Privacy Policy
The Respect Network is provided by Respect Network Corporation (Connect.Me), and is accessible from the Connect.Me website at http://connect.me as well as from Connect.Me-enabled client sites and programs.
Our legal address is:
Respect Network Corporation
185 Clara St #102A, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA
If you have any comments or questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@connect.me
Effective date of this version: August 15, 2011
Online location of this Privacy Policy: http://connect.me/c/privacy
Incorporation of the Respect Trust Framework. This Privacy Policy incorporates by reference the Respect Trust Framework listed with the Open Identity Exchange at http://openidentityexchange.org/trust-frameworks/respect-trust-framework
The purpose of the Respect Trust Framework is to define a simple set of principles and rules to which all Members of a digital trust network agree so that they may share identity and personal data with greater confidence that it will be protected and only used as authorized. Connect.Me and all Members of the Respect Network agree to operate under the Respect Trust Framework. A one-page summary of the five Respect Principles (Promise, Permission, Protection, Portability, Proof) at the heart of the Respect Trust Framework is available at http://connect.me/trust.
Definitions
All capitalized terms that are not otherwise defined in this document are defined in the Respect Trust Framework. Note that the Respect Trust Framework also sets forth the terms of the Respect Reputation System.
Global and Local Terms
The purpose, principles, and rules of the Respect Trust Framework comprise the Global Terms. This Privacy Policy together with the Connect.Me Terms of Service comprises the Local Terms that apply specifically to your relationship with Connect.Me. The Respect Trust Framework requires that any Local Terms (such as these Connect.Me Local Terms) not conflict with the Global Terms.
Scope
This Privacy Policy describes Connect.Me's policies and procedures relating to the collection, processing, use, and disclosure of:
- Information you supply at registration: information from and about you that you provide to Connect.Me when you create a Member Account.
- Information you supply after registration. This includes Profile data, Tag and Context data, Vouching and Complaint data, and Community membership and relationship data.
- Information others tell us about you. This includes Tag and Context data, Vouching and Complaint data, and Community membership and relationship data asserted about you by other Members.
- Information we observe about you from your activity on Connect.Me.
- Other information that we generate or receive about you and your activity under these terms.
Note on limited data collection. Connect.Me only has access to the information listed above and such other information as it requires to operate the Respect Network. Connect.Me does not have access to information about you that is held by third parties or by other Members, including Organizational Members, unless you make such information available. For example, when you connect one of your social networking accounts to Connect.Me, we only have access to your registration information, social graph information, and other information that you give us permission to collect on your behalf. Connect.Me is not responsible for any information held by such other businesses, whether or not they are Members.
Where do we get information about you? Connect.Me receives information from and about you through our own website, email and SMS interfaces, APIs, and from the social networking services or other third party services to which you give us explicit permission to access personal data about you on your behalf. Unless you have consented otherwise, we do not collect other information about you from any third party sources.
When using any Connect.Me Services, you consent to the collection, transfer, correlation, storage, disclosure, disposal and other uses of information from and about you as described in this Privacy Policy.
Whatever your country of residence or the location from which you create information, data and information from and about you may be used by Connect.Me in the United States or any other country where Connect.Me operates. Please note that such countries may be outside of the EEA, in which case the Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data will not be applicable.
Information Collection and Use
The purpose of Connect.Me and the Respect Network is to provide you with personal discovery, reputation, data sharing, and other personal networking services (Services). These Services provide you with greater control when you store, manage, and exchange Member Data with other Members of the Respect Network and members of other social networking services.
This Member Data falls into two categories: data from and about you that is collected, processed, and used by Connect.Me on your behalf; and data from and about you that you collect and manage using a third-party Personal Data Service Provider (PDS Provider). Connect.Me will only interchange data with PDS Providers who are Members of the Respect Network and therefore operate subject to the Respect Trust Framework.
Only Member Data that is collected and used by Connect.Me is subject to this Privacy Policy. The second category of Member Data you collect and manage solely with your PDS Provider is subject to the Privacy Policy and any other Local Terms you have with your PDS Provider.
Connect.Me uses Member Data to provide our Services and improve them over time. As provided by the Promise Principle of the Respect Trust Framework, Connect.Me promises to respect your control over any Connect.Me Member Data. Connect.Me only collects the Member Data described in this privacy policy, and only uses it for the purposes set forth in this policy pursuant to the permission you give us when you register with Connect.Me.
Information Collected at Registration: When you create or revise a Member Account with Connect.Me, you provide some information, such as your name, username, password, and email address. Some of this information you provide, for example your name and username, is made available to the public through our Services, such as on a Profile page describing you, your membership, and relationships (Profile Page), as well as in search results.
Access to some Services, such as viewing Profile Pages or search results on the Connect.Me website, does not require registration. Access to these Services is governed by the Connect.Me Terms of Service. The only information collected about non-registered users is described in Log Data, below.
Information Collected from Third-Party Sources: When you configure a Member Account with Connect.Me, you give Connect.Me permission to connect to third-party sources, such as social networking services with which you have an account, to access information about you collected by those third-party sources, such as your social graph information.Ü The current listing of the types of social graph information that we access is set forth at http://connect.me/c/verification.
By giving such permission, you confirm that such information can be shared with Connect.Me pursuant to the terms of service of such third-party sources and applicable law. Connect.Me will not access any information from third party sources for which you have not granted permission, confirmed access authorization, or otherwise consented to Connect.MeÌs collection, processing, and use of such information.
Additional Information: You have the option to provide additional Member Data to include on your Profile Page or share with other Members. You control whether this Member Data is available publicly or its access is restricted. This information may include your photo or avatar, location, mobile phone number or other personal contact information, self-description, and the Tags, Contexts, and Communities you wish to reference to describe you.
In keeping with the Permission Principle of the Respect Trust Framework, we may only use your contact information to send you information about our Services to the extent you have given us permission to do so. You may always adjust your permissions and preferences for the communications you will receive from Connect.Me via your Connect.Me Dashboard.
If you email us, we may retain your message, email address and contact information so that we can respond to your message. Providing information other than required registration information is entirely optional.
Public Information: Our Services are primarily designed to help you and other Members by providing you with a means to create, view, manage, and share your contextual Profile, your Reputation Graph, and other relevant Member Data with other Members or with the public.
Certain of the Member Data about you is required to appear on your publicly available Profile Page in order to comply with the Proof Principle of the Respect Trust Framework. This information that you are consenting to be made public includes your name and username, your photo or avatar (if you provide it), and your Reputation Graph data that is generated by your interaction with the Services and with other Members, including your Tags, Contexts, Communities, Vouches made and received, Complaints made and received, and Trust Level. You should expect that these portions of your Member Data will be broadly and instantly disseminated, so you should exercise caution and care in providing it.
In keeping with the Promise Principle of the Respect Trust Framework, Connect.Me shall provide you with a means to exercise greater control over whether any other Member Data is available to the public or its access is restricted. Such controls will be available through your Connect.Me Dashboard.
Location Information: You have the ability to share the city and country with which you would like to be associated. You may control whether this information is available publicly via your Profile Page or other Connect.Me interface, or its access is restricted.
Log Data: Connect.Me servers automatically record information ("Log Data") created by the Connect.Me systems based on the history of your use of the Services. Log Data may include information such as your IP address, browser type, referring domain, and pages visited. Other actions associated with you, such as your interactions within Connect.Me may also be included in Log Data.
Links: Connect.Me may keep track of how you interact with links across our Services including services offered by third parties by various means. We keep track of this activity to help improve our Services and to detect suspicious or malicious activity.
Cookies: We use "cookie" technology (see description below) to collect additional website usage data and to improve our Services, but may not require cookies for many parts of our Services such as looking at public Profile Pages or searches.
A cookie is a small data file that is transferred to the hard drive of your computer or your other devices. Connect.Me may use both session cookies and persistent cookies to better understand how you interact with our Services, to monitor web traffic that is routed to our Services and aggregate usage by our Members, and to improve our Services. Most Internet browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can edit your options to instruct your browser to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit.
Third Party Services: Connect.Me uses a variety of services hosted by third parties to help provide our Services, such as hosting our various websites and providing analytics. We use some of the services to help us better understand the use of our Services. Among the information collected by these services are posts, comments, interactions, reputation data, third-party cookies, and profile information.
Information Sharing and Disclosure
Your Consent: As required by the Permission Principle of the Respect Trust Framework, you consent that we may share or disclose information from and about you for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
Service Providers: We engage certain third parties to perform functions and provide services to us, such as data collection, analysis, and storage. We may share information collected from and about you with these third parties to the extent necessary to enable them to perform such functions and provide such services.
Law and Potential Harm: We may disclose information from and about you if we believe that it is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation or court order or legal request; to protect the safety and/or rights of any person; to address administrative, technical, fraud, or security issues; or to protect Connect.Me's rights or property.
Business Transfers: In the event that Connect.Me is involved in a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, or bankruptcy, Member Data from and about you may be transferred as part of that transaction. The promises in this Privacy Policy and the Respect Trust Framework will continue to apply to Member Data that is transferred to the new entity.
Non-Private or Non-Personal Information: In addition to the Member Data that we share with your permission, we may share or disclose non-private, aggregated or otherwise non-personal information, such as reputation or activity information.
Accessing and Modifying Member Data
Member Dashboard: In keeping with the Promise Principle of the Respect Trust Framework, Respect Network Members are provided with interfaces to access or modify Member Data. These interfaces will always be available via the Connect.Me Dashboard.
Right of Access and Retraction: You have the right to access all details of the Member DataÜ about you on request and free of charge. This information may be available via your Connect.Me Dashboard or by contacting us at privacy@connect.me. Furthermore, you have the right to correct, delete, or block any incorrect information stored on the Respect Network about you. You may do so via your Connect.Me Dashboard or by contacting us at privacy@connect.me. If you have any questions, please write an email to privacy@connect.me.
Right to Withdraw Your Consent:You have the right to withdraw your declaration of consent regarding the future collection, transfer, correlation, storage, disclosure, disposal and other uses of Member Data pursuant to this Privacy Policy at any time. You may do so by writing an email to privacy@connect.me.
Accessibility: We will log your declaration of consent and keep its content permanently accessible for you. You will always find it in your Member account under your Connect.Me Dashboard.
Security: ConnectMe takes great care to ensure that Member Data is securely handled consistent with these Terms. In addition to ConnectMeÌs efforts directed at protecting Member Data, the Respect Trust Framework is designed to enlist the aid of (and is dependent on) all other Members in assuring that Member Data about you is protected from loss, destruction, distortion/falsification, manipulation and unauthorized access or unauthorized disclosure.
Connect.Me Policy Toward Children
Our Services are not directed to people under 13. If it comes to your attention that your child has provided us with personal information without your consent, please contact us at privacy@connect.me.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If Connect.Me becomes aware that a child under 13 has provided it with personal information, we will take steps to remove such information and terminate the child's account.
Changes to this Policy
We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time, however it must remain compliant with the terms of the Respect Trust Framework, which may only be changed with a vote of the Trust Anchors of the Respect Network as described in the Versioning and Amendments section of that document. See http://openidentityexchange.org/trust-frameworks/respect-trust-framework.
The most current version of the policy that will govern our use of Connect.Me Member Data will always be presented at http://connect.me/c/privacy.
The effective date of this Privacy Policy is listed at the start of this document.
If we make a change to this policy that is reasonably considered material, we will notify you via the communications preferences you have selected in your Connect.Me Dashboard. You may change your Connect.Me communications preferences via your Connect.Me Dashboard at any time.
By continuing to access or use the Services after those changes become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised Privacy Policy.