SearchByMe.com, Online Privacy Policy
(Updated April 1, 2006)
SearchByMe.com respects
the privacy rights of our online visitors and is committed
to protecting the personal information collected about you. To
further this commitment, we have adopted this Online Privacy
Policy ("Privacy
Policy") to guide how we collect, store, and use the information
you provide us online.
Privacy Policy
- You can expect to be notified of the following.
- The scope of this Privacy Policy
- Exactly what information SearchByMe.com may collect from
you through its website(s)
- How SearchByMe.com will use the information it collects
- What are the consequences if you refuse to divulge your personal
information
- Who collects the information that you disclose on a SearchByMe.com website
- With whom, if anyone, does SearchByMe.com share your personal
information
- What choices you can make regarding how your personal information
is used
- How you can change or delete the information SearchByMe.com
has collected about you
- What is SearchByMe.com's policy regarding collecting information
from children under 13
- How SearchByMe.com ensures the security, quality, and integrity
of your information
- How you can ask a question or file a complaint regarding
this Privacy Policy
What does this Privacy Policy apply to?
The website you are currently visiting is operated by SearchByMe.com from its offices in the United States located at 21515
Hawthorne Blve, Suite 1020, Torrance, CA 90503. SearchByMe.com
does not represent that our Websites are appropriate or available
for use in other countries. If you choose to visit our Websites
from another country, you do so at your own initiative, with
the understanding that information collected by our Websites
may be stored, collected, and used in a country whose privacy
laws may be different and less protective than those of your
home country.
This Privacy Policy currently applies to the following website(s)
operated by SearchByMe.com (collectively referred to as "SearchByMe.com Websites" or "our Websites"):
www.searchbyme.com
In the future, if we wish to include additional websites under
this Privacy Policy, we will take reasonable steps to list them
above and ensure that they provide a link to this Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy applies only to information submitted and
collected online through the SearchByMe.com Websites (as listed
above), and does not apply to information that may be collected
by SearchByMe.com offline. In addition, this Privacy Policy
does not extend to websites maintained by other companies or
organizations to which we link (i.e., third party websites).
Please note that by using our Websites, you signify your assent
to SearchByMe.com's Online Privacy Policy. If you do not agree
to this Privacy Policy, please do not use our Websites. We reserve
the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy without notice.
However, if we make any changes to this Privacy Policy we will
post a new policy on our Websites with a date at the end of the
Privacy Policy indicating when we made such changes or modifications,
if any. Please check back from time to time to ensure that you
are aware of these changes. Your continued use of our Websites
will signify your acceptance of these changes.
Links
to Other Sites
Our Websites may contain links to other websites. These sites
may have different privacy policies than those described here.
SearchByMe.com is not responsible for the policies and practices
of any linked site. Users should always carefully determine the
privacy practices of a linked website before using that site
or providing any personal information on that site.
What types of information does SearchByMe.com collect?
In order to give you the best experience on our Websites, SearchByMe.com
may collect information about you. Typically, we may ask you to
submit personal and/or demographic information in connection with
any one of the following features or services.
1. Website registration
2.Email announcements
3.Online store
4.Message Boards
5.Contests, sweepstakes, and other promotions
6.Polls, surveys, or questionnaires
7.Online technical support
8.Other features such as tell a friend and customer service
correspondence
The types and amount of personal information collected for these
activities will vary depending on the activity. The requested
personal information may include: your name, home address, telephone
number, e-mail address and (for those purchasing products online)
credit card information including billing and shipping addresses.
When you register on our Site, we may collect, store, and access
a member ID and password. For some activities, we may ask you
to provide other non-personal information such as your age or
date of birth, gender, hobbies, games you play online and platform
preferences (including information about the games and hardware
you own), hobbies and interests, and other information (also
known as "demographic information").
When you visit our Websites, some information is collected automatically
as part of the software operation of our Websites. That information
is collected in aggregate form and may include IP address, referring
domain, browser type and version, platform type, pages viewed
and the time and date of user visits. If you have provided personal
Information to us, this aggregate information may be linked to
your personal information. For more on automatic data collection,
please see our section on cookies below.
If demographic information is collected for an activity that
also requires personal information, we may combine the demographic
information with your personal information. Combining data allows
us to customize the notices we send you and the content we provide
you according to your interests and preferences. For more on
how we use your information, please read the section on use below.
No matter what method we use to collect information and no matter
how we use that information, we will only collect the information
deemed reasonably necessary to fulfill your online requests and
our legitimate business objectives.
How does SearchByMe.com use the information it collects?
Generally, information that we collect for a particular purpose
is used for that purpose only. For example, information collected
from those who register on our Websites is used to provide registrants
the benefits associated with such registration (e.g., announcements
of the latest game news and exclusive store promotions). If you
provide certain personal information (e.g., e-mail address) to
be entered into one of our contests, the information will only
be used for the relevant contest. And, of course, any credit
card information is solely used to fulfill and process purchase
orders. In some instances, however, you may also be given the
option to have your information used for an activity or service
different from the activity or service that you are requesting
(e.g., to have your name added to our mailing list when entering
a contest). If you choose to receive these additional services,
SearchByMe.com will use your information to provide them to
you.
From time to time, we are approached by third party companies
and organizations that provide products or services that we believe
may be of interest to you. To extend these products or services
to you, we may use your personal information (e.g., email address
and mailing address) to send out notices on their behalf. We
see this as a value-added service helping you find useful products
or services. We strive to limit the notices and communications
to those that we think you would appreciate receiving.
We may also use your personal and demographic information for
our internal marketing and demographic studies, so we can constantly
improve the online products and services we provide you and to
better meet your needs.
Please be advised that in some areas of our Websites, you may
be able to submit information about yourself in a business capacity.
Although we can assure you that any personal information gathered
in this context will be used solely for its intended purpose,
such information is not subject to this Privacy Policy. These
areas typically include an employment section where you can submit
your resume online or a section for media requests.
A Special Note about our Community Features
Please note that whenever you give out personal information
in public areas such as message boards, that information can
be collected and used by people you don't know. While we strive
to protect those who wish to participate in these activities,
we cannot guarantee the security of, and are not responsible
for, any information posted in these areas.
What happens if I refuse to provide my personal information
to SearchByMe.com?
If you choose not to submit personal information when requested,
you may not be able to participate in certain activities on our
Websites and may limit the services we can provide you. For example,
if you refuse to share your email address, you will not be able
to register on our Websites. To simply browse our Websites, however,
you do not need to give us any personal information.
Does SearchByMe.com use cookies, track IP addresses, or
use other passive means to collect information?
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that websites send to your computer.
A cookie itself does not typically contain any personal information
about you. Rather, it is an identifier that a website places
on your hard drive to identify the computer and to correlate
it with information that you may have provided on such websites,
including personal information.
We use cookies for limited purposes. For example, we place a
cookie on your computer when you register so that the next time
you visit our Websites, we can tell you are a user who has registered.
This allows us to avoid presenting you additional registration
forms. In addition, a cookie may be placed on your computer if
you click on one of SearchByMe.com's advertising banners on
another website. Cookies used with advertising banners permits
us to count the number of users who clicked on that ad and the
site from which they clicked, so that we can measure the effectiveness
of our advertisements.
If you have provided personal information to us in the registration
process, it may be linked to information we collect with cookies,
such as whether you are registered, or whether you linked to
one of our Websites from an advertising banner.
You may adjust your web browsers to either alert you of the
use of cookies or refuse to accept cookies entirely. For Internet
Explorer or AOL users, you can click on the "Start" button
and then select Control Panel, Internet Options and the Security
tab. If you click on the "Custom" button, you will
be able to see the cookie options. For Netscape users, in the
browser, select File, Preferences and then Advanced to view the
cookie options. Be aware that if you elect not to accept cookies,
some parts of our Websites may not function properly or permit
access.
IP Addresses
SearchByMe.com may also keep track of Internet Protocol (IP)
addresses to troubleshoot technical concerns and to maintain
website safety and security. An IP address is a number that is
used by computers on the network to identify your computer every
time you log on to the Internet.
Log Files
SearchByMe.com may collect information in the form of logs
- files that record website activity and gather statistics about
web users' browsing habits. These entries are generated anonymously,
and help SearchByMe.com determine (among other things) how many
and how often users visit our Websites, which pages they visit,
and other similar navigational data. We also use the log file
entries for our internal marketing and demographic studies, so
we can constantly improve the online services we provide you.
Log files are used internally only, and are not associated with
any particular user, computer, or browser.
Who is collecting my personal information and is it shared
with anyone?
The information that you disclose on the SearchByMe.com Websites
is collected by SearchByMe.com or by a vendor on SearchByMe.com's behalf; and, is used in accordance with the practices
set forth above. Vendors (or agents) are entities that provide
support for the internal operations of our Websites and who only
use the information we share with them (or that they collect
on our behalf) for purposes of internal fulfillment (e.g., online
product fulfillment). For example, we may share personal information
with entities as is necessary to process credit card payments
for purchases you make on our Websites and to ship your products
to you. Vendors are required to handle the shared information
in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
We may disclose your personal information to our consultants
for marketing analysis and strategies for our Websites. Our consultants
are prohibited by contract from using or disclosing this information
to any other parties, or using this information for any other
purposes.
We may share your personal information that we obtained through
your website registration with our business partners so that
they could contact you directly about products or services that
we believe may be of interest to you. Our business partners have
agreed to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity
of the personal information they obtain from us. If you do not
want your information to be shared with our business partners,
you may opt-out by unchecking the appropriate box when you register.
We may disclose personal information in the good faith belief
that we are required to do so by law, including but not limited
to disclosure to law enforcement or other government officials
in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property
infringements, or other activity that is illegal or may expose
you or us to legal liability. In addition, in the event of a
merger, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or other similar
event, SearchByMe.com's customer information may be transferred
to our successor or assign.
Can I choose how my personal information is used?
If, at any time, you wish us to stop using information collected
online to send you marketing and/or promotional material, we
make it easy to let us know. Just send an email to support@searchbyme.com.
Be sure to type "opt-out" in the subject line, and
include your full name, member ID, and email address in the message.
In addition, along with almost every communication sent to you,
SearchByMe.com provides you the opportunity to discontinue receiving
future communications (i.e., unsubscribe).
How can I access my personal information?
If you wish to review, update, or delete any personal information
that we may have collected about you, please contact us using
the information provided below.
What is SearchByMe.com's policy regarding children under
13?
We do not knowingly collect personal information such as name
and email address from children under 13 on our Websites. We
take steps to ensure that those who wish to submit personal information
on our Websites meet certain age requirements before they can
do so. In some instances, children under 13 can register by providing
demographic information such as username and password, gender,
game habits and preferences. A parent can easily view, correct,
and/or delete the child's username and password by contacting
us.
From time to time, certain portions of our Websites (e.g., a
contest entry form) may allow all users (including children under
13) to disclose a limited amount of personal information without
first telling us their age or getting their parent's permission.
Such portions of our Websites operate activities or provide services
in a way that does not require prior parental consent.
We recognize the importance of safeguarding the privacy of children
and encourage parents to check and monitor their children's use
of online activities regularly.
What safeguards does SearchByMe.com use to protect my personal
information?
SearchByMe.com uses commercially reasonable efforts to protect
the confidentiality, security, and integrity of the personal
information collected from our website visitors. Personal information
collected by SearchByMe.com is stored in secure operating environments
that are not available to the public and that are only accessible
to authorized employees. In addition, our online store uses industry-standard
encryption to prevent unauthorized electronic access to sensitive
financial information such as your credit card number. Your personal
information can be accessed only with a valid member ID and password
(which you select during registration). Therefore, you should
not disclose your member ID or password to any unauthorized third
parties. If your password is compromised, you should email us
at support@searchbyme.com or contact us at the address below.
How do I ask a question or file a complaint? (Contact Information)
If you have any questions, complaints, or comments regarding
this Privacy Policy or our information collection practices,
please contact our Privacy Policy Administrator
Click
here to contact us: