We take the privacy of our users very seriously. Please read this Privacy Policy to learn more about how we treat personally identifiable information. We provide this Privacy Policy because you have a right to know what information we collect, how it is protected and used, and the circumstances under which it may be disclosed. If you have comments, suggestions, questions, or concerns about our Privacy Policy, please contact us via email at privacy@HotDoodle.com or in writing at: Privacy Director, HotDoodle, Metabyte, Inc., 39350 Civic Center Drive, Suite 200, Fremont, CA 94538, USA.
Online Privacy Standards. While there are no official standards governing privacy practices on the internet, we follow the principles supported by the Federal Trade Commission’s Fair Information Practices Principles, currently available at http://www.ftc.gov/reports/privacy3/fairinfo.htm.
What This Policy Covers. This policy covers how HotDoodle, a service provided by Metabyte, Inc. (hereinafter “HotDoodle”), treats personally identifiable information that we obtain when you visit the HotDoodle.com website or use the HotDoodle service (the “Service”).
We regard personally identifiable information as information that someone can use to identify or contact you in person, such as real name, telephone number, birth date, email address, or physical mailing address. Information that we use internally to identify you as a user in our system, such as your selected username, is not considered personally identifiable information.
Please note that this policy does not cover the specific privacy practices of the sites created, built or edited by a HotDoodle Member or visitor. Each site created, built or edited by a HotDoodle Member should have its own terms of service and/or privacy policy separate and apart from this policy.
What This Policy Does Not Cover. This policy does not cover the privacy practices of third parties that we do not own or control, such as our partners and advertisers. Likewise, this Policy does not cover the online privacy practices of any of the Members of the Service whether or not they create websites using the tools supplied by the Service or host their sites through the Service. In addition, we may provide links to other services and on occasion to other sites that may interest you. All of these sites operate independently of HotDoodle and they have their own privacy or security practices. For your best on-line experience, we encourage you to review the policies of any of these third parties before submitting any personal information to them.
Registration Information. During the registration process, we collect your email address and your name. You will also choose a username that we will use to identify you in our system. Also, since our service is not intended for children (see our Terms of Service/Member Agreement for further information [link]), birth month and year information is requested to assist us in blocking access to children.
Optional Member Profile Information. During the Member registration process, you will have the opportunity to provide us with additional optional information about yourself, to help us deliver a more personalized experience to you. For example, you can sign up for special groups (like the HotDoodle Tips and Tricks) through your Member Profile Information. You can provide us with as much or as little of this optional information as you like. You may also choose to provide us with information you use to access web services of our partners, such as your username or ID for PayPal®, if you choose to pay for Services using your PayPal account. We use this information to enable easy access to your favorite services throughout our website.
Access To Your Personal Information. In general, we make it easy for you to view any personally identifiable information we have collected from you in your Member Profile, where you can add, edit, or remove information as you see fit. You can always access your Member Profile by logging in to your “My Account†page from the link on our homepage at http://www.HotDoodle.com.
B. Information We Do Not Collect.
Children Under 13. As explained further in our Terms of Service/Member Agreement, available at www.HotDoodle.com/?section=Terms our website is intended for users ages thirteen (13) and older only. You must be at least thirteen (13) years of age or older to establish an account, and to own or edit a HotDoodle website. (And as explained in our Terms of Service/Member Agreement, if you want to create a paid account, you must be at least eighteen (18) years of age or older.)
HotDoodle does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register for an account. If you are under 13, please do not send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under age 13 is allowed to provide any personal information to or on the Service. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at privacy@hotdoodle.com.
Children Between the Ages of 13 and 18. We recommend that minors over the age of thirteen (13) ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet.
Social Security Numbers. We do not ask for or require your social security number to use any part of the Services or to access any part of our site.
C. Information We Track.
Log Files. Like many websites, we gather certain anonymous, non-personal information automatically and store it in web server log files. This information includes internet protocol addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), site entry/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data. We use this information to improve our site, analyze trends, administer the site, track users’ movements around the site, and gather aggregate information about our user base as a whole. Sometimes when we track individual users’ movements around the site we need to tie this information to personally identifiable information for our internal use in order to assist a site owner or user to solve a technical problem raised in a problem report. “Aggregate information†is data we collect about a group or category of services or users from which individual user identities have been removed, and therefore does not include your personally identifiable information.
Cookies. A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes. It can also help us understand how our site visitors click to our site, and what pages they view during their visit. Similar to many websites, we store an encrypted cookie on your computer so we can remember you when you come back to our website without requiring you to log-in every time (these are sometimes called “persistent cookiesâ€). Cookies also allow us to track and understand the interests of our users to enhance the overall experience on our site.
You can set your web browser software to disable cookies. To do so, please refer to the help section of your specific browser for more information on how to manage or disable cookies. If you disable cookies, you may still view our site, but some areas of our site will not work properly.
Some of our business partners, such as advertisers, may also use cookies on our site. We have no access to or control over these cookies, and, as noted above, this privacy policy does not govern the use of cookies by our business partners or advertisers.
Communication of Service-Related Announcements. We use emails and/or prominent notifications on our website as our primary means to inform our users of service-related announcements about the HotDoodle Service. We may use your email address to deliver important service-related announcements. Example service-related announcements include: requests for a password reset, important security or server maintenance updates, software updates, upgrades, and new releases, or policy changes. These service-related announcements are considered a fundamental part of the Service, and users cannot opt-out of these email announcements.
Promotional Announcements. In order to improve the experience for our users, we may offer you the ability to sign up for optional email communications, such as regular updates from our corporate website, or email alerts and newsletters for specific web guides. These communications are enhancements to our service and are entirely optional. We will ask for your consent before sending you promotional communications, and will make it easy for you to unsubscribe from these communications, either through the emails or though your member profile page.
On Our Website. We may use information provided by you on our website in the following ways:
- Identification Of Members By Username. As explained further in our Terms of Service when you post information to the HotDoodle website (such as posting a comment or giving feedback about building your own site, asking or answering questions through a bulletin board or other interactive features), you will be identified by your username as the author of that post, comment, or action.
- For Site Statistics. As noted above, we use information collected from our web log files to calculate and publish anonymous, non-personal, aggregate statistics that we believe our users are interested in viewing. For example, we track and publish the total number of users who have viewed a particular web page. We publish this data in aggregate form only, and do not tie it to any personally identifiable information.
For Internal Reporting and Internal Analysis. As noted above, we use information gathered from log files and cookies to improve our site, analyze trends, administer the site, track users’ movements around the site, and to gather aggregate information about our user base as a whole. Also, as explained above, sometimes when we track individual users’ movements around the site we need to tie this information to personally identifiable information for our internal use in order to assist a site owner or user to solve a technical problem raised in a problem report. We do not share this sort of personally identifiable information with any third party without your consent.
Sharing, Renting, and Selling Information We Collect With Third-Parties.
We will neither rent nor sell your personally identifiable information to anyone. Occasionally we share anonymous, non-personal, aggregate information about our user base with partners or advertisers, and, as mentioned above, we may publish these aggregate usage statistics on our website for the interest of our users. We do not tie this shared or published data to personally identifiable information.
As Necessary In Legal Circumstances. We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our website.
As Necessary In An Acquisition. If our company is acquired, all of our assets, including Member information, may be transferred to the acquiring company. At that time, your Member information may become subject to the acquiring company’s privacy policy. Before we transfer your Member information, we will notify you either by email or by posting a prominent notice on our site, and we will remind you of your ability to add, edit or delete your personally identifiable information from your Member Profile Page in advance of any such transfer.
Linked Services. In some cases, we allow you to access or link to other web services through our website, such as PayPal®. We make it easy for you to determine when you are accessing or linking to these other web services through our website. In all of these cases, our partners may choose to collect your personal information as they deem appropriate. As noted above, we are not responsible for or in control of how our partners collect, use, or disclose your information obtained through these linked services. We encourage you to be aware when you are using these partner services and, for your best on-line experience, we encourage you to review their policies before submitting any personal information to them.
Network Security. We have implemented commercially standard security technologies (like firewalls and access monitors) to protect information, including your personal information, stored in our computer systems from unauthorized access. Please be aware that no method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, thus we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, but we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Management Procedures. We also maintain standard physical and electronic procedural safeguards that limit access to your personally identifiable information to our employees (or people working on our behalf and under confidentiality agreements) who, through the course of standard business activities, need to access your personally identifiable information.
Editing and Deleting Member Profile Information. You can view the personally identifiable information we have collected from you in your Member Profile Page where you can add, edit, or delete it as you see fit. You may also request deletion of your Member account through your Member Profile Page. Your Member Profile is always available by logging in to your “My Account†page from the link on our homepage at http://www.HotDoodle.com.
Canadian citizens, except under circumstances defined by law, are entitled to access the personally identifiable information about you collected by HotDoodle by writing to: Privacy Director, Hot Doodle, Metabyte, Inc., 39350 Civic Center Drive, Suite 200, Fremont CA 94538, USA. We may ask you to pay an administrative fee for accessing or copying your information, but will inform you of the anticipated charges and confirm that you want us to proceed before processing your request. If you believe that the personally identifiable information about you that we have collected is incomplete or inaccurate, we will correct the information upon verification of the omission or error and of the identity of the person requesting the change. If you wish additional information about our personal identifiable management, to access, correct or have us investigate any matters in relation to your personally identifiable information, please contact our Privacy Director at the address provided above.
