Privacy Statement

Heatmap News Privacy Statement

Last updated: January 3, 2024

Heatmap News, Inc. (“Heatmap News,” “we,” or “us”) strives for transparency and trust when it comes to protecting your privacy and we aim to clearly explain how we collect and process your information. It is important to us that you should enjoy using our services and website(s) without compromising your privacy in any way. This policy outlines how we collect, use, and share different types of information, and the reasons for doing so.

You can get in touch directly with us using the detail in our “Contact Us” section below.

You should read this policy in conjunction with our Terms of Service and ensure that you understand how we collect and use your information.

Our policies will be updated from time-to-time. Please refer back regularly to keep yourself updated.

Special Assistance (ADA)

Special assistance is available for persons with disabilities. If you need assistance accessing our Sites, please call us at 914-687-1885

Sections in this policy:

Personal information we collect
How we use your information
Cookies and Targeted Advertising
How we work with third parties
Retaining and storing your information
Your California Privacy Rights
External links
Contact Us

This policy applies to “users” and "customers" (or "you") of Heatmap News; that is anyone registering or interacting with our service.

The information you provide us, and that which we gather based on your activity, helps us to deliver more relevant content and improve our service.

We collect and store some information about you in order to deliver services to you (such as providing your subscription). We share some of that information with trusted vendors (including payment providers and our email management platform) to ensure the delivery of those products and services, or to give personalized recommendations that will be of interest to you. We also collect information when you use our services, as further details are provided below.

Personal Information we collect:

Information you provide us directly so we may provide you with our services;
Personal information we collect in order to fulfill a subscription to Heatmap News:
- Name
- Postal address
- Email address
- Payment details
Information we collect automatically using cookies or other similar technologies:
- Browser information
- Email Provider
- The pages you read on our websites and how you got to them
- Device type and ID
- IP address
- Internet Connection
- General location information
Any other information which you voluntarily provide or disclose.
We may collect and ask for additional information when you order, purchase, register, subscribe or make use of our services in any way, for example in person, via our marketing campaigns, or our websites.
Information we receive from third parties:
- Third parties may provide us with additional information that you have shared with them, such as your telephone number and postal address (for example, if you’ve moved or updated your phone number and we need to contact you with important service information).
- Third parties may also share further information about your interaction on our sites to help us personalize our services to you.

We do not collect any sensitive information about you, such as race, religion, ethnicity, and political opinion.

Payment details:

When you submit payment details to our service, your payment card information goes directly to our payment processor, Stripe, and not to Heatmap News. You may read their privacy policy at https://stripe.com/privacy.

How we use your information:

We primarily use your information for the purpose of delivering the services that you have chosen and to personalize our interactions (including advertising) with you.

We may use your information to:

To provide our services
To manage your access to our online content, and to send you content via push notifications, newsletters, subscriptions if you have requested us to do so.
To send you service notifications related to our service such as subscription renewal notifications, password resets and order confirmations.
To manage customer service queries and complaints.
To manage your privacy preferences and to ensure you only receive communications that you have requested, which may include using your details to suppress you from communications.
To send you administrative emails about your account, reminders for upcoming events, service changes, or new policies. These updates, changes and notifications are essential for the services that you have selected.
To provide general location-based services (e.g. the region or country you are in), advertising or search results for our content.
To detect and reduce fraud including fraudulent orders.
To deliver marketing and advertising.
To measure customer and user response and engagement with our services such as online content, email newsletters and subscription offers.
To help us improve our customer and user experience and to support new product development. We may send customer satisfaction surveys and market research questionnaires (for which we may share your information with third party suppliers employed by us).
To create audience profiles for personalized advertising, marketing, or research and development on and off our websites. See the Targeted Advertising section below for more detailed information.
If you give us marketing permission, we may contact you to tell you about special offers and related or similar products or services within Heatmap News.
To detect and reduce fraudulent activity and for other security related purposes such as to help us protect against harassment, IP infringement, crime or other security issues.
We may share your personal information and other information with third parties in connection with a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of the assets of Heatmap News, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which the assets transferred may include information about the users of our services.

Marketing and Subscriptions:

You can also update your preferences for your Heatmap subscription at any time via your online account at heatmap.news or by contacting customer services (see ‘Contact us’). You can also opt out of email marketing by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails. This does not apply to important service notifications such as payment confirmations (as covered in the section above) or where we have some other legal basis for contacting you.

Social media:

Heatmap News publishes content on social media platforms e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn through both "organic" and "paid" methods to reach current and potential readers:

“Organic” methods describe where content and/or offers are published onto a social platform so that they may appear in your social platform’s content, without being promoted or forced to appear more prominently, e.g. Heatmap News’ Facebook Page.

“Paid” methods describe where content and/or offers are published onto a social platform so that they will appear more prominently, or be shown to users that do not currently follow Heatmap News social pages e.g. a promoted tweet on your Twitter Timeline.

We may place one or more social media platform “tags” on our website in order to better understand how Heatmap News may be of best value to you by providing you with the most relevant content available according to what you have chosen to read on our own websites. We do not have direct access to your personal data on your social media platforms.

Cookies and Targeted Advertising:

"Cookies" are pieces of information that may be placed on your device by a service for the purpose of facilitating and enhancing your communication and interaction with that service. Many services use cookies for these purposes. We may use cookies (and similar items such as clear gifs, web beacons, tags, etc…) on our services to customize your visit and for other purposes to make your visit more convenient or to enable us to enhance our service. Such methods may also be used in emails that we send to you. We may also use and place cookies on your device from our third party service providers in connection with the service, such as an analytics provider that helps us manage and analyze service usage. In addition, our advertisers and business partners may set cookies and similar items on your computer when you use our service. You may stop or restrict the placement of cookies on your device or flush them from your browser by adjusting your web browser preferences, in which case you may still use our Service, but it may interfere with some of its functionality.

We believe that advertising is more effective and relevant when it is targeted to your interests and behaviors. Therefore, we may work with third parties who collect information on our website through the use of cookies and similar methods in order to serve you with relevant advertisements on other services or to determine that you have seen our advertisements on other services. You do have the ability to control certain advertising practices. We comply with the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising as administered by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA). You can learn more about interest-based advertising and opt-out of targeted advertising from certain providers with whom we work by visiting https://youradchoices.com/control and the DAA’s consumer choice page. The opt-out process through the DAA relies upon the placement of an opt-out cookie on your device, and you must repeat this process on each device or if your cookies are purged from your device. Cookie-based opt-outs are not effective on certain mobile services. Users may opt out of certain advertisements on mobile applications or reset advertising identifiers via their device settings.

You may opt-out of being tracked online by certain companies who are listed at http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ OR http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp and may also learn more about online behavioral advertising at such websites. If you opt-out, you will still receive advertisements, but they will not be delivered to you by such companies from whom you have opted-out based upon your behavioral data possessed by the companies from whom you have opted-out.

To learn how to limit ad tracking or to reset the advertising identifier on your iOS and Android device, click on the following links:

iOS - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202074

Android - https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662922?hl=en

You may also download and set your preferences on the DAA’s App Choices mobile application(s) available in Google Play or the Apple App stores. More information about opting out on mobile devices is available here - https://www.networkadvertising.org/mobile-choice/

Except as required by applicable law, we do not respond to or honor “do not track” (a/k/a DNT) signals or similar mechanisms automatically transmitted by web browsers for which we cannot evaluate your choice.

How we work with third parties:

In some instances, we disclose personal information to third parties when it is necessary to deliver a service or product, or to help us improve your experience with us, or when we are required to do so by contract or law, such as service providers, subcontractors, and similar parties. They are only authorized by us to use your information as directed by Heatmap News.

Retaining and storing your information:

We store your information, and hold it for as long as we need to in order to provide our services to you in accordance with (i) applicable law, (ii) as long as is set out in any relevant contract you have with us, (iii) for tax or other financial regulatory purposes; or (iv) for as long as you interact with us, and thereafter for archival purposes. We take information security seriously and have policies and procedures in place designed to ensure the information we hold on you remains safe. We limit who has access to your information and ensure that those who do are bound by contracts to keep your information availability restricted and safe. Please note, however, that no transmission or storage of information can ever be guaranteed to be completely secure, though we do take all reasonable precautions to protect against security incidents.

Our service is maintained in the United States. If you submit personal information to us, that information may be processed in a jurisdiction where privacy laws may be less stringent than those in your country of residence. By submitting your personal information to us, you agree to the transfer, storage, and processing of such information in foreign jurisdictions including, but not limited to, the United States. Please note that personal information transferred to the United States is subject to access by law enforcement.

Children’s Privacy:

Children under 16 years of age are not permitted to use the services, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 16. By accessing the website or using our services, you represent that you are 18 years of age or older, or are 16 years of age or older and have valid parental consent to do so.

Your California Privacy Rights

Heatmap News is not currently subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”) and similar U.S. state consumer privacy laws, collectively referred to as the “Consumer Privacy Laws”. However, we will make reasonable efforts to honor consumer rights available under such laws, but do not commit to always be able to do so.

Right to know. You have the right to know what categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect about you, the sources from which we collect personal information, our business or commercial purpose for the collection, use, and sharing of your personal information, and any categories of third parties to whom we sell or with whom we share your personal information.

Right to data portability. You have the right to request a copy of personal information we have collected and maintained about you in the past 12 months. Consumer Privacy Laws allow you to request your information from us up to twice during a twelve (12) month period. We will provide our response in a readily usable format, which is usually electronic.

Right to delete. You have the right to request that we delete the personal information that we have collected from you and maintained, subject to certain exceptions.

Right to opt out of selling or sharing. Please see the Targeted Advertising section above to exercise rights similar to the right to opt-out of selling or sharing.

Right to correct. You have the right to request the correction of any personal information we maintain about you.

How to Contact Us About Your Consumer Privacy Law rights:

To submit requests, please see the Contact Us section below.

External links:

We may create links to other websites that we think may be of interest to you, such as providers of various products and services. We may also provide links that allow you to send or forward a post from our site through or to third-party social media sites, or other means of electronic communication. We do not endorse any other websites, providers, or services by providing such links, and this policy applies only to your use of our site. We are not responsible for the privacy policies of any websites and services we link to on our site, and you should read the privacy policies of each site you visit to determine what data that site may collect about you

If you have questions about this policy or about your personal information, please email dataprivacy@heatmap.news

Alternatively, please send correspondence to us at the following address:

Heatmap News 2005 Palmer Avenue, #1100, Larchmont, NY 10538

Changes to this policy

From time to time, we may make changes to this policy in our sole discretion. These changes will be reflected in this statement, so you should check here regularly.