Effective date
This policy is effective as of 25 March 2009.
Cleversquirrel principles
Cleversquirrel follows three core principles:
1. You should have control over your personal information.
Cleversquirrel helps you share information with your friends and your favourite charity. You choose what information you put in your profile, including contact and personal information, pictures and interests. And you control the members with whom you share that information through the privacy settings on the Privacy page.
2. You should have access to the information others want to share. There is an increasing amount of information available out there, and you may want to know what relates to you, your friends, and people around you. We want to help you easily get that information. Sharing information should be easy. And we want to provide you with the privacy tools necessary to control how and with whom you share that information.
3. Maximum publicity is given to charities.
All charity pages are visible by anyone registered on the Site but you can only post comments to your favourite charity. Donations received by charities from Cleversquirrel are always visible. But you have the option to hide the donations you've been responsible for generating for charity.
Safe use of Cleversquirrel
Information for members and parents about staying safe on Cleversquirrel is found in the section entitled Safety towards the bottom of the Help page.
Cleversquirrel's privacy policy
Cleversquirrel's Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand how we collect and use the personal information you decide to share, and help you make informed decisions when using Cleversquirrel, located at www.cleversquirrel.com and its directly associated domains (collectively, "Cleversquirrel" or "Web Site").
By using or accessing Cleversquirrel, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy. This privacy statement covers the site www.cleversquirrel.com and its directly associated domains. If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact our privacy staff.
Information we collect
When you visit Cleversquirrel, you provide us with two types of information:
- personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected by us
- Web Site use information collected by us as you interact with our Web Site
When you register with Cleversquirrel, you provide us with certain personal information, such as your name, your email address, your telephone number, your address, your gender, and any other personal or preference information that you provide to us.
When you enter Cleversquirrel, we collect your browser type and IP address. This information is gathered for all Cleversquirrel visitors. In addition, we store certain information from your browser using "cookies". A cookie is a piece of data stored on the member's computer tied to information about the member. We use session ID cookies to confirm that members are logged in. These cookies terminate once the member closes the browser. By default, we use a persistent cookie that stores your login ID (but not your password) to make it easier for you to login when you come back to Cleversquirrel. You can remove or block this cookie using the settings in your browser if you want to disable this convenience feature. When you use Cleversquirrel, you may set up your personal profile, form relationships, post comments and perform searches. We collect this information so that we can provide you the service and offer personalised features. In most cases, we retain it so that, for instance, you can return to view prior messages you have sent or easily see your friend list. When you update information, we usually keep a backup copy of the prior version for a reasonable period of time to enable reversion to the prior version of that information.
You post Member Content (as defined in the Cleversquirrel Terms of Use) on the Site at your own risk. Although we allow you to set privacy options that limit access to your pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. We cannot control the actions of other Members with whom you may choose to share your pages and information. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that Member Content you post on the Site will not be viewed by unauthorised persons. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site. You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal, copies of Member Content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other Members have copied or stored your Member Content.
Any improper collection or misuse of information provided on Cleversquirrel is a violation of the Cleversquirrel Terms of Use and should be reported using our contact us form. If you choose to use our invitation service to tell a friend about our site, we will ask you for information needed to send the invitation, such as your friend's email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email or instant message inviting him or her to visit the site. Cleversquirrel stores this information to send this one-time invitation, to register a friend connection if your invitation is accepted, and to track the success of our referral program. Your friend may contact us to request that we remove this information from our database.
Cleversquirrel may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other members of the Cleversquirrel service through the operation of the service (eg photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalised experience.
By using Cleversquirrel, you are consenting to have your personal data transferred to and processed in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Use of information obtained by Cleversquirrel
When you register with Cleversquirrel, you create your own profile and privacy settings. Your profile information, as well as your name, email and photo, are displayed to people in the networks specified in your privacy settings to enable you to connect with people on Cleversquirrel. We may occasionally use your name and email address to send you notifications regarding new services offered by Cleversquirrel that we think you may find valuable.
Profile information is used by Cleversquirrel primarily to be presented back to and edited by you when you access the service and to be presented to others permitted to view that information by your privacy settings. In some cases where your privacy settings permit it (eg posting comments), other Cleversquirrel members may be able to supplement your profile.
Profile information you submit to Cleversquirrel will be available to members of Cleversquirrel who you've confirmed as your friend. However, you can remain anonymous or block them from seeing your profile. Your favourite charity is automatically entitled to see your information without you having to confirm them as your friend. Your name and profile picture thumbnail will be available in search results across the Cleversquirrel network. This is primarily so your friends can find you and send a friend request. People who see your name in searches, however, will not be able to access your profile information unless you have confirmed them as your friend, with access being based on your privacy settings.
Cleversquirrel may send you service-related announcements from time to time through the general operation of the service. For instance, if a friend posts you a comment, you may receive an email alerting you to that fact.
Generally, you may opt out of such emails from your Settings page, though Cleversquirrel reserves the right to send you notices about your account even if you opt out of all voluntary email notifications. Cleversquirrel may use information in your profile without identifying you as an individual to third parties. We do this for purposes such as aggregating how many people are supporting a particular charity, and personalising advertisements and promotions that we may provide you.
We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services and other members of Cleversquirrel, to supplement your profile. Where such information is used, we generally allow you to specify in your privacy settings that you do not want this to be done or to take other actions that limit the connection of this information to your profile.
Sharing your information with third parties
Cleversquirrel is about sharing information with others - friends and charities - while providing you with privacy settings that restrict other members from accessing your information. We allow you to choose the information you provide to friends and charities through Cleversquirrel. Our network architecture and your privacy settings allow you to make informed choices about who has access to your information. We do not provide contact information to third party marketers without your permission. We share your information with third parties only in limited circumstances where we believe such sharing is 1) reasonably necessary to offer the service, 2) legally required or, 3) permitted by you.
In some circumstances, the Financial Services Authority and/or other regulatory/governing bodies may require us to supply information for the purposes of compliance monitoring and consent to us releasing such information.
We may provide information to service providers to help us bring you the services we offer. Specifically, we may use third parties to facilitate our business, such as to host the service at a co-location facility for servers, to send out email updates about Cleversquirrel, to remove repetitive information from our member lists, to offer an online job application process, or to provide search results or links (including sponsored links). In connection with these offerings and business operations, our service providers may have access to your personal information for use for a limited time in connection with these business activities. Where we utilise third parties for the processing of any personal information, we implement reasonable contractual and technical protections limiting the use of that information to the Cleversquirrel-specified purposes.
We may occasionally provide demonstration accounts that allow non-members a glimpse into the Cleversquirrel world. Such accounts have only limited capabilities and passwords are changed regularly to limit possible misuse.
We may be required to disclose member information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We do not reveal information until we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the Cleversquirrel service or using the Cleversquirrel name, or to prevent imminent bodily harm. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.
If the ownership of all or substantially all of the Cleversquirrel business, or individual business units owned by Cleversquirrel were to change, your member information may be transferred to the new owner so the service can continue operations. In any such transfer of information, your member information would remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Policy.
When you use Cleversquirrel, certain information you post or share with third parties (eg a friend), such as personal information, comments, messages, photos, videos or other information, may be shared with other members in accordance with the privacy settings you select. All such sharing of information is done at your own risk. Please keep in mind that if you disclose personal information in your profile or when posting comments, messages, photos, videos or other items, this information may become publicly available.
Links
Cleversquirrel may contain links to other websites. We are of course not responsible for the privacy practices of other web sites. We encourage our members to be aware when they leave our site to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by Cleversquirrel.
Changing or removing information
Access and control over most personal information on Cleversquirrel is readily available through the profile editing tools in the Settings area. Cleversquirrel members may modify or delete their profile information at any time by logging into their account, although some information must always remain (eg name, email address). Information will be updated immediately.
Individuals who wish to deactivate their Cleversquirrel account may do so through the Settings area. Your account will be closed as soon as you deactivate your account, although it can take up to 48 hours to take full effect. From this point, your profile will not be generally available to members of Cleversquirrel. To protect your privacy, all your personal details including any photos you've uploaded will be removed from the site, and the links you have with your favourite charity and your friends will be cancelled. If you've listed any policies, unallocated adviser charges received after you've deactivated your account will continue to be donated to your favourite charity. Summary details of your policies will be held separately in a secure database and won't be available to view on this site. At any time, you can stop these donations by asking your provider to change the agent for your policies. Alternatively, appoint a suitably licensed financial adviser to take over the charges. If you rejoin Cleversquirrel at a later date with the same email address, you'll be re-linked to your original introducer.
Where you make use of the communication features of the service to share information with other individuals on Cleversquirrel (eg posting a comment), you generally cannot remove such communications.
Security
Cleversquirrel takes appropriate precautions to protect our members' information. Your account information is located on a secured server behind a firewall. When you enter sensitive information (such as policy numbers or your password), we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). To learn more about SSL, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer. Because email is not recognised as secure communications, we request that you not send private information to us by email. If you have any questions about the security of Cleversquirrel Web Site, please contact us.
Terms of use, notices and revisions
Your use of Cleversquirrel, and any disputes arising from it, is subject to this Privacy Policy as well as our Terms of Use and all of its dispute resolution provisions including arbitration, limitation on damages and choice of law. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use at any time. Non-material changes and clarifications will take effect immediately, and material changes will take effect within 30 days of their posting on this site. If we make changes, we will post them and will indicate at the top of this page the policy's new effective date. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or through notice on our home page. We encourage you to refer to this policy on an ongoing basis so that you understand our current privacy policy. Unless stated otherwise, our current privacy policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account.
Contacting us
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact us using any of the following methods:
Address: Cleversquirrel, PO Box 871, Horsham, RH12 9GB
Fax: 01403 754247
Email: contact us
Phone:01403 274323 « Back to Home Page |