Privacy Policy

Last Updated and Effective: July 9, 2024

Thank you for visiting the website of American Underground, LLC, a subsidiary of Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. (“CBC,” “we,” “our,” “us”). This Privacy Notice (“Notice”) provides transparency to what and how we collect and use both non-personally identifiable and personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) when you visit our websites and mobile apps (collectively “Services”); whether on a computer, mobile device or connected TV.

Please read this Notice carefully, by visiting or using our Services, you accept the practices we describe here. If you do not agree with these practices, please do not use our Services.

Information we may collect and how we collect it
Use of cookies and web beacons
How we use your information
Disclosure of Personal Information to third parties
Customized content & advertising
Safeguarding children’s privacy
Information security
Accessing account information
Manage your personal information
Your California privacy rights
Updates to our privacy notice
Contact us/report misconduct

1. Types of information we collect

Personal Information:

Name, email address, user credentials, age, gender, address and/or phone number that you voluntarily provide when you participate in any features, activities, or contests on our Services.
Files stored on your device or system (e.g., picture and video files, a Microsoft Word or PDF document) that you voluntarily provide.
Unique identifier: the ID automatically generated when a specific app is installed on a specific device. We may associate this ID with other information and will treat the combined information as personally identifiable information.
Unique Mobile App Numbers: generated when you install or uninstall an app that contains a unique Mobile App number.
Personal Information about other people you submit to certain programs, contests, for news stories or nominations for community awards or recognition. By providing this information, you represent that you have the legal right to do so.
Our apps do not currently require user registration or handle financial transactions. If that changes in the future, we may start to collect contact information detailed above, and credit card information for purchases and use of the app.

What you do on your device, system, or software while using Services. This includes access to your:

Phone dialer: to allow you easy access to a phone number provided
Patterns of app usage and time stamps: to better understand the time of day and how long you use our apps
Screen use: to better understand how much of a story you read, also pages viewed and exit pages

Non-personal information that cannot be used to identify or contact a specific individual, such as:

Anonymous and aggregated information
Mobile device identifier, e.g., UDID, Android ID
Technical information about your device, system and application software, e.g., type of phone, or operating system
Internet Service Provider, IP address, browser, language used and clickstream data

Third-party information

Drawn from our advertisers, sponsors and promotional partners (collectively, “Advertisers”), our affiliates, vendors, and various other providers of data.

Location information

We may collect and process location data such as GPS, WiFi, or carrier network from your device to provide location-related services. That includes weather forecasts and weather alerts and breaking news alerts. Some apps may collect your location from beacons, even when the app is not open or in use.
We will ask for your permission before collecting this location data. You can withdraw consent any time by turning off the location-based feature on your mobile device or by opting out of using any location-based features. Find more information about your choices re: location data in Manage Your Personal Information below.

Offline

We may collect Personal Information via postal mail, telephone, over-the-air, and in-person for various purposes including contests, sweepstakes, promotions, special events, surveys, voting and public affairs. We may combine your Personal Information with information obtained from our Social Media fan pages, other mobile platforms, our companies, operational service providers, or other companies, such as marketing research companies, and/or Advertisers.

2. Use of cookies and web beacons

We use cookies and other technology to deliver our Services, tailor your experience, and deliver customized advertising to you. A cookie is a small text file stored on your device to personalize your experience, recognize repeat visitors, and deliver Services efficiently.

We use web beacons, also known as pixel tags or clear GIFs, to help us track website traffic, measure advertising effectiveness, and customize users’ online experiences. Web beacons are small, transparent graphic images placed on a web page or in an email and are used to monitor the activity of the user accessing that web page or email. The beacons collect information automatically, monitor and improve how our Services are used, and deliver advertising, as we rely primarily on advertising revenue to deliver our Services.

We will continue to add new technology to our Services, which may collect information about you and your use of our Services.

To disable cookies:

ou may configure your browser to reject cookies. If you do so, you might not be able to automatically log-in to your account, access important functions, features and activities or enjoy certain conveniences or customized and personalized features of our Site and other Services.

If you leave our Services to visit an Advertiser’s website, some of those sites may place cookies on your computer. We do not have access to those cookies or to any information they contain. The use and collection of your Personal Information by Advertisers is governed by the Advertiser’s privacy policy, which may be different from ours.

3. How we use your information

To provide you with our apps and Services
Improve our products and Services, develop new services, and to protect CBC, its affiliated businesses, and our users
Tailor content, features, and advertisements, including offers from us, our affiliates, and our Advertisers (see Customized Content and Advertising below
Automate updates about news, sports, weather or emergencies
Offer polls, surveys, contests, sweepstakes, and other promotions
Allow analytics companies to help us understand how the online Service is being used, such as the frequency and duration of usage
Respond to your comments and questions
Perform analytics
Develop reports regarding usage, activity, and statistics
Comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal process
Protect someone’s health, safety, or welfare
Protect our rights, the rights of affiliates or related third-parties, or take appropriate legal action, such as to enforce our TOU
Keep a record of our transactions and communications
Facilitate the provision of software updates and product support
Improve products and other Services or provide Services or technologies to you
We may use the Unique Mobile App Number to assess the performance of the app or other online services, prevent fraud, provide technical support, conduct research, generate analytics, and address internal online services operations.
We may associate your device’s Unique Identifier with other information collected and treat the combined information as personally identifiable information, however, a Unique Identifier does not allow an app user to be tracked across multiple apps or for us to track a user who has uninstalled and reinstalled the app.
We may use information you provide us, in accordance with applicable laws, to contact you from time to time about important information, required notices and marketing promotions.

4. Disclosure of Personal Information to Third Parties

Advertising helps us provide our Services to you for free. To do that, we may share your Personal Information with our Advertisers or other third parties for direct marketing and promotional purposes, with your consent, in the following ways:

To provide the Services that you access or request, complete transactions you initiate, or otherwise fulfill your requests
With CBC affiliates for business, operational, promotional or marketing purposes
With Advertisers if you participate in a co-branded, co-sponsored, or jointly present promotion, contest, or other Service
With Advertisers, network advertising services, and/or other third parties as described in Customized Content and Advertising below
With our vendors or service providers, who are generally restricted from using your Personal Information for any purpose other than that for which we hire them; for example, your location information may be shared with and/or collected by third-parties that we have contracted with to perform the location-based features of our Services
With advertisers and third-party advertising networks, who need to know how you interact with advertising provided in the online service which helps keep the cost of our Services low or free
With consumer data resellers that buy and/or sell information to other companies for multiple purposes including offering products and services that may interest you
To protect the security of our Services or databases
To protect the rights or property of our users, CBC, its affiliates, our Advertisers, or our vendors and service providers
To implement or enforce our company policies, the Terms of Use, the CBC Copyright Complaint Procedures, or agreements that we may enter into with you
To respond to subpoenas, legal process or government requests or investigations
To act in response to an emergency or situation that threatens the life, health, or security of an individual
To assist in the investigation of a violation (or presumed violation) of law, of if we believe in good faith that the law requires or authorizes such disclosure
In connection with any proposed or actual sale, lease, merger, assignment, reorganization, or financing of all or any portion of CBC or our businesses
Non-personal information collected from you does not identify you personally, and we may disclose non-personal information to third parties for any purpose

Third party links: If you choose to use any links our Services provide to third parties, you will be leaving our Services and going to a new site or platform. Our Privacy Notice does not apply to services offered by other companies or individuals, even if a product or site is linked to our Services and even if a relationship exists between CBC and a third party. Protection of your privacy at those other sites or platforms will be governed by the privacy policy of that particular site or platform.

5. Customized content and advertising

We, our operational service providers, and Advertisers use cookies, web beacons and other similar technology to enrich your experience on our Services by serving relevant, tailored, and personalized advertising and/or content. The customizations are based on information you provide to us; your use of our content, features and activities; your visits, search, transaction and/or purchase history; visits to our Facebook Fan page or use of other Facebook features and services, or other social network platforms, and/or projections made about you based on these elements.

We use anonymous, aggregated information to serve customized ads. For example, we can provide the age range, gender, and geographic location of the audience our Advertisers will be reaching.

We do not control Advertiser cookies or web beacons, and their use of such technology is not subject to this Notice. To control personalized advertisements, see Manage Your Personal Information below.

6. Safeguarding children’s privacy

We do not knowingly collect Personal Information or any other identifying data from children younger than age 13. If we discover that a child under age 13 submitted Personal Information to our Site, apps, or other internet-based Services without first obtaining verifiable parental consent, we will immediately reject the entry and delete that information from our database (to the extent technically feasible), unless such information meets an exception under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”).

7. Information security

We take steps to protect the security of the Personal Information we collect and use. However, no physical or electronic security system is impenetrable, and we cannot guarantee the security of our servers or databases, nor can we guarantee that the information you supply to us will not be intercepted during online transmission. Use caution when disclosing your Personal Information.

8. Accessing account information

If you created an account with us, log in to your account to edit your email address and options for receiving news, information, and advertising emails. If you terminate your account, your email address will be archived and moved to an inactive status. We retain your Personal Information to provide the Services and as required by our corporate policies and laws. When requested, we will remove your Personal Information from our active database(s). Contact our Privacy Administrator . To protect your privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity first, such as requiring a password and email address, and possibly photo ID. Given limitations, we may not be able to delete all of your Personal Information from our internal or back-up files.

9. Manage your Personal Information

Customized Ads:

Opting out of targeted ads will only end ads tailored to your preferences and interests. You will still see other advertising.

Websites

To opt-out of customized advertising, visit the Network Advertising Initiative Consumer Opt-Out Page: http://optout.networkadvertising.org/
And the Digital Advertising Alliance Consumer Choice Page: http://optout.aboutads.info

Apps

Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202074
Google: https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads?hl=en

Notifications

Users who no longer wish to receive alerts, notifications, or promotional messages from us via email may choose to unsubscribe at any time. All emails and newsletters include opt-out instructions, generally at the bottom of the email.

Location Data

Turning off Bluetooth will prevent beacons from recording your device’s location and sharing it with us. Opting out of location data usage will limit some services the app provides, e.g., weather alerts.

Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203033
Google: https://support.google.com/android/answer/6179507

Apps

Uninstalling our app will end the collection of your information

We may share your Personal Information directly with our Advertisers for their direct marketing and promotional purposes only if you have granted your permission to do so. Depending on the activity, event or feature, you will have an opportunity to either “opt-in” or “opt-out” of such sharing at the time of registration, delivery of the activity, event or feature, or by contacting the Service via this feedback form. You must use that form. We cannot guarantee that other methods of notification will be effective or timely. We may continue to contact you for administrative, transactional or informational purposes related to your use of our Services, including follow-up messages regarding contests or sweepstakes you have entered or other transactions you engaged in. By law, such messages are not considered to be unsolicited commercial messages.

10. Your California privacy rights

Under the California Consumer Privacy “Shine the Light Act,” if you reside in California and have an established business relationship with us, you have the right to receive information about our online and offline opt-out/opt-in policies of sharing your Personal Information with affiliated entities or non-affiliated third parties, such as our Advertisers for direct marketing purposes. If you wish to learn about our opt-out/opt-in policies, please send your written request following the instructions below. We will not accept requests via the telephone or facsimile. We may not be able to respond to requests that are not labeled or sent properly, or do not have complete information.

For all requests, include your full name, street address, city, state, zip code, and which Services’ information you are requesting.
Via email, you must state “Re: Your California Privacy Rights” in the subject line and send your email to [email protected].
Via United States Postal Service, you must address your request to:
Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc.
Attn: Privacy Administrator/Your California Privacy Rights
2619 Western Boulevard
Raleigh, NC 27606

Non-affiliated third parties are independent from CBC. If you wish to receive information about your disclosure choices or stop communications from third parties, you will need to contact the third parties directly.

11. Updates to our privacy notice

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time. When updated, we will post the changes to this page and update the “Last Updated” date. By continuing to use this Site or other Services after we post changes, you have accepted the Privacy Notice as modified.

12. Contact us / report misconduct

If you have questions about this Privacy Notice, please contact us via our Privacy Administrator. Also, if you see behavior or communications on any of the Services that you consider inappropriate or abusive, please let us know immediately.