Last revised May 25, 2010
DDFR.TV knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy seriously. Please read the following to learn more about our Privacy Policy.
This website, (the “Site”), is owned and operated by Digital Diaspora Family Reunion LLC (“Digital Diaspora”, “Company,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). This Privacy Policy describes the type of information we may collect from you and how we may use and share that information. This Privacy Policy also explains the choices you can make about the ways this information is used by us.
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. In addition, please review our Terms of Use, which governs your use of the Site. You agree that by using the Site you are expressly and affirmatively consenting to our use and disclosure of the information that you provide, and consenting to receive emails, as described below in this privacy policy. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not use the Site. Please note that certain features or services discussed in this Privacy Policy may not be offered on the Site at any particular time.
APPLICABILITY AND USER RESTRICTIONS
Unless specifically stated otherwise, this Privacy Policy applies to information collected on the Site, which also may be governed by separate or additional policies and does not apply to information about you collected by our affiliated providers, third party web sites (e.g., ad serving and tracking services) or offerings linked to or otherwise accessible from the Site. The information collected or received by such affiliated providers and third parties is subject to their own respective privacy policies, which we encourage you to review. We are not responsible for compliance with other websites’ privacy policies or practices.
Privacy Policy and Children
We understand that young people need special safeguards and privacy protection. We realize that they may not understand all the provisions of our Privacy Policy or be able to make thoughtful decisions about the choices that are made available to our adult users. We strongly urge all parents to participate in their children’s exploration of the Internet and any online services, and to teach their children about protecting their personal information while online. The Site is not directed to children under the age of fourteen (14). In compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), we use reasonable commercial efforts to adhere to the prohibition on the collection of personal information online from children under the age of fourteen (14) without first obtaining verifiable parental consent. The Site prohibits registration by, and will not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from, anyone under the age of fourteen (14). Site use and membership is void where prohibited by law.
INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOW WE USE IT
The information we gather enables us to personalize and improve our services and respond to customer service requests. Collection of information is usually grouped into two categories: Personal Information, which is information identifiable to a specific member (further defined below), and Aggregate Information, (e.g., zip code, postal code, hometown, gender, purchase history information and age as well as IP addresses that are not unique to your computer), which is general demographic information that does not identify any individual member. We may also automatically collect usage information, such as the numbers and frequency of visitors to our site and its different areas and components. We may use Aggregate Information to perform business analyses or to tailor the Site and communications to your interests. We may share anonymous, Aggregate Information with advertisers and other third parties so that they can tailor their advertisements and communications to the appropriate audience. Whether you are a Site visitor or a registered member, we take certain steps to protect your information.
User Content
Please note that whenever you publicly disclose information about yourself online (e.g., when you register for an account, fill out your profile or participate in any of our community services, through email or similar web pages), such information can be collected and used by people that you do not know. Posting personal information in public places may result in unsolicited communications, including unwanted email messages. Always be smart about the information you provide online. We bear no responsibility for any action or policies of any third parties who collect any information you may disclose on the Site.
Personal Information
As used in this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” means information collected online about an individual, such as a first and last name, a physical street address, an e-mail address, a telephone number, a social security number, or any other information that permits the physical or online contacting of a specific individual. You can browse the Sites without telling us who you are or revealing any Personal Information about yourself. However, there are certain features and services (including social networking) that may not be available for your use without providing Personal Information. If you choose to provide us with Personal Information, you consent to the transfer and storage of that information on our servers.
Registration
Certain features and services of the Site may require you to first complete a registration form and create a user name and password. During registration you are required to provide certain Personal Information. We may use this information to contact you about the services on our Site in which you have expressed interest. In addition to Personal Information collected for registration purposes, we may collect and store the following:
(a) your responses to the offerings and advertisements presented on the Site;
(b) information about the Site’s services or features that you use, and how frequently you use them;
(c) commercial transaction-related information (such as credit card or other preferred means of payment, billing or shipping information, or a history of products purchased through the Site);
(d) your responses to or entries for surveys, sweepstakes, and contests and requests for services, products, newsletters or information;
(e) customer service information about you as a user of the Site, including any suggestions you submit to us for review;
(f) community discussions, chats, dispute resolution, correspondence through our Site, and correspondence sent to us;
(g) information from other companies, such as demographic and traffic data; and
(h) other information from your interaction with our Site, 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.
Preference Information
We may combine information that you provide us with other information about you that we may obtain in order to provide promotions and marketing offers tailored to your preferences and to improve the content of the Site for you.
Cookies
To enhance your experience with the Site, we may use “cookies.” Cookies are small files of data that we may transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your browser. These cookies enable our systems to recognize your browser and tell us how and when pages in our Site are visited and by how many people. These cookies also enable us to recognize you as an individual when you visit the Site so that we can personalize your site experience and provide access for you to your individual account information and functionality. If you do not wish to have your individual Site usage information or Personal Information you provide to us stored, most browsers have an option for turning off the cookie feature, which will prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, as well as (depending on the sophistication of your browser software) allowing you to decide on acceptance of each new cookie in a variety of ways. However, please be aware that some areas of the Site may not provide you with an acceptable user experience if you have disabled the use of cookies.
Web Site Tracking and Similar Technologies
The Site and our e-mail messages may contain special electronic images (called a “single-pixel gif” or “gifs”) that monitor and collect certain limited information about the viewer of the web page or e-mail message. Gifs typically are very small (generally 1-by-1 pixel) and invisible to the user, but, in general, any electronic image viewed as part of a web page or e-mail message, including an advertisement or HTML content, can act as a gif. We may use gifs or similar technologies for a number of purposes, including without limitation, to count visitors to our web pages or to monitor how our users navigate the Site, and we may include gifs or similar technologies in e-mails in order to count how many e-mails (or particular articles, links, etc.) that we send are actually opened. Additionally, our advertising providers may use gifs or similar technologies to personalize and measure the effectiveness of their advertisements using data gathered over time from users of the Site.
IP Address and Log Files
Upon visiting the Site, we may collect and store your browser type and IP address to help diagnose problems with our server, to administer the Site, to help identify and analyze user trends, to customize content and advertisements offered to you, and to gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.
SHARING YOUR INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES
Member Photo Album Sharing
Users of the Site who view your public photo albums will see information about you including your photos, the username you have selected and your Linked Galleries. Your selected username will appear as part of the page URL. If other users add you to their Favorites Lists, those users will see a notification when you upload new photos to a public album. Viewers of their Public Galleries will also see links to your Public Gallery through the Linked Galleries section on their pages. If you include your albums in Public Search, users will be able to see your public albums through searches on DDFR.TV Web Albums and through third party services that access publicly available information on the web. Users may comment on your public albums; these comments can be seen by anyone who visits your public albums
Third Party Content
When you are visiting the Site, we may place links to other web sites operated by other parties and from time to time may include information and links to third party web sites in our promotional email. Some of these other web sites contain our brand names and trademarks and other intellectual property that we own; others do not. When you click on these links and visit these other web sites, regardless of whether or not they contain our brand names, trademarks and other intellectual property, you need to be aware that we do not control these other web sites or these other web sites’ business practices, and that this Privacy Policy does not apply to these other web sites. Consequently, the operators of these other web sites may collect different kinds of information about you, and may use and disclose that information in different ways than we would if it were collected on the Site. We encourage you to review their privacy policies and remind you that we will not be responsible for their actions.
Online Shopping Services
The Site may offer shopping services either directly or through a retailer that operates a service under contract with us. If the Site offers shopping or other commercial services, the customer order form will ask you to give us certain Personal Information. We will use the financial information that you provide only to bill you for products and services that you request. By giving the Site your credit card and related Personal Information, you are authorizing us to give that information to the merchant and the credit card company to confirm and fulfill your order. We will use contact information from the order form to fulfill your orders. We may also use your contact information for customer service purposes. We will not otherwise use or distribute your financial information without your prior approval.
Other Third Parties
We may employ or work with other companies and people and therefore we may need to share your Personal Information with them to provide products and services to you. Our employees, agents and contractors must have a “need-to-know” business reason to obtain access to your Personal Information. We may share your Personal Information with those who help us manage or provide content or other services for the Site (e.g., forum administration, order fulfillment, statistical analyses, data processing), or with outside contractors, agents or sponsors who help us with the administration, judging and prize fulfillment aspects of contests, promotions and sweepstakes. Such outside contractors, agents or sponsors may temporarily store some information on their servers, but they may only use your Personal Information to provide the Site with a specific service and not for any other purpose. We may also provide your Personal Information to a third party where you have chosen to receive certain information and have been notified that the fulfillment of such a request requires sharing your Personal Information. We also may share your Personal Information with any affiliated companies and partners if we have a business reason to do so.
Legal Compliance
We may access or disclose your Personal Information without your consent in order to: (i) protect or defend our legal rights or property, including those of our affiliated companies or their employees, agents and contractors (including enforcement of our agreements); (ii) protect the safety and security of other users of the Site or members of the public, including responding to claims that a listing or other content violates the rights of others, or protect anyone’s rights, property, or safety; (iii) protect against fraud or for risk management purposes; or (iv) comply with the law or legal process. In addition, if the Site is sold to or merges with another company not owned by or affiliated with Company, we may transfer your Personal Information to any acquiring or merging party as part of that transaction.
YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES
The following sub-headings apply only to those sections of the Site for which user registration is available.
Access to Personal Information
You have the opportunity to correct, update or remove Personal Information you have provided to us at any time. Upon entering the Site, you may sign-in using your previously issued login name and password. After signing in, click on “Account Settings” and you will have the option of either modifying or deleting your member profile settings. If you have forgotten your login name or password, click the “Forgot your password?” link, and following verification, your login name and/or password will be sent to your email address.
Activity Associated with Your Member Name
Your member name is displayed to other members throughout the Site and depending on your activity (e.g., uploading photographs, posting comments and stories) on the Site, may also be available to the public. All of your activity on our Site is traceable to your member name. Therefore, if you associate your name with your member name, the people to whom you have revealed your name will be able to personally identify your Site activities.
Opt-Out
You may opt-out of receiving e-mail communications from us at any time by either following the instructions to unsubscribe within an email you receive from the Site or in your account settings located at http://www.DDFR.TV/user/account/edit.html. As explained above, if you choose not to provide us with information sought on registration or sign up forms, it is possible that you will not be able to access or use certain features of the Site.
Your Member Profile
When you register with the Site, you may set up your member profile, provide additional information, search, add friends, send messages, perform searches and engage in other activities. Information transmitted during such activities is collected so that the Company may provide you with services and personalize certain features. Any content you post on the Site is at your own risk. Certain privacy options exist on the Site which allow you to limit access to your profile and posted content by other users. However, such privacy options are not always perfect. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site. Furthermore, the Company cannot control the actions of third parties with whom you choose to share your profile or Personal Information. Because of the foregoing, the Company does not guarantee that any content or personal information you post on the Site will not be accessible by unauthorized persons. You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal, copies of your user content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other users have copied or stored your user content.
Any improper collection or misuse of information provided on the Site is a violation of the Site’s Terms of Use and should be reported to membersupport@DDFR.TV. The Company’s invitation service allows you to invite a friend to view and share certain Site content. To use the service, information including your friend’s email address is required. Such information is collected and stored to send this one-time invitation, to allow for your friend’s registration and to track the success of our referral program. Your friend may contact us at membersupport@DDFR.TV to request that we remove this information from our records.
Non-US Users
If you are not a resident of the United States, you understand and agree that the Company stores and processes your information on computers located in the United States, and by providing any data to the Company, you consent to the transfer of such information to the United States.
SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
The Company employs reasonable security measures consistent with standard industry practice to help protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. We use secure socket layer (SSL) technology to help protect the security of commerce transactions. We encrypt your contact information and financial information as it travels over the Internet and we store your financial information on our servers in encrypted form. Your information may be transferred to and maintained in whole or in part on computer networks which may be located outside of the state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction in which you reside, and may be stored on equipment or in facilities leased or licensed from third parties.
Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information and make all commercially reasonable efforts to do so, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk. However, once we receive your transmission, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any information, including such photographs, that you submit for use in publicly available areas on our Site. We ask that you do not submit any personal information, including contact information or financial information, for display in public areas, as other people who use the Site will see it. If you submit such information for display in public areas, we cannot prevent it from being used in a manner that violates the law, your personal privacy or your safety. By submitting such information for display in public areas, you assume the risks and sole liability arising as a result of such information being displayed.
Account Protection
Your member profile is password-protected so that you and only you have access to this information. Please use a unique combination of numbers, letters and special characters and do not disclose your Site password to anyone for greater protection. If you share your computer with other people, or us a publicly accessible computer, sign out of your account and close your browser window when you are done. If you do share your password or your Personal Information with others, remember that you are responsible for all actions taken under your member profile. 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. If your password has been compromised for any reason, we encourage you to change it immediately or notify us to change your password on your behalf.
If Abuse Occurs
Although we make every effort to ensure that our e-mail list is safe, the Internet is such that we cannot guarantee that our list is invulnerable to attacks. If you believe there has been a breach of our security, please contact us at once at membersupport@DDFR.TV.
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
This Privacy Policy may be revised over time as new features are added to the Site or as we incorporate suggestions from our users. If we are going to use or disclose your Personal Information in a manner materially different from that stated at the time we collected the information, you will have a choice as to whether or not we use or disclose your information in this new manner. We will also post a notification that the Privacy Policy has been amended prominently on our Web site so that you can always review what information we gather, how we might use that information, and under which conditions we will disclose it to anyone. We encourage you to refer to visit this Privacy Policy frequently to stay informed regarding our current privacy practices. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have about you and your activity on our Site.
As the owner of this Site, the Company retains all ownership rights to the information collected at this Site. In the event the Company goes through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your Personal Information will likely be among the assets transferred.
CONTACTING US
If you have any questions or concerns regarding privacy this Privacy Policy, please send us a detailed message to us any time by email at membersupport@DDFR.TV or at Privacy Request, c/o Digital Diaspora Family Reunion LLC, Post Office Box 1584, Greenwood Lake, New York 10925, USA. We will make every effort to resolve your concerns.