COMMUNOTE PRIVACY POLICY - MARCH 2018

Overview

Communote is based on the free exchange of ideas and information, and as a result, it may be necessecary to collect certain information about users to maintain the highest quality of service. It is not Comunote’s intention to profit from the collection of this information.

Communote’s aim in crafting this policy is to respect the privacy of all users, while ensuring the smooth functionning of a platform that is free of spam, harassment, and other activities that violate the user agreement.

It is highly recommended that all users please read this Privacy Policy carefully. Implicit in the use of and/or registration with Communote is agreement to this policy. If users are hesitant to accept any terms includend in this policy, please bring these concerns to the attention of Communote. The feedback of our users is always appreciated.

Information Collected

2.1 Registration Information

All users are required to provide a username and password. Users may opt to provide an email address. These will be stored by Communote to maintain the security of your account. Communote does not require that its users procide their legal names in order to register. Should users chose to do so, names will only be displayed with clear and written consent from the user. At registration, users will also be required to identify whether you fall within the age bracket of under 13, under 18, or over 18. This information will remain private to users.

2.2	Social Media Information

Users are also required to provide either a Google+ account or Facebook account. The purpose of providing these accounts is so that Communote can have confidence in the authenticity of its users. In addition, Communote will only post to users’ social media outlets if given express permission to. Wihout sich consent, any social media information collected by Communote will remain private and will not be disclosesto any 3rd parties.

2.3	Post Data, Comment Data, and Private Messages.

All posts and comments on Communote are not private, and once published will remain visible for all Communote viewers. Posts and comments will still be accessible by other users after a user’s account is deleted, as they are saved to Communote’s server. Communote will keep a complete log of all messages sent on our service. These messages may be requested, through a formal request, to be viewed by a user at a later point in time. Communote also stores the IP addresses associated with specific posts, comments, and private messages for 120 days after they are made or sent.

2.4 Log Data

Log data includes the type of software used to access the site (browser, operating system), the type of device you are using, the address of the external or internal page that referred you, and your IP address. This information is recorded for all visitors and is only linked to your account if you are signed in. Except for the IP address you use to create the account, all IP addresses will be deleted from our servers after 120 days.

2.5 Activity Information

Communote collects information about how all visitors browse the site to make communote better. We remove personally identifiable data from this information after 120 days. This data is intended for research and development purposes only.

Intended Use of Data - Limited to Improving Users’ Experience

In general, data collected from users is only used internally, for the benefit of Communote users. Communote strives to only use data collected from users in order to facilitate, among other things, the smoother operation of the site, uphold users’ securty, investigate issues with our site, track and block suspected spammers, and otherwise maintain the integrity of the community.

Private Information Is Never for Sale

Communote will share your personal data with only with users’ explicit consent, and after informing users about what information will be shared and with whom. While advertisers may target their ads to the topic of a given subcommunote or based on your IP address, we do not sell or otherwise give access to any information collected about our users to any third party.

Communote Will Not Disclose Information Unless Required by Law or In an Emergency

Communote may disclose, or preserve for future disclosure, user information if doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, or legal process in Canada. If Communote intends to release any information belonging to a user in the context of a legal process, efforts will be made to provide the user with notice in advance, to the extent that such notice complies with Canadian Law.

In the event that the user agreement is violated, Communote may disclose user information to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm to a person, to address fraud, to rememdy a security breach, deter spam, to protect the rights of minors or other veulnerable groups, and to protect our rights or property.

Cookie Policy

At communote, cookies may be used for tracking user preferences, authentication, and collecting anonymous analytics data. Additionally, our advertising partners set cookies. We also use pixel trackers, which are images embedded in a webpage, for the purpose of measuring and analyzing usage and activity.

7.1 Data accessible by advertisers and sponsors

Users’ viewing history, approximate location, and other browser information will be used to determine the selection of advertisements presented to you. This information will not be accessible to advertisers and can be set as private if you choose. However, that will prevent targeted ads from reaching users.

7.2 Preference Cookies

If users are logged out, communote will place a cookie to denote whether they would like to view +18 content, or they had set a language preference. Preference cookies may also track users who demonstrate explicit positive feedback towards an advertisment.

7.3 Authentication Cookies

When users log into thier account, communote will place a cookie for the sole purpose of creating this session, containing the user id and hashed authentication information.

7.4 Session Cookie

Communote also uses a session cookie, which contains the date the cookie was set and a unique identifier. This data is anonymized, never associated with your communote account (whether you are logged-in or not), and follows the requirements laid out in the What Information We Collect section of this policy. By knowing how people use the site, we can make it better.

7.5 Analytics Cookies

Communote uses Google Analytics to help us understand how users interact with our website. It tells us aggregate usage and traffic information, such as how the site was accessed, how long visitors stayed, and the number of first-time visitors to the site. To learn more about Google Analytics and how it uses your data, please visit http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html.

7.6 Pixel Data

Communote uses web pixels to collect activity information to help understand how people use the service. Such information will be used internally, and will be anonymized so that Wany information that could be used to identify an individual user after 120 days.

7.7 Disabling cookies

Cookies may be disabled, but portions of the communote website may not function as intended, upon choosing to do so.

Account Deletion

Useres may choose to delete your communote account at any time. The usernames associated with deleted accounts remain unavailable for others to use, and the public profile is no longer visible to communote users. However, the posts and content created by a communote user will not be automatically deleted as part of the account removal process, though your username will be publicly disassociated with all posts.

Data Security

Communote will make every effort to secure any private information submitted to us by our users. Neverthelss, communote cannot guarantee the absolute security of this data. Communote can maintain internal security practices designed to keep your data secure and private, but Communote warns users to use the service at your their own risk. Communote encourages users to take adequare security measures to protect the privacy of their accounts, and excercise discretion in the kinds of information uploaded to the Communote website.

Children Under 13

The Communote website may contain age-sensitive material. To keep the most vulnerable groups of users safe, content has been restriced into three categories: (a) Under 13 (b) Under 18 (c) Over 18. Any information posted in these categories will be creened for compliance with Canadian law, and may be restricted by users belongin to other categories.

Sexual Content, Cyber Bullying and Harassment

Communote is committed to protecting the privacy and integrity of all members. If a user believes that someone has submitted material of any kind depicting another user in any type of sexual, derrogatory, or inequitable context please contact [email protected], and we will expedite its removal as quickly as possible.

Communote mobile

Coming Soon!

Changes to This Policy

Communote reserves the right to change this policy to meet theever-changing needs of the user community. Should any changes be made which subtanially alter the rights and obligations of our users, a notice will appear prominently immediate following login.

COMMUNOTE PRIVACY POLICY [OLD]

Influence:

Overview

Comunote is committed to protecting the privacy of all its users. This Privacy Policy has been desigened to relay to users exactly what information communote collects and and the uses to which this information will be put. Communote is based on the free exchange of ideas and information, and as a result, it may be necessecary to collect certain information about users to maintain the highest quality of service. It is not Comunote’s intention to profit from the collection of this information, so please rest assured that such information will never be sold. Communote’s aim in crafting this policy is to respect the privacy of all users, while ensuring the smooth functionning of a platform that is free of spam, harassment, and other activities that violate the user agreement. Therefore, it is highly recommended that all users please read this Privacy Policy carefully. Implicit in the use of and/or registration with Communote is agreement to this policy. If users are hesitant to accept any terms includend in this policy, please bring these concerns to the attention of Communote. The feedback of our users is always appreciated.

Information Collected

2.1 Registration Information

2.2	Social Media Information

Users are also required to provide either a Google+ account or Facebook account. The purpose of providing these accounts is so that Communote can have confidence in hte authenticity of its users.
In addition, we’ll only post to your social media outlets if you give us permission to. Your email address and any of your social media information will remain private and we will not disclose it to any 3rd parties.

You will also be required to identify whether you fall within the age bracket of under 13, under 18, or other. This information will remain private to you.

2.3	Post Data

The posts you make on Communote are not private. This means that, by default, they are not deleted from our servers – ever – and will still be accessible after your account is deleted. However, we only save the most recent version of comments and posts, so your previous edits, once overwritten, are no longer available.

Your messages are generally only viewable by the parties involved, but they may be accessed internally as needed for community support. Moreover, we keep a complete log of all messages sent on our service, even when both parties later delete their accounts.

3.3	Comment Data

The comments you make on Communote are not private. This means that, by default, they are not deleted from our servers – ever – and will still be accessible after your account is deleted. However, we only save the most recent version of comments and posts, so your previous edits, once overwritten, are no longer available.

communote stores the IP addresses associated with specific posts, comments, and private messages for 90 days after they are made or sent.

communote gold

If you choose to upgrade to communote gold, this status will be stored on your profile, along with the transaction number associated with the payment and the recipient of any gold you send. Although Stripe and PayPal send us a receipt with your name and email address if you provide it, we don’t add that information to your account. However, communote does not handle or have access to any of your payment information. For questions about how this information is stored and used, please read our third party partners’ privacy policies.

Log Data

Log data is certain information that is automatically collected by our systems when you visit communote, including the type of software used to access the site (browser, operating system), the type of device you are using, the address of the external or internal page that referred you, and your IP address. This information is recorded for all visitors and is only linked to your account if you are signed in. Except for the IP address you use to create the account, all IP addresses will be deleted from our servers after 90 days.

Activity Information

We collect information about how all visitors browse the site to make communote better. We remove personally identifiable data from this information after 90 days.

Other Information Related to Your Account

When you are logged into your communote account, we save the following information about your preferences and your interactions with the site to allow you to customize your experience: subscriptions, preferred language, all languages you see content in, accumulated karma, voting data, and date of last login. You may also opt to add “flair” to decorate your profile, and this will be stored as well.

How We Use or Disclose Collected Information

Our Use of Your Information Is Limited to Improving Your Experience

It takes a lot of work to keep our site running and prevent abuse, and we sometimes use your data in order to facilitate this. Your information is used internally only where necessary to provide our services. For instance, we keep IP addresses for 90 days in order to investigate issues with our site, track and block suspected spammers, and otherwise maintain the integrity of the community.

Your Private Information Is Never for Sale

This means that we will only share your personal data with your consent, and after letting you know what information will be shared and with whom, unless it is otherwise permitted in this policy. While advertisers may target their ads to the topic of a given subcommunote or based on your IP address, we do not sell or otherwise give access to any information collected about our users to any third party.

Anonymous, aggregated information that cannot be linked back to an individual user may be made available to third parties.

communote Will Not Disclose Your Information Unless Required by Law

We may disclose – or preserve for future disclosure – your information if we believe, after due consideration, that doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, or valid legal process. If we are going to release your information, we will do our best to provide you with notice in advance via communote’s private messaging system unless we are prohibited by court order from doing so (e.g., an order under 18 U.S.C. § 2705(b)). We reserve the right to delay notice to users in cases involving the exploitation of minors and when we believe a delay is necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm to a person.

Your Information May Be Disclosed By Us In An Emergency or to Keep our Services Running

In the event that you violate the user agreement, we may disclose your information to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm to a person; to address fraud, security, or spam; to protect our rights or property.

Cookie Policy

Technologies we use

Cookies are small data files placed on your computer by websites you visit in order to help them remember certain information about you. At communote, we set only a few cookies for tracking user preferences, authentication, and collecting anonymous analytics data. Additionally, our advertising partners set cookies. We also use pixel trackers, which are images embedded in a webpage, for the purpose of measuring and analyzing usage and activity. Each of these uses is described in greater detail below.

California’s ‘Do Not Track’ law

communote’s website does not currently respond to a Do Not Track (“DNT”) or similar signal as it awaits the results of efforts by the policy and legal community to determine the meaning of DNT and the proper way to respond. communote does not allow other parties to collect personally identifiable information from users on communote.

Some of this anonymous data will be accessible to the content providers of the pages you access.

Your viewing history, approximate location, and other browser information will be used to determine the selection of advertisements presented to you. This information will not be accessible to advertisers and can be set as private if you choose. However, that will prevent targeted ads from reaching you and as a result will feel more annoying.

Preference Cookies

If you are logged out, communote will place a simple cookie to remember if you indicate you would like to view over 18 content, or if you set a language preference. Additionally, if you vote an advertisement up or down, our third-party advertising partner, Adzerk, will set a cookie to remember your ad preferences.

communote.tv will place a simple cookie to remember your channel choices, which includes the subcommunotes you choose as channels and how they are arranged, and your playback preferences including vote sort, autoplay, shuffle, NSFW/SFW, and whether annotations will be visible.

Authentication Cookies

When you log into your account, communote will place a cookie for the sole purpose of creating this session. It contains your user id and hashed authentication information.

Analytics Cookies

We use a tool called Google Analytics to help us understand how users interact with our website. It tells us aggregate usage and traffic information, such as how the site was accessed, how long visitors stayed, and the number of first-time visitors to the site. To learn more about Google Analytics and how it uses your data, please visit http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html.

We also place our own session cookie, which contains the date the cookie was set and a unique identifier. This data is anonymized, never associated with your communote account (whether you are logged-in or not), and follows the requirements laid out in the What Information We Collect section of this policy. By knowing how people use the site, we can make it better.

Pixel Data

We use small image files called web pixels to collect activity information to help understand how people use the service so we can make it better. We use this information internally only, and we remove information that could be used to identify an individual user after 90 days. We only link this information to your communote account when you are signed in.

Disabling cookies

Most browsers include an option to clear existing cookies or reject new ones. However, if you do this, portions of the communote website may not function as intended.

Content Delivery Cookie

The company that delivers the communote website to your computer, CloudFlare, may place a cookie on your computer as part of the service it provides, which includes monitoring visitors’ IP addresses to track malicious actors. Further information regarding this cookie can be found in CloudFlare’s Security Policy.

Advertising

We partner with Adzerk to show our users third party banner ads and to provide self-serve, or “sponsored headline,” ads you see near the top of communote pages.

Some cookies may be placed during the provision of this service pursuant to Adzerk’s privacy policy.

To make our ads relevant to you, Adzerk receives information about the page the ad will appear on. This information includes the subcommunotes used to generate that page (which may include your subscriptions), as well as your IP address from which your general location (your country or city area) can be inferred. Keep in mind that when you comment and interact with a sponsored headline, others who view that same ad may be able to infer basic information about the location of your computer (since some ads – like for a music venue in San Francisco – are only seen in some geographies).

Account Deletion

You may choose to delete your communote account at any time. The usernames associated with deleted accounts remain unavailable for others to use, and your public profile is no longer visible to communote users. However, the posts and content you made during your tenure as a communote user will not be automatically deleted as part of the account removal process, though your username will be publicly disassociated with all posts. Also, we do not have control over third parties that may collect and store data independently from communote without our permission and without following our rules.

Third Party Sites

Certain third party sites may offer users the option to log in using their communote id (for example, communotegifts). This option is only an authentication tool and does not transmit any new personal information to or from communote, or give communote access to details of subsequent actions taken on these sites.

Email Communications

When you contact communote support or subscribe to one of our email newsletters, communote may use a third party service to send you email messages. All of our email communications are opt-in only. If you do opt into one of our subscription emails, only your email address will be stored with the third party service. We will always make it easy to opt out of our subscription emails, for example, by including a 1-click unsubscribe link.

Data Security

communote will make every effort to secure any private information submitted to us by our users. We also maintain internal security practices designed to keep your data secure and private. As part of this, we limit employee access to user data. However, no data transmission over the internet is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee the absolute security of this data. You use the service at your own risk, and are responsible for taking reasonable measures to secure your account (such as carefully maintaining the secrecy of your password).

International Visitors

communote is a San Francisco, California-based company whose servers are housed in the United States. All personal information we collect from our international users is transferred to the United States and processed according to US law.

communote complies with the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework and the U.S.-Swiss Safe Harbor Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information from European Union member countries and Switzerland. communote has certified that it adheres to the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access, and enforcement. To learn more about the Safe Harbor program, and to view communote’s certification, please visit http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/.

In compliance with the Safe Harbor Principles, communote commits to resolve complaints about your privacy and our collection or use of your personal information. European Union and Swiss citizens with inquiries or complaints regarding this privacy policy should first contact us.

communote has further committed to refer unresolved privacy complaints under the Safe Harbor Principles to an independent dispute resolution mechanism, the BBB EU SAFE HARBOR, operated by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your complaint, or if your complaint is not satisfactorily addressed communote, please visit the BBB EU SAFE HARBOR web site at www.bbb.org/us/safe-harbor-complaints for more information and to file a complaint.

Children Under 13

Although we would love to allow for all ranges of users, Communote comments are currently done by Livefyre, which restricts access to users age 13 and above. This is because the United States government has put limits on our ability to accept users under a certain age through the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. Individuals under the age of 13 may only make an account if they do it through a verified account over the age of 18. In addition, they will not be able to use the commenting service. We apologize for the temporary inconvenience, while we work on making our own comment service. If you believe someone 12 or younger is using our site without parental consent, please contact us.

Involuntary Pornography

communote is committed to your privacy. If you believe that someone has submitted, without your permission, to communote a link to a photograph, video, or digital image of you in a state of nudity or engaged in any act of sexual conduct, please contact us ([email protected]), and we will expedite its removal as quickly as possible. communote prohibits the posting of such content without consent.

communote mobile

communote’s mobile apps provide a unique and convenient way to experience communote. This portion of our privacy policy describes the information our apps collect, how we use it, and how it all fits in with the communote you’re already familiar with.

User information we collect

Our Apps collect the same user information as described in the What Information We Collect section of this privacy policy.

Activity and Device Information

Our apps collect certain information about your device, including its IP address, device type, and its current operating system. This information is used for analytics and to improve the communote service; for example, we use device and OS information to track and fix bugs. It is also used to provide advertising as described below. All stored IP addresses, except the account creation IP address, are deleted after 90 days. We only associate this information with your account when you are signed in.

App Advertising

To understand who clicks our mobile ads and to avoid showing you the same ad over and over again, we share your device’s unique advertising identifier, its IP address, and a list of subcommunotes used to generate a particular page for you (which may include your subscriptions) with our ad partners, who decide which ads to display for you.

We do not associate your device’s unique advertising identifier with your user account, even if you are signed in on an app.

Opting out

While we have very high standards for the types of ads we show, we also want to make it easy for you to opt out of sending your device’s unique advertising identifier to us. To opt out on Android and iOS, please follow these instructions.

How communote uses and discloses app information

communote only uses and discloses your information for the same limited set of purposes and circumstances that we describe in the How We Use or Disclose Collected Information section of this privacy policy.

Your app options

Notifications

If you enable app notifications, you can choose to receive timely updates about things like new private messages, interactions with your comments, and more.

Deleting an app

If you delete a communote app from your mobile device, any app-specific information stored on your device will be deleted from your device. If you have backed up your device’s apps, communote app information may continue to exist where you have backed it up. Any information collected by a communote app while you are signed in to your communote account is retained as described in the What Information We Collect section of this policy.

Social media

A communote app may also allow you to post to social media, including Facebook or Twitter, but communote will not connect to the servers of those services, share information with those services, or post on your behalf, except to instigate login. We want to make it easier for you to share your favorite communote content elsewhere, but we want you to control when and how that occurs.

Third Parties

Your interactions with Communote are also subject to the privacy policies of our third party partners:

This privacy policy and our apps

Please keep in mind that the mobile portion of this privacy policy only applies to the apps Communote owns and controls.

Changes to This Policy

We reserve the right to change this policy to meet the changing needs of communote, or for any other reason. If we make changes, we will notify our users. Where the changes substantially alter your rights, notice will appear prominently on your front page. More minor changes may only be highlighted by the privacy policy link in the footer of our website.