Tracking and Targeting

Rural Press Pty Ltd (ACN 000 010 382) and its related bodies corporate, partnerships and joint venture entities (we, us or our) collects data about your browsing activity on our network. We may also use non-personal information that we collect about you on our network to identify you on third party websites where we have an arrangement in place to serve ads on those third party websites. We may also collect anonymous internet usage data from third parties.

One of the reasons we collect usage data is to display targeted advertisements or content on our network and also on third party websites. For that purpose, usage data is collected and assigned to one or more pre-defined categories (for example “holiday seekers”). If this infers a particular interest, a cookie is placed in your web browser which may determine the type of targeted advertising or content that you receive. We target advertisements and content in order to improve your user experience - so that you are served advertisements and content that we believe may be more relevant or useful to you.

To create consumer profiles, we also collate data from other sources across our network including memberships, surveys and competitions. We will only use this data in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), our Privacy Policy and other applicable laws.

Advertisements or content may also be "targeted" to users based on:
- the type of content displayed on a given web page;
- the geographical location of a user (ie. identified by an IP address);
- specific searches undertaken by a user; or
- the type of customer (e.g. member versus subscriber).

Other reasons we may collect anonymous usage data include:
- to limit the number of times users are served certain ads;
- to monitor the performance of advertising campaigns;
- to audit, research, and analyse usage in order to maintain and improve our services, and to develop new services;
- to ensure that our ad-serving technologies function properly; and
- to provide you with recommendations, based on your usage patterns.

We will not collect usage data or target advertisements based on the following market segments:
- racial or ethnic origin; or
- political opinions; or
- membership of a political association; or
- religious beliefs or affiliations; or
- philosophical beliefs; or
- membership of a professional or trade association; or
- membership of a trade union; or
- sexual preferences or practices; or
- criminal record; or
- health information; or
- genetic information that is not otherwise health information.

If we ever seek to target advertisements based on the above market segments, we will first obtain your express consent.

We will not create categories designed to target children under the age of 13 years (however, this does not prevent us from marketing children’s products to an adult audience).

Third party advertisers purchase advertising products from us that enable them to target particular types of users of our network, for advertisements served both on our network and also on third party websites.

We also permit advertisers to embed their own cookies in advertisements and we allow other third parties to use cookies and other tracking technologies on our websites. Generally, advertisers will embed cookies in advertisements to monitor the performance of their advertising campaign, but they may also collect anonymous usage data relating to browsing activity on our network. We do not, however, permit advertisers to use any usage data obtained from our network to target advertisements or content to users off our network. We encourage advertisers to have a privacy policy that outlines their data collection activities and usage. Please refer to such third party privacy policies for more information.

We will not provide any personal information to an advertiser or any other third party without your express consent or in accordance with our Privacy Policy. However, to the extent that anonymous user data does not constitute personal information, we are entitled to deal with that information in any manner we see fit.

We are a adhere to the Australian Best Practice Guideline for Third Party Online Behavioural Advertising (Guidelines). A copy of the Guidelines can be accessed here. The Guidelines only apply to "Third Party OBA", which occurs when browsing behavior off our network is used to deliver behavioural advertisements on our network. The Guidelines set out self-regulatory principles designed to promote transparency, consumer awareness and consumer choice in relation to the type of advertising consumers receive and to encourage good practice and accountability in businesses that deploy Third Party OBA.

The Australian Digital Advertising Alliance (ADAA) has also developed an information website (Website) to educate consumers about Third Party OBA. The Website answers frequently asked questions, explains how the technology works, and allows users to manage their online advertising preferences.

We adhere to industry "best practice" for the storage of anonymous usage data. Security firewall, data encryption, and authorisation access are used to safeguard data held by us.

We only store usage data for a reasonable period following the date of collection, or longer as required by law. You have the right to opt-out of Third Party OBA on our network. To opt out, go to Your Online Choices and follow the simple "one click" process.

Opting-out means that the display advertising you see on our network may not be tailored to your interests or preferences on the web browser you are using. Anonymous usage data may, however, continue to be collected by us for other purposes (including those outlined above).

You can also manage cookies in your web browser privacy settings. See Your Online Choices for more information.

For more information regarding how we treat personal information and, in some cases, non-personal information, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

For more information about this policy, or our tracking and targeting practices, or if you would like to make a complaint to us in connection with this policy, please send an email to privacy@austcommunitymedia.com.au. If you would like to make a complaint in connection with Third Party OAB, you can also go to Your Online Choices.