Last updated June 14, 2012

At Ask, we respect your privacy, and we understand the importance of the information you entrust to us. We want to describe our privacy practices concerning the information collected through the int.ask.com website in a clear and concise way. Below we describe what information we collect when you use our website and our services, how we protect that information, how long we keep it, whom we share it with, and what your privacy options are. Ask is a trading name of IAC Search & Media Europe Limited, which is a member of the Ask.com group of companies.

By using our website, you consent to our collection and use of your information as described in this privacy policy.

As our privacy practices evolve, we may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any material changes in our privacy practices will be posted prominently on this page. If you do not agree to these changes, please do not continue to use the Ask websites or services.

If you have any question about our privacy practices, or if you would like to review or update the personal information we have collected about you, you can contact us via email by clicking here or write to our Privacy Officer at:
Ask.com
Attn: Privacy Officer
Unit 1, College Business & Technology Park, Blanchardstown North Road,
Dublin 15, Ireland

Information we collect about your computer when you use Ask

• IP address of your computer
• Browser type (Internet Explorer 8, etc.)
• Browser language setting
• Other browser information (e.g. size, connection speed)
• Operating system or platform running on your computer (Mac, Windows 7, etc.)

We collect the above information only for the purposes of serving our website and services to you, for analytics purposes, to improve our website and service offering, and to display advertisements that are relevant to you. We do not use it to identify any website visitor as an individual.

Information we collect about your use of Ask

• The URL of the last webpage you visited before visiting the website
• Your browsing and usage activity on the website (your queries, questions, answers, search results selected, clicks, pages viewed, etc.)

We use cookies and pixel tags to collect and store this information. The reasons why we collect this information are explained in the section "Why we collect information" below and further information about cookies, pixel tags and mobile device IDs is set out in the section "Cookies and pixel tags " below.

You may prevent search activity from being associated with your use of the Ask website and service by turning on AskEraser. Except in exceptional circumstances, we will not store your search activity on Ask while AskEraser is turned on. In addition, Ask Eraser deletes Ask cookies and blocks third party cookies. For more information, please see the AskEraser FAQs. Please note that AskEraser cannot currently be turned on from your mobile device.

Information we collect if you register for certain services

Personal information you might choose to provide to us could include your email address if you submit a help request or other customer services inquiry to us via email. AskEraser does not apply to any such information you choose to submit to us.

Why we collect information

• To respond to your queries with the best possible answers and search results
• To understand our users (their demographics, what they do on our website, what site features they like, how they use them, etc.) and improve our services
• To administer our services and diagnose technical problems
• To enable us to show you ads that are more relevant to you

How long we keep data about you

We anonymise your search queries after 12 months, unless required to keep them longer for legal or regulatory reasons.

Data collection and sharing involving third parties

• Advertisers and advertising networks place ads (including sponsored links in search results) on our site. These companies may collect information, such as your computer's IP address, browser information, and search queries, as you use our website and services. They also may use web technologies such as cookies and pixel tags to collect this information when you visit our site. Please see the sections "How you can opt out of collection of information about you" and "Cookies, pixel tags and mobile device IDs" below for more information about how to control collection of your information by third party advertisers and advertising networks. To disable existing and block new third party cookies, you may also turn on AskEraser.
• We use outside service providers for a variety of purposes, such as to help us analyse use of our website and services. We also may use service providers for other projects, such as conducting surveys for us, that involve collection of information from our users. We may share information about you with these service providers to enable them to perform their services.
• We generally have contracts with all of these companies that prohibit them from sharing the personal information that they collect or that we provide to them with anyone else, or using it for other purposes.
• We may disclose the personal information we collect about our users when we believe disclosure is necessary to investigate, prevent, or respond to suspected illegal or fraudulent activity or to protect the safety, rights, or property of us, our users, or others.
• We may transfer your personal information to a third party if we or any of our affiliates are involved in a corporate restructuring (e.g., a sale, merger, or other transfer of assets).
  
  

How you can opt out of collection of information about you

• You can turn on AskEraser. We delete all Ask cookies and will not store your search activity on Ask while AskEraser is turned on. We also block new third party cookies and disable existing third party cookies when AskEraser is on. Please note that AskEraser cannot currently be turned on from a mobile device.
  
• You can disable the cookies placed on your computer by advertising companies that display ads on our site to prevent them from using information about you for targeting purposes. To do this, please see the section "Cookies, pixel tags and mobile device IDs" below for further information.

Security of the information we collect

We have implemented security measures to prevent unauthorised or unlawful access to and misuse of the personal information we collect, including technological and physical security measures as well as procedural safeguards. However, because no security system can be 100% effective, we cannot completely guarantee the security of any information we may have collected from or about you.

Cookies, pixel tags and mobile device IDs

A cookie is a small text file that is stored on your computer. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the website. To understand more about cookies, click here.

• We use our own cookies on the Ask website to enable us to recognize you when you visit our website, to store your preferences and settings and to better understand how you use our website and services.
  
  
• We allow Google Analytics to place cookies on our websites. These cookies are set by Google, Inc. and are used to collect information about how visitors use our website including the number of visitors to our website, the websites that referred them to our website, and the pages that they visited on our website. We use this information to compile reports and to help us improve the website. To see an overview of privacy at Google and how this applies to Google Analytics, visit http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/.
  
  
• We allow cookies from advertising companies to be used on our website. These cookies enable advertising companies to track your activity across various sites where they display ads and record your activities, so they can show ads that they consider relevant to you. All the advertising companies or networks that we work with offer a mechanism for users to opt out tracking and behavioural targeting available from the advertisement itself or through the single opt out mechanism available at http://www.networkadvertising.org/.
  
  
• Apple and its partners use cookies and other technologies in mobile advertising services to send relevant ads to you. If you do not want to receive ads with this level of relevance on your mobile device, you can opt out by accessing the following link on your device: http://oo.apple.com. This opt-out applies only to Apple advertising services and does not affect advertising from other advertising networks.

You have the right to choose whether or not to accept cookies. You can exercise this right by amending or setting the controls on your browser to reflect your cookie preferences. The "help" portion of the toolbar on most internet browsers will tell you how to do this but please note that, if you choose to refuse cookies, certain website functionality may become unavailable. For example, to use AskEraser, cookies must be enabled in your browser settings so that we can set one cookie to record that you are an AskEraser user. This cookie simply indicates that the AskEraser feature has been turned on, and does not store any other personal information.

You may also opt-out of receiving targeted advertising from some advertising networks. For further information about your right to opt-out of receiving targeted advertising please visit the following websites:

• Your Online Choices (http://www.youronlinechoices.com/);
• Network Advertising Initiative (http://www.networkadvertising.org/); and
• Digital Advertising Alliance (http://www.aboutads.info/consumers).

A pixel tag (also called a web beacon or clear GIF) is a tiny graphic with a unique identifier, embedded invisibly on a webpage (or an online ad or email), and is used to count or track things like activity on a webpage or ad impressions or clicks, as well as to access cookies stored on users' computers.

• We use our own pixel tags to measure the popularity of our various pages and services.
  
• We allow advertising companies to use their own pixel tags to measure the number of ad impressions and the performance of ads on our site, and to access the advertising company's cookies placed on your computer.
  
• We also use outside vendors to help us better understand our user demographics. They use technologies such as cookies and pixel tags in providing their services to us, but do not use them to target ads to you.
  
  

Government authorities and legal rights

If requested or required by government authorities, such as law enforcement authorities, courts, or regulators, or otherwise to comply with the law, we may disclose any information we have about our users or modify other practices described in this policy, such as how long and in what form we keep information. We also may disclose information collected about you in order to exercise or protect legal rights or defend against legal claims.

Information collected from users located outside the United States

Personal information we collect about you may be transferred to and stored in our servers, or those of our parent company (Ask.com) or third party vendors that act on our behalf, in countries outside of the European Economic Area (including the U.S.). By using the Ask website, you consent to our collection and use of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. Our parent company Ask.com complies with the U.S.-EU Safe Harbour Framework and the U.S.-Swiss Safe Harbour Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information from European Union member countries and Switzerland. Ask.com has certified that it adheres to the Safe Harbour Privacy Principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access, and enforcement with respect to personal information transferred to us in the U.S. from the following Ask.com EU/EEA properties

Our parent company, Ask.com, is a participant in the Safe Harbor program developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Union and has self-certified compliance with the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles with respect to personal information transferred to us in the U.S. from the following EU/EEA websites:

http://uk.ask.com, http://de.ask.com, http://es.ask.com, http://fr.ask.com, http://it.ask.com, http://nl.ask.com, http://se.ask.com, http://no.ask.com, http://at.ask.com, http://pl.ask.com, http://dk.ask.com, http://int.ask.com

We self-certify compliance with:



To learn more about the Safe Harbour program, and to view Ask.com's certification, please visit http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/.