07:25 AM

Animal U, Inc. Privacy Policy

March 25, 2009 08:14

We at Animal U, Inc. are dedicated to protecting your privacy and handling any personal information we obtain from you with care and respect. This Privacy Policy is designed to answer your questions regarding our privacy policies and principles.

Q1. What information does this Privacy Policy cover?

A1. Except as specifically described below in A2 and A6, this Privacy Policy applies only to personally identifiable information collected on the Web sites where this Privacy Policy is posted and does not apply to any other information collected by Animal U, Inc. through any other means.

As used in this Privacy Policy, “Animal U, Inc.” refers to Animal U, Inc. and its subsidiary and affiliated entities, singly or together, and is referred to in this Privacy Policy as “AUI,” “we,” “us,” “our,” and “ourselves.”

Animal U, Inc. refers to individuals who purchase or use products or services of Animal U, Inc. as “customers” or “users.” When this Privacy Policy uses the term “personally identifiable information,” we mean information that identifies a particular individual, such as the individual’s name, postal address, e-mail address, and telephone number. When other information (such as, for example, consumer product preferences or number of children) is directly associated with personally identifiable information, this other information also is treated as personally identifiable information for purposes of this Privacy Policy. Personally identifiable information does not include screen names (also known as member names, usernames or other online aliases) provided by our customers in the course of registering with or using any of our Web sites, except in circumstances in which we request that customers provide their e-mail addresses as their screen names. Personally identifiable information is sometimes referred to in this Privacy Policy as “personal information.” Finally, the terms of this Privacy Policy are subject to all applicable laws.

Q2. What types of personally identifiable information do we collect about our customers?

A2. We collect several types of personally identifiable information about our customers.

Information You Provide to Us

Much of the personally identifiable information we receive comes directly from customers who are interested in obtaining various products and services from us. Typically, this information may include the customer’s name, postal address, e-mail address, and telephone number. We may also collect other types of information such as gender, age, number of pets, and personal interests, which we may associate with personally identifiable information. If you purchase products or services from us, we’ll note, for example, credit card information, the type of services or products ordered or purchased, and the date of the order or purchase. You may also provide us photographs or other video materials, which may contain personal information. We may collect personal information when you register on, log on, or visit our Web sites, including when you participate in activities on our Web sites, such as sweepstakes, contests, games, and informational and promotional offers, and when you provide information to our customer service representatives. Finally, our Web sites may offer message boards, conversation pages, chat rooms, social community environments, profile pages, and other Public Forums (as defined in the Terms of Use governing our Web site(s) (the “Terms of Use”)), as well as other features in which you may provide us with User Submissions (as defined in the Terms of Use). If you provide personal information when you use any of these features, that personal information may be publicly posted and otherwise disclosed without limitation as to its use by a third party. Our rules regarding User Submissions are described in the Terms of Use, including in the “User Submissions,” “Public Forums and Communication” and “House Rules” sections of the Terms of Use.

Information Collected Through Technology

We collect information through technology to make our sites more interesting and useful to you and for various purposes related to our business. For instance, when you come to one of our sites, we collect your IP address. An IP address is associated with the access point through which you enter the Internet, and is typically controlled by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), your company, or your university. Standing alone, your IP address is not personally identifiable. We may use IP addresses to collect information regarding the frequency with which our customers visit various parts of our sites, and we may combine IP addresses with personally identifiable information.

Our Web sites collect information through a variety of technical methods, including cookies and Web beacons. Cookies are pieces of information that a Web site sends to your computer while you are viewing the Web site. Web beacons are small pieces of data that are embedded in images on the pages of Web sites. Cookies, web beacons and other technical methods may involve the transmission of information either directly to us or to another party authorized by us to collect information on our behalf.

We may use the information collected through these technical methods for many purposes, including delivering content, tracking and enhancing our customers’ experience on our Web sites. For example, when you return to one of our Web sites after logging in, cookies provide information to the site so that the site will remember who you are. We also may use technical methods to analyze the traffic patterns on our Web sites, such as the frequency with which our users visit various parts of our Web sites, and third party Web sites, such as the frequency with which our users visit other Web sites. In HTML e-mails that we send our customers, we may use technical methods for a number of purposes, including: to determine whether our customers have opened or forwarded those e-mails and/or clicked on links in those e-mails, to customize the display of banner advertisements and other messages after a guest has closed the e-mail, and to determine whether a guest has made an inquiry or purchase in response to a particular e-mail. These technical methods may enable us to collect and use information in a form that is personally identifiable.

Advertisements may be managed and placed on our Web sites by third parties. These companies are called “network advertisers.” Network advertisers who place advertisements on our Web sites may use cookies and Web beacons to collect non-personally identifiable information about your visits to our Web sites and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. Finally, please keep in mind that if you click on an advertisement on one of our Web sites and link to a third party’s Web site, then our Privacy Policy will not apply to your personally identifiable information collected on that third party’s Web site and you must read the privacy policy posted on that site to see how your personally identifiable information will be handled.

Information That We Collect from Others

We may update and supplement personally identifiable information that we have collected directly from our customers with other information that we obtain from third parties and other members of Animal U, Inc. In addition, we may obtain personally identifiable information about individuals who are not yet users of our Web sites or customers of Animal U, Inc. In addition, when we associate information that we obtain from third parties or other members of Animal U, Inc. with personally identifiable information that we have collected under this Privacy Policy, we will treat the acquired information like the information that we collected ourselves and, except as permitted by this Privacy Policy, the information will not be shared with third parties.

Q3. How is your personally identifiable information used and shared?

A3. As described in detail below, Animal U, Inc. may use your personally identifiable information in many ways, including sending you promotional materials, and sharing your information with third parties so that these third parties can send you promotional materials. (By “promotional materials,” we mean communications that directly promote the use of Web sites, or the purchase of products or services.) As outlined below in A4, you may “opt out” of certain uses of your personal information.

General Provisions for Sharing and Use by Animal U, Inc., Licensees and Co-Branding Participants

Personally identifiable information collected under this Privacy Policy is shared among and used by Animal U, Inc. for many purposes. For example, Animal U, Inc. may use your personal information to send you promotional materials about goods and services (including special offers and promotions) either offered by Animal U, Inc. or offered by third parties. These promotional materials may be sent to you by postal mail, e-mail or other means. You may opt out of receiving these communications as provided in A4 below. Please keep in mind, however, that when you purchase or request products or services (or information about products or services) from a particular member of Animal U, Inc., promotional materials about goods and services offered by another member of Animal U, Inc. and/or by a third party may accompany delivery of the product, service or information that you have requested. We refer to sending you promotional materials in these circumstances as “Fulfillment Uses” of your personal information. Because these promotional materials accompany products, services or information that you have requested, your opt-outs for Animal U, Inc. and Third Parties under A4 below will not apply to any of these Fulfillment Uses.

Animal U, Inc. may also use your personal information for many purposes other than sending you promotional materials. (We refer to all of these types of uses of your personal information that do not involve the sending of promotional materials as “Operational Uses.”) For example, we may use your information to complete transactions requested by you (such as your purchase of a product or service offered on our Web sites), or to send you administrative communications either about your account with us or about features of our Web sites. Because these uses of your personal information do not involve sending you promotional materials, your opt-outs under A4 below will not apply to any of these Operational Uses.

In addition to using your personal information within Animal U, Inc., Animal U, Inc. may share your personal information with companies that offer products and/or services under brand names or using characters or other intellectual property of Animal U, Inc. These companies are called “licensees.” Animal U, Inc. may also share your personal information with companies that offer products and/or services that are co-branded using brand names of Animal U, Inc. These companies are called “co-branding participants.” When Animal U, Inc. shares personal information with third parties acting as licensees and co-branding participants, these licensees and co-branding participants are restricted by contract from using the personal information for any marketing or promotional purpose that is not related to a licensed or co-branded product or service. Finally, to further protect your privacy, these licensees and co-branding participants’ use of personal information shared with them under this Privacy Policy is subject to the same opt-out rights (and limitations upon those rights) that apply to use of personal information by members of Animal U, Inc. under A4 below.

Finally, Animal U, Inc. may take your personally identifiable information and make it non-personally identifiable, either by combining it with information about other individuals (aggregating your information with information about other individuals), or by removing characteristics (such as your name) that make the information personally identifiable to you (de-personalizing your information). Given the nature of this information, there are no restrictions under this Privacy Policy upon the right of Animal U, Inc. to aggregate or de-personalize your personal information, and Animal U, Inc. may use and/or share with third parties the resulting non-personally identifiable information in any way.

Non-Registered Transactions with Animal U, Inc.

You may engage in some transactions on our Web sites without registering and logging on the Web sites. These transactions may include purchasing products and services, entering contests and sweepstakes, and requesting special promotional materials. These transactions may be either with us or with other members of Animal U, Inc. (We refer to all of these transactions that you engage in without registering and logging on our Web sites as “Non-Registered Transactions.”) An example of a Non-Registered Transaction would be when you purchase items from BigAnimalOnCampus.com without registering and logging on that Web site. The following paragraphs of this “Non-Registered Transactions with Animal U, Inc.” section describe the special provisions of this Privacy Policy that apply to Non-Registered Transactions.

When you engage in a Non-Registered Transaction with a member of Animal U, Inc.: (a) personal information that you provide during your transaction will not be shared with any third party, and (b) you will have the opportunity to opt out (as described in A4 below) of allowing personal information that you provide during your transaction to be used by members of Animal U, Inc. to send their promotional materials to you. If you permit members of Animal U, Inc. to send you promotional materials, you may withdraw the permission (i) during a subsequent Non-Registered Transactions. If you withdraw a permission and subsequently engage in another Non-Registered Transaction, you again may grant permission at the time of that transaction to allow members of Animal U, Inc. to send their promotional materials to you. In some instances, if you grant a permission and subsequently withdraw that permission within 30 days (or you withdraw a permission and subsequently grant a new permission within 30 days), your subsequent action may be disregarded. Therefore, to be certain that any modification of your permission status will be effective, please wait 30 days before making any such modification.

If you withdraw a permission by following the procedures described in the previous paragraph, it may take up to thirty (30) days (unless a shorter time period is required by applicable law) for members of Animal U, Inc. to stop sharing your personal information for promotional purposes with other members of Animal U, Inc. In addition, it may take up to ninety (90) days (unless a shorter time period is required by applicable law) for members of Animal U, Inc. to stop using your personal information for promotional purposes. Finally, please keep in mind that, if you have not consistently used the same postal and email addresses on our Web sites, or if you have used a general change of address process (such as the change of address process offered by the U.S. Post Office) after providing address information on our Web sites, systems maintained by members of Animal U, Inc. may have varying contact information for you. Accordingly, it may not always be possible to match your new opt-out choices with your personal information that you previously have provided. In addition, please note that A4 of this Privacy Policy describes various exceptions that apply to opt-out choices you may make, and these exceptions apply to any choices that you make regarding the use of your personal information that you provide during Non-Registered Transactions.

Finally, please remember that the opt-out choices that you make during Non-Registered Transactions will not affect the opt-out choices that you make while registered and logged on to our Web sites, and the opt-out choices that you make while registered and logged on to our Web sites will not affect the opt-out choices that you make during Non-Registered Transactions.

Third Parties Offering Promotions, Products, or Services

Subject to your opt-out choices (see A4 below), Animal U, Inc. may share your personal information with selected third parties so that they can send you promotional materials about goods and services (including special offers and promotions) offered by them. (We call this type of sharing “promotional sharing” or sharing for “promotional purposes.”) When sharing your information for promotional purposes, Animal U, Inc. attempts to select only reputable companies that offer high quality products and services. Moreover, Animal U, Inc. will not share your e-mail address with third parties for promotional purposes, except when you consent to such sharing in the course of your participation in a Sponsored Activity as described below. When Animal U, Inc. shares your personal information with a third party under any circumstance described in this “Third Parties Offering Promotions, Products, or Services” section, your personal information will become permanently subject to the information use and sharing practices of the third party, and the third party will not be restricted by this Privacy Policy with respect to its use and further sharing of your personal information. In addition to the promotional sharing that is subject to your opt-out choices under A4 below, Animal U, Inc. may also share your information when you engage in certain activities on our sites that are sponsored by third parties, such as purchasing products or services offered by a third party, electing to receive information or communications from a third party, or electing to participate in contests, sweepstakes, games or other programs sponsored in whole or in part by a third party. Animal U, Inc. may also share your personal information when you respond to promotional materials from Animal U, Inc. and authorize a third party to use your personal information for purposes such as, for example, sending you additional promotional materials, providing you a product or service, or entering you in a contest, sweepstakes or game. (We refer to all of these activities and requests as “Sponsored Activities.”) When you participate in Sponsored Activities, you will either be required or requested to agree that the sponsor or business associate may use your personal information (including, in some cases, your e-mail address) in accordance with the sponsor or business associate’s privacy practices. Since you will have consented to this specific instance of sharing of your personal information, the opt-out choice for “Third Parties” described in A4 below will not apply.

Companies That Facilitate Communications and Transactions with You

Sometimes Animal U, Inc. may hire companies to help provide products or services, like a shipping company that delivers a package or a company that helps fulfill prizes for a sweepstakes. In those instances, there is a need to share your information with these companies. Sometimes Animal U, Inc. may also work with other companies who help either gather your information or communicate with you, such as a company that helps to provide customer service. Your opt-out choices under A4 below will not apply to sharing by Animal U, Inc. of your personal information with any of these companies. Nonetheless, except as separately permitted by other provisions of this Privacy Policy, these companies are allowed to gather, receive, and use your information only for the purposes described in this paragraph or to facilitate compliance with laws.

Companies That You Previously Authorized to Obtain Your Information

In certain circumstances, your dealings with a third party may have authorized that third party to obtain your personal information from Animal U, Inc. and to use that information in accordance with the third party’s own privacy practices and policies. For example, in using an online shopping service (such as the shopping services offered by Internet portals that refer the portal’s users to third-party merchants), you may have authorized that shopping service to obtain from the service’s participating third-party merchants (including Animal U, Inc.) information about your purchases conducted through the shopping service. In such circumstances, your opt-out elections under A4 below will not apply to sharing of your personal information by Animal U, Inc. Nonetheless, Animal U, Inc. will provide such companies only the information that you authorized (except as separately permitted under other provisions of this Privacy Policy). In the example given above, the shopping service would be provided only information concerning purchases you made from Animal U, Inc. through that shopping service, and would not be provided any other information concerning you, unless any additional sharing of your personal information were separately permitted under another provision of this Privacy Policy.

Purchase or Sale of Businesses

From time to time, we may purchase a business or sell a business (or portions thereof) and your personally identifiable information may be transferred as a part of the purchase or sale. In the event that we purchase a business, the personally identifiable information received with that business would be treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy, if it is practicable and permissible to do so. In the event that we sell a business, we will include provisions in the selling contract requiring the purchaser to treat your personally identifiable information in the same manner required by this Privacy Policy (including any amendments to this Privacy Policy). In light of this protection, your opt-out choices under A4 will not affect our right to transfer your information to a purchaser in these circumstances. The provisions of this paragraph will also apply in the event that one or more businesses of any other member of Animal U, Inc. are sold and personal information subject to this Privacy Policy is transferred to a purchaser of those businesses.

Disclosures to Comply With Laws and Disclosures to Help Protect the Security and Safety of Our Web Sites, Animal U, Inc. and Others

Regardless of any opt-out choices that you make under A4, Animal U, Inc. will disclose personal information when it believes in good faith that such disclosures (a) facilitate compliance with laws, including, for example, compliance with a court order or subpoena, or (b) will help to: enforce our Terms of Use; enforce contest, sweepstakes, promotions, and/or game rules; protect your safety or security, including the safety and security of property that belongs to you; and/or, protect the safety and security of our Web sites, Animal U, Inc., and/or third parties, including the safety and security of property that belongs to Animal U, Inc. or third parties.

Q4. What choices do you have about the collection, use, and sharing of your personally identifiable information?

A4. With regard to personal information that you have provided under this Privacy Policy, there are three separate opt-out choices available to you. These opt-out choices are the means by which you give us, or decline to give us, your consent to use your personal information for the purposes covered by these opt-out choices. There are several methods by which you can exercise your opt-out choices: (a) during the registration process on our Web sites; (b) after registration, by logging on our Web site(s), and editing your profile, in accordance with the opt-out directions; and© as described below in A6. Each of these opt-out choices is subject to the exceptions described further below in this A4.

Your three opt-out choices are:

Third Parties: You may choose to opt out of receiving promotional materials from third parties. If you do not choose this opt-out, Animal U, Inc. may share your personal information so that third parties can send you these promotional materials. Your opt-out choices for third parties generally are specific to the particular Web sites where you make these choices. Thus, if you want to opt out of all uses of your personal information covered by the “Third Parties” opt-out, you must consistently elect that opt-out at our Web site(s) either when you register or when you log in and update your profile. If you want to make a change in your “Third Parties” opt-out choices, you will need to make that change at our Web site(s) where you previously made a different choice. Please bear in mind that this opt-out choice for “Third Parties” will not apply to the licensees and co-branding participants described above in A3.

Animal U, Inc.: You may choose to opt out of receiving promotional materials from Animal U, Inc., its Web site(s) and the licensees and co-branding participants described above in A3. This opt-out choice is found on each of our Web sites. If you want to make a change in your “Animal U, Inc.” opt-out choice, you can make that change by visiting our Web site(s), logging on with your user name and password on that/those Web site(s), and choose to opt out of receiving promotional materials from that specific member.

Other Future Animal U, Inc.: You may choose to opt out of receiving promotional materials directly from a specific Animal U, Inc. Web site by logging onto and choosing the opt-out option on that Web site. However, if you do not also opt out of receiving promotional materials from other “Animal U, Inc.” Web sites, if any, you may still receive promotional materials from other members of Animal U, Inc.

Please keep in mind that any opt-out choices you make will not apply in situations where (a) you either have made, simultaneously make, or later make a specific request for information from a member of Animal U, Inc., (b) Animal U, Inc. uses your personal information for either “Operational Uses” or “Fulfillment Uses” (as described above in A3), (c) you either have engaged, simultaneously engage, or later engage in either Non-Registered Transactions or Sponsored Activities (as described above in A3), or (d) Animal U, Inc. shares your personal information under the provisions of A3 above with respect to “Companies That Facilitate Communications and Transactions With You,” “Companies That You Previously Authorized to Obtain Your Information,” “Purchase or Sale of Businesses,” or “Disclosures to Comply with Laws and Disclosures to Help Protect the Security and Safety of Our Web Sites, Animal U, Inc. and Others.” Also, any opt-out choices you make will not apply to personal information that you provide about other persons, but these other persons will have the opportunity to opt out of receiving promotional materials.

In addition, any time we send you promotional materials that you have consented to receive under one of the previously described opt-out choices, we may accompany those materials with promotional materials covered by the other opt-out choices. We may do so even if you have opted out of receiving promotional materials covered by those other opt-out choices. For example, if you consent to receive promotional materials from BigAnimalOnCampus.com, then those materials may be accompanied by promotional materials from another member of Animal U, Inc. or a third party, even if you have opted out of receiving promotional materials from that member of Animal U, Inc. or from third parties. Any such additional promotional materials, however, will constitute only a minor part of any particular communication with you.

Finally, if you do not exercise your opt-out choices upon registration or initial log-in at our Web sites, it may take up to ninety (90) days for your opt-out choices to be fully effective. Our systems require time to update, and promotional mailings using your personal information shared before your opt-out may already be in process. Finally, please keep in mind that, if you have not consistently used the same postal and email addresses on our Web site(s), or if you have used a general change of address process (such as the change of address process offered by the U.S. Post Office) after providing address information on our Web site(s), systems maintained by members of Animal U, Inc. may have varying contact information for you. Accordingly, it may not always be possible to match your new opt-out choices with your personal information that you previously have provided.

Q5. What kinds of security measures do we take to safeguard your personally identifiable information?

A5. The security and confidentiality of your information is extremely important to us. We have implemented technical, administrative, and physical security measures to protect customer information from unauthorized access and improper use. From time to time, we review our security procedures to consider appropriate new technology and methods. Please be aware though that, despite our best efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable.

Q6. How can you update your contact information and opt out choices?

A6. You can access and update the contact information you gave us during registration (that is, your postal address, e-mail address, or any other information that would directly enable us to contact you), or modify your opt-out choices, by going to our Web site(s), logging in with your member name and password and changing your preferences associated with that/those Web site(s). There are instructions on the Web sites to help you recover your password if you’ve forgotten it. Finally, you may unsubscribe from certain e-mail communications by clicking on unsubscribe links in those e-mails. In some cases, your account may expire or be terminated under our Terms of Use. If so, you may contact Member Services at the address in A7 below to update your information and opt-out choices (to the extent that we still retain them).

Q7. How can you ask questions, or send us comments, about this Privacy Policy?

A7. If you have questions or wish to send us comments about this Privacy Policy, please send an e-mail with your questions or comments to legal@biganimaloncampus.com or write us:

Member Services
Animal U, Inc.
P.O. Box 58061
Jacksonville, FL 32241

Please be assured that any personal information that you provide in communications to the above e-mail and postal mail addresses will not be used to send you promotional materials, unless you so request.

Q8. How will you know if we amend this Privacy Policy?

A8. We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time. If we amend this Privacy Policy to permit material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share your personal information, we will notify you of such amendment by prominently posting notice of such amendment on the Web site(s) covered by this Privacy Policy. Non-material changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective immediately. Material changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective thirty (30) calendar days following our posting of notice of the changes on the Web sites covered by this Privacy Policy. In any event, an amendment to this Privacy Policy may permit material changes in the way we use and share personal information that you provided us prior to our notification to you of such amendment. If you do not wish to allow such material changes, you must so notify us (in the manner we specify) prior to the effective date of the amendment. If you provide us this notice, we may choose to deactivate your account. Please be advised, however, that, regardless of whether you provide such notice to us, any such amendment to this Privacy Policy will apply to any personal information that you provide us on or after the effective date of such amendment.

Q9. What additional privacy protections do we provide for children under the age of 13 who visit our sites, or for children between the ages of 13 and 18?

A9. Animal U, Inc. does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register. If you are under 13, please do not attempt to register for BigAnimalOnCampus.com or send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under age 13 may provide any personal information to or on BigAnimalOnCampus.com. 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 legal@biganimaloncampus.com.

We 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.

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