Democratic Underground Privacy Policy
This is a previous version of the Democratic Underground Privacy Policy which is no longer in effect. See the most recent version of the Privacy Policy for up-to-date information.
Effective May 11, 2010 - December 19, 2022.
Democratic Underground, LLC (“Democratic Underground” or “the Site”) has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate its firm commitment to privacy. In adopting this privacy policy, the intent is to balance the Site’s legitimate business interests in collecting and using personally identifiable information and a user’s reasonable expectations of privacy. The following discloses the information gathering and dissemination practices for the Democratic Underground Site.
Information Collection & Use
Information Collected from All Users
Democratic Underground collects certain information from users that is not personally identifiable. This information includes, but is not limited to, the user’s Internet service provider (ISP), Internet protocol (IP) address, Internet browser type and version and operating system (OS). Other information collected includes the date and time of a user’s exit and entry on the Site, the names and addresses of referral sites, the specific pages a user chooses to visit on the Site and certain search terms that a user may have employed to find the Site.
Use of Information Collected from All Users
Information collected from “All Users” is used for purposes of internal reviews, including, but not limited to, traffic audits, tailoring of pages to a particular user’s technology environment, analyzing traffic and search trends, generating aggregate demographic information and general Site administration. This information may be shared in an aggregate form with advertisers and other third parties with a legitimate interest in the data. This aggregated data is anonymous and does not allow third parties to identify Democratic Underground users.
Information Collected from Registered Users
“Registered Users” are users that choose to participate more fully on the Democratic Underground Site. This higher level of participation includes, but is not limited to, a user’s decision to register for the online forums, make a purchase or donation, or otherwise share more detailed personal or payment information with Democratic Underground.
Democratic Underground registration and payment forms may require users to provide certain types of personally identifiable information. This information may include, but is not limited to, a user’s name, e-mail address, postal address, country of residence, telephone number, year of birth, gender and similar identifying information. This information may also include payment information, such as a user’s credit card number or other payment account numbers. Democratic Underground may also record a user’s IP address along with your personally identifiable information.
Use of Information Collected from Registered Users
Information collected from “Registered Users” is used for purposes of communicating with registered users, including, but not limited to, sending a user occasional e-mail messages from Democratic Underground, corresponding with users via email in response to user inquiries, providing services a user may request and otherwise managing a user’s account. Users’ contact information may be shared with other organizations and companies, pre-screened by Democratic Underground, who may want to contact Site users. Users may opt-out of future mailings from Democratic Underground by employing methods provided in the below section entitled “Opt-Out and Modification of Provided Information.”
Payment information is used for purposes of billing and order fulfillment. This includes, but is not limited to, sending a user’s billing information to a credit card processor or providing a user’s postal address to a shipping company.
IP addresses and e-mail addresses may be employed by the Site for identity, safety and security purposes. Such uses include, but are not limited to, identifying specific users in the discussion forums or preventing access to the Site based on a user’s IP or e-mail address. Democratic Underground reserves the right to retain records of IP or e-mail addresses obtained by a Registered User for purposes of User identification and enforcement of Site policies and procedures.
Democratic Underground authorizes pre-screened volunteer moderators to access limited information about Registered Users. Information accessible by these volunteers generally includes e-mail address, history of activity on the Site, and a user’s deleted posts, warnings, suspensions, and related discipline information. Volunteers also have access to any personal information which a Registered User may voluntarily disclose, including a user’s real name and location. Volunteer moderators do not have access to a user’s donation information or IP address.
Security
Democratic Underground employs reasonable security methods to secure users’ privacy, including, but not limited to, third-party encryption of payment forms, password protected file systems and similar means of protection, designed to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of information under Democratic Underground’s control. While Democratic Underground takes commercially reasonable security precautions, the Site is not responsible for data breaches of third parties, such as payment processors, web hosts or advertising providers.
Voluntary Public Disclosure
The Democratic Underground Site may include features, such as discussion forums, blog comment forms and related tools, that allow users to publicly share information about themselves. Any information a user discloses in these areas is publicly available on the Internet. Such information may be read, archived, collected, or used by other Internet users, including automated services such as search engines. Democratic Underground is not responsible for personally identifiable information you choose to publicly disclose, and urges users to exercise caution when disclosing information that may be personal in nature.
Third Party Websites
This Democratic Underground Privacy Policy applies only to information collected by the Democratic Underground Site. The Democratic Underground Site may contain links to other third party web sites that are not owned or controlled by Democratic Underground, including, but not limited to, third party advertisers. These sites control their own privacy practices and are not bound by this Democratic Underground Privacy Policy. Democratic Underground is not responsible for the information or services provided on third party sites provide, nor is it responsible for the privacy practices or content of their sites.
Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on the Democratic Underground site. Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to this site and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
We allow third-party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit our web site. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g., click stream information, browser type, time and date, subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over) during your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice or to opt-out of this type of advertising, click here
Cookies
A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user's computer for record-keeping purposes. Democratic Underground may use both “session ID cookies” and “persistent cookies.” Democratic Underground uses cookies to deliver content specific to your interests, provide convenience features and for other purposes.
Disclosure by Legal Mandate
Democratic Underground reserves the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by legal mandate, including, but not limited to, compliance with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process lawfully served on Democratic Underground.
Children Under Thirteen Years of Age
Pursuant to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), Democratic Underground generally does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under thirteen (13) years of age. Democratic Underground only collects information from children under thirteen years of age after receiving verified parental consent prior to collection. Upon notice that Democratic Underground has inadvertently collected personally identifiable information from a child under thirteen, Democratic Underground will take all reasonable steps to remove such information from its records as quickly as reasonably possible.
Transition of Ownership
Were Democratic Underground to engage in a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition or sale, your personally identifiable information may be among the assets transferred. Users will be notified of any ownership transition via prominent notice on the Site at least thirty (30) days before any such change in ownership or control of your personal information is undertaken.
Opt-Out and Modification of Provided Information
Democratic Underground users may request that their personal information be deleted from Site records by sending an email to mail@democraticunderground.com. The Site will remove personally identifiable information from its records for any user that requests removal, provided that the user’s account remains inactive for seven days. Any user whose information is removed from Site records shall thereafter be bound by rules for “All Users,” as provided above, except that information in the public domain, such as a user’s forum posts while a Registered User, will not be deleted from the Site’s records.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Democratic Underground reserves the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time by posting the changes on the Democratic Underground Site. This Democratic Underground Privacy Policy was last updated on May 11, 2010.
Contact Information
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact Democratic Underground at:
David Allen
Democratic Underground, LLC
P.O. Box 339
Kensington, MD 20895-0339
mail@democraticunderground.com