Welcome to roanoke.com, The Roanoke Times' space in the Internet, located in Southwestern Virginia. We believe in your right to know what information is collected from you when doing business with us or visiting our Web sites -- and how that information is used and safeguarded.
We've adopted a set of information management guidelines that serve as the basis for our customer and advertiser relationships. These guidelines have been developed with the recognition that Internet technologies are rapidly evolving, as are underlying business models. Guidelines are subject to change. Any such changes will be posted on this page.
The following privacy policy applies to The Roanoke Times, roanoke.com and other Web sites operated by the Times-World Corp. We are affiliated with other online companies, some of which feature our branding. This policy statement does not apply to those companies' Web sites; please refer to these affiliated sites to obtain information on their privacy policies. These sites include, but are not limited to, Weather.com, Nando Media and Switchboard.
Your personal information
Roanoke.com.com collects personally identifiable information (name, e-mail address, etc.) and/or demographic data (zip code, gender, interests, etc.) that you submit when you:
- Order a subscription to The Roanoke Times
- Complete a survey
- Register for a promotion or contest or sweepstakes
- Send us an e-mail
- Place a classified ad
- Join a discussion board
- Comment on news stories you send to a friend
Transaction information is encrypted and retained in a database, not on a Web site.
We use this information to operate roanoke.com's services, to provide you with the highest quality service, and to offer you opportunities we think will be of interest to you. We will send e-mails to those who have elected to receive them in which we inform registered users about specific offers (from roanoke.com and our advertising partners) that are of interest to them.
We will not disclose any personal information without your advance permission except when we believe the law requires us to do so or the disclosure is necessary to protect the rights or property of Times-World Corp. In order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers and others, we may disclose user information -- but only in an aggregate form. For example, we might disclose that a certain percentage of our users are male or within a certain age range.
Credit card information will be provided to third parties only to provide products and services that you order. We may use the contact information that you provide to contact you about your account and/or to send you necessary information directly related to the product or service for which you have registered.
Surveys
Roanoke.com may occasionally use online surveys to ask visitors for feedback on our products and services as well as to collect contact information (such as e-mail address). We may use contact data from such surveys to send the user information about our company or to contact users when necessary. Users may choose not to receive these future, direct communications; see the "Opt out procedures" below.
Children's privacy
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act stipulates that Web site operators cannot knowingly collect information from children under age 13 without verifiable parental permission. roanoke.com respects the privacy of children, and does not seek children's participation in services that require registration. We strongly recommend that parents supervise their children's use of the Internet. We also encourage parents to instruct their children not to give out personal information in e-mail messages or forums.
Opt out procedures
From time to time, we may send you information about various products and services. If you do not want to receive this information, you may send your unsubscribe request via e-mail to Jim Ellison, online editor.
Correcting and updating your private information
The information that you provide to roanoke.com may be stored by us for an indefinite time. However, please feel free to request a change or deletion of this information at any time by sending us an e-mail.
Usage tracking
Some information about you is automatically collected via server logs. This information can include your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring URLs. We use this information to administer our Web site, help diagnose problems with our server, and to help identify you as a unique visitor to our site and to gather broad information about your site usage. However, in tracking these usage patterns, we do not match this information with a specific user's personally identifiable information.
Cookies
A "cookie" is a small text file that is placed in your browser and allows a Web site to recognize you each time you -- as an individual but not your identity -- visit its pages. Roanoke.com uses cookies to track usage of the site. We never give out information to others about individual usage. This is the foundation of our privacy policy. We do provide our advertisers with aggregate information, such as: "1,000 users saw your advertisement today, and 500 of them clicked on it." We can also tell how many users looked at a particular section, how often users come back, and what areas of the site people look at most often and least often. Other parts of our site that are not administered by roanoke.com, such as the TV listings, also use cookies to remember show line-ups you request, for example.
Security
The security of the information that you provide roanoke.com is very important to us. We use SSL encryption software to protect your data. However, our Web sites include links to other sites, and when you choose to visit those sites, we are not responsible for their privacy policies. In addition, we may permit third parties to offer registration-based services through our site. We are not responsible for the actions and policies of these third parties, and you should review the privacy policies of these parties when supplying personally identifiable information to them.
Remember the risks whenever you use the Internet
You should know that when you voluntarily disclose personal information to the public on roanoke.com Web sites and its affiliated sites (for example, in electronic forums, chat rooms and other public posting areas), that information can be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited messages from other people. While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot be responsible for information that you choose to publicly disclose. Further, you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any passwords or other account information.
Our partners and other Internet sites or services that may be accessible through the roanoke.com sites have separate data and privacy practices that are independent of us, and we disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. Please contact those sites directly if you have questions about their privacy policies.
How to contact us
For any questions or comments regarding our privacy policy, you may contact us:
by e-mail: Jim Ellison, online editor
by phone: (540) 981-3198 or (800) 346-1234 ext. 198
by regular mail: Roanoke.com 201 W. Campbell Ave. Roanoke, Va. 24010
