(Updated September 15, 2020)

Thank you for visiting the The WNET Group Privacy Policy. We believe that maintaining the highest standards of privacy is crucial to maintaining your trust in The WNET Group.

The WNET Group, the parent organization of THIRTEEN, WLIW and operator of NJ PBS, has developed this privacy policy statement (“Privacy Policy”) to assist donors, visitors to and end users of our websites, mobile and social media platforms, as well as our online and offline donation platforms (collectively referred to as the “Sites”) in understanding the Personally Identifiable Information we collect, how we use that Personal Identifiable Information, how we share Personal Identifiable Information with third parties, how we secure your Personally Identifiable Information, how you can opt out of various communication channels we may use to contact you and how we make changes to our Privacy Policy.

To reinforce our commitment to the privacy of our constituents, we have partnered with the Better Business Bureau in following twenty standards for charitable accountability required of their Charity Accreditation program.

“Personally Identifiable Information” as we use the term in this Privacy Policy, means information that can identify a specific individual, such as a name, address, phone number or email address. Please review this Privacy Policy before using or submitting Personally Identifiable Information to the Sites.

Sites Covered

This Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service govern the websites, email communications, mobile applications and social media platforms of The WNET Group, including but not limited to: wnet.org, thirteen.org, wliw.org, wliw.org/radio, njpbs.org,
wavelengthpublicmedia.org, nyc-arts.org, allarts.org, and njspotlightnews.org web properties (collectively the The WNET Group “Sites”), as well as THIRTEEN Explore, MetroFocus, NJ Spotlight News and NYC-ARTS mobile applications. The WNET Group, THIRTEEN Productions LLC, WLIW LLC, Public Media NJ Inc, Creative News Group LLC, and Interactive Engagement Group LLC (Collectively, “The WNET Group”) are strongly committed to protecting the privacy of the The WNET Group Sites’ users, visitors, members, donors, followers and friends.

Please note that the The WNET Group Sites often link to third party sites or services, including social media and sites or services owned or controlled by PBS and other public media entities and production partners. This Privacy Policy does not cover any third party sites or services, or use thereof, and we suggest you review those sites’ policies to learn more about their privacy practices.

The Personal Information We Collect

The WNET Group collects information from users through various points on our Sites, such as making a donation through our direct mail program, at an event or online, ordering materials, volunteering, signing up for an event or fundraising for The WNET Group. The types of data collected by The WNET Group will vary with your particular use of the Sites or your donation activity. Some examples of the types of Personally Identifiable Information The WNET Group may collect through the Sites include:

• Contact Information 
  The WNET Group may ask you to provide certain contact information, such as, your name, phone number, address, or email address.
• Demographic & Survey Information
  The WNET Group may collect demographic and general profile data (e.g., educational, professional, and geographic information).
• Financial Information
  The WNET Group may collect credit or debit card information. Personal financial information in the form of a credit card number and expiration date are only collected if a user wishes to make an online donation through The WNET Group (THIRTEEN, WLIW and NJ PBS). This information is not stored or maintained by The WNET Group when entered online. All online transactions are protected and securely transmitted using SSL, the most current encryption protocols/algorithms such as TLS/SSL.
• Transactional Information
  The WNET Group may create and maintain a database of aggregated information (which will not identify any particular user) about the transactions that occur on the Sites (e.g., tool or feature [and related database] utilization, registration information, and activity, navigation, exit page tracking, or content selection data).
• Technical Information
  The WNET Group may also collect Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or a unique identifier for a mobile device from users of The WNET Group Sites as well as the date and time of access and the Web pages accessed. The WNET Group may also catalog your log-in information and the type of computer, browser, or operating system you use.
• Geolocation Data
  When you access and use the Sites, The WNET Group may receive, store and process different types of information about your geographic location, including general information (e.g., zip code) and more specific information (e.g., GPS-based functionality on mobile devices used to access the Sites). If you access the Sites through a mobile device and you do not want your device to provide The WNET Group with location-tracking information, you can disable the GPS or other location-tracking functions on your device, provided that your device allows you to do so. Please see your device manufacturer’s instructions for further details.
• Social Media
  We collect information from the presence we maintain on social media (including but not restricted to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and Tumblr), including likes, shares and insights. Where you enter in to The WNET Group properties using your social network credentials, such as a Facebook log-in, you grant permission to the social network to share your user details.

How We Use Your Personal Information

The primary reason for The WNET Group to collect Personally Identifiable Information is to provide personalization options for users of our Sites, and to facilitate and enhance Site features that require user input, whether this information is submitted directly by the user of our Sites, or collected by use of technologies such as cookies, as discussed below. Personally Identifiable Information submitted through The WNET Group Sites is only used for the purposes for which it was collected. Below please find additional information on how The WNET Group may use Personally Identifiable Information collected from the Sites:

• Contact Information
  The WNET Group may use your contact information to provide you with information, materials and services, to enable you to make donations and to participate in activities, events, and offerings available through the Sites. The WNET Group may also use your contact information to (i) advertise its events, programs, products, and services, (ii) assist with security or fraud prevention or response measures, (iii) facilitate a website feature that requires user input, or (iv) to get in touch with you with respect to any transactions conducted through the Sites.We also may share your contact information with third parties including our vendors, advertisers, or business partners, to (i) facilitate or implement any of our services, (ii) advertise the services or activities of others, (iii) advise you of The WNET Group’s programs, events, volunteer opportunities, products or services, (iv) process payments, order fulfillment, or donations, or (v) allow for online registration for programs, events, or services. In addition, The WNET Group may supplement the Personally Identifiable Information collected from you with information about you obtained from other sources, such as The WNET Group’s vendors, advertisers, or business partners.
• Demographic & Survey Information
  The WNET Group may use demographic information for marketing and management purposes in order to continue to provide or improve the Sites. In addition, The WNET Group may share aggregated survey results and aggregated demographic data (which will not identify any particular user) collected through the Sites with its vendors, business partners, the general public, the news media, and with the U.S. Government and state governments.
• Financial Information
  The WNET Group will use financial information to facilitate a donation or other transaction, such as registering for an event.
• Transactional Information
  The WNET Group may use transactional information for marketing and management purposes to provide or improve any products or services that The WNET Group may offer. In addition, The WNET Group may also share such transactional data on an aggregated basis (which will not identify any particular user) with third parties, such as vendors, advertisers, or business partners.
• Technical Information
  The WNET Group may use technical information, such as your IP address or browser type, to help diagnose problems with The WNET Group’s servers, analyze Sites usage trends, track user movements on the Sites, and to otherwise improve, manage and monitor the Sites.
• Geolocation Data
  The WNET Group may use geolocation data to personalize your site experience on the Sites, e.g., to show local contacts and information relevant to your location.

All above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

Business Transactions

In the event that The WNET Group goes through a business transaction such as a bankruptcy event, merger, investment transaction, or acquisition by another entity involving the sale of all or a portion of its assets, the Personally Identifiable Information collected by The WNET Group may be among the assets reviewed.

The WNET Group may disclose Personally Identifiable Information when legally required to do so. The WNET Group may also disclose Personally Identifiable Information to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of the Sites or to limit legal liability or to protect v’s interests or those of others.

Cookies

The WNET Group or its vendors may use cookies, pixels, web beacons, tags, login files or other similar data collection or tracking techniques to facilitate use of our Sites by our users, and to enrich your online experience with us. A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about that user. The WNET Group uses both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close the browser, the cookie is simply erased. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user’s hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions.

Persistent cookies are used to store the user’s registration identification information from their basic registration and to facilitate their logging in to their personalized view of the Sites. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance their experience on our Sites.

Many consider the use of cookies and such identifiers to be an industry standard measure. Consequently, your web browser is likely set to accept cookies or allow other identifiers. If you would prefer not to receive cookies or allow identifiers, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies or surf anonymously. If you reject cookies, you may still use our websites, and all the informational resources provided through them. Your registration-based personalization options and the capacity of your browser to keep track of what content you are visiting online as you go from one of our sites to another, is lost if you reject cookies.

The WNET Group uses a tracking utility provided by a third party vendor to track usage of specific web pages and other resources provided through our website. The vendor sets cookies as a method for compiling site usage information but these cookies are only used to compile demographic models of site usage and are not tied to the user’s Personally Identifiable Information.

Digital Advertising

The WNET Groupallows third parties to place cookies throughout our websites to collect information about your visit to our and other websites in order to offer you more relevant advertising across the Internet. This practice is known as online behavioral advertising. These cookies (placed by our third party vendors) contain no personally identifiable information, but they may contain demographic or interest-based information in de-identified form. This information may also be linked to Personally Identifiable Information (in hashed or encrypted form) that you have voluntarily submitted to v, such as your email address. If you would like to opt out of the placement of these third party cookies, please visit www.aboutads.info/choices. If you would like to opt out of third party use of your mobile device identifier for behavioral advertising, please see www.aboutads.info/appchoices. Please note that if you delete, block, or otherwise restrict cookies, or if you use a different computer or Internet browser, you may need to renew your opt-out choice. The WNET Group does not host any form of advertising from our websites or email communications.

Passport Service

The WNET Group offers a streaming content service for our programming through our stations, referred to as Passport, as a member benefit through two sources – PBS Video and THIRTEEN Explore, available via IOS and Android and from Roku, Apple TV, and AmazonFire. Both offer customization based on location to serve THIRTEEN, WLIW and NJ PBS members specifically.

If you are viewing on-demand video on the The WNET Group Sites through the PBS Passport service or player, you have agreed that PBS may collect your viewing and usage information and that PBS may share this information with The WNET Group. Your individual and usage viewing information will only be shared with The WNET Group, but PBS may share aggregate de-identified viewing and usage information with its member stations and service providers, as well as The WNET Group. PBS’s collection, storage, and use of Passport information is subject to PBS’s Terms and Conditions.

If you are viewing on-demand video through the Passport program offered via THIRTEEN Explore, you have agreed that The WNET Group may collect your viewing and usage information. Your individual and usage viewing information will only be shared with The WNET Group. The WNET Group’s collection, storage and use of Passport information are covered in this Privacy Policy and through these Terms of Service.

Third Party Intermediaries

The WNET Group uses various third party transaction services to process online donations and provides the option of receiving certain materials by mail through request forms on our Sites. These materials are shipped by the US Postal Service and Federal Express. Additional “Thank You” incentives are available which also utilize third party vendors for ordering, fulfillment and customer service.

We will only provide these companies the information they need to deliver the service and prohibit them from using that information for any other purpose. These companies or organizations do not share or use Personally Identifiable Information that may be obtained from these transactions for any secondary purposes.

The WNET Group may need to share Personally Identifiable Information with third parties in other limited circumstances. For example, we may release Personally Identifiable Information to third parties to perform services on our behalf such as: advising you of our upcoming events, products, partnership offers, volunteer opportunities, and health-related information or processing credit card payments. The WNET Group may also make your name and postal address available to other nonprofit organizations whose services or activities may be of interest to you. However, third parties retained by The WNET Group to provide such services are obligated to maintain the confidentiality of this information and are not authorized to use this information for any purpose other than providing those services.

To the extent hyperlinks are utilized to access third party sites (sites not controlled, owned, or operated by The WNET Group including PBS.org), you should be aware that these external or third party sites may collect Personally Identifiable Information and are not subject to this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy applies only to the Sites. The WNET Group suggests that you check the privacy policies of other web sites to determine how the proprietors of these third party sites will utilize your Personally Identifiable Information.

Data Security

The WNET Group maintains data security measures in line with current industry standards for the Sites to protect the Personally Identifiable Information under its control against unauthorized access and disclosure. These measures include the implementation of reasonable industry recommended technical, physical and administrative data security safeguards. More sensitive information, namely, your credit or debit card numbers, are encrypted and protected with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) guidelines employing the most current encryption software algorithms and protocols, such as TLS/SSL when transmitted to The WNET Group online. The WNET Group does not store or re-use credit card information. Role based access ensures that only authorized personnel with specific unique IDs and passwords can access credit card transactions based on business needs, solely for the purpose of processing authorized transactions. The WNET Group does not have direct readable access to any credit card number but can view transactions through our credit card merchant gateway via our processing provider in order to void, refund or adjust transactions. The WNET Group also requires that the vendors The WNET Group engages with respect to the Sites employ reasonable industry standard data security safeguards when carrying out their services on The WNET Group’s behalf.

Opt Out

From time to time, The WNET Group may also share donor names and postal mailing addresses with other reputable nonprofit organizations on a limited basis in exchange for limited access to the names and addresses of their constituents. We have found this to be a cost effective method of reaching additional potential constituents. These organizations will not have continued access to your name and address unless you choose to respond to their initial mailing. We do not share email addresses or health related data in connection with this list exchange.

We respect our donors’ choices and control over their information. You, as a donor may, at any time, have your name excluded from any donor list exchange activity. We also recognize that you may wish to limit the ways in which we contact you, and we offer the following options for restricting internal and external sharing of your contact information:

Do not contact me by telephone.
Do not contact me by postal mail.
Do not contact me by email.
Do not share my contact information with other nonprofit organizations.
Limit your fund-raising appeals to semiannual solicitations only.
Do not contact me.

To request that your name be excluded from list exchange activity or to otherwise change how The WNET Group contacts you, please email us at membership@wnet.org or feel free to contact us at 212-560-2888.

If you opt back into a specific service, you will receive communication in that manner regardless of your overall opt out selections. For example, if you request a newsletter subscription, we will provide you that subscription, even if you previously asked us not to contact you at all. We will take all reasonable efforts to ensure that your requests are honored in a timely fashion. Please note that if you are an active participant in one of our fundraising events you may receive communications related to that event regardless of your overall opt out selections. If you do not wish to receive emails about that event, please opt out using the “unsubscribe” link provided in the communication.

212-560-2888
Email: membership@wnet.org

Postal Mail:

The WNET Group Membership Services
825 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10019

Our Commitment to Children’s Privacy

Protecting the privacy of the very young is especially important. For that reason, we never collect or maintain information on our website from those we actually know are under the age of 13.

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) protects the Personally Identifiable Information of children under the age of 13. This applies to individually identifiable Personal Information about a child that is collected online, such as full name, home address, email address, telephone number or any other information that would allow someone to identify or contact the child. The Act and the COPPA Rule also cover other types of information–for example, hobbies, interests and information collected through cookies or other types of tracking mechanisms–when they are tied to individually identifiable information. It is important for you to understand this law; we encourage you to read more about COPPA.

Note to Parents on Our Privacy Policy

The WNET Group is committed to providing a safe, secure, and fun online experience for children who visit our Sites. We are dedicated to safeguarding any Personally Identifiable Information collected online and to helping parents and children have positive experiences on the Internet. Consistent with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent. A parent or guardian may revoke their consent and ask that information about their child be deleted from the site by contacting our offices via mail (see: address below) or email membership@wnet.org. To do this or to review Personally Identifiable Information collected from children, we must verify the identity of the requesting parent. When a parent or guardian revokes consent, we will stop collecting, using, or disclosing information from that child. To respect the privacy of parents, information collected and used for the sole purpose of obtaining verifiable parental consent or providing notice is not maintained in retrievable form by the site if parental consent is not obtained after a reasonable time.

Notification of Changes

If The WNET Group changes its Privacy Policy, changes to this privacy statement will be posted, with prominent links to the new policy positioned on the The WNET Group homepage, and other places we deem appropriate, so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. The WNET Group will use information in accordance with the Privacy Policy under which the information was collected.

Governing Law

This Privacy Policy shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the state of New York. If you are located outside of the United States when you use the Sites, any information you submit thereto will be transferred to the United States. Accordingly, by using the Sites and submitting Personally Identifiable Information there, you authorize the transfer of your Personally Identifiable Information to the United States. If any part of this Privacy Policy is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law, then the invalid or unenforceable provision or part will be deemed suspended and a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision or part and the remainder of this Privacy Policy shall continue in full force and effect.

Contacting Us

The WNET Group reserves the right to change this policy at any time. Since any changes will be posted on this page, we encourage you to check this page regularly. Your continued use of the Sites will constitute your acceptance of such changes. If you have any further questions regarding this privacy policy or the use of your Personal Information under this Privacy Policy, you can contact us by filling out this Contact Us form, by email at membership@wnet.org, via phone at 212-560-2888 or by postal mail at:

Robert A. Feinberg, Esq.
VP, General Counsel and Secretary
The WNET Group
825 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10019

Additional Information

This Privacy Policy is personal between you and us, and no one else shall be deemed a third party beneficiary of this policy.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on September 15, 2020.

USE OF THIS SITE SIGNIFIES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THE TERMS OF USE AND THIS PRIVACY POLICY.