PRIVACY


Privacy policy

Consumers Union, publisher of the family of Consumer Reports products and services, is an independent, nonprofit testing and information organization serving consumers. Since 1936, our mission has been to test products, inform the public, and protect consumers. Our Privacy policy continues our commitment to serve you and explains how we intend to protect your privacy. 

This policy reflects how we collect and use consumer information in all of our marketing and communication.  Consumers interact with us online, in response to direct-mail or other promotions, through communication with customer service or by making a donation. We want you to understand how we will protect and safeguard your privacy in any interaction you may have with us.

Our privacy pledge to you: We know that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we are committed to do so carefully and sensibly. We do not sell, share, or rent your information to others in any way that we have not mentioned in this policy statement.

This Privacy policy was last updated in June 2007. It has been updated to provide you with additional details and to address our use of information collected through all marketing channels.

Please read this Privacy policy carefully so that you understand our online privacy practices regarding:


SITES, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES COVERED BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy policy applies to the following Consumer Reports Web sites:

ConsumerReports.org
Consumer Reports Auto Price Services
Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs
Consumer Reports Greener Choices
Consumer Reports on Health
Consumer Reports Medical Guide
Consumer Reports New Car Buying Kit
Consumer Reports Used Car Buying Kit
Consumer Reports WebWatch

This Privacy policy applies to the following Consumer Reports products and services:

ConsumerReports.org
Consumer Reports Auto Price Services
Consumer Reports Books, Calendars and Reprints
Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs
Consumer Reports Classroom Program
Consumer Reports on Health
Consumer Reports Magazine
Consumer Reports Medical Guide
Consumer Reports New Car Buying Kit
Consumer Reports ShopSmart
Consumer Reports Used Car Buying Kit
Consumer Reports User Product Reviews and Ratings

As a publisher Consumer Reports develops new products and services that complement our current offerings. This Privacy policy will also apply to any new products or services we develop. 

These sites, products and services are referred to in this Privacy policy as "Consumer Reports," "Consumers Union," "we," "us," "our sites," "our Web sites," “our products,” and “our products and services.”

Our Web sites may contain links to other Web sites for your convenience and information. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those other sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any company before submitting your personal information. Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of the family of Consumer Reports products and services, maintains additional Web sites that contain separate privacy policies. Most of these sites are accessible from ConsumersUnion.org. 


INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOW WE COLLECT IT

Many of the services on Consumer Reports sites are offered without our collecting any personally identifiable information from you. You can use any of our sites and view some of our content anonymously. For instance, you can access many free reports online without providing any personal information.

The information we gather through all marketing channels falls into three categories: (1) personal information you voluntarily supply to us such as when you subscribe, order, complete a survey, register for an online discussion, enter a contest or sweepstakes, make a donation, or provide your e-mail address, (2) tracking information collected as you navigate through our sites, and (3) customer service information we collect to resolve a problem or answer a question.

Personally identifiable information

There are many features on our sites for which no registration is required. You will need to provide us with personal information about yourself if you are interested in obtaining certain information, products, or services through any channel, or in participating in certain activities (such as making a purchase; subscribing to one of our publications or newsletters; making a donation; or participating in sweepstakes, contests, surveys, or other special initiatives). When you do this, we collect personally identifiable information about you, including, but not limited, to your name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone number, credit-card information, and user name and password.

If you do provide us with personal information we may use this to customize your experience online or provide you with personalized e-mail and direct-mail messages. We may track what online, e-mail or direct-mail content you are interested in. We do this to focus our communications and provide you content, services and offers we believe may be of interest to you.

We may supplement information you give us with information from other sources, such as information to validate or update your address, credit-card or other demographic and lifestyle information. We use this information to help us maintain the accuracy of the information we collect, to target our communications so that we can inform you of products and services that may be of interest, and for internal business analysis or other business purposes consistent with our mission.

You may also provide us with information about other people. For example, you might submit a person’s name and e-mail address to share an online article or you might order a product or service as a gift either online or offline for another person and we will ask you for that person's name, postal address, and e-mail address in order to complete delivery of the gift to the recipient.

We do not collect individually identifiable health information unless you specifically volunteer it, for example, in response to an invitation to share your experience.

Aggregate information collected through technology

When you use any Consumer Reports site, we may collect tracking information such as your browser type, the type of operating system you use, the domain name of your Internet service provider, and pages visited on the site. None of this information identifies you personally; we collect it for aggregate reporting on site activity. For example, we may want to know how long the average user spends on our sites, or which pages or features get the most attention. We use this information to make our sites more useful to you.

Most aggregate information is collected via cookies or other technical methods. We use cookies, Web beacons, and other technologies for analysis and personalization services. Consumer Reports also places ads on other Web sites that may use cookies. To learn more, read Consumer Reports' use of cookies and Web beacons.

Consumer Reports licenses content from various providers for our products and sites. Most such online content is provided directly by Consumer Reports. In a few cases, however, the company licensing content to Consumer Reports may host the content on their Web servers, although our subscribers gain access to the content through Consumer Reports sites. In such cases, the content provider may collect aggregate tracking information such as domain name and IP addresses for those who access the hosted content. Information shared under these circumstances is provided primarily to safeguard the security of the content sites, as well as that of Consumer Reports. These companies are restricted from using the data they collect in any way other than to protect the security of their content or for certain other limited uses. They may not share or resell any information collected.


HOW YOUR INFORMATION WILL BE USED

We want you to understand how we will use your information, and if you tell us that you do not want us to use this information for any further contact with you beyond fulfilling your requests, we will respect your wishes.  

Our primary goal in collecting information is to provide you with a customized experience and to make our products, programs and services more useful to you.

Consumer Reports information use
Consumer Reports uses personally identifiable information collected through all channels in a limited number of ways. We use the information to complete transactions and fulfill requests for our services. For instance, if you order or register for a product or service, we use your information to process or communicate with you about the status of your order, or if you contact us for help, we will use the information to reply to you. We may also use the information you provide to send you promotional materials by postal mail, e-mail or telephone only for Consumer Reports or Consumers Union’s products, programs, or services that we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive these communications, you can opt-out of e-mail promotions by following the unsubscribe instructions included in each communication or you can indicate your preference not to receive direct mail or telephone calls from us by writing to:

Consumers Union Customer Relations
Attn: Marketing Communications
101 Truman Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10703

Be sure to include your full name, address, telephone number and account information.

It may take several weeks for your request to become effective. If, for any reason, you continue to receive these communications, please contact us again and we will make every effort to correct the situation.

We use the information you provide about others to enable us to send them your gifts or the online content you requested. From time to time, we also may use this information to send direct-mail offering our products, programs or services to them.



SHARING YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION

We take very seriously our responsibility to maintain your privacy with respect to your personally identifiable information. We will share that information only with the following entities, and only in the manner described below.

If you have an online subscription to one of our sites, purchase and download any of our online reports and services, enter an online contest or sweepstakes, or participate in an online survey, Consumer Reports will not exchange or rent for promotional purposes any information that specifically identifies you.

With other companies for direct-mail promotional offers 
If you subscribe to Consumer Reports magazine or print newsletters or purchase any of our books either by mail, phone, or online, we may exchange or rent your name and mailing address information (but not your e-mail address) with other reputable companies that offer marketing information or products through direct-mail. We screen all such offers and strive to select trustworthy, reputable companies who offer high quality products or services of interest to you. If you prefer that we do not share this information, please tell us so by calling us at 866-908-8287 or writing to:

Consumer Reports, Mail Preference Service
PO Box 2109
Harlan, IA 51593

Be sure to include your full name and address and account information along with your request.

It may take several weeks for your request to become effective. If, for any reason, you continue to receive these communications, please contact us again and we will make every effort to correct the situation.

To service providers
We contract with other companies to provide certain services on our behalf, including credit-card processing, shipping, mail and e-mail distribution, processing and monitoring of user product reviews and Ratings, analytics or promotions management. We provide these companies only with the information they need to perform their services. These service providers are restricted from using data in any way other than to provide services for Consumer Reports, and they may not share or resell this data.
 
For legal purposes
From time to time, we may purchase a business or sell one or more of our businesses and your personally identifiable information may be transferred as a part of the purchase or sale. In the event that we purchase a business, the personally identifiable information received would be treated in accordance with this Privacy policy, if it is practicable and permissible to do so. In the event that we sell a business, we will include provisions in the selling contract requiring the purchaser to treat your personally identifiable information in the same manner required by this Privacy policy (including any changes to this Privacy policy made prior to purchase date).

We reserve the right to share your personal identifiable information with legal authorities if required by law, for example, to comply with a court order or subpoena, or if we determine in our sole discretion that it is necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding suspected illegal activities, any violations of our User Agreement (including this Privacy policy), or in connection with any safety or security concerns.



HOW YOU CAN CORRECT YOUR INFORMATION

Consumers Union believes in providing you with the ability to access and edit the personal information that we maintain on your account. To update the information retained about you, please log in online and visit My account. Or, for any other requests, write to us at:

Consumers Union Customer Relations
Attn: Account Information
101 Truman Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10703

To protect your privacy and security, we will also verify your identity before granting access or making corrections.


OUR E-MAIL POLICIES

Account- and services-related e-mail: We will send you e-mails relating to your account. These include e-mails such as order confirmations, renewal/expiration notices, and credit-card problem notifications. If you register for online discussions, submit user product reviews or Ratings, or register for other services, you may receive e-mails specific to your participation in those activities.

E-mail newsletters: We offer several e-mail newsletters. If you no longer wish to receive a specific newsletter, follow the "Unsubscribe" instructions located near the bottom of each newsletter. 

Promotional e-mails: We may also e-mail you messages that we think may be of interest to you about other Consumers Union products, services and programs. You can choose not to receive additional types of messages in the future by either (1) following the "unsubscribe" instructions located near the bottom of each newsletter, or (2) logging in and doing the following:

1. Click on My account.
2. Select your Consumer Reports product and enter your username and password or magazine account number.
3. Click on “Change my address or other personal information”.
4. Select opt out (“No” button) in the Personal Information area.
5. Click "Change personal information”.


HTML verification and e-mail tracking: When receiving e-mail from us, we may place a small piece of code in that e-mail to determine whether or not you can accept HTML images and whether or not you viewed and/or clicked on links contained in the e-mail. This process does not leave any information on your computer, nor does it collect information from your computer.

E-mail opt-outs. In the event you decide to unsubscribe from our newsletters or promotional e-mails we will honor your request as quickly as possible. 

E-mails from you: You may choose to send us e-mails. You should be aware that information disclosed in e-mails may not be secure or encrypted and thus may be available to others. We suggest that you exercise caution when deciding to disclose any personal or confidential information in e-mails.


SECURITY

We work to protect your personal information from loss, misuse or unauthorized alteration. We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use the information we collect through all channels.


Security Of The Personal Information You Provide

Credit card information. We use data encryption technology to help protect against loss, misuse or alteration of your sensitive credit or debit card information. We use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which creates an encrypted connection for the transmission of any credit or debit card information you input online and we use the same encryption protection for any payment authorizations for transactions we request through any channel. Once we collect your credit card or debit card information, it is stored on restricted-access computers that are not directly accessible via the Internet.

Personal Information. We protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information by using industry-recognized security safeguards such as firewalls, coupled with security procedures to protect your information from loss, misuse or unauthorized alteration.

Please keep in mind that any information you include in a message you post online to any discussion group, as part of a user product review or Rating, or other public posting area on our sites is available to anyone with Internet access. If you don't want people to know your name or e-mail address, for example, do not include them in any message you post publicly. Any information posted or communication to a public area of any Consumer Reports or Consumers Union web site is beyond our control.

Information use by our employees and agents. Our employees are trained and required to safeguard your information. Using physical, electronic and procedural safeguards, our policies restrict access to personal information only to those employees who need to access it for business purposes.


Security Enforcement

Any unauthorized access to any Consumer Reports or Consumers Union web sites or to the information collected and maintained by us should be immediately brought to our attention by contacting us via email or by writing to us at Consumers Union Customer Relations, Attn: Security, 101 Truman Avenue, Yonkers, NY 10703. We will investigate, and, if necessary, take action to halt any violation of the security of your personal information of which we become aware.

In the unlikely event that we believe the security of your sensitive personal information, such as payment card information, in our possession or control may have been compromised, we will apply the same notification policy to all of those individuals affected. We will endeavor to provide required notice as soon as possible under the circumstances and will ensure that in addition to any other methods, notices are posted on our ConsumerReports.org and (if applicable) our Consumers Union Web sites.


Security Of Access To Your Online Account Information

When you set up an online account with us, you are asked to establish a user name and password.

When you later log on to your account, you will be asked to enter your username and password to protect the security of your online account. If you want to change your password or other subscriber information, you may do so at any time through My account. If you have forgotten your username, we will ask you for the e-mail address you used when you created the account (or an updated e-mail address that you have previously provided to us), and we will promptly e-mail your user name to that e-mail address. If you have forgotten your password, we will ask you for both your e-mail address and your user name. For print subscription accounts, you will need to provide us with your account number to make any changes to your password or other subscriber information.

It is your responsibility to control the dissemination and use of your user name and password and to control access to and use of your account. We urge you to keep your user name and password confidential and not disclose them to anyone. Be sure to sign off when finished using our sites, especially if you are using a shared or public computer. We will not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this provision, for example, a third party’s unauthorized access to certain of your account information, such as your billing address.

IMPORTANT - Although we take these steps to protect your personal information, no method of transmitting or storing electronic data is ever completely secure, therefore we cannot promise or guarantee that such information will never be accessed, used or released in a manner that is inconsistent with this policy.


SUBMISSION OF USER PRODUCT REVIEWS AND RATINGS

The ConsumerReports.org website offers a Review Tool that allows ConsumerReports.org subscribers to submit product reviews and ratings (“Reviews”) and to read Reviews submitted by other subscribers. In order to post a Review, Consumer Reports requires you to provide us with a user name (which should be different from your real name) and your geographical location. Only your user name and geographical location will be posted with your Review. Please keep in mind that any information you include in a Review is available to the public. If you don't want people to know your real name or email address or any other personally identifiable information, do not include that information in the text of any of your Reviews. If you submit Reviews, please be aware that we may share your submissions with other websites or provide links to your submissions from other websites.


DONATIONS

If you make a tax-deductible donation to Consumer Reports Foundation or Consumers Union, none of the information from that donation will be rented or exchanged with any other company or organization except our affiliate, the Consumers Union Action Fund, Inc. (CUAF).

You may be contacted by mail, phone or e-mail to make an additional donation to Consumer Reports Foundation, to Consumers Union or to CUAF or to subscribe to our publications, books and other services.

If you do not wish to receive any postal mail solicitations from us please write:

Consumer Reports Development Office
No Mail Solicitations
101 Truman Ave
Yonkers, NY 10703

If you do not wish to receive telephone solicitations from us please write:

Consumer Reports Development Office
No Telephone Solicitations
101 Truman Ave
Yonkers, NY 10703

If you do not wish to receive e-mail solicitations from us please write:

Consumer Reports Development Office
No Email Solicitations
101 Truman Ave
Yonkers, NY 10703


CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

Our Web sites are general audience sites, and we do not knowingly collect information about children. Should a child whom we know to be under 13 make known to us his or her personally identifiable information, we will use that information only to respond directly to that child to inform him or her that we must have parental consent before receiving his or her personally identifiable information.

INTERNATIONAL PRIVACY

Our Web sites are primarily hosted by servers in the United States and we may have site visitors and registrants as well as subscribers and buyers of our publications and products from countries around the world. Accordingly, if you are located outside of the United States, the personal information you provide to us will be transferred to the United States. By submitting your personal information, you consent to its transfer and storage in the United States and its use in accordance with the purposes for which it was originally collected and as set forth in this Privacy policy.  


CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy policy may be amended from time to time. Any modifications will be reflected online, so check back often. If we make a significant or material change in the way we use your personal information, we will make you aware by prominently posting a notice on our Web sites. We will provide thirty (30) calendar days advanced notice of any material change to the way we use personal information.

HOW TO CONTACT US about privacy

If you have any questions or concerns about the Consumer Reports Privacy policy, its implementation, or would like a written copy, please feel free to contact us at:

Consumers Union Customer Relations
Attn: Privacy
101 Truman Avenue
Yonkers, NY 10703


Or, if you would like to contact us via e-mail, please visit www.consumerreports.org/email.


If you feel that we have not followed our Privacy policy, please let us know. Additionally, you may contact your state or local consumer protection office, The Direct Marketing Association's Committee on Ethical Business Practices at mgoldberger@the-dma.org, the Better Business Bureau, or The Federal Trade Commission, by phone at (202) FTC-HELP (202-382-4357) or online at www.ftc.gov.


OTHER USEFUL LINKS

ConsumerReports.org User Agreement
Security
Discussion guidelines