Last Updated: December 1, 2009
Your privacy is very important to us. Please read this Privacy Policy to learn more about the ways in which we use and protect your personal information.
The terms "we", "us", and "BeSocial" refer to BeSocial.com. The terms "you" and "your" refer to you, as a user of the BeSocial.com website (the "Site" or "Website"). The term "personal information" means information that you provide to us which personally identifies you to be contacted or identified, such as your name, phone number, email address, and any other data that is tied to such information.
By accepting the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use in registration or by visiting and using the Site, you expressly consent to our use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the terms of our Terms of Use.
Our primary purpose in collecting personal information from you is to provide you with a safe, smooth, efficient, and customized experience. This allows us to provide services and features that most likely meet your needs, and to customize our service to make your experience safer and easier. We only collect personal information about you that we consider necessary for achieving this purpose. If we use your information in a manner different than the purpose for which it is collected, then we will ask you for your consent prior to such use.
If you create an account to take advantage of the full range of services offered on the Site, we ask for and record personal information such as your name and email address. We use your email address to send you updates and news, and contact you on behalf of other users (such as other users who send you personal messages). You may choose not to receive email of this type by accessing the "Profile" tab on the Site and updating your notification settings.
We may use financial information or payment method to process payment for any purchases made on the Site, to protect against or identify possible fraudulent transactions, and otherwise as needed to manage our business.
We store and may publicly display your submissions in order to provide the services that we offer. When we display your submissions, we do so together with your account name (first name and last initial). The term "submissions" refers to the information that you submit or post to the Site for public display, such as business ratings, reviews, photos, compliments, and the information that you display as part of your account profile.
If you contact us to provide feedback, register a complaint, or ask a question, we will record any personal information and other content that you provide in your communication so that we can effectively respond to your communication.
We record information relating to your use of the Site, such as the searches you undertake, the pages you view, your browser type, IP address, requested URL, referring URL, and timestamp information. We use this type of information to administer the Site and provide the highest possible level of service to you. We also use this information in the aggregate to perform statistical analyses of user behavior and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of the Site. You cannot be identified from this aggregate information.
We send cookies to your computer in order to uniquely identify your browser and improve the quality of our service. The term "cookies" refers to small pieces of information that a website sends to your computer's hard drive while you are viewing the site. At present we only use cookies to allow you to enter your password less frequently during a session, but in the future we may also use data collection devices, including cookies, on certain pages of the Site to help analyze our web page flow, measure promotional effectiveness, and promote trust and safety, to offer certain features that are only available through the use of a cookie and to allow us to provide information that is targeted to your interests. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, although in that case you may not be able to use certain features on our Site and you may be required to re-enter your password more frequently during a session.
We may use the information we collect in connection with your use of the Site (including your personal information) in order to investigate, enforce, and apply our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
As a matter of policy, we do not sell or rent any of your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent. However the following describes some of the ways that your personal information may be disclosed in the normal scope of business to provide our services.
We may share your personal information with our authorized service providers that perform certain services on our behalf. These services may include processing credit card payments, providing customer service and marketing assistance, performing business and sales analysis, supporting our Site functionality, and supporting contests, sweepstakes, surveys and other features offered through the Site. In order to perform their jobs, these service providers may have limited access to some of the information we maintain about you. We require all such service providers to ensure the confidentiality of your personal information, limit their access to any personal information to the minimum necessary to perform their obligations, and not to use the information they may access for purposes other than fulfilling their responsibilities to us or on our behalf. We are not responsible for any additional information you provide to these parties, and we encourage you to become familiar with their privacy practices before disclosing information directly to them.
We may distribute your submissions to third parties, as permitted pursuant to our Terms of Use. The third parties may in turn publicly display or publish your submissions in connection with their own websites and media platforms. When we distribute your submissions to third parties, we typically include your account name (but not your personal information unless you include your personal information in your submissions).
We may share your personal information with our parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under a common control (collectively, "Affiliates") that we may have now or in the future, in which case we will require them to honor this Privacy Policy. If another company acquires our company or our assets, that company will possess your personal information, and will assume the rights and obligations with respect to that information as described in this Privacy Policy.
We may disclose your personal information to third parties in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) take action regarding suspected illegal activities; (b) enforce or apply our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy; (c) comply with legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order; or (d) protect our rights, reputation, and property, or that of our users, affiliates, or the public. Please note that we are not required to question or contest the validity of any search warrant, subpoena or other similar governmental request that we receive. Due to the existing regulatory environment, we cannot ensure that all of your private communications and other personal information will never be disclosed in ways not otherwise described in this Privacy Policy. By way of example (without limiting the foregoing), we may be forced to disclose personal information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances, third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications, or users may abuse or misuse your personal information that they collect from the Site. Therefore, although we use industry standard practices to protect your privacy, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personal information or private communications will always remain private.
We aggregate (gather up data across all user accounts) personal information and disclose such information in a non-personally identifiable manner to third parties relating to user behavior in connection with actual or prospective business relationship with those third parties, such as advertisers and content distributors. For example, we may disclose the number of users that have been exposed to, or clicked on, advertising banners. However, in these situations, we do not disclose to these entities any information that could be used to identify you personally. Certain information, such as your name, email address, password, and financial information are not disclosed to these third parties in a personally identifiable manner without your explicit consent.
You may choose to provide us with another person's email address so that person may be invited to create an account on this Site. We do not rent or sell these email addresses. We use this information to contact and, if necessary, remind that person about the invitation. By providing us with another person's email address, you represent to us that you have obtained the consent of the person concerned as regards such disclosure to us of their personal information. All invitees are provided with the option not to receive further invitations. We may disclose such information if required to do so in order to comply with legal process, as described above.
Except as otherwise expressly included in this Privacy Policy, this document only addresses the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. To the extent that you disclose your information to other parties, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the personal information you disclose to them. Since we do not control the privacy policies of third parties, you are subject to the privacy customs and policies of that third party. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.
In order to facilitate interaction among our members, our Site provides you with limited access to other users' contact information. By entering into our Terms of Use, you agree that, with respect to other user's personal information that you obtain through the Site, we hereby grant to you a license to use such information only for: (a) Site-related communications that are not unsolicited commercial messages, (b) any other purpose that a such user expressly agrees to after you tell them the purpose you would like to use it for. In all cases, you must give users an opportunity to remove themselves from your database and a chance to review what information you have collected about them. In addition, under no circumstances, except as defined in this Section, can you disclose personal information about another user to any third party without our consent and the consent of that user. You agree that other users may use your personal information to communicate with you in accordance with this Section. Note that law enforcement personnel, and other rights holders are given different rights with respect to information they access. We and our users do not tolerate spam. Therefore, without limiting the foregoing, you are not licensed to add a user to your mail list (email or physical mail) without their express consent.
You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but that may result in you being unable to use certain features of the Site because such information may be required in order for you to register as a user; purchase products or services; participate in a contest, promotion, survey, or sweepstakes; ask a question; or initiate other transactions on this Site.
To the extent you include personal information in your submissions (such as a photo of yourself), third parties may be able to identify you, associate you with your user account, and contact you. Please do not include information in your submissions that you expect to keep private.
Please also note that the personal messages you send or receive using the Site's personal messaging feature are only private to the extent that you and the sender/recipient keep them private. For example, we do not have any control over whether a recipient of one of your personal messages publicly posts the contents of such a message.
You may opt-out of receiving personal messages from specific users. In addition, you may opt-out of receiving notifications from us by changing your notification settings under the "Profile" tab on the Site. Unregistered users who receive emails from us may also opt-out of receiving further emails by following the instructions contained in our emails. Despite your indicated email preferences, we may send you notices such as order confirmations/receipts and service announcements, as well as any updates to our Terms of Use or Privacy Policy.
As a registered BeSocial user, you can modify some of your personal information and your privacy preferences by accessing the "Profile" section of this Site.
Your account is password protected. We use procedural and technical safeguards to protect your personal information against loss or theft, as well as against unauthorized access or disclosure, to protect your privacy, including firewalls and encryption. We limit the access to your personal information to those employees and contractors who need access to perform their job function, such as our customer service personnel. We employ many different security techniques to protect such data from unauthorized access by users inside and outside the company. However, "perfect security" does not exist on the Internet; we cannot assure you that your personal information will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.
You hereby acknowledge that BeSocial is not responsible for any intercepted information sent via the Internet, and you hereby release us from any and all claims arising out of or related to the use of intercepted information in any unauthorized manner.
Persons under the age of 18 may use this Site and submit personal information to us only in conjunction with and under the supervision of their parents or guardians. The use of this Site by a person under the age of 18 constitutes the consent of the parent or guardian to our use and disclosure of the user's personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
BeSocial has no intention of collecting, and will not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. Should we ever do so, we will comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. If you are under 13, you should not provide information on our Site and should ask your parent to do so for you.
This Site may contain links to third party websites to which we have no affiliation. Except as set forth herein, we do not share your personal information with those third parties, and are not responsible for their privacy practices. We suggest you read the privacy policies on all such third party websites.
By using our Site, you consent to our use of your personal information as specified above, and acknowledge that you have read and understood this policy and that you agree to its terms. If you do no agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, simply exit this page without accessing or using any of our services.
If you are visiting or using this Site from outside Canada, please be advised that our Privacy Policy is intended to meet the laws and regulations of Canada, which may not be the same as the laws and regulations of your home country. By providing us with your personal information via this Site you consent to the transfer to (and processing of such information in) Canada.
We may modify this Privacy Policy at any time, and we will post any new versions on this page. If we make any material changes in the way we use your personal information, we will notify you by sending an email to the last email address you provided to us and/or by prominently posting notice of the changes on our Site. Any such changes will be effective upon the earlier of thirty (30) calendar days following our dispatch of an email notice to you or thirty (30) calendar days following our posting of notice of the changes on our Site. These changes will be effective immediately for new users of the Site. Please note that at all times you are responsible for updating your personal information to provide us with your most current email address. In the event that the last email you have provided us is not valid, or for any reason is not capable of delivering to you the notice described above, our dispatch of the email containing such notice will nonetheless constitute effective notice of the changes described in the notice. In any event, changes to this Privacy Policy may affect our use of personal information that you provided us prior to our notification to you of the changes. If you do not wish to permit changes in our use of your personal information, you must notify us prior to the effective date of the changes that you wish to deactivate your account with us. Continued use of the Site following notice of such changes shall indicate your acknowledgement of such changes and agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions of such changes.
It is our goal to make our privacy practices easy to understand. If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy or our information-handling practices, please contact us by email or postal mail below:
Privacy Officer
BeSocial.com
2100 Bloor St.W, Suite 6
Toronto, ON, M6S 5A5