Zeer Privacy Policy
Last updated January 28th, 2008.
This
Privacy Policy explains how Zeer, Inc. ("Zeer")
protects the privacy of the users and members of the Zeer website
located at www.zeer.com,
any linked pages owned or operated by Zeer, or any of the services
owned or operated by Zeer (such website, linked pages and services
collectively referred to in this Privacy Policy as the "Zeer
Service"). This Privacy Policy is a part of and incorporated
into our Terms of Use.
By
using the Zeer Service, you are demonstrating your consent to the
use of your information as described in this Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy serves to notify you of the following:
- What information about me is collected on the Zeer Service?
- Where and when is information collected on the Zeer Service (including through the use of cookies and action tags)?
- Does Zeer collect information from children?
- Will other members of the Zeer Service have access to my information?
- What does Zeer do with the information it collects?
- When does Zeer disclose information to third parties?
- Does this privacy policy apply when I link to other web sites?
- Is the information collected on the Zeer Service secure?
- What choices do I have regarding the collection, disclosure and distribution of personally identifiable information?
- Can I update or correct my personally identifiable information?
- How will I know if there are any changes to this privacy policy?
- Who do I contact if I have any privacy questions?
If you have questions regarding this Privacy Policy, you should first contact our Privacy Agent by e-mail: privacy@zeer.com.
WHAT INFORMATION ABOUT ME IS COLLECTED ON THE ZEER SERVICE?
Depending on your use of the Zeer Service, we collect two types of information: personally identifiable information and non-personally identifiable information.
Personally Identifiable Information
Personally identifiable information is information that identifies you or can be used to identify or contact you. Such information may include your name, address, email address, telephone number, birth date (primarily for eligibility purposes), and billing information. Also, in using the Zeer Service, you may provide us with your photograph or information about yourself, such as your health conditions. In all of these cases, we will collect personally identifiable information from you only if you voluntarily submit the information to us. We may also receive personally identifiable information about you from third parties providing credit and debit card authorization and fraud screening services as part of your use of the Zeer Service. Unless you give us permission to do so, we will not sell, share, license, trade or rent your personally identifiable information other than as specified in this Privacy Policy.
Non-Personally Identifiable Information
Non-personally identifiable information is information that by itself cannot be used to identify or contact you, such as demographic information (like age, profession or gender). Non-personally identifiable information may also include IP addresses, browser types, domain names, and other anonymous statistical data involving the use of the Zeer Service.
Becoming a Member.
When you enroll to become a member, you will be required to provide us with information, which may include your first and last name, date of birth, email address, postal address, and billing information. We may also receive personally identifiable information about you from third parties providing credit and debit card authorization and fraud screening services as part of the enrollment process. This information is necessary for our provision of the Zeer Service and is also used to help us understand who uses the Zeer Service, to improve the Zeer Service, to contact members about the Zeer Service and/or for billing purposes.
Cookies and Action Tags.
We also collect non-personally identifiable information passively using "cookies" and "action tags."
"Cookies" are small text files that are placed on your computer in order to identify your web browser and the activities of your computer on the Zeer Service and other web sites. Cookies are used to personalize your experience on the Zeer Service (such as dynamically generating content on webpages specifically designed for you), to assist you in using the Zeer Services (such as saving time by not having to reenter your name upon each visit to the Zeer Service), and to allow us to statistically monitor how you are using the Zeer Service to help us improve our online offerings. We also may use cookies to target certain advertisements to your browser which may be of interest to you or to determine the popularity of certain content.
In addition to cookies that we place on your computer, cookies may also be placed on your computer by third parties that we use to display or serve advertisements on the Zeer Service or to collect non-personally identifiable information in order to provide advertising-related services. In the course of serving advertisements on this web site, our third-party advertisers may place or recognize unique cookies on your browser.
You do not have to accept cookies to use the Zeer Service. Although most browsers are initially set to accept cookies, you may reset your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie or to reject cookies generally. Most browsers offer instructions on how to do so in the "Help" section of the toolbar. If you reject cookies, certain features, resources, or offerings of the Zeer Service may not work properly and you may experience some loss of convenience.
"Action tags," also known as web beacons or gif tags, are a web technology used to help track web site usage information, such as how many times a specific page has been viewed. Action tags are invisible to you, and any portion of the Zeer Service, including advertisements, or email sent on our behalf, may contain action tags.
By using cookies and action tags together, we are able to gain valuable information to improve the Zeer Service and measure the effectiveness of our advertising and marketing campaigns. We do not disclose any of your personally identifiable information to our advertising partners.
Finally, you should be aware that advertisers and other third parties may also use their own cookies or action tags when you click on their advertisement or link to their web sites or services on or from the Zeer Service. This Privacy Policy does not govern the use by such third-party web sites or services or providers of third-party advertising.
Log Files.
We also collect non-personally identifiable information through our Internet log files, which record data such as member IP addresses, browser types, domain names, and other anonymous statistical data involving the use of the Zeer Service. This information may be used to analyze trends, to administer the Zeer Service, to monitor the use of the Zeer Service, and to gather general demographic information. We may link this information to personally identifiable information for these and other purposes such as personalizing your experience on the Zeer Service and evaluating our Services in general.
DOES ZEER COLLECT INFORMATION FROM CHILDREN?
We are committed to protecting the privacy of children. The Service is not designed for or directed to children under the age of 13. We do not collect personally identifiable information from any person we actually know is under the age of 13.
Also, in order to become a member of the Zeer Service, you must be an adult according to the laws of the jurisdiction (i.e., state or country, as the case may be) in which you reside. If you are not an adult, if you wish to use the Zeer Service you must have a parent or guardian enroll to use the Zeer Service on your behalf. If you authorize a minor child for whom you are a parent or guardian to use the account you create to use the Zeer Service, you should not provide us with any personally identifiable information about such child.
WILL OTHER USERS AND MEMBERS OF THE ZEER SERVICE HAVE ACCESS TO MY INFORMATION?
Your user ID will consist of you first name and last initial, not an alias or other similar device. In certain cases you will be publicly identified by your email address. Also, you may provide us with your photograph. Further, in the course of using the Zeer Service you may disclose other information about yourself, such as information about your health conditions. By using the Zeer Service you consent to the display and disclosure of your user ID, email address, photograph and the information about yourself that you provide to other users and members. With this information, other members of the Zeer Service could use publicly available resources to discover additional personally identifiable information about you, such as your address and phone number. Except as described in this Privacy Policy, we will not disclose your personally identifiable information to other users or members of the Zeer Service.
WHAT DOES ZEER DO WITH THE INFORMATION IT COLLECTS?
In general, we use the information collected on the Zeer Service to provide the Zeer Service to you and other users and members, to process your transactions, to help us understand who uses the Zeer Service, to improve the Zeer Service, and to contact you for customer service and billing purposes.
We may use your information to send you a welcoming email that may confirm your name and password. We may also send you electronic newsletters, contact you about Zeer products, services, information and news that may be of interest to you, provide you with other marketing materials, and provide you with targeted feedback. If you no longer desire to receive these communications, we will provide you with the option to "opt out." In addition, if you identify yourself to us by sending us an email with questions or comments, we may use your information (including personally identifiable information) to respond to your questions or comments, and we may file your questions or comments for future reference. We may also use the information collected to send you important service announcements and updates regarding the Zeer Service or, if we offer paid memberships of which you are a member, about your billing account status. You will not be able to unsubscribe from these service announcements and updates as they contain important information relevant to your use of the Zeer Service.
We may also use the information gathered on the Zeer Service to perform statistical analysis of member behavior or to evaluate and improve our Services. We may link some of this information to personally identifiable information for internal purposes only or to improve your experience with the Zeer Service.
WHEN DOES ZEER DISCLOSE 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 Zeer Service.
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 the Terms of Use, or to protect the safety and/or security of our members, Zeer or the general public.
Third Parties Generally.
We will not provide your email address to third parties for them to contact you about their products or services unless you give us your permission. We may provide to third parties information about you that does not allow you to be identified or contacted, including where the information is combined with similar information of other members of the Zeer Service. For example, we might inform third parties regarding the number of unique members who visit the Zeer Service, the demographic breakdown of our enrolled members of the Zeer Service, or the products and/or services purchased using the Zeer Service 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.
In addition, we may integrate the Zeer Service with the service offerings of third parties. For example, a third party's social networking web site may be linked to the Zeer Service so as to allow you to ask your friends on the social networking site their opinions on certain products. This may entail the sharing of your information, which may include your personally identifiable information, being accessed by or shared with the third parties through their service offerings. Before allowing any such third party to access your information, Zeer will require the third party to enter into an agreement which, among other things, requires them to respect your privacy settings and strictly limits their collection, use, and storage of your information. However, while Zeer will undertake contractual and technical steps to restrict possible misuse of such information by such third parties, Zeer of course cannot and does not guarantee that all such third parties will abide by such agreements. In addition, some of the third parties may require you to sign up to their own terms of service, privacy policies or other policies, which may give them additional rights or impose additional obligations on you, so please make sure to review these terms and policies carefully before using any of these features.
Outside Contractors.
We may employ independent contractors, vendors and suppliers (collectively, "Outside Contractors") to provide specific services and products related to the Zeer Service, such as hosting and maintaining the Zeer Service, providing credit card processing and fraud screening, and developing applications for the Zeer Service and e-mail services. In the course of providing products or services to us, these Outside Contractors may sometimes have limited access to information collected on the Zeer Service, including your personally identifiable information. We also require that these contractors (1) protect the privacy of your personally identifiable information consistent with this Privacy Policy, and (2) not use or disclose your personally identifiable information for any purpose other than providing us with the products or services for which we contracted.
Third Party Sellers.
In addition, through the Zeer Service, 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 Zeer Service. 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 the Zeer Service, 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 the Zeer Service links 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 Zeer Service.
Sale of Business.
As with any business, your personal information is also an asset of Zeer and will become part of our normal business records. As such, we reserve the right to transfer information to a third party in the event of a sale, merger or other transfer of all or substantially all of the assets of Zeer or the line of business that the Zeer Service falls under.
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 Zeer 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.
DOES THIS PRIVACY POLICY APPLY WHEN I LINK TO OTHER WEB SITES?
The Service may contain links to web sites not owned or operated by Zeer (for example, if you "click" on a banner advertisement, you will likely be taken off the Zeer Service). However, please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such web sites. We encourage you to be aware when the Zeer Service links 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 the Zeer Service.
IS THE INFORMATION COLLECTED ON THE ZEER SERVICE SECURE?
We want your information to remain as secure as possible. We strive to provide secure transmission of your information from your computer to our servers through industry-standard techniques. To help ensure the integrity and privacy of the personally identifiable information you provide to us via the Internet at the time you elect to become a enrolled member or subscribe to our Services, we use Secured Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology in transmitting such personally identifiable information over the Internet to our servers. We secure the personally identifiable information you provide on servers located in controlled, secure environments, protected from unauthorized access, use, or alteration. Only employees and contractors who need access to your information to perform a specific task or function are granted access to such information. In addition, all Zeer employees must abide by this Privacy Policy and are kept up-to-date on security practices. Any employee who violates this Privacy Policy is subject to disciplinary action, including termination.
Notwithstanding the above commitments to protect your information from loss, misuse or alteration by third parties, you should be aware that there is always some risk involved in transmitting information over the Internet. There is also some risk that others could find a way to thwart our security systems. As a result, while we strive to protect your information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security and privacy of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.
Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, we will only use personally identifiable information for the purposes described above or as otherwise disclosed at the time we request such information from you. You may change your preference and "opt-out" of receiving such communications by changing that option in the My Profile or Settings areas of the Zeer Service, following the directions provided in association with the communication, or by contacting privacy@zeer.com
California Residents: Your California Privacy Rights. Under California law, our members that are California residents may request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. As detailed above, we do not share our customer's personal information with unaffiliated third parties for direct marketing purposes without their approval.
If at any time you wish to opt out of having your personal information shared with third parties and/or receiving information from Zeer (via e-mail or postal mail) about new products, services, or promotions, you can do so. You may contact us at Zeer, Inc., Attn: Privacy Agent, Zeer, Inc., One Broadway, 14th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142. You can also contact us by e-mailing us at privacy@zeer.com. Please indicate what publications or services you no longer wish to receive so that we may better address your needs.
CAN I UPDATE OR CORRECT MY PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION?
You have the right to request the restriction of certain uses and disclosures of personally identifiable information as follows. You can contact us in order to (1) update or correct your personally identifiable information, (2) change your preferences with respect to communications and other information you receive from us, or (3) delete the personally identifiable information maintained about you on our systems (subject to the following paragraph), by accessing My Profile or Settings areas of the Zeer Service or contacting privacy@zeer.com. Such updates, corrections, changes and deletions will not have an effect on other information that we maintain, or information that we have provided to third-parties in accordance with this Privacy Policy prior to such update, correction, change or deletion.
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.
HOW WILL I KNOW IF THERE ARE ANY CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY?
You should be aware that we may revise this Privacy Policy at any time and that such revisions may result in additional uses or disclosures of your personally identifiable information. If we decide to change this Privacy Policy, we will post those changes on the Zeer Service so you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We may also make non-significant changes to this Privacy Policy that generally will not affect our use of your personally identifiable information. If you do not agree to the terms of any revisions of this Privacy Policy, you should discontinue use the Zeer Service. If you continue to use the Zeer Service after this Privacy Policy is revised, you are demonstrating your consent to the revised Privacy Policy. As a result, you should frequently review this Privacy Policy for any revisions.
WHO DO I CONTACT IF I HAVE ANY PRIVACY QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions or comments about our Privacy Policy or feel that we are not abiding by the terms of our posted Privacy Policy, please contact our Privacy Agent in any of the following ways:
By e-mail:
By postal mail or courier:
Customer Care, Privacy Policy Issues
Zeer, Inc.
One Broadway
14th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02142
BY USING THE ZEER SERVICE, YOU SIGNIFY YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY, YOU SHOULD NOT USE THE ZEER SERVICE. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE ZEER SERVICE FOLLOWING THE POSTING OF CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY WILL MEAN THAT YOU ACCEPT THOSE CHANGES.