Privacy & Terms

This is the main privacy policy for theglobeandmail.com and globeadvisor.com and for certain services provided through these and other websites and applications of The Globe and Mail Inc. (“The Globe”). There may be other policies that apply to certain services that we provide, or we may link to third parties who may have their own policies. Please read these when you register or subscribe for these services, or visit a third party website or application.

The Globe is always working to offer new products and services to users and may from time to time need to update this Privacy Policy. If there is any material change, The Globe will notify users through messaging on the applicable websites and applications for a reasonable period of time. Please read this privacy policy carefully and check back periodically for updates.

The Basics

The following sets out what you need to know about our personal handling practices at The Globe. More detail for those who wish to have it follows.

Personal information we might collect from you and why.

• Account information such as name, address, postal code, email address and phone number. This information is used to fulfill your request for information, products and services, provide relevant advertising, administer contests or promotions you enter and respond to your enquiries.
• Subscriber id and passwords so that you may access your account information and services.
• Collect credit card or banking information if required to complete a sale.
• Usage information such as product or service preferences, purchase history, time spent and other customer engagement information to better understand your preferences and help us develop better products and services.
• If you choose to provide it to us, supplementary information such as gender, month and year of birth, income range, the industry you work in, your current position, and customer satisfaction information.
• Social media identifiers including both personal and non-personally identifying information you may provide by using social media sharing and log-in features. You can control what information you share through some social networking sites’ privacy settings.
• If you attend The Globe’s offices or speak with one of our representatives on the telephone you may be recorded on video or audio tapes. Customer service calls may be recorded for quality assurance purposes.

We assume you have given us implied consent for some uses:

• By purchasing any of our products or using any of our services, we assume you consent to receive the products and services and information relevant to them including service notifications, personalized content and services, relevant advertising, and other communications regarding our products, services, promotions and loyalty programs.

Uses you can explicitly consent to:

• You may opt-in to receive additional services such specialized daily email newsletters or marketing communications from our advertisers based on your areas of interest. Go to the Customer Preference Centre to take advantage of these services from The Globe. Your email address is not shared with our advertisers.
• You may opt-in to receive stock alerts from The Globe by visiting globeadvisor.com or globeandmail.com and setting up a personalized portfolio.
• We are currently updating our Customer Preference Centre to include editing capabilities for supplemental information. In the meantime, please send email to optout@globeandmail.com with your request.

Value you may receive:

• The Globe relies on customer information and insight to improve our products and services and to make our websites and applications easier to navigate.
• It also helps us customize your experience by delivering content, messages and advertising that are relevant to you.
• For example, registered users and subscribers have access to our portfolio tool and may create a stock watchlist, and may participate in discussions with other readers using our comment function.

What you can do if you wish to withdraw your consent or change your personal information:

• If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from marketing and/or service email communications from The Globe please email optout@globeandmail.com with your request. You may also click the unsubscribe link provided in the footer of all non-essential communication from The Globe. You must call Customer Service to provide an alternate method of contacting you should you wish to unsubscribe from certain email services we consider essential to your service such as billing notices, delivery notices, or password reset requests.
• If you wish to make a change to your supplementary information or remove your consent regarding The Globe’s use of your supplementary information, please send email to optout@globeandmail.com and include Supplementary Information in the subject line or call Customer Service at 1-800-387-5400.
• You may manage your editorial newsletters, advertiser marketing offer consents and see what is available to you from The Globe in the Customer Preference Centre.
• You can opt-out of online behavioural advertising where applicable by clicking the AdChoices icon in the top-right corner of ads appearing on our websites.
• You can also limit the collection of your information by disabling cookies. However, because The Globe website and the AdChoices program both rely on cookies to enable core functionality, disabling cookies is not recommended. If you choose to do so, some of The Globe’s services may not work properly and your AdChoices opt-out may not be registered.
• You may update your account information by logging in to theglobeandmail.com, clicking your username at the top right corner of the webpage and then following the “Edit Profile” link.
• Information you provided to The Globe through social network integration features, such as Facebook Connect, Twitter, or LinkedIn are governed by the terms of that particular service, and may not automatically be updated by the underlying service in The Globe’s records.

Contacting The Globe regarding your privacy:

We encourage you to contact us with any questions or concerns you have about your privacy or this privacy policy. If you have concerns, you may contact The Globe’s Privacy Officer in writing at privacy@globeandmail.com or as follows:

What is not covered by this policy:

• Information that is not personally identifiable such as type of browser or operating system you are using, your network, our web pages you have visited, other web pages you have visited before and after visiting ours, type of device, general location information and other similar types of anonymous or de-identified information may be collected and used by us and third parties including advertisers.
• Aggregate data that cannot be associated with a specific person, such as demographic statistics about The Globe’s customers, or number of visitors and average time spent on a website.
• Personal Information for Editorial Purposes — As you may expect, information collected for editorial purposes, whether or not it is considered “personal”, is exempt from the requirements of Canadian law and is not covered by this policy. Business contact information including the name, title, business address and telephone number of an employee of an organization, publicly available information such as an individual’s name and address when listed in or made available through a directory, or any other information or circumstance that falls outside the scope of or is exempted by applicable privacy legislation.

1. The Fine Print

The following sets out some additional detail about The Globe’s business practices as it pertains to your personal information.

The Globe may collect personal information using the following means:

1. When you become a subscriber;
2. When you register for any of The Globe’s services or sign up for special features such as contests;
3. By using cookies and similar technologies when you visit our site; and
4. By conducting surveys

(a) Cookies and Similar Technologies

Like most websites, The Globe relies on cookies and other commonly used technologies such as JavaScript, Adobe Flash, web beacons and pixels to provide website functionality and to deliver the best experience for our users. We use these technologies to collect information about the usage of our site and to offer users advertising that is relevant to them based on how they use the site. By using The Globe website, you give us and trusted third parties on our website consent to collect Usage Information using cookies and similar technologies and to use it for the purposes specified below.

As part of The Globe’s commitment to fair information practice, The Globe is a participant and supporter of the Digital Advertising Alliance Canada's "Ad Choices" initiative to allow you to opt out from the use of information about your activities on other websites for advertising purposes (“OBA Information”). To learn more, see Section 4 “Additional information on opting out of OBA”.

What are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files containing a unique identifier that are placed in your browser in order to store information about your web browsing and usage of a Globe website (“Cookie Data”). Cookies are used by The Globe to collect and store usage information such as:

• Anonymized user IDs for logged in Registered Users and Subscribers
• Device IP Address (which does not reveal your identity)
• Usage Data such as the number of page views, frequency of visits, time spent on a particular page and other similar statistics pertaining to your use of our website and services.

If you wish to disable cookies, please see Section 5 “How to disable cookies?” Please note that for technical reasons a Globe website with the "Ad Choices" program must rely on cookies to enable some of the essential functionality. If you disable cookies, your "Ad Choices" preference will not be registered and some elements of the website may not function correctly. Also, please note that if you navigate away from a Globe website by, for example, clicking on an advertising link, other parties may also place a cookie in your browser. The Globe does not control the activities of other parties and is not responsible for their practices.

(b) Registration Information

If you choose to become a registered user, we will ask you to provide us with basic account information such as your name, email address, country, and postal code. We may also ask you supplementary information, such as your birth month and year, income range, the industry you work in, and your current position. If you choose to provide it, we use supplementary information for internal purposes such as making improvements to our website and analytics. We use account information and supplementary information to offer you personalized content, promotions of The Globe’s services, and to deliver to you relevant advertising. Please note that you can always withdraw your consent to the continued use of your supplementary information.

(c) Subscription Information

If you choose to subscribe to a product or service of The Globe, we will ask you to provide information to complete the sale including name, email, address, telephone number and billing information. We will use your subscription information for internal purposes such as making improvements to our website and analytics, and to communicate with you about your subscription and to offer products and services that may be of interest to you.

(d) Mobile Browsing

When you access The Globe on your mobile device, such as a smartphone or a tablet computer, using a web browser or a Globe app, we collect similar usage information as we do on other devices. Some mobile devices can transmit location data but The Globe is not able to access that information without your express consent. If you choose to share location data with The Globe, you will be able to turn off such data collection at any time by accessing the privacy settings of your mobile device.

(e) Contests, Promotions, Surveys and Marketing Communications

If you choose to enter a contest or promotion sponsored or co-sponsored by The Globe, to fill out a survey, or to sign up for a newsletter or similar marketing communication we will ask you to provide us with contact and identifying information necessary for us to fulfill your request. This information may include email, name, age, and any other information as the case may require. The Globe will disclose to you if our co-sponsors will have access to the information you provide to us. However, if information is collected by a third party only, the collection, use and disclosure will be subject to notice and privacy policy of that third party.

(f) Social Media

The Globe website integrates a number of third party social media platforms to make your experience on our website more convenient. For example, you can seamlessly log in to our website by using your existing social media profile such as Facebook or LinkedIn. If you do so, the social media platform will provide The Globe with your Social Media Identifier and any additional information that you have consented to being shared with the outside parties. For example, with your consent, the social media platform can provide us with your personal information to auto-fill a registration form. Information that is provided to The Globe by the social media platform is subject to the privacy policy of that particular service.

2. How Information may be Used

The Globe uses the information we collect for the following purposes:

Fulfill your Request:

To fulfill your request for services. For example, if you want to purchase a paper subscription to The Globe, we will ask you for your name and delivery address.

User Authentication:

To help us make your experience on our website more convenient. For example, we rely on cookie data to detect when a registered user or a subscriber who has previously signed in visits the site again. It is also used to recall user preferences and information on subsequent visits (e.g., watchlists and newsletters).

Personalized Content and Services:

To help you discover our best stories, to provide you with a more interactive service, and to make you personalized offers for Globe products. For example, we may suggest content and products that are more relevant to your interests and/or occupation. We will also suggest content based on your usage data. For example, if you read stories about cars and hockey, we may recommend stories on related topics.

Relevant Advertising:

To help us make advertisements more relevant to groups of similar users on our websites. The Globe delivers two kinds of relevant advertising. One is based only on your activity on our site and any information you chose to disclose to us with consent to be used for advertising purposes (“first-party relevant advertising”). The other is based on your activity across different sites on the Internet and is commonly referred as online behavioural advertising (“OBA”). If you do not want to continue to receive first-party relevant advertising based on your supplementary information or do not wish to receive OBA, please see Section 4 “Additional information on opting out of OBA”. Learn more information about OBA and opting out. Please note that you will continue to receive advertising even if you opt-out, but the ads you will see are going to be less relevant to your tastes and preferences.

Internal Analytics:

To understand how users interact with our website, to improve the operation and performance of The Globe’s products and services, to develop new products and services, to detect fraud, and to improve security.

Communicate Offers and Promotions:

To communicate with you about The Globe’s offers and promotions. You can withdraw your consent to specific types of email communications by clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link provided at the bottom of the email message. Note that you will continue to receive communications that directly pertain to your services.

Enforce Terms and Conditions:

To contact you regarding issues with your use of The Globe’s services such as posting on the public commenting board that are subject to our Terms of Service. We reserve the right to contact you if we have reason to believe that you have violated our Terms of Service.

Other administrative reasons:

If you provide a complaint to The Globe or send an request to customer service, we will keep the relevant information for the purpose of investigating your complaint or request and responding to you. If you are a freelancer we may collect your social insurance number for tax reporting purposes and other information required to enter into a contract with and pay you. We generally use your personal information for the purposes of managing, administering, collecting or enforcing your accounts, maintaining business records for a reasonable time and generally managing and administering our business and meeting all relevant Canadian and international regulatory, legal, insurance, audit, security and processing requirements.

3. Security and Disclosure

The Globe takes steps to hold your information securely:

The Globe has put in place reasonable physical, electronic, contractual and managerial measures to protect the information we collect from loss, theft, and unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use, or modification.

Information stored abroad:

In some cases The Globe will disclose personal information to service providers to perform activities outside of Canada on our behalf. Your personal information may also be transferred outside of Canada for storage and processing. As a result, secure storage, use and access to your personal information may be subject to the laws of those countries.

Other disclosures:

The Globe may disclose your personal information to our affiliates for administrative purposes. The Globe may disclose your personal information to third parties if you have violated our terms of service or conditions of purchase, or if we need to comply with applicable laws and lawful governmental requests, other legal and regulatory authorities or for other legal reasons. The Globe may disclose your personal information on a confidential basis to parties connected with any contemplated or actual financing, insuring, sale, assignment or other disposal of all or part of our business or assets.

4. Additional information on opting out of OBA

Many people enjoy the delivery of more relevant advertising while browsing our website, but for those who do not, you can opt-out.

You may see the Ad Choices icon in or around third party advertisements on a Globe website. These advertisements are tailored for you through OBA. In order to give you control over this activity, The Globe is a participant and supporter of the Digital Advertising Alliance Canada's "Ad Choices" initiative. Clicking an "Ad Choices" logo on any of The Globe’s ads allows you to opt out of being targeted with The Globe’s ads based on behavioural information about you.

Clicking on the "Ad Choices" logo for any other advertiser will allow you to opt out of online behavioural advertising from them. Additionally, tools provided on the "Ad Choices" site allow you to opt out from all participating companies in one step. Note that "Ad Choices" relies on cookies to work and they are specific to the web browser you are using at the time. Effectively using "Ad Choices" will require that your browser accept third-party cookies, that the opt-out cookie is not deleted and that you opt out on each browser you use (for example: you will need opt out at work and at home if you use a different computer in each location). After you opt out, you will continue to receive advertising, but it will not be based on online behavioural information about you. Advertisers will also continue to collect non-personally identifying data to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. The tools provided on the Ad Choices and the Digital Advertising Alliance Canada’s websites are provided by third parties, and not by The Globe. The Globe does not control or operate these tools. For more information about OBA and opting out, please visit the Digital Advertising Alliance Canada’s website.

5. How to disable cookies?

Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but offer a number of ways to control cookie preferences. Typically, users can:

1. Disable all cookies (not recommended)
2. Require approval each time a website attempts to place a cookie
3. Remove cookies manually or have them deleted automatically after a certain period

For step-by-step instructions on how to modify cookie preferences, please consult your browser’s support documentation. You can find instructions for commonly used browsers here:

• Internet Explorer
• Google Chrome
• Safari
• Firefox

The user should understand that while The Globe does not require a user to use cookies, for technical reasons, certain services such as The Globe Unlimited Subscription service will not function if a user sets his/her browser to not accept cookies.

6. Previous versions of privacy policies

• From March 13, 2012

7. The Globe and Mail websites and applications

• www.theglobeandmail.com
• www.globelink.ca
• www.globerecognition.net
• www.globeadvisor.com
• gold.globeinvestor.com
• Globe eBooks
• Globe News App
• Globe Android Edition Tablet App
• Globe Investor App
• Globe Style Advisor App