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Appatar Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to Appatar. This privacy policy (“Policy”) applies to the Appatar Web sites and services and tells you how personal information is collected, used, disclosed, and protected by Appatar. This statement includes both Appatar’s European Union - U.S. Safe Harbor Privacy Statement and the Website Privacy Statements.

Changes to This Policy

We may change this Policy from time to time. If we make any changes to this Policy, we will change the “last updated” date above. If there are material changes to this Policy, we will notify you more directly. We encourage you to check this Policy whenever you use our Web sites and services to understand how your personal information is used.

Information Collected

We collect information from you in various ways when you use our Web sites and services. We may also supplement this information with information from other companies. We collect two general types of information, namely personal information and aggregate data. As used in this Policy, the term “personal information” means information that specifically identifies an individual (such as a name and email address), and demographic and other information when directly linked to information that can identify an individual.

Our definition of personal information does not include “aggregate” data. Aggregate data is information we collect about a group or category of services or users from which individual user identities have been removed. In other words, no personal information is included in aggregate data. Aggregate data helps us understand trends in our users’ needs so that we can better consider new features or otherwise tailor our services. This Policy in no way restricts or limits our collection and use of aggregate data, and we may share aggregate data about our users with third parties for various purposes, including to help us better understand our customer needs and improve our services and for advertising and marketing purposes.

The following are the specific types of information we collect from you.

Information You Give Us. We collect information you give us on our Web site and when you register for and use our services. Examples include the following:

Registration and Profile Information. When you register to use our services or update your profile, we may collect various kinds of information about you including, your name and email address; your title, company and other profile information you provide; demographic information; and information you upload like photos, files, and documents.

Contact Information. We collect the email addresses you provide for contacts you enter or upload into your private contacts page. When you choose to collaborate or share files with others, we also collect email addresses you provide to email invitations to those individuals on your behalf.

Submissions and Customer Service. From time to time we may use surveys, contests or sweepstakes requesting personal or demographic information and customer feedback.

Automatically Collected Information. We automatically receive certain types of information when you interact with our Web pages, services and communications. For example, it is standard for your Web browser to automatically send information to every Web site you visit, including ours. That information includes your computer’s IP address, access times, your browser type and language, and referring Web site addresses. We may also collect information about the type of operating system you use, your account activity, and files and pages accessed or used by you.

Cookies and Web Beacons. We may also use certain kinds of technology such as cookies and Web beacons to collect information. Among other things, the use of cookies and Web beacons enables us to improve our Web sites and emails by seeing which areas and features are most popular, to count the number of computers accessing our Web site, to personalize and improve your experience, to record your preferences, and to allow you to visit our Web site without re-entering your member ID and/or password. A cookie is a small amount of data which is sent to your browser from a Web site’s computers and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Most browsers automatically accept cookies as the default setting. You can modify your browser setting to reject our cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie by editing your browser options. However, if a browser is set not to accept cookies or if a user rejects a cookie, some portions of the Web site and services may not function properly. For example, you may not be able to sign in and access certain Web page features or services. A Web beacon is an electronic image, also called a "gif," that may be used on our Web pages to deliver cookies, count visits and compile statistics on usage and campaign effectiveness or in our emails to tell if an email has been opened and acted upon.

Use of Personal Information

In general, we use your personal information to process your requests or transactions, to provide you with information or services you request, to inform you about other information, events, promotions, products or services we think will be of interest to you, to facilitate your use of, and our administration and operation of, the Web site and services and to otherwise serve you and our users. For example, we may use your personal information:

to request feedback and to enable us to develop, customize and improve the Web site and our publications, products and services; to conduct marketing analysis, to send you surveys or newsletters, to contact you about services, products, activities, special events or offers from Appatar or our partners and for other marketing, informational, product development and promotional purposes; to send you a welcoming email and to contact you about your use of the Web site and services; to respond to your emails, submissions, comments, requests or complaints; to perform after-sales services; to anticipate and resolve problems with our service; to respond to customer support inquiries, for assistance with our product and service development; and to inform you of updates to products and services from Appatar that better meet your needs; to store contacts you enter or upload into your contacts list for your private use and viewing;

  • to send emails to users you invite (and contacts you invite to become users) to collaborate and access your files; to enable you to communicate, collaborate, and share files with users you designate; to contact you if you win a contest; and for other purposes about which we notify you.

Appatar may store and process personal information in the United States and other countries. Appatar adheres to the U.S. Department of Commerce's Safe Harbor privacy principles regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information from the European Union. Appatar’s Safe Harbor certification can be found at http:/web.ita.doc.gov/safeharbor/shlist.nsf/webPages/safe+harbor+list. For more information about the Safe Harbor Principles, please visit the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Website at http://export.gov/safeharbor/.

Sharing of Personal Information

Appatar reserves the right to share aggregated demographic information about our customers, sales, and traffic to our partners and advertisers. We will not give, sell, rent, share, or trade any of your personal information or any data that you store using our services to any third party except as outlined in this Policy or with your consent. We may disclose information to a third party to (a) comply with laws or respond to lawful requests and legal process, (b) to protect Appatar, agents, customers, and others including to enforce our agreements, policies and terms of use or (c) in the good faith belief that disclosure is needed to respond to an emergency, or protect the personal safety of any person.

Appatar includes collaboration features that by their nature support sharing with users you choose. Those users can see your name, email address, photo and information from your Profile page, and any files you choose to share; and they can post comments and email you. Collaborators you invite as editors can also edit your shared files, upload documents and photos to your shared files, share those documents outside of Appatar, and give other users rights to view your shared files.

Appatar provides you with opportunities to connect with third party services, such as through our Open Box page. If you choose to use any such third party services, we may facilitate sharing of your information and documents you choose to use with those services. Your use of such services is not governed by Appatar’s terms or privacy policy. Appatar does not control the services of those third parties or how they use your information and documents. Be sure to review the terms and the privacy policies of those third parties before using their services.

We may share personal information in connection with an acquisition, merger, or sale of all or a substantial portion of our business, with or to another company. In any such event, you will receive notice if your data is transferred and becomes subject to a substantially different privacy policy.

Network and Information Security

Appatar takes reasonable steps to protect information we collect from you to prevent loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. In addition, highly confidential personal information such as credit card number and password that we request from you on our Web site is protected with encryption, such as Secured Socket Layer (SLL) protocol, during transmission over the Internet.

The servers on which information is stored are kept in a controlled environment with limited access. While we take reasonable efforts to guard personal information we knowingly collect directly from you, no security system is impenetrable. In addition, we cannot guarantee that any passively-collected personal information you choose to include in documents you store on our systems are maintained at adequate levels of protection to meet specific needs or obligations you may have relating to that information.

Your account information and access to our service is accessible only through the use of an individual user ID and password. To protect the confidentiality of personal information, you must keep your password confidential and not disclose it to any other person. Please advise us immediately if you believe your password has been misused. In addition, always logout and close your browser when you finish your session. Please note that we will never ask you to disclose your password in an unsolicited phone call or email.

Updating and Accessing Personal Information

If your personal information changes in any way, we invite you to correct or update your information as soon as possible. You can make updates to your profile information by logging into your account on Appatar at any time. You can also request changes or access to your information by emailing support@appatar.net.

Choice/Opt-Out

Appatar may send you communications or data regarding our Web sites and services, including but not limited to (i) notices about your use of our Web sites and services, including any notices concerning violations of use, (ii) updates, and (iii) promotional information and materials regarding our products and services. You may opt-out of receiving promotional emails from Appatar by following the opt-out instructions provided in those emails. You may also opt-out of receiving promotional emails and other promotional communications from us at any time by emailing support@appatar.net with your specific request. Opt-out requests will not apply to transactional service messages, such as security alerts and notices about your current account and services.

Enforcement

If you have any questions about this Policy, you should first contact us at support@appatar.net. If you do not receive a response or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php. TRUSTe will serve as a liaison with Appatar to resolve your concerns.

Contacting Us

Any questions about this Policy should be addressed to support@appatar.net.

Privacy_Policy (last edited 2010-07-13 20:27:40 by localhost)