Contents
This privacy statement covers the Web site psychologytoday.com. We are committed to maintaining the privacy of our users. As such, this note explains:

1. What personally identifiable information Psychology Today collects.
2. How Psychology Today collects the information.
3. How Psychology Today uses the information.
4. With whom Psychology Today may share user information.
5. What choices are available to users regarding collection, use and distribution of the information.
6. What types of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under Psychology Today’s control.
7. How users can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

If users have questions or concerns regarding this statement, they should contact us at Psychology Today by telephone, mail or email at the contact details listed on the web page marked About/Contact.

Information Collection and Use

Information Collection
Psychology Today is the sole owner of the information collected on www.psychologytoday.com. Psychology Today collects information from our users at several different points on our Web site.

Public Registration
In order to use some functions found on this Web site, a user must first complete the registration form. During registration a user is asked to give personal information such as name, address, and email address. We use this information to contact the user about services on our site for which he/she has expressed interest. It is optional for the user to provide demographic information, and unique identifiers, but encouraged so we can provide a more personalized experience on our site. Users may also be asked to give their credit card number and expiration date if they wish to subscribe to our magazine or online services. Credit card information is SSL encrypted for user protection. Other options are available for users whose browsers do not support SSL.

Professional Registration
Those Professionals who wish their services to be displayed on this Web site must complete the registration form. During professional registration, a user is asked to give out personal information, such as name, address, and email address, as well as such professional information as their qualifications, certifications, the demographic region in which they practice, and what fields they specialize in. Background checks will be performed on registrants to assure our users of the validity of license information.

Information Use
Psychology Today does not sell or otherwise provide the information given to them to third party sources. All information is confidential unless

a. The user wishes to create a public profile. The information contained within a public profile may be viewed by third parties.

b. The information is subpoenaed by officials of the United States government, or if Psychology Today deems that retaining said information may cause a direct physical threat to one or more individuals.

Profile
Psychology Today stores information collected through cookies and log files to create a profile of our users. A profile is general information that we keep on users that details their viewing preferences, and allows us to improve our site. We do not share your profile with other third parties.

Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. Psychology Today uses both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. When a user closes their browser, a session ID cookie simply terminates. 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.

By setting a cookie on our site, users have their usernames and passwords automatically remembered. If users reject the cookie, they may still use our site. The only drawback to this is that they will have to log in for each consecutive visit. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site.

Log Files
Like most standard Web site servers we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information contained in user profiles.

Customer Service
Users who sign up for particular services, such as the “Ask our Therapist” or “Interactive” modules may receive email directly relating to this service. This will be stated in the sign-in portion of that module of the Website. The user will only receive email that pertains to the status of their account or to retrieve a forgotten password.

Service Announcements
On rare occasions it is necessary to send out announcements which are strictly service-based. We send our users notices upon activation of their account, and also upon any password-look-up requests made by the user. Also, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, or if our company were to undergo a large-scale transition thereby changing the nature of this privacy statement, we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Sharing

Legal Disclaimer
Though Psychology Today makes every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.

Third Party Intermediaries
We use an outside shipping company to ship orders, and a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Business Transitions
In the event Psychology Today goes through a business transition, such as being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users’ personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. Users will be notified via email 30 days prior to a change of ownership or control of their personal information. If as a result of the business transition, the users’ personally identifiable information will be used in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection they will be given choice consistent with our notification of changes section.

Opt Out/Change User Information
Our users are given the opportunity to ‘opt-out’ of creating a profile with us, or may change their profile at any time in the user section of this Web page.

Links
This Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, Psychology Today, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personal information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected and dispersed by this Web site.

Security
This Web site takes every precaution to protect our users’ information. When users submit sensitive information via the Web site, their information is protected both online and off-line.
When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security number), that information is encrypted and is protected with SSL, the best encryption software in the industry. While on a secure page, such as our order form, a padlock icon will be displayed in Web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line. All of our users’ information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our company’s server. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to user’s personal information. Our employees must use password-protected logins to access this server. Each time they return, they must re-enter their password to regain access to user information. All employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Any time new policies are added, our employees are notified about what they can do to ensure our users’ information is protected. Finally, the servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment in a locked building.

Supplementation of Information
In order for this Web site to properly fulfill its obligation to users it is necessary for us to supplement the information we receive with information from 3rd party sources.

Background Check
Professionals wishing to list their services on Psychology Today undergo a thorough background check to assure the validity of their claimed credentials. These background checks are performed by telephone by employees of Psychology Today.

ID Verification
In many cases, for instance when a user enters a credit card number, or when a professional registers a business, it is necessary to perform an ID verification.

We use EDS to verify a user’s information to assure the security and legality of this site.

Notification of Changes
If we decide to amend our privacy policy, we will post changes to this privacy statement on the 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 we disclose it. We will use information in conformity with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

If we are going to use user information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users via email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if users have opted out of all communication with the site, or deleted/deactivated their account, then they will not be contacted, nor will their personal information be used in this new manner.

If we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our Web site notifying users of the change(s).

Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, subscription status, or our web site please see our About/Contact page.