What does SpendLocally do with my information?

SpendLocally.com must collect information from Users to properly provide our services to Shopkeepers (merchants), Users (customers) and Charities (non-profits). However, SpendLocally.com is not in the business of selling information to others. We maintain your privacy as described below:

• Shopkeeper (Merchants): To become a Shopkeeper on SpendLocally.com, the Shopkeeper must adhere to this Privacy Policy. These businesses will only receive the information necessary to complete and verify the specific transaction that Users initiate with their business. In no case will a Shopkeeper be given access to information of a User who has not performed a transaction with their business.  The shopkeeper is to limit any contact with the user to the sole transaction initiated on the site, unless the user gives express permission for further contact. Any addition of a user to a mailing list, including email lists, must be accompanied by a method for user removal from such list, as required by law.
• Charities (Non-Profit Organizations): To receive donations from SpendLocally.com, non-profit organizations must adhere to this Privacy Policy. These organizations will not receive any user information, other than the number of users that have chosen said charity to receive donations associated with their activity. The transactions of Users associated with the Charity may be made available from the Charity upon its request. However, any identifying information about the User will be withheld.
• Third-Party Service Providers: SpendLocally.com employs the services of outside service providers when necessary. These providers may include shipping and postal services, communication service providers, order fulfillment providers, credit card processors, collection agencies, and others necessary for us to provide our services. Third-Party companies and individuals are provided only enough information to complete their work on our behalf and may not use the information for any other purpose.
• Credit Card transactions: SpendLocally.com makes every effort to protect Users from fraud. Any payments made by a User for a purchase on SpendLocally.com are encrypted in transit from your computer to ours, using the Secure Sockets Layer protocol (SSL) with an encryption key length of 128-bits (the highest level commercially available). We use industry-recognized AVS and CVV2 checks to thwart identity theft. And after the transaction, the credit card information is NOT stored by SpendLocally.com, nor available to us from our credit card processor. Our credit card processor uses the best data security and encryption methods available from any card processor. As well, User credit card information is not shared with Shopkeepers or Charities associated with the site.
• Business Mergers and Acquisitions: As SpendLocally.com continues to grow, we may sell or buy businesses. In these types of transactions, customer information may be one of the assets sold or acquired, but remains subject to the Privacy Policy then in effect. Of course, since we do not collect your credit card or other financial information, consumer fraud possibilities will be limited beyond that of many other on-line businesses.
• Protection of SpendLocally.com and Others: We may release limited User or Shopkeeper information when required by law; to collect on a debt or transaction with SpendLocally.com; to enforce or apply our Conditions of Use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of SpendLocally.com, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction. Obviously, however, this does not include selling, renting, sharing, or otherwise disclosing personally identifiable information from Users, Shopkeepers, or Charities, for commercial purposes in violation of the commitments set forth in this Privacy Notice.

Notification of Changes
This policy may be revised over time as deemed necessary by SpendLocally.com. The current Privacy Policy will always be available on the SpendLocally.com web site, with the date of the revision noted. Shopkeepers and Charities will always be required to abide by the Privacy Policy then in effect. 30 days’ advance notice of any materially different changes to the Privacy Policy will be sent to Shopkeepers, Charities, and Users registered for one of our newsletters. Any person not represented in those categories should regularly check the Privacy Policy page on the web site.

Third-Party Links
Some pages on the SpendLocally.com web site contain links to third-party web sites (e.g. Shopkeeper web sites, Event Promoter sites, etc.). These sites may contain their own Privacy Policies and their use is at your own discretion. A link from SpendLocally.com to a third party web site does not imply approval of the web site, or its operator, by SpendLocally.com.

“Cookies” and Session Variables
SpendLocally.com uses Cookies and Session Variables to track our visitors’ usage of the site and to provide neighborhood-specific searches, as well as other services. Cookies are text files written onto a site visitor's computer. They can contain values such as login information, which serve as the "remember me" function for SpendLocally.com site logins. They can also carry anything else that's needed for displaying pages and information in a certain manner. If a User, Shopkeeper, or Charity administrator has cookies disabled in his or her browser, then many of the functions of SpendLocally.com may not work. If the site visitor has cookies enabled, but has his or her preferences set to "delete all cookies” when the browser is closed, then the cookie will not be there the next time the person visits SpendLocally.com.
 
Session variables are info bits that are stored in the browser session. A browser session is started each time a person visits SpendLocally.com. It ends when the person closes his or her browser or if the session is inactive for an appreciable amount of time. So, if a person is using a website through a session variable and he or she goes away from the computer for a long time, then that session variable has expired, and the person may no longer have all the functions of the site available to them.
 
Protecting Your Information
Any e-mail or other communication requesting your password, or asking you to provide sensitive account information via email should be treated as unauthorized and suspicious. Please report any suspicious activity to SpendLocally.com through our Contact Us Page available on our web site (http://www.spendlocally.com/contact.asp). Please do not share your login and password with any person you do not want to have access to your account information on SpendLocally.com. If you are using a shared computer, please logout from any site that may contain personal information you may not want shared. As for all web sites, you should protect your password and change it frequently. To make changes to your SpendLocally.com account, please login to your account through the Spenders gateway (http://www.spendlocally.com/gateway.asp).

If you have any questions or concerns about the SpendLocally.com Privacy Policy, please use our Contact Us page (http://www.spendlocally.com/contact.asp) to notify us of such.

Posted on September 21, 2006