Privacy policy
Last Updated: 01/2019
When you use or interact with the Comics Kingdom website available at www.comicskingdom.com or other website, mobile application or digital service (each a “Digital Service”) owned and operated by King Features Syndicate, Inc. (“we”, “us”, “our” and “King Features”) and linking to this Privacy Notice, we and third parties may obtain certain information about you. In this Highlights section, we provide an overview of our privacy practices related to the Digital Services. Please review our full Privacy Notice below for a detailed explanation of our practices.
What Infomation We Obtain
- Information you provide when you use the Digital Services, including when you sign up for newsletters, create an account, interact with a feature (e.g., a puzzle or game) buy a product or purchase a subscription to our premium content through the Digital Services. This may include your contact, payment or demographic information.
- Information you submit when you choose to participate in a survey, promotion, event or similar initiative.
- Information you give us about others, such as their contact information when you share our content.
- Information collected by automated means such as cookies or pixels. This may include information about your device and browser, including IP address or mobile device advertising identifiers, as well as information about how you and others use, interact with or respond to the Digital Services. This collection may take place while you are using a Digital Service or while the Digital Service is running in the background of your device.
- Precise location information associated with your device when location services are active.
- Information we obtain from other sources, such as event organizers and data suppliers.
Read more here.
How We Use Infomation We Obtain
- To process your requests and provide you with the Digital Services, including to deliver customized content or recommendations. Note that we use your payment card information (such as your card number and expiration date) for limited purposes such as to process your transaction (including recurring payments, if applicable), to provide you with the requested products or services and to protect our rights or the rights of others.
- To learn about users of the Digital Services and analyze how you and others interact with and respond to the Digital Services.
- To communicate with you, including to send you marketing and a promotional communications.
- For advertising and marketing purposes, including to deliver interest-based ads, for cross-device linking and to analyze the performance of advertising and marketing activities.
- To protect our rights and the rights of others.
Read more here.
How We Share Infomation
- With our affiliates, subsidiaries and other companies in the Hearst family of companies.
- With service providers that perform services or handle transactions on our behalf.
- With advertisers, advertising- and marketing-related services providers and partners as well as companies that help us learn how you and others interact with our content.
- With business partners, such as when we partner with a third party to offer products or services on a co-branded basis.
- Other parties when required by law or as necessary to protect our rights, and in the context of corporate transactions.
- With your consent or otherwise at your direction.
Read more here.
Your Choices, Including Marketing and Interest-Based Ads Opt-Outs
- You may take steps to limit the use of your information for interest-based advertising on your browser or mobile device. See here for more information.
- You may unsubscribe from our marketing or promotional emails by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link in our emails, or for certain Digital Services, by logging into your account and adjusting your preferences.
Read more here.
Additional Information
- We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure.
- The Digital Services are operated from the United States. Information may be processed and stored in the United States or other countries.
- The Digital Services are not intended for use by children under the age of 13.
- This Privacy Notice is part of the Terms of Use, which govern your use of the Digital Services and any disputes related to your use of the Digital Services (including our use of your information) will be resolved per the dispute resolution provision in the Terms of Use.
Read more here.
Contact Us
If you have questions about our Privacy Notice you can contact us by email at [email protected].
COMICS KINGDOM PRIVACY NOTICE
Last Revised On: 01/2019
A. INTRODUCTION
This Privacy Notice applies to the Comics Kingdom website available at www.comicskingdom.com and other website, mobile application or digital service (each a “Digital Service”) owned and operated by King Features Syndicate, Inc. (“we”, “us”, “our” or “King Features”) and linking to this Privacy Notice. This Privacy Notice describes the privacy practices of King Features only and does not cover the practices of other companies, including those that may advertise or sponsor content, products or services on the Digital Services.
B. WHAT INFORMATION WE OBTAIN
We obtain various types of information related to you and your use of the Digital Services. This may include information that directly identifies you such as your name, address, or contact information (this type of information may be called “personal information” or “personally identifiable information”). The information we obtain generally consists of information (1) you give us about yourself, (2) you give us about others, (3) automatically collected about your interactions with the Digital Services and our content or ads on third-party websites, apps or other media, and (4) we get from other sources.
The information you give us may include details such as:
- Contact information (e.g., name, mailing address, email address or phone number).
- Demographic and interests information (e.g., age or gender).
- Payment information for purchases made through the Digital Services, such as when you buy a product or subscribe to our premium content (e.g., payment card number, expiration date and billing information).
- Content or information you choose to publish on the Digital Services or otherwise share with us.
- Information you provide when you choose to participate in surveys, polls or promotions.
- Location information, which may include precise location information when you permit the Digital Services to access device location. To prevent the collection of precise location information, please refer to instructions provided by your mobile service provider or device manufacturer.
- Other information you may allow us to access through your device’s permissions settings, such as your contacts or address book.
- Transactional and activity information (e.g., requests, searches or orders).
2. Information you give us about others
You may give us information about other people, such as the name and email of a contact with whom you want to share a comic strip. Do not give us information about others unless you are authorized or have their consent to do so. We will use their information for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice.
3. Information automatically collected
The Digital Services automatically log certain information about visits to the Digital Services, including the widgets, such as the number and frequency of visitors, technical information about browsers and devices used to access the Digital Services, and information about crashes or other technical issues. In addition, we and third parties may automatically collect certain information through automated means about your activities over time across the Digital Services as well as across third-party sites, apps or other media. The tools that collect this information vary depending on the Digital Services and include technologies such as cookies, web beacons, tags, scripts, pixels, local shared objects (including HTML5 cookies) and software development kits (“SDKs”). These technologies may be included in our web pages, mobile apps, emails, and other digital content. The tools may assign or collect unique cookie IDs or other identifiers associated with your browser or device. The tools may collect information while you are using our Digital Services or while they are running in the background of your device.
The information automatically collected may include:
- Information about your computer, device, browser and operating system (e.g., type, model, or version).
- Internet protocol (IP) address, which may be used to derive your general geographic area (e.g., city and country).
- Device identifiers (e.g., mobile advertising IDs).
- Information about your interactions with the Digital Services, including browsing activities and clickstream data that reflect the content you have accessed, clicked on, or viewed.
- Information about how you accessed the Digital Services, including details about websites or apps visited immediately before or after accessing a Digital Service.
- Demographic and interests information.
- Information about your interactions with email messages and other communications, such as whether you opened or forwarded the email or clicked on links contained in the email.
For more information about the use of automated means in the context of interest-based advertising and how you can limit tracking, see here.
2. Information you give us about others
You may give us information about other people, such as the name and email of a contact with whom you want to share a comic strip. Do not give us information about others unless you are authorized or have their consent to do so. We will use their information for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice.
4. Information we obtain from other sources
We receive information about you from other sources and it may be combined with other information about you. For example, we may obtain data from:
- Operators of third-party sites or apps, content distribution channels and platforms (e.g., Roku, Amazon Fire TV), voice-activated assistants (e.g., Amazon Alexa, Google Home) or other devices and technologies when you interact with our content, products, services or ads available on those channels and platforms. The information we receive may include information about the content you view or access as well as your demographic information and information about your interests.
- Third-party data suppliers such as data aggregators, data resellers, public databases and business partners. They may provide us with demographic information, information about your purchases, and other information that helps us learn about you and other users of the Digital Services.
- Social Media Platforms and similar services (“Social Media Platforms”). When you engage with our content on Social Media Platforms, or interact with features on the Digital Services that contain content or features provided by Social Media Platforms (e.g., login or sign in features or tools that allow you to share our content with others on Social Media Platforms), we may obtain information from Social Media Platforms, including your username, user ID, demographic information and other information, subject to the settings and privacy practices of the relevant Social Media Platform. We may obtain this information directly from the Social Media Platform or through plug-ins, integrations or applications. Please keep in mind that the operators of the Social Media Platforms may also gather information about your use of the Digital Services and their features and tools.
C. HOW WE USE INFORMATION WE OBTAIN
If you make a purchase or place an order through or in connection with a Digital Service, we use your payment card information (e.g., your card number and expiration date) for limited purposes such as to process your transaction (including recurring payments, if applicable), to provide you with the requested products or services and for the purposes described under the section “To protect our rights or the rights of others” below.
With respect to information other than your payment card information, we use that information:
1. To provide you with the Digital Services.This includes:
- Processing your requests regarding the Digital Services and our products or services, including your subscription to our premium content, or administering your participation in a survey, promotion, event or similar initiative.
- Providing customer assistance or technical support.
- Customizing content, providing recommendations and enhancing the quality and your overall experience with the Digital Services, including by retaining your user preferences or presenting content in the most effective manner for the browser or device you use to access the Digital Services.
- Maintaining, operating, improving and developing the Digital Services and related content, products or services, including developing new products and features based on users’ interactions with the Digital Services.
- Learning about users of the Digital Services and analyzing how you and others interact with and respond to the Digital Services, including by measuring and optimizing usage, reliability and performance, conducting market research, analyzing trends, and supporting our operations (e.g., for accounting, auditing, financial, legal or other purposes).
2. To communicate with you.This includes:
- Sending you informational messages about the Digital Services (e.g., to verify your registration when you create an account or notify you of changes to the Digital Services).
- Delivering marketing or promotional communications, including offers or promotions about our or third parties’ products, services or other initiatives.
- CResponding to your questions or addressing your requests.
- Communicating with you about surveys, promotions or events.
3. For advertising and marketing purposes, including interest-based advertising.This includes:
- Developing, managing and conducting advertising and marketing campaigns, promotions and offers, including about our content, products and services or third parties’ products, services and other initiatives.
- Interest-based advertising. We and third parties may collect information about your online activities to provide you with advertising tailored to your interests. You may see certain ads on other websites because we or third parties participate in advertising networks. Ad networks track your online activities over time and across different browsers and devices you may use by collecting information through automated means, including through the use of cookies, web server logs and web beacons. The information ad networks may collect includes information about your visits to websites that participate in the relevant advertising networks, such as the pages, advertisements or videos you view and the actions you take on the websites. This data collection may take place on our website, on our client websites where our widgets may be embedded, and on third-party websites or apps that participate in ad networks. This process allows us and third parties to deliver more tailored advertising and helps us track the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. For more information about your rights in relation to interest-based advertising, including your choice to opt out, see here. We adhere to the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising developed by the Digital Advertising Alliance.
- Cross-device linking. If you access the Digital Services from multiple browsers or devices, we, our service providers and third parties may try to establish connections among and link the different browsers and devices you use to access the Digital Services and our content or ads published elsewhere. This helps us provide you with a seamless experience across the browsers and devices you use and serve you with more relevant content and ads (e.g., so that we don’t show you the same article twice). See here for steps you can take to limit browser and mobile app tracking for interest-based advertising purposes.
- Analyzing and measuring the performance, effectiveness and reach of our advertising and marketing efforts on the Digital Services and elsewhere.
4. To protect our rights or the rights of others.This includes:
- Detecting, preventing and responding to fraud or potentially illegal activities, misuse of the Digital Services, intellectual property infringement or other violations of law, this Privacy Notice, our Terms of Use or other King Features or Hearst policies.
- Performing audits, assessments and testing or troubleshooting activities.
- Backing up our systems (including for disaster recovery purposes) and enhancing the overall security of the Digital Services.
- Complying with and enforcing applicable industry and legal requirements (including legal process such as court orders, warrants or subpoenas) and fulfilling contractual obligations.
D. HOW WE SHARE INFORMATION
We may share the information we obtain with:
- Affiliates and Subsidiaries. We work closely with affiliates and subsidiaries within the Hearst family of companies with whom we share your information as necessary or appropriate to operate the Digital Services.
- Service Providers. In connection with the operation and provision of the Digital Services, we engage various third parties to provide services or handle transactions on our behalf, such as payment card processing, email distribution, list processing, postal mailing, cloud computing, analytics, ad serving and managing promotions or events. These service providers use the information we provide to them as necessary or appropriate for the performance of their services.
- Advertisers, Advertising- and Marketing-Related Service Providers and Partners. We may provide your information to advertisers, advertising agencies, ad networks, ad exchanges, marketing businesses, technology vendors and other entities that create, deliver and assess advertising or marketing campaigns, including interest-based ads.
- Content Measurement Companies. We and third parties seek to measure the performance of content across the internet, including on the Digital Services. We may include third-party measurement software in the Digital Services to enable market research or to measure digital and video content consumption.
- Business Partners. We may provide your information to business partners including, without limitation, the clients who embed our widgets and joint marketing partners and content sponsors, for various purposes. For example, we may partner with a third party to offer products on a co-branded, co-sponsored or cross-promotional basis that involves the sharing of information. These initiatives may be offered on the Digital Services or on other media.
- Other Parties When Required by Law or As Necessary to Protect Our Rights. We may share your information as we believe is necessary or appropriate to protect, enforce, or defend our legal rights, the privacy or safety of our employees, users of the Digital Services or other individuals and entities, or to comply with or enforce applicable industry standards, law or legal process, including responding to court orders, warrants, subpoenas and other requests from public and government authorities.
- Corporate Transactions. We reserve the right to transfer any of the information we have about you to proceed with the consideration, negotiation, or completion of a sale or transfer of all or a portion of our business or assets to a third party, such as in the event of a merger, acquisition or other disposition, or in connection with a bankruptcy reorganization, dissolution, or liquidation.
- With Your Consent or Otherwise at Your Direction. In addition, we may share your information with third parties when you consent to or request such sharing.
E. YOUR CHOICES, INCLUDING MARKETING AND INTEREST-BASED ADS OPT-OUTS
Direct Marketing Opt-Outs
- Email marketing. You may opt out of receiving marketing or promotional emails from us by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link contained in such emails. Please keep in mind that if you opt out of receiving marketing or promotional emails, we may still send you transactional emails or other communications relating to your use of the Digital Services (e.g., to confirm your subscription, to inform you of changes to the Digital Services or in response to a password recovery request).
- Direct mail. You may request that we stop sending you postal mail offers through the US post office by notifying us in writing at Office of General Counsel, Attn: Privacy, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019. Please indicate in your correspondence the name of the Digital Service to which your request applies.
- Marketing by Third Parties. We may provide your contact information to third parties for their own marketing purposes. To request that third parties do not use your postal mailing contact information for their own marketing purposes (if we have your postal address), you may notify us in writing at Office of General Counsel, Attn: Privacy, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019. Please indicate in your correspondence the name of the Digital Service to which your request applies.
- Co-Branded, Co-Sponsored or Cross-Promotional Offerings. If you choose to participate in a co-branded, co-sponsored or cross-promotional offering, the brand, sponsor or other third party involved in that offering may use your information for its own purposes, including advertising and marketing purposes. You must contact the relevant third party directly to exercise your opt out choices with respect to such party’s use of your information.
Interest-Based Ads Opt-Outs
To learn more about your rights in relation to interest-based advertising on your browser, including your choice to opt out, you can follow the instructions provided by the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) at http://www.aboutads.info and/or the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) at http://optout.networkadvertising.org to place an opt-out cookie on your browser. These opt-out cookies enable you to block participating companies from installing future cookies on your computer or browser.
F. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS
Your California Privacy Rights
Residents of California may request a list of third parties to which certain personal information (as defined by applicable California law) obtained through a Digital Service was disclosed by King Features during the preceding year for those third parties’ direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident and want such a list, please contact us at Office of General Counsel, Attn: Privacy, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019. For all requests, you must put the statement “Your California Privacy Rights” in the body of your request, as well as your name, street address, city, state, and zip code. In your request, you need to attest to the fact that you are a California resident and provide a current California address for our response. Please indicate in your correspondence the name of the Digital Service to which your request applies. Please note that we will not accept requests via the telephone, email, or by facsimile, and we are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, or that do not have complete information.
G. DO NOT TRACK
King Features does not currently take steps to respond to browsers “Do Not Track” signals as no uniform standard to respond to such signals has been developed at this time.
H. HOW WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION
We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we make reasonable efforts to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
I. NON-U.S. VISITORS
We operate the Digital Services from the United States. Any information we obtain about you in connection with your use of the Digital Services may be processed and stored in the United States or other countries.
J. CHILDREN’S PRIVACY RIGHTS
The Digital Services are not intended for use by children, especially those under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13.
K. LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES, MOBILE APPS OR OTHER SERVICES
The Digital Services may contain links to websites, mobile apps or other services operated by companies not affiliated with King Features. In addition, the Digital Services may be made available to you through third-party platforms or other channels. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of any non-King Features operated websites, mobile apps or other services and channels, and we encourage you to review the privacy policies or notices published by relevant third parties.
L. CAREERS/JOB OPPORTUNITIES
This Privacy Notice does not apply to web pages hosting our careers or job opportunities. Any information obtained through such pages is governed by the privacy notice published thereon.
M. DISPUTE RESOLUTION/TERMS OF USE
Any dispute concerning the Digital Services (including our use of your personal information) will be resolved per the dispute resolution provision in the Terms of Use, which govern your use of the Digital Services. Please take a few minutes to read the Terms of Use before using the Digital Services.
N. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE
We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect changes in our privacy practices or applicable laws. In accordance with applicable law, we may make such changes without prior notice. We will publish the updated version on the relevant Digital Services and indicate at the top of the Privacy Notice when it was most recently updated. Your use of the Digital Services will be governed by the then-current version of the Privacy Notice.
O. CONTACT US
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, please contact us by email at [email protected].
P. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR EUROPEAN VISITORS
In order to address our legal obligations in Europe, King Features provides the following additional information for Europe-based visitors to the Digital Services.
Who is Responsible for Your Information?
If you use or interact with the Digital Services then the data controller will be King Features Syndicate, Inc. The contact details for this entity are provided in the “Contact Us” section above.
Legal Bases for Using Your Information
We process personal information for different purposes (as described in the “How We Use Information We Obtain” section, above) on the following legal bases:
- To perform our contractual obligations to you. We and our service providers process your information to perform our contractual obligations to you when we use your information to provide you with the Digital Services and related content, products or services and to communicate with you. For example, when you purchase a subscription to our premium content, we process your payment and contact information as necessary to confirm the subscription. We process your contact information and other details to provide you with support services you request. We also send you informational communications on this basis, including to confirm a subscription or to notify you of a change to a Digital Service. Failure to provide requested information could prevent or delay the fulfilment of our contractual obligations.
- To pursue our legitimate interests. We process your information to meet our legitimate interests when we use your information to provide you with the Digital Services and related content, products or services, to communicate with you and for our advertising and marketing purposes. For example, our legitimate interests include making improvements to, customizing and understanding how you interact with the Digital Services and related content, products or services, and sending you communications about products and services we think may be of interest to you. To accomplish our legitimate interests, we may share your information with our affiliates and subsidiaries, service providers and business partners (including for our advertising and marketing purposes) and in the context of a corporate transaction. We maintain safeguards to protect the information we process to pursue our legitimate interests.
- To comply with our legal obligations. We process and share your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations when we use your information to protect our rights or the rights of others and when we share your information with other parties where required by law or as necessary to protect our rights. For example, we are required to collect certain information from you when processing your subscription payment for tax or financial reporting reasons.
- With your consent. We obtain your consent to process your information when we are required to do so by law. If consent is the legal basis on which we process your personal information, you can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the information provided in the “Contact Us” section above.
Your Rights Over Your Information
In certain circumstances, you have a right to access or object to the use of personal information held about you (including in relation to direct marketing). You can also ask us to rectify, update, erase, restrict or to share your information in a usable format with another company. Such requests are subject to applicable law.
We encourage you to contact us to update or correct your information if it changes or if the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate.
If you would like to discuss or exercise such rights, please contact us using the information provided in the “Contact Us” section above. We will contact you if we need additional information from you in order to honor your requests.
Storing Your Information
We will keep your personal information for as long as we have a relationship with you. Once our relationship with you has come to an end, we will retain your personal information for a period of time that enables us to:
Maintain business records for analysis, understanding market trends and/or audit purposes and to improve the Digital Services.
- Comply with record retention requirements under applicable laws or other relevant legal or regulatory requirements.
- Defend, establish, exercise or bring any existing or potential legal claims.
- Carry out fraud detection and prevention.
- Deal with any complaints regarding the Digital Services, our products and services.
Changes to the Privacy Notice
Where changes to this Privacy Notice have a fundamental impact on the nature of the processing or otherwise have a substantial impact on you, we will give you advanced notice so that you have the opportunity to exercise your rights (e.g. to object to the processing).
Complaints and Concerns
We are committed to working with you to obtain a fair resolution in the event you have a concern about privacy. If, however, you believe that we have not been able to assist with your concern, you have the right to make a complaint to a data protection authority.