Photobird - Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting Photobird.com! We are committed to providing a fun, productive, and safe environment for you to share your photos and enjoy Photobird.com. Protecting your privacy is extremely important to Photobird, LLC and is one of our top objectives when designing the website and its infrastructure. We appreciate your patronage and look forward to maintaining your trust in our business relationship.

Because we want to demonstrate our firm commitment to your privacy, we have created this privacy policy to disclose and explain to you how your personal data and information is collected, protected, stored, and used. We have designed our procedures and processes for handling your data with the same high quality care and security that we would expect our own personal data to be handled.

As always, we appreciate your feedback and comments about our privacy policy and other features of the Photobird.com website.

Also, if you have not already done so, please review the Terms of Use agreement that governs your use of the Photobird.com website.

This privacy policy document was updated April 11, 2009.

1. How Photobird, LLC Protects Your Privacy

1.1 Advertising . Photobird, LLC will not run third-party advertisements on subscribers' photo albums.

1.1.1 Photobird, LLC will not run banner ads, pop ups, pop unders, or any other kind of annoying advertisement method anywhere on the site, especially advertising that significantly affects the design of the Photobird.com website and your use of the website. Not only is conspicuous advertising not pleasant to look at, but some advertising banners may collect your data, which we will not allow.

1.1.2 Photobird, LLC may offer promotions, sponsorships, contests, and advertisements in the periodic newsletter and on areas of the website that are available to visitors for free.

1.2 Marketing . Photobird, LLC will not rent, share, sell, or otherwise disclose your personal data to any third party for marketing purposes.

1.2.1 Photobird, LLC does not use tracking devices for marketing purposes, such as "cookies", "web beacons," and single-pixel gifs.

1.2.2 Photobird, LLC will not send you unsolicited e-mail communications for marketing purposes.

1.2.3. When you participate in a promotion, contest, or survey, we may ask you for personal information, including information about your photography equipment and use. Participation in any survey or contest is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose this information.

1.2.3.1 Your contact information will only be used to notify contest winners and award prizes. Other information may be used to make improvements on our site, offer new products, and customize your experience on Photobird.com.

1.2.4 We may share personal information with third-party suppliers that assist us with the administration of our newsletter or contests, or with third-party suppliers that help us understand the results of particular surveys or promotions we may perform.

1.3 Password-protected Accounts . When you create your Photobird.com account, you choose a private password for yourself. Be sure to keep your password confidential, safe, and secure.

1.3.1 If someone knows your password, they have access to your account and your personal information, and you are responsible for their activities, as stated in the Terms of Use agreement, section 8.3.

1.3.2 If you feel that your password is no longer private and confidential, be sure to change it on the My Account page, or send a message to Photobird, LLC requesting your password be changed.

1.3.3 If you feel that an unauthorized person has accessed your account, contact Photobird, LLC immediately.

1.3.4 To ensure that you have properly logged out of your account, be sure to close your browser, especially on public computers, such as those found in libraries and schools.

1.4 Commitment to Secure Data . Photobird, LLC uses the latest, up-to-date electronic and physical security measures to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the data under our control.

1.4.1 Photobird, LLC has implemented the following electronic security measures to protect your personal information:

GeoTrust

1.4.2 The Photobird, LLC data center has implemented the following advanced physical security measures to protect your data:

1.4.3 Photobird, LLC is always investigating new techniques to ensure strong data protection.

1.5 Children Under the Age of 13 . Photobird, LLC does not collect age data from our users and therefore we do not knowingly collect any data from children under the age of thirteen (13).

1.5.1 If Photobird, LLC learns that we are storing data submitted by a person under the age of thirteen (13), we will remove the data and investigate the incident to prevent it from occurring in the future.

1.6 Links to Third-party Websites . Photobird, LLC, its subscribers, and visitors, may provide links to third-party websites, which may have privacy policies different from the privacy policy on the Photobird.com website.

1.6.1 We are not responsible for, nor have any control over, the privacy policies of those third-party websites, and encourage you to read the privacy policies of each and every website you visit.

1.6.2 When you click on links to other websites, those websites may attach a cookie to your hard drive and may collect information about you. Photobird, LLC makes no claims or representations about what information those websites do or do not collect about you. Please review any terms of use agreements and privacy policies of those other websites to learn about their data collection and data use practices.

1.7 Protecting Your E-mail Address . Photobird, LLC has designed the website to keep your e-mail address private by only allowing messages to be sent to subscribers via a web-based form. We want to prevent unscrupulous people from harvesting e-mail addresses from the Photobird.com website.

1.7.1 To further protect yourself, do not allow your e-mail address to be visible in public, such as in the forums and in the photo album comments unless you want to allow anyone, including people you do not intend or expect, to contact you.

1.8 Law Enforcement . Photobird, LLC will not rent, share, sell, or otherwise disclose your personal data to any third party, except for law enforcement purposes, as stated below and in the Photobird.com Terms of Use agreement section 5.4.

1.8.1 Photobird, LLC may disclose information about its users to law enforcement officers or others, in the good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to:

1.9 No Guarantee . Photobird, LLC is sensitive to the privacy and security of your personal information and materials. However, we cannot guarantee absolute security as your information and materials are transmitted using the Internet, other public telecommunication networks, servers, hardware, and software that are not owned, operated, or controlled by us.

1.10 Responsibility for Your Data and Personal Information . As stated in the Terms of Use agreement sections 3.2 and 8.3, you are solely responsible for and Photobird, LLC is not liable for the personal information and other materials that you post, upload, submit, and otherwise make available on the website, including areas of the website that are available to the public.

1.10.1 We have no control over and cannot protect personal information that you disclose in public areas, such as the forums and comment areas of the Photobird.com website. If you disclose your personal information in public areas, it may be collected and used by third parties, without our or your knowledge.

1.10.2 You should also understand that by displaying your photographs on the Photobird.com website and the Internet, for the intention of showing those photographs to your friends, family, acquaintences, clients, business partners, and others that you directly intended to see the photographs, you are relinquishing certain traditional privacy rights, wherein anyone with access to the Internet has the potential ability to view your photographs. If you do not wish to relinquish these traditional privacy rights, do not share your photographs.

1.10.3 No one from Photobird, LLC will ever call you and ask for your password. If you are ever contacted by someone claiming to be an employee of Photobird, LLC, and the person asks you for your personal billing information or password, do not give them any information; instead, report the incident to us with as much detail as possible, and we will investigate.

1.10.4 As stated in the Terms of Use agreement section 2.1, you acknowledge and agree that each person depicted in your materials, if any, has provided consent to the use of the materials as set forth in the Terms of Use agreement, including, by way of example, and not as a limitation, the distribution, public display, and reproduction of such materials.

2. How Photobird, LLC Collects, Stores, and Uses Your Personal Information

2.1 Limited Amount of Data Collected . We only collect and store a very limited amount of data and personal information necessary to process your account and to operate and improve Photobird.com. We will always protect the personal information that you share with us. We handle your personal data as we would want our own personal data handled.

2.1.1 We may use your information in aggregate, such that we will be able to determine the demographic characteristics and numbers of subscribers in a given geographic region. Your individual, personal data, such as street address, phone number, and credit card information will not be distributed.

2.1.2 By design, visitors of the Photobird.com website who do not have Photobird.com accounts are not required to log into the website or provide any personal information to view pictures. In fact, we have not created a mechanism for that purpose; we only collect personal information from users who are not Photobird.com subscribers when they sign up for a newsletter or otherwise wish to communicate with others on the website.

2.2 Your E-mail Address . We only collect and use your e-mail address when you provide it to us for the following reasons:

2.2.1 We will only use your e-mail address to send you notices and information about the Photobird.com website, including items related to the status of your account, to receive your copy of the Photobird.com newsletter, to notify you of contest winners and to award prizes, and to identify you when you provide comments and feedback.

2.2.2 If you wish to "opt-out" and discontinue receiving the newsletter, please send your request via the Contact Us page, or follow the instructions in the newsletter or in the Help section of the Photobird.com website.

2.2.3 When you give your e-mail address to other users, they may use your e-mail address to find your photo albums on the Photobird.com website, by using the search function on the Look at Pictures page.

2.3 Your Name . We collect and store your name so that we may identify you properly and respectfully.

2.3.1 When creating your account, we will also ask you to create a unique username so that we may easily identify you in our records and so that you may be uniquely identified online by other users.

2.4 Your Postal Code . We collect and store your postal code so that we may know where our customers are located around the world. We will not send you anything unexpectedly and without your consent.

2.4.1 If your postal code does not exist or cannot be used, we will request your city, state, province, and country.

2.4.2 When you order a physical product that needs to be delivered to you, such as prints, we will request your complete shipping address at the time you order the product.

2.5 Your Phone Number . We will only use your phone number in the rare emergency that we need to contact you by phone, such as a billing question when processing your order, or if we suspect that someone may be using your account fraudulently.

2.5.1 For quality control purposes only, we may randomly call subscribers to get their feedback on what they like about the Photobird.com website, and what they would like to see improved.

2.5.2 We will not be calling you to sell you anything.

2.6 Your Password . We collect and store your password so that you may access your account securely.

2.6.1 Please keep your password confidential and secure at all times. As stated in the Photobird.com Terms of Use agreement section 8.3, you acknowledge and agree that you are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and account. Furthermore, you acknowledge and agree that you are entirely responsible for any and all activities that occur under your account.

2.6.2 We strongly recommend the good practice of changing your password regularly.

2.6.3 No one from Photobird, LLC will ever call you and ask for your password. If you are ever contacted by someone claiming to be an employee of Photobird, LLC, and the person asks you for your personal billing information or password, do not give them any information; instead, report the incident to us with as much detail as possible, and we will investigate.

2.7 Credit Card Information . We collect and store your credit card information, including your credit card number, its expiration date, and your credit card billing name and address, for subscription billing purposes only.

2.7.1 To ensure that your credit card information is secure, we have designed our server infrastructure to have your credit card information protected on a server that is not directly accessible from the Internet. Your credit card information is always transferred using secure, encrypted, industry standard 128-bit SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology.

2.7.2 When you sign up for a subscription, we establish a secure, encrypted 128-bit SSL connection between our servers and your web browser. To verify this secure connection, you can see the "lock" icon in the corner of your web browser. When processing your subscription, we use the same secure, encrypted 128-bit SSL connection. Our SSL certificate is issued by GeoTrust, a leading provider of next generation information security services.

2.7.3 Although we are confident that our security measures will protect your data, along with other security measures we employ such as multiple hardware and software firewalls, we are continually investigating methods to keep your and our data even more secure.

2.7.4 During the subscription and other purchase processes, we share your credit card information with a bank and credit card authorization service to effect your purchase using your credit card. We use these services to verify that your card information and address matches the information that you supplied to us, and that the card has not been reported lost or stolen.

2.8 Your Photos . Your photos are as private as you make them. No one should be able to view your photos unless they have your e-mail address, your Photobird.com username, or a link (URL) to one of your photos or albums.

2.8.1 To add more levels of protection to your photos, you have the following options (when available):

2.9 Photo and Photo Album Comments . We collect and store your comment, name, and e-mail address when you post a comment about a photo or photo album.

2.9.1 We will not use your name, e-mail address, or comment for marketing purposes, without your prior consent.

2.9.2 We require that you provide your name and e-mail address when posting a comment to guard against inappropriate, anonymous comments.

2.10 Forum Messages . We collect and store your forum messages so that other visitors may view your messages. We also collect and store data about your use of the forums, including how many messages you have posted, when those messages were posted, and other data similar to other online forum discussion systems.

2.10.1 Some of your personal information, such as your name, your location, how long you have been registered on the Photobird.com website, and how many messages you have posted, may be viewable by other visitors in the forum system.

2.11 Search Engines . Note that search engines and other websites not affiliated with Photobird, LLC, including the Internet Archive, Google, and Yahoo, may cache, archive, or otherwise store Photobird.com website pages, including your comments and forum messages. Photobird, LLC does not have control of the information or pages on those websites.

2.12 Your Friends' E-mail Addresses . When you use our Send to a Friend feature, we collect and store the names, e-mail addresses, and messages you send for the purpose of sending the e-mail. Names and e-mail addresses are stored for the purpose of making it easy for you to use them again in the future.

2.12.1 We will not send any marketing, promotional, or other materials to the e-mail addresses you provide through Send to a Friend. We will not use your friends' information to contact them in the future.

2.12.2 We respect the privacy of people to whom you send e-mails using the Send to a Friend feature. If your recipients complain to us about unwanted e-mails you are sending to them, we will contact you and take appropriate action, as stated in the Photobird.com Terms of Use agreement section 5.2.

2.13 Third-party Suppliers . We may share your personal information with carefully selected third-party suppliers who provide services to deliver certain features of the Photobird.com website.

2.13.1 For example, to fulfill your order for a physical product, such as prints, we may disclose certain portions of your personal information to our suppliers to properly fulfill your order and to deliver excellent services and products to you. Those portions of your personal information may include your name, shipping address, your e-mail address, and the products you ordered.

2.13.2 Our suppliers will only be permitted to use your personal information to fulfill your order; other uses of your personal information are prohibited.

2.13.3 We will endeavor to ensure that our suppliers' privacy policies and data management systems are at a similar high level of security and integrity as Photobird, LLC's so that your data is protected and safe.

2.13.4 Your credit card information will never be shared with a third-party, except when processing your orders, which will be handled by a bank and credit card authorization service.

2.14 Feedback . We collect your feedback, suggestions, and information that you give to us, including information about your preferences.

2.15 Use of Information . We use information we collect about you to:

2.15.1 We may compile the information we collect about you and use it, in an aggregate form only, in the negotiation and establishment of service agreements with third-party suppliers.

2.15.2 We may use the photos and materials you send or post on the Photobird.com website for promotional, marketing, or any other use that we consider appropriate. We will not link any of this correspondence or photographs to your personal information, such as name and location, without your prior consent.

3. How to Review, Update, Delete and Deactivate Your Personal Information

3.1 Updating . You can help Photobird, LLC maintain the accuracy of your personal information by notifying us when you change your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, or your newsletter preferences. If at any time you wish to update your information or preferences, you may do so on the My Account page, or feel free to contact us at any time via our Contact Us page or through the postal address listed below.

3.1.1 If you change your e-mail or postal address, please contact us. In order to make the appropriate corrections, please include both your old and new address.

3.2 Cancelling . Upon your request, we will cancel your account and remove your personal information from our active, publically-viewable databases. To make this request, you may contact Photobird, LLC via our Contact Us page. Upon our receipt of your request, we will deactivate your account and remove your personal information as soon as reasonably possible.

3.2.1 If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, you may opt-out by following the instructions in the newsletter or by sending us your request via our Contact Us page.

3.3 Retaining Information . We will retain information you may have requested us to remove if, in our discretion, retention of the information is necessary to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, or to enforce the Terms of Use agreement.

3.3.1 Furthermore, your information is never completely removed from our databases due to technical and legal constraints. For example, we will not remove your information from our back-up storage systems.

4. How Photobird, LLC Uses Cookies

4.1 What is a cookie? A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a website you've visited and stored on your computer's hard drive. Cookies are commonly used by most websites to provide you with an enhanced experience.

4.2 What our cookies do not do . Our cookies do not contain any personal information, such as your e-mail address, password, or your credit card number.

4.2.1 We do not use cookies to monitor your activities or otherwise track information about you.

4.3 The cookies Photobird, LLC creates . Photobird, LLC creates two (2) cookies when subscribers use the Photobird.com website. We use cookies to create, manage, and protect your Photobird.com browser session and your account.

4.3.1 Visitors to the Photobird.com website who are not subscribers do not have cookies created on their computers.

4.4 Accepting cookies . Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually change your browser to inform you when a website wants to create a cookie or to prevent the use of cookies.

4.4.1 If you have set your browser to not accept cookies, you will be able to log in to our website as a subscriber and use your account, but you will need to log in each time you visit a page that requires you to log in and authenticate yourself.

5. Technical data we automatically collect

5.1 Web server logs . Like most websites, we log the use of our website and our web server logs automatically collect certain basic information for each web page served, including:

5.1.1 Web logs help us to diagnose problems with our server, to administer the website, and to otherwise provide our service to you.

5.1.2 Our web logs are stored indefinitely.

5.2 IP addresses . An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a number assigned to the computer which is requesting a web page from our website. Usually, the IP address does not represent your personal computer, but a computer used by your Internet service provider or company network.

5.2.1 Our servers store IP addresses for all connections to the service. IP addresses provide general statistical information, such as browsing activity, areas of greatest interest on the website, general demographic information, and other basic information that we will use in aggregate form for system administration. We use the aggregate information to make our website more interesting and useful to you.

5.2.2 We may use the web logs to gather information that might help us respond to an inquiry by you about your account, but will not do so without an initial request by you.

5.2.3 We do not link IP addresses to your computer's User ID or your personal information, with the following exceptions:

6. How We Handle Privacy Policy Changes

6.1 Notification . As the Photobird.com website continues to develop, we will add new features, and we may change the type of information we collect or the method by which the information is collected. We will update this privacy policy to reflect any changes, and we will provide you notice of significant changes to the privacy policy by posting notice on the Photobird.com website and through other methods as appropriate.

6.2 Policy Differences . If we update our privacy policy, any information you have provided us before the policy change will be used in accordance with the privacy policy in effect when your information was collected.

6.2.1 If we are going to use your personal information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection, we will notify you via e-mail. You will have a choice as to whether or not we can use your information in this different manner.

6.2.2 If you no longer have an active or valid account, then you will not be contacted, and your personal information not be used.

6.2.3 If we make any material changes in our privacy policy that do not affect your personal information already stored in our database, we will post notification on our website notifying you of the change. In some cases when we post a notice, we will also e-mail users who have opted to receive communications notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.

7. How to Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments, feedback, or suggestions regarding our privacy policy or website security, or you have another reason to contact us, please contact us through our Contact Us page or at: