The Silver Spring Penguin wants you to know that small tidbits of information may be collected whenever you visit our site. Here are the details:

Your email address. Each time you choose to leave a comment, The Penguin requires you to enter an email address. Choosing the “email this story” function also requires email addresses for obvious reasons. These email addresses will not be published, sold or otherwise distributed intentionally to anyone, nor will The Penguin, its affiliates or its advertisers use it to contact you without permission. Your only shot at receiving an email from The Penguin is either (1) to subscribe to The Penguin’s email feed through FeedBurner, or (2) to drop us a message directly via email, or indirectly via our contact form.

Your IP address. Our publishing platform, as well as our third-party hit counter, lets us know which internet service provider you’re rocking. We use this info to filter spam and other comments that may have a commercial interest. Your IP info will not be sold or otherwise distributed intentionally to anyone, nor will The Penguin publish your numerical IP address or the name of your internet service provider.

Details of your visit. Our third-party hit counter tells us when you visit, how long you hang around and the number of pages you hit. It doesn’t tell us which individual pages you read, but it does let us know how you got to The Penguin in the first place (example: through a Google search or referral from another website). It also tells us if you’ve clicked on any external links. We use all of this info to get a handle on what our readers enjoy and when they enjoy it. We use other statistics — like total monthly hits — to woo potential advertisers and to taunt other bloggers.

Cookies. Each time you participate in a Penguin poll or survey, our publishing platform feeds cookies to your computer. This information prevents you from casting more than one vote from the same computer, and helps us keep poll or survey results as accurate as possible. The Penguin will not use cookies for anything beyond the purpose described above. However, The Penguin can’t vouche for any cookies that our affiliates or advertisers toss once you click on their external links.

Updated Nov 8, 2007.