Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 1, 2006

1. Introduction

Welcome to www.smalltown.com (the "Site"). Smalltown, Inc. ("Smalltown," "we," "us," "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. Your trust and confidence are our highest priority. Please read further about how we treat any personally identifiable information collected from you.

Please note that by visiting or using the Site you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy (the "Policy") and expressly consent to our collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Policy. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use this Site. This Policy is effective upon acceptance (as described above) for new users and is otherwise effective on August 1, 2006. Your use of the Site and any dispute related to use of information provided to us is subject to the then-current versions of this Policy, the Terms of Use, and your Membership Agreement (if you have subscribed to the Smalltown service).

2. Revisions to this Policy

We may revise this Policy at any time, at our sole discretion, by posting an amended Policy on the Site. Any changes that we make to this Policy will be effective immediately upon posting. Please check this page periodically for changes to the Policy; you will be able to determine if this Policy has been changed since your previous visit by viewing the "Last Updated" information that appears at the top of this Policy. If we intend to use any of your personally identifiable information in a manner different than what we stated in this Policy (as it may be amended from time to time) or otherwise at the time of data collection, we will notify you via email and give you the opportunity to opt-out.

3. Information We Collect from You

We will not collect any information other than as explained in this Policy. The information we learn from you allows us to offer the services offered on or through the Site (such services and the Site shall collectively be referred to as the "Service") to you and helps us personalize and continually improve your experience using the Service. Here are the types of information we gather:

Information You Give Us

Personally identifiable information may be collected while registering to the Site, submitting content to us, or otherwise using the Service. When you register, you are asked to give us your contact information (such as your name and email address), as well as to choose a user name and a password. Optional information we request includes your occupation, company name, title or position, hobbies, and interests.

You can always choose not to provide personally identifiable information, even though it might be needed to give you the advantages of some of our Service features. Registration is optional. If you choose not to register, certain sections of our Service may be inaccessible but you will be able to search and browse the Site.

You may update your contact and other personal information through the "Account" feature on the Site. Registration and login is required to access these account settings.

"Automatic Information"

For each visitor to the Site, our server automatically collects information such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, pages visited, access times, duration of visit, referring URL, platform, timestamp and exit page information. No personally identifiable information, such as email addresses, is automatically recognized or collected.

4. How We Use and Disclose Information

We do not share, disclose, sell, or use your personally identifiable information, without your consent, except as explained here:

Providing Services

We use the information that you provide for such purposes as responding to your requests; customizing future browsing for you; improving our Service; sending you, from time to time, emails and additional promotional materials, to inform you of new features and services available on this Site, or otherwise communicating with you. We may combine your information with information we collect from other companies (such as demographic data) to improve and personalize our services. Unless you terminate your account with Smalltown, we reserve the right to send you by email messages and notices relating to the Service, such as Service announcements and administrative messages, without offering the opportunity to opt-out of receiving them.

Agents

We sometimes employ other companies or individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include fulfilling sending e-mail, shipping products, analyzing data, and providing marketing assistance. They have access to only the information about you needed to perform their functions for us and for you, but may not use it for any other purposes.

Use of "Automatic Information"

We use IP addresses and other automatic data collected to track only aggregate information regarding Site traffic. We do not collect any personal information via a user's IP address. One of the uses for which this data is gathered is for statistical purposes so that we may analyze trends and performance over time. Smalltown uses third-party service providers to help us gather and analyze this information. These service providers are contractually restricted from using your information in any manner other than to help us to provide you better results when you use our Service.

Business Transfers

In the event that Smalltown is acquired or its services or business units are sold, user information may be included in the transaction.

Protection of Smalltown and Others

We will release your account and other personal information when we believe release is appropriate to: (i) comply with the law, legal processes, or governmental requests; (ii) enforce or apply your agreements with Smalltown; or (iii) protect the rights, property, or safety of Smalltown, the Site, users of the Site, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection.

Other Disclosures

Other than as set out above, you will always receive notice when information about you might go to third parties, and you will have an opportunity to choose not to share the information. Note that Smalltown is not responsible for the privacy of your personally identifiable information (or any other information) that you choose to post through the Service or display on your Smalltown "card."

5. Changing or Deleting Your Personal Information

You may view, update, or remove from our database, your contact and other personal information you have given us by contacting us by regular or electronic mail at the addresses provided at the end of this Policy. Note that your contact or personal information, as well as any of your "cards," postings, or any other material or information you submit to us, may be archived in our database, even after their "deletion," or "removal" and may be stored elsewhere.

6. Cookies and Tracking Pixels

Cookies are small pieces of data (alphanumeric identifiers) that a Web site transfers to an individual's computer's hard drive through the individual's Web browser for record-keeping purposes. Like most other major Web sites, we use cookies to enable our systems to recognize you, as a returning user, in order to provide you with personalized features and services and an easier and enhanced Web-surfing experience. No personally identifiable information is stored on these cookies.

Tracking pixels (also known as web beacons, action tags, or transparent GIF files) collect and store information about your visits to Web sites, such as page visits, the duration of the visit and the specific advertisements or link(s) that you clicked on your visit. The tracking pixels are provided to us by our third party ad service providers. The information collected by such tracking pixels is used in aggregate only for reporting purposes and is not used in connection with your personally identifiable information.

How to Enable/Disable Cookies and Tracking Pixels

Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. The "help" portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Similarly, you may refer to the "help" portion on the toolbar for detailed instructions on enabling and disabling tracking pixels.

We recommend you enable acceptance of cookies when using our Site so we can provide a personalized experience for you as you use the Service. However, you are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, although doing so may interfere with your use of the Site (for example, you may be limited in certain non-secure areas of our Site).

7. Third-Party Advertisers

Our Service may include third-party advertising, and some of our advertisers may use third-party companies to serve their advertisements. Often, these third-party advertising companies employ cookies and other technologies to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to show you ads that are more relevant and interesting to you. We do not provide any of your information to them, and we do not have access to or control cookies that may be placed by them. Information is available about the third party advertisers, including information about how to opt-out of their information collection, on the National Advertising Initiative's Web site.

8. Links

Our Site may also include hyperlinks to other sites whose privacy practices may be different than ours. Once you click over to a third-party site, we encourage you to check the other site's privacy notices as we have no control over the content of such privacy notices, and over information that is submitted to, or collected by, these third party sites. Smalltown makes no representation with regard to the policies or business practices of any sites to which you click over through a link from this Site, and is not responsible for any material contained on, or any transactions that occur between you and, any such site. Similarly, search engines and other sites that are not affiliated with Smalltown may archive or otherwise make available Smalltown's "cards" or other postings. We have no control over the privacy policies of such search engines or sites, or over information that is collected by them.

9. Security of Your Information

We seek to adopt commercially reasonable security measures consistent with industry practice to assist in protecting against the loss, misuse, and alteration of personally identifiable information which is under our control. When you use our Service, we work to protect the security of your information during transmission. However, as you probably know, no security system, or system of transmitting data over the Internet, can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Therefore, although we work very hard to protect your privacy, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that any information provided to us or to any third party through or in connection with the Site will always remain private. It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign-off when using a shared computer. You provide all information entirely at your own risk.

10. Notice for California Users

Under California Civil Code Section 1789.3, California Site users are entitled to the following specific consumer rights notice:

The Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs may be contacted in writing at 400 R Street, Suite 1080, Sacramento, California 95814, or by telephone at (916) 445-1254 or (800) 952-5210.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns regarding the Terms of Use, please contact us by email at info@smalltown.com or by mail at:

Smalltown, Inc.
210 South B Street
San Mateo, CA 94401