Privacy Policy

Online News Association Privacy Policy

Effective: May 8, 2017

Online News Association, including any affiliates and subsidiaries (“ONA,” “we,” “us,” “our”) values the trust you place in us when you use ONA’s website and our affiliated websites, or online tools and services (collectively, our “Websites”). This Privacy Policy describes our collection, use, disclosure, and protection of your information. This Privacy Policy applies to our Websites that link to it, regardless of how you access or use them, including through mobile devices. Certain ONA Websites, such as the Career Center, may follow different or additional privacy policies and terms and conditions (and will link to those policies and terms). To the extent that those policies and terms differ from this Privacy Policy and the ONA Terms and Conditions, the policies and terms of those ONA Websites will govern.

BY USING OUR SERVICES AND/OR REGISTERING WITH US, YOU ARE ACCEPTING THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS, AND YOU ARE CONSENTING TO OUR COLLECTION, USE, DISCLOSURE, AND PROTECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AS DESCRIBED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT PROVIDE THE INFORMATION WE REQUIRE, WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO PROVIDE ALL OF OUR SERVICES TO YOU.

If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Websites. We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post any changes to our Websites. Your continued use of our Websites following the posting of any changes will mean you accept those changes.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to third-party websites and mobile applications that may link to the Websites or be linked to on the Websites. We are not responsible for the actions and privacy policies of third-party websites and applications; please consult these websites and applications directly to understand their privacy practices.

Information we collect about you

How we use your information

How we share your information with others

Public areas, interactive features and activities

How to access and modify your information

How to limit the use of your information

Cookies, tracking technology and interest-based advertising

How we secure your information

Other important information

Questions or report a problem


Information We Collect About You

We collect, process, and retain information from you and any devices (including mobile devices) you may use when you use or interact with our Websites, and in other ways described below.

Information You Give Us: We receive and store information you enter on our Websites or give us in any other way, including your name, physical address, phone number, email address and photographic images.

Information About Your Interaction With Our Websites: We collect information about your interactions with our Websites, such as the purchases you make or the dates and times you access our Websites.

Information We Automatically Collect: We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with our Websites. Our Websites use “cookies,” tagging and other tracking technologies to help enable us to enhance or personalize your online browsing experience. This information includes computer and connection information such as statistics on your page views, traffic to and from our Websites, referral URL, ad data, your IP address, and device identifiers. This information also may include your browsing history, transaction history, and your web log information.

Information From Social Media and Other Sites: When you interact with our Websites on a social media platform, we may collect the personal information that you make available to us on that page, including your account ID or username and other information included in your posts.

Information From Other Sources: We may supplement the personal information we collect with information from third parties or collected offline, such as information collected by ONA at events and add it to your account information. This information may include, but is not limited to, demographic information, additional contact information, group affiliations, occupational information, and educational background.

How we use your information

We use your information to help us personalize and continually improve your experience on the Websites, including fulfilling your orders and requests for information, analyzing and compiling trends and statistics, and communicating with you. For information about how to manage your information and the choices you have, see how to limit the use of your information below.

We also may use your information to:

  • Provide, maintain, and improve the Websites and for internal or other business purposes;
  • Fulfill your requests for information;
  • Provide the services you request;
  • Provide customer support;
  • Track and evaluate the use of the Websites;
  • Communicate with you about your account, profile, or transactions with us, or changes to our policies or terms;
  • Send you information about features and enhancements on or to our Websites;
  • Send you newsletters or other materials;
  • Send you offers or other communications about our products and services, such as special or promotional events, including services, products, or events for which we collaborate or co-offer with a third party;
  • Post user generated content provided by users;
  • Detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be fraudulent or illegal;
  • Optimize or improve our Websites, products, services and operations; and
  • Perform statistical, demographic, and marketing analyses of users of the Websites and their viewing patterns.

We may use the information from one portion of the Websites on other portions of the Websites, and we may combine information gathered from multiple portions of the Websites into a single record. We also may use or combine information that we collect offline or we collect or receive from third-party sources for many reasons, including to enhance, expand, and check the accuracy of our records.

How we share your information with others

We share your personal information with third parties as described below. In addition, we may share information that does not specifically and personally identify you, such as aggregate information, device identifiers or other unique identifiers to third parties. For information about how to manage your information and the choices you have, see how to limit the use of your information below.

Third-Party Service Providers: We engage third-party service providers to perform functions on our behalf such as processing donations and other payments made to ONA. These third parties may have access to your personal information when needed to perform their functions.

Business Partners: We may share information that personally identifies you with business partners who provide products and services that we think you may be interested in.

Sale, Assignment or Change of Control: We may change our ownership or corporate organization while providing the Websites. We may transfer to another entity or its affiliates or service providers some or all information about you in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, acquisition, sale of assets or any line of business, change in ownership control, or financing transaction. Under such circumstances, we would request the acquiring party to follow the practices described in this Privacy Policy. Nevertheless, we cannot promise that an acquiring party or the merged entity will have the same privacy practices or treat your information the same as described in this Privacy Policy.

Law Enforcement, Legal Process, and Emergency Situations: We may also use or disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or on the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to applicable law or comply with legal process served on us or our Websites; (b) protect and defend our rights or property, the Websites or our users, or (c) act to protect the personal safety of us, users of the Websites or the public. For example, if a third party alleges that you have infringed their intellectual property rights, we may disclose your information to that third party. Similarly, if you allege that your intellectual property rights are being infringed by a user posting content onto our Websites, we may disclose your information to that user.

Public areas, interactive features and activities

Please remember that any information you share in public areas, such as comment sections to posted articles (“Public Social Features”), becomes public and anyone may take and use that information. Please be careful about what you disclose and do not post any information that you expect to keep private. Please consult the applicable guidelines, if any, for use of these features. ONA cannot control who views information that you post in public areas of the Websites and is not responsible for how third parties, including other users may use or disclose information that you post in public areas of the Websites or otherwise share with other users or third parties.

If you are a registered member under the age of 18, you may submit a request to have content that you have posted to the Website removed by contacting us at support@journalists.org.

How to access and modify your information

If you have an online profile with us, you can update your profile information through your profile.

If you would like to request access, modification, correction, or deletion of personal information that you have provided to us or that you believe we may have collected about you, please contact us at support@journalists.org. We may not be able to delete your personal information without also deleting your user account. You will not be permitted to examine the personal information of any other person or entity. In order to verify your identity, you may be required to provide us with personal information prior to accessing any records containing information about you. We may not accommodate a request to change or delete personal information if we believe doing so would violate any law or legal requirement, or cause the information to be incorrect.

We will honor any legal right that you have to access, modify or erase your personal information. To request access and to find out whether any fees may apply, if permitted by applicable state, federal, or national law (outside of the United States), please contact support@journalists.org.

How to limit the use of your information

In many instances, you have choices about the information you provide and how we use your information. These choices, and any related consequences, are described in detail below.

Emails, Newsletters, and other Communications: When you create an account through our Websites and/or sign up to receive communications from ONA, you are required to provide us with an accurate e-mail address through which we may contact you. Such registration or requests through our Websites or apps constitutes your express acknowledgment that ONA may use your e-mail address to communicate with you about event or product offerings from ONA, its selected vendors, and/or partners. While you cannot opt-out of receiving notifications and other communications regarding your account or your transactions, you can opt-out of receiving newsletters and promotional emails and other marketing communications from us by: (1) using the “unsubscribe” feature in our marketing e-mails; or (2) contacting us at support@journalists.org.

Cookies, tracking technology and interest-based advertising

Like many websites, we use tracking technologies such as cookies, web beacons and similar technologies to record your preferences, track the use of our Websites and exposure to our online advertisements. We may also use these technologies to monitor traffic, improve the Websites, and make it easier to use and more relevant. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but, if you prefer, you can usually modify your browser setting to disable or reject cookies. If you delete your cookies or if you set your browser to decline cookies, some features of the Site may not work or may not work as designed. For more information on cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information provided by the Interactive Advertising Bureau at www.allaboutcookies.org.

We may partner with third party advertising companies who use these tracking tools to provide advertisements on other websites.  These third parties may use these technologies to collect information about you when you use the Websites. They may collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services.

These third parties may use these technologies to collect information about you when you use the Websites. They may collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may also use persistent identifiers to track your Internet usage across other websites in their networks beyond the Websites. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based advertising or other targeted content. While we do not knowingly provide these entities with information that personally identifies you such third parties may, with sufficient data from other sources, be able to personally identify you, unknown to us. To learn more about the third-party collection and use of your information, please visit the Network Advertising Initiative and/or the Digital Advertising Alliance.

Some content or applications on the Websites may be served by unaffiliated third parties. We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices on any website not operated by ONA to which our Websites link or that link to our Websites.

Your browser or device may include “Do Not Track” functionality. ONA’s information collection and disclosure practices, and the choices that we provide to customers, will continue to operate as described in this Privacy Policy, whether or not a Do Not Track signal is received.

Online Tracking and Interest-Based Advertising Choices:

You also have choices to limit some tracking mechanisms that collect information when you use the Websites. Many web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser’s setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, certain features of our Websites, including the Websites themselves, may not function properly or remain accessible to you. In addition, you may also render some web beacons unusable by rejecting or removing their associated cookies. Note that if you choose to remove cookies, you may remove opt-out cookies that affect your advertising preferences.

We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”), on our Websites. Google Analytics uses cookies or other tracking technologies to help us analyze how users interact with and use the Websites, compile reports on the Websites’ activity, and provide other services related to Websites activity and usage. The technologies used by Google may collect information such as your IP address, time of visit, whether you are a return visitor, and any referring website. The Websites do not use Google Analytics to gather information that personally identifies you. The information generated by Google Analytics will be transmitted to and stored by Google and will be subject to Google’s privacy policies. To learn more about Google’s partner services and to learn how to opt out of tracking of analytics by Google click here.

How we secure your information

We take reasonable security measures to help protect the personal information collected through our Websites. Please understand, however, that while we try our best to safeguard your personal information once we receive it, no transmission of data over the Internet or any other public network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

You can help protect the privacy of your own information by using encryption and other techniques to prevent unauthorized interception of your personal information. You are responsible for the security of any personal information that you transmit to us or view, download, or otherwise access when using unencrypted, public or otherwise unsecured networks.

Other important information

Users Under Thirteen and Eighteen: Our Websites are intended for users ages 13 and older only. Accordingly, we will not knowingly collect or use any personal information from children that we know to be under the age of 13. If we become aware of personal information in our database that was collected from a child under 13, we will delete such information. If you are under the age of 18 and have posted content to our Websites that you wish to have taken down, you may request that we do so by contacting us at support@journalists.org.

Users Outside of the United States: If you use our Websites outside of the United States, you understand and consent to the transfer of your personal information to, and the collection, processing, and storage of your personal information in, the United States and elsewhere. The laws in the U.S. and these countries regarding personal information may be different than the laws of your state or country.

Your California Privacy RightsIf you are a California resident, California law permits you to request certain information regarding the disclosure of your personal information by ONA to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send your request to ONA via email at support@journalists.org.

Questions or report a problem

For questions about our Privacy Policy, to make choices about receiving promotional communications, or to update your personal information, you can contact ONA by email at support@jounalists.org.