Privacy policy
This Privacy Policy describes how we use and protect your personal information. By accepting the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions of Service during registration, you expressly consent to our collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is effective upon acceptance for new users and is otherwise effective on January 2, 2008.
Contents
What Information Do We Collect?
How Secure Is The Information We Collect?
How Do We Use Your Information?
How Can You Use Information From crowdSPRING?
To Whom May We Disclose Your Information?
How Do We Protect Children's Privacy?
How Can You Protect Your Account?
How Can You Access, Review or Change Your Personal Information?
What Information Do We Collect?
You can browse most of our site without telling us who you are. In order to start or participate in projects, or participate in the forums, you are required to register. If you choose to give us personal information, you consent to the transfer and storage of that information on our servers located in the United States. We may collect and store the following personal information:
- email address, physical contact information, and financial information, such as credit card or bank account numbers (financial information is encrypted for your protection);
- transactional information based on your activities on crowdspring.com (such as your projects or entries to a project);
- community discussions, chats, dispute resolution, correspondence sent to us; and
- standard web log information, such as connection information, statistics on page views, traffic to and from our site, ad data, and IP address.
How Secure Is The Information We Collect?
Your information is stored on our servers located in the United States. crowdSPRING is committed to industry best practices concerning security to prevent the loss, misuse and alteration of the information in our possession. However, as you know, third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications, and other users may abuse or misuse your personal information that they collect from the site. Therefore, although we work very hard to protect your privacy, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personal information or private communications will always remain private.
Transactions on the marketplace are conducted in a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) session, which encrypts all transaction data for transmittal in a format that prevents theft of the information. While on a secure page, the lock at the bottom of a web browser becomes locked and this lets you know that you are in a secured session. Our servers are located in a secure, supervised environment. Our databases are accessible only by persons who have entered into and are bound by a confidentiality and nondisclosure agreement with us.
How Do We Use Your Information?
We will never resell or redistribute your information without your express permission. You agree that we may use your personal information to:
- provide the services and customer support you request;
- resolve disputes, collect fees, and troubleshoot problems;
- prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities, and enforce our Site Policies;
- customize, measure and improve our services, content and advertising;
- tell you about targeted marketing, service updates, and promotional offers based on your specific preferences; and
- compare your information for accuracy, and verify it with third parties.
Your nickname is publicly displayed on our site. Other people can see your projects, entries, feedback, ratings and associated comments, and so on. Notices sent to community members regarding suspicious activity and policy violations on crowdspring.com may refer to nicknames.
Occasionally, we conduct user surveys to learn how we can better serve you. These surveys are optional and if you choose to respond, your responses will be kept anonymous. The demographic information we collect in the registration process and through surveys is used to help us improve our services.
How Can You Use Information from crowdSPRING?
crowdSPRING allows users to share personal information to complete transactions and to enter into agreements with each other (such as the project contract). We encourage you to respect the privacy of others. To help protect the privacy of all users, we allow only limited access to other users' contact information to facilitate transactions. When users are involved in a transaction (after a project winner is selected), they will have access to each other's name and contact information. You agree to use another user’s information only for:
- crowdSPRING transaction-related purposes that are not unsolicited commercial messages;
- other purposes that the other user expressly permits.
Neither we nor our users like spam. You may not add other crowdSPRING users to your mailing list (email or physical mail), or share, rent or sell other users’ contact information, without their express consent. To report crowdSPRING-related spam or spoof emails to crowdSPRING, please forward the email to us: http://www.crowdspring.com/help/contact_us. You may not use our communication tools to send spam or otherwise send content that would violate our Site Policies. If you send an email to an email address that is not registered in our community (via Tell a Friend or other tools), we do not permanently store that email or use that email address for any marketing purpose. We do not rent or sell these email addresses.
To Whom May We Disclose Your Information?
We never sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your express consent. Upon registration, you can opt-in to receive our monthly e-newsletter. If you don't wish to receive marketing communications from us, simply indicate your preference once you sign-on in to your mySPRING or by following the directions provided in an email.
We may disclose personal information if we are legally required to do so, to enforce our policies, to respond to claims that content you submitted violates the rights of others, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of third parties. We may also share your personal information with:
- Service providers who help us with our business operations (such as fraud investigations, affiliate and rewards programs);
- Third parties to whom you expressly ask us to send your information; and
- Law enforcement or other governmental officials, in response to a verified request relating to a criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity (we will disclose information relevant to the investigation, such as name, city, state, zip code, telephone number, email address, nickname history, IP address, fraud complaints, as well as project and entry history).
In an effort to respect your privacy, we will not otherwise disclose your personal information to law enforcement, other government officials, or other third parties without a subpoena, court order or equivalent legal document, except when we believe in good faith that the disclosure of information is necessary to prevent imminent physical harm or financial loss or to report suspected illegal activity.
How Do We Protect Children’s Privacy?
We do not intentionally or knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13.
How Do We Use Cookies?
Cookies are small text files that help us analyze our site, customize our services, content and advertising, and identify you and maintain your signed-in status, among other uses. Certain features on our site are available only through the use of cookies. You are always free to decline our cookies, although doing so may interfere with your use of some of our services. Should we allow advertisers on our site, those advertisers may use cookies. We have no control over third-party cookies.
How Can You Protect Your Account?
Your password is your key to your account. Use unique numbers, letters and special characters, and do not share your password with anyone. If you do share your password or your personal information with others, remember that you are responsible for all actions taken on your account. 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. Therefore, if your password has been compromised for any reason, you should immediately notify us and change your password.
How Can You Access, Review or Change Your Personal Information?
You can see, review and change your personal information in your mySPRING. You must promptly update your personal information if it changes or is inaccurate. Once you make a public posting, you may not be able to change or remove it. If you request, we will close your account and remove your personal information from view as soon as reasonably possible. We do retain personal information from closed accounts to comply with law, prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our Site Policies, and take other actions permitted by law.
Third Parties
This document addresses only the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. crowdSPRING does not control the privacy policies of third parties, and you are subject to the privacy policies of those third parties where applicable. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.
General
We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time by posting the amended terms on this site. All amended terms automatically take effect 30 days after they are initially posted on the site and your continued use of crowdspring.com after such time means that you have accepted the new terms. In addition, we will notify you through your mySPRING. If your questions are not answered online, you may write to us at:
crowdSPRING, LLC.
Attn: Legal Department – Privacy Policy
1200 W. Lake Street
Chicago Illinois 60607
or email us: http://www.crowdspring.com/contact-us.
