Effective Date: January 1, 2020
Megaphone LLC (“Megaphone,” “we,” or “us”) is committed to bringing you services and communications tailored to your individual needs while respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, and disclose information that we obtain from Publishers or Advertisers that use our advertising and hosting services, from podcast listeners, and from visitors to our website.
Our services directed to children are governed by separate terms that are set forth below in our Children’s Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy is not a binding agreement.
A. The Information We Collect
From Publishers or Advertisers that use our advertising and hosting services:
From website visitors:
From individuals who listen to podcasts by Publishers that use Megaphone’s advertising and hosting services:
The information we collect may include "Personal Information," which means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular individual or household. Personal Information, once “de-identified” so that it cannot be linked back to you, is not subject to this Privacy Policy and we may treat it as non-Personal Information and use it without obligation to you except as prohibited by applicable law. We may combine Personal Information with information that does not directly identify you; if we do, we will consider the combined information to be Personal Information.
B. How We Collect Information
We may collect information you provide directly, including certain Personal Information. For example, we may ask you for contact information and account set-up information when you register an account or directly contact us with questions or feedback.
We may collect certain information automatically when you use our website. For example, we collect information about your device when you browse our website.
We may collect information about you from other sources, including service providers and third-party services, and combine such information with information we have collected about you. For example, we may collect information about you when you interact with us on social media. We are not responsible for the accuracy of any information provided by third parties or third-party policies or practices.
C. Cookies, Pixel Tags, and Local Shared Objects
We may use cookies, pixel tags, Local Shared Objects (sometimes referred to as “Flash Cookies”), and other technologies to automatically collect Electronic Network, Analytics, and Service Activity information as described below for the following purposes.
Cookies are small bits of information that are stored by your computer’s web browser. You can decide if and how your computer will accept a cookie by configuring your preferences or options in your browser. However, if you choose to reject cookies, you may not be able to use certain features of our website.
Pixel tags are very small images or small pieces of data embedded in images, also known as “web beacons” or “clear GIFs,” that can recognize cookies, the time and date a page is viewed, a description of the page where the pixel tag is placed, and similar information from your computer or device.
Local Shared Objects (sometimes referred to as “Flash Cookies”) are similar to standard cookies except that they can be larger and are downloaded to a computer or mobile device by the Adobe Flash media player. Please note that you may need to take additional steps beyond changing your browser settings to refuse or disable Local Shared Objects and similar technologies. For example, Local Shared Objects can be controlled through the instructions on Adobe’s Setting Manager page. If you choose to refuse, disable, or delete these technologies, some of the functionality of our website may no longer be available to you.
Embedded Scripts
An embedded script is programming code designed to collect information about your interactions with our website. It is temporarily downloaded onto your device from our web server or a third party with whom we work, is active only while you are connected to our website, and deleted or deactivated thereafter.
Location-identifying Technologies
GPS (global positioning systems) software, geo-filtering, and other location-aware technologies locate (sometimes precisely) you for purposes such as verifying your location and delivering or restricting relevant content based on your location.
Device Fingerprinting
Device fingerprinting is the process of analyzing and combining sets of information elements from your device’s browser, such as JavaScript objects and installed fonts, in order to create a “fingerprint” of your device and uniquely identify your device and applications.
Our website uses the following cookies or other tracking technologies.
For further information on tracking technologies and your choices regarding them, please see Section 7 below.
Megaphone processes Personal Information to: (i) provide its advertising and hosting services pursuant to our agreement with you, (ii) when you provide your explicit consent, (iii) for our legitimate business interests such securing and protecting the integrity of our website, and improving our services; and (iv) as permitted to meet applicable legal requirements.
We may use information that we collect for a variety of purposes, including to:
We want you to understand when and with whom we may share the information we collect, including Personal Information.
Corporate Parents, Affiliates, and Subsidiaries. We may share your information with our corporate parents, subsidiaries, and other affiliated entities for a variety of purposes, including business, operational, and marketing purposes;
Service Providers. We may share your information with our agents and service providers that perform certain functions or services on our behalf, such as to host our website, manage databases, perform analyses, or send communications for us. We use the following categories of service providers:
Third Parties. We may share your information, including Personal Information, with select advertising, marketing, and analytics partners so that they can personalize advertising for us and assist us with personalizing advertisements that we insert into podcasts. We also partner with select advertising, marketing, and analytics provers that analyze the performance of personalized ads for our clients. However, Megaphone is not responsible for the privacy practices of these business partners, which may use your information for their own purposes;
Other Parties When Required by Law or as Necessary to Protect the Our Website and Services. We may disclose your information to third parties in order to protect the legal rights, safety, and security of Megaphone, our corporate parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries, and the users of our website and advertising and hosting services; enforce our Terms of Service; prevent fraud (or for risk management purposes); and comply with or respond to law enforcement or legal process or a request for cooperation by a government or other entity, whether or not legally required;
In Connection with a Transfer of Assets. If we sell all or part of our business, or make a sale or transfer of assets, or are otherwise involved in a merger or business transfer, or in the event of bankruptcy, we may transfer your information to one or more third parties as part of that transaction;
Other Parties with Your Consent. We may share information about you with third parties when you consent to such sharing; and
Aggregate Information. We may disclose to third parties information that does not describe or identify individual users, such as aggregate website usage data or demographic reports.
Megaphone has worked with certain third-party social media providers to offer you their social networking services through our website. For example, you can use third-party social networking services, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, and others to share information about your experience on our website with your friends and followers on those social networking services. These social networking services may be able to collect information about you, including your activity on our website. These third-party social networking services also may notify your friends, both on our Services and on the social networking services themselves, that you are a user of our website or about your use of our website, in accordance with applicable law and their own privacy policies. If you choose to access or make use of third-party social networking services, we may receive information about you that you have made available to those social networking services, including information about your contacts on those social networking services.
You also may be able to link an account from a social networking service (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) to your account if you are a Publisher. This may allow you to use your credentials from the other site or service to sign in to certain features on our website. If you link your account from a third-party site or service, we may collect information from those third-party accounts, and any information that we collect will be governed by this Privacy Policy.
Our website may contain links to other websites or online services that are operated and maintained by third parties and that are not under the control of or maintained by Megaphone. Such links do not constitute an endorsement by Megaphone of those other websites, the content displayed therein, or the persons or entities associated therewith. This Privacy Policy does not apply to this third-party content. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of these third-party websites or services.
We may allow third parties to place and read their own cookies, web beacons, Local Shared Objects, and other technologies to collect information through out website. For example, our third-party service providers may use these technologies to collect information (i) that helps us with traffic measurement, research, and analytics, and (ii) that is used to serve personalized advertisements to you across the Internet tailored to your apparent interests. To the extent we combine information from third party services with Personal Information we collect directly from you, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information under this Privacy Policy. Otherwise, the information collected and stored by third parties remains subject to their policies and practices, including whether they continue to share information with us, the types of information shared, and your choices on what is visible to others on third party services.
You may exercise choices regarding the use of cookies from Google Analytics by going to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout or downloading the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
We advise you that our website collects information, including Personal Information, for purposes of Online Behavioral Advertising. Accordingly, we adhere to the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (“DAA”) Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising (“DAA Principles”), and we require the advertisers and service providers that perform advertising-related services for us to similarly adhere to the DAA Principles. To learn more about how you can exercise certain choices regarding Online Behavioral Advertising, visit https://www.aboutads.info/choices, and https://www.aboutads.info/appchoices for information on the DAA’s opt-out program for mobile apps. Some of these companies may also be members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”). To learn more about the NAI and your opt-out options for their members, see https://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/.
More information about our specific Online Behavioral Advertising practices can be found at https://megaphone.fm/adchoices as well as from our partner, Exelate (A Nielsen Company), at https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/privacy-statement/digital-measurement.html#choices. You can opt out of certain Online Behavioral Practices at https://exelate.com/privacy/opt-in-opt-out/.
Please be aware that, even if you are able to opt out of certain kinds of Online Behavioral Advertising, you may continue to receive other types of ads. Opting out only means that those selected members should no longer deliver certain interest-based advertising to you but does not mean you will no longer receive any targeted content and/or ads (e.g., from other ad networks). Megaphone is not responsible for effectiveness of, or compliance with, any third-parties’ opt-out options or programs or the accuracy of their statements regarding their programs.
Some web browsers may transmit “do-not-track” signals to the websites with which the user communicates. Because of differences in how web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them. Because there currently is no industry standard concerning what, if anything, websites should do when they receive such signals, Megaphone currently does not take action in response to these signals. For more information on “do-not-track,” visit https://www.allaboutdnt.com.
This section describes how we collect, use, and disclose information through our websites, mobile applications, and other online services and products that link to or post this Privacy Policy, and when you access our podcasts (whether through our services or third-party services) that are directed to children under the age of 13 (collectively, “Child Services”). Our practices are designed to address the requirements of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and other applicable laws. To learn more about COPPA, you may consult this simple one-page informational guide from the kidSAFE Seal Program: https://www.kidsafeseal.com/knowaboutcoppa.html.
A. What information does Megaphone collect from children and for what purpose?
As a general matter, Megaphone’s Services are not directed to children under the age of 13 in the US or for children under the age of 16 in the European Union (EU). For those Services, Megaphone does not knowingly collect any Personal Information from children under the age of 13 in the US or under the age of 16 in the EU for Megaphone’s Child Services, Megaphone may collect information from users as follows:
B. Who is collecting or maintaining Personal Information from children?
The above information may be collected by Megaphone as well as third-party operators that provide analytics and other support for the internal operations of our Child Services.
C. Will any Personal Information be made public or shared with others?
We do not allow children to make their Personal Information publicly available.
We may share our users’ Personal Information with third-party vendors with whom we work to support the internal operations of our services.
To the extent permitted by law, we also may disclose a child’s Personal Information to protect the security or integrity of our Services, take precautions against liability, respond to judicial process, or provide information to law enforcement agencies or for an investigation on a matter related to public safety.
D. How can parents review, delete or stop the further collection of their children’s Personal Information?
At any time, parents can review or have deleted any of their children’s Personal Information or refuse to permit the further collection or use of their children’s Personal Information. To request any of the above, parents can contact us at the following email address, phone number or mailing address:
email: contact@megaphone.fm | phone: 646-693-5823
Megaphone LLC
Contact Person: Legal Department
1255 23rd St. NW
Suite 650
Washington DC, 20037
In any such request, please include the parent’s email address associated with the account. To protect children’s privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to help verify a parent’s identity before granting access to any Personal Information.
We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect your Personal Information against accidental or intentional destruction or loss, and unauthorized disclosure or access. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account password and for any access to or use of your account using your password, whether or not authorized by you. Please notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security.
Your Personal Information is stored on our servers and on the servers of database management service providers that we have engaged which are located in the United States. We retain data for the duration of the relationship you have with us.
While we take various steps to ensure the accuracy and completeness of your Personal Information, we rely upon you to provide accurate and complete information when interacting with us.
Under certain circumstances, and as required by applicable law you have the right to:
If you want to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information in the “Contact Us” section of this Privacy Policy.
If you are a California resident, you may authorize another individual or a business registered with the California Secretary of State, called an authorized agent, to make requests on your behalf. We may verify the authorized agent’s identity and yours before responding to requests made by the authorized agent.
You will not have to pay a fee to access your Personal Information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is unfounded or excessive if permitted by law. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances. In addition, there may be requests that we are unable to process because of other EU legal requirements. If a request is denied, we will notify you of the reason.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). We will use the information you provide for verification only for the purpose of verification. This is a security measure to ensure that Personal Information is not disclosed to a requesting person who has no right to receive it.
If you are located in the EU, you have the right to lodge a complaint with an EU Supervisory Authority. However, if you have a complaint regarding the processing of your Personal Information we request that you first contact us and we will reply in a timely manner.
A. Your California Privacy Rights
California “Shine the Light”/Third Party Marketing: Pursuant to California’s “Shine The Light” law, California residents are entitled once a year, free of charge, to request and obtain certain information regarding our disclosure, if any, of certain categories of Personal Information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. You may request this disclosure information using contact@megaphone.fm and indicate in the email subject line “California Shine The Light Request” so that we can process your request. Please include your mailing address, state of residence and email address with your request.
Categories of personal information we disclose: We may disclose any of the categories of personal information listed above and use them for the above-listed purposes or for other business or operational purposes compatible with the context in which the personal information was collected. Our disclosures of personal information include disclosures to our “service providers,” which are companies that we engage for business purposes to conduct activities on our behalf. The categories of service providers with whom we share information and the services they provide are described above.
Categories of personal information we “sell”: We may sell Electronic Network, Analytics, and Service Activity information to the third parties that support our advertising, marketing, and analytics activities and our advertising and hosting services to our clients. To opt-out of such sales, please see our Do Not Sell My Personal Information page.
B. Special Information for Nevada Residents
Residents of the State of Nevada have the right to opt out of the sale of certain pieces of their information to other companies who will sell or license their information to others. At this time, we do not engage in such sales. If you are a Nevada resident and would like more information about our data sharing practices, please contact us using the information below.
A. Verification Procedures
We must verify your identity for everyone’s protection, so we may require you to provide us with verification information prior to accessing any records containing Personal Information about you. We do this by:
If you are a California resident, you may authorize another individual or a business registered with the California Secretary of State, called an authorized agent, to make requests on your behalf. We will require the authorized agent and you to verify identity.
We will use the information you provide for verification only for the purpose of verification. We may have a reason under the law why we do not have to respond to your request, or respond to it in a more limited way than you anticipated. If we do, we will explain that to you in our response.
B. Account
Please visit your account page to update your information, preferences, and method of payment.
C. Communications Preferences
You may choose to receive promotional communications (including emails and text messages), newsletters, and similar communications from us. We will not sell, rent, swap or authorize any third party to use your email or text address for their own commercial purposes without your permission. You may opt out of receiving certain promotional communications from us at any time by (i) for promotional emails, by clicking on the opt-out or “unsubscribe” link included in the commercial e-mails you receive or e-mailing us at contact@megaphone.fm. Please note that your opt-out is limited to the e-mail address or phone number used and will not affect subsequent subscriptions. Opt-out requests for e-mail may take up to 10 business days to be effective. Your opt-out request will not apply to messages that you request or e-mails that are not commercial in nature.
D. Analytics and Advertising Tracking Technologies
You may control our use of tracking technologies by using our cookie management options menu, here, or following the links to the industry opt-out mechanisms we explain in the “Analytics and Advertising Tracking Technologies” section above.
E. California Residents: Opt-out of “sale”
California residents have the right to opt out of our “sale” of personal information to third parties. Please see our Do Not Sell My Personal Information link to make your opt-out request and our description of your rights above.
Please be aware that the Personal Information we collect may be transferred to and maintained on servers or databases located outside your state, province, country, or other jurisdiction, where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your location. If you are located outside of the United States, please be advised that we process and store personal data in the United States.
As it pertains to users located in the EU, the controller of your Personal Information is Megaphone, 1255 23rd Street NW, Suite 650, Washington, DC 20037 USA.
We may modify this Privacy Policy at any time by posting revisions to the Privacy Policy or other appropriate notice. Your continued use of the website or our advertising and hosting services after any modification to the Privacy Policy will constitute your acknowledgement of the updated policy.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you may contact us at the following email address, phone number or mailing address:
email: contact@megaphone.fm | phone: 646-693-5823
Megaphone LLC
1255 23rd St. NW
Suite 650
Washington DC, 20037
Contact information for our EEA GDPR Representative:
Kaplan U.K. Limited
Attn: EEA GDPR Representative
Warwick Building, Kensington Village
Avonmore Road
London, England, W14 8HQ
