ESSENCE PRIVACY STATEMENT

Effective Date: January 1, 2020

At Essence (“Essence,” “Us,” “We,” or “Our”), we value your privacy. We have put together this Privacy Statement (or “Statement”) so that you can better understand our privacy practices and how they relate to the information, including Personal Data (i.e. any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person), that we collect from and about you and other individuals that interact with us through our websites, mobile applications, and other product and service offerings such as our publications and newsletters (collectively, our “Services”). This Statement does not apply to Essence employees for whom we maintain a separate Privacy Notice.

We invite you to read this Statement to learn more about our privacy practices. Below, we include a general summary of the types of information we collect, how we use that information, and with whom we share it. We may update this Statement from time to time and when that happens, we will notify you of any changes by posting our revised Privacy Statement on our websites, including an effective date, and in some cases, we may contact you directly to let you know of the changes. The most current version of our Privacy Statement is always available by clicking the “Privacy” link at the bottom of our websites. Should you have any questions about our privacy practices, please contact us at privacy@essence.com or at the Contact Information listed below.

If you are visiting our website from the European Union (“EU”) or where EU data protection laws apply, please see Section 11 on your EU Privacy Rights for additional information.

If you are a resident of the State of California and are visiting our website from a location where California data protection laws apply, please see Section 12 on your California Privacy Rights for additional information.

Privacy Statement Contents

Personal Data Collected
How We Process Your Personal Data and On Which Legal Grounds
With Whom We Share Personal Data
Cookies, Online Tracking, and Advertising
Your Choices
Retention of Data
Security of Data
Links to and Privacy Statements of Third Party Sites
Children’s Privacy
International Transfers of Your Personal Data
Your EU Privacy Rights
Your California Privacy Rights
Contact Information

1. Personal Data Collected

How we collect your Personal Data depends on how you interact with Essence, such as through its website, mobile applications and the other Services it offers.

Categories of Personal Data

We generally collect Personal Data directly from you. This can be through email or over the phone, or through online forms or other functionality of our website or mobile applications that allows you to submit information to us. The Personal Data that we collect includes:

Contact information (such as your name, address, email address, phone number, facsimile number, and postal code),
Purchase, use, and subscription history for all of our Services, including our publications, newsletters, product and service offerings, website and mobile applications,
Demographic information (such as age and gender),
Personal or professional interests (such as your job and industry),
Use and opinions about our Services,
Payment information (such as credit or debit card account numbers),
Job applicant data (such as name, email, resume, social media profiles (e.g., LinkedIn), cover letter, and any other information you upload as part of your application), and
Data gathered by technology when you visit our Site.

When using our mobile applications, we may also collect your geolocation data for purposes of personalizing content offerings, which may be considered Personal Data under applicable law. We only collect this type of data, however, when you have expressly consented to granting our mobile application access to your geolocation. You may at any time opt-out of sharing your geolocation by changing the settings on your mobile device(s).

We also automatically collect information about you from cookies and other similar technologies, which may be considered Personal Data under applicable laws. For more information on use of cookies and similar technologies, please see Section 4 below.

When we Collect Your Personal Data

We collect Personal Data directly from you when you:

Subscribe to receive, or submit content for us to use in, one of our publications or newsletters,
Register to use one of our mobile applications;
Engage with us by registering to participate in online games, quizzes, voting polls, forums or communities,
Purchase or otherwise register to receive a product or service from us,
Participate in our promotional efforts, such as our contests and sweepstakes,
Send any information to us, including by email, social media, and through our website or mobile application,
Respond to our inquiries about your personal or professional interests, or your use of or opinions about certain products and services,
Contact us about our Services, sales, customer support, feedback, or to inquire about other information, or
Apply for a job with us.

We may also combine the information that we collect directly from you with information that we receive from third parties, including those that are acting on our behalf or who may be providing services to us, such as web analytics.

2. How We Process Your Personal Data and On Which Legal Grounds

We process your Personal Data for our legitimate interests or as otherwise set out in this Privacy Statement. Whenever a particular processing activity requires your consent, we will ask you separately for your consent and in some cases, this may be done as part of a contract with you. We process your Personal Data in order to:

Provide our products or services to you, process your orders or service requests, and communicate with you on related issues such as customer service, product and service fulfillment, and refunds and exchanges – all of which may be necessary for the performance of our contract with you,
Customize your experience with our Services, including by way of personalized marketing and promotional offerings that inform you about our current and future product and service lineups, as well as our upcoming events, publications and newsletters,
Statistically analyze your use of our website and mobile applications (for more information in this respect, see Section 4 below), improve our product and service offerings, and enhance the content and layout of the product and services we offer through our website and mobile applications,
Diagnose, repair and track product, service and quality issues,
Install and configure changes and updates to our products and services,
Send you administrative notices to inform you about important changes in our contractual relationship – which is also necessary for the performance of our contract with you,
Expand our prospective customer database with marketing data that we receive from third parties,
Resolve disputes and enforce our agreements with you, including our Site Terms of Use – which may also be necessary to defend our interests and claims, and
Consider your employment application – which may also include processing necessary to comply with a legal obligation.

3. With Whom We Share Personal Data

We may share your Personal Data with our corporate affiliates, subsidiaries, business units and other companies with which we share common ownership, for the purposes described above. We may also share your Personal Data:

With third-party service providers who process Personal Data on our behalf pursuant to contractual arrangements in order to help us market and deliver our Services to you (for instance, when you request a magazine or any other product or service offering from us, we will forward your Personal Data to the publisher or provider to the extent necessary to fulfill your request; we may also employ third-party marketing companies to enhance our outreach to you),

If you choose to submit content on our websites or mobile application (e.g., a “letter to our editors,” online reviews), we may publicly display your name, screen name and other information you have provided to us that personally identifies you in relation to your submission,

Where we believe in good faith that sharing Personal Data is necessary to conform to legal requirements or comply with a legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, or court order; to protect and defend Essence rights or property; or to enforce our licenses or services agreement(s).

In connection with or during negotiation of any merger, financing, acquisition or dissolution transaction or proceeding involving the sale, transfer, divestiture, or dissolution of all or a portion of our business or assets, including situations of insolvency, bankruptcy or receivership. Please note that if another company acquires Essence or its assets, that company will possess the Personal Data collected by us and will assume the rights and obligations regarding your Personal Data as described in this Privacy Statement.

With third parties for their own marketing purposes (for instance, we may disclose Personal Data to the publisher or provider of a magazine or other product or service we offer or to other third parties that provide online behavioral advertisements, cookies and other tracking technology included in our Services and emails) who may use your Personal Data to market additional products or services to you, in which case this Privacy Statement would not apply to the privacy practices of such third parties (we will request your consent if you are visiting our websites from the EU or where applicable EU data protection laws so provide and you may have additional rights, see Section 11 below).

We may also enable our websites or mobile applications to include social media features that allow you to share information within your social networks and interact with Essence on various social media platforms. Use of these features may result in additional collection or sharing of information about you, depending on the feature and the particular social media platform. We encourage you to review the privacy policies and settings on all social media platforms with which you interact to make sure you understand the information that may be collected, used and shared by those sites. This Privacy Statement does not apply to the privacy practices of any third-party social media platforms that may be accessible through links on the Essence websites or mobile applications.

4. Cookies, Online Tracking, and Advertising

We employ technology on our website that allows us automatically to gather certain types of information about how you interact with us, including website traffic information such as your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address and other numeric codes used to identify your computer or its operating system or browser. We use this information to better understand usage patterns, to personalize and enhance your experience with our Services, and in some cases, to deliver advertisements that we feel are of greater relevance to you. We may gather this information in a format that personally identifies you or in an aggregate format that may not be personally identifiable.

How does Essence use cookies and other similar technology?

We use cookies and other similar technology to track the usage of our Services and to make navigating our website easier by, for instance, saving your browsing preferences, recognizing you by name between visits to our websites, enabling the use of online shopping carts as you navigate our product offerings, preserving language choices, and tailoring a personalized online experience for each individual visitor to our website. The cookies (e.g., .Flash cookies, cache cookies, eTags) and other similar technology (e.g., web beacons, clear gifs, or similar functionality embedded into our website’s code) that we use on our websites fall into four main categories:

Strictly Necessary: These cookies are essential for running our website and are key to providing you with a seamless website experience. These include cookies that allow you to be remembered as you explore the website within a single session or from session to session. They also assist in security issues and conforming to regulations.
Functional and Performance: These analytic cookies allow us to improve the website’s functionality by anonymously tracking usage. We do analytical profiling to understand unique users reading a particular page to identify what is popular. We also look at where content is accessed so we know how to arrange our website for optimal user experience. In some cases, these cookies improve the speed with which we can process your request, and allow us to remember website preferences you’ve selected. They also help connect you to your social networks. We count clicks on “Like” and “Tweet” plugins and what content from our websites was shared or referenced. De-selecting these cookies may result in poorly-tailored recommendations and slow website performance. You also may not be able to share effectively with Facebook, Twitter, or other social networks. We also examine what type of reference was used to reach our websites, such as an email campaign or a link from a referral website, so we can estimate the effectiveness of our promotions and advertising campaigns.
Personalization: These cookies help make the content as personalized as possible, for example by showing you targeted banners and relevant recommendations of Essence products.
Advertising: These cookies collect information to help better tailor advertising to your interests, both within and beyond the Essence website. De-selecting these cookies may result in seeing advertising that is not as relevant to you.

Most web browsers include settings that will allow you to opt-out of receiving (i.e. reject) the cookies that we use on our websites. Please note, however, that if you change your web browser settings after you have already visited our websites, you may also have to delete any existing cookies from your web browser.

Many of our cookies are functionality cookies and some of these cookies are managed for us by third parties. While you can opt-out of receiving our cookies and still access our website, you may find that some parts of our website will no longer continue to function the same way as when cookies are enabled or may appear to function improperly. This is because we rely on certain cookies to provide a seamless, interactive and personalized online experience and without certain cookies, some functionality of our website may become unavailable.

Do Not Track

At this time, the Essence websites do not respond to Do Not Track beacons sent by browser plugins as there is not yet a common agreement about how to interpret these signals.

For more detailed information about cookies visit www.allaboutcookies.org. To opt out from behavioral advertising by networks adhering to the Network Advertising Initiative visit http://optout.networkadvertising.org/.

We may also employ Nielsen’s proprietary measurement software to contribute to our market research efforts, including those involving television viewership. To learn more about this information, please click here. Nielsen’s software may collect your choices with regards to it.

Through a contractual relationship with LiveRamp, we may also use your Personal Data to provide a more customized, personal and relevant marketing experience in relation to our Services. To opt out of participating with LiveRamp, please visit https://liveramp.com/opt_out/.

Your California Privacy Rights

A business subject to California Civil Code section 1798.83 is required to disclose to its California customers, upon request, the identity of any third parties to whom the business has disclosed personal information within the previous calendar year, along with the type of personal information disclosed, for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. Please note that under California law, businesses are only required to respond to a customer request once during any calendar year.

If you wish to opt-out of this disclosure of your Personal Data or if you would like additional information on your opt-out rights, please contact us at privacy@essence.com or at the Contact Information provided below. Mention in your email that you are making a “California Shine the Light” inquiry. We will respond within 30 days.

5. Your Choices

We value your interest in accessing the Personal Data that you provide to us in order to correct, amend or delete it. You may request such access by contacting us at privacy@essence.com or at the Contact Information provided below. Please note, however, that we may deny your access requests in certain circumstances if, for instance, allowing you access: would compromise another’s privacy rights; be likely to interfere with the safeguarding of national security, defense, or public security; could interfere with law enforcement or legal actions; or in other situations in compliance with applicable laws. These are examples and other reasons may apply.

If you do not wish to receive information from us via email or traditional mailing regarding our Services, please let us know by clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link shown at the end of our emails and electronic newsletters, or by contacting us at privacy@essence.com or at the Contact Information listed below. We will remove your name from our distribution lists upon request in accordance with applicable law.

For additional information about EU rights, please see Section 11 below.

6. Retention of Data

We will keep your Personal Data as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which Personal Data is collected as stated herein; for as long as is necessary for the performance of the contract between you and us, if any; and to comply with legal and statutory obligations, such as in tax, trade and corporate laws. When we no longer need your Personal Data for our purposes, we will destroy, delete or erase that Personal Data or convert it into an anonymous form.

7. Security of Data

Our security measures include safeguarding and monitoring networks and controlling access to our files, equipment and buildings. While we will take reasonable steps to protect your Personal Data in our possession from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction, no system is completely secure and therefore, we cannot assure you that the Personal Data we collect will never be used or disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Statement.

8. Links to and Privacy Statements of Third Party Sites

Our Services may contain links to third party websites and other services whose privacy practices may be different than ours. We facilitate these connections in order to enhance your online experience with us; however, once you click on a link to another website (a “Third Party Site”), you are no longer using our Services, including our websites or mobile applications. This Statement applies only to Essence’s data processing activities as they relate to the Personal Data Essence collects through its Services, but does not apply to or describe the privacy practices associated with any Third Party Site. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of all Third Party Sites that you chose to visit and contact the operators and anyone else associated with the Third Party Sites if you have questions or concerns about their data processing activities.

9. Children’s Privacy

Unless we have specifically indicated otherwise on a particular website or mobile application, we do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under the age of sixteen (16), nor have we designed our Services for or directed our Services at children under the age of sixteen (16). By using our Services, you represent that you are age sixteen (16) or over. If you are a child under sixteen (16) years of age, you are not permitted to use our Services and should not send any Personal Data about yourself to us through our websites or mobile applications.

If you believe that a child may have provided his or her Personal Data to us or if you have any questions about which websites or mobile applications we have designed for use by children under the age of sixteen (16), please contact us at privacy@essence.com or at the Contact Information below. In the event that we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from a child under the age of sixteen (16) through Services that are not designed for or directed at children under the age of sixteen (16), we will dispose of that Personal Data immediately as required by applicable law.

10. International Transfers of Your Personal Data

By using the Site or providing Personal Data to Essence, your Personal Data will be transferred to the United States where Essence is headquartered. If you are not a resident of the United States, your country’s laws governing data collection and use may differ from those in the United States. For example, the data protection laws of the United States have not been found by the European Commission to provide the same level of protection as EU data protection law. Some of the third parties with whom we share your Personal Data are also located in third countries that do not provide the same level of protection to your Personal Data. Certain third countries have been officially recognized by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection (list available here).

We may also transfer your Personal Data to our affiliates and third-party service providers located in third countries, such as EU member states, Hong Kong, and South Africa, where our affiliates and third-party service providers process data on our behalf in relation to the Services we offer. Transfers to third parties located in third countries outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”) take place using an acceptable data transfer mechanism, such as the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield for transfers to self-certified U.S. organizations, the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, Binding Corporate Rules, approved Codes of Conduct and Certifications or in exceptional circumstances on the basis of permissible statutory derogations. Please contact privacy@essence.com if you want to receive further information or, where available, a copy of the relevant data transfer mechanism.

11. Your EU Privacy Rights

f you are visiting our Services from the EU or where applicable EU data protection laws so provide, you may also exercise the following rights regarding your Personal Data:

Access

You have the right to obtain from us confirmation if your Personal Data is being processed and certain information in this regard.

Rectification

You have the right the request the rectification of inaccurate Personal Data and to have incomplete data completed.

Objection

You have the right, when we process Personal Data on the grounds of legitimate interests, to object to the processing of your Personal Data for compelling and legitimate reasons relating to your particular situation, except in cases where legal provisions expressly provide for that processing. In addition, you have the right to object at any time where your Personal Data is processed for direct marketing purposes.

Portability

You may receive your Personal Data that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit them to other data controllers without hindrance. This right only exists if the processing is based on your consent or a contract and the processing is carried out by automated means.

Restriction

You may request to restrict processing of your Personal Data if (i) you contest the accuracy of it – for a period we need to verify your request; (ii) the processing is unlawful and you oppose the erasure of it and request restriction instead; (iii) we no longer need it, but you tell us you need it to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim; or (iv) you object to processing based on public or legitimate interest – for a period we need to verify your request.

Erasure

You may request to erase your Personal Data if it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which we have collected it, you have withdrawn your consent and no other legal ground for the processing exists, you objected and no overriding legitimate grounds for the processing exist, the processing is unlawful, or erasure is required to comply with a legal obligation.

Right to lodge a complaint

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the EU Member State of your residence, or the location where the issue that is the subject of the complaint occurred.

Right to refuse or withdraw consent

Please note that in case we ask for your consent to certain processing, you are free to refuse to give consent and you can withdraw your consent at any time without any adverse negative consequences. The lawfulness of any processing of your Personal Data that occurred prior to the withdrawal of your consent will not be affected.

If you have questions about exercising any of those rights or their applicability to any of our particular processing activities or have questions about any data transfer mechanism or want a copy thereof, you may contact us at privacy@essence.com or at the address provided in our Contact Information below.

12. Your California Privacy Rights

California Consumer Privacy Act. If you are a California resident, you have specific privacy rights governed by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). These rights include:

Disclosure. California residents have the right to request that we disclose the categories of personal information collected; the categories of sources from which personal information is collected; the business or commercial purpose; the categories of third parties with which the businesses shares personal information, and the specific pieces of information we hold about you (subject to specified limitations) twice in the past 12 months.
Opt-Out. You have the right to opt-out to the sale of your personal information to third parties.
Deletion. You have the right to request that we delete certain personal information collected from you.
Non-Discrimination. We shall not discriminate against you based on your exercise of any of the above rights.

You may submit a request to enact any of the above rights by sending an email to privacy@essence.com to submit a request. We may require additional information to verify your identity before responding to a CCPA rights request. For instance, if you have previously provided your name to us, we may ask you for other information (e.g., last four digits of your credit card, email address, phone number) so that we can match the new information you provide with the information we have. We may also use other verification methods as the circumstances dictate. If through reasonable efforts we are unable to verify your request to a reasonable degree of certainty, we will notify you. We will respond to your request within 45 days if possible and required under the law.

Certain information may be exempt from such requests under applicable law. For example, we need certain types of information so that we can provide the Services to you. If you ask us to delete it, you may no longer be able to access or use the Services.

You may also have the right to receive information about the financial incentives that we offer to you (if any).

Note you can authorize an agent to exercise any of these California privacy rights on your behalf. Note that we will take additional measures to verify the legal authority of your agent.

Personal Information Collected on California Residents:

Names and Aliases
Physical Address
Phone Number
E-Mail Address
Education information
IP Address
Unique Identifiers
Interactions with Customer Service
Information about transactions made on our services
Fan Preferences and Attributes
Cookies/Web Beacons – We use tracking tools like browser cookies and web beacons. To learn more about these tools and to control them, please Section 4.
Device Attributes

Personal Information Disclosed for a Business Purpose or

Sold About California Residents:

Categories of Personal	Personal Information	Disclosed for a Business Purpose	Sold
Identifiers	Names and Aliases	X	X
	Physical Address	X	X
	Phone Number	X	X
	E-Mail Address	X	X
	IP Address	X	X
	Unique Identifiers	X	X
Commercial Information	Interactions with Customer Service	X	X
	Information about transactions made on our services	X	X
	Individual’s Preferences and Attributes	X	X
Internet/ Electronic Activity	Cookies/Web Beacons	X	X
Internet/ Electronic Activity	Device Attributes	X	X

To opt-out of the sale of your personal information, please click the “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” , or use the options presented above to submit a full request.

Sources of Data about California Residents:

Subscribe to receive, or submit content for us to use in, one of our publications or newsletters;
Register to use one of our mobile applications;
Engage with us by registering to participate in online games, quizzes, voting polls, forums or communities;
Purchase or otherwise register to receive a product or service from us,
Participate in our promotional efforts, such as our contests and sweepstakes,
Send any information to us, including by email, social media, and through our website or mobile application;
Respond to our inquiries about your personal or professional interests, or your use of or opinions about certain products and services;
Contact us about our Services, sales, customer support, feedback, or to inquire about other information, or; and
Apply for a job with us.

Business or Commercial Purposes for Collecting or

Selling Personal Information about California Residents:

Providing products and services;
Event management;
Market research and aggregated analytics;
To prevent, detect, and manage unlawful behavior;
Marketing;
Client services; and
Staff administration

Third Parties with Whom we Share Personal Information:

With third-party service providers who process Personal Data on our behalf pursuant to contractual arrangements in order to help us market and deliver our Services to you (for instance, when you request a magazine, purchase tickets, subscribed to our newsletters, or any other product or service offering from us, we will forward your Personal Data to the publisher or provider to the extent necessary to fulfill your request; we may also employ third-party marketing companies to enhance our outreach to you),
If you choose to submit content on our websites or mobile application (e.g., a “letter to our editors,” online reviews), we may publicly display your name, screen name and other information you have provided to us that personally identifies you in relation to your submission,
Where we believe in good faith that sharing Personal Data is necessary to conform to legal requirements or comply with a legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, or court order; to protect and defend Essence rights or property; or to enforce our licenses or services agreement(s).
In connection with or during negotiation of any merger, financing, acquisition or dissolution transaction or proceeding involving the sale, transfer, divestiture, or dissolution of all or a portion of our business or assets, including situations of insolvency, bankruptcy or receivership. Please note that if another company acquires Essence or its assets, that company will possess the Personal Data collected by us and will assume the rights and obligations regarding your Personal Data as described in this Privacy Statement.
With third parties for their own marketing purposes (for instance, we may disclose Personal Data to the publisher or provider of a magazine or other product or service we offer or to other third parties that provide online behavioral advertisements, cookies and other tracking technology included in our Services and emails) who may use your Personal Data to market additional products or services to you, in which case this Privacy Statement would not apply to the privacy practices of such third parties (we will request your consent if you are visiting our websites from the EU or where applicable EU data protection laws so provide and you may have additional rights, see Section 11 above).

Do Not Track. Our websites and apps are not designed to respond to “do not track” requests from browsers.

Our sites and apps are not intended for children.

Our sites and apps are meant for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you are a parent or legal guardian and think your child under 16 has given us information, you can email us at privacy@essence.com. You can also write to us at the address listed at the end of this policy. Please mark your inquiries “CCPA Information Request.”

Changes to This California Consumer Privacy Act Disclosure

We may change or update this Disclosure from time to time. When we do, we will post the revised Disclosure on this page with a new “Last Updated” date.

For further details on California residents’ privacy rights see Cal Civil Codes §§ 1798.80-83.

13. Contact Information

Unless otherwise stated, Essence is a data controller for purpose of the information it collects and processes in accordance with this Statement. If you have any questions about this Statement or if you believe that your Personal Data has been processed or disclosed in violation of this Statement, please contact us by sending an email to privacy@essence.com, or a letter to:

Essence Communications, Inc.
Attention: Senior Corporate Counsel
34 35^th Street
Suite 5A
Brooklyn, NY 11232