Hearst Communications, Inc.

Hearst Communications is a massive, diversified media and information conglomerate with a portfolio that includes hundreds of magazines and newspapers, numerous television stations, and significant stakes in cable networks like A&E and ESPN. The company collects extensive data from visitors to its vast network of websites and digital services, tracking user activities and interests. Hearst supplements this first-party data by acquiring information from third-party data suppliers and business partners to create detailed profiles for targeted advertising and marketing solutions for their clients. While not a traditional people search site, the immense scale of its data collection across consumer media and B2B services poses privacy risks; this aggregated data can be used to build sophisticated profiles of individuals' habits and interests, which can be used for targeted manipulation or fall into the wrong hands. Individuals can protect themselves by being cautious about the information they share on media websites and by utilizing the privacy request options that Hearst provides to opt out of their data being sold or used for targeted advertising.