PowerReviews, Inc.
Privacy Terms of Use Contact

Effective 11/1/2005, Last Modified 06/08/12

Privacy Policy (Safe Harbor)

This Privacy Policy (this "Policy") describes how personal information is collected, used and disclosed by PowerReviews, Inc. ("PowerReviews," "we," or "us") in connection with your use of the PowerReviews and PowerReviews Express websites at http://www.PowerReviews.com and http://www.PowerReviewsExpress.com, http://www.buzzillions.com (collectively, the "Site") and the services that PowerReviews provides (the "Services"), either through the Site or on behalf of Host Sites (as defined below), that display this Policy. We encourage you to read this Policy carefully before providing any personal information on the Site or through the Services.

Your California Privacy Rights

Under California's Shine the Light law, Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.83, California residents have the right under certain circumstances to request information regarding the disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes, including a list of the categories of personal information that was shared and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make a request under the Shine the Light law, you may do so by emailing your request to privacy_request@powerreviews.com.


Host Sites


In many cases, PowerReviews provides the Services on behalf of another Web site (each a "Host Site"). In such cases, the Services are displayed on or through Host Sites with the use of inline frames or other embedding techniques. The pages on Host Sites on which the Services appear are hosted on our servers, and we may collect personal information you provide through such pages. When you submit personal information to us in this manner, it is treated as personal information under this Policy and is governed by this Policy. However, the collection and use of personal information by the Host Site directly (e.g., outside of the Services' pages or in connection with creating an account on the Host Site) is governed separately by the privacy policy of such site, not this Policy, and we are not responsible for any collection and use of personal information by Host Sites.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Direct Collection

We collect "personal information" about users of the Site and the Services in the normal course of our business. As used in this Policy, "personal information" is information that identifies or is capable of being associated with an identifiable person. Some examples of personal information include a user's name, address, and email address. Personal information does not include aggregate information or de-identified information. "Aggregate information" is information about the use of the Site, such as information collected about Site users, or a category of services or users, from which any personal information has been removed. An example of aggregate information would be a report stating that forty-seven percent of the Site's registered users identify themselves as male.

Most of the personal information we receive comes directly from users who provide information to us in connection with various activities on the Site or Services (whether through our Site or a Host Site). For example, we may collect personal information if you create an account, fill out a form, subscribe to a newsletter, enter a contest, make a request, respond to a survey or send us an email. Such information may include, without limitation, your name, nickname, address, and e-mail address. We may also collect personal information if you provide it in connection with any reviews, questions, answers, comments, postings or content you submit and collect your email in connection with our verification process.


Other types of information may also be collected if provided by you during registration or in connection with your other activities on the Site or the Host Site, such as demographic information (including, without limitation, your age, birth date, occupation, and income), location information, and information about your participation on social networking sites.

Information Collected from Third Party Sites

We may also collect information about you from third party web sites. For example, if you create or log into your account through a third-party social networking site, such as Facebook or Twitter, we will have access to certain information and content from that site, such as your name, account info and friends, in accordance with the authorization procedures determined by such third-party social networking site.

Automatic Collection

We also automatically collect certain information when you use the Site or Services, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, your operating system, the browser type, and your activity on the Site and Services. If you reached the Site by clicking on a link or advertisement on another site, we also log that information. This helps us understand our users' interests and maximize our online exposure. We treat this information as personal information if we combine it with or link it to any of the identifying information mentioned above. Otherwise, it is used in the aggregate only.


We may also automatically collect certain information through the use of "cookies." Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive at the request of a website. If we link cookies to any personally identifying information, we will treat this information as personal information. We use cookies to help us understand how visitors use (and to help us to improve) the Site and Services and to customize your experiences. If you wish to block, erase, or be warned of cookies, please refer to your browser manufacturer to learn about these functions. However, if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or Services on our Site.

Additionally, we may use Web beacons or similar technology on the Site. Web beacons are small, invisible graphic images that may be used on the Site or in emails relating to the Site to collect certain information and monitor user activity on the Site, such as to count visits, track links, understand usage and campaign effectiveness and to tell if an email has been opened and acted upon.


Analytics Services

We may use and provide analytics service to help us and our Host Sites analyze how users use the Site, Host Sites and the Services. In connection with these analytics services, we or third parties may place cookies, web beacons and other devices or technologies on this Site and other Web sites to collect information and enable the tracking of traffic data.  The data collected typically includes information such as your IP address, your ISP and the browser you use, the time spent on Web pages, links clicked, click streams, activities engaged in, purchases made, and advertisements viewed on those pages as well as activities and interactions on third-party social media sites. If this data is linked to any personally identifying information, then it will be treated as personal information.


Third-Party Ad Networks

We may use third parties, called third-party ad servers or network advertisers, to deliver ads to you on our behalf. These third-party ad servers may use cookies, web beacons or other technology to collect non-personally identifiable information about your visits to our Site, Host Sites and the Services in order to use it to analyze data and present advertisements and content that may be targeted to your interests. This Policy does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, cookies or clear gifs in third-party ads, and we encourage you to check the privacy policies of advertisers and/or ad services to learn more about their use of cookies and other technologies. If you would like more information about this practice or whether you can opt out of having this information used by third-party ad servers to provide targeted ads, please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp

HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We use the information we collect to:


  • contact you for administrative purposes or provide you with customer service;

  • provide the Services, send confirmations, complete transactions requested by you and verify that you have submitted a review, question or response in connection with the Services;

  • respond to any questions, comments, problems, requests or complaints, or request feedback;

  • monitor and analyze site usage and trends and to personalize and improve the Site, the Services and our users' experiences;

  • organize the Site and Services to better serve you and customize or develop our products and services;

  • send you emails pertaining to our verification process, our policies, and content that you submit.

  • investigate and help prevent potentially unlawful activity or activity that threatens the network or otherwise violates the Usage Agreement; and

  • provide you with news and information about our or third-party events, activities, offers, promotions, products, and services we think will be of interest to you.


Personal information provided on our Site or through the Services may be linked together or merged with other personal information we obtain about you so that we may better understand your needs and inform you about our products or services and those of our business partners. In addition, if we receive personal information from third parties with whom we have business relationships, we may combine this information with the other personal information we maintain about you. In either case, this Policy governs this information.

DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

We do not rent, sell or disclose personal information to third parties without your prior consent, except as described in this privacy policy.



Public Posts: The nature of the Services is to share information, and posts made through the Services are intended to be public. Therefore, when you use the Services, any information, including personal information, you post in reviews, comments, questions, answers, groups, forums and other public areas of the Services will be publicly available as part of the Services and may be made available on other sites.



Social Sharing: The Site and the Services may also offer social sharing features (such as the Facebook "Like" button) or other tools which let you share actions you take on our Site or in connection with the Services with other Web sites, and vice versa. The use of such features enables the sharing of certain information with your friends or the public, depending on the settings you establish with PowerReviews and the third party that provides the social sharing feature. For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and processing in connection with third-party social sharing features, please visit the privacy policies for the third parties that provide these social sharing features.



Information Provided to Host Sites: If you provide us with personal information through the Services provided on a Host Site, we are providing such Services on behalf of the Host Site, and we may share such information with such Host Site for their internal business purposes. "Internal business purposes" means that the Host Site may use it for their own benefit and business purposes, including without limitation for customer service and marketing purposes, but that they may not provide the information to third parties for such third parties' own marketing or business purposes. Host Sites may also adopt privacy policies that govern their use of information collected through the Service, but we generally require such policies to be consistent with this Policy. However, we are not responsible for the privacy and security practices and policies of the Host Site. We encourage you to learn about the Host Site's privacy and security practices and policies before providing any personal information through the Services provided on behalf of a Host Site.



Other sharing: We may also share personal information:

  • with vendors, consultants, and other service providers ("Service Providers") who are engaged by or working with us in connection with the operation of the Site or the services we provide and who need access to such information to carry out their work for us;

  • when we have your consent to do so, including if we notify you that the information you provide will be shared in a particular manner and you provide such information;

  • in an aggregated or anonymized form that does not directly identify you;

  • when we believe in good faith that we are lawfully authorized or required to do so or that doing so is reasonably necessary or appropriate to comply with the law or legal processes or respond to lawful requests or legal authorities, including responding to lawful subpoenas, warrants, or court orders;

  • when we believe in good faith that doing so is reasonably necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of PowerReviews, our users, our employees, copyright owners, third parties or the public, including without limitation to enforce our terms, or protect PowerReviews or our users from fraudulent, abusive, inappropriate, or unlawful use of our Site;

  • to enforce or apply this Policy, our Terms of Use, or our other policies or agreements; and

  • in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition, or in any other situation where personal information may be disclosed or transferred as one of the business assets of PowerReviews

TRANSFER OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO THE UNITED STATES

When you use the Services, the information you provide is transferred to the United States for processing. If you access the Services from the European Union or Switzerland, PowerReviews has certified that it processes that data in accordance with the EU and Swiss Safe Harbor Frameworks, managed by the U.S. Department of Commerce. For information about the Safe Harbor programs, including the Safe Harbor Principles that govern how we process data from the EU and Switzerland, please visit www.export.gov/safeharbor.

In some cases, we allow third parties (such as the Host Sites or an independent service provider) to offer the Services under their own branding and governed by their own terms of service. In these cases, we still process the data on their behalves, in accordance with the Safe Harbor Principles, but only as instructed by those third parties. If you have concerns or questions about the collection or use of your information by these third parties, you should contact them. In all other cases, PowerReviews is responsible for the collection and processing of your information, and this Privacy Policy and our Usage Agreement govern the collection and handling of your information.

If you have concerns about whether our data processing conforms to the Safe Harbor Principles, please contact us at the email or physical addresses listed below. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your complaint, or if we have not satisfactorily addressed your concerns, we have selected JAMS as a neutral and independent dispute resolution mechanism to handle escalated complaints about our EU or Swiss Safe Harbor certification compliance. You may submit your complaint to JAMS for mediation pursuant to the JAMS International Mediation Rules, which are accessible on the JAMS website at http://www.jamsadr.com/rules-international-rules.



CHOICE AND ACCESS

To "opt-out" of receiving promotional e-mail from us, you can; (a) send an email to privacy_request@powerreviews.com with your request; (b) write to us at PowerReviews Inc., 22 Fourth Street, Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94103; or (c) click on the "unsubscribe" link in the email you receive from us.

Please note that opting out of receiving communications from us will not prevent you from receiving administrative communications, such as those concerning the operation of the Site or the Services or about a review, question, answer or comment you have submitted. Also note that opting out of receiving communications from the Host Site requires a separate opt out, and following the opt-out procedures described above will not opt you out of receiving opting out of receiving emails from the Host Site. Similarly, exercising an opt-out from the Host Site does not opt you out of receiving promotional emails from PowerReviews.

CHILDREN

We do not intend, and the Site is not designed, to collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If you are under 13 years old, you should not register with or otherwise provide personal information to our Site or in connection with the Services.

SECURITY

We use reasonable security measures in an effort to prevent loss, misuse and alteration of information under our control. We cannot, however, guarantee protection of all information against interception, misappropriation, misuse, or alteration, or that your information may be not be disclosed or accessed by accidental circumstances or by the unauthorized acts of others. Furthermore, we have no control over the security of other sites you might visit, interact with or do business with, including Host Sites.

POLICY CHANGES

We will modify this Policy if our privacy practices materially change in the future. We will notify you of such changes only by posting the new policy on our Site and indicating at the top of the Policy the date it was last updated. We encourage you to review the Policy each time you visit our Site or Services to see if it has been updated since your last visit to make sure you understand how personal information you provide will be used.

QUESTIONS / ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

If you have any questions about this Policy, or the practices of or your dealings with the Site or the Services, please contact us at the following address or email us at privacy_info@powerreviews.com:

PowerReviews, Inc.
22 Fourth Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, CA, 94103



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