Snoopal Privacy Policy

Last revised on June 30, 2010

Snoopal cares about your Privacy

Your usage of Snoopal tells us about your trust and our responsibility to protect your privacy. As part of such responsibility, we let you know what information we collect when you use our products and services, why we collect it and how we use it to improve your experience.

We adhere to the following principles to protect your privacy:

  • We do not sell, rent, or otherwise provide your personal identifiable information to any third parties for marketing or promotional purposes without your prior express consent. Please be aware, however, that any personally identifiable information that you voluntarily choose to display on Snoopal – such as when you publish comments to documents or profile information – becomes publicly available and may be collected and used by others without restriction.
  • We do not share any information you have not chosen to display on your Snoopal profile to other parties, unless compelled by law, or as necessary to enforce our Terms of Service, or to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Snoopal, its employees, its users, and the public.
  • You have a right to access, modify, correct and eliminate the data you supplied. If you update any of your information on Snoopal, we may keep a copy of the information that you originally provided to us in our archives for uses documented in this policy. To request the deletion of your information please complete the feedback form or contact us by email or in writing. We will respond to your request within 20 days.

Collection of personal information

The mission of Snoopal is to allow people around the world to share their original written works and make them publicly available on the web and mobile devices, in their original appearance. To this purpose, Snoopal makes services available in order to enable people to develop, maintain, and enhance a network of contacts, seek feedback for their works, build an online reputation, take pride for their original writings, share, and distribute information (“Services”). By joining Snoopal, you voluntarily and willingly provide us certain information, including personally identifiable information, which we collect in order to provide the Services. If you have any hesitation about providing information to us and/or having your information displayed on the Snoopal website or otherwise used in any manner permitted in this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service, you should not become a member of the Snoopal community; and, if you are already a member, you should consider closing your account.

We collect your personal information in the following ways:

  • Registration – in order to become a User, you must provide us the following information to create an account: full name, nickname, email address and password. Like other passwords, you should choose one that is known only by you. You acknowledge that this information is personal to you, and by creating an account on Snoopal, you allow others, including Snoopal, to identify you. This holds valid also in case you opt for openID during registration instead of choosing a password specific to Snoopal.
  • Profile Information – Once you become a User, you may provide additional information in the Profile section in My Snoopal including a short description of yourself, a picture or an avatar, date of birth, city, educational background, additional professional info, group memberships, link to social networks and your personal website. Providing additional information about yourself beyond what is minimally required at registration is entirely up to you, as you understand that providing additional information enables you to derive more benefit from the Services. If you decide not to share certain information, you may not receive the full benefit of being a Snoopal User.
  • Contact Information – in order to connect with others on Snoopal, you may use the Services to send messages and/or invitations either to their Snoopal accounts or personal email addresses if they are not yet Users. The names and email addresses of people whom you invite will be used only to send your invitations and reminders. Please note that when you send an invitation, the recipient will have access to your email address because it is displayed in the invitation. You may not invite anyone you do not know and trust.
  • Cookies – we use cookies and other technologies to recognize you, customize your experience, and serve advertisements. Snoopal may use both session cookies and persistent cookies. Like most websites, we use cookies and web log files to track site usage and trends, to improve the quality of our service, to customize your experience on Snoopal, as well as to deliver third-party advertising to Users both on and off the Snoopal site. A cookie is a tiny data file that resides on your computer, mobile phone, or other device, and allows us to recognize you as a User when you return to the Snoopal website using the same computer and web browser. You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases that may impact your ability to use Snoopal. One type of cookie, known as a “persistent” cookie, is set once you’ve logged in to your Snoopal account. The next time you visit the Snoopal website, the persistent cookie will allow us to recognize you as an existing User so you will not need to log in before using the Services. In order to access or change any of your private information (like a credit card number) or to send a message to another User, however, you must log in securely again with your password even if your computer contains your persistent cookie. Another type of cookie, called a “session” cookie, is used to identify a particular visit to the Snoopal website. Session cookies expire after a short time or when you close your web browser. In the course of serving advertisements or optimizing the Services to our Users, we may allow authorized third parties to place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. Any information provided to third parties through cookies will not be personally identifiable but may provide general segment information (e.g., your industry or geography, career field, or information about your professional or educational background) for greater customization of your user experience. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Snoopal does not store unencrypted personally identifiable information in the cookies.
  • Advertising and Web Beacons – to support the Services we provide at no cost to our Users, as well as provide a more relevant and useful experience for our Users, we may serve our own ads and also allow third party advertisements on the site. These advertisements are targeted and served to Users, by both Snoopal and other companies, called ad networks. Ad networks include third party ad servers, ad agencies, ad technology vendors and research firms. Advertisements on Snoopal may be targeted to Users who fit a certain general profile category or may be based on anonymized information inferred from a User’s profile (e.g., industry, gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, religion, or other aspects of your life) in addition to a User’s use of the Snoopal site. Snoopal does not provide personally identifiable information to any third party ad network.
  • Log files, IP addresses, information about your computer and mobile device – due to the communications standards on the internet, when you visit the Snoopal website we automatically receive the URL of the site from which you came and the site to which you are going when you leave Snoopal. Snoopal also receives the internet protocol (“IP”) address of your computer (or the proxy server you use to access the World Wide Web), your computer operating system and type of web browser you are using, email patterns, mobile device operating system (if you are accessing Snoopal using a mobile device), as well as the name of your ISP or your mobile carrier. We use this information to analyze overall trends to help improve the service. The linkage between your IP address and your personally identifiable information is not shared with third parties without your permission, except in such cases as required by law.
  • Linked Accounts – if you link your Snoopal account to another account or service, or use other third-party sites or services in conjunction with your Snoopal account, we may collect information related to your use of third party sites and services accessed through Snoopal or when you access Snoopal through a third-party site or service.
  • Surveys and polls – polls and surveys may be conducted by Snoopal, its users, or third parties. As a User, you may be invited to participate in polls and surveys from the Snoopal website. Your selection may be random, or it may be based on your non-personally identifiable information, such as job title, geography, company size and/or industry. Whether or not you decide to participate in a poll or survey is completely up to you. After you complete a poll, you will be given access to the aggregate responses of the poll on a results page.
  • Snoopal's partners – we may collaborate with third parties to offer combined services and functionality using Snoopal developer tools such as our application programming interfaces (“APIs”). These third parties are partners (“Snoopal Partners”) with whom we have negotiated an agreement to provide services. If you choose to use combined services, you may be asked to confirm acceptance of the Privacy Policy and/or Terms of Service or User Agreement of the Snoopal Partner, which have not necessarily been reviewed or approved by Snoopal. It is your choice whether or not to make use of combined services and whether to proceed under any third party terms. Also, despite our agreements and technical steps taken to restrict access to and avoid possible misuse of information we may not screen or audit all combined services. We also cannot guarantee that any Snoopal Partner will abide by our agreement. You agree that your use of combined services is on an “as is” basis and with no warranty and no liability. Please also note that because of our relationship with certain Snoopal Partners, permission to access certain account information may be automatically granted to provide the combined services.

We use your personal information:

  • to operate, maintain, enhance, and provide all of the features and services found on the Snoopal Platform as well as to track user-generated content and Users to the extent necessary to comply as a service provider.
  • without further consent, for administrative communications such as notifying you of major Snoopal Platform updates, for customer service purposes, to address copyright infringement or defamation issues, or to contact you regarding any content that you have uploaded on or downloaded from Snoopal.
  • to understand the usage trends and preferences of our Users, to improve the way Snoopal works and looks, and to create new features and functionality.
  • to automatically update the application on your system or to remember your information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you access the Snoopal Platform.
  • to enable you to share your information and communicate with other Users, or provide your personal details to third parties offering combined services with Snoopal;
  • to administer your account with us and customize the service we provide to you and other Users.
  • if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with laws (such as Copyright law) or respond to a court order, judicial or other government subpoena, or warrant in the manner required by the requesting entity.

Disclosures to others

We may disclose your personal information to affiliated companies or other businesses or persons in order to provide web site hosting, maintenance, and security services, fulfill orders, conduct data analysis and create reports, offer certain functionality, create new services, and assist us in improving the Snoopal Platform, carry out your instructions, provide the Services, enforce our Terms of Service, and to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Snoopal, its employees, its Users, and the public. For example, we may use a credit card processing company to bill Users for subscription fees. These third parties do not retain, share, or store any personally identifiable information except to provide these services, and they are bound by confidentiality agreements limiting the use of your information.

Snoopal also reserves the right to disclose User information that we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to take precautions against liability, to protect Snoopal from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses, to investigate and defend ourselves against third-party claims or allegations, to assist government enforcement agencies, and to protect the security or integrity of the Snoopal Platform. We may also disclose your personal information and other information you provide to another third party as part of a reorganization or a sale of the assets of Snoopal, a subsidiary or division. Any third party to which Snoopal transfers or sells Snoopal’s assets will have the right to continue to use the personal and other information that you provide to us.

Snoopal's security

Personal information you provide will be secured with industry standards and technology. Access to your personal data on Snoopal is password-protected, and sensitive data (such as credit card information) is protected by SSL encryption when it is exchanged between your web browser and the Snoopal website. To protect any data you store on our servers, Snoopal also regularly audits its system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks. However since the internet is not a 100% secure environment, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to Snoopal. There is no guarantee that information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards. It is your responsibility to protect the security of your login information. Please note that emails, instant messaging, and similar means of communication with other Users of Snoopal are not encrypted, and we strongly advise you not to communicate any confidential information through these means.

You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information, and for controlling access to your email communications at all times. If you participate in Snoopal Groups you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you choose to provide there can be read, collected, or used by other Users of these forums. Snoopal is not responsible for the information you choose to submit in these forums.

You can review the personal information you provided to us and make any desired change to the information you publish, or to the settings for your Snoopal account including your email and contact preferences, at any time by logging in to your account on the Snoopal website. Please be aware that even after your request for a change is processed, Snoopal may, for a time, retain residual information about you in its backup and/or archival copies of its database.

Snoopal's Guidelines

As a User, you have certain obligations to other Users. Some of these obligations are imposed by applicable law and regulations, and others have become commonplace in user-friendly communities of like-minded members such as Snoopal.

You must, at all times, abide by the terms and conditions of the then-current Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This includes respecting all intellectual property rights that may belong to third parties. You must not upload or download or otherwise disseminate any information that may be deemed to be injurious, violent, offensive, racist or xenophobic, or which may otherwise violate the purpose and spirit of Snoopal and its community of Users. You must not provide to Snoopal and/or other Users information that you believe might be injurious or detrimental to your person or to your professional or social status. Any violation of these guidelines may lead to the restriction, suspension or termination of your account at the sole discretion of Snoopal.

Closing Your Account

You can close your Snoopal account at any time. If you close your Snoopal account, we will remove your name and other personally identifiable information from our publicly viewable database. If you close your account, we have no obligation to retain your information, and may delete any or all of your account information without liability. However, we may retain certain data contributed by you if Snoopal believes it may be necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business purposes, such as analysis of aggregated, non-personally identifiable data, account recovery, or if required by law. Snoopal may also retain and use certain information you provided if necessary to provide the Services to other Users. For example, your contributions to Snoopal Groups may remain visible to others after you have closed your account. Similarly, other information you have shared with others, or that other Users have copied, may also remain visible. Snoopal disclaims any liability in relation to the deletion or retention (subject to the terms herein) of information or any obligation not to delete the information. Snoopal does not control when search engines update their cache, which may contain certain public profile information that has since been removed from Snoopal’s publicly viewable database.

Children care

Please be aware that children are not eligible to use our service and we ask that minors (under the age of 14) do not submit any personal information to us or use the service.

Revisions

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please review it frequently. In the event there are significant changes in the way we treat your personally identifiable information, or in the Privacy Policy document itself, we will display a notice on the Snoopal website or send you an email, as provided for above. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that Snoopal has about you and your account. Using the Snoopal Services after a notice of changes has been sent to you or published on our site shall constitute consent to the changed terms or practices.

Contact Snoopal

You can enquire with us in either English, Italian, or Spanish. If you have any question or comment please email us at privacy@snoopal.com or contact us at:

  • Snoopal
  • c/o Ex Machina SAGL
  • Attn: Privacy Policy Issues
  • Viale dei Faggi, 9 – 6900 Lugano
  • Switzerland