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PRIVACY
POLICY
Your privacy is very important to Interact Soft Inc. (“iCarpool” or hereafter simply
referred to as the “Website”). iCarpool has established this Privacy Policy to explain
to you how your information is collected, protected, used and disclosed at our Website.
The privacy practices of this statement apply to our services available under the
domain and subdomains of www.iCarpool.com
and apply generally to our affiliates, subsidiaries, and joint ventures. By using
the Website, you consent to the privacy practices described in this policy, as modified
from time to time by us. Please carefully review this policy so you understand our
data privacy practices. We may use personal information for new, unanticipated
uses not previously disclosed in this Privacy Policy at any time. However should
our privacy practices change, we will post the policy changes to our Website and
indicate the date the Privacy Policy was last updated. We encourage you to check
back at our Website periodically if you are concerned about how your information
is used.
iCarpool Privacy
Policy Key Points:
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We DO NOT rent or sell your personal
information to third parties.
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We DO NOT share your information
with anyone for marketing purposes.
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We DO NOT send unsolicited emails
to you for marketing purposes.
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We use the latest data encryption
technologies to safeguard your information.
Overview
Please read this Privacy
Policy to learn more about the ways in which we use and protect your personal information.
If you have additional
questions, you may send an email to us by clicking on the link entitled “Contact
Us”.
By visiting this Website
you agree to be bound by the terms and provisions of this Privacy Policy. If you
do not agree please do not use or access our Website.
This Privacy Policy
describes the information we collect from you as part of the normal operation and
what may happen to that information. This policy is detailed because we believe
you should know as much as possible about iCarpool’s practices so that you can make
informed decisions. All of our affiliates, subsidiaries, and joint ventures operate
under similar Privacy practices as described in this Privacy Policy and, subject
to the requirements of applicable law. It is our goal to provide a consistent set
of privacy practices throughout our websites around the world.
When you accept this
Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use (User Agreement) on this Website, you consent
to our use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy
Policy. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the terms of iCarpool’s
User Agreement. This Privacy Policy is effective upon acceptance in registration
for new registering users, and is otherwise effective on July 1, 2006 for all users.
If we decide to update our Privacy Policy, we will post the updates to this Website.
Contents
Children are not allowed to use this Website
Data we collect and its usage
Usage by your community administrator or employee transportation
coordinator
How we use your information
Disclosure of your information to third parties
Our Corporate Entities
How you may use other member’s personal information
How you may use the Website
Accessing and changing your information
Protect your password
Final note
Children are not allowed to use this Website
Children or minors
(persons under the age of 18) are not permitted to use this Website.
Data we collect and its usage
Once you register
on the Website, you are not anonymous to us. For various services on the Website,
we may require you to provide appropriate information as indicated on the forms
throughout the Website. Where possible, we indicate which fields are required and
which fields are optional. You always have the option to not provide information
by choosing not to use a particular service or feature.
For all of our services
that require payment from you - in order to most efficiently serve you, credit card
transactions and order fulfillment are handled by established third party banking
and processing agents. They receive the information needed to verify, authorize
and charge your credit card or other payment modes. We do not store payment information
such as billing address, credit card number, credit card expiration date. We do
collect information required by these third parties in order to ensure validity
of transactions.
When you visit our
Website, some information may be automatically collected, such as your computer's
Internet Protocol (IP) address, your computer's operating system, the browser type,
the address of a referring web site, and the time and date of your visit. We may
use this information to protect, enhance or update our Website.
We use encryption
where appropriate to safeguard your data. We use procedural and technical safeguards
to protect your personal information against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized
access and disclosure to protect your privacy, including encryption, firewalls and
secure socket layers, consistent with a website of our size. We treat data as an
asset that must be protected against loss and unauthorized access. We employ many
different security techniques to protect such data from unauthorized access by users
inside and outside the company. However, please note that 100% security is not a
realistic guarantee any website or service exposed to the internet can provide today
and neither can we.
Cookies
A "cookie" is a small text file placed
on your computer's hard drive by a web server - which is acknowledged by your web
browser. We use cookies for a variety of purposes, including, but not limited to
the following: (a) To assist us in providing our services to you; (b) To allow you
to change pages during your visit to our Website without repeatedly having to re-enter
your password; (c) To track activity on our Website; (d) To introduce services to
you on this and other websites. You can usually set parameters on your computer
that allow you to elect to accept cookies or to have your browser notify you each
time a cookie is offered. You can also usually delete cookies from your hard drive.
You can find instructions on how to accept cookies, on how to be notified that a
cookie is being offered, and on how to delete cookies through your Internet Browser.
If your browser does not accept cookies from our website, some features we provide
may not function properly.
If your browser does not accept cookies from our website, some features we provide
may not function properly.
If you send us personal
correspondence, such as emails or letters, or if other users or third parties send
us correspondence about your activities or postings on the Website, we may collect
such information into a file specific to you.
When you register
on our Website, you may provide us the following information. We describe how this
information is used. If you do not agree to our usage of your information, please
do not use our Website.
In this document,
we categorize information as public, private or protected. Any information categorized
as public will be shared with other members on the website without any further approval
process. Any information categorized as private is never shared with other members.
Any information categorized as protected is shared with other members only after
your explicit approval. For sharing protected information with a member who is not
affiliated to the same community as you, we will always ask permission from both
of you explicitly. For sharing protected information with a member who is affiliated
to the same community as you, we will do so without any further explicit approval
process. When you affiliate successfully with a community listed on our Website,
you authorize us to share your protected information with other members affiliated
with that community without any further approval process.
Members affiliated
to the same community as you, are either colleagues, classmates, associates or fellow
members of that community and a trust is established between you and these members
which allows exchanging protected information such as contact details without any
further approval process.
- Your username is public and it identifies you to other members in the system. Your
age is private and is never shared, however your age range is public.
- Your contact information such as name, email address, phone number, mobile phone
number and SMS address is protected. When a member who is not affiliated to the
same community as you, finds your trip itinerary as a carpool match, the member
will see your username, trip information, preference information, vehicle make and
mileage – however your contact information is not visible unless you explicitly
approve the request for exchanging contact information.
- The textual address you enter is private and is not shared. However we convert the
address into Latitude and Longitude co-ordinates which are public and will be shown
as a location on the map to members who find your trip itinerary as a carpool match.
Please note that the Latitude, Longitude co-ordinates we acquire have a high degree
of precision (may be a few yards or meters from the locations you entered) and thus
may be traceable to your home or your work place. If you want to avoid this high
degree of match, you may provide a more general street address without house number
or a near location you know, although this will reduce the accuracy of matches we
can provide you.
- Your trip information such as your start location, end location, date and time of
the journey is public, but only visible to members who find your trip itinerary
as a match for carpool.
- Your preference information such as if you smoke in the car, if you find eating
in your car acceptable, which radio station you listen to is public, but only visible
to members who find your trip itinerary as a match for carpool.
- Your community affiliations identify which communities listed on our Website you
have successfully affiliated to. For example, your community may be your residential
community or the company you work for. Your community affiliations are public, but
only visible to other members who have successfully affiliated with a community
on our Website.
- The contact information of community administrator or employee transportation coordinator
of your community is private and is never shared.
- For all of our services that require payment from you - in order to most efficiently
serve you, credit card transactions and order fulfillment are handled by established
third party banking and processing agents. They receive the information needed to
verify, authorize and charge your credit card or other payment modes. We do not
store payment information such as billing address, credit card number, and credit
card expiration date. We do collect information required by these third parties
in order to ensure validity of transactions.
- Vehicle information such as type of vehicle, number of miles the vehicle can cover
per gallon, year manufactured, number of doors, seating capacity is public.
- Benefits information such as claims made and usage history for benefits provided
by your community like Carpool Permit, Guaranteed Ride Home Program (GRH), Bike
Lockers, Carpool Incentive, Vanpool Incentive, and any other benefits specified
by your community is private but also accessible to your community administrator
or employee transportation coordinator.
- Alternative transportation information such as carpool or vanpool mileage, current
trips and carpool partners, reward miles accrued in the iCarpool system, actual
miles accrued in the iCarpool system and historical website usage information is
private but also accessible to your community administrator or employee transportation
coordinator.
Please note, in all
the cases above, there may be additional optional or required information fields
as defined by the various forms on the Website.
Usage by community administrator or employee
transportation coordinator
If you are affiliated
to a Community listed on the Website, you agree that all your information maintained
by us on the Website will be shared with the Community Administrator or Employee
Transportation Coordinator authorized by your community without any further approval
from you. Community Administrators and Employee Transportation Coordinators for
your Community may use your alternative transportation information to manage and
verify benefits claimed by you such as carpool permit, GRH, and any other benefits
configured.
Communities listed
on the Website may choose to provide benefits to its members based on their alternative
transportation usage. If you are affiliated to a Community listed on the Website
which manages alternative transportation benefits through the Website, you may be
required to enter benefit details as per your organization’s policies. This benefits
claim information you provide will be shared with Community Administrators and Employee
Transportation Coordinators authorized by your community without any further approval
from you. Community Administrators and Employee Transportation Coordinators may
perform any administrative task at any time such as approve, reject, or revoke any
benefits claimed by you.
iCarpool is not involved
in any decisions for benefits management such as approval, rejection or cancellation
of any benefits offered by your Community and in no way responsible for any actual
dealings with these benefits. Any disputes with regards to benefits or claims offered
by your Community claimed by you through iCarpool systems or otherwise need to be
addressed to Community Administrators or Employee Transportation Coordinators designated
by your Community.
How we use your information
In order to begin
using our services, we validate your email address by sending a confirmation email
to that address with a verification code. There are many websites today which offer
free or paid email accounts which you can subscribe to should you require an email
address.
In order for you to
be affiliated to a community on our website, you may have to provide an email address
issued by that community. We may send an email to that email address to validate
your affiliation with the community. In some cases, in order for you to be affiliated
to a community on our website, you may have to provide details which will help a
designated community administrator identify and approve your affiliation with that
community. This designated community administrator is assigned by the community
independently.
We may use any information
you provide to facilitate the services you request, troubleshoot problems, identify
abuse of our services, identify violation of our terms of use, help promote safe
carpooling, measure consumer interest in our services and products and enhance our
Website. We may compare and review your personal information for errors, omissions
and for accuracy.
You agree that we
may use personal information about you to improve our content and services. You
agree that we may use your personal information to contact you and deliver notifications
to you. We also reserve the right to send notifications of any changes or new features
of our Website. By accepting the User Agreement and Privacy Policy, you agree to
receive these notifications.
Our Corporate Entities
We may share much
of our data, including personal information about you, with our affiliates, subsidiaries,
and joint ventures that are committed to serving your online carpool needs and related
services and products, throughout the world. To the extent that these entities have
access to your information, they will treat it at least as protectively as they
treat information they obtain from their other users. Our affiliates, subsidiaries,
and joint ventures follow privacy practices no less protective of users than our
practices described in this document.
Disclosure of your information to third
parties
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We share information with companies that help us process the transactions you request
and protect our customers' transactions from fraud, such as sharing your credit
card number with a service that screens for lost and stolen card numbers. Additionally,
if you go into a negative balance and owe us money, we may share information with
processing companies including collection agencies.
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We may disclose information in good faith to appropriate authorities in case of
fraudulent transactions, illegal activities or other malpractices. In response to
a verified request by law enforcement, immigration, customs or other government
officials relating to a criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity, we can
(and you authorize us to) disclose your name, street address, city, state, postal
code, country, telephone number(s), email address, financial information, and additional
information we maintain about you, with a subpoena or comparable legal process.
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We share aggregated statistical data with our business partners or for public relations.
For example, we may disclose demographic information of our users or commutes. However,
this aggregated information is not tied to personally identifiable information such
as your name, email address or phone number.
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As with any other business, it is possible that iCarpool in the future could merge
with or be acquired by another company. If such an acquisition occurs, the successor
company would have access to the information maintained by iCarpool, including customer
account information, but would continue to be bound by this Privacy Policy unless
and until it is amended as described above.
If third parties unlawfully
intercept or access transmissions or private communications to trace your personal
information, or an external user illegally acquires your personal information from
the Website, we will not be liable for any eventual consequences.
How you may use personal information
of other members
You agree that all
personal information of another user you acquire through the Website or through
a related communication or transaction of the Website, iCarpool hereby grants to
you a license to use such information only for: (a) iCarpool related communications
that are not unsolicited commercial messages, (b) using services offered through
iCarpool, and (c) any other purpose that the user expressly agrees to after you
adequately disclose of the purpose(s) to the user.
In all cases, you must provide users
with the opportunity to review any information you have collected about them and
remove them from your database if they should choose so. In addition, under no circumstances,
except as defined in this Section, can you disclose personally identifiable information
about another iCarpool user to any third party without our consent and the consent
of such other user after adequate disclosure. Note that law enforcement personnel
are given different rights with respect to information they access.
iCarpool and our users
do not tolerate spam. Therefore, without limiting the foregoing, you are not licensed
to add an iCarpool user to your mail list (email, physical mail or telephone contact)
without their express consent after adequate disclosure.
How you may use the Website
You may not use any
computer based scripts, robot, spider, scraper or any other automated tools to enter
or retrieve any data from our Website. You agree that you will not use any device,
software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working
of the Website. You agree that you will not take any action that imposes an unreasonable
or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure. You agree that you will
not copy, reproduce, alter, modify, create derivative works, or publicly display
any content (except for your own personal, non-commercial use) from our Website
without the prior expressed written permission of iCarpool. We reserve the right
to determine abuse of our services and terminate your account without prior notice
if we deem necessary.
You are not allowed
to use the Website for any purposes other than carpooling services as documented
in the Agreement and the Privacy Policy.
Accessing and changing your information
You can review the personal information
you provided us and make desired changes to allowed fields of this information,
or to the settings for your account, at any time by logging in to your account on
the Website and choosing "Member Profile" option. You are not allowed to change
the country, user name and email address you entered at the time of registration.
If you terminate your account or delete/change your data or content, we usually
update our live databases immediately. However, some data may update more slowly,
and some old data may remain permanently in our archives and records. This is necessary
in order to deter fraud, abuse or a breach of our contract, by ensuring that persons
who try to commit fraud, abuse or breach of our contract will not be able to avoid
detection simply by closing their account and opening a new account. However, if
you close your account, your personally identifiable information will not be used
by us for any further purposes, except as necessary to prevent fraud and assist
law enforcement, or as required by third parties for any transactions initiated
through iCarpool.
Protect your password
You are responsible for all actions taken with
your account and password, including fees charged to your account. Therefore, we
strongly recommend that you not disclose your iCarpool password to any third parties.
If your password has been compromised for any reason, you should immediately change
your password, through our Website.
Final note
iCarpool cannot and does not ensure
your safety. By using this web site you agree and accept that we have no responsibility
for your safety or any eventualities resulting due to carpooling or using any services
on the Website. We do not control information provided by users on the Website and
they may misrepresent themselves.
Because of the high precision of
Latitude Longitude co-ordinates we compute, it is theoretically possible to trace
a location entered on the website back to a physical location such as a home or
a work place. It is also theoretically possible that someone could misuse the information
acquired through the Website to commit a crime. However, it is our belief that the
level of information we provide through this website can anyway be acquired easily
through other sources such as telephone directories or store hours. It is our belief
that we provide better privacy for your personal information than other popular
data sources due to our unique model of allowing you to control sharing of your
personal information. This means your personal information such as name, address,
telephone number will not be shared unless you explicitly authorize us to share
this information through our Website.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this
privacy statement, iCarpool’s information practices, or your dealings with iCarpool,
you can contact us by sending an email to support@iCarpool.com.
You may also write to us at Interact Soft Inc, P.O. Box 2264, Issaquah, WA 98027.
Last Updated
: September 08, 2007
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