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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
store.viz.com
naruto.viz.com
narutostore.viz.com
inuyasha.viz.com
inuyashastore.viz.com
www.zatch-bell.com
zatch-bellstore.viz.com
bleach.viz.com
bleachstore.viz.com
www.dekobokofriends.com
dekobokofriendsstore.viz.com
www.megaman-ntwarrior.com
www.mirmo-zibang.com
www.shojobeat.com
www.shonenjump.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:
Individual California residents may specifically request information about
our disclosures, if any, of certain categories of personally identifiable
information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Such
requests must be submitted to us either by email at the email address or
mailing address set forth above. Within thirty (30) days of receiving
such a request, we will provide a list of the categories of personally identifiable
information disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes
during the immediately preceding calendar year, along with the names and
addresses of these third parties. This request may be made no more
than once per calendar year. We reserve our right not to respond to
requests submitted other than to the email or mailing addresses specified
above.
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):
Online Manager (Privacy Issue) VIZ Media
295 Bay Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 546-7073
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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