Privacy Statement
Overview
Effective on: March 2005
The
iFriends Network respects and safeguards the privacy of every individual who
visits our website. This Privacy Statement is a formal document that
outlines the information which may be collected about you while you use the
IFriends Network, and how that information may be used. This Statement will
also instruct you on what to do if you do not want your personal information
collected or shared when you visit the iFriends Network website. This
Statement incorporates our
Terms of Service and if there is a conflict between this Statement or
other stated policies and our Terms of Service, the Terms of Service
prevail. If you would like to review a plain-spoken presentation of how
iFriends protects your privacy, and the practical ways that our policy might
affect your life, please click here
for our "side bar" article, "How iFriends Protects Your Privacy", or
click here for a list of
frequently-asked questions and answers concerning iFriends' privacy
policies.
Personally-Identifiable Information
The iFriends Network collects any personally-identifiable information about you (including, but not limited to, your name, address, telephone number, email address, Social Security number, Bank account or credit card information, or any combination of data that could be used to identify you, such as birth date, zip code, and gender) when you provide it to us voluntarily or authorize our access to it.
To become a registered member of the iFriends Network, you only need to provide us with a screen name, password, and email address; however, if you wish to access the premium services offered via the iFriends Network, then, prior to accessing those premium services, you must provide us with information about your age, as well as your credit card information. To become a video chathost on the iFriends Network, you must provide us with your name, address, email address, date of birth, SSN, screenname(s) and other information which we use to verify your age and identity.
When you provide us with personally-identifiable information or authorize our access to it, such information will be gathered solely by the iFriends Network for use by the iFriends Network. Companies who provide services, such as email delivery services and other professional services, on behalf of iFriends may have limited access to user information in order to provide that service. These service providers do not use this information for other purposes beyond providing the service. At any point on our website where personally-identifiable information is requested, any information that is optional to provide, rather than mandatory, will be clearly marked as such. We may use personally-identifiable information in the following ways, unless stated otherwise in our Terms of Service: we may store and process that information to better understand your needs and how we can improve our products and services, we may use that information to contact you and we may use that information to ensure the protection of our rights. Financial information that is collected is used to check the users' qualifications for registration and to ensure proper payment by the user for products and services. If you are a video chathost, the information that you authorize the iFriends Network to collect or access is used to verify your age and identity, as well as to provide you with support services while you are using the iFriends Interactive Computer Service (a third party service may be used to validate chathosts' age and identification information).
If you have already submitted personally-identifiable information to us and would like for us to remove it from our records, please contact us at the website listed at the bottom of this Statement. We will use reasonable efforts to remove your information from our existing files.
The iFriends Network may utilize electronic newsletters to reach all or a subset of all registered users, using the e-mail address provided. When users opt-in to receive email notifications sent on behalf of video chathosts, the iFriends Network does not, and will not, provide video chathosts with access to such user information (in other words, we NEVER disclose user email addresses or other personally-identifying information to the video chathosts.) Users may opt-out from such mailing lists at any time by following the instructions found at http://www.ifriends.net/legal/unsubscr.htm or by following the instructions that shall be sent as part of any such mailings.
If you are a video chathost, you may receive email communications related to the support services that the iFriends Network provides to you. Video chathosts may opt-out from such email communications at any time by contacting vchhelp@ifriends.net and discontinuing their use of the iFriends Interactive Computer Service.
If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may update or deactivate your information. If you are a user or member, simply update or deactivate your information by emailing our Customer Support at help@ifriends.net or by contacting us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed below. If you are a video chathost, simply update or deactivate your information by emailing our Chathost Support at vchhelp@ifriends.net or by contacting us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed below.
The iFriends Network may request personally-identifiable information on specific pages that allow users to contact the iFriends Network, including the "Sheriff's Office", "Unsubscribe from e-mail", "Cancel my account", "Report Bugs", and "Help" services. In all of the above cases, such information is being collected to assist us in solving a specific issue addressed by the user and/or to allow us to contact the user with an appropriate response.
We will not disclose your personally-identifiable information unless we have to, to comply with applicable laws or valid legal process (including without limitation search warrants, court orders or providing assistance to law-enforcement authorities), or, if the disclosure to a credit-card bank helps us prove the legitimacy of a credit-card charge.
Non-Personally-Identifiable Information Collected Automatically
In some cases, information that is not personally-identifiable may be automatically collected about you either through server log files or cookies (examples of this type of information include without limitation your IP address, the type of Internet Browser you are using, the type of computer operating system you are using, and the domain name of the website from which you linked to our site). For our registered members, at the time of registration, and only at the time of registration, we link this information to your account information, however, for non-registered users, we never link this information to any personally identifiable information. To learn how to prevent iFriends from using cookies during your visit to iFriends and how to erase cookies from your hard drive, see our Guide to Managing Cookies.
Information That May Be Placed Automatically On Your Computer's Hard Drive
When you view one of our websites, we may store some information on your computer. This information will be in the form of a "Cookie" or similar file and will help us in many ways. For example, cookies allow us to tailor web pages to better match your interests and preferences, and maintain your login session. For our registered members, we link this information to your account information; however, for non-registered users, we never link this information to any personally identifiable information. With most Internet Browsers, you can erase Cookies from your computer hard drive, block all Cookies, or receive a warning before a Cookie is stored. Please refer to your Browser instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions. To learn how to prevent iFriends from using cookies during your visit to iFriends and how to erase cookies from your hard drive, see our Guide to Managing Cookies.
Public Forums
This site makes chat rooms, forums, message boards, and/or news groups available to its users, registered members, and video chathosts. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information.
Security
The security of your personal information is important to us. When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security number) on our registration or order forms, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL).
We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If you have any questions about security on our Web site, you can send an email to us at security @ ifriends.net.
Minors
Because iFriends is an e-commerce-driven web-conferencing platform, the company's services are directed to adults who possess validated credit-card information, and are never marketed to individuals under the age of 18. iFriends' tens of thousands of registered "video chathosts" host chatrooms under a potentially infinite number of different categories, ranging from how/to instruction to adult-oriented topics.
Certain portions of iFriends which may contain content considered offensive to some, are inaccessible to individuals under the age of 18 via a standard "credit-card" wall, as advocated by the Communications Decency Act. For those portions which may be accessible to individuals under the age of 18, such as the iFriends home page and other areas presenting non-offensive content, iFriends has no intention of collecting any personally-identifiable information (that is, name, address, telephone number, or email address) from individuals under eighteen years of age. Where appropriate, the iFriends Network will specifically instruct minors not to submit such information on our websites or advertisements. If a minor has provided us with personally-identifiable information, a parent or guardian of that minor should contact us at the email address listed at the bottom of this Statement and we will use reasonable efforts to remove this information from our existing files.
Changes to Privacy Policy
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page.
TRUSTe
The iFriends Network is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build users' trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy statement covers the site www.ifriends.net . Because this web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact the iFriends Privacy Department at privacy @ ifriends.net. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact TRUSTe http://www.truste.org/watchdog.html. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with the Web site to resolve your concerns.
The TRUSTe program covers only information that is collected through this Web site, and does not cover information that may be collected through software downloaded from the site.
Who to Contact
If you have submitted personally-identifiable information through the iFriends Network website and would like that information removed from our records, please contact our customer service desk at the e-mail address of help@ifriends.net and provide us with your name, your iFriends Network screenname, and any information you feel important. We will use reasonable efforts to remove this information from our existing files.
If you have further questions about this Privacy Policy:
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Contact us at our email address: help@ifriends.net
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Contact us at our toll-free telephone number: 1-800-iFriend
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Contact us at our postal address:
Attention: Privacy Department
3395 S. Jones Blvd., Suite 22
Las Vegas, NV 89146 USA