Privacy Policy
Last Updated Date: April 26, 2013
Welcome to Storify ("Storify," "we," "us" or "our"). Storify places a high value on the privacy of its users. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share and protect information in relation to our mobile services, web site, and any software provided on or in connection with our services (collectively, the "Storify Service"), and your choices about the collection and use of your information.
This Privacy Policy applies to all visitors, users, and others who access the Storify Service (the "Users").
COLLECTION AND USE OF INFORMATION
We collect the following types of information:
Information you provide us directly: In the course of signing up for and using the Storify Service, we may ask you to provide us with, or grant us access to, or permission to obtain, certain personally identifiable information like your username and email address (the “Personal Information”) and other non-personally identifiable information (the “Non-Identifying Information”). Such Personal Information and Non-Identifying Information shall collectively be referred to as your “Information.”
We may collect your Information in connection with your registration to join the Storify Service. You can register to join by logging into your online account with certain third party service providers (each such account, a “Third Party Account”). Such third party service providers may include but are not limited to Facebook and Twitter. When you register by logging into a Third Party Account, we may obtain certain information that you have provided to the Third Party Account and use that information to create your Storify account.
We use your Information mainly to provide the Storify Service, complete your transactions, if any, and administer your inquiries. We may also use your Personal Information to contact you with marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you.
We may combine your Personal Information with Non-Identifying Information and aggregate it with information collected from other Users to attempt to provide you with a better experience, to improve the quality and value of the Storify Service and to analyze and understand how the Storify Service is used. We may also use the combined information without aggregating it to serve you specifically, for instance to deliver a product to you according to your preferences or restrictions.
Analytics information: We may use third-party analytics tools to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Storify Service. These tools may collect information sent by your device or our Storify Service, including the web pages you visit, add-ons, and other information that assists us in improving the Storify Service.
Cookies and similar technologies: Like many websites, we use “cookies” to collect information. A cookie is a small data file that we transfer to your computer’s hard disk for record-keeping purposes. We may use cookies for two purposes. First, we may utilize persistent cookies to save your login information for future logins to the Storify Service. Second, we may utilize session ID cookies to enable certain features of the Storify Service, to better understand how you interact with the Storify Service and to monitor aggregate usage by users and web traffic routing on the Storify Service. Unlike persistent cookies, session cookies are deleted from your computer when you log off from the Storify Service and then close your browser. Third party advertisers on the Storify Service may also place or read cookies on your browser. You can instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions of the Storify Service or all functionality of the Storify Service.
We may also use “web beacons,” “pixel tags,” “clear GIFs” or similar means (individually or collectively “Web Beacons”) on our Storify Service. A Web Beacon is an electronic image, often a single pixel, embedded on web pages. Web Beacons are ordinarily not visible to users. Web Beacons allow us to count the number of users who have visited certain pages of the Storify Service, to deliver branded services and to generate statistics about how our Storify Service is used.
Log file information: Log file information may automatically be reported by your browser each time you make a request to access (i.e., visit) a web page or app. It may also be provided when the content of the webpage or app is downloaded to your browser or device. When you use our Storify Service, our servers may automatically record certain log file information, including your web request, Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type, referring / exit pages and URLs, number of clicks and how you interact with links on the Storify Service, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, and other such information. We may also collect similar information from emails sent to our Users which then help us track which emails are opened and which links are clicked by recipients. Such information allows for more accurate reporting and improvement of the Storify Service.
Device identifiers: When you use a mobile device like a phone or tablet to access our Storify Service, we may access, collect, monitor, store on your device, and/or remotely store one or more "device identifiers." Device identifiers are small data files or similar data structures stored on or associated with your mobile device, which uniquely identify your mobile device. A device identifier may be data stored in connection with the device hardware, data stored in connection with the device's operating system or other software, or data sent to the device by Storify. A device identifier may deliver information to us or to a third party partner about how you browse and use the Storify Service and may help us or others provide reports or personalized content and ads. Some features of the Storify Service may not function properly if use or availability of device identifiers is impaired or disabled.
Other Uses: In addition to some of the specific uses of Information describe elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, we may use Information that we receive to:
- provide the Storify Service to you;
- help you efficiently access your information after you sign in;
- remember information so you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the Storify Service;
- provide personalized content and information to you and others, which could include online ads or other forms of marketing;
- provide, improve, test, and monitor the effectiveness of our Storify Service;
- develop and test new products and features;
- monitor metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, and demographic patterns; and
- diagnose or fix technology problems.
SHARING OF YOUR INFORMATION
We will not rent or sell your information to third parties outside Storify (or the group of companies of which Storify is a part) without your consent, except as noted in this Privacy Policy.
Parties with whom we may share your information:
Other Users of the Storify Service may be able to see all of your profile Information and Information that you disclose in your comments or User Content (as defined below). You can choose what Personal Information you provide and in some cases you can choose whether to share that Information publicly on the Storify Service by making selections via the “Settings” section of the Storify Service. We recommend that you guard your anonymity and sensitive information.
We may share your Information as well as information from tools like cookies, log files, and device identifiers and location data (such as usage data, referring/exit pages and URLs, platform types, number of clicks, etc.), with individuals and organizations that help us provide the Storify Service to you ("Service Providers"). Our Service Providers will only be given access to your Information as is reasonably necessary to provide the Service under reasonable confidentiality terms.
We may share certain Information such as cookie data with third-party advertising partners. This Information would allow third-party ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you.
We may remove parts of data that can identify you and share anonymized data with other parties. We may also combine your Information with other information in a way that it is no longer associated with you and share that aggregated information.
Parties with whom you may choose to share your content:
Any Information or content that you voluntarily disclose for posting to the Storify Service, such as your stories, comments, and links to content (collectively, the “User Content”), becomes available to the public, as controlled by any applicable privacy settings that you set. Once you have shared User Content or made it public, that User Content may be re-shared by others.
If you remove Information that you posted to the Storify Service, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Storify Service, or if other Users or third parties have copied or saved that Information.
What happens in the event of a change of control:
If we sell or otherwise transfer part or the whole of Storify or our assets to another organization (e.g., in the course of a transaction like a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, liquidation), your, User Content and any other information collected through the Storify Service may be among the items sold or transferred. You will continue to own your User Content. The buyer or transferee will be contractually required to honor the commitments we have made in this Privacy Policy.
Instances where we may be required to share your information:
Storify will disclose your Information where required to do so by law or by judicial process or if we reasonably believe that such action is necessary to:
- comply with the law and the reasonable requests of law enforcement;
- enforce our Terms of Use [add hyperlink http://storify.com/tos];
- protect the security or integrity of our Storify Service; or
- exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Storify, our Users or others.
STORAGE OF YOUR INFORMATION
Your Information collected through the Storify Service may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Storify, a company in the same group of companies as Storify or Service Providers maintain facilities. Storify may transfer information that we collect about you, including your Personal Information across borders and from your country or jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions around the world. If you are located in the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that we may transfer information, including Personal Information, to a country and jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction. By registering for and using the Storify Service you consent to the transfer of your Information to the U.S. or to any other country in which Storify, a company in the same group of companies as Storify or Service Providers maintain facilities and the use and disclosure of information about you as described in this Privacy Policy.
We use commercially reasonable safeguards to help keep the Information collected through the Storify Service secure and take reasonable steps (such as requesting a unique password) to verify your identity before granting you access to your account. However, Storify cannot ensure the security of any Information you transmit to Storify or guarantee that Information on the Storify Service may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed.
Please do your part to help us. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information, and for controlling access to emails between you and Storify, at all times. Your privacy settings may also be affected by changes the social media services you connect to Storify make to their services. We are not responsible for the functionality, privacy, or security measures of any other organization.
YOUR CHOICES ABOUT YOUR INFORMATION
You may unsubscribe from email communications from us by clicking on the "unsubscribe link" provided in any communications from us. You may not however opt out of Storify Service-related communications (e.g., account verification, purchase and billing confirmations and reminders, changes/updates to features of the Storify Service, technical and security notices). If you believe that you have received an unsolicited commercial message or email from us, you may report it to us at [email protected]
Upon cancellation of your account, Storify may (i) may retain your information and content for a commercially reasonable time for backup, archival, and/or audit purposes, and (ii) retain, use and continue to show in anonymized form data and information you made available to the public on the Storify Service, including your links to third party content, comments, likes, and similar content.
If you have any questions about cancellation of your account, please contact us directly at [email protected]
CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
Storify does not knowingly collect or solicit any information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register for the Storify Service. The Storify Service and its content are not directed at children under the age of 13. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at [email protected]
OTHER WEB SITES AND SERVICES
We are not responsible for the practices employed by any websites or services linked to or from our Storify Service, including the information or content contained within them. Please remember that when you use a link to or go from our Storify Service to another website or service, our Privacy Policy does not apply to those third-party websites or services. Your browsing and interaction on any third-party website or service, including those that have a link on our website, are subject to that third party’s own rules and policies. In addition, you agree that we are not responsible and do not have control over any third-parties that you authorize to access your Information and User Content. If you are using a third-party website or service and you allow them to access your Information and User Content you do so at your own risk.
CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY
Storify may modify or update this Privacy Policy from time to time, so please review it periodically. We may provide you additional forms of notice of modifications or updates as appropriate under the circumstances. Your continued use of Storify or the Storify Service after any modification to this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such modification.
HOW TO CONTACT US
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the Storify Service, please contact us at [email protected]
