Small Biz Technology is a publication of ReadWrite, Inc. (hereinafter “The Publisher”). The Publisher collects certain personally identifiable information about Small Biz Technology’s readers. Please read this policy to understand more about how The Publisher collects and uses this information.
The Publisher knows that you care how information about you is used and shared. This Privacy Policy explains how The Publisher collects and uses information at its website (https://www.smalbiztechnology.com) and at other websites and mobile services provided by The Publisher (collectively the “Network Websites”). This Privacy Policy also explains how The Publisher collects and uses information received in connection with advertisements placed by The Publisher on the Network Websites and on third party affiliate websites, as part of The Publisher’s Ad Platform Online Program (the “Program”) (the Network Websites, The Publisher advertisement placements, and Program are collectively referred to as the “The Publisher Services”). This Privacy Policy also explains how you can control the collection, correction and/or deletion of certain types of information that we collect. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information we collect by other means (including offline) or from other sources. Further, this Privacy Policy does not apply to any websites, webpages, blogs, applications, widgets or other services operated by any third party, including our affiliates, advertisers, providers and partners.
1. Information We Collect
A. Personally Identifiable Information
In general, The Publisher does not collect personally identifiable information, except as set forth below. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “personally identifiable information” is data intended to be used to identify, contact or locate a person, including, name, address, telephone number or e-mail address and any other information (even if non-personally identifiable) provided in combination with such personally identifiable information.
You provide us information about yourself, such as your name and e-mail address, when you register for, use, send messages, or post content on or though the The Publisher, including registering for the use of certain features such as email newsletters, promotional offers, sharing a design file, sweepstakes, or the “share an ad” or “movie times” features, creating an account with The Publisher, and registering with the Program as an Affiliate. If you correspond with us by email, we may retain the content of your email messages, your email address, and our responses. We may also retain any messages or other content you send through or post on The Publisher’s websites.
The advertisements we deliver may offer the ability to interact, including playing a game or viewing a video. The ad may also give you the opportunity to provide the advertiser with information about yourself. In some instances, if you choose to interact with an advertisement or provide an advertiser with information about yourself, The Publisher may collect information on behalf of the advertiser. In that case, the advertiser’s privacy policy would apply to the data collected and we will abide by the instructions given to us by the advertiser in our handling of the data. The Publisher will not associate any information (non-personally identifiable or personally identifiable) we collect for an advertiser with any other information we may have collected about you through The Publisher’s websites.
The Publisher may collect information about your transactions with us and/or our business partners, and combine such information with information about you in our possession. This information might include information necessary to process payments, such as billing information and your credit card number.
If you would like any of this information deleted, please email privacy @ readwrite.com with your name and email and all information will be deleted.
B. Non-Personally Identifiable Information
When you visit The Publisher’s websites, The Publisher or third parties such as advertisers, third-party advertising networks, third-party advertising serving companies, and The Publisher’s business partners, vendors and service providers may collect non-personally identifiable information. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “non-personally identifiable information” is data that is not personally identifiable. The Publisher and these third parties may implement certain technologies to enable the collection of such information. An explanation of these technologies is below.
Cookies Information: When you visit The Publisher’s websites, we may send one or more cookies—a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters—to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser and lets The Publisher help you log in faster and enhance your navigation through the site. A cookie may also convey information about how you browse The Publisher’s websites. The Publisher uses session, persistent, flash and browser cookies. The use of cookies on The Publisher’s websites is anonymous and does not allow us to gather personally identifiable information about you. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive after you close your browser. Persistent cookies may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the site. Persistent cookies can be removed by following your web browser’s directions. A session cookie is temporary and disappears after you close your browser. You can set your web browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some features of The Publisher’s websites may not function properly if the ability to accept cookies is disabled.
Device Identifiers: When you access The Publisher’s websites by or through a mobile device, we may access, collect, monitor and/or remotely store one or more “device identifiers.” Device identifiers are small data files or similar data structures stored on or associated with your mobile device that uniquely identify your mobile device and are used by The Publisher to enhance your use of The Publisher’s websites. A device identifier may be data stored in connection with the device hardware, data stored in connection with the device’s operating system or other software, or data sent to the device by The Publisher. A device identifier may convey information to us about how you browse The Publisher’s websites. A device identifier does not collect or share any personally identifiable information about you. However, a device identifier may be used in conjunction with other information in a manner that may constitute personally identifiable information. A device identifier may remain persistently on your device, to help you log in faster and enhance your navigation through The Publisher’s websites. Some features of The Publisher’s websites may not function properly if use or availability of device identifiers are impaired or disabled.
Location Data: When you access The Publisher’s websites by or through a mobile device, we may access, collect, monitor and/or remotely store “location data,” which may include GPS coordinates (e.g., latitude and/or longitude) or similar information regarding the location of your mobile device. Location data may convey information to us about how you browse The Publisher’s websites. Location data does not collect or share any personally identifiable information about you. However, location data may be used in conjunction with other information in a manner that may constitute personally identifiable information. Some features of The Publisher’s websites, particularly location-based services, may not function properly if use or availability of location data is impaired or disabled.
Web Beacons/Click-Stream Data: A web beacon is an electronic file that signals when a webpage, advertisement, video, other content, an email, or a newsletter has been viewed. We may use web beacons in our emails and newsletters, or on our websites and services. The Publisher uses web beacons in conjunction with cookies to collect click-stream data that helps us better understand how visitors move from page to page within our websites. As with cookies, our use of web beacons is anonymous and does not allow us to gather personally identifiable information about you.
Passive Browser Information: The Publisher collects passive browser information though its web servers. We use the passive browser information to help us understand how many visitors come to our websites and where they come from, and ultimately to help us make decisions about how to organize the websites and deliver advertising.
Demonstrations: The Publisher periodically offers visitors to its websites the ability to see demonstrations of services offered by The Publisher. If you elect to view demonstrations, we may collect non-personally identifiable information in connection with the demonstration of the relevant service. Our collection, storage and use of non-personally identifiable information in connection with such demonstrations are subject to this Privacy Policy.
Log File Information: Log file information is automatically reported by your browser each time you access a web page. When you use The Publisher’s websites, our servers automatically record certain log file information. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, referring / exit pages and URLs, number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, data about how you interact with links on The Publisher’s websites, and other such information. We may display your IP address to the owners or maintainers of certain blogs, groups or communities if you post to those blogs, groups or communities and the owner or maintainer has enabled functionality for this purpose.
Scripts: A script is a short segment of computer code included in a web page or other content that can be used to set and access a cookie on your computer’s hard drive and to record your activity on a website. The Publisher may use scripts on The Publisher’s websites, on third-party websites, or in our emails and newsletters.
Third-Party Data Providers: The Publisher may supplement the information it collects with other non-personally identifiable information provided by third-party data providers. The information provided may include estimates of your age, gender and your interests, but does not include personally identifiable information.
Other Third-Party Service Providers: In connection with our services, The Publisher may engage third parties to provide services or to support aspects of our business on our behalf. In connection with those relationships, such third parties may collect data on our behalf. In that case, the third party would only collect and use such information as instructed by us and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
Third Party Use of Technologies: Third parties may set and access their own cookies, use their own web beacons, and use their own scripts on and through The Publisher’s websites, on and through third-party websites, or in and through our emails and newsletters. How other companies use their own cookies, web beacons and scripts and the information they gather is subject to those companies’ privacy policies, not this Privacy Policy.
C. Third Party Advertisements
If an advertiser asks The Publisher to show an advertisement to a certain audience and you respond to that advertisement, the advertiser or ad server may conclude that you fit the description of the audience they are trying to reach.
In addition, third-party advertisers may use non-personally identifiable information about your visits to The Publisher’s websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services that they believe may be of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here and here.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, third-party advertisers. Please consult the respective privacy policies of such advertisers for more information.
2. How We Use Your Information
A. Personally Identifiable Information
We use the personally identifiable information that we collect to operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of The Publisher’s websites.
By providing The Publisher with your email address, including by registering an account with one of The Publisher’s websites, you consent to our use of the email address to send you notices related to The Publisher’s websites, including any notices required by law, in lieu of communication by postal mail. We may also contact you via email with transactional or relationship messages, such as messages related to your registration or account status, and notifications of changes to the terms of your account or the services provided. By providing your email address, you agree that we may send you notifications of activity on The Publisher’s websites to that email address, in accordance with any applicable privacy settings. We may use your email address to send you other messages, such as newsletters, information about changes to features of The Publisher’s websites, or special offers. If you do not want to receive such email messages, you may opt out or change your preferences in your “Account,” “Account Preferences” or “My Account” page on the applicable The Publisher website(s), or by sending an email to privacy@readwrite.com. Opting out may prevent you from receiving email messages regarding updates, improvements, or offers. You may not opt out of service-related emails or transactional or relationship email messages.
The Publisher may use your personally identifiable information and user content internally for purposes such as operating or improving its websites, determining which users have access privileges to certain content, services or resources that we offer, diagnosing service or technical problems, maintaining security, doing something that you have asked us to do, telling you about The Publisher’s products, services and marketing events that we think may be of interest, analyzing how The Publisher’s websites are used, and personalizing content.
If you choose to use our invitation service to invite a third party to The Publisher’s websites, we will ask you for that person’s email address and automatically send an email invitation. The Publisher stores this information to send this email, to register that third party if your invitation is accepted, and to track the success of our invitation service. Persons invited to use The Publisher’s websites may contact us to request that we remove this information from our database at privacy@readwrite.com.
B. Non-Personally Identifiable Information
We use non-personally identifiable information, including cookies, device identifiers, location data, web beacons/click-stream data, passive browser information, demonstration data, log file information, and scripts to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the site; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of our services; (d) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, and demographic patterns; (e) diagnose or fix technology problems reported by our users or engineers that are associated with certain IP addresses; (f) help you efficiently access your information after you sign in; (g) monitor and prevent fraud and abuse; (h) identify you as an account holder; (i) require you to re-enter your password after a certain period of time has elapsed to prevent others from accessing your account contents; (j) keep track of preferences you specify while you are using The Publisher Services; (k) conduct research to improve The Publisher Services; (l) monitor advertising-related metrics, in order to provide you with more helpful and relevant advertising; (m) administer our business (e.g., to calculate payments due to our network websites); and (n) track user content and users to the extent necessary to comply as a service provider with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Third-party advertising networks and advertisers may also use non-personally identifiable information to assist them in delivering advertising that may be relevant to your interests.
3. How We Share Your Information
A. Personally Identifiable Information
The Publisher will not rent or sell your personally identifiable information to others. The Publisher only shares personally identifiable information with other companies or individuals outside of The Publisher’s websites as follows: (1) if The Publisher has your consent to the sharing of personally identifiable information (e.g., when you sign up for a particular marketing program that requires the sharing of information); (2) to assist in delivering services that you have requested from The Publisher (e.g., we may use a third party to help send emails in response to requests that you have made); (3) to provide The Publisher’s services to you; (4) with our advertisers if we have been engaged to collect data on their behalf, as described in the “Information We Collect” section above; (5) to respond to subpoenas, court orders or legal process, to assist government enforcement agencies, to establish or exercise our legal rights, or to defend against legal claims; (6) if we believe it is necessary in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding third-party claims or allegations, illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety or property of another person, violation of the Privacy Policy; or (7) as otherwise required by law. Note that, with respect to disclosures occurring pursuant to (2) or (3), above, any third-party with which The Publisher shares personally identifiable information will be bound by this Privacy Policy. The Publisher may also store personally identifiable information and user content in locations outside the direct control of The Publisher (for instance, on servers or databases co-located with hosting providers).
Any personal information or content that you voluntarily disclose for posting to The Publisher’s websites, such as messages, comments or other user content, becomes available to the public, as controlled by any applicable privacy settings. To change your privacy settings for any The Publisher website at which you maintain an account, send an email to privacy@readwrite.com. If you remove information that you have posted on The Publisher’s websites, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived form, or if other users have copied or saved that information.
From time to time, we may run contests, special offers, or other events or activities (“Events”) on The Publisher’s websites, together with a third-party partner. If you provide information to such third parties, you give them permission to use it for the purpose of that Event and any other use that you approve. We cannot control third parties’ use of your information. If you do not want your information to be collected by or shared in this way, you can choose not to participate in these Events.
B. Non-Personally Identifiable Information
In the event that we use a third party to provide services or to support aspects of our business on our behalf, The Publisher may share non-personally identifiable information with the third party to be used by them only for the purpose of providing their services to The Publisher.
We may share non-personally identifiable information (such as anonymous usage data, referring/exit pages and URLs, platform types, number of clicks, etc.) with interested third parties to help them understand the usage patterns for certain of The Publisher websites, and as part of the function of our business. For example, we may share the number of ad views, ad clicks and content views to help calculate the payments due under the Program.
C. Transfer of Data
In the event that The Publisher sells, transfers or otherwise relinquishes all or part of our assets, business offerings, or services, including any of The Publisher’s websites, information that you have shared with The Publisher or that The Publisher has collected, including both personally identifiable information and non-personally identifiable information, may be one of the business assets that will be transferred. We may also transfer or assign such information in the course of corporate divestitures, mergers, or dissolution. The transferred information will remain subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy or those of subsequent policies to which you have consented. If The Publisher is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, you will be notified via a prominent notice on our website of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.
4. Content Removal
The Publisher reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor the user content you post on any of The Publisher’s websites.
We reserve the right to remove any such information or material for any reason or no reason, including without limitation if in our sole opinion such information or material violates, or may violate, any law, our Privacy Policy, or to protect or defend our rights or property or those of any third party.
The Publisher also reserves the right to remove information upon the request of any third party.
5. Data Retention
Following termination or deactivation of any of The Publisher’s website accounts, The Publisher may retain your profile information and user content for a commercially reasonable time for backup, archival, or audit purposes. Furthermore, The Publisher may retain and continue to use indefinitely all information (including user content) contained in your communications to other users or posted to public or semi-public areas of The Publisher’s websites after termination or deactivation of your account.
The Publisher retains the specific anonymous data collected and tied to your computer’s unique ID as described in this Privacy Policy for a period of up to twelve months. Such data may be aggregated and used for analytical purposes indefinitely.
6. How We Protect Your Information
The Publisher cares about the integrity and security of your personal information. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to The Publisher or guarantee that your information on The Publisher’s websites may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards. The transmittal of information from you to us is done at your own risk.
To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps (such as requesting a unique password) to verify your identity before granting you access to any accounts maintained on The Publisher’s websites. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information, and for controlling access to your email communications from The Publisher, at all times.
7. Compromise of Personal Information
In the event that personal information is compromised as a result of a breach of security, The Publisher will promptly notify those persons whose personal information has been compromised, in accordance with the notification procedures set forth in this Privacy Policy, or as otherwise required by law.
8. Your Choices About Your Information
You may, of course, decline to submit personally identifiable information through the Service, in which case The Publisher may not be able to provide certain services to you. You may update or correct your account information and email preferences at any time by adjusting your account settings or contacting us at privacy@readwrite.com. You can review and correct the information about you that The Publisher keeps on file by contacting us directly at privacy@readwrite.com.
If you do not want The Publisher to gather non-personally identifiable information when you encounter advertisements we deliver through The Publisher’s websites, please click the opt-out link at the top of this Privacy Policy. The opt-out works by placing a flash cookie on your computer that notifies The Publisher that no other cookies should be placed on the applicable computer. If this cookie is deleted, then you will need to complete this opt-out process again. If you use more than one computer, you will need to complete this opt-out process on each computer that you use. The opt-out does not mean that you will no longer see online advertisements. It means only that advertisements delivered by The Publisher will not be targeted to you, based on information derived from cookies by The Publisher or its third-party vendors.
You can also limit targeted advertising by configuring your browser’s settings or changing the management panel of the Adobe Flash Player to limit your acceptance of or delete cookies. Because the management of cookies in various browsers differs, you should consult the documentation for your browser in order to manage your cookies. In order to limit the acceptance of or disable “flash” cookies, you must access the management panel of the Adobe Flash Player installed on your computer.
To learn more about the management panel of the Adobe Flash Player and the management of “flash” cookies, please access the following link:http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/index.html.
You can also opt-out of receiving cookies from third-party data providers by following the instructions at: http://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1. TRUSTe also provides you with ways to opt-out of behavioral tracking at: http://preferences-mgr.truste.com/.
You can opt-out of receiving cookies from Targusinfo, a specific third-party data provider, by following the instructions at: http://www.agkn.com/optout.html.
Also, because your choices are not associated with you as a particular individual, if you change computers, web browsers or cookie settings, you will need to re-implement your preferences as described above. Note that if you limit or disable cookies, this does not mean that you will not see ads on The Publisher’s websites. Instead, ads will be displayed that are based on passive browser information or other information that that may be provided by The Publisher’s websites at the time of your visit.
9. Children’s Privacy
Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. The Publisher and its related websites are not structured to attract children under 13 years of age. The Publisher prohibits the use of our websites or services by anyone under 13 years of age. The Publisher does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register for any of The Publisher’s websites. If you are under 13, please do not access The Publisher’s websites or send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at privacy@readwrite.com.
10. Links to Other Websites
We are not responsible for the practices employed by websites linked to or from The Publisher’s websites, nor the information or content contained therein.
Please remember that when you use a link to go from within The Publisher’s websites to an outside website, our Privacy Policy is no longer in effect. Your browsing and interaction on any other website, including those that have a link on The Publisher’s websites, is subject to that website’s own rules and policies.
It should be assumed by readers that EVERY link on our website has a financial gain to the The Publisher. EVERY mention of a company, person or website on the website has a financial gain to The Publisher. EVERY word written has in some way a financial gain to The Publisher. Basically, everything on the website has a financial gain to Small Biz Technology in some way, shape or form.
Please read over those rules and policies before proceeding.
11. Notification Procedures
It is our policy to provide notifications, whether such notifications are required by law or are for marketing or other business related purposes, to you via email notice, written or hard copy notice, or through conspicuous posting of such notice on the applicable The Publisher website or service, as determined by The Publisher in its sole discretion. We reserve the right to determine the form and means of providing notifications to you, provided that you may opt out of certain means of notification as described in this Privacy Policy.
12. Governing Law
This Privacy Policy is governed by the laws of the State of California and the United States of America.
13. Changes to this Privacy Policy
The Publisher may modify or update this Privacy Policy at its sole discretion from time to time, and so you should review this Privacy Policy periodically. When we change the policy in a material way, we will notify you by means of a notice on our website prior to the change becoming effective. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page. Your continued access to The Publisher’s websites after the Privacy Policy has been modified and posted will signify your acceptance of such modifications.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of The Publisher’s websites, or your dealings with The Publisher, please contact us at privacy@readwrite.com. or send mail to:
ReadWrite Inc. – 100 Broadway – San Francisco, CA – 94111 – Attention: Data Privacy