PRIVACY POLICY
SitterScout is committed to protecting your privacy and earning your trust. Please read the following policy to learn how we will collect and use your personal information. This Privacy Policy applies to data collected through the domain and subdomains of www.SitterScout.com (the “Web Site”) and may be updated from time to time without notice to you. Your access or use and continued access or use of the Web Site constitutes your consent to the data practices described in this Privacy Policy and any updates to the Privacy Policy.
1. COLLECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We may collect the following personal information from you:
- Registration. Personal information, including your name and e-mail address, is requested in connection with registration to our service. This information may be used to verify the identity of a registrant, to contact you in connection with the administration of the your account and to inform you of changes in the Web Site’s functionality, its auxiliary services and promotions. Personal information for registered users can be updated and maintained at any time via the Web Site. Additionally, in order to access and use certain portions of the Web Site you will need to create a user ID and password. As part of creating your user ID and password, you may be asked to provide questions and secret answers, which we use to help verify your identity and assist in resetting your password.
- Profile Information. After registration, you may create a personal profile. You may provide additional information such as your phone number, home address, zip code, gender, preferences, interests, babysitting skills and experiences, and how many children you have and your children’s ages in your profile. Providing additional information beyond what is required at registration is voluntary and optional. You may choose what profile information to provide at your sole discretion. However, please note that if you choose not to provide certain profile information, you may not be able to access or use some of the services provided by SitterScout.
- Information Collected Automatically. We may use data collection devices such as “cookies” (see Section 6 of this Privacy Policy for details) to collect information about your IP address, browser type and language, domain name, access times, pages visited and viewed, features used, and referring Web site addresses.
- Information about Others. You may invite your friends to join your SitterScout network. If you provide your friend’s name and email address to us, we will send an invitation email on your behalf. Even though we retain email addresses and other contact information about your friends, we do not use these email addresses to send marketing or promotional communications.
- Other Information. If you choose to provide comments and a rating for a babysitter, we will also collect that information you provide to us. We retain this information as necessary to provide customer support and resolve disputes as permitted by law.
2. USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION BE USED, DISCLOSED OR SOLD TO OR BY ANY THIRD PARTY FOR MARKETING OR PROMOTIONAL PURPOSES.
SitterScout collects and uses your personal information to operate and improve the Web Site and deliver the service you have requested. For example, we may use your personal information to manage your account, provide you with customer support, perform research and analysis for the purpose of improving our service, and display content and advertising that are customized to your interests.
Additionally, SitterScout may use your personal information to send you service-related communications from time to time. We may send communications such as welcome email, adding Friend/Babysitter request, notification of your friend’s acceptance of your invitation to join your network, and alert of job request and acceptance. By accepting SitterScout’s Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy, you expressly agree to receive this information.
We will not send you marketing or promotional communications unless you opt in to receiving such information. If you opt in to receiving promotional communications but do not wish to receive them later, you will have the ability to unsubscribe by following the unsubscribe link in the communications. Please note that after unsubscribing, you will still receive service-related, non-promotional communications from SitterScout.
The profile information you submit to SitterScout will be available to users in your network. Your first name and last name initial (if you are a user under 18) or your full name and profile picture (other users) will be available in search results across the Web Site. The primary purpose of the search function is for your friends to find you and invite you to join their networks. Users who see your name in searches, however, will not be able to access your profile information unless you add them to your network. If you are not willing to make your information available in search results, you may choose to opt out of this function in your profile. You may, at your discretion, add back this function at a later time.
SitterScout may use aggregagated, non-personally identifiable information, for example, users’ zip codes and usage statistics, for the purpose of market research and may disclose such aggregated, non-personally identifiable information to third parties.
3. SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Except as described in this policy, personal information will be retained in SitterScout’s database and will only be disclosed to third parties solely for the purposes of providing the service.
We may use other companies to provide certain services on our behalf, such as hosting the Web Site or providing customer support. These companies will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to deliver the service. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information and are prohibited from using it for any other purposes.
We may disclose and transfer your personal information to a third party who acquires all or a substantial portion of our business, whether such acquisition is by way of merger, consolidation or purchase of all or a substantial portion of our assets. In addition, in the event we become the subject of a bankruptcy proceeding, whether voluntary or involuntary, we or our trustee in bankruptcy may sell, license or otherwise dispose of such information in a transaction approved by the bankruptcy court. You will be notified of sale of all or a substantial portion of our business to a third party via email or through a prominent notice posted on the site.
Additionally, we may disclose your personal information if we believe such disclosure is necessary to: (a) comply with a legal requirement or a legal process served on SitterScout; (b) enforce our rights under our agreements with users; or© act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of SitterScout’s users or members of the public.
Unless otherwise specified in this Privacy Policy, we do not disclose your personal information to other users without your permission. Please keep in mind that if you disclose personal information in your profile or post comments or other items, this information may become publicly available and be disclosed to other people to whom you did not intend to make the information available.
4. SECURITY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We have implemented commercially reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration or disclosure. However, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will never be able to defeat those measures or use your personal information for improper purposes.
You are responsible for keeping your password confidential. Please do not share your password with anyone. We also recommend you change your password immediately if you believe your password has been compromised. You should log out of your account and exit your browser after viewing the Web Site.
5. CHILDREN
We strive to retain compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) as specified by regulations of the Federal Trade Commission. We will not knowingly collect any information from children under 13 or knowingly allow children under 13 to register. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13 we will immediately remove the information from the Web Site.
You must identify your age during the registration process. SitterScout does not assume any responsibility for any misrepresentations regarding your age or parental consent when using our service. If we determine that you provided any false information to us when using the Web Site, your access to our service will be terminated immediately.
6. USE OF COOKIES
The Web Site uses “cookies” to collect information. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard drive by a Web page server. We use cookies to store your preferences and other information on your computer in order to save you time by eliminating the need to enter the same information every time you use the Web Site and to display your personalized content and appropriate advertising on your later visits to the Web Site.
If you prefer, you may choose to decline or block cookies by changing your browser setting. If you choose to decline cookies, however, you may not be able to use some of the features that depend on cookies.
7. THIRD PARTY ADVERTISEMENTS
We allow third-party advertisers to display advertisements on the Web Site. These advertisers may also place cookies on your computer or use other technologies such as “web beacons” to recognize your computer each time they display an advertisement to you, evaluate the effectiveness of their advertisements, and personalize advertising content. These advertisers may be able to compile information about where you, or others who are using your computer, viewed or clicked on the advertisements they display.
SitterScout has no access or control of the cookies the third party advertisers may place on your computer. This Privacy Policy applies to the use of cookies by SitterScout and does not apply to the use of cookies or other tracking technologies by any of the third-party advertisers.
8. CONTACTING US
If at any time, you believe that SitterScout has not adhered to these principles in its operations, the following steps can be taken:
a. Contact us by e-mail at: info@sitterscout.com
b. In the subject line, type: ‘SitterScout Privacy Policy’
c. Specify the exact nature of the potential breach of principles in detail
d. Provide us with all necessary contact information for follow-up response
SitterScout will use all commercially reasonable efforts to determine if corrective action is necessary and if so, remedy the problem promptly.