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Privacy Policy

TrekStorm Private Policy

TrekStorm.com ("TrekStorm", "us" or "we") respects the privacy of the visitors to the website.

This privacy policy (the "Privacy Policy") is intended to inform you of our policies and practices regarding the collection, use and disclosure of any Personal Information and Anonymous Information you submit to us through our Services. Unless otherwise defined herein, capitalized terms shall have the meanings assigned to such terms set forth in the Disclaimer for the TrekStorm Services (http://www.trekstorm.com/disclaimer/) ("Disclaimer").

"Personal Information" is information about you that is personally identifiable to you like your name, address, e-mail address, gender, birthday, personal activities, interests, and favorites, or phone number, as well as other non-public information that is associated with the foregoing.

"Anonymous Information" means information that is not associated with or linked to your Personal Information; Anonymous Information does not permit the identification of individual persons.

We collect and use Personal Information and Anonymous Information as described in this Privacy Policy.

User Consent

By submitting Personal Information through our Services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and you expressly consent to the processing of your Personal Information according to this Privacy Policy and you agree to the TrekStorm Disclaimer located at http://www.trekstorm.com/disclaimer/.

Your Personal Information may be processed by us in the country where it was collected as well as other countries (including Canada) where laws regarding processing of Personal Information may be less stringent than the laws in your country.

Personal Information You Provide to Us

TrekStorm does not collect any Personal Information about you (such as your name, email address, age, preferences, etc.) except when you specifically and knowingly provide such information. The Personal Information we gather from you helps us learn about our members and potential members of our community. We collect Personal Information that you submit to us voluntarily through our Service. The types of Personal Information we collect are:

  • When you sign up for our TrekStorm Services, we will collect your email address (optional).

  • When you personalize your TrekStorm Profile, we will collect any information you provide, such as your name, email address, Twitter account, home base, gender or date of birth, and any other optional information about you, such as personal activities, interests, and favorites.

  • When you enter any information, including Personal Information, into any postings or comments within the TrekStorm Services, we will collect such information and this information might be available for some, a subgroup of, or even all members of the TrekStorm Services, depending on how and where this information was posted by you (see Use of Information below).

  • When you become a sponsor of the Website, information needed to process payment of your sponsorship fee is collected, including name, address, and credit card number.

  • When you leave us feedback, we will collect any information that is contained in your feedback.

  • When you contact us by sending us an e-mail, we will collect your e-mail address and any information contained in the e-mail you send us.

    • The TrekStorm Profile that you create when you sign up for our TrekStorm Services contains Personal Information such as your name, username, age, profile picture and home base. All the information in your TrekStorm Profile, including Personal Information, that you select to be publicly displayed will be public information and any TrekStorm Member will be able to view it. Your username and general physical location will always be publicly displayed.

    Personal Information Collected Via Technology

    As you navigate our Website or use the TrekStorm Services, certain information may also be collected passively, including your Internet protocol address, browser type, operating system, time of day, general physical location, and browser language. TrekStorm uses this information only in aggregate to determine the composition of our user-base, and the load on our servers, so that we can serve you better. TrekStorm will use geographic information regarding your location to display your general location (e.g., city, province, state, or country). You may choose to display a different location by editing this information in your Member Profile. This information is associated with a user identifier for the purpose of improving your experience.

    An "Internet protocol address" or "IP Address" is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet. In some cases your IP Address stays the same from browser session to browser session; but if you use a consumer internet access provider, your IP Address probably varies from session to session. We track IP Addresses solely in conjunction with session cookies to analyze our web page flow.

    "Cookies" are small pieces of information that a website sends to your computer's hard drive while you are viewing a website. Cookies can identify you as a unique user of the Website. We may use both session Cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent Cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them) to provide you with a more personal and interactive experience on the Website. Persistent Cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions. If you choose to disable Cookies, some areas of the Website may not work properly.

    TrekStorm uses Cookies to store your preferences. TrekStorm will not disclose its Cookies to third parties except as required by a valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. We may use information collected about you to deliver to you websites, advertisements, or other content we think may be of interest to you.

    We may also contract with third parties in order to promote the products and/or services of these third parties by placing ads on the Website. We may use information that was posted by members of the TrekStorm Services to tailor the display of ads to the interest of the members of our community. Clicking on such ads will direct you to the website of the third party and the third party may also use Cookies in connection with these ads. Please be advised that we are not responsible for these other websites or any content on these other websites and that this Privacy Statement does not govern your visit of these other websites.

    Personal Information We Receive From Other Sources

    We may receive Personal Information about you from other sources like telephone or fax, or from third parties that provide services for us in connection with the TrekStorm Services. We may add this information to the information we have already collected from you via our Website in order to improve our community and our Services.

    Use of Information

    In general, Personal Information you submit to us is used by us either to sign you up for our community, respond to requests that you make, to improve our community and Services and to better tailor the features, performance and support of the Services, and to offer you additional information, opportunities, and functionality. We may also use your Personal Information to provide you with electronic newsletters or promotional e-mails, should you request to receive such communications from us.

    Information you provide, with the exception of your email address, will also be displayed on your profile page, which is viewable by other users of TrekStorm. Please be aware that if you enter any Personal Information into publicly available sections of the TrekStorm Services, this information will be displayed to anyone who has access to these sections. These publicly available sections of the TrekStorm Services include, without limitation, posts and comments of other TrekStorm Members.

    We may create Anonymous Information records from Personal Information by excluding information (such as your name) that make the information personally identifiable to you. We may use this Anonymous Information to analyze usage patterns so that we may enhance our community and Services. We reserve the right to use and disclose Anonymous Information to third parties in our discretion.

    If we delete your account at your request, we will delete all Personal Information from the account, but we retain the right to maintain non-personally identifiable information about the account (e.g. date created, date terminated, posted travel experiences, etc.). Also, if we terminate your account as allowed under the Terms of Service, we may choose to maintain all data collected from your use of the TrekStorm Services, including Personal Information.

    Ratings and Feedback

    When you click on the opinion and favorite links on the website, you are explicitly sending information about your preferences for the site currently displayed in your browser. TrekStorm uses this information in order to improve its recommendations to you, and to others. By default, other users can see your favorites.

    If you provide feedback to us, we may use and disclose such feedback for any purpose, provided we will not associate such feedback with your Personal Information. We will collect any information contained in such communication and will treat the Personal Information in such communication in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

    Disclosure of Personal Information

    We do not trade, rent, or share your Personal Information with third parties, unless it is available on your profile page, without your express written consent, except as set forth in this Privacy Policy.

    We may provide your Personal Information to third party service providers who work on behalf of or with us to provide some of the services and features of the TrekStorm community and Services and to help us communicate with the members of our community. However, these service providers do not have any independent right to share this information (expect pursuant to a legal requirement such as a subpoena or warrant).

    Any information contained on publicly available portions of the TrekStorm website (e.g. member profiles or other areas that are not password protected) may be "crawled" by third party search engines. As a result, any Personal Information you include on such publicly available portions of the TrekStorm website may be accessible through search engines in search results. Moreover information on publicly any information you place on publicly available portions of the website, including Personal Information, is accessible by any third party and is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

    We may share some or all of your Personal Information with our parent company, any subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under a common control with us ("Affiliates"), in which case we will require our Affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy.

    If our company or our assets are acquired by another company, that company will possess the Personal Information collected by us and it will assume the rights and obligations regarding your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy.

    However, we may share some aggregate information about our user-base with sponsors and business partners. For example, we may disclose how frequently the average TrekStorm user views a specific region or activity, or which experiences are the most favorited.

    We may disclose your Personal Information if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to (a) comply with relevant laws or to respond to subpoenas or warrants served on us; or (b) to protect and defend the rights or property of us, Users and Visitors of our Website, or third parties. We may also transfer your specific personal information in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. If the acquiring entity's processing of your information will materially differ from that set forth in this Privacy Policy, we will notify you via posting on our web site.

    Your Choices Regarding Your Personal Information

    We offer you choices regarding the collection, use and sharing of your Personal Information. When you receive newsletters or promotional communications from us, you may indicate a preference to stop receiving further communications from us and you will have the opportunity to "opt-out" by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in the e-mail you receive.

    Despite your indicated e-mail preferences, we may send you administrative e-mails regarding our community and Services or notices of any updates to our Disclaimer for the TrekStorm Service or Privacy Policy.

    You may change any of the Personal Information in your TrekStorm Profile by editing it.

    Regarding Children

    We do not intentionally gather Personal Information about Visitors or Users who are under the age of 13.

    Other Sites

    Our provision of links or access to other websites or locations is for your convenience and does not signify our endorsement of such other websites or location or its contents. The sites listed on the TrekStorm website are entirely out of our control. As such, TrekStorm takes no responsibility for them, or their content. These other sites may send their own cookies to users, collect data, or solicit personal information. Links to other websites or locations may also be posted by other TrekStorm Members within the TrekStorm community. We have no control over, do not review, and cannot be responsible for these outside websites or their content. Please be aware that the terms of our Privacy Policy do not apply to these outside websites.

    Security

    We use reasonable measures to maintain the security of your Personal Information. However, no company, including us, can fully eliminate security risks associated with Personal Information.

    Contact Us

    Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email.

    Privacy Policy Updates

    As part of the Disclaimer, this Privacy Policy is subject to occasional amendment, in accordance with the terms of the Disclaimer.

    This Policy was last updated on January 17, 2010.