|
PhotoUnity.com takes your privacy very seriously. This Privacy Policy describes exactly how PhotoUnity.com uses identifiable information regarding our customers, such as name, address, email address or credit card number ("Customer Information"). Primarily, we collect such information for the purpose of providing you with an outstanding experience on the PhotoUnity.com Service. Except as
specifically described in this Privacy Policy, PhotoUnity.com does not sell, rent or share such Customer Information with third parties.
By using our Service, you consent to the collection and use of information in the manner described below. If we decide to change our privacy practice, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we disclose it. Changes to our policy will be prospective only. Please check this page from time to time for changes to make sure you are aware of our latest privacy practices.
In this Privacy Policy, you will find the answers to the following questions:
What Customer Information does PhotoUnity.com collect?
Customer Information is requested whenever you choose to use PhotoUnity.com services. The type of Customer Information we request has to do specifically with the type of service you are using. For example:
- When you want to upload digital pictures or view others' pictures on the Site, we will ask you to provide your first and last name, home address, an email address and a password.
- When you want to share your pictures with others ("Invitees"), we will ask for a gallery username & password of friends and family you choose to share with.
- When you complete a purchase from PhotoUnity.com, we will ask you to provide shipping and billing information so that we can fulfill your request.
You also give information when you answer survey questions and organize your photos on PhotoUnity.com with titles, captions, categories, etc.
How does PhotoUnity.com use Customer Information?
Our primary goal in collecting your Customer Information is to provide you with a personalized, relevant, user-friendly experience on the PhotoUnity.com site. Here are the ways we use Customer Information to enhance this experience:
Customer Communication: We use Customer Information to communicate with you and we consider this communication to be an integral part of the PhotoUnity.com service.
We use your email and mailing address to inform you of site improvements, feature announcements, newsletters, PhotoUnity.com promotional offers, and occasional third-party promotional offers that may be of interest to you. Only PhotoUnity.com (or agents working on behalf of PhotoUnity.com under confidentiality agreements) will send you these direct mailings. This is a key component of "active participation" in the Service (see our Terms and Conditions). If you do not wish to be an active participant, you may always cancel your PhotoUnity.com membership, by writing
cancel@PhotoUnity.com.
Customer Satisfaction: We use Customer Information to make your PhotoUnity.com experience enjoyable. For example, because we know who you are after you log in, we can present you with the right set of albums in your password-protected account. We also know where to email you to let you know your photos are ready for viewing online. Furthermore, if, for example, we know you have children in your household, we may be able to send you a promotional offer via email for discounted photo trading cards of your kids.
Customer Convenience: We use Customer Information to provide you with the convenience of easy access to the services you request. When you choose to use the PhotoUnity.com Service for digitization, or for purchasing photo merchandise, we will ask for credit card information and for your mailing address. For a merchandise purchase, we will ask for final confirmation before charging your credit card. We may also collect information during the shopping experience to make purchasing an easier and better experience for you. For example, if you give us permission to keep your billing information, you won't have to fill out the shipping and billing address each and every time you purchase.
Note that one reason we are able to offer you relevant promotions is that we reserve the right to use aggregated, anonymous data about our users as a group. For example, we might tell a prospective advertiser that 500,000 of our members are digital camera users, and then distribute an attractive offer exclusively to those users. Your Customer Information, however, will never be personally identifiable when aggregated for these purposes.
With whom does PhotoUnity.com share Customer Information?
PhotoUnity.com shares Customer Information with third party intermediaries (for example,
credit card authorization companies, photo processing labs, merchandise distributors,
vendors processing our outbound email communication, etc.) who help us run the PhotoUnity.com
Service and Site. Your Customer Information is provided to these third parties solely
for the purpose of providing you the services you request at the time that you request
them. Third party intermediaries do not store, retain, access or otherwise use your
Customer Information other than as necessary to provide you with the PhotoUnity.com service.
Other than as described in the previous paragraphs, PhotoUnity.com will not sell, rent or otherwise share Customer Information with a third party without your knowledge and consent. If you do not want your Customer Information shared at that time you will always have the option of telling us not to share it. For those purposes, "PhotoUnity.com" means Aardvark Business Solutions and any successors to the assets or business of Aardvark Business Solutions.
Advertisers on PhotoUnity.com do not have access to your individual account information. Advertisers simply give us an ad and tell us the type of audience they want to reach (for example, digital camera users). PhotoUnity.com then displays the ad only to users who meet those criteria.
The one exception to the rule described in this section is the following: if PhotoUnity.com is required by law (or to protect its rights or property), we will disclose Customer Information to the extent so required.
Who sees your photos after they have been posted online?
You, and your Invitees and wedding guests can see your albums online. An Invitee is defined as anyone who is invited to the PhotoUnity.com site to see an album. Anyone who is invited to see an album online must provide an email address and a password to access the site and view a shared album. When you choose to share your online images with Invitees, those individuals will be able to view your album.
PhotoUnity.com employees or employees of partner companies that provide services to PhotoUnity.com may see your photos while they are developed, scanned or printed. In addition, your photos or personal account information may be seen by PhotoUnity.com employees in order to evaluate, validate, or correct problems with your account.
Does PhotoUnity.com use "IP Addresses" and cookies?
PhotoUnity.com uses IP Addresses and Cookies in limited ways, as follows:
IP Addresses: An IP address is literally your computer's address and is a unique identifier, allowing online information to be sent to the right place. We use IP addresses to better understand the customer database. We use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our Web site. Your IP address is also used to gather broad demographic information such as geographic distribution of our members. We do not intentionally link your IP address to your personally identifiable information.
PhotoUnity.com Cookies: Contrary to popular belief, cookies do not extract private or personal information from your computer's memory. The job of a cookie is to record only information you volunteer to us upon registering or visiting the site. Cookies are tiny files placed onto the hard drive of your computer the first time you visit our Web site that enable our server to recognize or "remember" who you are next time you come back. PhotoUnity.com cookies are not tied to personally identifiable information. Currently, PhotoUnity.com intends to make only limited use of cookies for the purpose of delivering content and ads specific to your interests. For instance cookies may be used to retain your personal preferences, hold session information for a "shopping cart" or save your password so it doesn't have to be re-entered each time you log in.
Advertiser Cookies: PhotoUnity.com does post third party advertising banners. These ads may contain cookies used primarily to provide data to the advertiser about where visitors are coming from. While we do use cookies in other parts of our Web site as explained above, cookies received with banner ads may or may not be collected or controlled by our company. When you click on a banner ad, you should be aware that the advertiser might be collecting information without the permission of PhotoUnity.com.
Advice on Limiting Cookies: You always have a choice with respect to cookies. By modifying your browser preferences, you can accept all cookies, be notified when a cookie is set or reject all cookies. If you choose to reject all cookies, you may be unable to use certain PhotoUnity.com services. Please consult your browser instructions for information on how to modify your choices about cookies.
Does PhotoUnity.com use Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)?
We use a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs) to help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier that are used to track the online movements of Web users. Clear gifs are not tied to users' personally identifiable information.
Affiliate Programs
PhotoUnity.com uses clear gifs in combination with cookies to support affiliate programs administered by 3rd party companies. These programs allow other web services to offer special PhotoUnity.com deals to their customers. When a customer signs-up for the PhotoUnity.com service via an affiliate link on a non-PhotoUnity.com web site, we display a clear gif which causes a cookie to be passed to the 3rd party administrator for accounting purposes.
That means, for example, that if a person visited "www.companyX.com" and from "www.companyX.com" clicked on a "Sign-up for PhotoUnity.com" link and completed the PhotoUnity.com sign-up process, we would display a clear gif causing a cookie to be transferred to the affiliate program administrator. This cookie contains an ID number that tells the 3rd party administrator that a new user was sent to PhotoUnity.com from "www.companyX.com"
The clear gif and the cookie are not tied to users' personally identifiable information.
HTML Newsletters
We use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by the recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. If users would like to opt-out of these emails, please see the Opt-out section.
What are the safeguards and security procedures in place to protect your information from loss, misuse, or alteration?
Your Customer Information on our Service is password-protected. We strongly recommend that you do not give your password to anyone and that you change it every 3 months. You may edit your PhotoUnity.com account information by using your PhotoUnity.com member name and password.
If you are using a public computer (public library, school computer, etc.) or a shared computer (family computer, roommate's computer, etc.), we strongly recommend that you sign out of your PhotoUnity.com account and close your browser before getting up and moving away from the computer. This will prevent others from accessing your account and personal information. Please note that because our company is particularly sensitive to protecting information about children on the Internet, kids under 13 are not eligible to be members of PhotoUnity.com. However, we encourage parents to use our service as a family activity with their children and to carefully monitor any Internet activities (including use of the PhotoUnity.com services) engaged in by their kids.
PhotoUnity.com employs SSL - a specialized encryption and security technology -- to protect your Customer Information. We understand that this is especially important when there is an exchange of credit card, billing and password information. In addition, we limit access of Customer Information to only those employees who need it to carry out their jobs.
PhotoUnity.com will never ask you for your password in an unsolicited phone call or in an unsolicited email.
You will only be asked for your member name and password when you initiate the contact and only if the member name and password are necessary to correct a service problem.
How can you update or correct Customer Information?
Customer Information that you provide during registration is available in your PhotoUnity.com online account. To edit your Customer Information, you must enter your email address and password to access your account. You may edit your account information at any time.
You can also cancel your PhotoUnity.com membership by writing
cancel@PhotoUnity.com. If you request cancellation of your account, PhotoUnity.com may (but is not required to) remove any and all content (photos) or other personal information from the PhotoUnity.com site, and your photos may not be accessible to you even if you choose to rejoin or reactivate your account at a later date. Information necessary for the purposes of maintaining business records regarding a cancelled account, including records of credit transactions and account ownership, will be retained in accordance with applicable law.
Links from the PhotoUnity.com Site: If you click away from PhotoUnity.com to visit the site of any third party advertiser or sponsor, you may be asked for your credit card or other personal information in order to purchase or use products and services offered. These companies have their own privacy and data collection practices. As described above, PhotoUnity.com has no responsibility or liability for these independent policies. You should therefore review their privacy policies carefully if you have concerns about how your information may be used.
Notification of Change: If we are going to use your personally identifiable information in a manner that is materially different from that stated at the time of collection, we will notify you via email. You will have a choice as to whether or not we use your information in this different manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our web site notifying users of the change. In some cases where we post the notice, we will also email users who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.
Contacting PhotoUnity.com: If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this Web site, you can contact us.
|
