Privacy Policy
Last Updated: October 18, 2007
Our Privacy Policy
Our 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 design:related located at www.designrelated.com ("design:related" or "Web site").
By using or accessing design:related (designrelated.com), you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
The Information We Collect
When you visit designrelated.com you provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected by us and Web Site use information collected by us as you interact with our Web Site.
When you register with design:related, you provide us with certain personal information, such as your name, your email address, your telephone number, your address, your gender, schools attended and any other personal or preference information that you provide to us.
When you enter design:related we collect your browser type and IP address. This information is gathered for all design:related visitors. In addition, we store certain information from your browser using "cookies." A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. We use session ID cookies to confirm that users are logged in. These cookies terminate once the user 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 design:related. You can remove or block this cookie using the settings in your browser if you want to disable this convenience feature.
When you use design:related, you may form relationships, send messages, perform searches and queries, and transmit information through various channels. We collect this information so that we can provide you the service and offer personalized 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.
If you post personally identifiable information in areas of the site accessible to other users, you should be aware that such information can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums, and could be used improperly to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums or for others’ misuse of such information. Any misuse or improper collection of information provided on design:related is a violation of the design:related Terms of Service and should be reported through our contact page.
If you choose to use our invitation service to tell a friend about our site, we will ask you for your friend’s email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the site. design:related stores this information to send this one-time email, to register a friend connection if your invitation is accepted, and to track the success of our referral program. Your friend may contact us at info@designrelated.com to request that we remove this information from our database.
design:related may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the design:related service through the operation of the service in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience.
By using design:related, you are consenting to have your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States.
Members Under Age of 17
Design:related does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register. If you are under 17, please do not send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under age 17 is allowed to provide any personal information to or on design:related. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 17 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 17, please contact us at info@designrelated.
Members Between the Ages of 17 and 18
We recommend that minors who are 17 years old ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet.
Use of Information Obtained by design:related
When you register with design:related, 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 design:related. We may occasionally use your name and email address to send you notifications regarding new services offered by design:related that we think you may find valuable.
Profile information is used by design:related 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 (e.g., posting comments or critiques), other design:related users may be able to supplement your profile.
Design:related will send you only service-related announcements from time to time through the general operation of the service.
Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to deactivate your account.
Design:related may use information in your profile without identifying you as an individual to third parties. We do this for purposes such as aggregating. We believe this benefits you. You can know more about the world around you and, where there are advertisements, they're more likely to be interesting to you. For example, if you put a favorite movie in your profile, we might serve you an advertisement highlighting a screening of a similar one in your town. But we don't tell the movie company who you are.
Sharing Your Information with Third Parties
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. For example:
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 design:related, to remove repetitive information from our user lists, to process payments for products or services, 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 utilize third parties for the processing of any personal information, we implement reasonable contractual and technical protections limiting the use of that information to the design:related-specified purposes.
We may be required to disclose user 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 design:related service or using the design:related name, or to prevent imminent bodily harm. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.
We may offer stores or provide services jointly with other companies on design:related. You can tell when another company is involved in any store or service provided on design:related, and we may share customer information with that company in connection with your use of that store or service.
If the ownership of all or substantially all of the design:related business, or individual business units owned by design:related, Inc., were to change, your user information may be transferred to the new owner so the service can continue operations. In any such transfer of information, your user information would remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Policy.
Links
Design:related may contain links to other websites. We are of course not responsible for the privacy practices of other web sites. We encourage our users 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 design:related.
Third Party Advertising
Advertisements that appear on design:related are sometimes delivered (or "served") directly to users by third party advertisers. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. These third party advertisers may also download cookies to your computer, or use other technologies such as JavaScript and "web beacons" (also known as "1x1 gifs") to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. Doing this allows the advertising network to recognize your computer each time they send you an advertisement in order to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. In this way, they may compile information about where individuals using your computer or browser saw their advertisements and determine which advertisements are clicked. design:related does not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed by the third party advertisers. Third party advertisers have no access to your contact information stored on design:related unless you choose to share it with them.
This privacy policy covers the use of cookies by design:related and does not cover the use of cookies or other tracking technologies by any of its advertisers.
Changing or Removing Information
Access and control over most personal information on design:related is readily available through the profile editing tools. design:related users may modify or remove any of their profile information at any time by logging into their account. Information will be updated immediately. Individuals who wish to deactivate their design:related account may do so on the My Account page. Removed information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time but will not be generally available to members of design:related.
Where you make use of the communication features of the service to share information with other individuals on design:related, however, (e.g., posting on someone else's Wall) you generally cannot remove such communications.
Security
Design:related takes appropriate precautions to protect our users' information. Your account information is located on a secured server behind a firewall.
User Privacy Settings
Users who chose to have "high" privacy will have accounts that will only be able to be viewed by friends/colleagues accepted by the user. Portfolio and Profile thumbnails that are collected at the time of project upload will be shown public on sections of the site, however, the detail page will not be accessible to those outside of the user's friend/colleague network. Any short meta data that is collected with portfolio projects may also be displayed with thumbnails. Projects that are truly private should be posted at the risk of the user. Design:related staff holds the right to view private accounts for moderating purposes.
Terms of Use, Notices and Revisions
If you choose to visit design:related, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages, arbitration of, and application of law of the state of New York. 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 effective date. We therefore 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.
