Privacy Policy
This policy contains the following sections:
- Introduction
- Information We Receive
- Sharing information on HotSpringsofBC.com
- Information You Share With Third Parties
- How We Use Your Information
- How We Share Information
- How You Can Change or Remove Information
- How We Protect Information
- Other Terms
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Introduction
Questions. If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy, contact us using the form on our web site.
Scope. This privacy policy covers all of Hot Springs of BC and its web site HotSpringsofBC.com. It does not, however, apply to entities that Hot Springs of BC does not own or control, such as web sites or individuals using HotSpringsofBC.com. By using or accessing HotSpringsofBC.com, you agree to our privacy practices outlined here.
No information from children under age 18. If you are under age 18, please do not attempt to register for HotSpringsofBC.com or provide any personal information about yourself to us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 18, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from a child under age 18, please contact us.
Parental participation. We strongly recommend that minors 18 years of age or older ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet and we encourage parents to teach their children about safe internet use practices.
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Information We Receive
Information you provide to us:
Information About Yourself. When you sign up for HotSpringsofBC.com you provide us with your name and email. After registration, you will be able to add a picture of yourself. In some cases we may ask for additional information for security reasons or to provide specific services to you. Once you register you can provide other information about yourself by connecting with, for example, your address, birthday, IM screennames, web sites, and more. In some areas of our web site, you can also provide personal information about yourself, such as your interests and religious views.
Content. One of the primary reasons people use HotSpringsofBC.com is to share content with others. Examples include when you post a comment, upload or take a photo, create an event, add new web site content, post a review, or send someone a message. If you do not want us to store metadata associated with content you share on HotSpringsofBC.com (such as photos), please remove the metadata before uploading the content.
Transactional Information. We may retain the details of transactions or payments you make on HotSpringsofBC.com. This does not include your credit card number, only name, phone number, and address. We use PayPal as an intermediary to process our transactions. If you would like to remove your credit card information there, please contact them directly.
Information we collect when you interact with HotSpringsofBC.com:
Site activity information. We keep track of some of the actions you take on HotSpringsofBC.com, such as creating a photo album, or contacting another user. In some cases you are also taking an action when you provide information or content to us. For example, if you share a picture, in addition to storing the actual content you uploaded, we might log the fact that you shared it.
Access Device and Browser Information. When you access HotSpringsofBC.com from a computer, mobile phone, or other device, we may collect information from that device about your browser type, location, and IP address, as well as the pages you visit.
Cookie Information. We use "cookies" (small pieces of data we store for an extended period of time on your computer, mobile phone, or other device) to make HotSpringsofBC.com easier to use, to make our advertising better, and to protect both you and HotSpringsofBC.com. For example, we use them to store your login ID (but never your password) to make it easier for you to login whenever you come back to HotSpringsofBC.com. You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases that may impact your ability to use HotSpringsofBC.com.
Information we receive from third parties:
We do not own or operate the applications or websites that you access through sponsored advertisements. Whenever you connect to a website through an advertisement, we will receive information from them, including information about actions you take. In some cases, in order to personalize the process of connecting, we may receive a limited amount of information even before you connect with the application or website.
Information from other websites.
We may institute programs with advertising partners and other websites in which they share information with us:
We may ask advertisers to tell us how our users responded to the ads we showed them (and for comparison purposes, how other users who didn't see the ads acted on their site). This data sharing, commonly known as "conversion tracking," helps us measure our advertising effectiveness and improve the quality of the advertisements you see.
We may receive information about whether or not you've seen or interacted with certain ads on other sites in order to measure the effectiveness of those ads.
If in any of these cases we receive data that we do not already have, we will "anonymize" it within 180 days, meaning we will stop associating the information with any particular user. If we institute these programs, we will only use the information in the ways we explain in the "How We Use Your Information" section below.
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Sharing information on HotSpringsofBC.com.
This section explains how your privacy settings work, and how your information is shared on HotSpringsofBC.com. You should always consider your privacy settings before sharing information on HotSpringsofBC.com.
Name and Profile Picture. HotSpringsofBC.com is designed to make it easy for you to find and connect with others. For this reason, your name and profile picture do not have privacy settings. If you are uncomfortable with sharing your profile picture, you should delete it (or not add one).
E-Mail Address. The e-mail address used to login to your account is never listed on HotSpringsofBC.com or shared with other users unless you have manually entered it in another field.
Public Profile. This feature will enable or disable your user page on HotSpringsofBC.com. When disabled, only your name, city, province, country, and profile picture are shown on your user page. However, if this feature is enabled, any information you have added to your profile such as a birthday, street address, phone numbers, web URLs, and screennames will be listed. If you do not want some of this information displayed, remove it form your profile.
Other. Here are some other things to remember:
- Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may remain viewable elsewhere to the extent it has been shared with others, it was otherwise distributed pursuant to your privacy settings, or it was copied or stored by other users. For example, a message sent to another user will still remain in their inbox if you delete your account.
- You understand that information might be re-shared or copied by other users.
- Certain types of communications that you send to other users cannot be removed, such as messages.
"Everyone" Information. Information still visible on your user profile when the Public Profile option has been turned on is publicly available information, just like your name, profile picture, comments, and event history. Such information may, for example, be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into HotSpringsofBC.com), be indexed by third party search engines, and be imported, exported, distributed, and redistributed by us and others without privacy limitations. Such information may also be associated with you, including your name and profile picture, even outside of HotSpringsofBC.com, such as on public search engines and when you visit other sites on the internet.
Minors. We reserve the right to add special protections for minors (such as to provide them with an age-appropriate experience) and place restrictions on the ability of adults to share and connect with minors, recognizing this may provide minors a more limited experience on HotSpringsofBC.com
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Information You Share With Third Parties.
As mentioned above, we do not own or operate the applications or websites that use the HotSpringsofBC.com advertising platform. That means that when you access the site on advertisements you are making your HotSpringsofBC.com information available to someone other than HotSpringsofBC.com. Prior to allowing them to access any information about you, we require them to agree to terms that limit their use of your information and we use technical measures to ensure that they only obtain authorized information. To learn more about our advertising platform, please contact us.
Connecting to a Website. When you connect to a website by clicking on an advertisement it will have access to General Information about you. The term General Information includes your name, profile picture, user ID, and any content shared on the web site such as photos, or reviews. We may also make information about the location of your computer or access device and your age available to applications and websites in order to help them implement appropriate security measures and control the distribution of age-appropriate content.
Without clicking on any advertisements on our web site, our partners may still contact you anonymously using our advertising platform. However, they will not receive any personal information about you, including your username. To unsubscribe from all anonymous third-party messages, uncheck the "Receive offers from our partners" checkbox in your account profile.
You should always review the policies of third party websites to make sure you are comfortable with the ways in which they use information you share with them. We do not guarantee that they will follow our rules. If you find a website that violates our rules, you should report the violation to us and we will take action as necessary.
Exporting Information. You (and those you make your information available to) may use tools like RSS feeds, mobile phone address book applications, or copy and paste functions, to capture, export (and in some cases, import) information from HotSpringsofBC.com, including your information and information about you. For example, if you share your web info, they may use third party applications to sync that information with the address book on their mobile phone.
Advertisements. Sometimes the advertisers who present ads on HotSpringsofBC.com use technological methods to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. You also use your browser cookie settings to limit or prevent the placement of cookies by advertising networks.
Links. When you click on links on HotSpringsofBC.com you may leave our site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites, and we encourage you to read their privacy statements.
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How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect to try to provide a safe, efficient, and customized experience. Here are some of the details on how we do that:
To manage the service. We use the information we collect to provide our services and features to you, to measure and improve those services and features, and to provide you with customer support. We use the information to prevent potentially illegal activities, and to enforce our Terms and Conditions. We also use a variety of technological systems to detect and address anomalous activity and screen content to prevent abuse such as spam. These efforts may on occasion result in a temporary or permanent suspension or termination of some functions for some users.
To contact you. We may contact you with service-related announcements from time to time. You may opt out of all communications except essential updates on your account profile page. We may include content you see on HotSpringsofBC.com in the emails we send to you.
To serve personalized advertising to you. We don't share your information with advertisers without your consent. (An example of consent would be if you asked us to provide your shipping address to an advertiser to receive a free sample.) We allow advertisers to choose the characteristics of users who will see their advertisements and we may use any of the non-personally identifiable attributes we have collected (including information you may have decided not to show to other users, such as your birth year or other sensitive personal information or preferences) to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements. For example, we might use your interest in soccer to show you ads for soccer equipment, but we do not tell the soccer equipment company who you are. Even though we do not share your information with advertisers without your consent, when you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement there is a possibility that the advertiser may place a cookie in your browser and note that it meets the criteria they selected.
To help your friends find you. We allow other users to use contact information they have about you, such as your email address, to find you, including through contact importers and search.
Downloadable Software. Certain downloadable software applications and applets that we offer, such as our browser toolbars and photo uploaders, transmit data to us. We may not make a formal disclosure if we believe our collection of and use of the information is the obvious purpose of the application, such as the fact that we receive photos when you use our photo uploader. If we believe it is not obvious that we are collecting or using such information, we will make a disclosure to you the first time you provide the information to us so that you can decide whether you want to use that feature.
Deceased users. We will close and delete a deceased user's account if we receive a formal request from the user's next of kin or other proper legal request to do so.
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How We Share Information
HotSpringsofBC.com is about sharing information with others — friends and people in your communities. We share your information with third parties when we believe the sharing is permitted by you, reasonably necessary to offer our services, or when legally required to do so. For example:
When you make a payment. When you enter into transactions with others or make payments on HotSpringsofBC.com, we will share transaction information with only those third parties necessary to complete the transaction. We will require those third parties to agree to respect the privacy of your information.
When you invite a friend to join. When you ask us to invite a friend to join HotSpringsofBC.com, we will send your friend a message on your behalf using your name. The invitation may also contain information about other users your friend might know.
When you choose to share your information with marketers/partners. You may choose to share information with marketers or electronic commerce providers that are not associated with HotSpringsofBC.com through on-site offers. This is entirely at your discretion and we will not provide your information to these marketers without your consent.
To help your friends find you. By default, we make certain information you have posted to your profile available in search results on HotSpringsofBC.com to help your friends find you.
To give search engines access to publicly available information. We generally limit search engines' access to our site. We may allow them to access public information on your user profile, events, comments, photos, phone number, and other content. You can change the visibility of some of your profile information disabling the Public Profile option in your account.
To help improve or promote our service. Sometimes we share aggregated information with third parties to help improve or promote our service. But we only do so in such a way that no individual user can be identified or linked to any specific action or information.
To provide you with services. We may provide information to service providers that help us bring you the services we offer. For example, we may use third parties to help host our website, send out email updates about HotSpringsofBC.com, remove repetitive information from our user lists, process payments, or provide search results or links (including sponsored links). These service providers may have access to your personal information for use for a limited time, but when this occurs we implement reasonable contractual and technical protections to limit their use of that information to helping us provide the service.
To advertise our services. We may ask advertisers outside of HotSpringsofBC.com to display ads promoting our services. We may ask them to deliver those ads based on the presence of a cookie, but in doing so will not share any other information with the advertiser.
To offer joint services. We may provide services jointly with other companies. If you use these services, we may share your information to facilitate that service. However, we will identify the partner and present the joint service provider's privacy policy to you before you use that service.
To respond to legal requests and prevent harm. We may disclose information pursuant to subpoenas, court orders, or other requests (including criminal and civil matters) if we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law. This may include respecting requests from jurisdictions outside of Canada where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law under the local laws in that jurisdiction, apply to users from that jurisdiction, and are consistent with generally accepted international standards. We may also share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to prevent fraud or other illegal activity, to prevent imminent bodily harm, or to protect ourselves and you from people violating our Terms and Conditions. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, courts or other government entities.
Transfer in the Event of Sale or Change of Control. If the ownership of all or substantially all of our business changes, we may transfer your information to the new owner so that the service can continue to operate. In such a case, your information would remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Policy.
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How You Can Change or Remove Information
Editing your account. You may change or remove your profile information at any time by going to your profile page. Information will be updated immediately after pressing the Update Account button.
Deleting your account. If you want to stop using your account you may delete it. When you delete an account, it is permanently deleted from HotSpringsofBC.com. This includes all photos, comments, events, and other content. You should only delete your account if you are certain you never want to use it. You may only delete your account by contacting us.
Limitations on removal. If you have given third party applications or websites access to your information, they may retain your information to the extent permitted under their terms of service or privacy policies. But they will no longer be able to access the information through our Platform after you disconnect from them.
Backup copies. Removed and deleted information may persist in backup copies for up to 90 days, but will not be available to others.
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How We Protect Information
We do our best to keep your information secure.
Steps we take to keep your information secure. We keep your account information on a secured server behind a firewall. We also use automated and social measures to enhance security, such as analyzing account behaviour for fraudulent or otherwise anomalous behaviour, may limit use of site features in response to possible signs of abuse, may remove inappropriate content or links to illegal content, and may suspend or disable accounts for violations of our Terms and Conditions.
Risks inherent in sharing information. Although we allow you to set privacy options that limit access to your information, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. We cannot control the actions of other users with whom you share your information. We cannot guarantee that only authorized persons will view your information. We cannot ensure that information you share on HotSpringsofBC.com will not become publicly available. We are not responsible for third party circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures on HotSpringsofBC.com. You can reduce these risks by using common sense security practices such as choosing a strong password, using different passwords for different services, and using up to date antivirus software.
Report Violations.
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Other Terms
Changes. We may change this Privacy Policy pursuant to the procedures outlined in the HotSpringsofBC.com Terms and Conditions. Unless stated otherwise, our current privacy policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy we will notify you by publication here.
Consent to Collection and Processing in Canada. By using HotSpringsofBC.com, you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in Canada.
Defined Terms. "Us," "we," "our," "advertising platform" and "HotSpringsofBC.com" mean the same as they do in the Terms and Conditions.
"Information" and "content" are used more generally and interchangeably here than in the Terms and Conditions unless otherwise limited by the context.