This Privacy Policy relates to both soundonsound.com and performing-musician.com web sites. These sites are owned and run by the SOS Publications group of companies. Some services and/or features mentioned below may not be available on all our sites.

1. Information SOS Gathers and Tracks
SOS gathers two types of information about users: data that users provide through optional, voluntary registrations on our sites and in certain Competitions; and data SOS gathers through aggregating tracking information derived mainly by counting page views throughout our sites and click-throughs on advertisements. Such information enables us to better tailor our content to readers' needs and to help our advertisers better understand the demographics of our web site audience. The only situation in which SOS divulges information about an individual user to a third party is with certain Competitions but only with the user's express prior consent.

SOS gathers user information in the following processes:

• Registration
Several SOS sites offer free registration to users: Reader Ads and Forum, for example. By registering, users can enter the sites without having to log on each time; they gain access to the polls; and they can take advantage of personalisation (the ability to select content according to a user-supplied profile).

During registration the user is required to supply a first name, last name, and password. In addition, the user can opt to subscribe to various SOS electronic newsletters and to have his or her email address and/or URL appear in postings.

• Polls
The SOS sites offer interactive polls to users so they can easily share their opinions with other users and see what the SOS audience thinks about important issues. SOS uses a system to "tag" users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question. This tag is not correlated with information about individual users.

• Forum
Users of the Forum discussion groups must register for these services (it is free of charge) in order to post/reply messages; there is no requirement to register in order to read/browse messages. During Forum registration the user is required to supply a Display Name, Password, valid Email Address, and to state whether or not they are an existing SOS Subscriber.

• Electronic Newsletters
From time to time, the SOS sites may offer a free electronic newsletter to users. Users can also subscribe to the newsletters at the time of registration. SOS gathers the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the instructions included at the end of each newsletter.

SOS delivers newsletters, marketing and product offerings via email to only registered recipients from our subscription center. The email tracking system recognises the URL that was clicked, and records some information about you and your computer, such as the email address that you provided to us, the browser, operating system and your IP (Internet Protocol) address.

SOS also uses the feature of your browser software to set a "cookie" on your system. This allows us to measure and report the click-through rate on email newsletters we send out and better determine future content.

While aggregate counts of click-through patterns may be provided to advertisers on request, an advertiser will never know that a specific user clicked their ad. SOS does not target advertising against specific user information and SOS will not provide specific user information to any third party company.

• Forum's "Email This Topic To A Friend" Service
A Forum reader can choose to electronically forward a news story or discussion thread to someone else by clicking the link at the top of that topic. The user must provide their email address as well as that of the recipient. This information is used only in the case of transmission errors and, of course, to let the recipient know who sent the story. The information is not used for any other purpose.

• Surveys
Occasionally SOS conducts user surveys to better target our content to our audience. We sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our advertisers and partners. We never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.

• Competitions
SOS regularly runs Competitions in which we request certain personal information. At a minimum, the required information includes name and email address; in some cases, the user must answer mandatory survey questions about a range of other personal data. The information gathered in the entry form is used to verify the entrant's identity, to send the entrant an email notification that their entry has been received, and to contact winners and/or prize recipients. There is only one situation in which SOS will divulge this information to a third party provided the user gives express consent:

1. A user may expressly choose to receive additional information from the Competition sponsor, in which case the user's personally identifiable information is divulged to the advertiser.

Because the rules and terms of each Competition can vary, all information about each Competition is clearly posted on the entry form. All Competitions are conducted in full accordance with English laws.

• Usage Tracking
SOS tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites.

SOS sometimes tracks and catalogues the search terms that users enter in our main site Search engine and Forum search engine, but this tracking is never associated with individual users.

• Cookies
A cookie is a small data file that certain web sites write to your hard drive when you visit them. A cookie file can contain information such as a user ID that the site uses to track the pages you've visited. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. SOS uses cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above), when you register as a Subscriber, site visitor or Forum member, and when you click an advert:

Registration: when you register, SOS uses a cookie to store a unique, random user ID. We do not store passwords or any personal information about you. We use this ID to identify you anonymously in our database and to track the pages you visit on our site. Cookies also enable you to enter SOS sites (eg. the Forum) as a member without having to log on each time, and to visit member-restricted "Subscribers-only" areas of the SOS sites. We encrypt the user ID for added security.

Adverts: SOS's online advertising system delivers a cookie to better track ad impressions and click-through rates.

If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie.

You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use any SOS site, though it does make your experience a more enjoyable one. However, you do need cookies to participate actively in the Forum discussion groups.

• Opt-in Email Newsletters
SOS from time to time offers free email newsletters to users, such as the eSub newsletter for subscribers and the Competition Winners newsletter. When users subscribe to any SOS newsletter, they are given the opportunity to opt in, or join, announcement lists administered directly by SOS. Users may have their email addresses removed from the opt-in announcement lists at any time by following the instructions printed in the email newsletters.

SOS's email tracking system recognises when a URL in the newsletter is clicked, and records information about the user and the user's computer, such as the email address registered with SOS, the browser type/version, the operating system, and the user's IP address. Use of this information is governed by SOS's privacy policy and will not be passed on to any third party.

During the process of delivering an ad to you, SOS does not collect any personally identifiable information about you such as name, address, phone number or email address. However, SOS does obtain some types of non-personally identifiable information such as the service provider you use to connect to the Internet, your browser type, or your computer operating system (Mac OS or Windows, for example). The information collected by SOS is used for the purpose of targeting ads and measuring ad effectiveness on behalf of ourselves and our advertisers.

In some cases, you may voluntarily provide personal information in response to a specific advert (this ad may ask you to fill out a survey or provide your postal code). If this does occur, SOS may collect this information on behalf of an advertiser. This information is used by an advertiser to respond to your request. In addition, SOS may combine this information with other users' information and review it in an aggregate (non-personal) form to understand the type of individuals who view a specific type of ad or visit a particular kind of web site.

2. Information Use
SOS uses any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience in our network of sites, whether to provide interactive or personalised elements on the sites or to better prepare future content based on the interests of our users.

• As stated above, SOS uses information that users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participate in polls, competitions, discussion groups, and auctions. We send out email newsletters to subscribers on a regular basis (depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are doing (eg. attending an exhibition or launching a new service, etc). SOS never shares newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers or partners, but it may on occasion send newsletters on behalf of advertisers to members of announcement lists who have opted in to this service.
• We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like, based on traffic to those areas. SOS does not track what individual users read, but rather how many times each article is viewed. This helps us continue to write more relevant articles and to build a better web site for you.
• We track search terms entered in the main Site search engine and the Forum search engine, as these are invaulable indicators of what interests our users. However, we don't track which terms a particular user enters.
• SOS creates aggregrate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for ourselves and our advertisers. This enables our advertisers to advertise more effectively, and allows our users to receive advertisements that are pertinent to their interests.
• Data submitted during registration for opt-in email announcement newsletters is never shared with third parties. SOS may use aggregated data regarding users' responses to the opt-in email announcement newsletters program to improve the service and to provide information to the companies sending the opt-in email announcements and to other advertisers.

3. Information Sharing
SOS uses the above-described information to tailor our content to suit your needs and help our advertisers better understand our audience's demographics. We do not share information about individual users with any third party, except in the case of some Competitions and then only with a user's express prior consent. SOS does not control the practices of our advertisers. If you have questions about how one of our advertisers uses information about you when you click their ad and go to their content, please contact them directly. (SOS will divulge information only as legally required to comply with governing laws.)

4. Opt-out Policy
SOS gives users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:

• Opting not to receive our electronic newsletters when registering for a site.
• Opting not to provide certain personal information when registering for a site or when participating in some Competitions (see above).

5. Correction/Update Policy
SOS offers users the ability to correct or change the information collected during registration for any SOS site (see above). The instructions for doing this can be found in the My Account area of the main SOS site. Users may change this information at any time and as often as necessary. Users who are experiencing problems or who have any questions about how our web services work can contact us at webmaster@soundonsound.com.

6. Delete/Deactivate Policy
Users may unsubscribe to any of our electronic newsletters at any time by following the instructions contained at the end of each newsletter you have subscribed to.

September 2008