Please take a minute to read our policy so that you understand your options, and how peta2 collects, processes and shares information. If you have any questions about peta2’s information practices, send an e-mail to peta2’s Policy Manager. PETA reserves the right to remove any material posted at any time.

If you decide to join peta2, registration is the only place where you are required to submit information about yourself. To become a peta2 member you need to submit your e-mail address (which can be your new peta2 e-mail address), gender, birth date, zip or postal code and the name of the country where you live.

peta2 wants to be your number-one destination on the Internet. To encourage your participation, your peta2 experience is personalized so that you are offered the services, products and information most relevant to you. This requires the collection of information to help tell you apart from the rest of the folks on peta2. The forms are specially designed so that you don’t have to disclose any more information than is necessary to participate in a given activity or use a given tool.

peta2 collects two kinds of information: anonymous and personally identifiable. Anonymous information is not associated with specific individuals. For instance, peta2 may know how many people read this Privacy Policy today, but they don’t necessarily know their names, addresses or birthdays. Personally identifiable information reveals who you are and/or how you can be contacted. It includes your name, address, phone number and e-mail address.

Below is a summary of the different ways peta2 collects various kinds of information about members:

Is my personal information visible to others?

Generally, no, but there are a few exceptions. During registration for the Traveling Nugget game, we ask you to provide your e-mail address. The e-mail address you provide will be visible to others whom you e-mail and pass the nugget to. Also, if you accept the nugget from a friend and pass it on to other friends, your e-mail address will be visible. Finally, if your friends pass your e-mail on to other people, your e-mail address will be viewable.

Registration (mandatory to be a peta2 member)

If you decide to join peta2, registration is the only place where you will be required to submit information about yourself. To become a peta2 member, you need to complete a form with your e-mail address (which can be your new peta2 e-mail address), gender, birthday, zip code, and country. peta2 uses this information to provide you with more personalized service, and to learn more about its audience demographics.

Only when you choose to participate in optional peta2 programs or services will registration information be linked to information you submit for other purposes. For example, if you decide to be a peta2 Reporter, you’ll have to give peta2 your full name, address, school and graduating class. peta2 keeps this information in its database with your member name and other registration data. If you decide that you no longer want peta2 to have a certain piece of information about you, e-mail the Policy Manager.

Your Profile (optional)

Information from registration will automatically be placed in your Member Profile. In addition, you can choose to tell everyone your hobbies, interests, likes and dislikes. You can fill out as much or as little of your Profile as you want. The more you fill out, the more likely it is that you’ll be able to meet members based on things you have (or don’t have!) in common.

Public forums (privacy warning)

peta2 understands your decision to post in public areas as permission to contact you through your peta2 account.

One last thing to keep in mind: Whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information on message boards, through e-mail, peta2 Notes, Zap, Diaries, peta2 homepages or in chat areas, it can be collected and used by anyone, including law-enforcement agencies acting under subpoena power. If you post personal information in public places, others may send you unsolicited e-mail messages. Always be smart about the information you provide online.

What are cookies, and how does peta2 use them?

The main function of cookies is to connect members with their stored account information so that peta2 can deliver better and more personalized service. Cookies do not enable the peta2 staff to access personally identifiable information that you haven’t already provided.

peta2 collects anonymous information through cookies. A cookie is a small piece of data containing a unique identification number that is sent to your browser from a Web server, and is stored on your computer's hard drive. The unique ID number identifies your browser to peta2’s computers whenever you visit. This helps peta2 deliver better and more personalized service. peta2 also uses cookies to estimate peta2’s audience size for advertisers; to assist in processing items in your shopping basket; to track the number of entries in peta2 promotions, sweepstakes and contests; to identify the areas of the site you visit; to hold session information; and to track user preferences.

Cookies are part of the technology implemented by your browser. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to either notify you when you have received a cookie, or to refuse them all together.

peta2 relies on cookies to preserve the peta2 identity you have created while logged on. If you choose to not accept cookies, you can not participate as a registered, signed-in member.

How does peta2 use member information?

Two things drive peta2’s decisions regarding the use of information collected from peta2 members: 1) improving user experience by offering personalized services, and content, and 2) market research.

peta2 may analyze information provided directly by you, or obtained through cookies or third parties to direct services and content based on your interests. This is done in the aggregate (for example, let’s say half of peta2’s members are females who visit the boards more than the chat rooms) and at the individual level (for example, peta2User1234 mostly visits the Sports section). Again, this helps the staff produce and appropriately feature tools and content tailored to your interests.

Wherever you provide us with your contact details, we may share these with PETA's international affiliates in order to keep you apprised of developments in your part of the world. If you don't want your information to be given to other organizations, please contact peta2's policy manager.

What is peta2’s information retention policy?

To preserve the integrity of our databases, standard procedure calls for us to retain information submitted by members for an indefinite length of time. peta2 understands your submissions as consent to store all your information in one place for this indefinite length of time, if we so wish. If required by law, as is the case to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we will nullify (scramble so that it is unrecognizable) member information. We will also respond to written member requests to nullify account information. If you wish to make such a request, which requires that we verify your identity, or if you have any questions regarding this policy, contact peta2’s Policy Manager.

How does peta2 secure collected information?

Your peta2 Profile is password-protected so that only you and authorized peta2 employees have access to your account information. In order to maintain this protection, do not give your password to anyone. If anyone ever asks you for information claiming they are peta2 staff, check their Member Profile — if it doesn’t say they are staff, they’re not. Also, if you share a computer, you should sign out of your peta2 account and close the browser window before someone else logs on. This will protect your information on public terminals.

peta2 makes every effort to ensure that your information is secure on its system. Extremely sensitive information, like credit card numbers, is always transmitted in encrypted form. Only certain authorized peta2 employees can access this information if it’s relevant to their job duties. peta2 will periodically review Web security and make sure that all standards and practices are up to date and relevant. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed 100% secure. As a result, peta2 cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.

What is peta2’s opt-in/out policy?

During registration you choose whether to receive correspondence from peta2 and whether you want to participate in a variety of peta2 programs. This information lives on your Profile where you can, at any point, easily edit it to indicate that you have changed your mind. If you purchase anything through peta2, we may occasionally contact you with information about special events, sales, and activities. You always have the option to ask peta2 not to contact you with this information again. As for promotions, contests, submission opportunities and programs, you will not be included unless you opt-in.

If you receive unsolicited e-mail from a peta2 domain, please contact Member Services

How can peta2 members edit their information?

peta2 believes strongly in giving you the ability to access and edit your personal information (after all, it’s yours). To update your personal info, please contact peta2's Policy Manager.

So that we can protect the integrity of sensitive data, there are certain pieces of information, such as your birthday, that you can not alter yourself. For example, since children under 15 are not allowed to register as peta2 members, we need to take reasonable measures to preserve the accuracy of our members’ ages. Go to peta2’s Help section to find out how to change information you can not access through your Profile.

Our databases automatically update any personal information you edit in your Profile, or that you request we edit. Information transmitted through boards, miniboards, and peta2 Notes, remain in our databases. Keep this in mind if you decide to communicate personal information through any of these applications.

What action has peta2 taken to protect children’s privacy?

peta2 is intended for people 15 or over. Our registration process is intentionally designed to identify children under 15 years of age. We have also made an effort to specifically limit peta2’s appeal to people of age 15 and older. peta2 will not knowingly collect any information from children under 13.

If it comes to our attention that a member has revealed, on peta2, that they are under 13, a member of peta2’s Community staff will immediately close their account.

Note to parents:

If your child is under 13 and has become a peta2 member using a false age, please notify the Policy Manager who will immediately close the account and nullify all personally identifiable information collected from them. If your child is under the age of 18 and you would like to know more about our site, information practices, stored information on your child, or how to close your child’s account, contact peta2’s Policy Manager. In both instances, you will need to provide your full name, address, phone number, credit card information, child’s full name and peta2 member name so that your identity can be verified for the protection of the member’s privacy.

Notification of Changes:

peta2’s security and privacy policy are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary. This policy might change as peta2 updates and expands its services. peta2 will contact you via e-mail and post notification if there are any material changes in its privacy practices. peta2 also encourages you to also check the privacy policy out periodically.