Search

Loading...

Privacy Policy - Your Privacy Rights

General Policy

In general, you can visit us on the Internet without telling us who you are or giving us personal information.  However, there are times we may ask you to provide personal information, for example, to process an order for one of our products such as an educational video, provide a subscription to an e-mail newsletter, to access certain parts of our Web sites that are not available to the general public, or to participate in a survey, an online discussion or forum. In that event we disclose the following:

  • We will never sell or give your name or personal information to any other organization or third party.
  • We may keep track of your interactions with our sites and our services to offer a more personalized experience.
  • We will use the information we collect to provide the services you request. Our services may include the display of customized content and advertising.
  • We may use your information to inform you of other products or services offered by Vision or our affiliates.
  • You may direct us not to send you promotional materials from Vision or our affiliates.
  • You may subscribe or unsubscribe to e-mail newsletters by clicking here. 

Please see below for our full privacy policy

Scope of the Privacy Policy

This Web site is operated by the The Church of God, an International Community and our subsidiary, Vision Media Publishing. We refer to these organizations as “Vision," "we" or "our." Vision understands the importance of our reader’s, visitor’s and customers' privacy. Our Privacy Policy tells you what information we collect when you visit our Web site, how we use, share and protect it, what choices you have about how the information is used, and how you can access and update that information. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use this Web site. This Privacy Policy applies to personally identifiable information collected on the Web site where this Privacy Policy is posted. In recognition of the need to provide additional privacy protections for children, we have a separate privacy policy that applies to children. Read the children’s privacy policy here. Certain aspects of this Privacy Policy also apply to the personally identifiable information we collect offline.

For purposes of this Privacy Policy, "personally identifiable information" means information that identifies a particular individual, such as name, postal address, e-mail address, and phone number. When other information, such as e-mail newsletter choices, magazine, video or other product orders, is directly associated with personally identifiable information, this other information also becomes personally identifiable information.

Information Collection


Personally Identifiable Information We Collect
There are features on this Web site for which no registration is required. However, if you are interested in obtaining information, products or services from Vision, or in participating in certain activities on this Web site (such as making an online order for a video, subscribing to our magazine, donating to Vision, accessing sections of the site that are not offered to the public, or participating in surveys or online discussions or forums), you may need to provide us with information about yourself. For example, if you order a product from us, we ask for your name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number. If you are ordering a product as a gift for another person, we will ask you for that person's name, postal address and phone number in order to enable us to deliver the gift to the recipient. If you participate in an activity such as a survey or discussion, we may also ask you to provide other types of information such as gender and personal interests, which we may associate with personally identifiable information. In addition, we may combine personally identifiable information that you have provided to us with other information that is publicly available or that we receive from other reputable sources.

Other Information Collected Through Technology
In addition to information you choose to provide to us, we also collect non-personally identifiable information through technology to make our site more interesting and useful to you. For instance, when you come to our site, we collect your Internet Protocol ("IP") address. An IP address is often associated with the portal through which you enter the Internet, like your ISP (Internet service provider). Standing alone, your IP address is not personally identifiable. At times, we also use IP addresses to collect information regarding the frequency with which our visitors visit various parts of our sites. We may combine this information with personally identifiable information that you have provided to us and/or with other information that is publicly available or that we receive from other reputable sources in order to make our Web site and communications more targeted to your interests.

Our Web site also uses cookies. Cookies are small text files that are stored on a user's computer and allow Web sites to remember information about users. We use cookies for a variety of purposes in order to enhance the quality of our Web site. We use transient (also called "session ID") cookies to provide continuity from page to page. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. We also use persistent cookies. Persistent cookies allows us to recognize your browser when you return after your first visit to that part of our Web site. Cookies allow us to personalize your return visits to our site and to save you time during certain activities, such as ordering products. You can choose to remove persistent cookies through your browser options. However, if you do so, your ability to use some areas of our site may be limited.

Finally, our Web site uses a variety of technical methods for tracking purposes, including clear gifs (also known as Web beacons). Clear gifs are small pieces of data that are embedded in images on the pages of Web sites. We use these technical methods to tell us what parts of our Web site you have visited or to measure the effectiveness of any searches you may do on our site. These technical methods may involve the transmission of information directly to us or to a service provider authorized by us to collect information on our behalf. We also use these technical methods in HTML e-mails that we send our visitors who have agreed to receive e-mail from us, to determine whether our visitors have opened those e-mails and/or clicked on links in those e-mails. The information from use of these technical methods may be combined with information that is personally identifiable so that we can make our Web site, and any e-mails you have agreed to receive, more interesting to you.

Information Use
Vision may use your personally identifiable information to deliver the products and services that you request, enhance your experience on our site, provide you with informational and/or promotional materials that you might find interesting, and for internal business analysis and other business purposes consistent with this policy. These uses may generally be categorized as relationship maintenance uses and promotional uses. We describe these uses in more detail below.

Relationship Maintenance Uses
Vision uses your personally identifiable information to maintain and manage your account, deliver services that you have requested, and generally enhance your experience on our Web site. Collectively, we refer to these types of uses as "Relationship Maintenance Uses," and they include all of the ways in which we use your personally identifiable information to maintain and manage our relationship with you that do not involve sending promotional materials. Examples of Relationship Maintenance Uses include, but are not limited to:

  • Processing and tracking your membership and magazine subscriptions
  • Processing and tracking your product orders
  • Processing and tracking your online donations to Vision
  • Providing the services you request
  • Contacting you about the status of an order
  • Sending you magazine renewal notifications
  • Sending you other administrative communications
  • Sending you surveys
  • Sending you updates to our privacy policy
  • Making changes to Web-based features

Promotional Uses
Vision may also use your personally identifiable information to provide you with promotional information about activities, services and products offered by us, including promotional material that you have requested. However, you may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us by mail, e-mail, or telephone, as explained below and in the section entitled "Your Choices." And, we will not share your e-mail address, postal address, telephone, or any other personal information with third parties or any other organizations for promotional purposes. Examples of promotional uses include, but are not limited to:

  • Providing you with information about educational opportunities
  • Providing you with promotional materials about Vision products and services
  • Providing you with e-mail newsletters

Vision may provide you with promotional materials by postal mail, e-mail, telephone or other means. You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us by mail, e-mail and/or telephone as provided in the "Your Choices" section below, and in the case of e-mail, you can always opt out of receiving subsequent promotional e-mails by clicking on the unsubscribe link that we provide in every such promotional e-mail message. Please keep in mind, however, that when you purchase or request products or services from Vision or our licensees, promotional materials may accompany delivery of that product or service. Any opt-outs that you may make will therefore not apply to these materials because they accompany products or services that you have requested.

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

Service Providers
Vision contracts with other companies to provide certain services on our behalf, including credit card processing, shipping, e-mail distribution, and promotions management. We provide these companies only with the information they need to perform their services, and they are permitted to use the information only for that specific purpose or as required by law.

Subsidiaries and Affiliated Entities
Vision is developing other subsidiary and affiliated entities that may offer other products and services. We may share your personally identifiable information with our Affiliates so they can let you know about product and service offerings in which you might be interested. The use of your personally identifiable information by our Affiliates is subject to the same opt-out rights (and limitations upon those rights) that apply to the use of personally identifiable information by Vision and that are described below in the section entitled "Your Choices."

Other Third Parties for Promotional Purposes
Vision will not give or sell your name to other organizations or third parties that are not directly affiliated with Vision. We do not sell our list to other companies for any promotional activities

Legal Purposes; Business Transactions
Vision may disclose any user or customer information, including personally identifiable information, when we believe that doing so is required by law; may be necessary to protect the property, rights, or safety of ourselves, visitors to our Web sites, or other persons; or will help to enforce any terms of use of this Web site. It may also be necessary to disclose our customers' personally identifiable information to third parties, such as credit card companies, to help resolve disputes that arise in the ordinary course of business. Vision may also transfer user or customer information, including personally identifiable information, in connection with a corporate transaction, such as a divestiture, merger, consolidation, or asset sale.

Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)
Vision may share with third parties aggregated information about you and other visitors to our Web site. When we do this, however, we make any personally identifiable information non-personally identifiable by combining it with information about other individuals or by removing characteristics that make the information personally identifiable to you. We share this information in order to improve our Web site and develop content and services that we hope will be of interest to you.

Your Choices
We understand the importance of protecting our customers' privacy, and we therefore provide you with the opportunity to opt-out of having your personally identifiable information used or disclosed for certain purposes. Receiving promotional communications from Vision or our Affiliates is optional. If you do not wish to receive promotional communications from Vision or our Affiliates, please call or write to us at the address below.

You may also use this address and phone number to request us to update or change any of your personally identifiable information, or to request additional information regarding our disclosure of your personally identifiable information to certain third parties for promotional purposes.

  • Call us at (888) 777-7203 from the United States or Canada, or 1 626 535-0444 from outside the United States and Canada.Write to us at: Vision, Attn: Customer Services - Privacy, P.O. Box 90607, Pasadena, CA 91109-0607, and include your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address and a note of instructions.

If you have previously agreed to receive e-mail and/or e-mail newsletters from us, you may use the address and phone number above to notify us that you no longer wish to receive such e-mail and/or e-mail newsletters, or you may email us to let us know you no longer want to receive emails and email notices and newsletters from us. You may also change your preferences and/or email address and delivery options by emailing us. Please specify "Customer Services - Privacy" in the subject line.

Because we plan our communications in advance, it may take several weeks for your request to become effective. If, due to human error, you continue to receive our communications, please contact us again and we will make every effort to correct the situation.

Links to Other Sites
We may provide links on our Web site to other sites we think you will enjoy. By doing so, Vision does not necessarily agree or endorse the content on these sites. As well, these sites operate independently of Vision and have established their own privacy and security policies. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our site and to read these policies at any site you visit.

Information Security
The security and confidentiality of your information is extremely important to us, and we take a number of steps to safeguard any personally identifiable information or credit card information that you provide to us. We use data encryption technology to help protect against loss, misuse or alteration of your credit card information. Secure Socket Layers (SSLs) encrypt the credit card information sent between your computer and our database. However, no method of transmitting or storing electronic data is ever completely secure, and therefore we cannot warrant or guarantee that such information will never be accessed, used or released in a manner that is inconsistent with this policy.

Personally Identifiable Information Contained in User Content
Some sections of our Web site may allow users to post or transmit messages, comments, screen names, computer files and other materials. Vision does not monitor such transmissions, and therefore cannot be responsible for any personally identifiable information or other information that may be contained in such transmissions.

Children's Privacy
Our Web site is a general audience site, 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.

Changes in this Privacy Policy
We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make any material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share your personally identifiable information, we will notify you by sending you an e-mail at the last e-mail address that you provided us and/or by prominently posting notice of the changes on the Web sites covered by this Privacy Policy. In any event, changes to this Privacy Policy may affect our use of personally identifiable information that you provided us prior to our notification to you of the changes.

Contact Us
If you have questions or wish to send us comments about this Privacy Policy, please email us or write to us at:

Vision
Attn: Customer Services - Privacy
P.O. Box 90607
Pasadena, CA 91109-0607


This policy was last updated January 4, 2008.