Sparta Social Networks ("SSN" or "We") and its various online partners (each a "Partner") respect the privacy of visitors to the Partner-branded online "social network" services ("Social Network") powered, hosted, and maintained by SSN, and made available through an area (each a "Partner Social Network Area") that is linked from each Partner's respective website (each a "Partner website") (collectively, "Social Network Service"). This Privacy Policy governs the use and collection of information from you by SSN and its Partners through your use of the Social Network Services. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any information you may provide to SSN or any Partner through other means; for example, at a live event, via mail, or via telephone. Likewise, this Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected directly or indirectly by Partners (including their advertisers and third party service providers) for goods or services made available through a Partner Website that are not directly associated with your use of the Social Network Services (for example, subscribing to a Partner's online newsletters, the online purchase of goods or services through a Partner Website, registering for an online contest, or registering to participate in a message board maintained on or through a Partner Website). By visiting this Partner Social Network Area, you agree that your visit, and any dispute over SSN's and any Partner's online privacy practices relating to the Social Network Services, and this Partner Social Network Area, are governed by this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service associated with the Social Network Services and this Partner Social Network Area.
SSN or the applicable Partner will use reasonable efforts to notify all registered users via email (i.e., the email address you supplied SSN and each respective Partner at the time of registration) of any material changes to this Privacy Policy, unless such users have opted-out of receiving all email from SSN or such Partner(s) (see "Personal Information We Collect and Its Use," below, for more details). In the event you've opted-out from receiving such email updates, it is your responsibility to periodically review this Privacy Policy for any changes or updates. Additionally, material changes to this Privacy Policy will also be communicated in the appropriate Partner Social Network Area. Your continued use of the Social Network Service and each Partner Social Network Area following the posting of changes to this Privacy Policy will mean that you accept those changes
Information Automatically Captured from Visitors
SSN and the Partners use your IP address (the series of numbers associated with your individual computer) to help maintain the Social Network Service and each Partner Social Network Area, SSN and the Partners also use your IP address to identify problems with the Social Network Service or a given Partner Social Network Area. Essentially, your IP address is a numerical address that is used by computers connected to the Internet to identify your computer so that data (such as web pages you want to view) can be transmitted to you. Your IP address does not tell us who you are.
Both SSN and Partners use cookies to identify traffic that comes through advertising and to facilitate a more user-friendly experience. SSN and Partners also use cookies to keep you logged in across the different services SSN and the Partners make available to you (for example, logging into one Partner Social Network Area will allow you to access information maintained on other Partner Social Network Areas). Cookies are small pieces of information that a website places on your computer's hard drive so SSN and Partners know it's you when you visit. This helps us to create a personalized experience for you when you visit a Partner Social Network Area. The use of cookies is a very common practice on the Internet. The only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply. A cookie cannot read unrelated data off your hard drive. Partner's advertisers and third parties that provide products or services through a Partner Social Network Area may also assign their own cookies to your hard drive, a process SSN and its Partners do not control.
SSN may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit the Social Network site. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements on this site and other sites about goods and services that may be of interest to you.
Personal Information We Collect and Its Use
During the course of the Social Network registration process, you will be asked to provide some general identifying information which will enable SSN and the appropriate Partner to provide you with individualized service. SSN, for itself and the appropriate Partner, gathers from you contact information (like your email address), demographic information (like your gender and age), and other relevant information each believes is necessary to deliver the Social Network Services via each Partner Social Network Area.
Registered users (e.g., members) that choose to purchase products or services made available on a Partner Social Network Area (for example upgrading to a premium membership) will be asked to provide certain information, including certain contact information (such as your name, address, telephone and email), as well as their billing information (such as their credit card number and the date that their card expires). SSN or a Partner may also ask members to provide additional information such as unique identifiers (such as your date of birth), and registration information (that is, login name and password).
Your billing information will be encrypted and sent to a third party intermediary for processing. Such billing information is used only to bill you for those products or services you choose to purchase through a given Partner Social Network Area. The process of encryption scrambles your billing information and serves to protect your billing information from being read by unauthorized individuals. You will know you are in secure mode when the tiny padlock icon - located at the bottom of your browser - appears "locked" or the address that appears in your browser begins with "https". Despite the security encryption technology provides, no security system is impenetrable. Neither SSN nor any Partner guarantees the security of their respective databases, nor can either party guarantee that the information you supply won't be intercepted while being transmitted to SSN or the Partners over the Internet.
Your demographic (non-identifying) information is used to personalize your experience while accessing a Partner Social Network Area, to allow other members to find you through a search result, and is used to enable you to compose personal profiles.
If you subscribe to receive a newsletter or other service from any Partner, the terms of use will be governed by that Partner's privacy policy statement and visitor agreement - not by this Privacy Policy or Terms of Use associated with this Partner Social Network Area. If you subscribe to receive newsletters associated with the Social Network Service from any Partner, such Partner may distribute such newsletters directly to you, use a third party service provider to distribute such newsletters, or utilize SSN to deliver such newsletters. In the event SSN is utilized to provide such newsletters on behalf of a Partner, the terms of this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use will govern SSN's and such Partner's use of any such subscription information you provide to such Partners. In the event a Partner directly distributes such newsletters or uses a third party service provider, the terms of such Partner's privacy policy statement and visitor agreement will govern. Likewise, if you submit personal information on a page provided in conjunction with an SSN partner, other than the Partner associated with this particular Social Network area, the information you submit may be jointly maintained by such Partner.
Once you become a registered member, you will be given the opportunity to create a personal profile. During such process, you will be asked for some personal, but non-identifying, information to complete your personal profile (e.g. your occupation, your favorite book, etc). This information will be viewable by other members and possibly non-members, but it will not enable them to access and view the personally identifiable contact information you supplied SSN or Partner during your registration process; unless you provide a member with your personally identifiable contact information, registered members may contact you only via the Social Networks' integrated messaging system that assists in maintaining your anonymity.
>You agree that SSN, the applicable Partner, or both may use your information to contact you for customer service, to inform you of important changes or additions to the Social Network Service or a Partner Social Network Area, and to send you administrative notices or any communications relevant to your use of this Partner Social Network Area. However, if you don't want to receive such notices, you may opt out via your 'edit profile' section.
Information From Minors
The Social Network Service and Partner Social Network Areas are not designed for or directed to individuals under the age of 18. We do not collect personally identifiable information from any person we actually know is under the age of 18.
Disclosure of Information to Third Parties
Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy or as specifically authorized by you, we will not disclose any information we gather from you on the Social Network Service or Partner Social Network Area.
Laws and Legal Rights
We may disclose your information (including personally identifiable information) if we believe in good faith that we are required to do so in order to comply with an applicable statute, regulation, rule or law, a subpoena, a search warrant, a court or regulatory order, or other valid legal process. We may disclose personally identifiable information in special circumstances when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating our or our Partners' Terms of Service, or to protect the safety and/or security of our users, SSN or the general public.
Third Parties Generally
We may provide to third parties information about you that does not allow you to be identified or contacted, including where such information is combined with similar information of other users of the Social Network Service or Partner Social Network Area. For example, we might inform third parties regarding the number of unique users who visit the Social Network Service or Partner Social Network Area, the demographic breakdown of our registered users, or the products and/or services purchased using the Social Network Service or Partner Social Network Area and the vendors of such products and services. The third parties to which we may provide this information may include potential or actual advertisers, providers of advertising products or services (including vendors and web site tracking services), commercial partners, sponsors, licensees, researchers and other similar parties.
Outside Contractors
We may employ independent contractors, vendors and suppliers (collectively, "Outside Contractors") to provide specific services and products related to the Social Network Service or Partner Social Network Area, such as hosting and maintenance, providing credit card processing and fraud screening, and developing applications. In the course of providing products or services to us, these Outside Contractors may sometimes have limited access to information we collect, including your personally identifiable information.
Third Party Sellers
In addition, through the Social Network Service or Partner Social Network Area, you may be given the opportunity to purchase (or to obtain more information regarding) certain content, products or services that are sold by parties other than us (collectively, "Merchants"). We will attempt to make it clear to you when you are dealing with a Merchant by opening a new browser or otherwise notifying you that you are leaving the Site. For example, if you see a phrase such as "powered by" or "brought to you by" followed by the name of a person or company other than SSN, then you are likely on, or about to enter, a web site hosted or operated by a person or company other than us. Merchants may request that you submit certain information to them in order to purchase their products or services or to obtain additional information from them. By submitting the requested information, you affirmatively consent to have that information shared with the Merchant. This information is used by the Merchant and may be subject to a different privacy policy. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of Merchants. We encourage you to be aware when you are linked to Merchants' web sites and to read the privacy policies or statements of each and every Merchant web site. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by the Social Network Service or Partner Social Network Area. We do not otherwise share or disclose your personally identifiable information to Merchants.
Sale of Business
We reserve the right to transfer information (including personally identifiable information) about you to a third party in the event of a sale, merger or other transfer of all or substantially all of the assets of SSN, provided that the third party agrees to adhere to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
Affiliates
We may disclose information (including personally identifiable information) about you to our Affiliates. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, "Affiliates" means any person or entity which directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by or is under common control with SSN, whether by ownership or otherwise. Any information relating to you that we provide to our Affiliates will be treated by those Affiliates in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy.
Partners
We may disclose information (including personally identifiable information) about you to the Partner through which you are linked to the Social Network Service or Partner Social Network Area. Notwithstanding anything in this Privacy Policy, any information relating to you that we provide to such Partners will be used and disclosed by such Partners in accordance with such Partners' privacy policies, not this Privacy Policy. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of Partners' web sites.
Other Web Sites
The Social Network Service or Partner Social Network Area may contain links to other web sites not owned or operated by SSN (for example, if you "click" on a banner advertisement, you will likely be taken off the Social Network Service or Partner Social Network Area). However, please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such web sites. We encourage you to be aware when we link to other web sites and to read the privacy policies or statements of each and every web site. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by Social Network Service or Partner Social Network Area.
Changing Profile and Account Information
Once you become a registered member of a Partner's Social Network Service, you will have the opportunity to review, update or delete the registration information you have provided to SSN and such Partner at any time (except, of course, any information SSN or such Partner does not store). You may do so by clicking on the "my account" link in any page in appropriate Partner's Social Network area and follow the instructions there.
You should be aware that it is not technologically possible to remove each and every record of the information you have provided to us from our system. The need to back-up our systems to protect information from inadvertent loss means that a copy of your personally identifiable information may exist in a non-erasable form that will be difficult or impossible for us to locate. We promise that promptly after receiving your request, all personally identifiable information stored in databases we actively use and other readily searchable media will be updated, corrected, changed or deleted, as appropriate, as soon as reasonably practicable.
Terms of Service
We may also use and disclose information (including personally identifiable information) about you as stated in our Terms of Service.
If you have any further questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact Sparta Social Networks via the contact information on Sparta Social Network.
BY USING THE SOCIAL NETWORK SERVICE OR PARTNER SOCIAL NETWORK AREA, YOU SIGNIFY YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY, YOU SHOULD NOT USE THE SOCIAL NETWORK SERVICE OR PARTNER SOCIAL NETWORK AREA. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE SOCIAL NETWORK SERVICE OR PARTNER SOCIAL NETWORK AREA FOLLOWING THE POSTING OF CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY WILL MEAN THAT YOU ACCEPT THOSE CHANGES.
