COMMUNITY SHOPPER PRIVACY POLICY
The following is the Community Shopper Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) and is intended to be incorporated with the Website Terms of Use the governs the relationship between you (“You” and “Your”) and Community Shopper, Inc. (“We” or “Community Shopper”) in relation to Your use of a Community Shopper website and/or services.
Privacy Policy Summary
We at Community Shopper are all about getting the community the best deal possible – providing bulk offer services to trusted vendors and giving the Power to the Community™! This means that in no way, shape, or form will We share or sell Your personal information without Your explicit consent, just to make a buck – We would rather You make that buck by accepting one of the great offers available through the Community.
By using a Community Shopper Website, services, and tools, You agree to our terms and conditions, including this Privacy Policy, and You consent to Community Shopper’s privacy practices. This includes the use and disclosure of any personal information You have shared with us and its transfer to and storage on our servers in the United States.
This summary provides the key concepts of the full Community Shopper Privacy Policy and applies to the Community Shopper website and services. This policy tells You about how We use and protect Your personal information. If after reading the policy You still have questions or concerns, please contact us at privacy@communityshopper.com.
1.1 This Privacy Policy describes how We handle Your personal information for our services on the Community Shopper websites. It applies generally to the www.Communityshopper.com website and content and other related websites where a link to this Privacy Policy appears in the footer of the page. Some Community Shopper-branded websites or websites We operate may be governed by separate privacy policies. The policy that applies on any of our domains or sub-domains is always the policy that appears in the footer of each website.
1.2 It is understood that You are subject to the Website Terms of Use associated with the websites and/or services in which You have accessed the Community Shopper websites and/or services. This Privacy Policy is incorporated with and forms a part of the Website Terms of Use.
1.3 Our subsidiaries’ and joint ventures’ privacy practices are similar to those described in this Privacy Policy. Subject to the requirements of applicable law, We strive to provide a consistent set of privacy practices throughout the global Community Shopper community. By accepting the Website Terms of Use including the User Agreement in registration, You expressly consent to our collection, storage, use and disclosure of Your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.
2. Collection
2.1 You can browse our sites without telling us who You are or revealing any personal information about Yourself. Once You give us Your personal information, You are not anonymous to us. If You choose to provide us with personal information, You consent to the transfer and storage of that information on our servers located in the United States.
2.2 We may collect and store the following personal information:
(A) email address, physical contact information, and (depending on the service used) sometimes financial information, such as credit card or bank account numbers;
(B) transactional information based on Your activities on the sites (such as interest level submissions, buying, selling, item and content You generate or that relates to Your account);
(C) shipping, billing and other information You provide to purchase or ship an item;
(D) community discussions, chats, dispute resolution, correspondence through our sites, and correspondence sent to us;
(E) other information from Your interaction with our sites, services, content and advertising, including computer and connection information, statistics on page views, traffic to and from the sites, ad data, IP address and standard web log information;
(F) additional information We ask You to submit to authenticate Yourself or if We believe You are violating site policies (for example, We may ask You to send us an ID or bill to verify Your address, or to answer additional questions online to help verify Your identity or ownership of an item You list);
(G) information from other companies, such as demographic and navigation data; and
(H) other supplemental information from third parties (for example, if You incur a debt to Community Shopper, We will generally conduct a credit check by obtaining additional information about You from a credit bureau, as permitted by law).
2.3 Credit card information we collect will be kept on file as part of Your account until the card expires, or for a period of no more than 3 years from the most recent entry or update of this information, whichever occurs first.
We do not sell or rent Your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without Your explicit consent. We may combine Your information with information We collect from other companies and use it to improve and personalize our services, content and advertising. If You do not wish to receive marketing communications from us or participate in our ad-customization programs, simply indicate Your preference in My Home Page or by following the directions provided with the communication or advertisement.
4.1 Our primary purpose in collecting personal information is to provide You with a safe, smooth, efficient, and customized experience. You agree that We may use Your personal information to:
(A) provide the services and customer support You request;
(B) process Your orders, ensure completion of the transactions, and process payments;
(C) resolve disputes, collect fees, and troubleshoot problems;
(D) prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities, and enforce our User Agreement;
(E) customize, measure and improve our services, content and advertising;
(F) tell You about our services and those of our corporate family, targeted marketing, service updates, and promotional offers based on Your communication preferences; and
(G) compare information for accuracy, and verify it with third parties.
5. Our Disclosure of Your Information
5.1 The Community Shopper websites and/or services may be used to facilitate transactions for the sale of goods or services between and amongst registered users (“Users”). Users are those who register or establish an online account with Community Shopper. A User ID auto-generated Community Shopper URL automatically gets created upon a User registering or establishing an online account with Community Shopper. Users may take the form of buyers and potential buyers (“Buyers”) and vendors (“Vendors”). Vendors are those that offer for sale goods or services to Buyers via a Community Shopper website or service.
5.2 We may disclose personal information to respond to legal requirements, enforce our policies, respond to claims that a listing or other content violates the rights of others, or protect anyone's rights, property, or safety. Such information will be disclosed in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
5.3 We may also share Your personal information with:
(A) Members of the Community Shopper business family to provide joint content and services (like registration, transactions and customer support), to help detect and prevent potentially illegal acts and violations of our policies, and to guide decisions about their products, services and communications. Members of our corporate family will use this information to send You marketing communications only if You have requested their services.
(B) Service providers under contract who help with our business operations (such as fraud investigations, bill collection, affiliate and rewards programs and co-branded credit cards).
(C) Other third parties to whom You explicitly ask us to send Your information (or about whom You are otherwise explicitly notified and consent to when using a specific service).
(D) Law enforcement or other governmental officials, in response to a verified request relating to a criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity. In such events, We will disclose information relevant to the investigation, such as name, city, state, zip code, telephone number, email address, User ID history, IP address, fraud complaints, and bidding and listing history.
(E) Community Shopper Intellectual Rights Protection Program participants under confidentiality agreement, as We in our sole discretion believe necessary or appropriate in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement, piracy, or other unlawful activity. In such events, We will disclose name, street address, city, state, zip code, country, phone number, email address and company name.
(F) Other business entities, should We plan to merge with or be acquired by that business entity. (Should such a combination occur, We will require that the new combined entity follow this privacy policy with respect to Your personal information. If Your personal information will be used contrary to this policy, You will receive prior notice.)
5.4 Without limiting the above, in an effort to respect Your privacy and our ability to keep the community free from bad actors, We will not otherwise disclose Your personal information to law enforcement, other government officials, or other third parties without a subpoena, court order or substantially similar legal procedure, except when We believe in good faith that the disclosure of information is necessary to prevent imminent physical harm or financial loss or to report suspected illegal activity.
5.5 Community Shopper contains links to other websites. Community Shopper is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of these sites. If You have concerns about how other websites collect and use information about You, make sure You read that site’s own privacy policy.
5.6 As our business evolves, Community Shopper may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of its assets in connection with a merger, reorganization or sale of assets, or in the event of bankruptcy. In such an event, personal information may be one of the assets transferred.
6. Information You Share on Community Shopper
6.1 Your User ID is displayed throughout Community Shopper (and so available to the public), and is connected to all of Your Community Shopper activity. Other people can see Your offer interest level submissions, purchases, offer listings, feedback, ratings and associated comments. Notices sent to other community members about suspicious activity and policy violations on our sites refer to User IDs and specific items. So if You associate Your name with Your User ID, the people to whom You have revealed Your name will be able to personally identify Your Community Shopper activities.
6.2 If You access our sites from a shared computer or a computer in an internet café for example, certain information about You, such as Your User ID, activity or reminders from Community Shopper, may also be visible to other individuals who use the computer after You.
6.3 Buyer Information. Information You share on Community Shopper always allows You the option to keep it private. If You are a Buyer, there are three levels of user activity that determine what information You share on Community Shopper.
(A) The 1st Level is that of a “Curious Buyer” and all information You provide gives You the option to keep it private. Your email address is the only information that will be used by Community Shopper for account creation validation purposes as well as for basic system notification purposes. You have the option to keep Your User URL private if You so choose.
(B) The 2nd Level is that of an “Interested Buyer” and similar to the 1st Level, all information a Buyer provides allows the Buyer to keep that information private. The major difference is that in addition to the basic information that the Buyer provides, the Buyer’s location is a required field at this level. Additionally, the Buyer’s email address will be used by Community Shopper to offer event notification to the Buyer. In addition the Buyer’s email address may be used indirectly by Vendor(s) through Community Shopper for additional offer promotions, if the Buyer so opts.
(C) The 3rd Level is that of a “Shopper”. This is a Buyer who is fully committed to making a purchase on Community Shopper. This Level contains more required information than the previous two, including a required shipping address and required credit card information that will be delivered to a Vendor upon completion of offer and initiation of order. Additionally, the Buyer is required at this level to provide an alternate form of electronic communication in addition to email. This may be via a selected online social network or SMS messaging account. And as with all the other levels for a Buyer, all information provided by the Shopper at this level can remain private until the processing at the end of a purchase and the initiation of the order by the Vendor, at which time the information is released to that specific Vendor.
6.6 Vendor Information. If You are a Vendor, certain information will always be public, that is, will always be seen by Users. This public information includes: Company Name, Company Description, Company Logo, Unique Company ID and a Company-specific Community Shopper URL that is auto-generated based on the Company ID. Company’s own website URL and other such information is by default private, but can optionally be made public. The User ID of the representative user for the company’s information will not be made public when it comes to a Vendor. Neither would the credit card or information that the Vendor uses to pay dues owed to Community Shopper.
7. Using Information from Community Shopper
7.1 Community Shopper enables You to share personal and financial information to complete transactions. We encourage You to disclose Your privacy practices and respect the privacy of other users. We cannot guarantee the privacy or security of Your information and therefore We encourage You to evaluate the privacy and security policies of Your trading partner before entering into a transaction and choosing to share Your information. To help protect Your privacy, We allow only limited access to other users' contact, shipping and financial information to facilitate Your transactions. When users are involved in a transaction, they may have access to each other's name, User ID, email address and other contact and shipping information. In all cases, You must give other users a chance to remove themselves from Your database and a chance to review what information You have collected about them.
7.2 You agree to use user information only for:
a) Community Shopper transaction-related purposes that are not unsolicited commercial messages;
b) using services offered through Community Shopper (e.g. escrow, insurance, shipping and fraud complaints); or
c) other purposes that a user expressly chooses.
8. Cookies
We use cookies, web beacons, and related tools from third parties to provide features and services that improve Your buying and selling experience. To help protect Your privacy, We limit how these tools can be used on Community Shopper.
9. How Community Shopper Uses Cookies and Web Beacons
9.1 “Cookies" are small files placed on the hard drive of Your computer. Most cookies are "session cookies," meaning that they are automatically deleted from Your hard drive once You sign out from Community Shopper or close Your web browser.
9.2 We use cookies to provide features and services, such as:
(A) promoting and enforcing trust and safety;
(B) allowing You to enter Your password less frequently;
(C) remembering Your preferences;
(D) presenting information that is targeted to Your interests;
(E) measuring the effectiveness of our sites, services, content, and advertising;
(F) facilitating conversation threads and other services on discussion boards (these cookies are placed by our board service providers); and
(G) providing other services and features that are available only through the use of cookies.
9.3 A “web beacon” is an electronic image placed in the code of a web page. We use web beacons to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one Community Shopper page to another and to improve site performance.
10. Your Choices about Cookies
10.1 We offer certain features that are available only through the use of cookies. You are always free to decline cookies if Your web browser permits. However, if You decline cookies, You may not be able to use certain Community Shopper features, and You may be required to reenter Your password more frequently during a session. 10.2 We use Flash cookies, which are cookies written with Flash technology, to help ensure that Your account security is not compromised and to spot irregularities in behavior to prevent Your account from being fraudulently taken over.
11. Use of Cookies and Web Beacons by Third Parties
11.1 We may work with other companies who place cookies or web beacons on our websites. These companies help operate our websites and provide You with additional products and services. They are subject to confidentiality agreements with Community Shopper and other legal restrictions. Community Shopper does not permit any of these companies to collect personal information using cookies or web beacons on our websites.
11.2 We do not permit third-party content on Community Shopper (such as item listings) to include cookies or web beacons. If You believe a listing might be collecting personal information or using cookies, please report it to spam@communityshopper.com.
12. No Spam, Spyware or Spoofing
12.1 We and our users do not tolerate spam. Spam is email or other forms of messaging that is both unsolicited and commercial in nature.
(A) Unsolicited: The email or other message has been sent without the permission of the person who received it
(B) Commercial: The email or other message discusses buying, selling or trading of goods or services
12.2 Make sure to set Your Community Shopper notification preferences so We communicate to You as You prefer. You are not licensed to add other Community Shopper users, even a user who has purchased an item from You, to Your mailing list (email or physical mail) without their express consent. Violations of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:
(A) Listing cancellation;
(B) Limits on account privileges;
(C) Account suspension and/or removal; and
(D) Forfeit of Community Shopper fees on cancelled listings; and
12.3 To report Community Shopper-related spam or spoof emails to Community Shopper, please forward the email to spam@communityshopper.com. You may not use our communication tools to send spam or otherwise send content that would violate our User Agreement. We automatically scan and may manually filter messages to check for spam, viruses, phishing attacks and other malicious activity or illegal or prohibited content, but We do not permanently store messages sent through these tools. If You send an email to an email address that is not registered in our community (via Share This, Refer-a-Friend, or other tools), We do not permanently store that email or use that email address for any marketing purpose. We do not rent or sell these email addresses.
Your password is the key to Your account. Use unique numbers, letters and special characters, and do not disclose Your Community Shopper password to anyone. If You do share Your password or Your personal information with others, remember that You are responsible for all actions taken in the name of Your account. If You lose control of Your password, You may lose substantial control over Your personal information and may be subject to legally binding actions taken on Your behalf. Therefore, if Your password has been compromised for any reason, You should immediately notify Community Shopper and change Your password in My Home Page.
14. Accessing, Reviewing and Changing Your Personal Information
You can see, review and change most of Your personal information by signing on to Community Shopper. Generally, We will not manually modify Your personal information because it is very difficult to verify Your identity remotely. You must promptly update Your personal information if it changes or is inaccurate. Once You make a public posting, You may not be able to change or remove it. Upon Your request, We will close Your account and remove Your personal information from view as soon as reasonably possible, based on Your account activity and in accordance with applicable law. We do retain personal information from closed accounts to comply with law, prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our User Agreement, and take other actions otherwise permitted by law.
Your information is stored on our servers located in the United States. We treat data as an asset that must be protected and use lots of tools (encryption, passwords, physical security, etc.) to protect Your personal information against unauthorized access and disclosure. However, as You probably know, third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications, and other users may abuse or misuse Your personal information that they collect from the site. Therefore, although We work very hard to protect Your privacy, We do not promise, and You should not expect, that Your personal information or private communications will always remain private.
Except as otherwise expressly included in this Privacy Policy, this document addresses only the use and disclosure of information We collect from You. If You disclose Your information to others, whether they are bidders, buyers or sellers on our sites or other sites throughout the internet, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the information You disclose to them. Community Shopper does not control the privacy policies of third parties, and You are subject to the privacy policies of those third parties where applicable. We encourage You to ask questions before You disclose Your personal information to others.
We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time by posting the amended terms on this site. All amended terms automatically take effect 30 days after they are initially posted on the site. In addition, We will notify You through the communication preferences you have set in your profile in My Home Page. If Your questions are not answered online, You may write to us at: Community Shopper, Inc. Attn: Legal - Global Privacy Practices, 23852 Pacific Coast Highway #696, Malibu, CA 90265, or using the Contact Us form.
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Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of the Community Shopper Terms of Use, User Agreement, and Privacy Policy