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Privacy Notice for California Residents

Effective date: January 12, 2024

 

We at America's Test Kitchen and our related brands, including Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country (collectively, “ATK”), are committed to respecting your privacy. The purpose of this Privacy Notice for California Residents (“Notice”) is to inform California residents of how we collect, use, disclose, transfer, and store your information when you visit our websites or subscribe for our magazines or products (“Products”). This Notice applies to the privacy practices for americastestkitchen.com, cooksillustrated.com, cookscountry.com, onlinecookingschool.com, americastestkitchenfeed.com, and the Cook’s Illustrated and Cook's Country iPad Apps.  This Notice also applies to information we collect from registrants and participants over the age of 13 through and in our ATK Kids website at americastestkitchen.com/kids/grownups.  All of our adult sites and apps are referred to collectively in this Notice as the “Sites.” We adopt this Notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this Notice. 

If you are accessing this Notice from our ATK Kids site at amercastestkitchen.com/kids/home, please see our America's Test Kitchen Kids Privacy Policy. 

All references to "you" and "your" in this notice are limited to only California residents. If you are not a California resident, please visit our Privacy Policy

1. COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

1.1 Personal Information. “Personal information” means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked to, directly or indirectly, a particular consumer or household. Personal Information does not include:

Publicly Available - Publicly available information from federal, state, or local government records.

Deidentified or Aggregate information – “Deidentified Information” means information that cannot reasonably identify, relate to, describe, be capable of being associated with, or be linked, directly or indirectly, to a particular individual, and for which we have implemented technical safeguards and business processes that prohibit reidentification of the individual. “Aggregate Information” means information that relates to a group or category of individuals, from which individual identities have been removed, that is not linked or reasonably linkable to any individual or household, including via a device. We may use Deidentified Information and Aggregate Information for any legal purpose, including without limitation for any purpose for which we use Personal Information.

Excluded Information – Certain laws require separate privacy notices or are exempt from general Personal Information privacy policy disclosure requirements. Such laws include the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA); and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994. We will notify you separately according to those laws if any of our collection, use, or sharing of Personal Information falls under any of those laws.

We have collected one or more of the following categories of Personal Information about or from you within the last twelve (12) months:

Categories Examples  Processing Purposes

A. Individual Identifiers and Demographic Information

 

Email, Password, Phone Number, Date of Birth, Age Range, Internet Protocol Address, Real Name, Alias, Postal Address, Unique Personal Identifier, Online Identifier, Account Name, or other similar identifiers.

 

  • To provide you with our Products and fulfill your requests
  • For legitimate business purposes
  • To improve our Products and the Sites
  • To set up your account (“Account”)
  • To market our Products to you and others
  • To communicate with you

B. Payment Related Information

 

A credit card number, debit card number, or other payment-related information.
  • To complete customer purchase transactions

 

C. Classifications

Age (40 years or older), race, gender identity, citizenship, marital status.
  • To improve our Products

D. Commercial Information

 

Records of products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies, including information about you obtained from third parties.

 

  • To Provide and improve the Sites and Products
  • To understand your interests
  • To set up your account
  • To market or promote our Products to you and others
  • To communicate with you

E. Internet or Network Activity

 

Browsing history, search history, information on an individual’s interaction with a website, application, or advertisement. Network and device related information. Social media integration. 

 

  • To improve our Products and the Sites
  • To market and promote our Products to you and others
  • To secure the Sites
  • To understand your interests
F. Geolocation information  Specific location data of individuals who consent to providing such data
  • To manage our networks and Sites and for Product distributions
  • To improve our Products and the Sites
  • To market and promote our Products to you and others
  • To secure the Sites
  • To understand your interests
G. Inferences Drawn from Personal Information Profile reflecting your preferred interests, purchasing or consuming characteristics.
  • To improve our Products and the Sites
  • To market and promote our Products to you and others
  • To understand your interests

 

1.2 Sources of Personal Information. We obtain the categories of Personal Information listed above on or through the Sites, your subscriptions to and purchases of our Products, and from the following categories of sources:

  • Personal Information You Provide. We collect Personal Information when you voluntarily submit it to us. For example, we may collect or receive Personal Information from a user that creates an Account; provides information to us in person or on or through our website or mobile app; signs up to receive any of our communications; participates in one of our surveys or events; provides information in any posting or online review; submits a request to our customer service team; interacts with our social media pages; or otherwise interacts with us or other users, or any of our advertisers or third party service or product providers through the Sites.
  • Automatically Collected Personal Information. We collect other information from you automatically through the Sites. For example, we receive Personal Information from you when you navigate the Sites on any device. We may also collect Personal Information about you over time and across different websites, apps, and devices when you access the Sites. We may collect information about your precise or approximate location as determined through data such as your IP address or mobile device’s GPS to offer you an improved user experience. Most mobile devices allow you to control or disable the use of location services for applications in the device’s settings menu. We may also collect this information even when you are not using our App if this connection is enabled through your settings or device permissions. We also collect some Personal Information automatically using cookies or other online tracking technologies as described in Cookies and Other Technology below. 
  • Personal Information Obtained from Third Parties. In addition to the Personal Information that we collect from you directly and automatically, we may receive Personal Information about you from other third-party sources. For example, we may receive Personal Information from our business partners, our advertisers or sponsors, or companies that provide Personal Information to supplement what we already know about you. We may obtain geolocation data from third parties. We may merge or combine such Personal Information with the Personal Information we collect from you directly or automatically.
2. USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION 

Our primary purpose in collecting Personal Information is to provide the functionality offered through the Sites and to market, promote and sell our Products. We may also use Personal Information for the following purposes:

  • Legitimate Business Purpose. To fulfill or meet the reason you provided the information, such as fulfilling subscription and Product orders.
  • To Provide Special Services. If you provide your Personal Information to request a special service like event reservation or requesting information relating to your interests, we will use such information to assist you. We may also save your Personal Information to facilitate future requests.
  • To Improve the Sites. We use Personal Information to understand and analyze the usage trends and preferences of our users to make the Sites and content better, diagnose technical issues, prevent fraud, deliver promotions and recommendations more efficiently, refine our services offerings, and develop new features and functionality.
  • To Understand Your Interests. We use your Personal Information to personalize your experience on the Sites, and to deliver information relevant to your interests.
  • To Respond to Your Requests or Questions. We use Personal Information to provide you with support and to respond to your requests for customer support, including to investigate and address your concerns and monitor and improve our responses. This may also include responding to your feedback.
  • To Set Up Your Account. If you set up an Account, we will use the registration information you provide in relation to that Account creation to create, maintain, customize, and secure your Account, and may include information about you gathered from third party sources such as from your other social media accounts.
  • To Market Products or Services. We use your Personal Information to provide you with information about our and third-party products, services, or promotions. For example, we may use cookies or other online tracking technologies to provide customized advertisements, content, and information; to monitor and analyze the effectiveness of marketing activities. These might be third party offers we think you might find interesting. These communications may come in the form of interest-based advertising using information gathered across multiple websites, devices, or other services.
    • Direct Mail Campaigns We may exchange our subscriber lists (name and mailing address) for money or in a list swap for direct mail purposes. We also participate in co-ops that share subscriber lists (name and mailing address) to use for and improve our direct mail campaigns.
  • To Secure the Sites. We use Personal Information to maintain the safety, security, and integrity of the Sites, databases and other technology assets, business, and other users.
  • To Communicate with You. We communicate with you about your Account or our relationship. We may also contact you about this Notice, or other policies or terms that govern our relationship.
  • As Required by Law. We use Personal Information to respond to requests from law enforcement and as required by applicable law, court order, or government investigation. 

3. SHARING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may disclose your Personal Information to a third party for a business purpose or sell your Personal Information, subject to your right to opt-out of those sales (see Opting Out and Do Not Sell). The CCPA prohibits third parties who purchase the Personal Information from reselling it unless you have received explicit notice and an opportunity to opt-out of further sales. We may share your Personal Information in the following circumstances: 

3.1 Related Companies and M&A Transactions. We may share your Personal Information with companies that are affiliated with us (that is, that control, are controlled by, or are under common control with us). In addition, if we sell all or part of our business or make a sale or transfer of assets or are otherwise involved in a merger or business transfer, we may transfer your Personal Information to a third party as part of that transaction.

3.2 Consent. We may ask if you would like us to share your Personal Information with other unaffiliated third parties who are not described elsewhere in this Notice, and we may do so only with your consent.

3.3 Legal Compliance. We may disclose Personal Information in response to subpoenas, warrants, or court orders, in connection with any legal process, or to comply with relevant laws. We may also share your Personal Information in order to establish or exercise our rights; to defend against a legal claim; to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding possible illegal activities or fraud; to protect the safety and security of other users; or to prevent a violation of our Terms of Use.

3.4 Service Providers. We may share your Personal Information with third parties who perform services on our behalf. For example, we use a third party to host the Sites and our data. Among other things service providers may help us perform website or application hosting, app design, maintenance services, database management and/or analytics, web analytics, app analytics, SMS notifications, payment processing, fraud protection, marketing, advertising, or any other use set out in this Notice. Access to your Personal Information by these service providers is limited to the information reasonably necessary for the service provider to perform its limited function.

3.5 Behavioral-Based Advertising. We may participate in behavioral-based advertising. This means that a third party may use technology (e.g., a cookie) to collect information about your use of the Sites so that we can provide advertising about products and services tailored to your interest. That advertising may appear either on the Sites or on other websites or through other media, such as mail. Please see Cookies and Other Technology below for more information and instructions on ways to opt-out or limit our collection of this information.

3.6 Affiliated Offerings. We may jointly offer events, promotions, or any other product or service offerings with our network of affiliated companies or our sponsors. The Personal Information that you submit through an event, promotion, or other product or service offering offered by any of our network of affiliated companies or sponsors may be combined and transmitted with the registration information related to your Account. Third party partners may collect information directly from you, which may be combined with Personal Information disclosed by us. If you decide to request, enter into, or participate in an event, promotion, or other product or service offering that is offered by us and identified as a joint effort with another party, the information that you provide may be shared with us and with that identified third party.

3.7 Direct Mail Campaigns.  We may exchange our subscriber lists (name and mailing address) with third parties or through co-ops, either for cash or for prospective customer lists in order to promote our Products through direct mail campaigns. 

3.8 Aggregate Information. We may share or sell Aggregate Information and other anonymized or Deidentified Information for regulatory compliance, industry and market analysis, research, demographic profiling, marketing and advertising, and other business purposes.

3.9 Categories of Personal Information Disclosed for a Business Purpose or Valuable Consideration. We must disclose whether the following categories of Personal Information are disclosed for a "business purpose" or “valuable consideration” as those terms are defined under California law. Note that while a category below may be marked, that does not necessarily mean that we have Personal Information in that category about you. In the past twelve months, we have disclosed the following categories of Personal Information in the manner described.

Category Information is Disclosed for a Business Purpose or as Described in this Notice Information is Disclosed for Valuable Consideration
A. Individual Identifiers and Demographic Information

Yes

 

Yes (Name and mailing address) for direct mail campaigns) 
B. Payment Related Information Yes No
C. Classifications No No
D. Commercial Information Yes No
E. Internet or Network Activity Yes No
F. Geolocation Information Yes No
G. Inferences Drawn from Personal Information Yes No
 
4. SECURITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is fully secure. While we use reasonable efforts to protect your Personal Information from the risks presented by unauthorized access or acquisition, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Information. In the event that we are required by law to inform you of any unauthorized access or acquisition of your Personal Information we may notify you electronically, in writing, or by telephone, if permitted to do so by law.

5. COOKIES AND OTHER TECHNOLOGY 

5.1Cookies” are small pieces of information that a website stores on your device while you are viewing a Service. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (most of which have an expiration date, based on the purpose of the cookie, at which point they self-delete) to provide you with a more personal and interactive experience on our Services. We place three kinds of cookies: essential, advertising, and performance/analytics.

5.2 Essential Cookies. These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with the Sites and to use some of its features, such as access to secure areas. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the Sites, you cannot refuse them without impacting how the Sites

5.3 Non-Essential Cookies. We use two kinds of non-essential cookies: performance and advertising. You may opt out of non-essential cookies using the cookie banner on the Site. Alternatively, you may set your web browser to block cookies; however, this may interfere with some non-essential functionality through the Sites, such as automatically remembering your login information and also see Opting Out Non-essential performance cookies help us analyze how the Sites are being accessed and used, enable us to track performance, and secure the Sites. For example, we use those cookies to get insights regarding users and performance, such as page speed or to help us customize the Sites for you in order to enhance your experience. Non-essential advertising cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. We sometimes use cookies delivered by third parties to track the performance of our advertisements. For example, these cookies remember which browsers have visited the Sites. The information provided to third parties does not include Personal Information, but this information may be re-associated with Personal Information after we receive it. This process helps us manage and track the effectiveness of our marketing efforts.

5.4 We generally use cookies and similar technologies as follows: 

  • for “essential” or “functional” purposes, such as to enable various features of the Sites like remembering passwords or staying logged in during your session;
  • for analytics purposes, consistent with our legitimate interests in how the Sites are used or perform, how users engage with and navigate through the Sites, what sites users visit before visiting the Sites, how often they visit the Sites, whether an email was received or opened, and other similar information; and
  • subject to any consent required by law, for the purpose of displaying advertisements via retargeting to those users who have visited the Sites, or for targeting advertising to visitors to the Sites

 

Classification Name Provider Purpose Expiry
ESSENTIAL _ALGOLIA Algolia Inc This is our search engine
ESSENTIAL amazon_Login_pkce_params Amazon.com Inc This is for log in with amazon
ESSENTIAL amazon_Login_state_cache Amazon.com Inc This is for log in with Amazon.
PERSONALIZATION (^BCRevision_[A-Za-z0-9\-\_]+)\w+ BlueConic Inc
ESSENTIAL osano_consentmanager Osano Inc
ESSENTIAL osano_consentmanager_expdate Osano Inc
ESSENTIAL __TAG_ASSISTANT Google LLC
ESSENTIAL osano_consentmanager Osano Stores the user's current consent status. 1 year
ESSENTIAL osano_consentmanager_uuid Osano Stores the user's unique consent identifier. 1 year

If you’d like to remove or disable cookies via your browser, refer to your browser’s configuration.

Pixels: In addition to cookies, we use small image files called pixels. In particular, we use the Meta Pixel on our transaction-related pages. This tool allows us to track transactions (but not videos viewed) on our websites. Using the Meta Pixel in this limited context helps us evaluate the effectiveness of our advertising and learn more about our subscribers, including how they came to enroll in ATK’s websites, courses, newsletters, or other services.

 
6. OPTING OUT 
 
6.1 You can make the following choices to opt out of certain activities regarding your Personal Information:
  • Promotional E-mails. You may choose to provide us with your e-mail address for the purpose of allowing us to send newsletters, surveys, offers, and other promotional materials related to our sponsors and your interests, as well as targeted offers from third parties. You can stop receiving promotional e-mails by clicking the “unsubscribe” links in the e-mails or by contacting us as described below. If you decide not to receive promotional e-mails, we may still send you service-related communications, such as those about your Account, to answer inquiries, or deliver notifications directly to you through the Site.
  • Behavioral Advertising. We may participate in behavioral-based advertising. This means that a third party may use technology (e.g., a cookie) to collect information about your use of the Sites so that we can provide advertising about products and services tailored to your interest. That advertising may appear either on the Sites, or on other websites. If you wish to limit third parties’ collection of information about your use of the Sites, you can opt-out of such at the Digital Advertising Alliance or Network Advertising Initiative. PLEASE NOTE THAT OPTING-OUT OF BEHAVIORAL ADVERTISING DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE ADVERTISING. IT WILL, HOWEVER, EXCLUDE YOU FROM INTEREST-BASED ADVERTISING CONDUCTED THROUGH PARTICIPATING NETWORKS, AS PROVIDED BY THEIR POLICIES AND CHOICE MECHANISMS.
  • Do-Not-Track. Some web browsers and devices permit you to broadcast a preference that you not be “tracked” online. At this time, we do not modify your experience based upon whether such a signal is broadcast.

6.2 Do Not Sell My Information. If you are 16 years of age or older, you have the right to direct us to not sell your Personal Information at any time (the “right to opt-out”). We do not sell your Personal Information if we actually know you are less than 16 years of age. If you opt-in to Personal Information sales, you may opt-out of future sales at any time.

To exercise the right to opt-out, you (or your authorized representative) may submit a request to us by visiting the following Internet Web page link: “Do Not Sell My Personal Information

Once you make an opt-out request, we will wait at least twelve (12) months before asking you to reauthorize Personal Information sales. However, you may change your mind and opt back in to Personal Information sales at any time through this link: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/guides/corporate-pages/customer-data-request-form

7. ACCESSIBILITY

We have worked to develop the Sites to conform to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. These guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities

8. CONTACT US

If you wish to access, update, or correct your Personal Information, please contact us using the submission form here. We will respond to you within a reasonable time and, in any case, within the time limits established by applicable law. We may ask you for additional information to verify your identity. If you have any questions or concerns about this Notice or any other privacy or security issue, please contact us at:

America's Test Kitchen

617-232-1000

caprivacy@americastestkitchen.com 

Toll-Free Number: 800-526-8442

9. YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES

9.1 Under the CCPA, you have the following rights:

  • Access to Your Personal Information and Portability. You may request access to your Personal Information by contacting us as described below. We will grant you reasonable access to the data that we have about you as required by law. You may also be entitled to request copies of Personal Information that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and/or request us to transmit this information to another service provider (where technically feasible).
  • Changes to Your Personal Information. We rely on you to update and correct the Personal Information contained in your Account or contacting us as described below. Note that we may keep historical information in our backup files as permitted by law. If the Sites do not permit you to update or correct certain Personal Information, please contact us as described below.
  • Deletion of Your Personal Information. We retain your Personal Information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. You may, however, request that we delete your Personal Information by contacting us as described below. We will grant a request to delete information as required by law, but you should note that in many situations we must keep your Personal Information to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, or for another one of our business purposes.

    We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) to:

    • Complete the transaction for which we collected the Personal Information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, fulfill the terms of a written warranty or product recall conducted in accordance with federal law, or otherwise perform our contract with you.
    • Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
    • Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
    • Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
    • Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.).
    • Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.
    • Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
    • Comply with a legal obligation.
    • Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

    Except as provided above, we will delete, aggregate, or de-identify all of your Personal Information as described in this subsection within the timeframes required by law.

9.2 Right to Opt Out of Disclosure of Personal Information for Valuable Consideration If you are 16 years of age or older, you have the right to direct us to not sell your Personal Information at any time (the “right to opt-out”). We do not sell your Personal Information if we actually know you are less than 16 years of age. If you opt-in to Personal Information sales, you may opt-out of future sales at any time.  See Do Not Sell My Personal Information above. 

9.3 Exercising Your CCPA Rights

When exercising the rights or options described in this Notice, the following guidelines apply:

  • No Fee Usually Required. You will not have to pay a fee to access your Personal Information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee or decline to comply with your request if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive.
  • What We May Need from You. When exercising your rights or otherwise assisting you, we may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity. This is a security measure to ensure we do not disclose Personal Information to any person who is not entitled to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
  • Time to Respond and Format. We will endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. If you have an Account, we will deliver our written response to that Account. If you do not have an Account, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option. Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request’s receipt. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your Personal Information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance. 

9.4 No Discrimination. You will not be subject to discrimination as a result of exercising the rights described herein. In some cases, when you exercise one of your rights, we will be unable to comply with the request due to legal obligations or otherwise, or we will be unable to provide you certain products or services. These responses are not discrimination and our reasons for declining your request or ceasing services will be provided at that time.

9.5 Authorized Agent. You may designate an authorized agent to make a CCPA request on your behalf. In order to designate an authorized agent to make a CCPA request on your behalf, you must mail to us a valid power of attorney, the requester’s valid government issued identification, and the authorized agent’s valid government issued identification.

10. OTHER CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

California’s “Shine the Light” law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of the Sites and purchasers of our Products who are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email or write to us at the information provided in Contact Us section above.

11. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY NOTICE

We reserve the right to amend this Notice at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this Notice, we will post the updated notice on the Sites and update the Notice’s effective date. Your continued use of any of our Sties following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.