NYCing.com, created this privacy policy to demonstrate our total commitment to protecting your personal information and informing you about how we handle it. This privacy policy only applies to transactions and activities in which you engage, and data gathered, on the NYCing.com Website, NYCing.com Messenger, and double blind email communications between NYCing.com members and/or their pets (collectively, the Site) but does not apply to any other Website or offline point of contact between NYCing.com, or any other company, and consumers. Please review this privacy policy periodically as we may modify it from time to time. This privacy policy was last revised on April 7, 2007. Each time you visit the Site or provide us with information, by doing so you are accepting the practices described in this privacy policy at that time.
Your IP Address Your IP address is automatically collected from you when you visit the NYCing.com site. We receive and collect the name of the domain and host from which you access the Internet; the Internet protocol (IP) address of the computer you are using; the browser software you use and your operating system; the date and time you access our site; and the Internet address of the web site from which you linked directly to our site. We use this information to monitor the usage of our site. All of the information we automatically capture provides us with the ability to enhance our customers' search and usage experiences and to determine aggregate information about our user base and usage patterns.
Cookies
NYCing.com uses cookies to enhance the browsing and user experience on the NYCing.com site. Cookies are small files or records that we place on your computer's hard drive to collect information about your activities on the NYCing.com site. The cookies transmit this information back to the computers at NYCing.com or our third-party distributors of banners and newsletters; these computers are, generally speaking, the only computers which are authorized to read such information. The information captured makes it possible for us to speed navigation, to deliver content specific to your interests, to save your password, and if you choose, to save other personal and financial information so you do not have to reenter it each time you visit NYCing.com. Cookies are also used to monitor the effectiveness of our marketing, and, to monitor total number of visitors, pages viewed, and the total number of banners served. Most people do not know that cookies are being placed on their computers when they visit the NYCing.com site or most web sites because browsers are typically set to accept cookies. You can choose to have your browser warn you every time a cookie is being sent to you or you can turn off cookie placement. If you refuse cookies, you will not be able to create a NYCing.com account and therefore will not be able to use the NYCing.com site. Also, by not using cookies, your overall Internet browsing experience will be affected.
Information We Collect From You
In order to effectively operate the NYCing.com Site and to provide you with information about products or services that may be of interest to you, we collect personal information (i.e. information that could be used to contact you directly (without using the Site) such as full name, postal address, phone number or email address), financial information (i.e. credit card numbers or passwords) or demographic information (i.e. information that you submit, or that we collect, that is neither personal information nor financial information; this may include, but is not limited to, zip code, postal code, hometown, gender, username, age/birth date, purchase history information, browsing history information, searching history information, registration history information, and the content of communications between you and other members over the Site), subject to the rest of this paragraph. Demographic information is divided into two categories: 1) non-public information, which consists of purchase history information and one-on-one communications between you and other users of the Site; and 2) public information, which consists of all other demographic information. We ask that you do not enter personal information or financial information into your User Profile (for example, don't use your address or password as your username, or include your name or address in your written responses), because if you do then it may be posted publicly on the Site, and the information will then be treated as demographic information that is public information. Please note that nowhere on the Site do we knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 18, as we require that all users represent to us that they are at least 18 years old.
Information Other Websites Collect From You
When you click on links and banners on our site that take you to third-party web sites, you will be subject to the third parties' privacy policies. Consequently, the operators of these other Websites may collect different kinds of information about you, and may use and disclose that information in different ways than we would if it were collected on the SiteWhile we support the protection of privacy on the Internet, NYCing.com cannot be responsible for the actions of any third-party websites. We encourage you to read the posted privacy statement of any and every site you visit, whether you are linking from our site or browsing on your own.
How we use and share Personal Customer Information
NYCing.com uses and shares Personal Customer Information that we collect as follows:
Operational Communications: We use your email address and your other personal information to help us efficiently operate the Site, to contact you in connection with your transactions and other activities on the Site (including, but not limited to, confirmation emails or important news that could affect your relationship with NYCing.com), and to forward messages to you from other NYCing.com users. These types of communications, are known as Operational Communications. In some cases, Operational Communications may also contain commercial messages, such as banner ads and special offers.
Subcontractors: We send Personal Customer Information to third-party subcontractors and agents that work on our behalf to provide certain services. These third parties do not have the right to use the Personal Customer Information beyond what is necessary to assist us. They are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of the Personal Customer Information and are restricted from using such information in any way not expressly authorized by NYCing.com .
Third Party: By purchasing, or registering or making reservations for, products or services offered or sponsored by third parties on the Site, or electing to receive communications (such as emails or magazine subscriptions) or electing to participate in contests, sweepstakes or other programs (such as discount or rewards programs), offered or sponsored by third parties on the Site, you consent to our providing your personal information to those third parties. Those third parties may use your personal information in accordance with their own privacy policies. You will need to contact those third parties to instruct them directly regarding your preferences for the use of your personal information by them. Additionally, you agree that we may use and disclose all such information so submitted to such third parties in the same manner in which we are entitled to use and disclose any other information you submit to us.
Service Providers: We send Personal Customer Information to third-party providers of goods and services that you may purchase from time to time on our site (e.g., t-shirts and pet food). Like subcontractors, these third parties do not have the right to use the Personal Customer Information beyond what is necessary to assist us. They are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of the Personal Customer Information and are restricted from using such information in any way not expressly authorized by NYCing.com .
Membership programs: We work with certain entities who, in conjunction with their own membership programs or rewards programs, require that we disclose purchasing information about their customers who visit the NYCing.com site through links from the partner sites, or use the partner's credit card or rewards program to make purchases on the NYCing.com site (e.g., to earn points for purchases made on the NYCing.com site through links from the partner site). We disclose only the information required to make these programs work and support your membership with them, which typically includes the name and/or email address of the user as well as the dollar amount of purchases made. We disclose this information to such entities under an agreement that requires that they obtain your consent first, usually under the membership or participation rules. If you do not want us to disclose that information to the strategic partner, then you must contact them directly.
Financial Information: We use your financial information to check your qualifications, to bill you for products and services and to enable you to participate in discount, rebate and similar programs in which you may elect to participate. By making a purchase, or engaging in any other kind of activity or transaction that uses financial information, on the Site, you consent to our providing your financial information to our service providers and to such third parties as we determine are necessary to support and process your activities and transactions, as well as to your credit card issuer for their purposes. These third parties may include the credit card companies and banking institutions used to process and support the transaction or activity. By purchasing, or registering or making reservations for, products or services of third parties offered on the Site, or by participating in programs offered on the Site that are administered by third parties and that require you to submit financial information in order to use them, you also consent to our providing your financial information to those third parties. All credit card transactions are handled by a third-party financial institution and their vendors, which receive the credit card number and other personal identifying information only to verify the credit card numbers and process transactions.
Special Case: Your personal information or financial information may be passed on to a third party in the event of a transfer of ownership or assets, or a bankruptcy.
Law Enforcement Investigations: NYCing.com may release Personal Customer Information when we believe, in our good judgment, that such release is reasonably necessary to comply with law, enforce or apply the terms of any of our policies or user agreements, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of NYCing.com, our users, or others.
How We Use Financial Information
We use your financial information to check your qualifications, to bill you for products and services and to enable you to participate in discount, rebate and similar programs in which you may elect to participate. By making a purchase, or engaging in any other kind of activity or transaction that uses financial information, on the Site, you consent to our providing your financial information to our service providers and to such third parties as we determine are necessary to support and process your activities and transactions, as well as to your credit card issuer for their purposes. These third parties may include the credit card companies and banking institutions used to process and support the transaction or activity. By purchasing, or registering or making reservations for, products or services of third parties offered on the Site, or by participating in programs offered on the Site that are administered by third parties and that require you to submit financial information in order to use them, you also consent to our providing your financial information to those third parties. Additionally, you agree that we may use and disclose all such information so submitted to such third parties in the same manner in which we are entitled to use and disclose any other information that you submit to us.
How We Use Public Information and Other Demographic Information
We may review all demographic information. We may use public information to enable other users to find your profile, to determine whether they are a match for you and to communicate with you. We may use demographic information to tailor the Site and communications to your interests. We may also share demographic information with advertisers on an anonymous and aggregated basis (i.e., without telling the advertisers your identity). One of the reasons we may do this is to increase the likelihood that our advertisers' goods and services will appeal to NYCing.com's users, so that we may target specific ads at specific demographic groups. Our sharing of demographic information with advertisers is anonymous (i.e., we do not tell advertisers which particular NYCing.com users are members of which demographic groups), subject to the rest of this privacy policy. When you respond to an advertisement, however, we ask you to remember that if that ad that is targeted to a demographic group and you decide to give the advertiser your personal information, then the advertiser may be able to identify you as being a member of that demographic group. Please also be aware that when we disclose your financial information or personal information to a Partner Company, as described above, we may also disclose to that Partner Company your demographic information, other than the content of one-on-one communications between you and other members. Please also be aware that we may disclose your demographic information on a non-anonymous basis as described above in the paragraph titled Sharing of Personal and Financial Information. Also, to read further details about how we may use your public information, please refer to our Terms of Use.
Monitoring of Online Behavior
As a user, you will have the ability to communicate with other users through instant messages and onsite mail. While we do not, as a rule, moderate or monitor members' private exchanges, we reserve the right to do so if we suspect users of being under 18 or of using our service for the purpose of solicitation or any other violation of our terms of use or Privacy Statement. Member submissions that appear on the public area of the site are moderated and, if necessary, we reserve the right to edit, delete, remove or not use any communication on a public area of the site. Members may choose to participate in community polls. The results of these polls are tracked by gender only and do not reveal any personal identifiable information linked to the individual voters.
Security
The Site has security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Our secure server software (SSL) is the industry standard and among the best software available today for secure commerce transactions. We encrypt all of your personal and financial information as it travels over the Internet and we store your financial information on our servers in encrypted form. Your information may be transferred to and maintained on computer networks which may be located outside of the state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction in which you reside, and the country or jurisdiction in which these computer networks are located may not have privacy laws as protective as the laws in your country or jurisdiction.
Age Restrictions
As per the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, NYCing.com will not create a user account for anyone under the age of 18. Any information input by minors will be purged from our database. Adults, however, are welcome to explore the site, create a user profile, and use our resource guides.
Contacting the Website
If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or the NYCing.com website, you can contact:
Site Administrator NYCing.com
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Changing our Privacy Policy for Previously Gathered Information
If at any point we decide to use particular personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an email or by providing 30 days notice on the Site. Please note that we will continue to have the right to change our privacy policy and practices, and how we use your personally identifiable information, without notice, as described in the first paragraph of this Privacy Policy, provided that such changes shall only apply to information gathered on or after the date of the change.
Acceptance of Privacy Statement
Your use of our website, including any dispute concerning privacy, is subject to this privacy statement and the Terms and Conditions of Service. BY USING OUR WEBSITE, YOU ARE ACCEPTING THE PRACTICES SET OUT IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time by posting the changes on this page. Your continued use of any portion of our website following posting of the updated privacy statement will constitute your acceptance of the changes.