The effective date of this Agreement is April 1, 2008
Privy knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy seriously.
This Privacy Policy covers Privy's treatment of personal information that Privy gathers when you are on the Privy website and when you use Privy services. This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that Privy does not own or control, or to individuals that Privy does not employ or manage.
When you submit your information to Privy, it can only be viewed by other members. We may, however, analyze the types of information submitted to determine how our members use the site and make improvements accordingly. Your email-address is used to send you information about Privy and to send invitation notifications from other members. We will neither sell nor distribute your email address or personal information without your explicit consent. Your email address is never visible on the site.
If you decide to visit Privy website, your visit and any possible dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of California State law.
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1. Information We Collect
We collect information that you submit in the process of creating or editing your account and user profile on this website (your "Profile Information"), including your name, email address, and location information such as city, state and zip. We also collect information in the form of the content that you submit in the course of your use of this website (your "Content"), such as photos, reviews, ratings of local businesses and service providers as well as messages, endorsements and other communications to other members. Finally, we also collect other information relating to your activity on this website that you do not explicitly submit to us (your "Nonpersonal Information"), such as your actions on this website, your browser, IP address, requested URL, referring URL, and timestamp.
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2. How We Use Your Information
We store information about you and your use of this website, including your Content, Profile Information, and Nonpersonal Information. In addition, we display your Content to other users of this website in order to share your knowledge and insights about local businesses, services, and events with the broader community. Your Profile Information (excluding your email address and full last name) may also be displayed in connection with your Content. Still, your friends may be able to see your full name and email address, and others may be able to associate your full name with your account and profile through the member search feature on this website. We may use and display your full name and email address when you send an email notification to a friend through this website (such as in an invitation, or when sharing your Content). We also use your email address to send you updates or news regarding this website, but you may choose not to receive email of this type by accessing the "Account" tab on this website and updating your notification settings. Additionally, we use your email address to contact you on behalf of your friends (such as when someone sends you a personal message).
We use Nonpersonal Information to help us diagnose problems with our server, administer this website, and otherwise provide the highest possible level of service to you. In addition, we use Nonpersonal Information to perform statistical analyses of user behavior and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of the site and to inform advertisers of such information as well as the number of users that have been exposed to, or clicked on, their advertising banners.
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3. Transfer of Information
We may disclose information about you and your use of this website if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to avoid liability, to comply with legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order, or to protect our rights and property, or that of our affiliates or the public. We are not required to question or contest the validity of any search warrant, subpoena or other similar governmental request that we receive.
Further, we may share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities or suspected fraud, or to enforce or apply the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy.
We reserve the right to transfer information about you and your use of this website in the event of a transfer of ownership of Privy, such as an acquisition by or merger with another company. In such an event, Privy will notify you before information about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
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4. Others' Information
You may choose to provide us with another person's email address so that person may be invited to create an account on this website and become your friend. We use this information to contact and, if necessary, remind that person about the invitation. All invitees are provided with the option not to receive further invitations. We may disclose such information if required to do so in order to comply with legal process, as described above.
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5. Links
This website may contain links to third party websites to which we have no affiliation. Except as set forth herein, we do not share information about you and your use of this website with those third parties, and are not responsible for their privacy practices. We suggest you read the privacy policies on all such third party websites.
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6. Use of Cookies
This website requires cookies to function properly. Cookies are small text files that reside on a user's computer and identify you as a unique user. We use cookies to refine our website and simplify the user experience. For example, the use of cookies allows registered users to enter this website without explicitly typing in their email address and password every time. You should be aware that we cannot control the use of cookies by advertisers or any information advertisers may gather from their use of cookies. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to deny or accept the cookie feature; however, you should note that cookies may be necessary to provide you certain features (e.g., customized delivery of information) available on this website.
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7. Third Party Advertising
Advertisements that appear on Privy are sometimes delivered (or "served") directly to users by third party advertisers. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. These third party advertisers may also download cookies to your computer, or use other technologies such as JavaScript and "web beacons" (also known as "1x1 gifs") to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. Doing this allows the advertising network to recognize your computer each time they send you an advertisement in order to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. In this way, they may compile information about where individuals using your computer or browser saw their advertisements and determine which advertisements are clicked. Privy does not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed by the third party advertisers. Third party advertisers have no access to your contact information stored on Privy unless you choose to share it with them.
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8. Controlling Your Personal Information
As a registered Privy user, you can modify your Profile Information at any time by accessing the "Account" section of this website. Also, upon your request, Privy will use commercially reasonable efforts to close your account, and cease displaying your Profile Information on this website; nevertheless, it may not be reasonably commercially possible to remove all of your information from this website, and we may retain some of your information in our backup files.
By posting Content on the website, you automatically grant Privy a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right to display such content on our website. In the event that your account is closed, Privy retains the right, but not the obligation, to use your name and city in connection with any use of your posted Content. Also where you make use of the communication features of the service to share information with other users on Privy, however, (e.g., sending a personal message, compliment or endorsement to another Privy user) you generally cannot remove such communications. Registered users who wish to close their account should email [email protected]
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9. Security
Your Privy account is password-protected. We use industry standard measures to protect your information that is stored within our database. We limit the access to your information to those employees who need access to perform their job function, such as our customer service personnel. If you have any questions about the security at our website, please email [email protected]. Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that personally identifiable information that we collect will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.
You hereby acknowledge that Privy is not responsible for any intercepted information sent via the Internet, and you hereby release us from any and all claims arising out of or related to the use of intercepted information in any unauthorized manner.
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10. Children under 18
Privy does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 18 or knowingly allow such persons to register. If you are under 18, please do not attempt to register for Privy or send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under age 18 may provide any personal information to or on Privy. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 18, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us at [email protected]
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11. Emails and Opt-out
You may opt-out of receiving notifications from us by changing your notification settings under the "Account" tab after you log on to this website.
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12. Terms and Modifications to this Privacy Statement
By using this website, you signify your agreement to the terms of our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with these terms, you should not use the site. Privy may modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If a material change is made to this Privacy Policy and/or the way we use our users' personally identifiable information, then we will post a prominent notice of the nature of such change on the first page of this Privacy Policy and also on our home page. You are responsible for reviewing this Privacy Policy periodically to ensure that you are aware of any changes to it. Your continued use of the site indicates your assent to any changes to this Privacy Policy.
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13. Contacting the Web Site
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the privacy practices of this website, or if you want to exercise any of the rights that you are given under this Privacy Policy, you can contact: [email protected]
