Privacy Policy

WHICH SITES ARE COVERED BY THIS POLICY?

This Privacy Policy applies to the following NRHS Web sites:

  •   NRHS.com

Please note, our Web sites may contain links to other Web sites for your convenience and information. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any company before submitting your personal information.

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE GATHER ABOUT YOU?

The information we gather falls into two categories: 1) Personally identifiable information, which includes personal information you voluntarily supply when you subscribe, order, complete a survey, register for an online discussion, enter a contest or provide your e-mail address and 2) Non-personally identifiable information, which includes tracking information collected as you navigate through our sites.

Personally Identifiable InformationRegistration for our Web sites

Anyone can view our sites, but a registration process is required to access the full range of information and services offered across our different sites.

NRHS.com requires that you supply certain personally identifiable information, including a unique e-mail address and demographic information (zip code, age, sex, household income (optional), job industry and job title) to register. By using NRHS.com, you are agreeing to our Terms of Service.

The NRHS Store requires you to register only if you purchase an item. Registration requires that you supply your mailing address, e-mail address and a password.

Paid Products and Services

While the majority of our Web sites are free, we do charge fees for select premium content, products and services. To enable the purchase of these and other products, we collect and store billing and credit card information. This information will only be shared with third parties who perform tasks required to complete the purchase transaction. Examples of this include fulfilling orders and processing credit card payments.

Contests, Sweepstakes and Special Offers

On occasion, NRHS.com collects personal information from visitors in connection with optional sweepstakes, contests or special offers. If this information is to be shared with a third party other than NRHS, we will notify you at the time of collection. If you do not want any personal information shared, you may always decline to participate in the sweepstakes, contest or special offer.

Surveys, Panels and Market Research

NRHS may collect personal information from users in connection with voluntary surveys. Data may be collected on our Web sites, on the phone or through the mail. The information you provide in answer to optional survey questions may be shared, but only in the aggregate, with advertisers and partners unless we notify you otherwise at the time of collection.

All survey data is reported and/or used in aggregate form only, and no personally identifiable information is released. From time to time, we may use different technologies, including cookies, to better understand answers to our surveys. As a panel member, we require that you supply us with your e-mail address and name. Home address and telephone number are optional.

Special Events and Promotions

We often receive information regarding readers who may attend National Conventions, Winter, Spring and Fall Conferences, NRHS.com Special Events and Promotions. Such information will be used as indicated at the time of collection.

Mobile Messaging Service

The NRHS uses the information collected from your interaction with NRHS by Text Messaging Service (SMS) (“SMS Service”) solely for the purposes of improving the SMS Service. The information will not be provided, sold, licensed, rented, assigned or disclosed to Third Parties, except as required by law, nor will we use your phone number to initiate a call or SMS text message to you without your express prior consent. Your wireless carrier and other service providers also collect data about your SMS Service usage, and their practices are governed by their own privacy policies.

NRHS collects the mobile phone number you use to send us a text message and the content of the messages sent between you and NRHS. When you send a text message to NRHS.com, we log the incoming phone number, the wireless provider associated with the number, and the date and time of the transaction. The only information we automatically collect is that related to the use of our Mobile Services. NRHS uses this data to analyze the message traffic in order to operate, develop and improve our SMS Service.

Non-personally Identifiable Information

In addition to personally identifiable information, we also collect certain non-personally identifiable information through technology and tools, including cookies, Web Beacons and log data. We aggregate and analyze this information in order to learn more about how our Web sites are used.

Cookies from NRHS

As is standard practice on many Web sites, we use “cookies” and other technologies to recognize you and provide personalization, as well as to help us understand where our visitors are going and how much time they spend there. You will not be able to access certain areas of our Web sites, including NRHS.com, if your computer does not accept cookies from us.

See full Cookies Policy.

Cookies from Advertisers

Some advertisements on certain of our Web sites (including NRHS.com) are served by third-party advertising companies. In the course of serving these advertisements, these advertisers may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser in order to collect certain non-personally identifiable information about your visits to our Web sites and other Web sites.

We do not have access to, nor control over, advertisers’ cookies or how they may be used.

Your access to our Web sites will not be affected if you do not accept cookies served by third parties.

Clear Gifs (Web Beacons)

Advertisers on NRHS.com may elect to use third party advertising companies to serve ads on our Web site, and in these instances may use a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/action tags/pixel tags), alone or in conjunction with cookies, to better manage their advertising on our site. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. Clear gifs may alert the advertiser’s server about the online movements of Web users. For instance, advertisers may place a clear gif allowing them to recognize an existing cookie on your browser if from the same service. The main difference between cookies and clear gifs is that clear gifs are invisible on the page and are much smaller, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Please keep in mind that we do not have access to any information collected by these clear gifs nor any additional related information.

IP Addresses

NRHS logs Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, or the location of your computer on the Internet, for systems administration and troubleshooting purposes. We use this information in an aggregate fashion to track access to our Web sites.

Log Files

We use log file data in the aggregate to analyze usage of our Web sites.

WHAT DO WE DO WITH THE INFORMATION WE GATHER ABOUT YOU?

Statistical Analysis

The NRHS may perform statistical, demographic and marketing analyses of subscribers, and their subscribing and purchasing patterns, for product development purposes and to generally inform advertisers about the nature of our member or user base. We also use such information to allow advertising to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom such advertising is most pertinent. NRHS.com may share personal information with NRHS for analysis purposes, including analysis to improve customer relationships.

Products and Services from NRHS

From time to time, we may provide registrants with information and offers about other products and services offered by NRHS, including subscriptions and other premium products and services. This information will only be shared internally.

Banner Advertising

We may use demographic and preference information to allow advertising on our Web sites to be targeted, in aggregate, to the users for whom they are most pertinent. This means users see advertising that is most likely to interest them, and advertisers send their messages to people who are most likely to be receptive, improving both the viewer’s experience and the effectiveness of the ads. We will disclose information to third parties only in aggregate form.

User Generated Content

We offer opportunities for you to engage in public activities on NRHS.com, including submitting comments, and recommendations, in a number of areas throughout NRHS.com. Any information you disclose in your submissions, along with your screen name or ID, or any image or photo, becomes public and may be used by NRHS for online and offline promotional or commercial uses in any and all media. If you chose to engage in public activities on the site, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you submit there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these areas, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums.

E-Mail Newsletters

If you choose to receive them, NRHS will periodically send you e-mail newsletters or promotional e-mail about services offered by NRHS. For details about NRHS e-mail, please see the next section, “What Is Our E-mail Policy?”

WHAT IS OUR E-MAIL POLICY?

The NRHS complies fully with the federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. We will not share, sell, rent, swap your e-mail address or authorize any third party to use it without your permission.

Account and Service-Related E-mail: NRHS reserves the right to send you e-mail relating to your account status. This includes order confirmations, renewal/expiration notices, notices of credit-card problems, and other transactional e-mails and notifications about major changes to our Web sites and/or to our Privacy Policy. If you have registered for online discussions or other services, you may receive e-mail specific to your participation in those activities.

E-mail Newsletters: NRHS offers several e-mail newsletters. If you no longer wish to receive a specific newsletter, follow the “unsubscribe” instructions located near the bottom of each newsletter.

Promotional E-mail: If you choose to receive them, NRHS may periodically e-mail you messages about products and services, including excursions, meetings, banquets, and other railroadiana that we think may be of interest to you. You can choose not to receive messages in the future by either (1) following the “unsubscribe” instructions located near the bottom of each e-mail, or (2) you can opt-out.

From time to time, NRHS may obtain e-mail addresses from third party sources to be used for promotional e-mails. You can choose not to receive messages in the future by either (1) following the “unsubscribe” instructions located near the bottom of each e-mail, or (2) you can opt-out.

Survey E-mail: We may send you an e-mail inviting you to participate in user surveys, asking for feedback on NRHS.com and existing or prospective products and services, as well as information to better understand our users. User surveys greatly help us to improve our Web site, and any information we obtain in such surveys will not be shared with third parties, except in aggregate form.

HTML E-mail: When you sign up to receive e-mail from us, you can select either plain text or HTML (with images) format. If you select the HTML format, we may place a one-pixel gif to determine whether or not readers viewed the e-mail. This process does not leave any information on your computer, nor does it collect information from your computer. NRHS may share this data with others in aggregate only.

E-mails from You: If you send us e-mails, you should be aware that information disclosed in e-mails may not be secure or encrypted and thus may be available to others. We suggest that you exercise caution when deciding to disclose any personal or confidential information in e-mails. We will use your e-mail address to respond directly to your questions or comments.

WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE THE INFORMATION THAT WE GATHER?

If you have registered to one of our sites, NRHS will not sell, rent, swap or authorize any third party to use your e-mail address or any information that personally identifies you without your permission. We do, however, share information about our audience in aggregate form.

Service Providers

We contract with other companies to provide services on our behalf, including credit-card and billing processing, shipping, e-mail distribution, list processing and analytics or promotions management. We provide these companies only with the information they need to perform their services. These service providers are restricted from using this data in any way other than to provide services for NRHS, and they may not share or resell this data.

We reserve the right to disclose your opt-out information to third parties so they can suppress your name from future solicitations, in accordance with applicable laws. We may occasionally release personal information as required by law, for example, to comply with a court order or subpoena. (For more information, see the “Compliance with legal process” section of this policy.)

HOW DO I CHANGE OR UPDATE MY PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Manage your NRHS.com account at Member Center: You may review and update your NRHS.com membership or account information and access your transaction history in the Member Center.

MY INFORMATION PROTECTED?

Data Security: To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place physical, electronic and managerial procedures to protect the information we collect online. When you enter sensitive information (such as a credit card number) on our order forms, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL).

OTHER INFORMATION: Compliance with Legal Process

We may disclose personal information if we are required to do so by law or we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to (1) comply with the law or with legal process; (2) protect and defend our rights and property; (3) protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our Web sites; or (4) protect the personal safety or property of our users or the public (among other things, this means that if you provide false information or attempt to pose as someone else, information about you may be disclosed as part of any investigation into your actions).  This disclosure is in our sole discretion, and you may not opt out in any way.

OTHER INFORMATION: Children’s Guidelines

COPPA Compliance: NRHS does not knowingly collect or store any personal information, even in aggregate, about children under the age of 13.

OTHER INFORMATION: Changes to This Policy

This Privacy Policy may be amended from time to time. Any such changes will be posted on this page. If we make a significant or material change in the way we use your personal information, the change will be posted on this page thirty (30) days prior to taking effect and registered users will be notified via e-mail.