Last Modified: July 16, 2024
I. General
Proof+Geist, LLC and its subsidiaries (collectively “Proof+Geist”) are committed to protecting your privacy and providing you with a positive experience on our websites and while using our products and services (“Solutions.”)
This Privacy Statement applies to Proof+Geist websites and Solutions that link to or reference this Privacy Statement. It describes how we handle Personal Data, the choices available to you regarding collection, use, and access, and how to update and correct your Personal Data.
Additional information on our Personal Data practices regarding Proof+Geist Solutions may be provided in Solution-specific privacy data sheets and maps, offer descriptions, or other notices provided before or at the time of data collection.
Certain Proof+Geist websites and Solutions may have their own privacy documentation describing how we handle Personal Data specifically for those websites or Solutions. To the extent a specific notice for a website or Solution differs from this Privacy Statement, the specific notice will take precedence. If there is a difference in translated, non-English versions of this Privacy Statement, the U.S.-English version will take precedence.
CHILDREN’S ONLINE PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT Compliance and Non-Applicability Statement.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act applies to the online collection of personal information from children under 13. Proof+Geist, LLC does not collect any personal information about children under 13.
Our sites and solutions are not designed for children under 16, and children under 16 are not authorized to access or use our services. If we discover that a child under 16 has provided us with personal information, we will endeavor to purge any such information as soon as possible.
II. Revisions to this Policy
This Policy is current as of the Last Modified set forth above. We reserve the right to revise, amend, or modify this Policy and our other policies and agreements at any time and in any manner. We will post any updates to this Policy on our sites and solutions. You should periodically check for any modifications to this Policy by re-visiting this web page. If we make any changes to this Policy that materially affect our practices with regard to the personal information we have previously collected from you, we will endeavor to provide you with notice in advance of such change by highlighting the change on our sites and solutions
III. Information that we collect
Visitors to our sites and solutions and services will have multiple manners of interacting with us. Depending upon your level of interaction, we will collect different information about you. We collect information about you directly from you and third parties and automatically through your use of our sites and solutions. The type of information collected is as follows:
- Members—Members are users who subscribe to our services and are prompted to provide their name, address, age, phone number, and any other necessary billing information.
- Posters – Posters are visitors to our sites and solutions who choose to register to post information in our public forums. We collect your email address and the password you create for your account when you register, and we also collect information about your posts to our forums. Any information entered voluntarily by the Poster on one of our forums should be considered public information or publicly available information. If you do not wish for information to be made public, you should not enter it into your user profile when registering as a Poster.
- All sites and solutions users and visitors – We automatically collect the following information from all users and visitors to our sites and solutions through cookies, web beacons, and other technologies: your domain name; your browser type and operating system; web pages you view; links you click; your IP address; the length of time you visit or use our sites and solutions; and the referring URL, or the webpage that led you to our sites and solutions. We may combine this information with other information that we have collected about you, including, where applicable, your user name, name, and other personal information. For more information, please see the section “Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms” below.
IV. Our Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms
We and our third-party service providers use cookies and other tracking mechanisms, including those designed for mobile applications, to collect information about your use of our sites and solutions. We may combine this information with other personal information we collect from you (and our third-party service providers may do so on our behalf).
- Cookies. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your device’s hard drive through your web browser for record-keeping purposes. Some cookies make it easier for you to navigate our sites and solutions, while others enable a faster log-in process or allow us to track your activities at our sites and solutions and services, including for online advertising purposes.
- Disabling Cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can edit your browser options to block them in the future. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your computer from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Visitors to our sites and solutions who disable cookies will be able to browse certain areas of the sites and solutions, but some features may not function.
- Clear GIFs, pixel tags, and other technologies. Clear GIFs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on your device’s hard drive, clear GIFs are embedded invisibly on web pages. We may use clear GIFs (a.k.a. web beacons, web bugs, or pixel tags), in connection with our sites and solutions to, among other things, track the activities of sites and solutions visitors and users, help us manage content and compile statistics about sites and solutions usage. We and our third-party service providers also use clear GIFs in HTML emails to our customers to help us track email response rates, identify when our emails are viewed, and track whether our emails are forwarded.
- Third Party Analytics. We use automated devices and applications, such as Google Analytics, to evaluate usage of our sites and solutions. We also may use other analytic means to evaluate our sites and solutions. We use these tools to help us improve our services, performance, and user experiences. These entities may use cookies and other tracking technologies to perform their services. To learn more about Google’s privacy practices, please review the Google Policy at https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/. You can also download the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on to prevent their data from being used by Google Analytics at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
- Do-Not-Track. Currently, our systems do not recognize browser “do-not-track” requests. However, you may disable certain tracking as discussed in this section (e.g., by disabling cookies).
V. How we use your information
We use your information, including your personal information, for the following purposes:
- To provide our services to you, to communicate with you about your use of our services, to respond to your inquiries, to fulfill your orders, and for other customer service purposes.
- To tailor the content and information that we may send or display to you, such as displaying information on your use of our cloud services, to offer location customization, and personalized help and instructions, and to otherwise personalize your experiences while using our sites or solutions.
- For marketing and promotional purposes. For example, we may use your information, such as your email address, to send you news and newsletters, special offers, and promotions, or to otherwise contact you about products or information we think may interest you. We also may use the information that we learn about you to assist us in advertising our services on third-party websites.
- To better understand how users access and use our sites or solutions, both on an aggregated and individualized basis, in order to improve our sites or solutions and services and respond to user desires and preferences, and for other research and analytical purposes.
- To administer surveys and questionnaires.
- To comply with applicable legal or regulatory obligations, including as part of a judicial proceeding; to respond to a subpoena, warrant, court order, or other legal process; or as part of an investigation or request, whether formal or informal, from law enforcement or a governmental authority.
- To protect the safety, rights, property, or security of Proof+Geist, LLC, our services, sites, and solutions, any third party, or the general public; to detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues; to prevent or stop activity that Proof+Geist, LLC, in its sole discretion, may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being an illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity; to use as evidence in litigation; to conduct audits; and to enforce this Policy, our Acceptable Use Policy, and our Terms of Service.
VI. How We Disclose Your Information
We may share your information, including personal information, as follows:
- Forum Users. If you create an account to use one of our forums, your forum profile, Proof+Geist, LLC directory information, and any information you post on one of our forums will be available to other forum users and all site visitors.
- Affiliates. We may disclose the information we collect from you to our affiliates or subsidiaries; however, if we do so, their use and disclosure of your personal information will be subject to this Policy.
- Service Providers. We may disclose the information we collect from you to third party vendors, digital wallet companies, service providers, contractors or agents who perform functions on our behalf.
We also disclose information in the following circumstances:
- Business Transfers. If we are or may be acquired by or merged with another company, if any of our assets are transferred to another company, or as part of a bankruptcy proceeding, we may transfer the information we have collected from you to the other company.
- In Response to Legal Process. We also may disclose the information we collect from you in order to comply with the law, a judicial proceeding, court order, or other legal process, such as in response to a court order or a subpoena.
- To Protect Us and Others. We also may disclose the information we collect from you where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person, violations of our Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, or this Policy, or as evidence in litigation in which Proof+Geist, LLC is involved.
VII. Transmittals from Us
We may send you periodic announcements, including the details of our existing and new programs. You may opt out of these announcements by contacting support@proofgeist.com or by clicking the opt-out link at the bottom of these emails. If you opt out of these marketing emails, you may still receive system notices and other information specifically related to your account.
VIII. Public Forums, Member Directories, and Internal Messaging:
- Public Forums – Any information posted to a Forum should immediately be considered public information.
- Member Directories—Any information provided in a user profile, Member directory, or other related service should be considered public information. We do not, can not, and will not act to maintain the privacy of any information you provide in any forum or medium.
- Internal Messaging—We provide an internal messaging system for use between Members of our sites. Any information that you send via this internal messaging system is not secure and is not considered to be private. You should use caution when sending any personal information over the internal messaging system and not transmit any information you would not wish to see disclosed to the general public.
IX. Security of Your Information.
We have implemented reasonable precautions to protect the information we collect from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. For example, we take measures, including data encryption, to protect the transmission of sensitive end-user information. Nevertheless, we cannot guarantee that our security measures will prevent third-party “hackers” from illegally obtaining this information. We take reasonable measures to prevent such security breaches, but given the resourcefulness of cyber-criminals, we cannot guarantee that our security is 100% breach-proof. You assume the risk of such breaches to the extent that they occur despite our reasonable security measures.
X. How to Access or Modify Your Information.
We allow our Members to access or modify information provided during registration. To access or modify such information, contact us at https://proofgeist.com/contact
XI. Where to Direct Questions About Our Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions about this Policy or the practices described herein, you may contact us at https://proofgeist.com/contact