SmartBid provides this Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies and procedures
regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information we receive
from users of SmartBid. This
Privacy Policy applies only to information that you provide to us through this Site.
This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. We will notify you of
any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on the Site. You are
advised to consult this policy regularly for any changes. Unless otherwise defined
in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings
as in our SmartBid Terms of
Service.
As used in this policy, the terms “using” and “processing” information include using
cookies on a computer, subjecting the information to statistical or other analysis
and using or handling information in any way, including, but not limited to collecting,
storing, evaluating, modifying, deleting, using, combining, disclosing and transferring
information within our organization or among our affiliates within the United States
or internationally.
Information Collection and Use
Our primary goals in collecting information are to provide and improve our Site,
services, features and content, to administer your Membership (together, the “Service”)
and to enable users to enjoy and easily navigate the Site.
Personally Identifiable Information
o When you register with us through the Site, as a SmartBid Subscriber or when you
choose to create your own profile webpage we will ask you for personally identifiable
information. This refers to information about you that can be used to contact
or identify you (“Personal Information”). Personal Information includes, but
is not limited to, your name, username, phone number, credit card or other billing
information, email address and home and business postal addresses, and any other
information that you decide to add to your profile webpage. We use your Personal
Information mainly to provide the Service and administer your inquiries.
o We also collect the other information that you provide as part of registration
and the administration and personalization of the My Account webpage (e.g., without
limitation, zip code (on its own) and individual preferences) (“Non-Identifying
Information”).
o We use your Personal Information (in some cases, in conjunction with your Non-Identifying
Information) mainly to provide the Service, complete your transactions, and administer
your inquiries.
o We may also collect information regarding your activity on the Site, such as your
bidding history, auctions participated in, auctions won/lost, prices paid, bids
used and other similar information associated with your username. We use such information
solely in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
o Certain Non-Identifying Information would be considered a part of your Personal
Information if it were combined with other identifiers (for example, combining your
zip code with your street address) in a way that enables you to be identified.
But the same pieces of information are considered Non-Identifying Information when
they are taken alone or combined only with other non-identifying information (for
example, your viewing preferences). We may combine your Personal Information
with Non-Identifying Information and aggregate it with information collected from
other SmartBid Users (defined below) to attempt to provide you with a better experience,
to improve the quality and value of the Service and to analyze and understand how
our Site and Service are used. We may also use the combined information without
aggregating it to serve you specifically, for instance to deliver a product to you
according to your preferences or restrictions.
We also use your Personal Information to contact you with SmartBid newsletters,
marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest
to you. If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive such
communications from us, please follow the unsubscribe instructions provided in any
of the communications or update your “email preferences” information in your
account.
o Log Data. When you visit the Site, whether as a SmartBid Subscriber or a
non-registered user just browsing (any of these, a “SmartBid User”), our servers
automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website
(“Log Data”). This Log Data may include information such as your computer’s
Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type or the webpage you were visiting
before you came to our Site, pages of our Site that you visit, the time spent on
those pages, information you search for on our Site, access times and dates, and
other statistics. We use this information to monitor and analyze use of the
Site and the Service and for the Site’s technical administration, to increase our
Site’s functionality and user-friendliness, and to better tailor it to our visitors’
needs. For example, some of this information is collected so that when you
visit the Site again, it will recognize you and serve advertisements and other information
appropriate to your interests. We also use this information to verify that
visitors to the Site meet the criteria required to process their requests.
[We do not treat Log Data as Personal Information or use it in association with
other Personal Information, though we may aggregate, analyze and evaluate such information
for the same purposes as stated above regarding other Non-Identifying Information.]
Cookies
Like many websites, we use “cookies” to collect information. A cookie is a
small data file that we transfer to your computer’s hard disk for record-keeping
purposes. We use cookies for two purposes. First, we utilize persistent
cookies to save your registration ID for future logins to the Site. Second,
we utilize persistent ID cookies to enable certain features of the Site, to better
understand how you interact with the Site and to monitor aggregate usage by SmartBid
Users and web traffic routing on the Site. Third party advertisers on the Site may
also place or read cookies on your browser. You can instruct your browser,
by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting
a cookie from the websites you visit. If you do not accept cookies, however,
you may not be able to use all portions of the Site or all functionality of the
Service.
Emailing Via a SmartBid Account
As part of the Service, SmartBid Subscribers may choose to communicate with SmartBid
Subscribers and non-registered users through use of their accounts. Where
SmartBid Subscribers have selected the option of adding one or more email addresses
to an online form, the message they create in the corresponding template will be
sent from SmartBid to those email addresses on their behalf. These email addresses
will be stored in the address book the SmartBid Subscriber creates and will be used
only for the purpose of sending the email communication to the addressee.
Inviting Friends Via a SmartBid Account
As part of the Service, we may allow SmartBid Subscribers to invite friends to participate
in SmartBid service. When SmartBid Subscribers have selected the option of adding
one or more email addresses to an online form or via an address book import, the
resulting invites will be sent to those email addresses on their behalf. These
email addresses will be stored in the import friends function that SmartBid creates
and will be used only for the purpose of sending the email invite to the addressee(s)
selected by the SmartBid Subscribers.
Phishing
Identity theft and the practice currently known as “phishing” are of great concern
to SmartBid. Safeguarding information to help protect you from identity theft
is a top priority. We do not and will not, at any time, request your credit
card information, your account ID, login password, or national identification numbers
in a non-secure or unsolicited e-mail or telephone communication. For more
information about phishing, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website.
Information Sharing and Disclosure
SmartBid Users. When you register through the Site and submit
your Personal Information to create a profile webpage, SmartBid Users will see your
“Screen Name” and the month and year you first registered with SmartBid (“Required
Subscriber Identifiers”). You can choose what other Personal Information you provide
as part of your profile (“Other Subscriber Information”) and in some cases you can
choose whether to share that information publicly on the Site by making selections
via the “user preferences” section of your profile webpage. Providing Other
Subscriber Information is voluntary and should correlate with the degree of interaction
you want to have with SmartBid Users. We recommend that you guard your anonymity
and sensitive information and that you not use your real name as your “Screen Name,”
since that would allow others to identify you.
Auction Data and Bidding History. We may share information
on your bidding history, auctions participated in, auctions won/lost, prices paid,
bids used and other similar information associated with your username, for the purpose
of providing SmartBid Users with information designed to help in the formulation
of bidding strategies, in accordance with the options selected by you when creating
your user account and profile.
Aggregate Information and Non-Identifying Information. We
may share aggregated information that does not include Personal Information and
we may otherwise disclose Non-Identifying Information and Log Data with third parties
for industry analysis, demographic profiling and other purposes. Any aggregated
information shared in these contexts will not contain your Personal Information.
Service Providers. We may employ third party companies and
individuals to facilitate our Service, to provide the Service on our behalf, to
perform Site-related services (e.g., without limitation, maintenance services, database
management, fulfillment, web analytics and improvement of the Site’s features) or
to assist us in analyzing how our Site and Service are used. These third parties
have access to your Personal Information only to perform these tasks on our behalf
and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose. [We may also
provide Personal Information to our business partners or other trusted entities
for the purpose of providing you with information on goods or services we believe
will be of interest to you. You can, at any time, opt out of receiving such
communications.]
Compliance with Laws and Law Enforcement. SmartBid cooperates
with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and
comply with the law. We will disclose any information about you to government
or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe
necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not
limited to subpoenas), to protect the property and rights of SmartBid or a third
party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop
activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, any illegal, unethical
or legally actionable activity.
Business Transfers. SmartBid may sell, transfer or otherwise
share some or all of its assets, including your Personal Information, in connection
with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets or in the event of
bankruptcy.
Security
SmartBid is very concerned with safeguarding your information. We employ administrative,
physical and electronic measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized
access.
We will make any legally required disclosures of any breach of the security, confidentiality,
or integrity of your unencrypted electronically stored “personal data” (as defined
in applicable state statutes on security breach notification) to you via email or
conspicuous posting on this Site in the most expedient time possible and without
unreasonable delay, insofar as consistent with (i) the legitimate needs of law enforcement
or (ii) any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore
the reasonable integrity of the data system.
International Transfer
Your information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers
located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction
where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction.
If you are located outside the United States and choose to provide information to
us, SmartBid transfers Personal Information to the United States and processes it
there. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of
such information represents your agreement to that transfer.
Links to Other Sites
Our Site contains links to other websites. If you choose to visit an advertiser
by “clicking on” a banner ad or other type of advertisement, or click on another
third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s website. The fact
that we link to a website or present a banner ad or other type of advertisement
is not an endorsement, authorization or representation of our affiliation with
that third party, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information
security policies or practices. We do not exercise control over third party
websites. These other websites may place their own cookies or other files on
your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you. They may
also use JavaScript, web beacons (also known as action tags or single-pixel
gifs), and other technologies to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to
personalize advertising content. Other sites follow different rules regarding
the use or disclosure of the personal information you submit to them. We
encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites
you visit.
Our Policy Toward Children
This Site is not directed to children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personally
identifiable information from children under 13. If a parent or guardian becomes
aware that his or her child has provided us with Personal Information without their
consent, he or she should
contact us. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us
with Personal Information, we will delete such information from our files.
Contacting Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please
contact us.
