Privacy Policy

Washington City Paper respects your privacy and will never release any personal information about you without your consent.

When you visit one of our Web pages, our server automatically logs your Internet domain or address (IP address) and the Web location you clicked from, so we can tell how many people visit each page and how they find us. If you click on an ad, your click is recorded so we can tell advertisers how many people are responding to their ads. Some of our pages may send a small text file called a "cookie" to your computer so we can identify it when you visit. Most Web browsers are set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some popular Web features and services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled.

We also use Google Analytics to monitor and analyze traffic on our site. Most of our pages contain a code that causes Google to place a cookie on your computer to enable this monitoring. For information on how Google uses these cookies, consult the Google privacy policy.

We or our advertisers may use a third-party advertising company to serve some of the ads you see on our site. This company may use information (not including your name, address, e-mail address, or telephone number) about your visits to our and other Web sites, in combination with nonpersonally identifiable information about your purchases and interests from other online and offline sources, in order to provide ads that may be of interest to you. In addition, we may share information with this company about visitors' use of our Web site and others for the purpose of managing and targeting ads and for market research analysis on our site and others. In the course of serving ads to our site, an advertising company may place or recognize a cookie on your computer. For more information about the company that serves our ad banners, see the privacy statement of DoubleClick.

None of the above procedures identifies you personally or collects any personal information about you. We do not and will not collect your name, e-mail address, or any other personal information without your consent. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under age 13.

On certain pages, if you choose to register for a contest, newsletter, message board, or some other purpose, we may ask for personal information such as street and/or e-mail address, phone number, consumer preferences, etc. Unless we specifically say so on the registration or data-entry form, we do not and will not release any such information to third parties unless (a) we have your consent; or (b) we believe in good faith that we are legally required to do so; or (c) there is an emergency involving personal danger; or (d) you have vandalized our site or otherwise behaved in a manner that warrants our contacting the authorities or your Internet service provider. Please note that your consent can be requested and given on the form you fill out. For example, if you check a box that says "Yes, I want to receive information from Multimega Corporation," that will be construed as consent to share your information with that company.

If you place a classified ad or make a purchase, we keep the information you give us and may use it to contact you in the future. If you use our Matches system, we may collect information about what features you use or how you move through the site, but we use this information in aggregate form only; we do not associate it with individual user names or identities.

Given the nature of Web publishing, our privacy policies may change from time to time; any changes will be posted here as soon as they go into effect.

If you have any questions about our privacy policy, please write to webmeister@washcp.com.