Your privacy on
the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. Because we gather certain types
of information about our users, we feel you should fully understand the terms
and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy
statement discloses what information we gather and how we use it.
1. Information
MTVindia.com gathers and tracks
MTVindia.com gathers
two types of information about users: Data that users provide through optional,
voluntary registrations for services like bulletin board, electronic newsletters,
contests, and online surveys; and data that MTVindia.com gathers through aggregating
tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites
and click-through on our newsletters. Such information enables us to better
tailor our content to readers' needs and to help our advertisers better understand
the demographics of our audience. Because MTVindia.com derives its revenue mainly
from advertising, providing such aggregated demographic data is essential to
keeping our service free to users. The only situation in which MTVindia.com
divulges information about an individual user to a third party is with certain
contests and sweepstakes -- and then, only with the user's express consent.
MTVindia.com gathers user information in the following processes:
Optional registration
Several
MTVindia.com services offer free, voluntary registration to users. By registering,
users can participate in contests and use services (such as message boards).
They can also take advantage of personalization (the ability to select content
according to a user-supplied profile). During registration, the user is required
to supply information such as username, password, e-mail address, age, gender,
and other related information. In addition, the user can opt to subscribe to
electronic newsletters. Polling MTVindia.com also offers interactive polls to
users so they can easily share their opinions with other users and see what
the MTVindia.com audience thinks about various issues. MTVindia.com uses a system
to "tag" users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular
question. This tag is not correlated with information about individual users.
Message boards/forums
Users
of the MTVindia.com message board must register for this service (free of charge)
in order to post messages, although they needn't register to visit the site.
During registration, the user is required to supply a username, password, and
e-mail address.
Electronic
newsletters
MTVindia.com
offers a free electronic newsletter to users. MTV india.com gathers the e-mail
addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from
this mailing list through the subscription management pages. The instructions
for unsubscribing are also clearly stated on every electronic newsletter sent
out. Users can also subscribe to the newsletters at the time of registration.
MTVindia.com delivers newsletters, marketing and product offerings via e-mail
to only registered recipients from our subscription center. The e-mail tracking
system recognizes the URL that was clicked, and records some information about
you and your computer, such as the e-mail address that you provided to us, the
browser, operating system, and IP address. MTVindia.com also uses the feature
of your browser to set a "cookie" on your system. This allows us to measure
and report the click-through rate on e-mail delivered and better determine future
content. While aggregate counts of click-through behavior are provided to advertisers,
an advertiser will never know that a specific user clicked their ad. MTVindia.com
does not target advertising against specific user information. MTVindia.com
will not provide specific user information to any third party company.
"E-mail this
story to a friend" service
On MTVindia.com, a reader can choose to electronically forward a story or article
to someone else by clicking the link that accompanies that story. The user must
provide their e-mail address, as well as that of the recipient. This information
is used only in the case of transmission errors and, of course, to let the recipient
know who sent the story. The information is not used for any other purpose.
Surveys
Occasionally,
MTVindia.com conducts user surveys to better target our content to our audience.
We sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with
our advertisers and partners. We never share any of this information about specific
individuals with any third party. Contests and sweepstakes
MTVindia.com offers
contests and sweepstakes in which we request certain personal information. At
a minimum, the required information includes name and e-mail address; in some
cases, the user must answer mandatory survey questions about a range of other
personal data. The information gathered in the entry form is used to verify
the entrant's identity and to contact winners and/or prize recipients. There
are two situations in which MTVindia.com will divulge this information to a
third party -- provided the user gives express consent: (1) A user may expressly
choose to receive additional information from the contest sponsor, in which
case the user's personally identifiable information is divulged to the advertiser.
(2) Some of the contests may be hosted on the MTVindia.com site but administered
by the sponsor; in such cases, the information a user provides is passed on
to the third party as long as that user gives express consent. Because the rules
and terms of each contest can vary, all information about each contest is clearly
posted during the event. All contests and sweepstakes are conducted in full
accordance with Singapore law.
Usage tracking
MTVindia.com
tracks user traffic patterns throughout the site. Cookies A cookie is
a small data file that certain Web sites write to your hard drive when you visit
them. A cookie file can contain information such as a user ID that the site
uses to track the pages you've visited. But the only personal information a
cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can't read data
off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. MTVindia.com
uses cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above), when you register
as a member, and when you click on an ad: Registration: when you register, MTVindia.com
uses a cookie to store a unique, random user ID. We do not store passwords or
any personal information about you. We use this ID to identify you anonymously
in our database and to track the pages you visit on our site. Cookies also enable
you to visit member-restricted areas of the sites. Ads: MTVindia.com's advertising
system delivers a one-time cookie to better track ad impressions and click rates.
(Note: All online advertising on MTVindia.com is served through DoubleClick's
DART software. For more information about DoubleClick's privacy practice, please
visit www.doubleclick.net/privacy_policy.) If you've set your browser to warn
you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each
cookie. You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. You do not
need to have cookies turned on to use MTVindia.com. However, you do need cookies
to participate actively in the MTVindia.com online message board.
2. Use of the
information
MTVindia.com
uses any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience
in our site, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the
sites or to better prepare future content based on the interests of our users.
As stated above, MTVindia.com uses information that users voluntarily provide
in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participate
in services like polls, contests, and message boards. We send out newsletters
to subscribers on a regular schedule and occasionally send out special editions
when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are
doing. MTVindia.com never shares newsletter mailing lists with any third parties,
including advertisers or partners. We use tracking information to determine
which areas of MTVindia.com users like and don't like, based on traffic to those
areas. MTVindia.com does not track what individual users read, but rather how
well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service
for you. MTVindia.com creates aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic
patterns for advertisers and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise
more effectively, and allows our users to receive advertisements that are pertinent
to their needs. Data may be transferred from Singapore to other jurisdictions,
but at all times is kept within Asiacontent.com and its family of sites.
3. Sharing
of the information
MTVindia.com uses the above-described information to tailor our content to suit
your needs and help our advertisers better understand our audience's demographics.
This is essential to keeping our service free. We do not share information about
individual users with any third party, except in the case of some contests and
sweepstakes -- and then, only with a user's express consent. MTVindia.com does
not control the practices of our advertisers. If you have questions about how
one of our advertisers uses information about you when you click their ad and
go to their content, please contact them directly. (MTVindia.com will divulge
information only as necessary to comply with various laws.)
4. Opt-out
policy
MTVindia.com
gives users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:
Opting not to receive our electronic newsletters when participating in a contest
Opting not to provide certain personal information when registering for a service
or when participating in some contests (see above) Opting not to participate
in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need to gather
any personally identifiable information from our users.
5. Delete/deactivate
policy
Users may unsubscribe to any of our electronic newsletters at any time by following
the instructions contained at the end of every newsletter.
MTVindia.com
Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd.
36 B, Dr. R. K. Shirodkar Marg,
Parel (East) Mumbai - 400012
