Gaia Online Privacy Policy/Dec 2013

(see) Gaia Page Privacy Policy

Gaia Online PRIVACY POLICY – Effective December 16, 2013

Privacy Policy
Thank you for visiting the www.gaiaonline.com website (hereinafter referred to as the "Website" or "Site"). This Website is brought to you by Gaia Interactive, Inc. (hereinafter "Gaia" "we" and "us"). This privacy policy applies to www.gaiaonline.com, its forums and any other related services owned or operated by Gaia.

SPECIAL NOTE TO KIDS AND PARENTS

Persons under the age of 13 are not eligible to register for, use and/or purchase the services and/or products featured on the Website. Gaia does not knowingly collect information from children under 13 years of age. No child under the age of 13 should be permitted by his or her parents to register at or become a member of this Website. There are numerous websites that are appropriate for children under 13. We encourage parents and guardians to spend time online with their children and to participate and monitor the interactive activities of their children. In the event that Gaia is notified that information was provided by a child under the age of 13, Gaia will promptly delete such Personal Information in a secure manner.

INTRODUCTION

Gaia respects and values the privacy of its users, members, customers, subscribers, and others (collectively or individually referred to herein as "Members".

This Privacy Policy will address the following:

1. What information this Website gathers and/or tracks about you.

2. What this Website does with the information it gathers and/or tracks.

3. This Website's opt-out policy so that you can tell us not share your information for marketing purposes.

THE PRIVACY POLICY AND TERMS OF SERVICE

By visiting and utilizing the Site and its related and affiliated Services you agree to our Terms of Service and the within Privacy Policy as updated from time to time. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and is subject to the Gaia Online Terms of Service. In other words, Your right to use Gaia Online and how we can use personal information you provide on Gaia Online are set out in the Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy. The Terms of Service sets out the rules for dos and don'ts while using the Website and also includes such things as limitations on damages, how disputes are to be resolved, and that your use can be terminated for not following the Terms of Service. The Privacy Policy sets out what we can do with personal information that you provide to us or we collect based upon your use of the Website. We strongly recommend that you carefully review the Privacy Policy before providing us with information about yourself or using the Website.

Gaia reserves the right, at our discretion, to change, update or modify this Privacy Policy and/or our Terms of Service at any time, without specific notice to You. Any such change, update or modification will be posted on the Site and will be effective immediately upon posting on the Site. You are encouraged to review the Privacy Policy from time to time in order to determine whether the Privacy Policy impacts you in a manner that would affect your continued use of the Site and related and affiliated Services. Your continued access or use of the Site and related and/or affiliated Services constitutes your consent, acceptance and agreement to the Privacy Policy as updated.

NEVER DISPLAY ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION TO OTHER MEMBERS OR USERS IN ANY FORUM OR IN ANY MANNER THAT COULD BE USED TO FIND YOU OR OTHERS IN THE REAL, OFF-LINE WORLD - for example, your full name, your mailing or home address, your phone numbers, your real email address etc. ("contact information"), as well as the name and contact information of other Members, your friends, your family or others.

Gaia assumes no responsibility for any occurrence that is a result of your disclosure, whether directly or in a forum or other location on www.gaiaonline.com, of your personal information to other Members or Users.

THE DETAILS OF OUR COLLECTION AND USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

Now, let's get into the answers to the three topics listed in the introduction. The answers explain our online information practices and the choices available to you concerning the way that we use the information collected online at this Website. If you have any questions after reviewing this Privacy Policy, you may contact us by emailing your question to privacy@gaiaonline.com

1. What information this Website gathers and/or tracks about you.

TYPES OF INFORMATION GAIA COLLECTS

• Member provided information: This is the information that you provide to us during registration to become a Member or during your use of the Site. Personally identifiable information includes, but is not limited to your name, a Gaia Online user name, email address, postal mailing address, home/mobile telephone number, credit card number, billing information etc.

• "Cookies" information: When you visit Gaia, we may send one or more cookies (small text files containing a string of alphanumeric characters) - to your computer. Gaia utilizes both session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookies disappears after you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to Gaia. Persistent cookies can be removed by you at anytime. Review your web browser's "Help" file to learn the proper way to modify your cookie settings.

• "Automatically collected" information: When you participate in Gaia, for example, play games, participate in forums or the Art Arena, spend your Gaia Gold or Gaia Cash, or open one of our HTML emails, certain information from your web browser may be automatically recorded by using different types of technology, including "clear gifs" or "web beacons". This "automatically collected" information may include unique "device IDs" (similar to IP addresses), Internet Protocol address ("IP Address"), web browser type, the web pages or sites that you visit just before or just after www.gaiaonline.com, the pages you view on our site, and the dates and times that you visit www.gaiaonline.com

2. What this Website does with the information it gathers and/or tracks.

WAYS GAIA MAY USE INFORMATION

• When you choose to create a public profile on Gaia, you will post, at your option, certain personal information that will be publicly displayed to other Members on Gaia. You consent to our display of any personal information that you include in your public profile.

• Gaia uses the information that we collect to operate, maintain, secure, enhance, and provide to you all of the features and services found on Gaia. We will use your email address for administrative purposes such as sending You account activation and "welcome" emails, notifying you of major Gaia updates, customer service purposes, addressing copyright infringement issues or to contact you regarding any Gaia activities in which you presently participating.

• Gaia also uses your email address to send to you email regarding Gaia activities that you may wish to enjoy, newsletters, and from time to time notices about special activities, features, or items available on Gaia, and in some case sponsored by third parties. You may opt-out of receiving such notices by indicating this in your preferences in the Edit Profile section of www.gaiaonline.com.

• Gaia uses newsfeeds to aggregate the information you provide and make it available to your friends and network members according to your privacy settings.

• Gaia uses all the information that we collect to: (a) understand the usage trends and preferences of our Members; (b) improve the way Gaia works and looks and to create new features and functionality and (c) to investigate potential violation of the Terms of Service including review of actual information posted online and actual and specific transactions. You understand and agree to our reviewing both your public and private Member provided personal information and automatically collected information to investigate any possible violations of the Terms of Service.

• Gaia uses "automatically collected" information and information gathered from "cookies" to: (a) remember your information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit Gaia; (b) provide customized third-party advertisements, content, and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of third-party marketing campaigns; (d) monitor aggregate site usage metrics such as the total number of visitors and pages viewed; (e) track your entries, submissions, and status in any games, sweepstakes, and contests; and (f) to investigate possible violations of the Terms of Service.

• Except as explicitly stated herein, we do not sell, rent or trade any personally identifiable information to third-parties. We may provide our user information and/or join together with other businesses to bring selected opportunities to our users.

• Gaia is able to offer our products and/or services to you, in part, based on your willingness to be reached by our third-party advertisers. By allowing us to make the information you supply available to these third-parties, you will receive free information on products and services that may be of interest to you. This information may also be shared with advertisers on an aggregate basis. In addition, you agree that such act constitutes a purchase, an inquiry and/or an application for purposes of CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

• We may be required to disclose personal information in some instances, such as: 1) when required by law wherein we have a good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, and/or subpoena; 2) in the event that Gaia is sold or acquired; or 3) in the event that we believe that the Website is being, or has been, used in violation of our terms and conditions or to commit unlawful acts. You hereby consent to the disclosure of any record or communication to any third-party when Gaia, in its sole discretion, determines the disclosure to be appropriate including, without limitation, sharing your email address with other third parties for suppression purposes in compliance with the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, as amended from time-to-time.

• Gaia also reserves the right to disclose Member Information that we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to take precautions against liability; protect Gaia from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses; to investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations; to assist government enforcement agencies; to protect the security or integrity of Gaia Online; and to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of our Members or other persons.

• Gaia may disclose Member Information to third parties assisting Gaia in billing for services and products purchased by you on the Website.

3. This Website's opt-out policy so that you can tell us not share your information for marketing purposes.

YOUR CHOICES:

'''You may opt-out of receiving marketing emails by indicating this in your preferences in the www.gaiaonline.com/accounts/notifications section of www.gaiaonline.com. California residents may also opt out by sending an email requesting to opt out from receiving marketing emails to: unsubscribe@gaiaonline.com'''

You may, of course, decline to share your personally-identifiable information with Gaia, in which case you will not be able to participate in many Gaia Online activities. You may update, correct, or delete your Member account information and email subscription preferences at any time by going to the www.gaiaonline.com/accounts/notifications section of Gaia Online; provided, however, that upon deletion of your account or profile, please note that some of your personal information, including billing and contact information, may remain in Gaia's systems for some limited period of time.

To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you account access or making corrections. HOWEVER, You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information at all times.

THIRD-PARTY ADVERTISERS, LINKS TO OTHER SITES:

If you opt-in to connect your Gaia account and personal information with Facebook (through the Facebook Connect feature) or with any other third party networking (or other) site, then your shared personal information or data may become public through Facebook or other site. This Privacy Policy only applies to information collected through Gaia Online. When you access Facebook or other third party sites through links or features on Gaia Online, you do so at your own risk. These other sites are not under Gaia's control, and you acknowledge that Gaia is not responsible or liable for their privacy practices and/or policies. When linking to another site you should read the privacy policy posted on that site and make sure that you are comfortable with its privacy practices.

Gaia allows other companies, called third-party ad servers or ad networks, to serve advertisements within Gaia Online. These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to send, directly to your browser, the advertisements that appear within Gaia Online and they automatically receive your IP Address when this happens. Such third-party ad servers may also use other technologies (such as cookies, javascript, or web beacons) to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and to personalize their advertising content.

Gaia does not provide any personally identifiable information to these third-party ad servers or ad networks without your consent or except as part of a specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-in. However, please note that if an advertiser asks Gaia to show an advertisement to a certain audience (for example, males age 15 to 18) or audience segment (for example, males age 15 to 18 who have participated in certain community activities or games) and you respond to that advertisement, the advertiser or ad-server may conclude that you fit the description of the audience that they were trying to reach.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers or ad networks. Gaia's Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites. Gaia reserves the right the add or remove third-party ad networks or ad servers in its discretion and Gaia may not at all times list such updated ad network or ad server partners in this Privacy Policy.

OUR COMMITMENT TO DATA SECURITY:

We work hard to protect the security of Your personal information. Gaia uses commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of Member Information. While we incorporate sophisticated technology to protect Your information, we cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of Member Information collected by Gaia, and you transmit such information at your own risk. Please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.

In the event of a security systems breach that we believe would warrant You taking protective steps, Gaia may post a notice on Gaia Online or attempt to contact you electronically. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive a free written notice of a security breach you should notify us at privacy@gaiaonline.com.

OUR COMMITMENT TO CHILDREN'S PRIVACY:

Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. For that reason, Gaia does not knowingly collect or maintain personally identifiable information on Gaia Online from persons under 13 years-of-age, and no part of Gaia Online is directed to persons under 13. If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use or access Gaia Online at any time or in any manner. If Gaia learns that personally-identifiable information of persons less than 13-years-of-age has been collected on Gaia without verifiable parental consent, then Gaia will take the appropriate steps to delete this information. If you are a parent or guardian and discover that your child under the age of 13 has obtained a Gaia Online account, then you may alert Gaia at privacy@gaiaonline.com and request that Gaia delete that child's personal information from its systems.

Parents, there are numerous resources that may help you in monitoring and limiting your children's access to certain types of material on the Internet. This is a link to a website maintained by the Federal Trade Commission where parents can find resources to help you in monitoring and limiting your child's access to certain types of material on the Internet. http://onguardonline.gov/socialnetworking.html

INTERNATIONAL VISITORS:

Gaia Online is hosted in the United States and is intended for United States visitors. If You are visiting from the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that You are transferring Your personal data to the United States and by providing Your personal data You consent to that transfer. IN THE EVENT OF A MERGER OR SALE:

In the event that Gaia is acquired by or merged with a third-party entity, we reserve the right, in any of these circumstances, to transfer or assign the information we have collected from Members as part of such merger, acquisition, sale, or other change of control.

CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY:

Gaia reserves the right to change or update this Privacy Policy at any time by posting a notice at the Website that we are changing our Privacy Policy. If the manner in which we use personally identifiable information changes, we will notify users by posting the changes on this Website. Any and all changes to our Privacy Policy are effective immediately upon posting. Your continued use of the Website, Gaia's products and/or services, and/or continued receipt of Gaia's e-mails shall be deemed an affirmative acknowledgement and acceptance by the user to the terms of the modified Privacy Policy.

GAIA CONTACT INFORMATION:

Please contact Gaia with any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, Your personal information, our third-party disclosure practices, or Your consent choices at privacy@gaiaonline.com or by postal mail at PO Box 612680, San Jose, CA 95161-2680. You may also contact us at 1-408-467-8511. We will respond to your inquiry at our earliest opportunity.

Effective Date, Date Last Modified:

Gaia Online PRIVACY POLICY effective as of December 16, 2013

Gaia Online PRIVACY POLICY last modified on December 16, 2013

Disclaimer & Copyrights:

AniHQ, GAIA Interactive Inc, Studio XD, and all affiliated developers of GAIA Online will not be held responsible for (1) any content generated by GAIA Online users/members or (2) content that exists through any links posted on the GAIA Online website.

AniHQ, GAIA Online and all images associated with GAIA Online are © Copyright 2003 - 2014 Gaia Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.