Updated December 23, 2019
This Privacy Notice discloses the privacy practices of our website, mobile site, or app (the “Site”). Specifically, it outlines the types of information that we gather about you while you are using the Site, and the ways in which we use and share this information. This Privacy Notice does not apply to any information you may provide to us, or that we may collect, offline and/or through other means (for example, at a live event, via telephone, via email, or through the mail).
Please read this Privacy Notice carefully. By visiting and using the Site, you agree that your use of our Site, and any dispute over our online privacy practices, is governed by this Privacy Notice and our Terms of Service.
Because the Web is an evolving medium, we may need to change our Privacy Notice at some point in the future, in which case we’ll post the revised Privacy Notice on this website. By continuing to use the Site after we post any such changes, you accept the Privacy Notice as modified.
How We Collect Information
Information You Provide. We may collect and store information that you voluntarily supply to us while on our Site. This may include information that can be used to contact or identify you, such as your name, email address, or postal address. Some examples of this type of information include information that you electronically submit when you contact us with questions or participate in contests, surveys or sweepstakes, information that you post on blogs, discussion forums or other community posting and social networking areas on our Site, and information that you electronically submit when you complete an online registration form to access and use certain features of our Site. We also may ask for information (including a credit card number and other financial information) from those users who make purchases or have payment transactions on our Site.
Location Information. We may collect location information (e.g., city and state and/or zip code) that you provide. Certain devices and browsers contain unique identifiers that can be used to identify the geographical location of the device. When you use such a device or browser to access our Site, your device and/or browser may automatically collect and/or transmit your location information. We also may collect GPS information from the device if the device transmits it. Additionally, if you download our app, we may collect your location information in order to deliver our app services. If you choose to enable certain features in our apps that require your geographic location, then we will collect and store that information.
Other Information Automatically Collected to Improve the Site and Deliver Targeted Advertising. We also collect and store information through a variety of automatic technologies, such as browser and flash cookies, pixels, and web beacons about your use of our Site, including device identifying information such as IP addresses, MAC address or other device-specific alphanumerical ID numbers, the make and model of your device, the wireless provider associated with your device, whether you downloaded the app, the source of the download of the App (for example, whether via a particular advertisement for the App), when the App is launched, how many times a particular page within the Site is visited, which features the users interact with, and your device or computer’s connection to the Internet. If you choose to connect to our Site through a social network such as Facebook, we may automatically collect your profile information. These things allow us, among other things, to improve the delivery of our web pages to you and to measure traffic on the Site.
The information we collect may be collected directly by us, or it may be collected by a third-party website hosting provider, or another third-party service provider, on our behalf.
We also may use “cookies” and other similar technologies on the Site. Cookies are small files that are placed on your hard drive for record-keeping purposes and to enhance your experience with the Site. By showing how and when visitors use the Site, cookies help us deliver advertisements, identify how many unique users visit us, and track user trends and patterns. They also prevent you from having to re-enter your preferences on certain areas of the Site where you may have entered preference information before. This Site also may use web beacons (single-pixel graphic files also known as “transparent GIFs”) to access cookies and to count users who visit the Site or open HTML-formatted email messages.
How Information is Used.
We use the information we collect from you while you are using the Site in a variety of ways, including, for example, for the purpose for which the information was submitted, to process your registration request, to provide you with services and communications that you have requested, to send you email updates and other communications, customize features and advertising that appear on the Site, to deliver our Site content to you, to measure Site traffic, measure user interests and traffic patterns, and to improve the Site and the services and features offered via the Site.
We may use location information, either information you provided by you or information automatically collected, in order to provide you with content, services and advertising that is relevant to your geographic area. We may combine information we collect from you while you are using our Site with information that we collect from other sources to customize features, content and advertising that appear on our Site.
In addition, we may use any information submitted by or collected from you via the Site for any purpose related to the Site, including to contact you for customer service purposes, to inform you of important changes or additions to our Site or the services offered over our Site, and to send you administrative notices and any other communications that we believe may be of interest to you.
Your Choices. When we request information from you on the Site, you may always choose not to provide us with that information. But if you decline to supply or provide us with certain information while using the Site, you may not be able to use or participate in some or all of the features offered through the Site.
If you want to limit the information that is automatically collected while you use our Site, most Web browsers allow you to disable certain functionality or set certain privacy setting. If you choose to disable cookies or turn off other functionality, you may not be able to use or participate in some or all of the features offered through the Site. If you would like more information on how to opt out of information collection practices by many third parties, visit the Digital Advertising Alliance’s website at www.aboutads.info.
How Information is Shared
Sharing with Affiliates, Partners and Third Party Service Providers. We may provide your information to our affiliates or to third parties, including our third party service providers and contractors, for purposes related to Site administration and other services. For example, if you use a credit or debit card to complete a transaction on our Site, we may share your personal information and credit card number with a credit card processing and/or a fulfillment company in order to complete your transaction, or such service provider(s) may collect that information from you directly, on our behalf.
If you do not wish certain information to be shared for these purposes, send a letter to the Online Privacy Coordinator whose contact information is listed at the end of this Privacy Notice.
We also make some content, products and services available through our Site through cooperative relationships with third-party providers, where the brands of our provider partner appear on the Site in connection with such content, products and/or services. We may share with our provider partner any information you provide, or that is collected, in the course of visiting any pages that are made available in cooperation with our provider partner. In some cases, the provider partner may collect information from you directly, in which cases the Privacy Notice of our provider partner may apply to the provider partner’s use of your information. The Privacy Notice of our provider partners may differ from ours. If you have any questions regarding the Privacy Notice of one of our provider partners, you should contact the provider partner directly for more information.
Sharing Information with Third Parties for Advertising and Other Promotional Purposes.
We may use third-party service providers to target and serve some of the advertisements you see on the Site. We may share technical or aggregate information, such as type of pages viewed and categories of interest, from our Site with these service providers and advertisers for their use in displaying ads on our Site. These third party providers and advertisers may use their own browser or flash cookies, web beacons and similar technologies to collect technical information (such as device unique identifier, IP address, MAC address, browser type, pages visited, and location information) from users of the Site that is generated automatically as a user views or interacts with an ad. These service providers may use that information, sometimes in conjunction with similar information gathered through other websites and other sources, to deliver advertisements on this Site, and on other websites.
Unless you affirmatively provide information within an ad, the data collected in connection with the ads, ad serving and ad targeting on our Site does not include your name, address, email address or telephone number, but it may include the device unique identifier, IP address, MAC address and location information of your computer or device. The use and collection of information by third-party advertising service providers is governed by the relevant third party’s privacy policy and is not covered by our Privacy Notice.
For information about use of your information by us and by third-party advertising service providers for advertising, see the section “Data Collected in Connection with Ad Serving and Targeting.”
Sharing with Third Parties for Other Purposes. Please be aware that we may occasionally release information about our visitors if required to do so by law or if, in our business judgment, such disclosure is reasonably necessary: (a) to comply with legal process; (b) to enforce our Terms of Service; or (c) to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of our Site, us, our affiliates, our officers, directors, employees, representatives, our licensors, other users, and/or the public.
Please also note that as our business grows, we may buy or sell various assets. In the unlikely event that we sell some or all of our assets, or our Site is acquired by another company,information about our Site users may be among the transferred assets.
Data Collected in Connection with Ad Serving and Targeting
We may use cookies, web beacons and similar technologies, and/or a third-party ad serving software, to automatically collect information about site users and site activity, and we may use this information to, among other things, serve targeted advertisements on this site. The information collected allows us to analyze how users use the site and to track user interests, trends and patterns, thus allowing us to deliver more relevant advertisements to users.
We also may use third-party service providers, to target and serve some of the advertisements you see on the pages of our Site. We may share technical or aggregate information about your interaction with our Site, such as type of pages viewed and categories of interest, from our Site with these service providers for their use in displaying ads on our Site. These providers may use their own cookies, web beacons and similar technologies to collect similar information from our Site. These service providers may use that information, sometimes in conjunction with similar information gathered through other websites, to deliver advertisements on this Site, and on other websites that participate in our service providers’ advertising networks, that are tailored to match the perceived interests of consumers. The information obtained by our third-party service providers also may be used to help measure and research an advertisement’s effectiveness, or for other purposes.
Unless you affirmatively provide information, the data collected in connection with the ad serving and ad targeting on our Site does not identify you personally and does not include your name, address, email address or telephone number, but it may include device identifying information such as the IP address, MAC address, cookie or other device-specific unique alphanumerical ID of your computer.
The use and collection of information by third-party advertising service providers are governed by the relevant third party’s Privacy Notice and are not covered by our Privacy Notice. If you would like more information about the information collection practices of a particular service provider, or if you would like more information on how to opt out of a service provider’s information collection practices, go to www.aboutads.info.
Information You Post to Blogs, Discussion Forums and Other Community Posting or Social Networking Areas
Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily make your personal information or other private information available for viewing by third parties online, such as on blogs, discussion forums, or other community posting or social networking areas of our Site, that information can be seen, collected and used by others besides us. We cannot be responsible for any unauthorized third-party use of such information.
Children’s Privacy Statement
This site is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect any Personal Information from a child under 13. If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personally identifiable information from a user under the age of 13 as part of the Site, we will delete such information from our records.
How To Make Changes to Your Information
If you are a registered user of our Site, you can make changes to your account information by logging in to the Site and using the tools available via the Site.
Security
All information we gather on our Site is stored within databases to which only we and services providers are provided access. However, as effective as the reasonable security measures
implemented by us may be, no physical or electronic security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our Site’s servers or databases, nor can we guarantee that information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet.
Links to Other Sites
Our Site also includes links to other websites and provides access to products and services offered by third parties, whose privacy policies we do not control. When you access another website or purchase products or services from a third-party, use of any information you provide is governed by the privacy notice of the operator of the site you are visiting or the provider of such products or services.
Your California Privacy Rights
California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the “Shine The Light” law, permits our customers who are California residents to request and obtain from us once a year, free of charge, information about the personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. If applicable, this information would include a list of the categories of personal information that was shared and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to:
Online Privacy Coordinator
Adoption.com, LLC
6300 John Ryan Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76132-4122
Questions Regarding Privacy
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, our privacy practices, or your dealings with us, you can contact:
Online Privacy Coordinator
Adoption.com, LLC
6300 John Ryan Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76132-4122