Last edited: June 6, 2012.
1. Introduction
Questions: if you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy, contact us at support@meclub.com.
Scope. This privacy policy covers all of MECLUB, INC websites, including, but not limited to www.meclub.com, www.meclub.com/meplus and sub-pages (the Websites). It does not, however, apply to entities that MECLUB does not own or control, such as applications and websites owned by 3rd parties available or accessible through the Websites. By using or accessing the Websites, you agree to our privacy policy
No information from children under age 13: if you are under age 13, please do not attempt to register for the Website or provide any personal information about yourself to us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from a child under age 13, please contact us at support@meclub.com.
Parental participation: we strongly recommend that minors 13 years of age or older ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet and we encourage parents to teach their children about safe Internet use practices.
2. Information We Receive
Information you provide to us
Information About Yourself: when you sign up for the Website you provide us with your name, email, gender, and birth date. During the registration process we give you the opportunity to connect with others. You will also be able to add a picture of yourself. In some cases we may ask for additional information for security reasons or to provide specific services to you. Once you register you can provide other information about yourself by connecting with, for example, your current city, hometown, family, relationships, networks, activities, interests, and places.
Content. One of the primary reasons people use the Websites is to share content with others. Examples include when you update your status, upload or take a photo, upload or record a video, share a link, create an event or a profile, make a comment, write something to someone, write a note, or send someone a message. If you do not want us to store metadata associated with content you share on the Websites (such as photos), please remove the metadata before uploading the content.
Transactional Information: we may retain some details of transactions or payments you make on the Websites but we do not store your payment source account number.
Connection Information: we may offer contact importer tools in the future to help you upload your Connections’ addresses so that you can find your Connections on the Website, and invite your contacts who do not have the Websites accounts to join.
Information we collect when you interact with the Websites
Site activity information: we keep track of some of the actions you take on the Websites, such as adding connections (including joining a group or adding a connection), creating a photo album, sending a ME+ Alert, indicating you “like” a post, attending an event, or connecting with an application. In some cases you are also taking an action when you provide information or content to us. For example, if you share a link, in addition to storing the actual content you uploaded, we might log the fact that you shared it.
Access Device and Browser Information: when you access the Websites from a computer, mobile phone, or other device, we may collect information from that device about your browser type, location, and IP address, as well as the pages you visit.
Cookie Information: we use "cookies" (small pieces of data we store for an extended period of time on your computer, mobile phone, or other device) to make the Websites easier to use, to make our advertising better, and to protect both you and the Websites. For example, we use them to store your login ID (but never your password) to make it easier for you to login whenever you come back to the Websites. We also use them to confirm that you are logged into the Websites, and to know when you are interacting with our platform applications and websites, our widgets and Share buttons, and our advertisements. You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases that may impact your ability to use the Websites.
Information we receive from third parties
The Websites Platform: we do not own or operate the applications or websites that you use through our Websites Platform (such as games and utilities). Whenever you connect with a platform application or website, we will receive information from them, including information about actions you take. In some cases, in order to personalize the process of connecting, we may receive a limited amount of information even before you connect with the application or website.
Information from other websites: we may institute programs with advertising partners and other websites in which they share information with us.
We may ask advertisers to tell us how our users responded to the ads we showed them (and for comparison purposes, how other users who didn’t see the ads acted on their site). This data sharing, commonly known as “conversion tracking,” helps us measure our advertising effectiveness and improve the quality of the advertisements you see.
We may receive information about whether or not you’ve seen or interacted with certain ads on other sites in order to measure the effectiveness of those ads.
If in any of these cases we receive data that we do not already have, we will “neutralize” it within 180 days, meaning we will stop associating the information with any particular user. If we institute these programs, we will only use the information in the ways we explain in the “How We Use Your Information” section below.
Information from other users: we may collect information about you from other MECLUB, INC users, such as when a user indicates a relationship with you.
3. Sharing information on the Website.
This section explains how your information is shared on the Websites. You should always consider not to post any information if you do not want to share your information on the Websites.
We have one specific privacy settings. It's very clear and concise who you're sharing with. Whatever you post on MECLUB will be accessible not only by members of this network, but also by unregistered users who might search for your name in connection with the Websites. Again, share your posts responsibly as we do not guarantee complete privacy. If you are concerned about your posts being accessible to individuals or companies inside or outside of the Websites, please consider not creating an account with MECLUB.
Name and Profile Picture: the Websites are designed to make it easy for you to find and share information with others. For this reason, your name and profile picture do not have privacy settings. If you are uncomfortable with sharing your profile picture, you should delete it (or not add one).
Contact Information: be mindful what contact information you share on the Website like name, phone numbers, or address. Remember that none of this information is required except for your username and email address, and you do not have to share any additional information with anyone.
Posts: whether you are uploading a photo or posting a status update, you can always delete your posts later. Please contact us through our help page if we can assist you in deleting old posts.
Gender and Birth Date: in addition to name and email address, we require you to provide your gender and birth date during the registration process. We ask for your date of birth to verify that you are 13 or older, (in www.meclub.com/meplus, to verify that you are 18 or older), and so that we can better limit your access to content and advertisements that are not age appropriate. Because your date of birth and gender are required, you cannot delete them. You can, however, delete your profile to hide all (or part) of such fields from other users.
Other: here are some other things to remember:
- Some of the content you share and the actions you take will show up on your connections’ home pages and other pages they visit.
- Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may remain viewable elsewhere to the extent it has been shared with others. You understand that information might be re-shared or copied by other users.
- Certain types of communications that you send to other users cannot be removed, such as messages.
- When you post information on another user’s profile or comment on another user’s post, that information will be subject to the other user’s privacy settings.
- If you use an external source to publish information to the Websites (such as a connect site), you should check the privacy setting for that post, as it is set by that external source.
“Everyone” Information: some information posted on MECLUB is publicly available information, just like your posts, your name, profile picture, and connections. Such information may, for example, be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into MECLUB), be indexed by third party search engines, and be imported, exported, distributed, and redistributed by us and others without privacy limitations. Such information may also be associated with you, including your name and profile picture, even outside of MECLUB, such as on public search engines and when you visit other sites on the Internet. The default privacy setting for information you post on the Websites is set to “everyone.” If you are not comfortable with this, please delete your account on the Websites. But even after you deleted your account, content that you posted on the Websites might be still available outside of the Websites.
Minors: we reserve the right to add special protections for minors (such as to provide them with an age-appropriate experience) and place restrictions on the ability of adults to share and connect with minors, recognizing this may provide minors a more limited experience on the Websites.
4. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect to try to provide a safe, efficient, and customized experience. Here are some of the details on how we do that:
To manage the service: we use the information we collect to provide our services and features to you, to measure and improve those services and features, and to provide you with customer support. We use the information to prevent potentially illegal activities. We also use a variety of technological systems to detect and address anomalous activity and screen content to prevent abuse such as spam. These efforts may on occasion result in a temporary or permanent suspension or termination of some functions for some users.
To contact you: we may contact you with service-related announcements from time to time. You may opt out of all communications except essential updates on your account notifications page. We may include content you see on the Websites in the emails we send to you.
To serve personalized advertising to you: we don’t share your information with advertisers without your consent. (An example of consent would be if you asked us to provide your shipping address to an advertiser to receive a free sample.) We allow advertisers to choose the characteristics of users who will see their advertisements and we may use any of the non-personally identifiable attributes we have collected (including information you may have decided not to show to other users, such as your birth year or other sensitive personal information or preferences) to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements. For example, we might use your interest in fine food to show you ads for fine food equipment, but we do not tell the fine food equipment company who you are. You can see the criteria advertisers may select by visiting our advertising page. Even though we do not share your information with advertisers without your consent, when you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement there is a possibility that the advertiser may place a cookie in your browser and note that it meets the criteria they selected.
To make suggestions: we use your information to make suggestions to you and other users on MECLUB. For example, if another user lives in the same city, we may suggest that you add each other as connections. We do this by comparing your Connection’s information to information we’ve put together from the information you’ve been providing. We may also suggest that you use certain tools and features based on what your Connections have used.
To help your Connections find you: we allow other users to use contact information they have about you, such as your city, to find you, including through contact importers and search.
Downloadable Software: certain downloadable software applications and applets that we offer, such as our browser toolbars and photo uploaders, transmit data to us. We may not make a formal disclosure if we believe our collection of and use of the information is the obvious purpose of the application, such as the fact that we receive photos when you use our photo uploader. If we believe it is not obvious that we are collecting or using such information, we will make a disclosure to you the first time you provide the information to us so that you can decide whether you want to use that feature.
Memorializing Accounts: if we are notified that a user is deceased, we may memorialize the user’s account. In such cases we restrict profile access to confirmed Connections. We may close an account if we receive a formal request from the user’s next of kin or other proper legal request to do so.
5. How We Share Information
The Websites are about sharing information with others — Connections and people in your communities. We share your information with third parties when we believe the sharing is permitted by you, reasonably necessary to offer our services, or when legally required to do so. For example:
When you make a payment: when you enter into transactions with others or make payments on the Websites, we will share transaction information with only those third parties necessary to complete the transaction. We will require those third parties to agree to respect the privacy of your information.
When you choose to share your information with marketers: you may choose to share information with marketers or electronic commerce providers that are not associated with the Websites through on-site offers. This is entirely at your discretion and we will not provide your information to these marketers without your consent.
To help your Connections find you: by default, we make certain information you have posted to your profile available in search results on the Websites to help your Connections find you.
To give search engines access to publicly available information: we may not prevent search engines to access information such as your name and profile picture along with your profile information that is visible to everyone on the Websites.
To help improve or promote our service: sometimes we share aggregated information with third parties to help improve or promote our service. But we only do so in such a way that no individual user can be identified or linked to any specific action or information.
To provide you with services: we may provide information to service providers that help us bring you the services we offer. For example, we may use third parties to help host our website, send out email updates about the Websites, remove repetitive information from our user lists, process payments, or provide search results or links (including sponsored links). These service providers may have access to your personal information for use for a limited time, but when this occurs we implement reasonable contractual and technical protections to limit their use of that information to helping us provide the service.
To advertise our services: we may ask advertisers outside of the Websites to display ads promoting our services. We may ask them to deliver those ads based on the presence of a cookie, but in doing so will not share any other information with the advertiser.
To respond to legal requests and prevent harm: we may disclose information pursuant to subpoenas, court orders, or other requests (including criminal and civil matters) if we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law. This may include respecting requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law under the local laws in that jurisdiction, apply to users from that jurisdiction, and are consistent with generally accepted international standards. We may also share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activity, to prevent imminent bodily harm, or to protect ourselves and you from people violating our Terms of Use. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, courts or other government entities.
Transfer in the Event of Sale or Change of Control: if the ownership of all or substantially all of our business changes, we may transfer your information to the new owner so that the service can continue to operate. In such a case, your information would remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Policy.
6. How You Can Change or Remove Information
Editing your profile: you may change or remove your profile information at any time by going to your profile page and clicking “Edit My Profile.” Information will be updated immediately.
Deleting your account: when you delete an account, your account will be blocked and you will no longer be able to log in. All of your content will remain attributed to your user name. This action cannot be undone.
Limitations on removal: even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may remain viewable elsewhere to the extent it has been shared with others, it was distributed pursuant to your prior privacy disclosure consent, or it was copied or stored by other users. However, your name will no longer be associated with that information on the Websites. (For example, if you post something and then you delete your account, that post may remain, but be attributed to an unknown MECLUB, INC User.) Additionally, we may retain certain information to prevent identity theft and other misconduct even if deletion has been requested. If you have given third party applications or websites access to your information, they may retain your information to the extent permitted under their terms of service or privacy policies. But they will no longer be able to access the information through our Websites after you disconnect from them.
7. How We Protect Information
We do our best to keep your information secure, but we need your help. Please only post information about yourself that you are comfortable with sharing. Do not share your address or other personal information that is considered strictly private or sensitive. Also, do not share your credit card information or any other information relating to your financial institution.
Steps we take to keep your information secure: we keep your account information on a secured server behind a firewall. When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card numbers and passwords), we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). We also use automated and social measures to enhance security, such as analyzing account behavior for fraudulent or otherwise anomalous behavior, may limit use of site features in response to possible signs of abuse, may remove inappropriate content or links to illegal content, and may suspend or disable accounts for violations of our Terms of Use.
Risks inherent in sharing information: please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. We cannot control the actions of other users with whom you share your information. We cannot guarantee that only authorized persons will view your information. We cannot ensure that information you share on the Websites will not become publicly available. We are not responsible for third party circumvention of any security measures on the Websites. You can reduce these risks by using common sense security practices such as choosing a strong password, using different passwords for different services, and using up to date antivirus software.
Report Violations: you should report any security violations to us at support@meclub.com
8. Other Terms
Changes: we may change this Privacy Policy regularly. Unless stated otherwise, our current privacy policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy we will notify you by publication here and via email. If the changes are material, we will provide you additional, prominent notice as appropriate under the circumstances.
Consent to Collection and Processing in the United States: by using the Websites, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States.
Defined Terms: "Us," "we," "our," "the Websites" and "MECLUB, INC" mean the same as they do in the Terms of Use.