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Privacy

Privacy Policy for Vermont Public Radio

This privacy statement is intended to be transparent about what is shared when using VPR.org and our digital products. As you use VPR.org and VPR’s digital services, you are using a variety of web services and platforms. Some of those services allow you to share information directly with VPR, such as your email, your donation or a comment on a story. Some services collect anonymous information passively as you use the site, such as the type of browser or operating system you are using.

We Collect Some Information Directly
On certain occasions when you interact with VPR’d digital platforms – e.g., by joining as a member, signing up for a newsletter, or commenting on a story – you may submit information of your own accord, or be asked to do so to participate in certain activities. The services we use to collect this information include:

  • Blackbaud - allows donation to VPR
  • Contact Form - allows sending a message to staff
  • MailChimp - allows VPR to send email newsletters, membership information and station updates
  • Disqus - allows commenting on VPR stories
  • Hearken - allows question submission for Brave Little State
  • Typeform - allows you to update your interests and preferences and provide feedback to VPR via online surveys
  • Other - occasional polls, surveys or forms to submit information to VPR

We Collect Some Information Automatically
When you use VPR’s digital products we use cookies and other tagging or tracking technologies that interact with your browser to automatically recognize information like your IP address, what type of device you’re using, high-level location information (e.g., city or state), and your user behavior (such as how long you stay on the website and which links you click on). The services we use to collect this information include:

  • Google Analytics - provides VPR with website usage metrics
  • Chartbeat - provides VPR with website metrics
  • Doubleclick For Publishers - serves underwriter and promotion messages on the site
  • NPR Analytics - provides VPR and NPR with website usage metrics
  • StreamGuys - provides live stream usage metrics

Third-Party Services
The VPR.org platform is comprised of several third-party services. As you visit VPR.org or listen online, you may be using these services:

  • NPR: Much of the VPR website is served from a shared public radio web platform, denoted by the subdomain “www” i.e. www.VPR.org
  • Clearbearing: Most of VPR’s online archive is hosted on our own web server managed by Clearbearing, denoted by the subdomain “vprarchive” i.e. archive.VPR.org
  • Amazon: A number of VPR’s web applications are served from the S3 hosting service, and are denoted by “apps” in the subdomain, i.e. apps.vpr.org
  • StreamGuys: Live streams of VPR (News, Classical, BBC, Replay, or the Vermont Statehouse) are provided by StreamGuys servers.
  • Public Media Apps - our mobile applications for iOS and Android are developed by Public Media Apps. Those apps share device data and usage stats with Google Analytics.

Cookies
Our services use cookies to differentiate one anonymous user from another. Without them, first-time visitors would be indistinguishable from returning users, your preferred stream would have to be chosen every time and other preferences would be lost between visits. You are more than welcome to disable cookies in your browser, with the understanding that your experience may not be as seamless as before.

Children
VPR does not solicit or collect information (name, mailing address, email address) of children under 13. If we become aware of information collected from someone under 13, we will remove it within a reasonable time. Children between the ages of 13 and 18 must have parental permission to use our services. Parents: if you think your child has provided us with information without your consent, please see below for how to contact us, and we will remove their data within a reasonable time.

Sharing Your Information With Other Organizations
Vermont Public Radio has a long established policy to never sell, rent, exchange or otherwise share donor, member or listener information with any other organization. VPR will always safeguard the information you share with us and it will remain confidential.
 
Sharing Your Information With Vendors
As noted above, VPR engages with some outside companies to help us develop, operate, and improve the VPR Platform. Our third party vendors receive personal information only as reasonably necessary to complete services for VPR, and are contractually bound to maintain confidentiality of information and prohibited from using or disclosing personal information without permission from VPR.

Sharing Your Information As Required By Law
In response to a subpoena, court order, or legal process, VPR will share only what is reasonable and necessary to comply with the legal request.

European Residents
Your privacy rights are different if you reside in the European Union. If you would like a copy of your personal data, to update your data, lodge a complaint or to rescind your permissions, please contact us.

Changes to Privacy Policy
VPR may update and change these policies occasionally. Any changes to policy will be reflected on this page. Your continued use of the VPR.org platform is considered consent to these policies.

Contact Us
For concerns or other questions, please contact us.

Noah Villamarin-Cutter
Digital Services
Vermont Public Radio

Change Log
Date                                Description
6/23/2022 Updated to include Vermont PBS policy.
8/11/2020                     Updated domain, app developer and contact name.
5/29/2018                     Much more detailed policy language added.
4/11/2013                     Original policy.
 

Privacy Policy for Vermont PBS

Our Donor and Member Privacy

Vermont PBS recognizes and respects the importance of your privacy and we are firmly committed to protecting your privacy. Vermont PBS adheres to a strict policy for ensuring the privacy of your personally identifiable information, such as full name, address, e-mail address, telephone number and/or other identifiable information. We understand that, when you become a Vermont PBS donor and member, you are placing your trust in us.

Vermont PBS does not sell, rent, donate or exchange its donor and member names with any organization for any reason. Furthermore, Vermont PBS does not purchase, rent or accept for any reason the names of donors to candidates for public office; or donors or members of committees or organizations supporting candidates, political parties or organizations that solicit funds for use in political campaigns for any purpose.

Vermont PBS may use your personally identifiable information for various web-based activities or for internal or marketing and promotional purposes.

In addition, Vermont PBS may occasionally employ other companies to perform direct mail, web-based or telephone campaigns on our behalf. Those companies may have access to the personal information needed to fulfill their functions, but may not use it for any other purposes. In order to fully guard against unauthorized use of our donor and membership list, we require that all such vendors to whom we release our donor and member names have in place similar policies stipulating that the names we provide will not be used for any purpose other than communications from us to our donors and members. Our donors and members always have the option to exclude their names from being provided to a third party.

Online Privacy

Vermont PBS believes very strongly in protecting the private information of our online visitors, and we will always strive to assure that vpt.org remains a safe haven. We adhere to a strict policy for ensuring the privacy of your - and your childrens' - personally identifiable information (such as full name, address, e-mail address, telephone number and/or other identifiable information) and preserving the integrity of this online medium.

Gathering and Use of Information

Our website's donation and registration forms may request that you give us certain enrollment contact information, but you are not required to give this information – it is provided on a strictly voluntary basis. If you choose not to provide this information, then certain offers may not be available to you. These offers may include contest or sweepstakes registration, community postings, on-line membership registration, e-newsletter or eJournal signup, online auction participation, transactions in Vermont PBS' online store, etc.

As noted above, Vermont PBS may sometimes use your personally identifiable information for web-based activities or for internal or marketing and promotional purposes. Vermont PBS donors and members who join online always have the option to exclude their names from being provided to a third party.

In addition, Vermont PBS does partner with outside companies and organizations for web content, special offers, promotions and other related activities. Because of such partnerships, there may be cases where offers or requests for information are made by outside companies, or instances when you may choose to leave vermontpbs.org to visit another website. In such cases, when you choose to offer any personal information to such company or organization, you are providing this information to a third party. Vermont PBS is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of any other party's website.

Tell-A-Friend:

If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for the friend's name and email address. Vermont PBS will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit our website. Vermont PBS stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email.

Online Security

All donation and transaction information provided to Vermont PBS, including credit card numbers and other financial information that you enter into our Pledge and Shop functions, is transmitted and stored in encrypted form on secure servers using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption. SSL is a proven coding system that lets your browser automatically encrypt, or scramble, data before you send it to us. We also protect account information by placing it on a secure portion of our site that is only accessible by certain qualified employees of Vermont PBS. Unfortunately, however, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of such information.

Public Forums

This site may at times make chat rooms, forums, message boards, and/or news groups available to you. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information. You should therefore exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information in these areas.

Social Media

Vermont PBS welcomes and appreciates social media comments from our viewers.

We appreciate disagreement of opinion, but our first priority is to make this space welcoming to all. Sometimes, we need to remove an offensive or inappropriate comment or block a user. Here is our general social media policy for commenting:

1. Keep the comments on topic.
2. Direct comments to the topic, not at each other or individuals.
3. No profanity or derogatory language.
4. No copyright violations.
5. We retain the right to remove anything or block anyone at any time for any reason.

Children's Privacy

For many years, parents and caregivers have trusted us to provide responsible and quality content for children. In an online environment, this trust becomes even more important to you, and to us. We believe the following promises will improve the safety, value and enjoyment of your child's visits to our site and our affiliated sites.

  • We will not collect personally identifiable information from your child.
  • If your child sends us an e-mail with a question or comment, or enters one of our contests, we will respond using his or her e-mail, but will not store it for future communications.
  • If we know that your child is under the age of thirteen, we will collect your permission offline (by postal mail, fax or phone) before we mail any prizes or share your child's personal information with anyone else.
  • If your child submits stories, artwork, comments or anything else to us that is posted on our site, he or she will be identified only by first name and age.

If you or your child localize on pbskids.org, a cookie will tell PBS our station's call letters (WETK). PBS only keeps track of how many computers choose each station. No personal information is stored in the cookie, even if you have entered your name or email address on other parts of PBS Online.

We also promise to help children, their families and communities find the information they need to use the Internet safely and responsibly. The VPT Kids site will not contain advertisements promoting e-commerce or direct links to e-commerce.

All links from the Vermont PBS Kids site to third party sites are insulated with a Vermont PBS Kids ‘bridge page.' These pages clearly notify the visitor that he or she is leaving Vermont PBS Kids, and offers an opportunity to return to Vermont PBS Kids. Each bridge page displays a Web literacy tip, educating visitors how to be safe on the Internet. Since we cannot be assured that links to outside sites follow our safety or privacy guidelines, we encourage adults and children to discuss these choices together. We are not responsible for the content or safety and privacy practices at any sites linked from our pages.

You and your child's use of this site are conditioned on your having accepted these terms. You should check back at this policy page frequently, since the policy is subject to change from time to time, and your continued use of the site is conditioned upon your acceptance of any modifications hereto.

Changes in the Privacy Policy

Vermont PBS reserves the right to update or change this policy from time to time. Any changes to this privacy policy will be posted to this page as soon as reasonably possible, so please refer to this page regularly. Use of the Vermont PBS website constitutes consent to any policy then in effect.

Protection of Vermont PBS and Others

We will release account and other personal information if we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law or to protect the rights, property or safety of Vermont PBS, our users or others.

Customer Service
If you want to opt-out of all or certain communications, have any questions or comments concerning our privacy policy, or the practices of this website, please contact us via e-mail at viewerservices@vermontpbs.org, or by phone at 802-655-4800 / 800-639-7811, or by mail at:

Viewer Services
Vermont PBS
204 Ethan Allen Avenue
Colchester, VT 05446