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Version Date: May 24, 2018
GENERAL
Awkward (“Company” or “we” or “us” or “our”) respects the privacy of its users (“user” or “you”) that use our website located at https://awkward.com, including other media forms, media channels, mobile website or mobile application related or connected thereto (collectively, the “Website”). The following Company privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) is designed to inform you, as a user of the Website, about the types of information that Company may gather about or collect from you in connection with your use of the Website. It also is intended to explain the conditions under which Company uses and discloses that information, and your rights in relation to that information. Changes to this Privacy Policy are discussed at the end of this document. Each time you use the Website, however, the current version of this Privacy Policy will apply. Accordingly, each time you use the Website you should check the date of this Privacy Policy (which appears at the beginning of this document) and review any changes since the last time you used the Website.
The Website is hosted in the United States of America and is subject to U.S. state and federal law. If you are accessing our Website from other jurisdictions, please be advised that you are transferring your personal information to us in the United States, and by using our Website, you consent to that transfer and use of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. You also agree to abide by the applicable laws of applicable states and U.S. federal law concerning your use of the Website and your agreements with us. Any persons accessing our Website from any jurisdiction with laws or regulations governing the use of the Internet, including personal data collection, use and disclosure, different from those of the jurisdictions mentioned above may only use the Website in a manner lawful in their jurisdiction. If your use of the Website would be unlawful in your jurisdiction, please do not use the Website.
BY USING OR ACCESSING THE WEBSITE, YOU ARE ACCEPTING THE PRACTICES DESCRIBED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY.
GATHERING, USE AND DISCLOSURE OF NON-PERSONALLY-IDENTIFYING INFORMATION
Users of the Website Generally
“Non-Personally-Identifying Information” is information that, without the aid of additional information, cannot be directly associated with a specific person. “Personally-Identifying Information,” by contrast, is information such as a name or email address that, without more, can be directly associated with a specific person. Like most website operators, Company gathers from users of the Website Non-Personally-Identifying Information of the sort that Web browsers, depending on their settings, may make available. That information includes the user’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, operating system, browser type and the locations of the websites the user views right before arriving at, while navigating and immediately after leaving the Website. Although such information is not Personally-Identifying Information, it may be possible for Company to determine from an IP address a user’s Internet service provider and the geographic location of the visitor’s point of connectivity as well as other statistical usage data. Company analyzes Non-Personally-Identifying Information gathered from users of the Website to help Company better understand how the Website is being used. By identifying patterns and trends in usage, Company is able to better design the Website to improve users’ experiences, both in terms of content and ease of use. Company may also release the Non-Personally-Identifying Information gathered from Website users in the aggregate, such as ‘Most Popular Articles’ based on usage of the Website.
Web Cookies
A “Web Cookie” is a string of information which assigns you a unique identification that a website stores on a user’s computer, and that the user’s browser provides to the website each time the user submits a query to the website. We use cookies on the Website to keep track of services you have used, to record registration information regarding your login name and password, to record your user preferences, to keep you logged into the Website and to facilitate purchase procedures. Facebook users have the ability to clear their phone’s browsing data by going to Settings > Browser > Clear Data. This clears the phone’s cookies and cache from websites the user has visited while using the Facebook app. Company also uses Web Cookies to track the pages that users visit during each Website session, both to help Company improve users’ experiences and to help Company understand how the Website is being used. As with other Non-Personally-Identifying Information gathered from users of the Website, Company analyzes and discloses in aggregated form information gathered using Web Cookies, so as to help Company, its partners and others better understand how the Website is being used. This website utilizes industry standard analytics packages which gathers limited information on visitors to our website automatically, and stores this anonymous information in server log files. This information may include IP addresses, browser type, basic IP information, referring pages, operating system used and date/time stamps. This information does not identify individual users; it is used only for site administration, as well as for analysis of website usage and trends. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie expires when your browser is closed, and a persistent cookie may stay on your hard drive for an extended period. Session cookies make it easier for you to navigate our site; persistent cookies can perform such activities as storing your password for forums or blogs so you do not have to sign in every time you visit those areas, and/or may be used to enable us to track and target the interests of our users so as to enhance the overall experience of using our site. We have no access to or administration abilities over any cookies that are used by any advertisers on our site. COMPANY USERS WHO DO NOT WISH TO HAVE WEB COOKIES PLACED ON THEIR COMPUTERS SHOULD SET THEIR BROWSERS TO REFUSE WEB COOKIES BEFORE ACCESSING THE WEBSITE, WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT CERTAIN FEATURES OF THE WEBSITE MAY NOT FUNCTION PROPERLY WITHOUT THE AID OF WEB COOKIES. WEBSITE USERS WHO REFUSE WEB COOKIES ASSUME ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY RESULTING LOSS OF FUNCTIONALITY.
Third-Party Advertisers
We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit the Website. These companies may use information (not including any Personally-Identifying Information) about your visits to the Website and other websites that are contained in Web Cookies in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. Using a tool created by the Network Advertising Initiative, you can opt out of several third-party ad servers’ and networks’ Web Cookies simultaneously. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please follow the following links: http://networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp, http://preferences-mgr.truste.com/, or http://www.aboutads.info/choices/. Please contact us if you would like to know the identity of the third-party advertising companies we are currently using to serve ads.
We may allow advertisers to choose the characteristics of users who will see their advertisements, and we may use any of the Non-Personally Identifying Information we have collected (including information you may have decided not to show to other users, such as your birth year or other sensitive personal information or preferences) to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements. We do not identify you to the advertiser. We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads and collect information when you visit this website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. For more information about this practice and to understand your opt-out choices, please click here. We also use third party cookies to store and collect information when you visit this website for tracking purposes. The companies may use information (not including your name, address or telephone number) about your visits to this site.
Web Beacons
A “Web Beacon” is an object that is embedded in a web page or email that is usually invisible to the user and allows website operators to check whether a user has viewed a particular web page or an email. Company may use Web Beacons on the Website and in emails to count users who have visited particular pages, viewed emails and to deliver co-branded services. Web Beacons are not used to access users’ Personally-Identifying Information. They are a technique Company may use to compile aggregated statistics about Website usage. Web Beacons collect only a limited set of information, including a Web Cookie number, time and date of a page or email view and a description of the page or email on which the Web Beacon resides. You may not decline Web Beacons. However, they can be rendered ineffective by declining all Web Cookies or modifying your browser setting to notify you each time a Web Cookie is tendered, permitting you to accept or decline Web Cookies on an individual basis.
Analytics
We may use third-party vendors, including Google, who use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to inform, optimize and serve ads based on your past activity on the Website, including Google Analytics for Display Advertising. The information collected may be used to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content and better understand online activity. If you do not want any information to be collected and used by Google Analytics, you can install an opt-out in your web browser (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/) and/or opt out from Google Analytics for Display Advertising or the Google Display Network by using Google’s Ads Settings (www.google.com/settings/ads).
Aggregated and Non-Personally-Identifying Information
We may share aggregated and Non-Personally Identifying Information we collect under any of the above circumstances. We may also share it with third parties and our affiliate companies to develop and deliver targeted advertising on the Website and on websites of third parties. We may combine Non-Personally Identifying Information we collect with additional Non-Personally Identifying Information collected from other sources. We also may share aggregated information with third parties, including advisors, advertisers and investors, for the purpose of conducting general business analysis. For example, we may tell our advertisers the number of visitors to the Website and the most popular features or services accessed. This information does not contain any Personally-Identifying Information and may be used to develop website content and services that we hope you and other users will find of interest and to target content and advertising.
Mobile Device Additional Terms
SOCIAL MEDIA
We may provide you the option to connect your account on the Website to your account on some social networking sites for the purpose of logging in, uploading information or enabling certain features on the Website. When logging in using your social network credentials, we may collect the Personally-Identifying Information you have made publicly available on the social networking site, such as your name, profile picture, cover photo, username, gender, friends network, age range, locale, friend list and any other information you have made public. Once connected, other users may also be able to see information about your social network, such as the size of your network and your friends, including common friends. By connecting your account on the Website to your account on any social networking site, you hereby consent to the continuous release of information about you to us. We will not send any of your account information to the connected social networking site without first disclosing that to you. Each social network may further allow you to set privacy controls around your information on their system, and our collection of information will always follow such controls and permissions. This feature is subject to continuous change and improvement by us and each social networking site involved, and therefore the available features and shared information are subject to change without notice to you.
We may use hyperlinks on the Website which will redirect you to a social network if you click on the respective link. However, when you click on a social plug-in, such as Facebook’s “Like” button, Twitter’s “tweet” button or the Google+, that particular social network’s plugin will be activated and your browser will directly connect to that provider’s servers. If you do not use these buttons, none of your data will be sent to the respective social network’s plugin provider. So for example, when you click on the Facebook’s “Like” button on the Website, Facebook will receive your IP address, the browser version and screen resolution, and the operating system of the device you have used to access the Website. Settings regarding privacy protection can be found on the websites of these social networks and are not within our control.
COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE OF PERSONALLY-IDENTIFYING INFORMATION
Website Registration
As defined above, Personally-Identifying Information is information that can be directly associated with a specific person. Company may collect a range of Personally-Identifying Information from and about Website users. Much of the Personally-Identifying Information collected by Company about users is information provided by users themselves when (1) registering for our service, (2) logging in with social network credentials, (3) participating in polls, contests, surveys or other features of our service, or responding to offers or advertisements, (4) communicating with us, (5) creating a public profile or (6) signing up to receive newsletters. That information may include each user’s name, address, email address and telephone number, and, if you transact business with us, financial information such as your payment method (valid credit card number, type, expiration date or other financial information). We also may request information about your interests and activities, your gender, age, date of birth, username, hometown and other demographic or relevant information as determined by Company from time to time. Users of the Website are under no obligation to provide Company with Personally-Identifying Information of any kind, with the caveat that a user’s refusal to do so may prevent the user from using certain Website features.
BY REGISTERING WITH OR USING THE WEBSITE, YOU CONSENT TO THE USE AND DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONALLY-IDENTIFYING INFORMATION AS DESCRIBED IN THIS “COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE OF PERSONALLY-IDENTIFYING INFORMATION” SECTION.
Online Postings
Certain Personally-Identifying Information collected from users may be disclosed as a matter of course as a result of your use of the Website. We may provide areas on the Website where you can post reviews and other information relating to your activities on the Website. Such postings are governed by our Terms of Use. In addition, such postings may appear on other websites or when searches are executed on the subject of your posting. Also, whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information on publicly-viewable web pages, that information will be publicly available and can be collected and used by others. For example, if you post your email address, you may receive unsolicited messages. We cannot control who reads your posting or what other users may do with the information you voluntarily post, so we encourage you to exercise discretion and caution with respect to your personal information. USERS ASSUME ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY LOSS OF PRIVACY OR OTHER HARM RESULTING FROM THEIR VOLUNTARY DISCLOSURE OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFYING INFORMATION.
Company Communications
We may occasionally use your name and email address to send you notifications regarding new services offered by the Website that we think you may find valuable. We may also send you service-related announcements from time to time through the general operation of the service. Generally, you may opt out of such emails at the time of registration or through your account settings, though we reserve the right to send you notices about your account, such as service announcements and administrative messages, even if you opt out of all voluntary email notifications.
Company Disclosures
Company will disclose Personally-Identifying Information under the following circumstances:
Changing Personally-Identifying Information; Account Termination
You may at any time review or change your Personally-Identifying Information by going to your account settings (if applicable) or contacting us using the contact information below. Upon your request, we will deactivate or delete your account and contact information from our active databases. Such information will be deactivated or deleted as soon as practicable based on your account activity and accordance with our deactivation policy and applicable law. To make this request, either go to your account settings (if applicable) or contact us as provided below. We will retain in our files some Personally-Identifying Information to prevent fraud, to troubleshoot problems, to assist with any investigations, to enforce our Terms of Use and to comply with legal requirements as is permitted by law. Therefore, you should not expect that all your Personally-Identifying Information will be completely removed from our databases in response to your requests. Additionally, we keep a history of changed information to investigate suspected fraud with your account.
General Use
Company uses the Personally-Identifying Information in the file we maintain about you, and other information we obtain from your current and past activities on the Website (1) to deliver the products and services that you have requested; (2) to manage your account and provide you with customer support; (3) to communicate with you by email, postal mail, telephone and/or mobile devices about products or services that may be of interest to you either from us, our affiliate companies or other third parties; (4) to develop and display content and advertising tailored to your interests on the Website and other sites; (5) to resolve disputes and troubleshoot problems; (6) to measure consumer interest in our services; (7) to inform you of updates; (8) to customize your experience; (9) to detect and protect us against error, fraud and other criminal activity; (10) to enforce our Terms of Use; and (11) to do as otherwise described to you at the time of collection. At times, we may look across multiple users to identify problems. In particular, we may examine your Personally-Identifying Information to identify users using multiple user IDs or aliases. We may compare and review your Personally-Identifying Information for accuracy and to detect errors and omissions. We may use financial information or payment method to process payment for any purchases made on the Website, enroll you in the discount, rebate, and other programs in which you elect to participate, to protect against or identify possible fraudulent transactions and otherwise as needed to manage our business.
COLLECTION AND USE OF INFORMATION BY THIRD PARTIES GENERALLY
Company contractually prohibits its contractors, affiliates, vendors and suppliers from disclosing Personally-Identifying Information received from Company, other than in accordance with this Privacy Policy. However, third parties are under no obligation to comply with this Privacy Policy with respect to Personally-Identifying Information that users provide directly to those third parties, or that those third parties collect for themselves. These third parties include advertisers, providers of games, utilities, widgets and a variety of other third-party applications accessible through the Website. Company neither owns nor controls the third-party websites and applications accessible through the Website. Thus, this Privacy Policy does not apply to information provided to or gathered by the third parties that operate them. Before visiting a third party, or using a third-party application, whether by means of a link on the Website, directly through the Website or otherwise, and before providing any Personally-Identifying Information to any such third party, users should inform themselves of the privacy policies and practices (if any) of the third party responsible for that website or application, and should take those steps necessary to, in those users’ discretion, protect their privacy.
SECURITY
We take the security of your Personally-Identifying Information seriously and use reasonable electronic, personnel and physical measures to protect it from loss, theft, alteration or misuse. However, please be advised that even the best security measures cannot fully eliminate all risks. We cannot guarantee that only authorized persons will view your information. We are not responsible for third-party circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures.
We are dedicated to protect all information on the Website as is necessary. However, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Personally-Identifying Information by keeping your password confidential. You should change your password immediately if you believe someone has gained unauthorized access to it or your account. If you lose control of your account, you should notify us immediately.
PRIVACY POLICY CHANGES
Company may, in its sole discretion, change this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any and all changes to Company’s Privacy Policy will be reflected on this page and the date new versions are posted will be stated at the top of this Privacy Policy. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account. Users should regularly check this page for any changes to this Privacy Policy. Company will always post new versions of the Privacy Policy on the Website. However, Company may, as determined in its discretion, decide to notify users of changes made to this Privacy Policy via email or otherwise. Accordingly, it is important that users always maintain and update their contact information.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) protects the online privacy of children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect or maintain Personally-Identifying Information from anyone under the age of 13, unless or except as permitted by law. Any person who provides Personally-Identifying Information through the Website represents to us that he or she is 13 years of age or older. If we learn that Personally-Identifying Information has been collected from a user under 13 years of age on or through the Website, then we will take the appropriate steps to cause this information to be deleted. If you are the parent or legal guardian of a child under 13 who has become a member of the Website or has otherwise transferred Personally-Identifying Information to the Website, please contact Company using our contact information below to have that child’s account terminated and information deleted.
CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the “Shine The Light” law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about the Personally-Identifying Information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. If applicable, this information would include a list of the categories of the Personally-Identifying Information that was shared and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared Personally-Identifying Information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to our privacy officer as listed below.
DO-NOT-TRACK POLICY
Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems include a Do-Not-Track (“DNT”) feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. Because there is not yet a common understanding of how to interpret the DNT signal, the Website currently does not respond to DNT browser signals or mechanisms.
CONTACT
If you have any questions regarding our Privacy Policy, please contact our Privacy Officer on our Contact Us form.