Privacy Policy

Updated Aug. 15, 2013

Welcome to ptleader.com, a local news, information, communication and advertising service for Jefferson County, WA and beyond.

Ptleader.com is produced by the Port Townsend Publishing Co. Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. At the Port Townsend Publishing Co., we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe.

Because we gather certain types of information about our visitors, we feel you should fully understand our policy and the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather and how we use it.

Port Townsend Publishing Co. gathers three types of information about visitors:

1. Information that visitors provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These are voluntary submissions include, but are not limited to: submissions to the events calendar, participation in article commenting or forums, use of email story, subscribing to an electronic newsletter and from participation in polls and surveys.
2. Information Port Townsend Publishing Co. gathers through aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our site. This information allows us to better tailor our content to readers' needs and to help our advertisers and sponsors better understand our audience. Because Port Townsend Publishing Co. derives its revenue mainly from sponsorships, memberships and advertising, providing such data is essential to keeping our service profitable. However, Port Townsend Publishing Co. does not divulge any information about an individual visitor to a third party.
3. Visitors can subscribe to the Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader via an online subscription form. To subscribe visitors must submit personal and bank or credit card information we need to send the newspaper to you as well as collect the subscription fee. Port Townsend Publishing Co. contracts with Town News Inc. to provide secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems.

CHILDREN

Consistent with the Federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting parental consent.

TRACKING

Port Townsend Publishing Co. tracks visitor traffic patterns throughout our site. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual visitors.

We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites visitors like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual visitors read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you.

COOKIES

We may place a text file called a "cookie" in the browser files of your computer. The cookie itself does not contain personal information although it will enable us to relate your use of this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. Port Townsend Publishing uses cookies to track visitor traffic patterns (as described above). You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser.

USE OF INFORMATION

Port Townsend Publishing Co. uses information voluntarily given by our visitors to enhance their experience, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the sites or to better prepare future content based on the interests of our visitors.

As stated above, we use information that visitors voluntarily provide to send out electronic newsletters and to enable visitors to participate in polls, surveys, article commenting, and the events calendar. We send out newsletters to subscribers on a regular schedule (depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are doing. Port Townsend Publishing Co. never shares newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners.

Port Townsend Publishing Co. creates aggregate reports on visitor traffic patterns for advertisers, sponsors and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise more effectively. Because we don't track the usage patterns of individual visitors, an advertiser or sponsor will never know that a specific visitor clicked their ad. We will not disclose any information about any individual visitor except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our visitors or the public.

SHARING OF THE INFORMATION

Port Townsend Publishing Co. uses the above-described information to tailor our content to suit your needs and help our advertisers better understand our audience. We will not share information about individual visitors with any third party, except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our visitors or the public.

OPT-OUT POLICY

We give visitors options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:

• Opting not to register to receive our electronic newsletters.
• Electronic newsletter subscribers may remove themselves from a mailing list by following the link provided in every newsletter that points visitors to the subscription management page.
• Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our visitors.

YOUR CONSENT

By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by Port Townsend Publishing Co. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.