Privacy Policy

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF Startup Meme

What This Privacy Policy Covers

This privacy policy pertains to the use of the Startup Meme web site at http://www.StartupMeme.com. This privacy policy covers how Startup Meme treats personal information that Startup Meme collects and receives. Personal information is information about you that is personally identifiable like your name, address, email address, or phone number. Children under 13 are not permitted to use the Startup Meme service, and so this privacy policy makes no provision for children’s use of the site.

Information Collection and How it is used

General Information

Startup Meme collects personal information when you register with Startup Meme to use Startup Meme services or to post content on Startup Meme. When you register we ask for your email address. You can update your profile to reflect certain optional information such as your name, birth date, birth place, gender, biographical information, ICQ/AIM/Yahoo/MSN user name, and personal interests. Startup Meme automatically receives and records information on our server logs from your browser, including your IP address, cookie, and the page you request. Startup Meme uses information for the following general purposes: products and services provision, billing, identification and authentication, services improvement, contact, research, and anonymous reporting.

IP Addresses

IP Addresses are automatically reported by your browser each time you view a web page. Your IP address is stored in our user registration databases when you register with Startup Meme. IP addresses may be used for various purposes, including:

• To diagnose or service technology problems reported by our users or engineers that are associated with the IP addresses controlled by a specific web company or ISP.
• To tailor advertising based on geographic area or other information derived from your IP address. Aggregate information derived from IP addresses may also be reported to advertisers.
• To estimate the total number of users visiting Startup Meme from specific geographical regions.
• To make sure that people are not voting for themselves or friends during contests or promotions.

Cookies

A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier, that is sent to your browser from a web site’s computers and stored on your computer’s hard drive. You can configure your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set. If you reject all cookies, you will not be able to use Startup Meme products or services that require you to “sign in,” and you may not be able to take full advantage of the Startup Meme service.
Startup Meme uses its own cookies for a number of purposes, including to:

• Access your information when you “sign in”.
• Keep track of preferences you specify while you are using Startup Meme’s services.
• Display the most appropriate advertising banners, based on your interests and activity on Startup Meme.
• Estimate and report our total audience size and traffic.
• Conduct research to improve Startup Meme’s content and services.
• Startup Meme lets other companies (such as Google) [that show advertisements on some of our pages set and access their cookies on your computer. Other entities’ use of their cookies is subject to their own privacy policies, not this one. Advertisers or other entities do not have access to Startup Meme’s cookies.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

When you post a message, your Startup Meme ID or alias that you are posting under is visible to other users. If you post personal information online that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return. Startup Meme does not rent or sell your personal information. Generally, Startup Meme does not share personal information about you with other people or nonaffiliated companies without your consent except to provide products or services you’ve requested and in the following circumstances: Startup Meme may be required to disclose personally identifiable information under special circumstances, such as to comply with subpoenas, warrants, court orders or legal process or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims; It may be necessary to share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities, including without limitation, fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of Startup Meme’s terms of use, or as otherwise permitted or required by law. We will transfer information about you if Startup Meme is acquired by or merged with another company. In this event, Startup Meme will notify you by email or by putting a prominent notice on the Startup Meme web site before information about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy. Startup Meme may share demographic information with business partners, such as “53% of users who regularly user Startup Meme chat are between 18 and 24″ or the like. No personally identifiable information will ever be used without your permission (i.e. we will ask you for a quote or testimonial) Startup Meme displays targeted advertisements based on personal information that is exhibited in people’s profiles. This may sometimes make you laugh, as when it shows advertisements for cat feed on the profile page of a person whose handle is “Pussy Cat.”When you register with us, your personal information and other data will be stored and processed in Germany, and the European Union and this information may be subject to the laws of these jurisdictions.

Editing and Deleting Account Information. Security.

You can change your Startup Meme Account Information, at any time. We may send you certain communications relating to the Startup Meme service, such as service announcements and administrative messages, that are considered part of your Startup Meme account. You can delete your Startup Meme account at any time from your account page; however, please note that your identification, billing and contact information may remain in Startup Meme’s records for some period. We limit access to personal information about you to employees who we believe reasonably need to come into contact with that information to provide products or services to you or in order to do their jobs. Your Startup Meme Account Information is password-protected. In certain areas, Startup Meme uses SSL-encryption to protect data transmissions.

Links
StartupMeme.com contains links to sites. StartupMeme.com is not responsible for the privacy policies and/or practices on other sites. When linking to another site a user should read the privacy policy stated on that site. Our privacy policy only governs information collected on StartupMeme.com.

WebLogs, Message Boards, Classifieds and Public Forums
Please be aware that whenever you voluntarily post public information to WebLogs, or any other Public Forums that that information can be accessed by the public and can in turn be used by those people to send you unsolicited communications.

Correcting/Updating or Removing Information
StartupMeme.com users may modify or remove any of their personal information at any time by logging into their account and accessing features such as Edit Profile and Account Info.

Email Choice/Opt-out
Members who no longer wish to receive updates or notifications may choose not to by selecting ‘Do not send me notification emails’ in the user profile ‘Account Settings’. Users who do not wish to receive StartupMeme.com newsletters may choose not to by selecting ‘Do not send me Startup Meme newsletters’ in the user profile ‘Account Settings’. All notification emails and StartupMeme.com newsletters also include the above instructions for opting-out of those communications in the future.

Third Party Advertising
Ads appearing on this Web site may be delivered to users by StartupMeme.com or one of our Web advertising partners. Our Web advertising partners may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement. In this way, ad servers may compile information about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw their advertisements and determine which ads are clicked on. This information allows an ad network to deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by StartupMeme.com and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

Security
StartupMeme.com member accounts are secured by member-created passwords StartupMeme.com takes precautions to insure that member account information is kept private. We use reasonable measures to protect member information that is stored within our database, and we restrict access to member information to those employees who need access to perform their job functions, such as our customer service personnel and technical staff. Please note that we cannot guarantee the security of member account information. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors may compromise the security of member information at any time For any additional information about the security measures we use on StartupMeme.com, please contact us at Bilal.Hameed@StartupMeme.com

Sharing and Disclosure of Information StartupMeme.com Collects
Except as described above, Startup Meme will not disclose personal information to any third party without a user’s explicit permission unless required by law. Startup Meme reserves the right to transfer personal information to a successor in interest that acquires rights to that information as a result of the sale of Startup Meme or substantially all of its assets to that successor in interest For more information see the “Changes in Our Privacy Policy” section below.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Startup Meme may update this policy at any time for any reason. If there are any significant changes to how we handle personal information we will send a notice to the primary email address specified in your Startup Meme account or by placing a prominent notice on our site.