Privacy Policy
Morningstar Communications is committed to safeguarding your privacy on our website located at www.morningstarcomm.com including News & Insights, a resource we provide for information and insight on leadership, marketing, and strategic communications. This Morningstar Privacy Policy does not apply to products or services provided, or information obtained, other than through the website. Please read the following policy to understand how your information will be treated. This policy may change from time to time so please check back periodically. If there is a material change in the collection, use, or disclosure practices to which you have previously agreed, we will attempt to send you a notice via e-mail if you have provided us with an e-mail address. Please keep in mind that some of the services mentioned specifically in this policy may not be available on the site at this time. If you have questions concerning this policy, please contact us at smorgenstern@morningstarcomm.com. This Privacy Policy is effective as of April 2018.
What information does Morningstar Communications collect from me?
Any of the following personal information that may be made available to Morningstar Communications when browsing or navigating the site or Luminary Blog shall be kept confidential:
First and last name
Company, home, postal or other physical address
Other contact information, for example, telephone number, fax number, email address, and other similar information
Title or position in a company or an organization
Occupation
Industry
Any other information needed to provide a service you requested
Examples of scenarios where our visitors provide their personal information now or in the future include, but may not be limited to:
Emailing, calling or communicating with Morningstar Communications, its News & Insights or its editors
Posting a question or comment in News & Insights
Requesting literature
Registering to attend a seminar or any event
Participating in an online survey
Requesting inclusion in an email or other mailing list
Submitting an entry for a contest or other promotions
Any other business-related reason
If you believe that any inaccurate or inappropriate information has been obtained or disseminated through your use of this website, you should contact a representative of Morningstar Communications at smorgenstern@morningstarcomm.com.
What are cookies and how does Morningstar Communications use them?
As part of offering and providing customizable and personalized services, many websites use cookies to store and sometimes track information about you. A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a Web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. We use cookies to allow faster and easier access to your account information, monitor traffic on the site and measure traffic patterns to improve functionality. Morningstar Communications Web pages may in the future contain electronic images known as Web beacons (sometimes called clear giffs or Web bugs) or other advanced technologies that are useful in the provision of services to you. We may use such devices to verify compliance with our terms and conditions of use or with any promotions on the site.
Domain Information Collection
Morningstar Communications may collect domain information and log files to enable us to analyze how our visitors use this site. This data enables us to become more familiar with website visitors, how often they visit and what parts of the site they visit most often. Morningstar Communications uses this information to improve our Web-based offerings. This information is collected automatically and requires no action on your part.
Protecting the Privacy of Children
Children under 13 years old are not the target audience for our website. To protect their privacy, Morningstar Communications prohibits the solicitation of personal information from these children.
How does Morningstar Communications use the information?
Morningstar Communications' primary goal in collecting information is to improve the site and provide the user with the best possible experience on the site. For example, by using the information collected, we are able to provide you with an easy-to-use and readily available forum to access information about leadership, marketing and communications. We will also use your personal information to notify you of other products or services available from Morningstar Communications and its affiliates, and to register you for events and promotions.
Except as provided in this Privacy Policy, only Morningstar Communications and its affiliates and service providers will have access to individuals' account information. We also may conduct research on our users' demographics and behavior based on the information provided to us upon registration, gathered from transaction activity, from our server log files or from surveys. This research may be compiled, analyzed or used on an aggregated basis, which does not include information identifying individual users.
Who is collecting information?
When you are on a Morningstar Communications site and are asked for personal information, you are sharing that information with Morningstar Communications and its affiliates and service providers. If personal data is to be collected and/or maintained by any company other than Morningstar Communications or its affiliates, we will attempt to notify you on the website or in an updated version of this Privacy Policy. If you do not want your data to be shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer by not using that particular service.
Please be aware that other websites to which we link may collect personally identifiable information about you when you visit those sites. The information practices of other websites linked to our website are not covered by this Privacy Policy.
With whom does Morningstar Communications share my information?
We will not disclose any of your personally identifiable information except when we have your permission or under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it or under the circumstances described below. The following describes some of the ways that your information may be disclosed.
Data in the Aggregate: We may disclose “blinded” aggregated data and user statistics to prospective partners and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes. Blinded data is data that does not identify an individual person.
Other: We also may disclose your information in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating Morningstar Communications' Terms and Conditions of Use, or may otherwise be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) Morningstar Communications' rights or property, other Morningstar Communications website users or customers, or anyone else that may be harmed by such activities. We may disclose or access account information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it, and for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service and improve our products and services.
We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, including packaging, delivering or mailing, answering customer questions about products or services, sending postal mail, providing investor information and processing data. We will only provide those companies the information they need to deliver the service, and they are contractually prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.
As we continue to develop our business, we may buy or sell businesses or assets. In such transactions, confidential customer information generally is one of the transferred business assets. In the event of a transaction involving the sale of some or all of Morningstar Communications' businesses, customer and site visitor information may be one of the transferred assets and may be disclosed in connection with negotiations relating to a proposed transaction. In such cases, the transferred information may become subject to a different privacy policy.
What security precautions are in place to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of my information?
Remember to sign out of our site and close your browser window when you have finished your work. This is to ensure that others cannot access your account by using your computer when you are away from it. Because of the global nature of the Internet, when you give us information, that information may be sent electronically to servers outside of the country where you originally entered the information. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100 percent secure. Except as designated, this site does not use security encryption measures. Therefore, information you disclose by use of this site (as with any site that is non-secure), by posting a message or using email, potentially could be collected and used by others. This may result in unsolicited messages from third parties or use of such information by third parties for their own purposes, legal or illegal. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, Morningstar Communications cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or from our services, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure its security on our systems.
Choice/Opt-out
Morningstar Communications provides you the opportunity to agree or decline providing your personal information via the Internet. To ensure that you will not receive recurring marketing information from us unless you choose to, we will provide you with simple instructions on each marketing email from Morningstar Communications for you to let us know that you have chosen to stop receiving such emails from us.
What else should I know about my privacy?
Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose information online, that information is accessible to other customers and users. Ultimately, you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and/or any account information. Please be careful and responsible whenever you are online.
When you or we end your customer relationship with us, we will treat the information we have about you as if you were still our customer.