Consumer Reports WebWatch is a public service Web site. The information it contains is free. Consumer Reports WebWatch is a member of the Consumers Union family of sites, which accept no advertising. We do not collect personal data from users on this site, except in circumstances where we solicit e-mail for feedback on our guidelines or on our site in general, or for invitations to our conferences. We will not archive or share any of this information with anyone, though we do collect e-mails in a queue in order to respond to them.
The Consumer Reports WebWatch "pledge" campaign solicits information from companies seeking to comply with WebWatch's guidelines to improve Web site credibility. In some cases, Web sites may seek information from Consumer Reports WebWatch to assist them in compliance. This information is kept strictly confidential. Contact information provided to us by these Web sites is stored in a database, and we may use information submitted by these sites to communicate with them from time to time. This information will not be shared with third parties.
The WebWatch site will on occasion link readers to content on ConsumerReports.org, a paid subscription site with some free content. When WebWatch links to content on ConsumerReports.org requiring a subscription, we will clearly indicate on the WebWatch site if a subscription is needed to go further.
Consumers Union will not sell, rent, swap, or authorize any third party to use any information that specifically identifies subscribers or registered users of ConsumerReports.org. In addition, we do not include on our sites any functionality allowing third parties to perform "reverse searches" to identify our subscribers or users. Further information on ConsumerReports.org's privacy policy can be found here.
In the interest of making WebWatch readers aware of important news, we will link to other Web sites in "weblog" style. We may also link to other sites as examples of good (or bad) information or business practices, or for other reasons. Clicking on these links will prompt a second browser window to appear, containing that site's content. These links do not represent an endorsement by WebWatch or Consumers Union of the content of these sites, or of their adoption or adherence to our guidelines. While on these linked sites, users will be subject to each individual site's privacy, security and other policies. No sponsored links of any sort will appear on the Consumer Reports WebWatch site. This site's producers make choices, based on journalistic or disclosure principles, as to what sites to link to externally.
|