WEBSITE PRIVACY POLICY
This website, http://www.ideastox.com, is owned by IDEASTOX, LLC (“We,” “Us,” the “Company” or ”IDEASTOX”). This Privacy Policy is designed to inform users of and visitors to this website (“You” or “User”) about the Company’s practices regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of information that may be collected from and about You. Please be sure to read this entire Privacy Policy before using or submitting information to this site. For data protection purposes, IDEASTOX is the controller, and, unless otherwise noted, the processor of data and information transmitted to or collected on this website. Please be aware that such information or data may be retained indefinitely, and may be stored, processed, accessed or used in jurisdictions whose privacy laws and rules may be different from and more or less than protective than those of Your home jurisdiction..
We respect the privacy of all Users of this site. We are concerned about privacy issues, and We take appropriate measures to safeguard any personal information We may collect about You. Because people under eighteen years of age may access and use this website, We are particularly concerned about privacy, and We take extensive measures to safeguard any personal information We may collect about You or Your children. We comply in all respects with all applicable laws. IDEASTOX abides by the “EU Safe Harbor Framework” as set forth by the United States Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union. If You wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, including, among others, the right to have Your personal information deleted, please contact Us using the contact information provided below. We are committed to safeguarding personal privacy online, and, accordingly, this site has been designed with Your privacy and the privacy of Your children in mind.
CONSENT AND TERMS OF USE
This Privacy Policy is part of the Terms of Use for this website. By accessing or using this website or registering for or using any of the services available on this site, You agree that You will be bound by and subject to the terms of the Terms of Use, including this Privacy Policy. If You do not agree to the Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy, You must not use this Website. Whenever You submit information via this website, You consent to the collection, use and disclosure of that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, the Terms of Use and any specific provisions of this website that may be presented at the time information is collected. Moreover, any information that You submit via this website may be stored and processed in the United States or in any other country in which the Company or its affiliates, subsidiaries or agents operate or maintain facilities, and, by using this website and its services and by submitting any information, You consent to any such transfer of information outside of the country of origin.
TO CHILDREN AND
We strongly advise children to obtain their parent’s or guardian’s permission before submitting personal information of any kind over the Internet. We urge parents and guardians to be very clear with their children regarding the dangers of giving out personal information online, in person or otherwise to anyone whom they don’t know. We also encourage parents and guardians to spend time online with their children and to participate in the activities offered on the sites they visit.
CHILDREN UNDER AGE 13
IDEASTOX does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of thirteen (13), nor do We knowingly allow such persons to register with this website. If You are under 13, please do not attempt to register on this website or to send any information about Yourself to Us, including Your name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address. No one under age 13 may provide any personal information to or on this website. If We learn that We have collected personal information from a child under the age 13 (whether with or without parental consent), We will delete that information as quickly as possible. If You believe that We might have any information from or about a child under the age of 13, please contact Us immediately at urgent@IDEASTOX.com.
CHILDREN BETWEEN THE AGES OF 13 AND 18
We recommend that minors between the ages of 13 and 18 ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet, including to this website.
HOW WE OBTAIN AND USE INFORMATION
Collection of information by IDEASTOX in connection with this website falls into two principal categories: (1) information voluntarily supplied by Users of this website, and (2) tracking information recorded as Users navigate through the website. Some of this information is personally identifiable information in that it is information that may identify a particular person or entity, but much of the information collected is not personally identifiable.
(1) Voluntarily Supplied Information
• Registration: To use many of the services available on this website, We ask Users to register. When You register, We ask that You provide certain personal information, such as name, age, year of birth, gender, e-mail address, mailing address/zip code, and telephone number. In addition to registration, such personal information may be collected for special promotions, special offers, new services, e-mail newsletters, question/comment submissions, surveys, polls, etc.
• Purchases, License Agreements And/Or Other Transactions Involving Credit Cards: If You enter into any specific license agreements or other agreements that may be available on or through this website, You may be required to provide additional information, some of which may be confidential or private. The use of such information will be governed by this Privacy Policy. At present, there are no direct purchases from the Company, nor are there any credit card transactions directly through this website. However, through certain links on this website, You may decide to purchase products or services or enter into any transaction involving the use of a credit card or any other kind of submission of money. In such a case, You will not be dealing with IDEASTOX, but with another website and entity, and You may have to enter information into a website controlled and operated by a service provider either on its own behalf or on behalf of a third party. If that is the case, for that transaction, You will be interacting directly with that service provider. The service provider may collect and use information about You in a way that is different from what is set forth within this Privacy Policy. We urge you to read the service provider’s privacy statement. The service provider may provide Us with information about You, in which case Our use of that information will be subject to this Privacy Policy. To the extent You will be able to make any purchases directly from IDEASTOX on this website at any time now or in the future, You should rest assured that this website is – and will be – a safe and secure environment for making purchases online. However, We cannot guarantee the complete security of Our server, nor can We guarantee that information You supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to Us over the Internet.
• Passwords: In order to access this website’s services, Users will be required to provide identifying information in the form of a password. Do not divulge Your password to anyone. We will never ask You for Your password in an unsolicited telephone call or in an unsolicited e-mail. To increase Your privacy, be sure to sign off Your user account and close Your browser when You have completed Your use of the site and its services, particularly if you share a computer with someone else or use a computer in a public place. If You lose control of Your password, You may lose control over Your personal information and may be subject to legally binding actions taken on Your behalf. If Your password has been lost or compromised in any way, please change it and notify IDEASTOX immediately. If Your child (between the age of 13 and 18) is required to use a password on this website (depending upon the services or activities Your child accesses or uses in connection with this website), We urge You to explain to Your child the importance of keeping one’s password private.
• Surveys and Promotions: We may seek information from You from time to time in connection with surveys, polls, promotions or special offers. Your participation in these activities is completely voluntary. The information requested may include contact information (such as name and address), demographic information, preferences and interests or other information. We may use this information to fulfill Your requests for services or to contact You.
We wish to reassure Users that the information that We require upon registration or in connection with other activities or services is necessary. Thus, we do not condition a User’s participation in any activity on the User’s disclosure of more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in that activity.
Supplying information to this website through the registration process or otherwise is voluntary, but, if You choose not to supply the information, We will be unable to provide you with the services that We make available. When a User submits any personally identifiable information over this website, the Company will use the information only for the purposes described at the time of submission.
(2) Tracking Information
• User’s IP Address And Other Similar Information: When a computer user visits Our website, We may note and store that user’s IP address. An “IP address” is a number that is automatically assigned to Your computer when You use the Internet. We use IP addresses to administer our site, analyze trends, track User movements, gather broad demographic information for marketing purposes, and/or other related uses. In addition to IP addresses, We also use technology to collect and store other information of a similar nature, including the name of Your Internet service provider (ISP), Your operating system (e.g., Windows, Macintosh, Unix, etc.), Your browser type (e.g., Internet Explorer, AOL/Netscape, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) and language, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamp. We use this information to compile statistics about the technology used by Our visitors. IP addresses are tied to personally identifiable information to segregate customer types for analytical purposes. These statistics and data help Us to improve Our website and to make it more compatible with the technology used by Our visitors.
• Cookies: This site may use certain software technology known as “cookies.” Cookies are small pieces of data (text files) that are stored by a user’s Web browser on the user’s hard drive. These pieces of data take up very little room on Your system. Cookies are used to store certain information about the User, such as the User’s preferences or default settings in the User’s account. Other information that cookies collect may include the date and time of Your visit, Your registration information, and Your navigational and purchase history. Cookies can remember what information a user accesses on a Web page to simplify subsequent interactions with that Website. For example, they allow Us to identify Users when they return to the site so that they can retrieve previous search results, access their account and profile information, and view their previous submissions, including ideas or opinions about ideas. The information that cookies contain can later be read by a Web server in the domain that issued the cookie to the User. Thus, cookies help Us to customize and personalize Our Website for You and to make its navigation easier. They also help Us to track information so that We can, for example, estimate the number of persons that use Our Website and determine which areas of the Website are the most popular. Cookies make it easier for a user to move from Web page to Web page and to complete commercial transactions over the Internet, since they save You time and effort by eliminating the need to enter repeatedly the same information when completing transactions. Third party advertisers and service providers may also place cookies on Your computer; We do not have control over these cookies or responsibility for information collected through them. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by IDEASTOX on this website only, and it does not cover the use of cookies by any third parties or any other websites. Most Web browsers are set up so that they will initially accept cookies, but You may be able to modify the browser preferences to issue an alert to You when a cookie is downloaded. Some Web browsers provide You with the ability to turn off or refuse cookies. However, if You turn off or refuse cookies, some of the features of this website (or other websites) may not function properly.
• Web Beacons And Click-Stream Data: Web pages on our website may contain non-visible electronic images (called “web beacons” or “single-pixel GIFs”) that allow the website to access cookies or to count Users who have visited particular pages on this website. HTML-formatted e-mail messages (messages that include graphics) also may contain web beacons that allow Us to determine which e-mail messages were opened and whether a message was acted upon, as well as to access cookies and count users. Information that We use from a technology that tells Us how visitors use this Website (for example, which pages they view, which links they use, and which search terms they put in) is called “click-stream data.” Click-stream data helps Us to determine what is important to You and what is not. It helps Us to decide, among other things, what content and features to add and what to discard. It also helps us to determine whether our website is easy to use or whether We need to redesign certain pages or links. While click-stream data does not typically identify a user personally, We may combine navigational information that We collect during Your visit to this site with personal information that You provide.
HOW WE USE AND PROTECT PERSONAL INFORMATION
We utilize a number of operational functions to protect the confidentiality of Your personal information. For example, We store personal information that We collect about You on computer systems with limited access that are located in secured facilities. Our employees and service providers are given access to personally identifiable information only to the extent they have a need to know such information. In short, We follow generally accepted industry standards to help protect your personal information. However, there is no such thing as perfect security, and IDEASTOX does not represent or warrant that its website is impenetrable or invulnerable to hackers. Thus, as mentioned above, We cannot guarantee the complete security of Our server, nor can We guarantee that information You supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to Us over the Internet.
BECAUSE YOUR PRIVACY IS IMPORTANT TO US, WE DO NOT RENT, SELL, GIVE, SHARE, TRADE OR PROVIDE IN ANY WAY THE PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION, INCLUDING E-MAIL LISTS, THAT WE OBTAIN ABOUT YOU THROUGH THIS WEBSITE TO THIRD PARTIES UNLESS YOU REQUEST OR PERMIT US TO DO SO OR THE DISCLOSURE IS PERMITTED OR REQUIRED BY LAW.
We use personal information collected from You to provide information and services to You and requested by You. For example, We need to use personal information to complete Your registration on this site and to create Your account. In addition, We need to use personal information to process and complete certain transactions or communications that You choose to enter into on or in connection with this site, to provide customer service, to perform research and analysis aimed at improving Our services and technologies, and to display certain content that may be customized to Your interests and preferences. Also, for example, We use e-mail addresses or other personal information to respond to User comments and questions, to send e-mail newsletters or other information, to notify You about recent transactions, and to send other communications (such as welcome letters, STOX VALUE updates, and other communications about ideas or the IDEASTOX community). We may use personal information collected from You to improve content and functionality of this website, to better understand Our Users, to improve Our offerings and services, to market Our events, offerings and services to Users, or to personalize this website to meet the specific needs of the User. With these goals in mind, IDEASTOX also may compile data in an aggregate form that allows Us to understand Our Users better. Such aggregate data is anonymous and does not contain any personally identifiable information about the Users. By way of example, compiling aggregate data will allow Us to produce reports, if We choose, on the most popular search terms by collecting general search term data from individual User searches.
We may share information collected online through this website with third party vendors who act for Us or on Our behalf, for example, to help Us to manage and handle the processing and delivery of communications (i.e., e-mails, faxes, regular mailings), to host websites, to provide customer support, to process transactions, to provide data storage, to assist in direct marketing, to conduct audits, to perform statistical analysis of our services or to provide other support services. We will provide personally identifiable information to these third party vendors only to the extent they have a need to know such information, and it will be only the information they need to deliver the services for which they were retained. We also may share with certain affiliates and business partners data in an aggregate form that is collected through this website. Such data may provide demographic and related information to Our affiliates and business partners, but such data will not contain any personally identifiable information.
Our affiliates or business partners also may share personal information with vendors who provide support services to them. These vendors may need information about the User to perform their functions. These vendors are required to maintain the confidentiality of Your information, and they are not authorized to use the information We share with them (or that Our affiliates or business partners share with them) for any purpose other than to provide services to Us, Our affiliates, or Our business partners.
Your information may be disclosed, as required, as part of any merger, acquisition, or sale of the Company and/or its assets, as well as in the unlikely event of insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership, in which personal information would be transferred as a business asset of the Company.
We can (and You authorize Us to) disclose personal information when We have reason to believe that disclosing it is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be violating IDEASTOX’s Terms of Use and/or Privacy Policy and/or other agreements or otherwise to protect the rights, property or safety of the Company, Our employees, Our customers, the public or the security of Our systems or services. We reserve the right to disclose Your personal information in our sole judgment and discretion as we believe appropriate or necessary in connection with an investigation for fraud, intellectual property infringement, piracy or in connection with any other activity that is illegal or that otherwise may expose Us to legal liability. Finally, We may be required by law or legal process to disclose certain personally identifiable information about You to attorneys, parties or others in connection with litigation or other disputes, to law enforcement personnel or other governmental officials for the administration of justice, and/or in the event of a merger, reorganization, dissolution or similar event. By way of example, We may be required by law to disclose personally identifiable information about You, without Your consent and without notice, to comply with a valid legal
To the extent We decide to share information with other entities or for other reasons than what already is expressly stated in the Privacy Policy, We, where appropriate, will notify You of an “opt out” for Users who do not want IDEASTOX to share any personal information with other affiliated organizations, business partners, or other entities. Continue to check this Privacy Policy for further information on any sharing of personal information that IDEASTOX undertakes in the future, any available “opt-out” options and other related information; We will post such information promptly here.
CHAT ROOMS, JOURNALS AND WEBLOGS (“BLOGS”), MESSAGE BOARDS, AND OTHER PUBLIC FORUMS
Please be aware that whenever You voluntarily post information or content that can be accessed by the public (such as, for example, to a journal or weblog (“blog”), message board, chat room, or to any other public forum), any person or entity may view such content or information. Thus, such content or other information may be used by third parties to send you unsolicited communications. IDESTOX has no control over and assumes no liability or responsibility for such use by third parties who have viewed and are using Your publicly posted content or information.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS OR CONTACT INFORMATION OR REMOVING YOUR ACCOUNT
If Your personally identifiable information changes, or if You no longer desire Our services, You may correct, update, or change Your information, in whole or in part, or delete and remove Your account altogether, by using the “Edit My Profile” page in “My Stox Account.” However, please note that You cannot change Your username without re-registering. Also, if You ask for information to be removed or deleted (including Your entire account), please note that, in some circumstances, We may choose to retain in our files certain information about You or Your account for various reasons, such as to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems or enforce Our Terms of Use; thus, although We may endeavor to delete information about You from Our records, We reserve the right to maintain such information. Be assured, however, that We will continue to protect personally identifiable information about You or Your account in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Furthermore, realize information is never completely removed from Our databases due to technical constraints and the fact that We back up Our systems. Therefore, You should not expect that all Your personal information will be completely removed from Our databases in response to Your request.
In addition, please realize that any information provided by You to any other User’s IDEASTOX pages or account, such as comments or opinions made in connection with another User’s idea or on a bulletin board or blog, etc. will not/cannot be deleted by You under any circumstances.
While registered as a User, You may review and access Your information at any time in the “Edit Account” section of the website. If You need additional assistance, You may contact Us at help@ideastox.com.
LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES
This Website may contain links to other Websites, including those of subsidiaries and third-party content providers. When You click on a link from Our website, for example, You will leave our Website and will be interacting directly with the third party. That party may collect and use information about You that is different from what is set forth in this Privacy Policy. In that regard, this Privacy Policy applies only to this website. These other websites to which Our website is linked have their own policies regarding privacy and the collection and use of information. We encourage you to read the privacy statement of every website that You visit to learn how that website collects and uses information. We assume no responsibility for the policies or practices of such linked sites.
Although such linked third party will not receive personally identifiable information about You from us without Your consent, it may know that You meet the criteria it sets for the distribution of its offers/advertisements/promotions on Our website. Also, whenever You click on a link (on Our website or on any other website), the website to which You are directed may be able to determine the website from which You came.
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
We reserve the right to, and may, add to, delete from, update, or change the terms of this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify Users of this website of any changes to this Privacy Policy by posting the modified policy. When we make such changes or revisions, We will revise the “last updated” date at the bottom of the Privacy Policy to reflect the date of the change or revision. With regard to certain types of changes, We may, in certain limited circumstances, notify You of the changes by mail or e-mail. By continuing to use this website following the posting of any changes to this Privacy Policy, You will constitute Your acceptance of and agreement to the revised or modified Privacy Policy. Accordingly, please check this Privacy Policy regularly for modifications, changes or revisions.
COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY AND TRUSTe PRIVACY PROGRAM
As part of the Company’s participation in the EU Safe Harbor Framework as set forth by the United States Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union, We have become a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build users’ trust in the Internet and e-commerce by promoting the use of fair information and privacy practices. To demonstrate Our commitment to Your privacy, We have agreed to disclose Our information collection and retention practices and Our privacy policies, and We have Our privacy practices and policies reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.
As part of the TRUSTe Privacy Program, We have agreed to TRUSTe dispute resolution for disputes relating to this site’s compliance with the EU Safe Harbor Privacy Framework. If You have any complaints regarding Our compliance with the safe harbor privacy framework, You first should contact Us. If, after communications with Us, Your complaint is not resolved, You may raise Your complaint with TRUSTe electronically (via the Internet) at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php, by fax at 415-520-3420, or by regular mail Watchdog Complaints, TRUSTe, 685 Market Street, Suite 270, San Francisco, California, USA 94105. If You are faxing or mailing TRUSTe to lodge a complaint, please be sure that Your communication includes the following information: the name of the company involved, the alleged privacy violation, Your contact information, and whether You would like the particulars of Your complaint to be shared with the company involved. Once contacted by You, TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with IDEASTOX to resolve your complaints or concerns. Please realize that, in connection with Your use of this website, TRUSTe will be the liaison only with regard to information that is collected through this website, and it will not resolve any complaints or concerns about information that, for example, may be collected through software downloaded from this website.
For further information about TRUSTe or the operation of TRUSTe’s dispute resolution, please go to http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php.
MISCELLANEOUS
Other than as expressly stated, this Privacy Policy is not intended to, and does not, create any contractual rights in or on behalf of any party.
If You have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact Us at questions@IDEASTOX.com
Effective April 15, 2008. Last updated April 15, 2008.