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SwapThing, Inc. respects the privacy of our online
visitors ("you" or "User") and we are committed to
protecting the privacy and security of the Users of our
Site.
This Privacy Policy will advise you about how we protect
your personal information. Please read this policy
carefully. We may need to change this policy from time to
time in order to address new issues and reflect changes on
our site. All changes will be posted here.
This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and is subject
to the SwapThing Terms of Use. Your use of the Site and any
personal information you provide on the Site remain subject
to the terms of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use.
Please note that any text, photos, images, icons, video,
advice, recommendations, descriptions, blogs, links,
messages for our SwapForums or SwapCircles, or other content
posted or uploaded to the Site, including to your profile,
by you ("User Submissions") becomes published and is not
considered personally identifiable information ("Personally
Identifiable Information") subject to this Privacy Policy.
Effective Date: This Privacy Policy is effective
as of August 3, 2006.
The Information SwapThing Collects:
User Provided Information: You may provide certain
Personally Identifiable Information to SwapThing when
choosing to register at the Site, such as your first and
last name, mailing address, and email address for your
profile.
You may also provide Personally Identifiable Information
to include in your profile to tell other Users about
yourself or when making swaps, taking advantage of
promotions, responding to surveys, or subscribing to
newsletters or other mailing lists when and if such
newsletters or mailings lists are available on the Site.
However, you may set the privacy settings on your profile to
make profile information inaccessible to other Users.
You may also upload or otherwise post User Submissions to
the Site. In fact, your purpose for providing User
Submissions on this Site is to make swaps or associate with
other Users with similar interests. Be aware that if your
User Submissions include personally information, such as
your name, email address, etc., other Users will have access
to it and it will not be protected Personally Identifiable
Information.
Cookies Information: When you visit the Site, we
may send one or more cookies - a small text file containing
a string of alphanumeric characters - to your computer that
identifies your web browser. You can set your web browser to
refuse cookies. However, if you do, some features of the
Site may not function properly, including time saving
features such as automatic log-in to the Site after your
initial registration.
Log File Information: Log file information is
automatically reported by your web browser each time you
view a web page. When you register with or view the Site,
our servers automatically record certain information that
your web browser sends whenever you visit any web site.
These server logs may include information such as your
Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type and language,
number of clicks, domain names of web sites visited, pages
viewed, and the order of those pages, the amount of time
spent on particular pages, and the date and time.
Clear Gifs Information: When you use the Site, we
may employ clear gifs (a.k.a. web beacons), which are used
to anonymously track the online usage patterns of Users
without collecting any Personally Identifiable Information
about you. Clear gif, cookies, and log file information are
non-personally identifiable information because such
information is not collected or used in such a way that an
individual User can be identified, for example, by name or
email address ("Non-Personally Identifiable Information").
Personally Identifiable Information and Non-Personally
Identifiable Information is collectively referred to here as
"Collected Information."
The Way Your Information Is Used:
If you submit Collected Information to us through the Site,
then we use this information to operate, maintain, and
provide to you the features and functionality of the Site.
Any personal information or User Submissions that you
voluntarily submit to be disclosed online (on discussion
boards or forums such as SwapCircles, and SwapForums, in
messages and chat areas, within your public profile page,
etc.) becomes publicly available and can be collected and
used by other Users, who may forward this personal
information or User Submissions to other web sites or
people, making it available to the general public, and
therefore cannot be protected as Personally Identifiable
Information. In addition, your name or username may be
displayed to other Users when you upload or post User
Submissions and other Users may contact you through messages
and comments.
We may use your email address for administrative
purposes, such as notifying you of major Site changes, news,
contest alert, or for other customer service purposes.
We use Non-Personally Identifiable Information, such as
anonymous Site use data, cookies, and IP addresses, to
improve the quality and design of the Site and to create new
features and services by storing, tracking, and analyzing
your preferences and trends. We use Non-Personally
Identifiable Information to: (a) remember information so
that you will not have to re-enter it during your current or
subsequent visits to the Site; (b) provide custom,
personalized content and information; (c) monitor the
effectiveness of our marketing campaigns; (d) monitor
aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors and
traffic; (e) track items you are seeking or offering, and
status in any promotions, sweepstakes, and contests; (f)
diagnose or fix technology problems; (g) access your
information after you sign in; and (h) market our Site to
advertisers and other third parties.
When SwapThing Discloses Information:
We never sell Personally Identifiable Information. We may
provide Collected Information to our subsidiaries,
affiliated companies, or others, so such parties can, among
other things (i) process such information on our behalf,
(ii) use the information to offer greater functionality and
enhanced services through the Site such as portable ratings
for Users and networking opportunities, (iii) provide you
with product and service opportunities, and (iv) communicate
these opportunities to you. We also provide User email
addresses to third-party service providers, such as PayPal,
so they may process transactions. If you choose to receive
services offered in conjunction with the Site, including for
example, Rapleaf's portable ratings service and Cerado's
haystack networking services, Personally Identifiable
Information, such as your email address, username, state,
zip code, or any information that you provide in your
profile may be provided to these third-parties. We carefully
select the companies with whom we share such information,
and partner with those who we think will not misuse the
Collected information; however, we cannot guarantee the
proper use of Collected Information once it is shared with
third parties .
We share Non-Personally Identifiable Information (such as
anonymous Site use data) with third-parties to assist them
in understanding our Site, including Users' use of our Site
and the services we provide and the success of
advertisements and promotions.
We may release Collected Information if required to do so
by law, or in the good-faith belief that such action is
necessary to comply with state and federal laws (such as
U.S. copyright law) or respond to a court order, subpoena,
or search warrant. It may be necessary to share Collected
Information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action
regarding suspected or actual illegal activities, including
but not limited to, fraud, potential threats to public
safety or the physical safety of any person, violations of
our Terms of Use, or as otherwise permitted by law.
SwapThing also reserves the right to disclose Collected
Information that it believes is appropriate or necessary to
enforce our Terms of Use, take precautions against
liability, to investigate and defend itself against any
third-party claims or allegations, to assist government
enforcement agencies, to protect the security or integrity
of our Site, and to exercise or protect the rights,
property, or personal safety of SwapThing, our Users or
others.
Your Choices:
You may, of course, decline to submit Personally
Identifiable Information to the Site, in which case we may
not be able to provide certain services to you.
You may view, update or correct your personal profile
information, including Personally Identifiable Information,
at any time by visiting your account profile page, selecting
the "Edit My Profile" button, and editing, deleting or
changing the information in your profile information. You
may also request that SwapThing remove other User
Submissions, including User Submissions that you allege
infringe your copyright (see Terms of Use for the
procedure), from the Site by contacting us at http://www.swapthing.com/corporate/contactUs.jsp
.
To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable
steps (such as requesting a unique password) to verify your
identity before granting you access to your profile and
account. You are solely responsible for maintaining the
secrecy of your unique password and account information at
all times.
Third-party Advertisers, Links to Other Web Sites:
SwapThing may allow other companies to serve advertisements
on the Site. These third-party advertisers use technology to
send, directly to your browser, the advertisements and links
that appear on the Site. They automatically receive your IP
address when this happens. They may also use other
technologies (such as cookies, JavaScript, or web beacons)
to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and to
personalize the advertising content.
You should consult the respective privacy policies of
these third parties. The SwapThing Privacy Policy does not
apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such
other third parties or their web sites.
Our Commitment To Data Security:
SwapThing has adopted certain measures to preserve the
integrity and security of your Personally Identifiable
Information. However, these measures may not be 100%
effective. We cannot ensure or warrant the security of any
Personally Identifiable Information and you provide such
information at your own risk.
Our Commitment To Children's Privacy:
Protecting the privacy of young children is especially
important. For that reason, SwapThing does not knowingly
collect Personally Identifiable Information on the Site from
persons under 13 years of age, and no part of our Site is
directed to persons under 13. If you are under 13 years of
age, then please do not use or access the Site at any time
or in any manner.
International Users:
The Site is hosted in the United States and is intended for
and directed to Users in the United States. If you are
accessing the Site from the European Union, Asia, or any
other region with laws or regulations governing personal
data collection, use, and disclosure, that differ from
United States laws, please be advised that through your
continued use of the Site, which is governed by U.S. law,
this Privacy Policy, and our Terms of Use, you are
transferring your personal information to the United States
and you consent to that transfer.
Transfer or Assignment:
We reserve the right to transfer or assign the information
we have collected from our Users, including as part of a
merger, acquisition, sale, bankruptcy or other change of
control.
Changes and Updates to This Privacy Policy:
This Privacy Policy may be revised periodically and this
will be reflected by the "effective date" above. Please
revisit this page to stay aware of any material changes.
Your continued use of the Site constitutes your agreement to
this Privacy Policy and any future revisions.
Contact Information:
Please contact SwapThing with any questions or comments
about this Privacy Policy or the Site by using http://www.swapthing.com/corporate/contactUs.jsp
Copyright © 2006 SwapThing Inc. All
rights reserved.
Last modified on August 3, 2006
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