Grouvia.com Privacy Policy
Thank you for using our Website. This statement discloses the privacy policy for the Grouvia website (the "Website"). Questions for clarification of this statement or comments may be addressed via email to: info@grouvia.com.
We have adopted this Privacy Policy to further the relationship between us and our members. This statement of our Privacy Policy makes disclosures concerning our collection of information, including personal information, when you use the Website, and how we use and disclose it to others. By using the Website you accept the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
Information We Collect
We collect personal information when you become a member of the Website. The personal information that we may collect includes your name, country of residence, postal code, email address, and gender. You supply this information when you sign up for Grouvia.com membership. We may also collect the e-mail addresses of friends whom you refer to the site or services and e-mail addresses from users who send us support mail, request technical or other help. We refer to this collection of information as your "Personally Identifiable information." We are not able to collect this information any other way besides the Sign Up process.
We may also collect non-personal information during your use of the Website. The non-personal information that we may collect includes your browser type, the URL of the previous website you visited, your internet service provider ("ISP"), your operating system, and your Internet Protocol address ("IP"). The non-personal information is not used by us to personally identify you and is not readily usable for that purpose. We may use analytic and reporting technologies to record non-personal information such as Internet domain and host names, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, browser software, operating system types, click patterns, and the dates and times that the Website and our services are accessed by you. This information would be used solely for the purpose of researching the usage preferences of our visitors, their demographics, and interests so that Grovia.com can better understand its user community and improve the user experience on the Website. We may develop software, or contract with a third party to help us manage, monitor and optimize our Website and measure the effectiveness of our advertising, communications and use of the Website. We may use web beacons and cookies (described below) for this purpose.
In addition, we may collect information you provide in postings you make on the Website and communications with us regarding the Website, or any of our services. Information you post to the Website may be accessible by and made public through syndication programs and by search engines, metasearch tools, crawlers, metacrawlers and other similar programs.
Our Use of Information for Internal Purpose
We use your personal information primarily for our own internal purposes, such as providing, maintaining, evaluating, and improving our Website and the services we offer, and to provide customer support. We may also use personal information to notify users about updates to our website and services or promotional offers or opportunities that we believe will be of interest to users; to, without associating personal information with any individual user’s identifiable personal information, assist our partners in making relevant incentive offers available to users who elect to view such incentive offers, and to investigate violations of our terms and conditions of use.
We use the non-personal information we collect to track the use of the Website and to assist us in providing, maintaining, evaluating, and improving our Website and the services we offer.
Our Disclosure of Personal Information to Third Parties
We will disclose your personal information to protect or enforce our legal rights and policies, to protect or enforce the legal rights of a third party, or as we in good faith believe we are required to do so by law (such as to comply with a subpoena or court order, for example). You authorize us to disclose any information about you to law enforcement or other government officials as we deem necessary or appropriate, in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringements, defamation, or other activity that is illegal or may expose us or you to legal liability, or if we believe that membership has been used to commit unlawful acts or acts that may endanger the health or safety of another user or of the general public.
UNLESS YOU OPT-IN, WE WILL NOT SELL, RENT OR OTHERWISE SHARE YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION WITH OTHER THIRD PARTIES, UNLESS OTHERWISE REQUIRED OR ALLOWED UNDER THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY OR OUR TERMS OF USE. WE SHARE MEMBERS’ NON-PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH OUR PARTNERS AND ADVERTISERS ONLY IN AN AGGREGATED FORMAT THAT IS NOT AND CANNOT BE LINKED TO YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION.
We may contract with various third parties who help us provide, maintain and improve the Website and the services we provide and the services we offer and such third parties may have access to your personal information (only if you opt-in and allow said access to your personally identifiable information) in order to perform their services. For example, we may subcontract out production, fulfillment, analytics, reporting or other operations. We may contract with third party contractors to help us manage, monitor and optimize our Website and the services we offer. We may also use third party contractors to help us measure the effectiveness of our advertising and communications.
Our Disclosure of Non-Personal Information to Third Parties
We may disclose non-personal information, in aggregate form, to potential strategic partners, advertisers, investors, customers, and others. You may not opt-out of the sharing of this information.
Our Use of Cookies and Web Beacons
A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer so we can store information about our users and their previous visits. Most websites use cookies. We will use cookies to track your use of the Website and the services we offer, provide you with a more personalized user experience, pre-fill form information wherever possible, and to facilitate your logging in to the Website. If your computer does not accept cookies, you may still use the Website, however, your experience may not be optimal.
A web beacon is an often-transparent graphic image, usually no larger than a 1x1 pixel that is placed on a web page or in an e-mail that is used to monitor the behavior of the user visiting the Website or receiving the e-mail. We may use web beacons to assist in tracking your use of the Website and the services we offer and as an analytic tool to track and measure the success of various marketing campaigns.
Cookies and web beacons used by us will not be linked to your personal information.
Search Terms.
As a measure of user interest, we may track search terms that are entered by users into the search features of the Website. This information helps to improve the relevancy of search results by prioritizing search results according to user preferences. The intended result is a more efficient and user friendly experience for users of our Website.
How We Protect Your Personal Information.
We consider protecting the security of your personal information as very important. When you enter sensitive information such as your name, address, gender, or age on our registration forms, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (sometimes referred to as "SSL").
We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we do not guarantee absolute security. We are not responsible for the unauthorized acts of others and we assume no liability for any disclosure of information due to errors in transmission, unauthorized third party access (such as through hacking) or other acts of third parties, or acts or omissions beyond our reasonable control.
Reviewing and Changing Your Personal Information.
You may obtain a copy of and request that we correct errors in your personal information by emailing us at info@grouvia.com. If you do desire to obtain a copy of your personal information, you will be required to provide proof of your identity. If your personal information changes or if you no longer want to subscribe to or use the Website, you may correct, update or delete your personal information and terminate your account through the account management screen. If you wish to deactivate or terminate your subscription you may also contact our tech support at support@grouvia.com.
Application of Privacy Policy When You Access Third Party Websites.
You will be able to access third party websites directly from the Website either through hyperlinks posted by us or by our members, or through redirects embedded in our Website code. This Privacy Policy does not apply when you access third party websites. We cannot control how third parties may use personal information you disclose to them, so you should carefully review the privacy policy of any third party website you visit before using it or disclosing your personal information to its provider. These third party sites may also refer to specific commercial products, processes, or services by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer or otherwise. Unless we have provided explicit authority, such references in no way indicate our endorsement, recommendation or preference.
Children's Privacy.
Our Website and the services and products we offer and sell are intended for adults. Therefore, it is unlikely that children under the age of 18 will use the Website. Accordingly, we will not knowingly collect or use any personal information from children that we know to be under the age of 18. In addition, we will delete any information in our database that we know originates from a child under the age of 18.
If you are between the ages of 13 and 17, you, your parent, or your legal guardian may request that we deactivate any of your personal information in our database and/or opt-out from receiving communications from us. If you wish to do so, please contact us at support@grouvia.com.
No personal information should be submitted to or posted on our Website by users that are under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 13, you are not allowed to become a member of our Website, post on our Website, or participate in any of our sweepstakes or contests.
Opting-Out From Receiving Communications From Grouvia.com.
You may opt-out from having your personal information used for certain purposes. For example, if you register as a member but do not wish to receive any additional marketing material from us, you may indicate your preference on our membership Sign Up form.
If you no longer wish to receive any promotional or other communications from us, you may opt-out by following the instructions included in each email communication or by emailing us at opt-out@grouvia.com. We also offer you an opportunity to opt-out of certain communications through the member settings page. If you need assistance you may contact us at support@grouvia.com.
Changes in Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy is subject to change from time to time. We will notify you by email or on our Website whenever there is a change in our Privacy Policy. The date of this version of our Privacy Policy is October 1, 2009.
Our Contact Information
If members have any questions or suggestions regarding this Policy, please contact us using postal mail or email, as follows:Postal Address:
Grouvia.com
c/o Avarra Solutions, LLC
10908 Courthouse Rd., Suite 102-236
Fredericksburg, VA 22408
Email: info@grouvia.com