Data Protection & Privacy Policy

Who We Are

AMERICAN ESSENCE is published by THE EPOCH TIMES ASOCIATION, INC. (“American Essence”, “Epoch Times,” “our,” “us,” or “we”). We gather and process your personal information in accordance with this privacy notice. This notice provides you with the necessary information regarding your rights and obligations, and explains how, why, and when we collect, process, and use your personal information.

This Privacy Policy is part of American Essence’s Terms of Service applies to your use of American Essence’s websites (e.g. https://www.americanessence.com), subscriptions, or other products, goods, or services from us (collectively, the “Services”). This Privacy Policy does not apply to the data collection practices of any other websites that are not owned and operated by Epoch Times.

Please note that this Privacy Policy does not govern the practices of third parties, including our partners, third party service providers, marketing providers, and/or advertisers, even when those services are branded as or provided on behalf of American Essence.

By using our services and/or making the choices you made when registering with us, you acknowledge that you have read and accepted the terms of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service, and you are consenting to our collection, protection, use, retention, and disclosure, subject to the terms and conditions set-forth below in this Policy, of your personal information. If you elect to not provide the information we require, we may not be able to provide all of our services to you.

If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Sites or our other Services. We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. Your continued use of our Sites and other Services following the posting of any changes to this Privacy Policy will indicate your acceptance to these changes. We will post any Privacy Policy changes on this page. Please check back frequently to see any changes.

Information That We Collect

We collect your information in several ways, including: Information we collect from you; Information we collect from when you use our Services; and Information we collect from third parties. When you use our Services (e.g., purchase a subscription or other products, browse our sites, complete a survey, etc.), we may request and you may provide your personal information to American Essence. American Essence collects, uses and processes your personal information to provide our Sites and Services to you, and to meet our legal, statutory and contractual obligations. The specific information we collect depends upon your use of the Sites and our other Services, as described below.

“Personal information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to or is reasonably capable of being associated with an identifiable individual, and includes the data sets referred to below.

The personal information that we may collect includes:

Your name;
Your Email (only applicable to account registration and for our newsletter service and subscription);
Your billing and contact information, such as your name, address, telephone number (only applicable to subscription of certain paid services);
Your user account information (including email address, the device you use and IP address(es) you use to access the account, and your activity within your account));
Your IP address and unique user/device identifiers;
Your geo-location;
Your payment card or other online payment information;
Your purchasing history and subscription information;
Browser type and browsing history;
Device type and other device information;
Operating system;
Cookies and tags;
Your user generated content (such as your comments to our Sites, chat information, and other content that you generate and provide to us);
Information on user activity/behaviors, interests, and preferences on our Sites and apps and on our advertising partners’ Sites and apps; and
Information from third parties and other databases.

How We Collect Your Information

The personal information is collected in several different ways, including: registration forms to sign up for our online and offline Services, billing, survey, contacting our service center, different cookies and tracking technologies, and other sources.

Information You Provide to Us. This includes the information that you provide to Epoch Times or American Essence directly — for instance, when you purchase a subscription.

Information Gathered During the Use of Our Services. This includes among others information automatically gathered through your use of our Sites, such as through cookies.

Information Collected after Consent. In some contexts, we may ask for your consent before collecting certain types of information.

Data from other sources. We also obtain data from other partners or third parties that help us provide our services to you.

Cookies and Ad-Targeting Technologies

We and our third-party partners (including service providers and advertising partners) may use cookies, web beacons (“pixels”), mobile ad identifiers, and other similar technologies to facilitate our relevant services to you, and to provide you with a customized online experience. Cookies are files with a small amount of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Other tracking technologies are also used such as beacons, tags and scripts to collect and track information and to analyze and improve our Service. We use third-party partners to help manage and optimize our services’ performance and online advertising.

Please be advised that if you choose to reject all cookies, then certain areas of the Site might not function properly.

Examples of cookies we use:

First Party Cookies. We use first party cookies, including session cookies and preference cookies, to remember your selections, choices, and preferences for when you interact with our Sites. Session cookies are temporary and are automatically deleted once you close your Internet browser. Preference cookies are first party cookies that remain on your device until you delete them or they are otherwise removed upon expiration.

Third Party Cookies. We permit certain third-party Service Providers, advertisers, and other companies to use cookies or other similar technologies on our Website. These companies may collect your information, track your behavior on our Website, and gather information about your use of our Websites and other online services over time and across different services. Additionally, some companies may use information collected to deliver targeted ads on behalf of us or other companies, including on other websites or online services. We are not responsible for the functioning of cookies and other technologies used and placed by third parties on your device.

The third-party partners we use who may utilize cookies or other tracking technologies include:

Google: to provide Google Analytics (as Analytics Cookies) to analyze behavior of your use of our Sites, apps, and other Services, in order to improve our Services and provide you and other users with a better experience;
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other Social Media Partners (Social Media Cookies): to enable the sharing of content through social media sites and otherwise allow you to interact or connect with such sites while using our platforms;

Other Technologies: We collect many different types of information from other technologies to improve the quality of our Site and the services we provide. For example, we may collect usage data and other information about the device you use to access our Site, your operating system and/or mobile device type, browser type, domain, and other system settings, as well as the language your system uses and the country and time zone where your device is located. We may record the IP address of the device you use to connect to the Internet in order to allow you to easily log in for a subsequent session.

These technologies include web beacons and scripts:

Web beacons are pieces of code embedded in a website or e-mail to monitor your activity on the website or your opening of the e-mail, and which can pass along information such as the IP address of the computer or device you use to view the website or open the e-mail, the URL page on which the web beacon is located, the type of web browser that was used to access the website, and previously set cookie values. Web beacons are sometimes used to collect advertising data, such as counting page views, promotion views or advertising responses. Disabling your computer’s, device’s or web browser’s cookies may prevent some web beacons from tracking or recording certain information about your activities. Please be advised that if you disable all such cookies, then certain areas of the Site might not function properly.

Scripts are pieces of code embedded in a website to define how the website behaves in response to certain key or click requests sent by the user. Scripts are sometimes used to collect information about the user’s interactions with the website, such as the links the user clicks on. Scripts are often temporarily downloaded to the user’s computer or device from the website server, active only while the user is connected to the Site and deactivated or deleted when the user disconnects from the website. Please be advised that if you disable any scripts through your web browser or other means, then certain areas of the Site might not function properly.

This Privacy Policy applies to any personal information collected through our used Cookies and similar technologies. Personal information collected through the third-party partners’ Cookies and similar technologies is subject to the privacy policy of the third party partners respectively, and not to our privacy policy.

Your Cookie Choices

When it comes to how you want to use or allow cookies to be used on your devices, you are in control. Most internet browsers are initially set to accept cookies. You can set your browser to block or otherwise control what cookies your browser or mobile device accepts via your browser or mobile device settings. Additionally, you can choose to modify your settings and delete cookies that are otherwise stored on your device. Please consult the instructions provided by your browser or your mobile device’s manufacturer to determine how you can limit the placement of and/or remove cookies or other technologies. Please note, however, that limiting or disabling essential cookies and other technologies may impact or adversely affect some portion or functions of our Sites.

Controlling Cookies and Opt Out Choices

You can visit the following sites for comprehensive information on how to manage cookies and how to opt out of cookies used for advertising and marketing purposes:

For individuals in the United States:

The Digital Advertising Alliance’s Consumer Choice tool at https://www.aboutads.info/choices
The Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices program at https://www.aboutads.info/appchoices
The Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out program at https://www.optout.networkadvertising.org/

How We Use Your Personal Information

Epoch Times takes your privacy very seriously. The purposes and reasons for collecting, processing, and using your personal information are detailed below:

To provide you with the subscriptions, news, content, other information, and other Services that you seek from us;
to improve the contents of the Sites and apps to serve you, and make them more suitable to your needs and increase their usability;
To provide you with personalized advertising on our Site as permitted by law;
To analyze how you and other users interact with our Sites;
to provide customer support;
to communicate with you about your account, your subscription or other transactions;
to make your navigation more pleasant and personalized, with our products (such as contents) and services personalized to you;
to facilitate your experience and social sharing;
to analyze and develop our new products and services for the interest of users;
To send you newsletters, offers or other communications about our products and services, such as special or promotional events, including services, products, or events, or other materials;
To detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our Terms of Service or other policies, or which may be fraudulent or illegal;
in specific cases we will be contractually obligated to share your data with one of our third party partners explained above.

In these instances, we will make it clear that the third party partners, which the data you share will be transferred to, follow applicable privacy and data protection regulations.

Sharing Your Personal Information

We may share or disclose your personal information to help provide our Services to you. For instance, we may share your information with our affiliated companies and service providers to respond to your requests or process your subscriptions. We may also provide your Personal Information to third party service providers who assist us in providing certain services. For example, we may share the information we collect from you with our cloud hosting service providers.

We may also disclose or share your information for the following purposes:

To facilitate and improve the quality of our Services.
To protect our users and network against fraud and security threats.
To comply with a legal obligation.
To protect and defend our rights or property.
To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Services.
To protect the personal safety of individuals or the public.
To protect against legal liability.
When there is a good faith belief that such action is necessary to investigate or protect against harmful activities to our guests, visitors, associates, or property (including the Websites), or to others. This may include disclosures to law enforcement to investigate potential criminal activity or other civil violations.

We may share your information with the following types of entities and third parties:

our affiliated companies within the Epoch Times;
our third-party service providers, such as Google, to analyze how users use our websites and apps, track user interests, trends and patterns in order to serve you personalized content which is relevant to your interests;

Epoch Times uses third-party service providers and business partners to provide certain services and business functions as detailed throughout this Privacy Policy. In those instances, the applicable third-party partners collect and process your data governed by their privacy policy.

In certain situations, we will only share your information with your consent, as noted below.

We may from time to time be required to provide information to law enforcement or other governmental authorities pursuant to a warrant, court order, or other lawful process.

Sharing your Personal Information with Our Advertising and Marketing Partners

Some of the above sharing and use of your information is only done where we have obtained your consent to do so. For example, we may ask your consent to provide your personal information, including IP address information, interest data, email address, unique IDs and other information to certain third parties that help us advertise and market our services. In those instances where we ask your consent, we will only share your information with those third parties where you have given us permission to do so. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us at using the contact information listed in the “Exercising your Privacy Rights” section below.

Security Measures

Epoch Times takes your privacy seriously and we take reasonable measures and precautions to protect and secure your personal information. This includes implementing physical, technical, administrative, and other safeguards to protect you and your information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure or destruction.
Encryption is our security strategy to ensure the stored personal information can be accessed only by the authorized roles and services with audited access to the encryption keys.

Personal information is encrypted and stored in a private and isolated environment for extended security.

We store all personal information physically inside EU. This is where all processing of this data takes place.

Consequences of Not Providing Your Data

You are not obligated to provide your personal information to Epoch Times. However, there may be times where your information is required for us to provide you with our Services, deliver requested products, or provide you with the content, feedback, or other materials that you request from us. In certain situations, we will not be able to offer some or all of our products or Services to you without requesting or collecting your personal information.

How Long We Keep Your Data

Epoch Times retains your personal information for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it is collected, to provide you with our Services, such as our Sites and apps.

Our Policy on “Do Not Track” Signals

We do not support “Do Not Track.” Do Not Track is a preference you can set in your web browser to inform websites that you do not want to be tracked. You can enable or disable “Do Not Track” by visiting the “Preferences” or “Settings” page of your web browser.

We may track users across time and over different websites or platforms.

Your Privacy Rights

Individuals may have certain rights over their personal information under particular laws. Please see the following sections regarding the rights you may have over your information:

Notice to California Residents

Epoch Times is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization. Under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) and the California Privacy Rights Act of 2023 (“CPRA”), certain for-profit organizations that do business in California and collect personal information about California residents are subject to privacy disclosure, access, and deletion requirements. Because Epoch Times is a non-profit, it is not subject to the CCPA or the CPRA at this time.

California residents may have separate rights under California law regarding direct marketing disclosures, as described below.

Your California Privacy Rights Regarding Direct Marketing Information

California law allows California residents once a year to request information regarding our disclosure of your personal information, if any, to third parties for those third parties’ direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year. This information includes:

• The categories of information we disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year;

• The names and addresses of third parties that received the information; and

• If the nature of the third party’s business cannot be determined from their name, to obtain examples of the products or services marketed.

Notice to Colorado residents

Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) provides residents the ability to opt-out of the use of targeted advertising cookies. Epoch supports the Global Privacy Control (GPC) and if you are a resident of Colorado and might want to opt out, you can click [HERE.]

Exercising your Privacy Rights

As described above, you may have certain rights to access, delete, or otherwise control the use, collection, and/or disclosure of their information. Once American Essence receives and confirms a verifiable consumer request, we will work to promptly process such request. The need to verify an individual’s identity is critical to protecting your information, and ensuring that your information is not shared with anyone pretending to be you or someone who is not authorized to act as your agent on your behalf. To that end, we must be able to verify your information in order to process your request.

You may submit a verifiable request via the following:

By mail: 5 Penn Plaza, Floor 8, New York, NY 10001

Online: [SUBMIT YOUR REQUEST HERE]

Please provide sufficient information for us to determine if this applies to you. Please include “Privacy Rights Request” in the Subject line of your letter. In the body of your request, please include your full name, year of birth, telephone number, complete mailing address (street name and number, city, state, and zip code) so that we can process your request.

We will ask you to provide information about yourself so that we can verify your identity as part of this process. This information may include your name, address, account information, and any other information deemed necessary by American Essence to reasonably verify your identity, to ensure that your information is not shared with anyone impersonating you. Once we have verified your identity, we will work to fulfill your request in a timely manner. Please note there may be some situations in which we are unable to fulfill your request, such as if we cannot find any information about you within our systems. Additionally, we may not be able to honor a deletion request in some situations, such as if your information is necessary to fulfill the Services you requested or meet a legal obligation. We will inform you whether we can fulfill your rights request.

We may ask for additional information if we have difficulty confirming your identity. We will not share your information or honor other requests in those situations in which we are unable to confirm a request for your information is a “verifiable request.”

Lodging A Complaint

American Essence only processes your personal information in compliance with this privacy notice and in accordance with the relevant data protection laws.

If you would like to raise an issue or lodge a complaint directly with American Essence, please contact us using the information below.

AMERICAN ESSENCE
Address: 5 Penn Plaza, 8th FL, New York, NY10001, USA.
Online: [SUBMIT YOUR REQUEST HERE]

Update to Our Privacy Policy

American Essence may update this notice from time to time. All changes will be posted and updated here. We will notify you directly by email (if we hold one for you) or by other appropriate means if any significant changes occur. Any changes to the privacy policy will become effective when the updated policy is posted. We advise you to check back here frequently to review the most current version of this notice.