Privacy Policy

Last updated January 1, 2025

This Privacy Policy describes how SparkWire News and its affiliates ("SparkWire") collect and use personal information and data from our users, and how you can exercise your rights and choices regarding the use and sharing of your information.

This Privacy Policy governs your use of all SparkWire services, including our website (www.sparkwire.news), newsletters, and any other services we offer that link to this policy. This policy is also part of our Terms of Use Agreement.

Changes become effective upon posting. Your continued use of the Services indicates your acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.

At SparkWire, we are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information responsibly. We continually strive to maintain the highest standards. Your online privacy is important to us, and we encourage you to carefully review this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions, please contact us at info@sparkwire.news.

Types of Personal Information Collected by SparkWire

SparkWire collects the following categories of personal information:

  • Contact Information: This includes your name and email address.

Device and User Identifiers: This includes information that identifies you and your device, such as your email address, IP address, and Device ID.

  • Transaction Information: If you subscribe to SparkWire's newsletter, we collect information about transactions you conduct through our Services, including payment details.

  • Geolocation Data: We collect non-precise geolocation data, derived from your IP address or city information you provide.

  • Service Interaction Data: We collect information about how you interact with our Services and any advertising displayed on our Services. This includes cookie data.

  • Professional Information: This includes your job title.

  • Third-Party Data: We may receive information about you from select data providers (further details are provided below).

  • Inferences: We may draw inferences about you based on the information described above.

Voluntary Information:

We may also collect additional categories of information if you voluntarily provide it to us, such as when you contact our newsroom via email or participate in surveys or other user experience research. This voluntarily provided information may include characteristics of protected classes or information considered "sensitive" under certain U.S. state laws, if you choose to share it. However, we do not knowingly collect personal information that is typically categorized as "sensitive" unless you explicitly provide it.

How We Collect Your Personal Information

We collect your personal information through various means, both directly from you and from third-party sources. This information helps us provide and improve our services.

Information we collect directly from you when you interact with us and our website, include:

  • Registration and Subscriptions: When you register for newsletters, we collect your email address, company affiliation, title, and area of profession.

  • Inquiries and Communications: When you request information about SparkWire, submit a tip, complete a survey, or otherwise contact us, we collect the information you provide, such as your contact details, company name, and the content of your communication.

  • Service Registration and Payments: When you complete a payment, we collect your account information, including your email address, password, and payment details necessary to complete the transaction.

  • Surveys: When you participate in a survey, we collect your contact information and any other information you provide, such as professional details.

  • Website and Newsletter Interactions: When you visit our website or engage with a newsletter, we use cookies, pixel tags, and other online tracking technologies to understand how you interact with our Services. This includes information about your device, the links you click, and the ads you view.

  • Referrals: When you refer our Services to a friend or colleague, we may collect their email address to follow up with them about SparkWire’s Services.

  • Other Collection Points: We may collect information about you in ways that we explain at the point of collection.

  • You have the option to not provide certain information, but this may limit your ability to use certain Services.

Information We Collect about you from Third-Party Sources include:

  • Publicly Available Information: We may collect information from publicly available sources, such as government websites (e.g., legislative directories).

  • Advertisers: We may receive information from advertisers who want to reach specific audiences through SparkWire. For example, an advertiser might provide us with a list of individuals they wish to target. We may then match a percentage of that list to our subscribers without identifying you or any other subscribers. We may then categorize matching subscribers into "cohort" groups based on interest, industry, or other categories to better engage the cohort with our Services. We do not share your email or other personal information with advertisers during this process.

  • Targeted Advertising: We may enable third parties to use 'cross-contextual behavioral' or 'interest-based' data to provide targeted advertising on our websites or in our email newsletters. We rely on advertising services that may collect data through their relationships with other websites or email engagement activities. You can opt-out of these types of targeted advertisements by following the instructions provided below.

  • Data Providers: We may obtain information from data providers to learn more about you based on information they have collected from other sources. This may include names, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, and professional information of individuals who use, or may be interested in using, SparkWire Services.

How We Use Your Personal Information

SparkWire uses your personal information for a variety of purposes, all aimed at providing and improving our services and your experience. Here are the main ways we use your information:

Providing and Improving SparkWire Services:

  • We use your information to deliver the SparkWire services you request, such as sending newsletters, processing transactions, and responding to your inquiries.

  • We analyze how users interact with our services to understand what content is most valuable and how users navigate our platform. This analysis is often done using anonymized and aggregated data. For example, we may track which articles are most popular, how users find them, and whether users return to our homepage. This helps us improve our content and user experience.

  • We may use service providers to assist us in these analysis efforts.

  • We monitor the security of our services, sometimes with the help of service providers, to protect our platform and our users from threats.

Customizing Your Experience:

  • We optimize your content and advertising experience based on a combination of information you provide, data collected through cookies and similar technologies, and information we may obtain from data providers.

Delivering Targeted Advertising:

  • We display advertisements for our services and those of our advertising partners. These ads may appear on our platform and on other websites and platforms through targeted advertising, also known as cross-contextual behavioral advertising or interest-based advertising.

  • The delivery and measurement of these ads may involve the use of cookies, pixel tags, and other online tracking technologies.

  • We work with advertising technology companies to measure the impact of our ads, tracking metrics such as ad views, frequency, and user engagement. This helps us understand the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns.

Marketing and Communications:

  • We may send you promotional materials or special offers when you subscribe to our newsletters. These emails may promote SparkWire services or those of our advertising partners. You can opt out of these messages at any time using the unsubscribe link in the email.

  • We may market SparkWire services to you via third-party platforms, including social media. This may involve using social media advertising tools to identify SparkWire readers who also use those platforms. We may also upload subscriber lists to these platforms or use third-party trackers on our services. You can learn about how to opt-out of this kind of targeted advertising below.

Understanding Our Audience:

  • We use marketing surveys to understand our audience and their interests. This helps us decide what new areas to report on and what new products or services to launch. It also helps our advertisers understand who they are reaching. Participation in these surveys is voluntary.

Third-Party Platform Integration:

  • If you log in to SparkWire using a third-party platform (like Google or Facebook), we may share your information with that platform according to your platform settings.

Newsroom Interactions:

  • If you contact our newsroom over email or by responding to a survey, we may use the information you volunteer to inform our reporting. This information is stored separately from other user data and is not associated with your account for profiling purposes. Your interactions with our newsroom are entirely voluntary.

How We Share Your Personal Information

We may share your personal information with third parties in the following ways:

  • Analytics Providers: We utilize analytics technology providers to understand how users interact with our Services. This data helps us improve and enhance the user experience.

  • Service Providers: We engage vendors to assist us in operating our business. These may include vendors who help us with tasks such as sending newsletters and ensuring website security.

  • Marketing Platforms: We may share information with third-party platforms like LinkedIn and X to market our Services to you and similar audiences.

  • Advertising Partners: We work with advertising service providers to deliver relevant third-party advertisements that help support our Services.

We may also share your information in the following circumstances:

  • Payment Processing: To complete transactions you initiate, such as subscribing to SparkWire news, we will share your information with a payment processor.

  • Legal Compliance: We may disclose your information when required by law, such as in response to a court order, regulatory request, or subpoena.

  • Protection of Rights: We may share your information when we believe it is necessary to protect our employees, readers, Services, or our rights under the law or our Terms of Use agreement.

  • Consent: We will share your information when you specifically consent to such sharing, as indicated at the point of collection.

Under applicable law you may be entitled the right to limit or opt-out of certain types of information sharing. Please refer to the "Your Privacy Rights" section below for more information.

Data Retention and Security

SparkWire retains your information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the business purposes outlined in this policy, or as required by law. We may retain some information even after you unsubscribe from our services. We will either securely delete or de-identify your data by removing any connection to you once your data is no longer needed for a specific purpose. De-identified data may be retained and used for statistical purposes.

We protect your information using industry-standard organizational, technological, and physical safeguards appropriate to our size and the data we process. However, no internet transmission is entirely secure. If you believe your SparkWire account or related information has been compromised, please notify us immediately at info@SparkWire.news.

Sensitive Information

SparkWire does not seek to collect sensitive personal information as defined under U.S. privacy laws. This includes government-issued identification (such as passport or social security numbers), health information, biometric or genetic data, citizenship or immigration status, and precise geolocation data. We do not use sensitive personal information for profiling or marketing purposes.

SparkWire cannot control how third-party advertising services collect or use your information, including information that may be considered sensitive under certain U.S. state privacy laws.

Children's Privacy

SparkWire does not direct its services to children under 13 years of age; knowingly collect personal information from minors under 16 years of age; have knowledge that we have sold or shared the personal information of anyone under 16 years of age; make decisions about you that would produce a legal or similarly significant effect based on profiling.

State Privacy Rights

Many U.S. states have enacted privacy laws that grant residents specific rights regarding their personal data. These "Covered Jurisdictions" currently include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.

These state laws may provide you with the following rights:

  • Right to Notice: To be informed about our data collection and use practices, including the categories of personal information we collect, how we use that information, and with whom we share it. This Privacy Policy serves as that notice.

  • Right to Access: To request a copy of the personal information we have collected about you in the past 12 months, as well as information about our use, disclosure, or sale of that personal information.

  • Right to Correction: To request that we correct any inaccurate personal information we hold about you.

  • Right to Deletion: To request that we delete the personal information we maintain about you, subject to certain legal exceptions.

  • Right to Opt-Out: To opt out of the sale of your personal information and the sharing of your personal information for cross-contextual behavioral or targeted advertising.

  • Right to Non-Discrimination: To not be discriminated against by SparkWire for exercising your privacy rights.

SparkWire will honor these privacy rights for residents of Covered Jurisdictions.

Please note that some of these rights are not absolute and subject to limitations. For example:

  • We may retain your information after a deletion request if an exception applies under applicable law.

  • We may retain de-identified data derived from your personal information after a deletion request, provided that the data has been modified so that it cannot reasonably be linked back to you.

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Exercising Your Privacy Rights

Residents of Covered Jurisdictions may exercise their privacy rights regarding their personal information. You can submit requests to:

  • Access your personal information.

  • Delete your personal information.

  • Manage your consent preferences for sharing data with third parties.

We will honor requests from residents of Covered Jurisdictions. To process your request, please provide the email address associated with your SparkWire newsletter subscriptions. If you have multiple subscriptions linked to different email addresses, you may need to submit separate requests for each.

We will make every reasonable effort to fulfill access or deletion requests within 30 days of receipt. If we require additional time, we will notify you.

Verification of Identity

  • Before fulfilling an access or deletion request, we will need to verify your identity via email. Your request will be denied if you do not respond to our verification email.

Request Denials and Appeals

  • We will notify you if we deny your request and provide the reason for the denial. You will not be penalized for submitting a request.

Denied Request

  • If your request is denied, you may appeal the decision by emailing info@SparkWire.com with the subject line: "Appeal for Privacy Rights Request."

Appeal Denial

  • If your appeal is denied and you believe the denial is in error, you may have the right to file a complaint with your state's Attorney General.

Your Privacy Options

You have several options to control how SparkWire uses your information.

  • Newsletter Subscriptions: You can unsubscribe from any SparkWire newsletter by clicking the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the email. Please note that even after unsubscribing, you will still receive transactional emails, such as purchase confirmations or support ticket replies.

  • Targeted Advertising Cookies: You can block targeted advertising cookies in your current browser profile by using the "Your Privacy Choices" link, typically found in the website footer. This setting will remain in effect until you clear your browser cookies.

  • Browser Settings and Plugins: You can adjust your browser settings or use browser plugins to reject cookies and other tracking technologies. However, please be aware that doing so may impact the functionality of SparkWire Services.

  • Opt-Out Tools: You can limit the use of your information for interest-based advertising via third party services.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how SparkWire uses your information, please contact us at info@SparkWire.com.