Code of ethics

This is the main code of ethics for virakesari epaper and for certain services provided through these and other websites and applications (“our sites”) by Express Newspapers (Ceylon) (Pvt) Ltd (ENCL).

At ENCL we collect different types of information about our users for four main reasons:

  1. To provide personalized services unique to individual users.
  2. To help us to monitor and improve the services we offer
  3. To sell advertising space on the site. This helps us to keep the site free for people who visit it.
  4. If we have permission from the user, to market services to them.

There may be other policies that apply to certain services we provide.

Contents

  1. We do our very best to protect your privacy by using security technology appropriately. This means:
    1. a) We make sure that we have appropriate security measures to protect your information; and
    2. b) We make sure that when we ask another organization to provide a service for us, they have appropriate security measures.
  2. We will respect your privacy. You should receive marketing emails only from us and, if you agree, from other organizations we have carefully chosen. We will make sure it is clear when you can make these choices,
  3. We will collect and use individual user details only if we have your permission or we have sensible business reasons for doing so, such as collecting enough information to manage subscriptions.
  4. We will use personal information only for the purposes for which it was originally collected and we will make sure we delete it securely.
  5. Our site is accessible via the internet. This means that people around the world who access our website can see anything you post on the website, for example, comments about an article.

How we use your information and what information do we collect?

We collect information on you:

  1. When you register or subscribe become a member of the ENCL
  2. When you use the website
  3. Through cookies
  4. If you choose to reveal information in postings, and
  5. When you enter sales promotions and competitions.

Certain services that we provide may involve us collecting extra information (Membership, for example), such as where you are, so the service can be provided as designed. This may also apply to certain apps that you download, or which we provide.

Registration

The minimum information we need to register you is your name, email address and a password. We will ask you more questions for different services, including sales promotions. Unless we say otherwise, you have to answer all the registration questions.

We may also ask some other, voluntary questions during registration for certain services (for example, professional networks) so we can gain a clearer understanding of who you are. This also allows us to personalize services for you.

To assist us in our marketing, in addition to the data that you provide to us if you register, we may also obtain data from trusted third parties to help us understand what you might be interested in. This ‘profiling’ information is produced from a variety of sources, including publicly available data (such as the electoral roll) or from sources such as surveys and polls where you have given your permission for your data to be shared. You can choose not to have such data shared with the ENCL from these sources by logging into your account and changing the settings in the privacy section.

After you have registered, and with your permission, we may send you emails we think may interest you. Newsletters may be personalized based on what you have been reading on virakesari.lk. At any time you can decide not to receive these emails and will be able to ‘unsubscribe’

Logging in using social networking credentials

If you log-in to our sites using a Facebook log-in, you are granting permission to Facebook to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth and location which will then be used to form an identity. You can also use your picture from Facebook as part of your profile. This will also allow us and Facebook to share your, networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Facebook account settings. If you remove the app from your Facebook settings, we will no longer have access to this information.

Advertisement

If you log-in to our sites using a Google log-in, you grant permission to Google to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth, sex and location which we will then use to form an identity. You may use your picture from Google as part of your profile. This also allows us to share your networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Google account settings. If you remove us from your Google settings, we will no longer have access to this information.

If you log-in to our sites using a twitter log-in, we receive your avatar (the small picture that appears next to your tweets) and twitter username.

Use of Cookies

We use cookies for a number of reasons.

  1. For statistical purposes to track how many users we have and how often they visit our websites. We collect information listing which of our pages are most frequently visited, and by which types of users and from which countries.
  2. We use other organizations to collect anonymous user information, sometimes through cookies and web beacons,(information embedded in images which allow them to analyze how the website is being used and the number of visitors).
  3. We and other advertisers may use statistical cookies to track who has seen an advert and clicked on it. You can find more information on this in the online behavioral advertising section of this policy.
  4. Placing cookies on your computer means we can show you adverts that you might be interested in, and allows us to control the number of times you see them and measure how effective the ad campaign has been. Advertising helps us to keep the site free for you to use. You can find more information on this in the Online Behavioral Advertising section of this policy, including how you can ‘opt out’.
  5. We may use ‘Flash’ cookies to store your preferences for your media player (for example, volume and so on). If we don’t use them, you may not be able to watch some video content.
  6. You can turn cookies off but if you do this, you may not be able to use all services on our websites and you might see more pop-ups and other advertising. This is because we won’t be able to limit what you see by using cookies. However, you will still be able to see our editorial content.
  7. We or other companies may use cookies to suggest and deliver content which we believe may interest you.

About our advertising

As you browse our sites, some of the cookies we place on your computer will be advertising cookies, so we can understand what sort of pages you are interested in We can then display advertising on your browser that is based on these perceived interests. For instance if you have been reading a lot of food and drink articles, you may be shown more adverts for food and drink.

We may also share anonymised behavioral data with advertising partners. This may mean that when you are on other websites, you will be shown advertising based on your behavior on virakesari.lk. We may also show you advertising on our site based on your behavior on other sites.

If you want to opt out of receiving online behavioral advertising, this does not mean that you will no longer receive advertising when you are using our sites. It just means that the advertising you see will not be customized for you.

Advertising on mobile devices may require the collection and sharing of the unique device ID with companies who purchase advertising space on the mobile application.

Other Advertising

Our sites contain links to other websites from which we may earn revenue. Our articles are never influenced by advertisers or affiliates, nor are they written for the purpose of promoting a product, except when clearly branded as a ‘sponsored by’, ‘brought to you by’ or ‘supported by’ to represent sponsored content, advertisement features and foundation funded features respectively.

Any more clarifications please contact us via e-mail to info@encl.lk or calling +94 11 7522 840 / 842