Email Privacy Policy

Additional Email Privacy Overview

In addition to our general Privacy Policy located here, this Privacy Policy covers Converg Media’s (“Converg”) treatment of personally identifiable information that is collected when the subscribers agree to receive electronic communication from Converg or one of Converg’s affiliates. Such communication includes e-mail advertising messages, SMS, MMS, WAP Push or other similar remote messaging services to your Telephone, Mobile Device and Email Address.

This type of agreement on behalf of a subscriber constitutes a permission-based opt-in.

Converg believes in 100% permission-based marketing adheres to the three (3) basic types of compliance defined in the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003:

1. Unsubscribe
2. Content
3. Sending behavior compliance.

Additional information on the CAN-SPAM of 2003 can be found here.

Opting In:

In order for a subscriber to be considered opted-in he/she must agree to provide their email address and mandatory personal information to Converg or its data partners, including first name, name, postal address and telephone number. Depending on the opt-in source, the subscriber might have the ability to provide additional information such as age, income, gender and other types of demographic and psychographic information. This information is optional.

Subscribers are sent a confirmation email upon opting in to verify that they in fact intended to provide their information and consent to receive advertisements and in the event that they opted in erroneously, they are given the opportunity to opt out. This confirmation email also informs them that as part of the validation and enhancement process (described below), they might receive follow up surveys to gather additional optional information.

After the initial opt-in, the consumer record goes through a series of validation and enhancement processes before being added into Converg’s final permission based database.

1. Record must be confirmed by a minimum of two (2) additional sources – in the event that the subscriber record has not been seen before, it is set aside for future confirmation

2. Record is scrubbed for hygiene by

• Postal Information goes thru the NCOA, DPV and CASS Certification Process, licensed by AccuZip
• Matched against Converg and Partner bounce files
• Matched against Converg and Partner Do Not Mail (unsub) files
• Matched against DMA Do Not Mail, Deceased and Prison files

Opting Out:

A consumer may unsubscribe from any of our permission based marketing programs at any time. Each email communication sent from Converg contains two ways a consumer can opt out of receiving future communication from Converg: opt out link or physical mailing address of list owner or advertiser. While the CAN-SPAM Act allows for ten (10) days to be removed from a mailing list once an opt out request is made, all subscribers that opt out utilizing the hyperlink provided are immediately removed from Converg’s email database. By opting out, the consumers email address is added to our master unsubscribe file, preventing their email from being used in future mailings, regardless if their email record is obtained in the future from a different email data partner or affiliate. Lastly, all clients have the option to include their own opt out link and mailing address within each email deployment.

Sources of Opt-in Data

This Privacy Policy also applies to consumers that have agreed to receive electronic communication from Converg, whether at Converg’s website, via e-mail, via third party partner websites or otherwise.

Subscribers consent for:

Converg (and/or our affiliate partners) to send to them at the Telephone Number (landline), SMS and E-Mail addresses provided in the signup process, and from time to time via other methods, content, offers and/or “alerts” via Telemarketing, SMS and/or MMS, WAP Push or other similar remote messaging service and email advertisement messages (also referred to collectively as “electronic messages”) to their cell phone, mobile device, or other computing device;

Copy Delivery and Approval. Advertiser must deliver to Converg , (“Converg Media “) the content of the advertisement Advertiser is contracting Converg to broadcast (the “Copy”) no less than three (3) days prior to the desired email broadcast date. All Copy shall be subject to Converg ‘s approval. Converg reserves the right to reject any Copy that advertises or promotes any product or service involving illegal activity, illegal products, illegal product paraphernalia, sexual paraphernalia, adult films or other media, gambling, weapons, illicit activities, chain letters, pyramid fund raising, or similar types of material. By reserving this right, Converg shall not be legally obligated for any failure to advise Advertiser of the nature of any such Copy. Further, no Pop Up’s or Pop Unders may be launched by Advertiser form any hypertext link or URL, which emanates from any Copy.

Converg (and/or our affiliate partners) to use third parties to send them advertisements and content (including but not limited to alerts) via electronic messages, telemarketing or email

Converg (and/or our affiliate partners) to obtain, store, and analyze their name, address, telephone number, SMS address, e-mail address, and other data provided to Converg (and/or our affiliate partners) from time to time in the course of Converg (and/or our affiliate partners) providing services including, but not limited to, content selections, clickstream, and transaction history (all such data referred to herein as “profile data”) and to use the above “profile data” to send targeted advertising electronic messages or for third party market research, data enhancement and hygiene.

Converg collects information from individuals when an individual provides information to a third party and Converg subsequently purchases, licenses, or otherwise acquires the information from the third party. Such purchased information may include, but is not limited to, an individual’s name, email address, street address, zip code, telephone numbers (including cell phone numbers and carriers), birth date and gender. When Converg purchases and manages e-mail lists generated by third parties, Converg seeks assurances that such third parties follow the same guidelines on consumer privacy as Converg

Converg currently uses cookie and to associate certain Internet-related information about an individual with information about the individual in our database.

• A cookie is a small amount of data stored on the hard drive of the individual’s computer that allows Converg to identify the individual with his or her corresponding data that resides in Converg’s database. You may read more about cookies at http://cookiecentral.com. Individuals who use the Websites need to accept cookies in order to use all of the features and functionality of the Websites.

Additionally, Converg purchases and manages e-mail lists generated by trusted partners who follow the same guidelines on consumer privacy as Converg. Users may remove themselves from a specific mailing list by utilizing the unsubscribe options that are present and available at the end of each piece of e-mail that Converg sends.

Converg reserves the right to provide aggregate or group data about Converg’s users for lawful purposes.

Converg also reserves the right to release current or past User information in the event that Converg believes that the User is using, or has used, Services of Converg in violation of the terms and conditions, to commit unlawful acts, if the information is subpoenaed, if Converg is sold or acquired, or when Converg deems it necessary or appropriate. By agreeing to these terms, the consumer hereby consents to the disclosure of any record or communication to any third party when Converg, in its sole discretion, determines the disclosure to be appropriate. Converg does not collect credit card numbers, bank information or social security numbers. Furthermore, Converg does not market gambling and pornographic offers of any kind.

The following is a partial list of the kind of content that is illegal or prohibited on the site. Converg will investigate and take appropriate legal action in its sole discretion against anyone who violates this provision, including without limitation, removing the offending communication from the service and terminating the services of such violators. It includes content that: is blatantly offensive to the online community, such as content that promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual; harasses or advocates harassment of another person or invades their privacy; involves the transmission of “junk mail”, “chain letters,” or unsolicited mass mailing or “spamming”; promotes information that you know is false, misleading or promotes illegal activities or conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous; promotes an illegal or unauthorized copy of another person’s copyrighted work, such as providing pirated computer programs or links to them, providing information to circumvent manufacture-installed copy-protect devices, or providing pirated music or links to pirated music files; contains restricted or password only access pages, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page); displays pornographic or sexually explicit material of any kind; provides material that exploits people under the age of 18 in a sexual or violent manner, or solicits personal information from anyone under 18; provides instructional information about illegal activities such as making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone’s privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses; solicits passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other users; and engages in commercial activities and/or sales without our prior written consent such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, and pyramid schemes.

You must use Converg service in a manner consistent with any and all applicable laws and regulations.

You agree that you will not use any robot, spider, other automatic device, or manual process to monitor or copy our web pages or the content contained herein without our prior expressed written permission. You agree that you will not use any device, software or routine to bypass or to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of Converg Site or services. You agree that you will not take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure. Much of the information on our site is updated on a real time basis and is proprietary or is licensed to Converg by our users or third parties.

Copyright Policy/DMCA Notice:

You may not post, distribute, or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary information without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights or otherwise have a valid basis under the law, including “fair use”. Without limiting the foregoing, if you believe that your work has been copied and posted on Converg service in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our Copyright Agent with the following information consistent with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA): an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the our site or in our electronic messages including if feasible the URLs of web pages and/or hyperlinks; your address, telephone number, and email address; a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.

Converg does not endorse, nor is responsible for the accuracy of, the privacy policies and/or terms and conditions of each of the advertisers and/or third parties accessible through Converg’s website.

Client shall indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Converg from and against any and all third party claims, suits, and liabilities (including all reasonable costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees actually paid) arising from or in connection with: (a) the products and/or services offered/advertised on the Client Website; (b) the content of the Copy; (c) the content of the Client website; or (d) Client’s breach of any of its obligations, representations, or warranties under this Agreement. Converg shall promptly notify Client in writing of all such claims and shall accommodate Client’s reasonable requests for cooperation and information. Converg shall agree to Client’s sole control over the defense and any settlement of such claims.

By using this site, including, without limitation, signing up for offers and/or continuing to receive information from Converg, consumers agree to Converg Privacy Policy. Converg reserves the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, and/or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time. All Privacy Policy changes will take effect immediately upon their posting on Converg’s website. Please check this page periodically for changes. The consumer’s continued use of Converg’s website or acceptance of our emails following the posting of changes to these terms will mean that you accept these changes and agree to continue receiving emails from us.