Privacy Policy
Effective: March 24, 2007
Revision Date: December 6, 2008
Introduction:
GradeTheWeb.com and its parent California corporation (herein referred to as “we”, “us” or “our”) is dedicated to protecting your privacy with respect to sensitive information that we may gather or you may provide. In this privacy policy (“Policy”), we will disclose how we gather and/or disseminate information via the GradeTheWeb.com website (the “Site”) and the methods that we use to maintain your privacy.
This Policy is intended to act in combination with and as an extension of our User Agreement. Please read the two documents together. The User Agreement controls to whatever extent it may conflict with this Policy.
We reserve the right to change, alter or modify this Policy at any time and for any reason that we deem necessary or appropriate. Any changes made, unless we state otherwise, will take effect immediately.
Any changes to this Policy will be incorporated into this document and the “Revision Date” will be noted above. We will attempt to notify registered members of this Site, via e-mail, when we change this Policy. However, we encourage you to review this Policy from time to time to see if it has been revised. We will also attempt to post a ‘revision notice’ link on the homepage of the Site for all users to see. This ‘revision notice’ will be posted for a period of no less than 7 days and no more than 14 days.
By using the Site, you accept the terms of this Policy and our User Agreement. You agree that we may collect, use and/or disclose information as described in this Policy.
This Policy will apply from the time of your first use of the Site.
1. Available Service Area:
The search engine feature of this Site is currently offered for use worldwide and is available to use in any country where our specific Site and search engine service is allowed and not prohibited by their current or existing laws or regulations. All other services offered by this Site are available for use only within the United States of America and its Territories.
2. Residency and Minimum Age Requirements:
There are no age limitations or requirements in order to use the search engine feature of our Site. However, you must be a legal adult and at least 18 years of age or older in order to turn off the results filter and view unfiltered search results. All other features or services offered on the Site aside from the search engine feature requires users to be a legal adult and at least 18 years of age or older.
3. Application of Privacy Policy:
This Policy applies solely to our Site and not to any other websites that you may be able to access or link to from our Site (including but not limited to websites framed by us). Such other websites may have data collection, privacy policies, cookies and use practices that differ from us and our terms, cookies and practices.
4. Information Collection:
The information that we collect varies with your use of our Site.
You can freely browse our Site and use our search engine without grading websites; purchasing a product; placing ads; using our blogs; using our chat rooms or discussion boards; or signing up as a member, in which case you need not supply your name, contact information, or any other personally identifiable information. With respect to such users, we record traffic data that may include, without limitation, IP addresses; specific website grades you provided; date and time of visit; time spent on our Site; specific pages viewed; time spent on each page; search queries and links clicked. Traffic data is helpful for marketing and advertising purposes along with improving our Site by providing you an accurate grading system in order to improve your searches.
When you register or sign up on our Site as a member, you will provide us with personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”), and you consent to our collection and storage of that Personal Information on our database(s) and server(s). The categories of Personal Information that we ask you to supply may depend on the type of activity and/or services you intend to use on our Site. If placing ads on our Site or if you use one of our services requiring payment, we will collect payment information from you at that time. We don’t collect payment information from members who do not place ads and who do use services requiring payment.
Personal Information that we collect, store and utilize may include without limitation the following: (1) Identification Data such as your user name and password; (2) Contact Data such as your name, street and/or mailing address(es), e-mail address(es), telephone number(s) and fax number(s); (3) Payment Data such as your credit card or bank account information; and (4) Usage Data such as how you reached our Site, your destination when you leave our Site, when and how you use our Site, your browsing, selling and/or purchasing history on our Site, searches conducted, keywords and phrases used, links and ads clicked, grades submitted and any other information that you supply through the Site or that you otherwise communicate to us.
5. Security:
We have taken maximum security measures to secure and protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, usage or disclosure. We operate secure data networks to protect your Personal Information and we use high-level SSL encryption and passwords. However, despite our advanced efforts to protect your Personal Information, we cannot and do not guarantee that we will be able to prevent the loss, theft, misappropriation, disclosure, misuse, abuse and/or alteration of your Personal Information.
6. Uses of Collected Information:
When you use our Site and/or sign up as a member, your Personal Information is collected, stored and utilized. The purpose of collecting your Personal Information is to provide you with a dynamic and customized user experience on our Site while giving you the most accurate grades on our search results. When you purchase an item on our Site; Sell or place ads on our Site; and/or sign up as a member, you agree that we may use your Personal Information to:
- send you e-mail regarding your transactions with us and/or your relationship with us
- send you e-mail regarding any transaction on our Site in which you are a buyer, seller or advertiser
- send you e-mail regarding your use of any services on our Site
- attempt to prevent fraud or other illegal activities
- enforce our User Agreement
- select promotional banners, advertisements and sponsored links that may be displayed on our search results and/or other areas of our Site when you visit our Site
With your affirmative consent, we also will use your e-mail address(es) to send you messages with the purpose of promoting the use of our Site and/or the purchase of products or services both related and unrelated to our Site. You may consent to the receipt of such e-mail when you purchase a product from us or at the time you sign up as a member or at a later time. You may withdraw your consent at anytime by using the link and instructing us to withhold sending you promotional emails.
7. Disclosure of Information:
The security and privacy of your Personal Information is a top priority to us, however, we may be required to disclose your Personal Information for the following reasons:
- in response to a court order, subpoena, or as otherwise required by law
- to law enforcement or other governmental officials in response to requests relating to possible criminal or illegal activity
- if necessary in order to enforce our User Agreement
- if necessary to those who assist us in the operation of our Site and our business
- to third parties at your express request
- to our subsidiaries, if any
- to our successors and assigns in the event we merge with another entity and/or sell our assets or company (in whole or part) to another entity
8. Marketing and Third-Party Vendors/Advertisers:
We are the sole owner of all information collected and stored on the Site. We won’t sell or rent your Personal Information, without your prior express consent, to any affiliate or third party that might want to market to you. (However, as stated above, in the event we may sell our assets in the future to a third party, that third party may market to you using your Personal Information.)
If you authorize us to send you e-mail with the primary purpose of promoting products and services other than the use of our Site, we may send you information regarding products and services offered by our affiliates and/or third parties, but such e-mail will come directly from us, not from our affiliates or third parties. You may then choose to communicate directly with our affiliates or third parties if you are interested in the offer.
We may post banners, advertisements and sponsored links on our Site and search results page that offer products and/or services offered by us, our affiliate, a third party or other advertisers. Our computer system may match such offers with you based upon your Personal Information. If you click on a banner, advertisement or sponsored link, you may be communicating directly with our affiliate or third party advertiser, and the data collection and use practices of that entity will control. We take no responsibility for the products, services, information or advertisements offered on our Site from third party advertisers.
9. Cookies:
We use typical “cookies” on our Site. Cookies are small files that are passed on to your browser and stored on your hard drive. The cookies we use will ultimately provide you with a more convenient user experience on our Site while giving you the most accurate grades on the search results.
Our cookies allow us to recognize repeat visitors and remember the grades they submitted per each specific website link they graded. This allows us to maintain the integrity of our grading system while providing you with the most accurate grades possible each time you conduct a search. The cookies can also remember such things as your user name and password, and any settings and/or preferences you set on our Site. This allows you to navigate through our Site without extra download time each time you visit.
You may prohibit the use of cookies if the browser you are using allows you to do so, but restricting cookies may interfere with the functionality and navigational ability of our Site. Prohibiting cookies will also automatically prevent you from being able to submit grades.
This Policy covers only the use of our cookies and not cookies other websites may utilize. If you link to a web page or website from our Site in any manner, (whether the website is framed by us or not), such as might occur if you click on a search result, link, search category, banner, advertisement, sponsored link or otherwise, there may be cookies placed from that web page or website that we do not control.
10. Submitting Grades:
All grades received and presented on our Site are provided to us by our users. We calculate all grades submitted by our users for each website link they grade in conjunction with the search term they queried in order to provide an average grade per each specific link. We take no responsibility for the grade displayed for each specific website link listed on the search results as they are a combined average from our user’s submissions for each specific link. Since grades are submitted by our users and are based upon their own opinions, we take no responsibility as to the outcome or effect an overall average grade may have and the impact that may result to a specific website or company, whether it be positive, neutral or negative.
Submitting grades is not required or mandatory. You do not need to register, sign-in or submit grades in order to use our search engine and get results. It is a violation of our User Agreement to use ‘bots’ or automated grading or searching systems or software. It is a violation to use either an automated system or to manually submit grades for the same website repetitively and/or continuously. It is also a violation to attempt to submit multiple grades per website in any manner in order to artificially manipulate or skew the grade for a specific website to make the grade appear either higher or lower and thus affect the legitimate integrity and quality of that grade as determined by our users. Deleting our cookies for the purpose of submitting multiple grades for the same website is in violation of our User Agreement. Anyone caught in violation of this Policy or our User Agreement may have their membership terminated and/or their ISP address blocked by our servers so that they will be unable to access our website and use our Site. For complete information on our grading system and how to submit grades, visit our link How Grades Work.
11. Search Engine and Sponsored Links:
Although all grades are submitted by our users, the actual search results presented for various ‘search categories’ we offer may be generated by our own custom search engine and proprietary software and/or through a data retrieval engine powered by an alternate company or website and/or a combination of both. In any case, we may post sponsored and/or advertiser links to your search results page based upon the keywords in your search, your Personal Information, and/or your buying/selling preferences and/or based on any other services or features you use on our Site. We take no responsibility for the products, services or advertisements offered on our Site from these sponsored links and/or advertisements or any third-party. As some search categories may or may not be powered by an alternate company, engine or database, we take no responsibility for the data and presentation of the information being provided, either organic, paid listing or otherwise.
12. Framing – Links – Third Party Websites:
When clicking on one of the search results on the results page, you’ll be taken to that specific website you selected. You will see that in most cases, the website has been ‘framed’ by us in order to provide you the small Grade Bar for you to grade the website. Framing a third-party website allows us to place our Grade Bar (and/or other types of service oriented bars) at the top the website’s page directly under your browser. In the case of the Grade Bar, it allows you to easily grade the website you’re viewing.
In some cases, when clicking one of the many search categories and/or links we offer on our Site, you may find that we simply link you to a third-party website that may not necessarily be affiliated with us. At times, we may utilize this strategy for specific links and/or search categories you select in order to bring you to a website that specializes in that specific area of data you’re looking for. This enables you to easily retrieve the most relevant data you’re seeking while conveniently using our Site as the central portal for your searches. In this case, you may oftentimes see that the website we link you to is ‘framed’ by us. The frame is generally a small thin bar that you’ll see at the top of the website page located under your browser. The bar on the framed website simply allows you to easily go back to our Site, and/or use services from our Site directly from the bar. You can hide or remove the bar by simply clicking on the ‘Close’ or ‘Hide’ link on the bar.
Please note that when you link to any website in any manner by utilizing any service on our Site, you are then technically on that specific website even though we may have possibly framed it. We are not responsible for any content, offers, products, information or actions provided, offered or initiated by these other websites even though they were linked to by us and/or possibly framed by us.
This Policy covers only our terms of privacy and the use of our cookies and not the privacy policies and cookies other websites may utilize (even though these other websites may have been linked to and/or framed by us). If you link to a web page or website from our Site in any manner, (whether the website is framed by us or not), such as might occur if you click on a search result, link, search category, banner, advertisement, sponsored link or otherwise, there may be different privacy policy terms and cookies instituted and placed from that web page or website that we do not control.
13. Public Forums and Third Party Disclosures:
Our Site may allow or invite you to advertise or use blogs, chat rooms, e-mail programs, message boards, forums, news groups, instant live messaging, buying and selling forums, and/or similar communication channels. Please note that any information you share in such channels may become public information that is available for others to see and extract. We will not be able to safeguard any information that you openly provide to third parties via our Site or otherwise, so please act with caution.
14. Username and Password:
You do not have to sign-in or become a member on our Site in order to use our search engine and get results. Should you choose to sign-in or register on our Site as a member, the user name that you select will be how you are identified to other viewers and users of our Site.
You should take precautions to protect your password and keep it private as this is the key to your account. When creating your password, you should use a unique combination of numbers and/or letters that are not obvious. The password you create should not be disclosed to anyone. If you choose to share your password with others, they will have full access to your account and any of your Personal Information. You are responsible for any and all actions on our Site taken by anyone who has obtained your user name and password even if those actions were taken by another individual. If you feel your password has been compromised or if you are concerned that someone else has your password, you should change your password immediately by signing in and then opening your account information and then editing your profile and/or password.
15. No Spam, Spyware or Extraction of Information:
Spam (unsolicited e-mail) is unacceptable and forbidden on our Site. Any users/members caught spamming, or collecting information on other users/members, or otherwise inappropriately using the Site will be in violation of the User Agreement. Anyone caught in violation of this Policy or our User Agreement may have their membership terminated and/or their ISP address blocked by our servers so that they will be unable to access our website and use our Site.
16. Opt-Out:
As discussed previously in this Policy, upon purchasing an item or becoming a member, you may choose whether or not you wish to receive e-mail from us that primarily aims to promote the use of our Site and/or the purchase of products or services unrelated to our Site.
We will use e-mail to communicate with you regarding your transactions on our Site and/or your relationship with us as a member and/or your use of this Site and its services. The only way to opt-out of these communications is to terminate your member status. Upon becoming a member, if at anytime you desire to terminate your member status, simply use the link and inform us that you would like to terminate your member status.
17. Account and Password Protection:
Beware of scam artists who might masquerade as us in an attempt to get your Personal Information and/or password. Should we ever need to validate or obtain Personal Information from you, we will contact you and direct you to provide the requested information through our Site using our correct Site address (www.GradeTheWeb.com). Even if the request appears to come from us, do not provide any Personal Information except through our correct Site address. Please contact us promptly to report any suspicious communications.
18. Voluntary Termination of Membership:
You may terminate your member status at any time by using the link and informing us that you’d like to terminate your member status. We may retain Personal Information from terminated accounts.
19. Involuntary Suspension or Termination of Membership:
As per our User Agreement, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate members and/or users and block their ISP address from accessing the GradeTheWeb.com website for any reason that we deem appropriate, including but not limited to; automated searches, automated grading; repetitive grading of the same website, use of bots, fraud, abuse, spam, hacking, unethical practices, improper use of our Site or grading system, infringement, theft, continual clicking on ads or sponsored links, artificially manipulating grades to either appear higher or lower and any other violations of our User Agreement. We may retain Personal Information from terminated accounts.
20. Contacting Us:
If you have any questions or comments pertaining to this Policy, please use the link to contact us via email.
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