We know that you care about how your personal information is used and shared and we take your privacy seriously. Please read the following to learn more about how we use your personal information.
This Privacy Policy applies to your use of all the sites owned or operated by Direct Change, Inc. and its affiliates (collectively "we, " "us, " or "our"), including DirectChange.com and any other site that we may own or operate currently or in the future (collectively, the "Site" or "Sites"). Your access to and use the Sites are subject to the Terms of Service. All capitalized terms not defined in this Privacy Policy shall have the meanings ascribed to them in the Terms of Service. This policy does not apply to your use of sites to which any of the Sites link. This policy covers only information collected on the Sites and does not cover any information collected offline by us.
By visiting, accessing or using the www.DirectChange.com Site (s) and domain name, and any other linked pages, features, content, using any of our services or purchasing any of our services and/or products,including our application services (such as any Direct Change mobile app) offered from time to time by us in connection therewith, you agree that you have reviewed and understood our Privacy Policy to your full satisfaction, that you agree that you are subject to this Privacy Policy, and that we are permitted to collect information as outlined in this Privacy Policy.
Effective Date: January 1, 2015.
We collect and use the following types of information from our users and visitors:
We may request personally identifiable information ("Personal Information") from you (such as your name, birthdate, street address, zip code, telephone number, credit card number, debit card number, email address, and/or any other identifier that permits the physical or online contacting of you) in connection with your use or purchase of services or products, use of, or participation in, membership registration for DirectChange.com, our contests, sweepstakes, promotions, games, surveys, forums, subscription registrations, content submissions, chats, bulletin boards, discussion groups, requests for suggestions, visitors' requests for free services or products, or additional information (including via email to us), and in connection with other activities, services, features or resources we make available on any of our Sites. You can choose to provide us with additional optional personal information in your profile, including your gender and mobile phone number. In all of these cases, we will collect Personal Information from you only if you voluntarily submit such information to us. Further, we may contact you based on the information you provide online whether in connection with your registration or in such places as the above described forums. We will follow up your registration by sending you an email to verify that you are the owner of the email address. We will use your email address to identify you in our system.
We may on occasion supplement or correct the Personal Information you submit to us and your Internet Protocol (IP) address with information in our other databases or information from third-party sources.
While you are not required to submit any information to our Site, if you do not provide the requested information, you may not be able to access or use some of the features and functions of our Sites and we may not be able to provide you with certain services. Direct Change uses your Personal Information to complete transactions, respond to your requests, deliver the products and services you request, and notify you of promotions, updates, or special offers that we think may interest you. If you do provide us with Personal Information for any of these activities, we may use it to conduct the activity. We may also use cookie technology and Web beacons (discussed below) to improve your experience of these activities, including to remember your preferences, customize the content and advertisements that you see or authenticate your access to your Personal Information. In addition, in the event that your Personal Information is requested as part of our surveys, polls or promotions, such Personal Information may be added to your registration information.
In some cases, the sponsor of this Site or a related civic engagement site will be a governmental entity. In such instances, the governmental entity sponsoring the Site or such related site may or may not use the information that you provide, including Personal Information, on the Sites or such related site for the purposes associated with such Sites or such related site. It should be noted that such information may or may not be considered public information or public records under applicable state and federal laws. To the extent that anything you contribute to the Site or such related site, including your Personal Information, is considered a public record or as otherwise belonging to a governmental entity and, therefore, subject to certain local, state or federal disclosure laws, such applicable laws will govern the use and required disclosure of such information.
People use the Sites is to share content with others. Examples include when you submit an idea, upload or take a photo, upload or record a video, share a link, make a comment, or send someone a message. This information is not considered Personal Information protected under this Privacy Policy. If you do not want us to store metadata associated with content you share on the Sites, please remove the metadata before uploading the content.
We may also contact you to confirm your registration and communicate about your account status, as well as regarding changes to the Sites' Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy.
Except as otherwise provided in this policy or otherwise as permitted or required under law, we reasonably endeavor to ensure that we never intentionally disclose any of your Personal Information to any third party without having received your permission through opt-in or similar procedures.
We take commercially reasonable steps to protect your Personal Information from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. However, no Internet or e-mail transmission is ever fully secure or error free. Please keep this in mind when disclosing any Personal Information to us or to any other party via the Internet or through e-mail.
We and some third party providers we work with automatically receive certain types of information whenever you interact with us on our Sites, including on our mobile app, and in some e-mails we may send each other. Automatic technologies and services we use may include, for example, cookies, web server logs/IP addresses and web beacons
A.) Cookies. Cookies are pieces of data assigned by a web server that uniquely identify the browser on your PC. Websites typically use temporary cookies called “session” cookies to ensure that you are recognized when you move from page to page within one site and that any information you have entered is remembered. For example, if an e-commerce site did not use session cookies then items placed in a shopping basket would disappear by the time you reach the checkout. Websites also use cookies called “persistent” cookies to enable a website to remember you on subsequent visits, speeding up or enhancing your experience of services or functions offered. Direct Change may install both persistent and session cookies when a user arrives at the Site. Cookies enable our systems to gather information about your navigational patterns through the site. Viewers have the option to accept or disable cookies at any time through their browsers. Visit the “help” portion of your toolbar for more information. If you block or refuse to accept cookies, or delete cookies between visits to the site, you may not be able to access or use certain features or functions of the Sites.
B.) Server Statistics. We collect general statistics to track user trends on our Sites. These statistics include hits to our server, the types of browsers used to access our Sites, page views, and navigational patterns. The information that is collected in this manner does NOT provide us with any Personal Information about our users. It helps us track “where” our users are coming from. This allows us to pinpoint high traffic areas and determine the most effective ways to communicate with our users. As part of that ongoing analysis, Direct Change also uses devices called “web beacons” to help us identify when emails sent to you have been received and read. In order to prevent the introduction of viruses and hackers into the Direct Change site we may collect information, such as IP addresses, into a log file to be used to identify potential hackers of the DirectChange.com site.
We collect non-personal identification information. Non-personal identification information might include the browser you use, the type of computer, technical information about your means of connection to our Sites such as the operating systems and the Internet service providers utilized, and other similar information. Our systems may also automatically gather information about the areas you visit and search terms you utilize on our Sites and about the links you may select from within our Sites to other areas of the World Wide Web or elsewhere online.
We use such information for our business purposes, and, in particular, to administer the Sites, better manage advertising on the Sites, and, in the aggregate, to understand how our users as a group use the services, features and other resources provided on our Sites. This way we know which areas of our Sites are favorites of our users, which areas need improvement, and what technologies are being used so that we may continually improve our Sites.
On our Site(s), we may collect information about your online activities for use in providing you with advertising about products and services tailored to your individual interests. This section of our Privacy Policy provides details and explains how to exercise your choices.
You may see certain ads on other websites based on your visits to our website because we may participate in advertising networks administered by third-party vendors. Ad networks allow us to target our messaging to users through demographic, interest-based and contextual means. These networks track your online activities over time by collecting information through automated means, including through the use of cookies, web server logs and web beacons. The networks use this information to show you advertisements that are tailored to your individual interests. The information our ad network vendors may collect includes information about your visits to websites that participate in the vendors' advertising networks, such as the pages or advertisements you view and the actions you take on the websites. This data collection takes place both on our Site(s) and on third-party websites that participate in the ad networks. This process also helps us track the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. To learn more about how to opt out of ad network interest-based advertising, please visit: http://www.aboutads.info/choices/.
While the input, feedback and suggestions you provide will be provided to the entity who is sponsoring the Sites and may also be displayed on the Sites for viewing by the general public, we may share your information, including Personal Information, with third parties, as set forth below:
Site Contributions: The Sites offer opportunities for you to vote and comment on content submitted by others, engage in dialogue, share information, and submit original content. When you make a contribution to the Sites, you will be identified by your username as the author of that contribution. Other than the username, which can be entirely made up, and except as otherwise provided herein, in using the Sites, you are not required to provide or publicize any Personal Information in connection with your contributions and actions on the Sites. Please note that any information you post to the Sites after you sign up is not considered Personal Information under this Privacy Policy and may be available to all persons accessing the Sites. The information you share may be read, collected or used by others for any purpose. Neither Direct Change nor any sponsor of the Sites or a related site is responsible for the Personal Information or any other information you elect to submit to the Sites, or the use of such information. If you do not wish for your information to be posted or distributed in this manner, you should not contribute to the Sites.
Agents, Consultants and Related Third Parties: We, like many businesses, sometimes hire other companies to perform certain business-related functions. Examples include mailing information, maintaining databases and processing payments. We may provide access to your Personal information to our contractors who are performing services for us in connection with our Sites or the services that you have requested. When we employ another company to perform a function of this nature, we only provide them with the information that they need to perform their specific function.
Financial Services Parties: The information you enter when making a purchase or an online financial contribution or donation, including Personal Information, will be shared with payment processors, financial gateways, and your credit card company to authorize credit card payments and/or debit card payments. Such information may also be shared with necessary third parties solely for the purpose or carrying out the transactions.
Advertisers: We may aggregate Personal Information with Personal Information of other users of the site, and disclose such information in a non-personal, or in a personally identifiable manner to advertisers and other third parties for marketing and promotional purposes. In these situations, we may disclose to these entities your Personal Information. We may also use Personal Information for internal or external marketing and promotional purposes
Sponsors and Governmental Entities: We will provide certain Personal Information to the entities sponsoring the Sites or related sites. Specifically, we will provide such a sponsor with the following information under the following circumstances: (a) your name and email address, along with any contributions that you are associated with; (b) a summary of the demographic information related to the Site’s user base; (c) a database of user names and associated email addresses; ( d) aggregate reports containing information about users’ ages, locations and activities on the Site(s); and (e) other related data.
In some cases, the sponsor of this Site or a related civic engagement site will be a governmental entity. In such instances, the governmental entity sponsoring the Site or such related site may or may not use the information that you provide on the Site or such related site for the purposes associated with such Site or such related site. It should be noted that such information may or may not be considered public information or public records under applicable state and federal laws. To the extent that anything you contribute to the Site or such related site, including your Personal Information, is considered a public record or as otherwise belonging to a governmental entity and, therefore, subject to certain local, state or federal disclosure laws, such applicable laws will govern the use and required disclosure of such information.
Legal Requirements: We may disclose Personal Information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) comply with a legal obligation, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute or court order (b) protect and defend our rights or property, (c) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of the Site or the public, or (d) protect against legal liability.
Business Transfers: As we develop our business, we might sell or buy businesses or assets. In the event of a corporate sale, merger, reorganization, bankruptcy, dissolution or similar event, Personal Information may be part of the transferred assets.
Affiliates: We may share your Personal Information and non-personal information with certain Sites that control us, are controlled by us, or under common control with us (our "Affiliates"), and sites operated by our Affiliates or other businesses of Direct Change so that they and we can offer you products and services that may be of interest to you and to process such information on our behalf.
On occasion, we may collect Personal information from you in connection with optional contests, special offers or promotions. We will share such information with necessary third parties for the purpose of carrying out the contest, special offer or promotion. Your participation in the contest, special offer or promotion constitutes your consent to such disclosure and use of such information.
Please note that if you give out Personal Information online - for example, on one of our public forums such as a message board or chat room, folder or chat IM feature - that information can be collected and used by third parties. Although we strive to protect our users' privacy, we cannot guarantee the security of information you post in these forums and have no control over how such third parties may use your information. You disclose such information at your own risk.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your information and password. You shall be responsible for all uses of your registration, whether or not authorized by you. You agree to immediately notify us of any unauthorized use of your registration or password.
Keep in mind that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. We cannot enforce or control the security of the computers, electronic devices, or electronic communication method that a user may utilize to send e-mails and submit information to us over the Internet. Users are rese for ensuring that the computers, mobile phones, electronic devices and electronic communication methods that users utilize will provide adequate security for communicating with us. To protect user privacy and security, a web site user must keep his or her password confidential. We are not responsible for the disclosure or interception of your information before we receive it.
We use commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preser e the security of your information. Once we receive information, we use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the security of our systems. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards, and by using our Sites you are assume this risk.
Our Sites are maintained on servers located in the United States, and Personal Information is also stored on computers located in the United States. If you live outside the United States and use our Site(s), please be aware that any information you provide to us will be transferred to the United States. By using our Site(s) and providing us with your information, you consent to this transfer. The United States may not offer a level of privacy protection for personal information as great as that offered in other jurisdictions. Therefore, the disclosure of Personal Information to us pursuant to this Privacy Policy is at your own risk. We make no representation that the practices described in this Privacy Policy are compliant with laws outside of the United States that apply to the collection, security, use and disclosure of personal information.
We do not direct any of our content specifically to children. Users of the Sites are required to be at least 18 years old, and any user under 18 is not an authorized user. We encourage parents and legal guardians to monitoreir children’s Internet usage and to instruct their children to never provide Personal Information though the Sites or any other web site without their permission. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 18 has provided Personal Information to us through the Sites, please contact us and we will endeavor to delete any Personal Information we have collected about that user.
Other companies or organizations may have links to their web sites on the Sites. We are not responsible for how these other companies or organizations collect, use, disclose, or secure the information that you provide them. If you choose to access a third party web site linked from the Sites, you do so at your ow risk and subject to any terms of service or privacy policy (if any) associate with such third party web site. Users will find advertising or other content o our Sites that link to the sites and services of our partners, sup advertisers, sponsors, licensors and other third parties. We do not control the content or links that appear on those sites. In addition, those sites or services, including their content and links, may be constantly changing. Those sites and services may have their own privacy policies and customer service policies, or no policy (policies) at all. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third party sites or services before providing any of them with your personal information.
If you would like to review any personal information we have retained about you in o r database, please send us an email request for this information at support@directchange.com. To help us address your request, please specify which nformation you review. Once you have reviewed this information, at your request we will correct personal information about you that you state is erroneous. To request such a correction, please send an email to support@directchange.com. You be aware, however, that it is not always possible to completely remove or modify information in our databases and servers although we will always make reasonable efforts to do so upon your request. Please also understand that due to the volume of traffic on the Sites and correspondence received, we cannot make any representations about the timeliness of the making of such modifications. In addition, we are unable to modify your information in the records of any third party who has been provided with your information accordance with this policy.
We may send you administrative emas to verify your account, to assist with your requests for assistance with your account and/or your use of services and your purchases as well as help protect the identity of your account in case of fraud. If you "opt-in" to receive promotional information from us we may also send you updates and information on the latest releases and promotional emails to the given email address, with the option to opt-out of receiving promotional emails at any time.
If you "opt-in" to receive information from us, you can change your mind later. If at any time you would like to stop receiving such information or opt-out of a feature, you may go back to Direct Change.com and unsubscribe. You should be aware, however, that it is not always possible to completely remove or modify information in our databases and servers, although we will always make reasonable efforts to do so upon your request, and we are unable to have your information removed from the records of any third party who has been provided with your information in accordance with this policy.
We may need to change this policy from timeo time in order to address new issues and reflect changes on our Sites. We will post those changes here so that you will always know our policies regarding what information we gather, how we might use that information, and whether we will disclose that information to anyone. If we make any material changes in the way we use your Personal Information we will notify you by posting a prominent announcement on our Site at least thirty (30) days prior to the change taking effect. Any revised Privacy Policy will only apply prospectively to Personal Information or non-personal information collected or modified after the effective date of the revised policy.
Please refer back to this policy regularly. If you have any questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy, please send an email to support@directchange.com or contact us at 561-877-3555.
Your continued use of the Sites following the posting of changes to our Terms of Service or Privacy Policy will mean that you accept those changes.
