Privacy Policy
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As a member of the Internet community, HubSwirl understands the power
that the Internet holds for changing people's lives, expanding their horizons,
and enhancing the ease with which they perform their jobs. All these benefits
are at risk if people are concerned about their personal privacy. HubSwirl
is committed to providing its users with an Internet experience that respects
and protects their personal privacy choices and concerns.
Our privacy policy and practices are detailed below, and we ask you to read them
thoroughly. This policy is derived from three pledges that we make to you, our
users:
We pledge that we will not release personally identifiable information about you
without your permission (except as needed to provide to you the services you
have expressly requested, as explained in greater detail in the section on
"third party relationships" below).
We pledge that we will provide the means for you to manage and control the
information that you have voluntarily provided to us.
We pledge that we will provide mechanisms for you to communicate your privacy
questions and concerns to us and that we will respond to them thoroughly and
thoughtfully.
We are constantly improving the tools you can use to manage the data that you
provide to us. Please refer to this page from time to time to see these new
features.
Coverage
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This policy applies to sites whose URL terminates in HubSwirl. Our
affiliates have their own privacy policy statements, which we encourage you to
read whenever you visit these sites. When we talk about "HubSwirl" or"
we" in this policy, we are referring to Company and its majority-owned or
majority-controlled subsidiaries.
Helpful Definitions
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Personally identifiable information is information�such as your name, birth
date, e-mail address or mailing address�that can be used to uniquely identify you.
Anonymous Information is not personally identifiable information. Anonymous
information is information about how you use our site (such as places visited
and search queries performed). Anonymous information also includes the domain
names and/or I.P. addresses (as explained in greater detail below) of browsers
that visit our site, time of day the site was visited, and other non-personally
identifiable information. Anonymous information is information that is not tied
to any individual, but helps to characterize HubSwirl's users.
The next sections tell how and when HubSwirl collects anonymous
information and personally identifiable information.
Collection and Use of Personally Identifiable Information
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Registration
We want to assure you that you can visit our site and use many of our services
without telling us who you are or revealing any personally identifiable
information about yourself to us. It is only during registration to become a
registered user will you be asked to provide us with personally identifiable
information.
Although the majority of our services do not require any form of customer
registration, we do require registration for the use of certain services, the
auctions and store items. During this registration process we require you to
complete certain fields, offer optional fields for you to complete, and ask you
to select a user name and password. For example, we ask for contact information
(such as first and last name, email address, and zip code). HubSwirl
uses this contact information in several ways:
- to welcome you to the HubSwirl Network
- to send communication from us about new features and services available
through HubSwirl (unless you tell us not to)
- to display advertisements on your screen that closely match your interests
(unless you tell us not to)
- to provide a first and last name on messages sent from your HubSwirl
email account
- to share your information with select sponsors and partners who work with
HubSwirl, only if you allow us to do so (as we explain below)
to allow our sponsors and partners to communicate with you, but only if you
tell us you want to receive these communications about their services and
offers
If you indicate to us that you do not want to receive certain types of
communications at the time of registration, we will respect your wishes, and
comply with your preferences. If you already are a registered user and would
like to review or change the choices you have made, you will be able to do so.
Contests, Etc.
From time to time, we may run contests on our site in which we ask participants
for contact information, such as their email addresses). If you participate in
contests, your contact information will be used primarily to reach you in
connection with the contests. We may also use the collected contact information
to send you information about HubSwirl, our services, as well as offers
tailored to your interests by our advertisers and sponsors, if you have opted to
receive these communications. You may choose to opt-out of receiving such
mailings at the time of registration for the contest, or afterwards.
Sharing Personally Identifiable Information with Third Parties
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To deliver advertising to you that most closely matches your interests, we share
your personal information with carefully selected companies with whom we have
relationships and trust. However, we will not share your personally identifiable
information unless we have first given you notice that we might share your data,
and you have authorized us to do so. If you have not opted-in to receive these
offers, and would like to do so now, you will be able to change your
preferences. If you have previously opted-in, but now wish to remove yourself
from these mailing lists, you will be able to change your preferences, or you
may send email directly to us, and we will modify your preferences accordingly.
Our partners who receive information from us have the right to use the data we
provide them (sometimes, in connection with other information they may have
gathered about you), but are generally prohibited from sharing this information
with other companies or people. In addition, if we add new features or services
that might require the sharing of your personal information with an additional
advertiser or sponsor, we will provide you with notice and the opportunity to
opt-in to receive these offers.
PLEASE NOTE: In certain special cases, we may disclose your personally
identifiable information when we have reason to believe that disclosing this
information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against
someone who may be causing injury to you, or otherwise injuring or interfering
with HubSwirl's rights, property or operations, other HubSwirl's
users, or anyone else who could be harmed by such activities. We may also
disclose your personally identifiable information when we believe the law
requires it, or in response to any demand by law enforcement authorities in
connection with a criminal investigation, or civil or administrative authorities
in connection with a pending civil case or administrative investigation.
Anonymous Information
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When you use our site, we collect anonymous information, even if you have not
registered with HubSwirl. We use this information to personalize your
experience at our site, show you more relevant advertising messages, and
generally to improve our services. We share this anonymous information with
selected advertisers and partners, in order to deliver to you more relevant
advertising messages.
HubSwirl will not share any anonymous information about your use on our
site if that information is or will be linked to your personally identifiable
information unless we have given you notice as described above and you have
given us authorization to do so. If you prefer that anonymous information not be
shared with other companies, then you may choose to opt-out during registration,
or by updating your preferences at any time.
Cookies: How They Are Used and Opting-Out
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How They Are Used
A "cookie" is a small piece of data that is sent to your browser from a web
server and stored on your computer's hard drive. Cookies do not damage your
system or impair its functioning in any way. We use cookies to help us provide
customizable services and to allow you to sign-in to our site. For example, we
can store your zip code in a cookie and this enables us to display your local
weather each time you visit our site. Cookies also make web surfing easier for
you by saving your preferences while you're on our site. Cookies may also be
used by HubSwirl's partners on co-branded Web pages, as explained below
in "third party relationships," so please be aware of this as you visit these
Web pages.
You can choose whether to accept cookies by changing the settings of your
browser. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies, or allow your browser
to show you when a cookie is being sent. If you choose not to accept these
cookies, your experience at our site and other Web sites may be diminished and
some features will not work as intended.
Opting-out
You can opt-out during the HubSwirl Member registration process or at
any time from our site. You can also ask to have all information related to your
registration removed by choosing this from our site.
Special Categories of Information
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will not share any personally identifiable information about our users that is
of medical, financial or sexual nature.
Use of IP Addresses
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An Internet protocol (I.P.) address is a set of numbers that is automatically
assigned to your computer whenever you log on to your internet service provider
or through your company's local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN).
Web servers - the powerful computers that provide web pages for viewing -
automatically identify your computer by the IP address assigned to it during
your session online.
HubSwirl may collect I.P. addresses for purposes of system
administration, to report anonymous user information to our advertisers (as
explained above), and to audit the use of our site. We do not ordinarily link a
user's I.P. address to personally identifiable information of that user, which
means each user's session will be logged, but the user remains anonymous to us.
However, we can and will use I.P. addresses to identify users of our site when
we feel it is necessary to enforce compliance with our site's terms of use or
terms of service, or to protect our service, site, or other users. We will however collect and display I.P. location of all item listings for the purpose of fraud reductions. We feel it is important and a right for a buyer to know the geographic location of the seller before a transaction has been initiated.
PLEASE NOTE: Under certain circumstances, I.P. addresses and/or domain
names may be linked to personally identifiable information, when said
information is stored in databases managed by Internet registrars or registries.
Keywords
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Certain advertisers have paid for the right to display advertisements on search
results pages corresponding to certain words. For instance, a particular
resistor manufacturer may want its advertisement to be displayed when users
search for its resistor. We want to be clear: by serving these ads, we are not
affecting the integrity of the search results in any way. The only difference is
that the ads that you see on the page may be influenced by the words searched.
Of course, many of the ads on the search results page may also be randomly
generated, so there is no clear-cut way of knowing which ads are targeted to
certain "key words" searched for, and which are not. This is true whether or not
you are a registered user of our site.
Third-Party Relationships
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In order to provide you with news and features that match your interests, HubSwirl
has relationships with many of the best media and services companies throughout
the world. You can recognize these sites by the joint branding of HubSwirl
and such companies. For example, if you see a logo in the upper-right corner of
the page that says 'Powered by ______', you will know you are on a co-branded
Web page. If you ever have any questions about whether certain information,
content or services pertain to us, or are "powered by" one of our partners,
please contact us at HubSwirl Legal Support.
Whenever you provide registration information on certain co-branded Web pages or
for certain services provided in conjunction with third party partners, we want
to be clear that some data you provide is shared with partners. You should make
every effort to read the privacy policy provided by or in association with such
third parties, and make an informed decision on your own whether or not to
continue utilizing the services based upon the privacy policies posted on these
co-branded Web pages, at your own discretion. However, we will make every effort
to ensure that you have the ability to opt-out of the sharing of such data with
partners. You may email us directly at HubSwirl Legal Support and we
will forward your request to the appropriate company, and help you follow up to
ensure that your concerns are adequately handled.
In addition to finding co-branded Web pages, you will find direct links on HubSwirl
to the sites offered by third parties. Some of these sites are authorized to use
the HubSwirl brand and/or logo. HubSwirl carefully evaluates
all parties that are authorized to use its brand and/or logo, and believes that
all such sites have adopted acceptable privacy policies. Again, you should read
these third party privacy policies, and make an informed decision on your own as
to whether or not to continue based upon these sites' privacy practices, at your
own discretion. No third-party sites are covered by this Privacy Policy.
VERY IMPORTANT: If you feel that a site using the HubSwirl brand
and/or logo has not posted an acceptable privacy policy, or is not following the
privacy policy it has posted, please send us an email at HubSwirl Legal
Support.. We will forward complaints to the appropriate third parties and help
you follow up to ensure that your concerns are adequately handled. Of course, if
any of these third party companies does not have a privacy policy that is
acceptable to you, you should refrain from providing information until your
concerns have been satisfactorily addressed.
Security
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HubSwirl operates secure data networks protected by industry standard
firewall and password protection. HubSwirl has security measures in
place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of your user
data under our control.
Only authorized employees have access to the information you provide us. For
example, we impose strict rules on HubSwirl employees who have access
either to the databases that store user information or to the servers that host
our services. While we cannot guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration to data
will not occur, we make every effort (such as the use of employee passwords and
non-disclosure agreements) to prevent such unfortunate occurrences.
Contacting Us
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If you have questions about this privacy policy or the practices of this site,
please contact: HubSwirl legal@hubswirl.com
HubSwirl reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy at any
time. All changes will be posted to this page, and we will use commercially
reasonable efforts to notify you of any material changes to this privacy policy.
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