SocialMedia Privacy Policy
Last updated August 25, 2008
SocialMedia Networks, Inc. (“SOCIALMEDIA”) has developed a set of technologies and processes to allow advertisers to deliver targeted content across the social networking websites (“Network Sites”) who wish to display such content (the “Network”).
We consider the protection of your privacy to be of utmost importance in how we conduct our business and provide our services. This Privacy Policy applies to our website and our services provided through our Network and describes what data we collect, how we use this data to provide our services, when and to whom we disclose such data, and how you can opt out of the data collection we perform as well as our advertising services.
DATA COLLECTION AND USE
Use of Personally Identifiable Information: SOCIALMEDIA Site
Advertisers and application developers (“
Publishers”, collectively “
Network Participants”) on various social networking platforms participating in our Network are required to register with us through our website at
www.socialmedia.com (the “
SOCIALMEDIA Site”). During registration and after, Network Participants will provide SOCIALMEDIA certain personally identifiable information, including but not limited to, their name, email address, and postal mailing address.
We use the personally identifiable information of our Network Participants mainly to provide the SOCIALMEDIA services, including but not limited to administering inquiries, processing, validating and verifying registrations, making contact, and processing, remitting and/or charging fees. We will use the email addresses of our Network Participants to send service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we may send our Network Participants a notification email. Generally, Network Participants may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If Network Participants do not wish to receive these types of service related email notifications they have the option of deactivating their account. We may also use their email address to provide notification of promotional events being offered by us. Network Participants may opt-in to these emails when they register and may later opt-out through the emails themselves. If a Network Participant’s personally identifiable information changes, or if a Network Participant no longer desires our service, they may update or deactivate their account by making the change on our account information page or by contacting customer support at info@socialmedia.com with the details of what needs to be updated.
If you contact us by email or through the SOCIALMEDIA Site (for example, as a prospective customer who requests that a SOCIALMEDIA representative contact you), we may keep a record of your contact information and correspondence, and may use your email address, and any information that you provide to us in your message, to respond to you. This information will not be shared with other companies and is not used for purposes other than contacting or reaching out to you.
- We post customer testimonials on our web site which may contain personally identifiable information such as the customer’s name. We do obtain the customer’s consent prior to posting the testimonial to post their name along with their testimonial.
- The SOCIALMEDIA Site contains a blog for which anyone can comment on postings. Any personally identifiable information submitted as comments to blog postings on the SOCIALMEDIA Site can be read, collected, or used by other users of this blog and could be used to send unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit as comments to this blog.
Use of Personally Identifiable Information: SOCIALMEDIA Service
SOCIALMEDIA will access your picture and first name voluntarily provided by you to your Network Site – provided that your profile is not marked “private” – to display in advertisements shown to others within the Network Site for which you have provided this information. This information is accessed through SOCIALMEDIA tags utilized by third party Publishers in their own Applications on Network Sites.
- When an advertisement is delivered to a user our advertisement server finds relevant friends of that user, which may include you, and may display your first name and/or picture to that user within the advertisement. SOCIALMEDIA also may also access your age and gender information provided by you to your Network Site for demographic targeting purposes. If you do not wish to have your name and picture displayed in advertisements delivered by SOCIALMEDIA or your demographic data used to deliver targeted advertisements to you, you may change the privacy settings of your public Network Site profile to disable access to this information or you may opt-out of SOCIALMEDIA’S ability to access your first name and photo by clicking here.
- SOCIALMEDIA does not otherwise collect or use personally identifiable information about people who interact with the SOCIALMEDIA content found on any of the Network Sites serving SOCIALMEDIA content.
Use of Non-Personally Identifiable Information: SOCIALMEDIA Service
Publishers may place a SOCIALMEDIA tag in an Application on a Network Site to help us ensure advertisements served are correctly targeted. These tags are used to match visitor browsing behavior to the correct audience profile for advertisement targeting purposes (that is, to permit advertisers to deliver advertisements that are appropriate for their products or services). See the “Log Data” section below to see what information SOCIALMEDIA receives from such tags and how we use it. Check the privacy policies of Applications tagged with SOCIALMEDIA tags for information regarding how they use such information.
In addition, when you visit a Network Site, such Network Site may access and collect certain information from you. This may include, but is not limited to, your Network Site ID for which that Network Site resides within, non-personal profile data you disclose to the Network Site such as gender, age, photo, city location, other Network Site IDs you communicate with as part of your interaction with the Network Site, advertisements that were delivered to you and that you clicked on, and other click-stream data. This data may be shared with SOCIALMEDIA and we will use such data to deliver more targeted content to you while visiting Network Sites.
Use of Behavioral Data: SOCIALMEDIA Service
SOCIALMEDIA will assemble non-personal behavioral, demographic and location data to create audience segments. These audience segments represent large amounts of information that have been aggregated into anonymous groups. When an advertisement is served, our advertisement server accesses this data to match the target audience with the appropriate audience segment, with only aggregate data retained by SOCIALMEDIA. This aggregate behavioral data is associated to the browser’s cookie as well as the user’s social network ID assigned by the Network Site the Application resides within.
Use of Cookies: SocialMedia Site
- A cookie is a small data file containing a string of alphanumeric characters that uniquely identifies your browser.
- Like many websites, we use cookies on the SOCIALMEDIA Site (by placing or reading them via your browser) to save your registration ID and login password for future logins to the SOCIALMEDIA Site. SOCIALMEDIA uses both session cookies and persistent cookies. A persistent cookie remains on your computer’s hard drive once your browser is closed and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the site. SOCIALMEDIA utilizes persistent cookies to better understand how you interact with Network Sites and to aggregate interactions with advertisements delivered by SOCIALMEDIA. We also utilize session ID cookies to enable certain features of the SOCIALMEDIA Site, to better understand how you interact with SOCIALMEDIA Site and to monitor aggregate usage by users and web traffic routing on the SOCIALMEDIA Site. You can remove persistent cookies by following your web browser help file directions. Unlike persistent cookies, session cookies are deleted from your computer when you close your browser. We associate your Network Site ID and clickstream data to our persistent cookies.
You can instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions or have access to all features or functionality of the SOCIALMEDIA Site. You may also instruct your browser, by changing its privacy options, to restrict the use of third party cookies.
Use of Cookies: SOCIALMEDIA Service
We also use cookies when you visit a Network Site with Applications tagged by Publishers with SOCIALMEDIA tags (we use a feature of your browser to set one or more cookies on your computer) to collect Log Data, as described in the Log Data section below).
You can instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions or have access to all features or functionality of the Network Sites.
Log Data
For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Log Data” may include but is not limited to such information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, your browser type, your browsing behavior (including your activities on a website), the webpage you were visiting before you came to a website (the referring HTTP location), what pages on a website you visit, the time spent on those pages, information you search for on a website, access times and dates, and other statistics.
Use of Log Data: SOCIALMEDIA Site
When you visit the SOCIALMEDIA Site, whether as a registered user to the site or a non-registered user just browsing, our servers automatically record and collect Log Data sent by your browser. We use Log Data to monitor and analyze use of the SOCIALMEDIA Site and services, and for SOCIALMEDIA Site’s technical administration, to increase the SOCIALMEDIA Site’s functionality and user-friendliness, and to better tailor it to our visitors’ needs. For example, some of this information is collected so that when you visit the SOCIALMEDIA Site again, it will recognize you and will be able to serve content, advertisements, and other information appropriate to your interests.
We do not link Log Data collected on the SOCIALMEDIA Site to any other personally identifiable information about you or otherwise attempt to discover your identity.
Use of Log Data: SOCIALMEDIA Service
- We also collect Log Data each time you visit Network Sites with Applications that have been tagged by Publishers with SOCIALMEDIA tags. We analyze such Log Data and combine it between sites and with other data and information collected from your interactions with Applications and advertisements to enable the Publishers to deliver to advertiser audience segments that are appropriate for their products or services. This combined data is also used by us and our partners to serve you content, advertisements, and other information tailored to your interests.
Third Party Registration Data: SOCIALMEDIA Service
- Some Network Sites may collect additional information about you by requesting you to register with them so you can earn virtual points, access premium content, or enroll in sweepstakes and/or subscriptions. You may disclose personally identifiable information as part of this registration process as well as non-personal information. This information is not shared with SocialMedia
Log Data and Aggregate Information. We may share the following information with third parties, including, but not limited to, the above vendors that support the operation of our services and entities involved in the delivery of advertisements: Log Data collected on both the SOCIALMEDIA Site and the Network Sites hosting Applications tagged with SOCIALMEDIA tags (as described in the Log Data section above), as well as aggregated anonymized information resulting from the analysis of such Log Data for a variety of purposes, including, but not limited to, conducting industry, traffic and demographic analysis, and enabling Network Sites to deliver to advertisers audience segments that are appropriate for their products or services.
Service Providers. We may employ third party companies and individuals to provide and facilitate the SOCIALMEDIA services, to provide the services on our behalf, to perform services related to administration of the Network (including, without limitation, maintenance, hosting and database management services, and administration). These third parties have access to your personally identifiable information and Log Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose. Personally identifiable information shared with these service providers includes, but is not limited to, your name, email address, phone number, home and business postal address, and credit card or other billing information.
Agents. We use PayPal to both bill and credit advertisers/publishers for services. This company does not retain, share, store, or use personally identifiable information for any other purpose. Personally identifiable information shared with PayPal includes, but is not limited to, you name, email address, phone number, home and business postal address, and credit card or other billing information.
Compliance with Laws and Law Enforcement. SOCIALMEDIA cooperates with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, the rights of others, and/or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process.
Business Transfers. As we continue to develop our business, we or our affiliates may sell, transfer, buy or otherwise share some or all of its assets to, from or with other businesses or entities in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy. In such transactions, any Log Data and non-personally identifiable information we have collected from you may be one of the transferred business assets. In addition, our prospect and customer lists would be considered a business asset and would also be included as part of a sale of our assets. You will have the opportunity to opt out of any such transfer if the new entity’s planned processing of your information differs materially from that set forth in this Privacy Policy.
Promotional Purposes. We do not share, rent, or trade any personally identifiable information with any third party for promotional purposes.
Security
We restrict access to nonpublic personally identifiable information about you to personnel who are authorized to handle that information. We also maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to guard your nonpublic personally identifiable information.
If you have any questions about the security on our Site, you can email us at privacy@socialmedia.com.
The ordering information you provide - including credit card information - is secured using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology via PayPal servers. PayPal uses SSL encryption when transmitting certain kinds of information, such as financial services information or payment information. An icon resembling a padlock is displayed on the bottom of most browsers window during SSL transactions that involve credit cards and other forms of payment. Any time PayPal asks for a credit card number for payment, it will be SSL encrypted. The information you provide will be stored securely on PayPal’s servers. This SSL technology is used to prevent such information from being intercepted and read as it is transmitted over the Internet. The encrypted data goes to a secure site where your information is stored on restricted-access computers located at restricted-access sites. While PayPal makes every effort to ensure the integrity and security of its network and systems, they cannot guarantee that their security measures will prevent third-party “hackers” from illegally obtaining this information.
Opting Out of SOCIALMEDIA’S Services
You can
click here to opt-out of SOCIALMEDIA’s data collection, cookies, and use of data already collected from you. Note that if you have accounts on multiple Network Sites, you will need to repeat this opt-out process for each account on Network Sites. Our servers store your decision to opt-out for each account on a Network Site. If you use a new account on a Network Site, you should repeat this opt-out process for that new account.
International Transfers
Your information may be transferred to, and maintained on, computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. If you are located outside the United States and choose to provide information to SOCIALMEDIA, please be advised that we transfer personally identifiable information to the United States and process it there. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.
Links to Other Sites.
The SOCIALMEDIA Site may contain links to other websites. If you choose to click on another third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s website. The fact that we link to a website is not an endorsement, authorization, or representation that we are affiliated with that third party, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices. We do not exercise control over third party websites. These other websites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data, or solicit personally identifiable information from you. Other websites and services follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of the personally identifiable information you submit to them. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit.
Our Policy Toward Children
We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with personally identifiable information without their consent, he or she should contact us at
privacy@socialmedia.com. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with personally identifiable information, we will delete such information from our files.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
The issue of privacy, especially within social networks, is an evolving one. SOCIALMEDIA is committed to the constant monitoring and examination of its privacy practices, and may, from time to time, institute changes to its Privacy Policy. In the event of any changes to the Privacy Policy, we will promptly make changes to this Privacy Policy to disclose such changes. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, or by means of a notice on our home page.
TRUSTe Privacy Program
SOCIALMEDIA is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. This Privacy Policy covers the site
www.socialmedia.com and our services provided through our Network. While this Privacy Policy addresses how SOCIALMEDIA handles information from websites participating in our Network,
the TRUSTe Privacy Program only applies to the SOCIALMEDIA Site. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build users’ trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. We have disclosed our information privacy practices with TRUSTe, who has reviewed our privacy practices for compliance. If you have questions or concerns regarding our privacy policy please contact us at privacy@socialmedia.com. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with the website to resolve your concerns.
Contacting Us
To contact us for more information or for questions regarding our Privacy Policy, please send correspondence to the following address:
SocialMedia Networks
Privacy Policy Inquiry
Pier 38
San Francisco, CA 94107