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Privacy Policy Last Updated: September 20, 2006 INTRODUCTION [Special Note to California Customers] VIZ Media, LLC (“VIZ Media”) is committed
to providing a fun, safe and secure website for people
of all ages. We are dedicated to safeguarding all personally
identifiable information collected online in accordance
with this Policy and to helping our visitors learn
how to exercise control over personally identifiable
information while exploring the Internet. Because many
visitors to this site are children, we take care that
children access only the content that is appropriate
for them. In addition, we employ special measures to
help children protect their privacy while online. Our
practices with respect to the personally identifiable
information of children are explained in Section VI
below. To help ensure a rewarding online experience for all
visitors, we provide this summary of the information
practices of VIZ Media. This privacy notice governs
the collection and use of information at all web sites
owned and controlled by VIZ Media including, without
limitation: www.viz.com (collectively the “Sites”). As we continue to offer our visitors new and different types of content and services, we may modify our practices from time to time. I. The Information We Collect At Our Sites, we do not collect personally identifiable
information unless our visitors voluntarily provide
it to us. For some activities, such as completing online
polls or surveys, we may ask visitors to provide information
such as first and/or last name, city or state of residence,
age, gender, or a favorite title or character. For
some other activities, such as entering sweepstakes
or contests, participating in forums, sign-ups, chats
or bulletin boards or subscribing to our magazines,
web sites or e-mail newsletters or requesting us to
make products, services or information available to
you, we may ask visitors to provide a first and/or
last name and e-mail address. For other activities,
such as sending an electronic postcard, e-mail to a
friend, or refer a friend, we may also ask for personally
identifiable information about other people. This is
usually limited to a first name and e-mail address.
E-mail addresses collected to send an electronic postcard
or e-mail to a friend are used only for the purpose
of transmitting the requested postcard or e-mail. For
some limited activities, campaigns, or offers, intended
for parents and adults, we may ask a parent or adult
to provide their name, address, e-mail address, telephone
number, fax number, credit card information, cable
or satellite provider, and/or information about their
interests in and use of various products, programs,
and services. Visitors who order merchandise or other materials
from one of our store websites (e.g., store.viz.com,
narutostore.viz.com) will be directed prior to purchase
to the web site of our outside e-commerce partner,
where they will be required to provide their full name,
billing and mailing addresses, e-mail address, telephone
number and a credit card number. If the order is being
shipped to a third party, we will also need the recipient's
name and mailing address may be collected by us and/or
our third party e-commerce partner. On
occasion, we might solicit additional voluntary information
regarding shoppers' personal shopping preferences. (Please
see discussion below about Third party sites). For specific one-time requests we receive from visitors,
e-mail addresses are collected and used only in connection
with the specific one-time request. For example,
for sweepstakes and contests, e-mail addresses are
collected for the purpose of entering online sweepstakes
or contests and are used to notify winners of the sweepstakes
or contest by e-mail. In addition, a contest or sweepstakes
participant or visitor to Our Sites may be asked to
provide personally identifiable information in connection
with any subscriptions, sign-ups or items purchased
through Our Sites. Sweepstakes or contest winners
may be required to return completed prize Affidavit
of Eligibility, Liability Release and/or similar
forms by facsimile or U.S. mail within a designated
time period (along with the signature of a parent or
legal guardian for all minors). When visitors come to our Sites, we automatically collect some non-personally identifiable information such as the type of computer operating system (e.g., Windows 2000 or Mac OS) and browser (e.g., Netscape, Internet Explorer) being used, and the domain name of the Internet service provider (e.g., America Online, Earthlink). II. How We Use the Information We generally use visitors' personally identifiable information for the purposes for which it was provided, such as enabling visitors to enter our online contests or sweepstakes or to subscribe to an online newsletter or to order from our e-commerce sites. VIZ Media may also use personally identifiable information provided by vistors at our sites or by shoppers at or through related e-commerce sites to send them, by e-mail or direct mail, notification of special offers, sale events, or birthday reminders. We may disclose personally identifiable information of parents or adults to selected third-party companies that want to contact you in connection with other initiatives or marketing products or services that we believe may be of interest to you. This policy does not cover the privacy practices of these companies or other third parties. California
Customers: When visitors submit personally-identifiable information
about other individuals through our Site, we use that
information [only] for the purpose for which it was
provided, such as sending them electronic postcards
or e-mail or shipping gifts purchased on or through
our e-commerce sites. Other than such information relating to the Winners,
we do not keep any personally identifiable information
we obtain through a contest or sweepstakes after we
have successfully selected a winner(s), awarded the
prize(s), and administered the contest or sweepstakes.
We only use the e-mail addresses of subscribers to
e-mail newsletters to send them the requested newsletter(s).
Each newsletter also includes instructions for subscription
removal via return e-mail. Sometimes, we use agents, licensees or contractors
to provide services to our visitors, such as helping
us conduct a sweepstakes, sending prizes to winners,
shipping or handling customer orders made on or through
our e-commerce sites. In these cases, we require the
agent, licensee or contractor to keep the information
confidential and to use it only for the specific services
they are performing. We sometimes use non-personally
identifiable information that we collect to improve
the design and content of Our Sites, and to improve
our visitors' experience on Our Sites. We also may
aggregate this information for marketing analysis,
surveys, service evaluation, planning and/or to analyze
site usage, as well as to offer products, programs,
or services. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in
cases where surveys allow users to submit written comments,
and where we advise users or the possibility of such
disclosure at the time they take the survey, we reserve
the right to disclose text information provided by
any user through such survey, provided that no personally
identifiable information for that user is disclosed. We may also disclose personally identifiable information
in response to legal process, 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, or where we believe it is necessary to investigate,
prevent, or take action regarding illegal or unauthorized
activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential
threats to the physical safety of any person, violations
of our terms of use, to verify or enforce compliance
with the policies governing Our Sites and applicable
laws, or as otherwise required or permitted by law.
In addition, we may transfer personally identifiable
information about you if we or one of our business
units acquire, or are acquired by, sold to, or merged
with another company. For example, we may use
your information to complete transactions requested
by you (such as your purchase of a product or service
offered on Our Sites), or to enforce our Terms of Use,
to send you administrative communications either about
your purchases, subscriptions and/or account(s) with
us or about features of Our Sites, including, without
limitation, any future changes to this Privacy Policy. We will not use or transfer personally identifiable information about children under 13 in ways that are materially different from the ones described above without also providing parental notification of such practices and obtaining consent for any materially different uses. III. Cookies, Web Beacons and Opt-Outs Our Sites use a software technology called cookies.
Cookies are small text files that we place in visitors'
computer browsers to store their preferences. Cookies
themselves do not contain any personally identifiable
information. Although cookies could enable us to relate
a visitor's use of this web site to personally identifiable
information that the visitor has provided, such as
an e-mail address, we do not use cookies for this purpose
with one exception: for some activities, we use session
cookies to ensure that visitors under the age of 13
provide a parental email address to assist with our
compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection
Act (COPPA). We do use cookies to determine how many
visitors we have and how often they visit various sections
of Our Sites. Web beacons are small pieces of code placed on a web
page to track or monitor the behavior and collect data
about the visitors viewing a web page. For example,
web beacons can be used to count the users who visit
a web page or to deliver a cookie to the browser of
a visitor viewing that page. We may use web beacons
on this site from time to time for this and other purposes. Users may receive site notifications, newsletters
or other information via email. Users may remove
themselves from such services at their discretion. Any
email sent to an opt-out list will include directions
for how a user may remove him or herself from the list
or a URL where the user may find such directions. In some cases, users may have the opportunity to use
Our Sites to send electronic mail to another user or
email list. In such cases, a user’s valid
email address and real name will be included with such
messages. In order to prevent abuse, users may
opt-out of such a display, but may choose to refrain
from using said Service to transmit an email message. In cases where users voluntarily and publicly disclose personally identifiable information on Our Sites, such personally identifiable information will be available to other visitors to Our Sites. An example of such a disclosure includes, but is not limited to, a user’s disclosure of personally identifiable information as part of a message posted to a public message forum. We cannot be responsible for personally-identifiable information that you choose to post or disclose on Our Sites, and encourage you to use discretion in sharing any information on Our Sites. IV. Collection of Information by Third-Party Sites, Sponsors and Ad Servers Our site contains links to other sites, including
those of sponsors, licensees, partners, vendors and
advertisers (collectively Third Party Sites), whose
information practices may be different from ours. Sometimes
these sites might conduct contests or sweepstakes that
are promoted by us or on Our Sites. VISITORS
SHOULD CONSULT THESE THIRD PARTY SITES' PRIVACY NOTICES
AND POLICIES, SINCE THESE SITES ARE NOT COVERED BY
OUR PRIVACY POLICY AND MAY FOLLOW DIFFERENT PROCEDURES. Additionally, we and Third Party Sites may use third parties to serve or to present the ads that appear on our site and to conduct research about the advertisements. These third party ad servers may use cookies, web beacons, clear .gifs or similar technologies to help present such advertisements, and to help measure and research the effectiveness of advertisements or other material. The use of these technologies by these third party ad servers is subject to their own privacy policies and is not covered by our privacy policy. V. Security We have put in place reasonably appropriate physical,
electronic, and managerial procedures in an effort
to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access,
maintain data security, and correctly use the information
we collect online. We are particularly sensitive to visitors' security
concerns regarding the use of credit cards to purchase
products over the Internet. For orders placed on or
through our e-commerce sites, a technology is used
that automatically encrypts credit card data while
information is being transmitted over the Internet,
provided that the visitor's browser supports the Secure
Socket Layer protocol (SSL). To verify the security of your connection, check the outside corners of your browser window or the page where personally identifiable information is provided for e-commerce (such as the check-out or shopping cart pages). If you see an unbroken or a closed lock, then SSL is active and the server is secured by SSL. You may also check by looking at the URL line of your browser. VI. Privacy Practices Concerning Information About Children If a child under thirteen seeks to participate in
an activity on Our Sites that requires the collection,
retention, and/or use of personally identifiable information,
the terms of Sections I-V of the Privacy Policy regarding
the categories of personally identifiable information,
how personally identifiable information may be used,
the types of third parties may receive data and the
purposes of that sharing, apply to this Section VI,
however, we will ask for a parent's e-mail address
prior to collecting such personally identifiable information
from the child. We will use the parent’s
e-mail address to request consent for the child’s
participation in that activity. The parent may
consent to the collection and use of the child’s
personally identifiable information without also consenting
the disclosure of that personal information to third
parties. We do not ask children to disclose more
personally identifiable information than is necessary
for them to participate in a particular activity, and
we take steps to prevent children from posting contact
information on Our Sites. The information described in this Section VI is collected
by VIZ Media, LLC, 295 Bay Street, San Francisco, CA
94133; (415) 546-7073 or privacypolicy@viz.com. As a parent, you have the right to access, modify,
or request the deletion of any of the personally-identifiable
information that any of Our Sites has collected from
your child. Please send a letter or postcard
to our VIZ Media Privacy Manager at the mailing address
provided below if you would like to do any of the following:
access personally identifiable information that any
of Our Sites has collected online from your child,
correct factual errors in such information, request
to have this information deleted, request that we cease
to share your child’s personal information with
third parties, or request that we no longer collect
or maintain such information. Please be sure
to include your e-mail address and a telephone number
where we can reach you. To protect your child's privacy
and security, we will take reasonable steps to verify
your identity before granting you access to the personally
identifiable information that we collect and maintain
about your child. The Internet offers a world of opportunity for children. As a parent, your guidance and involvement are essential to help ensure that children have a safe and rewarding online experience. Your efforts to instill responsible information practices will help steer your children to age-appropriate sites, and will go a long way toward ensuring that your children have enriching online experiences. VII. Contact Us If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding
our privacy policy and/or practices, please contact
us at the following e-mail address, mailing address
and telephone number: If email: privacypolicy@viz.com Mailing Address (Postcards only, please): VIII. Updates From time to time, we may update this privacy notice,
you can always tell the last date this privacy policy
was updated by checking the data at the top of the
privacy policy. We will notify you about material changes
in the way we treat personally identifiable information
by posting a revised policy on our Site. We encourage
you to periodically check back and review this policy
so that you always will know what information we collect,
how we use it, and to whom we disclose it. Our sites ©2006 VIZ Media, LLC: All Rights Reserved.
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