This Privacy Policy explains what information of yours will be collected by soho.net ("we," or "us") when you use soho.net and related services (the "Service"), how the information will be used, and how you can control the collection, correction and/or deletion of information. We will not use or share your personally identifiable information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy. As used in this Privacy Policy, "personally identifiable information" means information that identifies or can be used to identify or contact you, including your name, email address, postal address, and phone number, but not including your IP address (except in combination with one or more of the above).
Overview
soho.net sincerely desires to be transparent with users with regard to privacy when using the Service. We've tried to write this document in plain language as much as possible in order to facilitate ease of understanding. We don't do anything with your information other than as described in this Privacy Policy and as laid out in the soho.net Terms of Use Agreement. For full details, please read the full Privacy Policy below as well as our Terms of Use Agreement.
Information Collection and Use
Registration Information
When you register with soho.net, you provide us with your email address.
Login Information for 3rd Party Services
soho.net's Service allows you to connect to third-party services such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, AIM and more. These services vary in the way they allow third parties such as soho.net to connect to them. In all cases, soho.net seeks to provide the user the most private solution possible and to store both your username and password only where necessary to give you seamless access to a particular service from soho.net. For example, Facebook offers an authentication solution for soho.net whereby you login on a Facebook web page and receive an authorization token from Facebook for soho.net but do not provide your Facebook login information directly to soho.net. Other services such as Twitter and many instant messaging services currently do not provide similar solutions.
For services that do not have an authentication solution for soho.net that avoids the need for storage of login information by us, soho.net takes the following approach:
We store your e-mail (and password as indicated above) on our servers solely for the purpose of allowing you to automatically sign in to your services when you launch soho.net.
Use of Cookies
When you download and use the soho.net Sidebar, we may send one or more cookies - a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters - to your computer that uniquely identifies your web browser and lets soho.net help you log in automatically to the Service. A cookie does not collect personally identifiable information about you.
soho.net uses both session cookies and persistent cookies. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive after you close your browser. Persistent cookies may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the site. Persistent cookies can be removed by following your web browser's directions for cookie deletion. A session cookie is temporary and disappears after you close your browser. You can reset your web browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent, however some features of the Service may not function properly if the ability to accept cookies is disabled.
General Log File Information
Log file information is information automatically reported by your browser each time you access a web page. When you use the soho.net Sidebar, our servers automatically record certain information that your web browser sends whenever you visit a website (note that secure websites (https) are excluded - no data is sent when on a secure site). This data is aggregated and anonymized - it never contains personally identifiable information.
This data is used to improve the soho.net service, our recommendations, and help resolve problems with our software. Server logs may include information such as the web page visited, your Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type, referring/exit pages and URLs, number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, keywords and other similar information.
How we Use Your Information
In addition to as described above, we use cookies, bookmarks and log file information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the site/Service; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of our service; (d) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors and traffic; (e) and diagnose or fix technology problems reported by our users.
By providing soho.net your email address you consent to our using the email address to send you Service-related notices, including any notices required by law, in lieu of communication by postal mail, except as otherwise required by mandatory provisions of applicable law that cannot be contractually derogated from. We may also use your email address to send you other messages, such as newsletters or changes to features of the Service. If you do not want to receive such email messages, you may opt out by taking the unsubscribe steps outlined in the email itself. Opting out may prevent you from receiving email messages regarding updates or improvements.
If you correspond with us by email, we may retain the content of your email messages, your email address and our responses. This information is used solely for your account record and not shared with any third parties.
When you provide another person's email address to invite that person to use soho.net or to find a contact on soho.net, we use that person's email address solely for your intended purpose and do not otherwise save or use that person's email address.
How We Share Your Information
soho.net may use certain information about you and/or your User Content without identifying you as an individual to third parties. We do this for purposes such as analyzing how the Service is used, diagnosing service or technical problems, maintaining security, and personalizing content.
Personally Identifiable Information:
soho.net will not rent or sell your personally identifiable information to others and will not share it with others except as provided herein. We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to us, including, without limitation, data hosting, storage and maintenance. We will share your personally identifiable information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these functions and provide such services, and only pursuant to binding contractual obligations requiring such third parties to maintain the privacy and security of your data. If you invite a friend to join soho.net, your email address and name are used and disclosed to the user you are inviting.
As we develop our business, we may buy or sell assets or business offerings - for example if soho.net or part of the soho.net service is acquired by a third party. Customer, email, and visitor information is generally one of the transferred business assets in these types of transactions. We may also transfer such information in the course of corporate divestitures, mergers, or dissolution.
Except as otherwise described in this privacy statement, soho.net will not disclose personally identifiable information to any third party unless required to do so by law or subpoena or if we believe that such action is necessary to (a) conform to the law, comply with legal process served on us or our affiliates, or investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities; (b) to enforce our Terms of Use, take precautions against liability, to investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations, to assist government enforcement agencies, or to protect the security or integrity of our site; and (c) to exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of soho.net, our users or others.
Non-Personally Identifiable Information:
We may share non-personally identifiable information (such as extracted keyword data) with third parties services in order to increase the relevance of the Discovery recommendations, shopping recommendations, and advertisements we display. soho.net allows other companies, called third-party ad servers or ad networks, to serve advertisements on the soho.net site and sidebar. These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to send, directly to your browser, the advertisements and links that appear on soho.net. They may automatically retrieve your IP address when this happens. They may also use other technologies (such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons) to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and to personalize the advertising content.
soho.net does not provide any personally identifiable information to these third-party ad servers or ad networks without your consent.
You should additionally consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers or ad networks (and other services linked to soho.net, like Facebook, Twitter, AIM etc.). soho.net's Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such advertisers and third party services.
How We Protect Your Information
soho.net uses commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of your personally identifiable information. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to soho.net and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission of information, soho.net makes commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the security of our systems. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.
To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps (such as requesting a unique password) to verify your identity before granting you access to your account. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information, and for controlling access to your email communications from soho.net, at all times.
Children's Privacy
soho.net does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register. If you are under 13, please do not send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under age 13 is allowed to provide any personal information to or on soho.net. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at privacy@soho.net.
Links to Other Web Sites
We are not responsible for the practices employed by Web sites linked to or from our Service nor the information or content contained therein. Please remember that when you use a link to go from our Service site to another Web site (or to use another service or website from our service), our Privacy Policy does not apply to that site or service. Your browsing and interaction on any other Web site, including those that have a link on our Web site or Service, is subject to that Web site's own rules and policies. Please read over those rules and policies before proceeding.
Notification Procedures
It is our policy to provide notifications, whether such notifications are required by law or are for marketing or other business related purposes, to you via email notice, written or hard copy notice, or through conspicuous posting of such notice on our Service, as determined by soho.net in its sole discretion. We reserve the right to determine the form and means of providing notifications to you, provided that you may opt out of certain means of notification as described in this Privacy Policy.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
If we change our privacy policies and procedures, we will post those changes on our website to keep you aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this Web site, please contact us at privacy@soho.net