers we use the aggregated, anonymous information that we gather (as well as information from third-party market researchers) to describe our services to partners and to assist our advertisers and sponsors to better understand our audience.  

We only share personally identifiable user information with advertisers when users have expressly provided us with their permission to receive third party offers as part of their user profile.

 

As Necessary to Provide Services to You

We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as handling the processing and delivery of newsletter mailings, processing transactions, or performing statistical analysis of our services. We will only provide those companies the information they need to deliver the service. In some instances these companies may collect information directly from you (such as for credit card processing for the purchase of [premium content] newsletters). In these cases, you will be notified of the involvement of the external service provider. In all cases, these companies are subject to agreements that require them to maintain the confidentiality of your information and they are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

 

Security

SMG uses commercially accepted security measures to protect any personal information provided by you to this Website.  Unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  As a result, while we strive to protect your submitted information, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to our Website, and you do so at your own risk.  We will not be responsible for any damages directly or indirectly caused by an unauthorized third party's ability to view, use or disseminate personal information.

 

SMG urges you to keep your password in a safe place and not to divulge it to anyone.  Remember to log off your account and close your browser window when you have finished your visit to our Website. This is to ensure that others cannot access your account, especially if you are sharing a computer with someone else.

 

Link to Third Party Websites

The Website is linked to third party websites which are not maintained by the SMG.  Such third party websites are not under SMG's control and SMG is not responsible or liable for and does not warrant the contents of, technology implemented by, or privacy practices of any such linked website.  You should review the privacy policy and terms of use for each of these websites to make sure they are acceptable to you prior to your use.

 

WHAT IS OUR EMAIL POLICY?

 

SMG complies with the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. We will not send you marketing messages if you have opted out. You can choose not to receive messages in the future by either (1) following the "unsubscribe" instructions located near the bottom of each email, or (2) you can opt-out by clicking on "NEWSLETTERS & ALERTS" from your user profile page. We will not share, sell, rent, swap or authorize any third party to use your email address for commercial purposes without your permission. If you feel you have received an email from us in error, please contact info@thedailymeal.com.

 

Email Newsletters. TDM offers several email newsletters. If you no longer wish to receive a specific newsletter, follow the "unsubscribe" instructions located near the bottom of each newsletter. To manage your newsletter preferences, please click on "NEWSLETTERS & ALERTS" from your user profile page.

 

Survey Email. We may invite you to participate in user surveys asking for feedback on TDM and existing or prospective products and services, as well as information to better understand our users. User surveys greatly help us to improve the TDM Services, and any information we obtain in such surveys will not be shared with third parties, except in aggregate form.

 

Emails From You. If you send us an email, we will use your email address to respond directly to your questions or comments.

 

Email This Article Feature. Addresses you provide in the "Email" share feature may be saved for your convenience for future articles you may wish to email; but they are not used for any other purpose, and will not be shared with any third parties.

 

Enforcement of Law

We will disclose personally identifiable information upon receipt of a court order or subpoena or to cooperate with a law enforcement investigation. We fully cooperate with law enforcement agencies in identifying those who use our services for illegal activities. We reserve the right to report to law enforcement agencies any activities that we, in good faith, believe to be unlawful.

 

In the Event of Merger, Sale or Bankruptcy

In the event that the SMG is acquired by or merged with a third party entity, we reserve the right, in any of these circumstances, to transfer or assign the information we have collected from our users as part of such merger, acquisition, sale, or other change of control. In the unlikely event of our bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, receivership, or assignment for the benefit of creditors, or the application of laws or equitable principles affecting creditors' rights generally, we may not be able to control how your personal information is treated, transferred, or used.

 

Children's Guidelines

COPPA Compliance. SMG does not knowingly collect or store any personal information about children under the age of 13.

 

Changes to this Privacy Policy

SMG reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to update, amend and/or change this Privacy Policy without prior notice and at any time. Updates to this Privacy Policy will be posted here. You are encouraged to visit this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to review any changes that have been made. Your continued use of the Website following the posting of any such changes will automatically be deemed to constitute your acceptance of all changes. SMG's last update to this Privacy Policy was made and posted on August 13, 2015.

 

Questions or Concerns

If you have questions, comments, concerns or feedback regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us via any of the methods set forth below:

 

Spanfeller Media Group, Inc.

156 Fifth Avenue, 4th Floor

New York, NY 10010

Office: (646) 459-0604

E-mail: info@spanfellergroup.com