In discussing the types of information we collect from subscribers and visitors to our Web sites, it is important to distinguish between two categories of information. We use "Customer Information" as a broad, general term that refers to any information relating to you or your DIRECTV service, including Account Information, Service Information, Anonymous Viewing Information, Diagnostic Information, Commerce Information, and Web Site Information. These terms are defined in more detail below in Section A.
We use the term "Personally Identifiable Viewing Information" to refer to information about your personal viewing habits that we collect only with your express consent. This term is defined in more detail below in Section B.
A. The following are specific types of Customer Information that we collect from customers and visitors to our Web sites:
Account Information means information about your DIRECTV service account, including your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, what programming packages you subscribe to, consumer credit reports, the model and serial number of your DIRECTV Receiver, software version used, and privacy preferences. Account Information does not include any Personally Identifiable Viewing Information or Anonymous Viewing Information, as defined below. We collect Account Information directly from you when you activate or change your service, as well as from third parties, such as consumer reporting agencies.
Service Information means information necessary for us to provide service to your DIRECTV Receiver. Examples of Service Information include your receiver's software version number and the success status of the last attempted service call by your receiver.
Diagnostic Information means a file with detailed information about the operation of a DIRECTV Receiver. We collect Diagnostic logs for a few randomly sampled DIRECTV Receivers for quality control and troubleshooting. These logs identify your DIRECTV Receiver and are thus associated with your Account.
Commerce Information means Personally Identifiable Information that enables a commerce partner to fulfill your request to participate in a promotion or transaction. From time to time, we may present on-screen offers or enable you to buy goods and services from us or third parties. Only if you take advantage of such an offer or engage in a transaction, will we collect and send information such as your name and address and your interest in a specific offer or transaction to the sponsor of the promotion or transaction. In addition to fulfilling your request, that commerce partner may also use your Commerce Information to send you other information in which you might be interested, consistent with its own privacy policies.
Web Site Information means information collected and stored on our web servers when you become a registered user of, or visit, our Web sites. If you are a customer and register on our Web sites to access your DIRECTV account, we may collect information that you provide us (including your e-mail address) and use it in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Whether or not you are a DIRECTV customer, we may collect information about visitors to our Web sites as follows:
Cookies: We use cookies to our Web sites for returning visitors. These cookies remain on your computer and are automatically retrieved when you visit our Web sites at a later time. These cookies contain only information concerning the type of customer and frequently visited pages. No other Customer Information is stored on cookies. If you are uncomfortable with cookies, you may disable them on your computer. Disabling cookies may affect user functionality but the design of DIRECTV Web sites allows access to most offerings with cookies disabled. Visitors who have disabled cookie processing, however, won't be able to use DIRECTV’s personalized account management function.
Electronic newsletters: If you subscribe to electronic newsletters from DIRECTV, we keep your e-mail address on file.
Aggregate information about Web site visitors: We create aggregate reports of visitors to our Web sites to measure the performance of our sites. These reports do not contain Customer Information.
Links to other Web sites: When you visit our Web sites, you will find many opportunities to link to Web sites of third parties. When you click through to these sites, DIRECTV's Privacy Policy no longer applies. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of any third party Web sites.
B.“Personally Identifiable Viewing Information”
Means information about the use of your DIRECTV Receiver, if that information is linked to or associated with your Account Information. We do not collect Personally Identifiable Viewing Information unless you give us your express consent to do so. You may choose to consent to DIRECTV's collection of Personally Identifiable Viewing Information by changing your privacy preferences as provided in Section IV below.