Privacy Policy

Last Updated: April 15, 2024

The PG Publishing Company, publisher of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (“the Post-Gazette”) has created this Privacy Policy to explain what information we gather from you (including but not limited to when you visit our site or apps); how we may use this information; and the security approaches we use to protect your information. This Privacy Policy is incorporated and made part of the Post-Gazette's Terms of Use which can be found at www.post-gazette.com/termsofuse and covers your access and/or use of any of the Post-Gazette websites, microsites, apps, mobile apps, including, but not limited to: www.post-gazette.com; pge.post-gazette.com; pgnewsslide.com; as well as the Post-Gazette's iPad/iPhone/iPod apps, Android apps, and any digitally or non-digitally delivered products or services of the Post-Gazette (individually and collectively referred to as “the Site”).

By accessing the Site or other content published in digital form or otherwise by the Post-Gazette, you consent to the collection and use of your information by the Post-Gazette in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If we change our Privacy Policy, we will post those changes on our website www.post-gazette.com. Policy changes will apply to information collected after the date of the change.

1. Information we collect.

We collect information from you when you contact the Post-Gazette, register on the Site, submit comments, photographs or other materials on the Site, place an order, participate in Post-Gazette sponsored events, or participate in another Site feature or access the Site via a third party website such as Facebook, X, LinkedIn, or any other social media platform. We also may collect information from you when you provide information to an advertiser on the Site by clicking through to that advertisement.

When signing up for or registering to make submissions or otherwise use specific services, we may ask you for your name, e-mail address, mailing address, phone number, credit card information or other information. For some Post-Gazette services, you can instead sign up using your Google account. You may, however, be able to view parts of our Site without providing such information.

When participating in certain activities, such as commenting on a particular article, participating in an online chat, participating in an online poll, or otherwise sending messages through our Site, the comments, information, thoughts or ideas you provide may be published on the Site at the sole discretion of the Post-Gazette.

If you visit a third-party site through a link on our Site, you may be subject to that third-party’s terms and conditions of use including without limitation its privacy policies.

If you are an entity (such as a corporation, partnership or limited liability company) or an educational institution and you authorize your employees, students and patrons to access those portions of the Site that require a registration, one digital subscription will entitle each of your authorized employees to access those portions of the Site without the need for each employee to register individually, provided that such employees access such portions of the Site from a computer or other device with your institutional IP addresses for such devices that you have provided to us at the time of your registration. While these employees will not need to register to access such portions of the Site if they do so on devices with the provided IP addresses, we may gather usage data and track IP addresses from such users without their individual consent.

We use IP addresses and session identifiers to analyze trends, to administer the Site, to track user activities, to infer user interests (including user interests in certain types of content), and to otherwise induce, deduce, and gather information about individual users and market segments.

Like many web sites, we use "cookies" to enhance your experience and gather information about visitors and visits to our Site. Please refer to the “Cookies” section below for information about cookies and how we use them.

When subscribing to our products and services we may ask for your credit card or other payment information, including digital payment information. Your payment information is processed through a third-party vendor. We do not store or otherwise share your payment information.

2. How we use your information.

We may use the information we collect from you when you register, submit comments, photographs or other materials, purchase products, visit our advertisers, surf the Site, or use other Site features in the following ways:

To recognize you, personalize your Site experience and allow us to deliver the type of content and product offerings in which you are most interested.

To allow us to better service you in responding to your submissions and requests

To allow our advertisers to better tailor and present advertisements concerning their products and/or services to you

To quickly process your submissions and transactions.

To administer blogs, chats, or other Site features.

To market our products and services to you through promotional emails and other digital communications.

3. Disclosure of information to outside parties.

Comments, email and chat session participation. Information that you specifically provide (including without limitation feedback and data such as questions, comments, suggestions, names, and address) may be reproduced, used, disclosed, or distributed without limitation within the Post-Gazette, to our affiliates, and to third parties. In providing such information, you waive any ownership claim to it and you specifically acknowledge and agree that we are free to use the ideas, concepts, know-how, and techniques contained in such information for any purpose whatsoever, including but not limited to writing and publishing articles and other materials incorporating such information.

Non-personal information. We may use third- party advertising companies to serve ads. Such companies may also gather non-personally identifiable information about Site visitation patterns, which are used to improve our offerings and services. Any information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) regarding use of the Post-Gazette site, services, or content may be used to provide advertisements about goods and services that may be of interest to you.

We may share information about your Site visitation patterns with third-party technology providers to: a) provide you with personalized articles which are related to content you visited on the Site in order to allow you to discover new content and to provide you with a social space for discussing the content on the Site; and/or b) allow our advertisers to provide you with a better, more customized experience with our advertisers’ products and/or services.

Order information. Information provided to the Post-Gazette as part of the ordering process is not generally provided to outside parties; provided, however, that: (a) a third-party financial institution may receive the credit card number and other personal identifying information, like billing address, to verify the credit card numbers and process transactions; and (b) web site hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our Site, conducting our business, or servicing you, may have access to such information. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our Site policies, or protect ours or others' rights, property, or safety.

Video Advertising. We work with third party ad networks and allow such third party ad networks to target and serve video advertising and to use cookies on our Site to collect non-personally identifiable data for use in connection with the delivery of such video advertising. If you do not wish to receive such advertising you may opt out of such advertising by going to the Network Advertising Initiative’s consumer opt-out page located at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp. This NAI website endeavors to allow an individual's browser to opt out of the third party cookies. However, there's no guarantee that the opt out request will be honored by the actual ad company. According to the NAI, the NAI opt-out page is provided as a convenience to the public, but the opt-out cookie is set by participating NAI members, who are solely responsible for setting opt-out cookies and honoring your requests. Because no technology is perfect, neither NAI nor its members warrant that the opt-out tool will be error-free or always work as intended, nor can or do we make such a promise.

4. Correction/Updating Personal Information

You can correct or update your personally identifiable information by logging into your profile page online at https://my.post-gazette.com/my-account/ or by contacting us via electronic-mail audiencehelp@post-gazette.com, or by telephone at 412-263-1358.

5. Cookies

Our Site uses cookies. "Cookies" are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site's or service provider's systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. For instance, we use cookies to help us confirm your registration and process any transaction or other interaction. Cookies are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. In the course of serving advertisements to our Site, our third-party advertiser may place or recognize a unique “cookie” on your browser.

You can customize your experience with cookies by choosing to have your device warn you each time a cookie is being sent or choosing to turn off all cookies. Please note that customizing your access to cookies will change your experience with the Site—specifically, if you turn cookies off you won't have access to many features that make your Site experience more efficient and some of our services will not function properly.

6. Safeguarding Information

We follow generally accepted industry security standards to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security and correctly use personal information. However, no commercial method of information transfer over the Internet or electronic data storage is known to be 100% secure. As a result, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of that information during its transmission or its storage in our systems.

7. Privacy and Third-Party Links

This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by us. In an attempt to provide you with increased value, we may include third-party links on our Site. By clicking on those links (including without limitation through advertisement on the Site), you may be redirected to a third-party website, which would be subject to separate and independent terms and conditions of use and privacy policies. If you have any concerns about such sites—including for example if the link does not work or if you believe that the integrity of our site may be compromised—please provide feedback regarding your concerns

You agree and affirm that the Post-Gazette is not responsible for any third-party website and that it has no responsibility or liability for content and activities on or through such sites.

8. Questions and feedback

We welcome your questions, comments, and concerns about this Site. Please send any and all feedback pertaining to this Site to audiencehelp@post-gazette.com.

9. Your California Privacy Rights

Under California law, California residents who provide personal information in obtaining products or services for personal, family or household use are entitled obtain certain information about a company’s information sharing practices. However, the Post-Gazette is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; it does not market its goods or services in California; it does not actively seek California residents as customers or other users; and it is therefore not subject to the California privacy laws.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, we will voluntarily provide access to information about customer information we have shared with other businesses. To obtain this information please send an email message to audiencehelp@post-gazette.com with "Request for California Privacy Information" on the subject line and in the body of your message. To the extent we are able to, we will provide the requested information to you at your email address in response. Not all information sharing is covered by the California law and only information on covered sharing will be included in our response.

10. Notice Regarding EU General Data Protection Regulation

In 2018, the European Union (“EU”) implemented a regulation, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (“the Regulation”) which imposes certain obligations upon businesses (and others) that offer goods or services to individuals located within the EU. Businesses subject to the Regulation must handle the personal data of individuals in accordance with the Regulation’s various provisions. Given the global reach of the Internet, the Regulation provides that the mere accessibility of a website or email account in the EU is insufficient to find that the business envisions offering its goods or services to individuals in the EU. The Post-Gazette is located entirely within the United States with no presence or activities within the EU. The Post-Gazette does not envision or intend to offer goods or services to those located within the EU and expressly elects to limit its offering of goods and services to those not located within the EU and not within the scope of the Regulation.