1. PRIVACY POLICY.
This section of the Terms contains and informs you of BuddyExpress' policies and procedures regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information we receive from Users and Members (the “Privacy Policy”). This Privacy Policy applies only to information that you provide to us through the Site. We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our information practices. If we make any material changes we will notify you by email (sent to the e-mail address specified in your BuddyExpress Account) or by means of a notice on the Site and Apps prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms of Service (https://www.BuddyExpress.com/tos). For purposes of this Privacy Policy, the terms “using” and “processing” information include using cookies on a computer, subjecting the information to statistical or other analysis and using or handling information in any way, including, but not limited to collecting, storing, evaluating, modifying, deleting, using, combining, disclosing and transferring information within our organization or among our affiliates, and to our associates, within the United States or internationally.
(a) International Transfer. YOUR INFORMATION MAY BE TRANSFERRED TO – AND MAINTAINED ON – COMPUTERS LOCATED OUTSIDE OF YOUR STATE, PROVINCE, COUNTRY OR OTHER GOVERNMENTAL JURISDICTION WHERE THE PRIVACY LAWS MAY NOT BE AS PROTECTIVE AS THOSE IN YOUR JURISDICTION. YOUR CONSENT TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY FOLLOWED BY YOUR SUBMISSION OF SUCH INFORMATION REPRESENTS YOUR AGREEMENT TO THAT TRANSFER.
(b) Information Collection and Use. Our primary goals in collecting information are to provide and improve our Site, services, features and content, to administer your use of the Site and any future or related Apps (together, the “Service”) and to enable users to enjoy and easily navigate the Site. In addition, personal information is required for the completion of deliveries and packages You expressly agree to these uses.
(c) Personally Identifiable Information. When you register with us through the Site and become a Member, when respond to or post a trip or travel itinerary or post a request through the Site, or when you wish to contact another Member, we will ask you for personally identifiable information and/or obtain this information through your Third Party Account. This refers to information about you that can be used to contact or identify you (“Identity Information”). Identity Information includes, but is not limited to, name, phone number, email address, and address, but does not include your credit card number, bank account information or billing information. In order to process some of your Transactions through the Site and Apps, we may also ask for your credit card number, bank account information and other billing information (“Billing Information”) (Identity Information and Billing Information together, “Personal Information”). Addresses for travel or trips also may be considered Identity Information. Some Personal Information is required, like your name and email address, and other Personal Information is optional, like your date of birth. We use your Personal Information to provide the Service and administer your inquiries. We collect Personal Information in connection with your registration for an BuddyExpress Account.
If you decide to register by logging into a Third Party Account via our Site, we will obtain the Personal Information you have provided to the applicable SNS (such as your “real” name, email address, profile picture, names of SNS friends, names of SNS groups to which you belong, other information you make publicly available via the applicable SNS and/or other information you authorize BuddyExpress to access by authorizing the SNS to provide such information) from your Third Party Accounts. Depending on the Third Party Accounts you choose and subject to the privacy settings that you have set in such Third Party Accounts, you understand that by granting us access to the Third Party Accounts, we will access, make available and store (if applicable and as permitted by the SNS and authorized by you) the information in your Third Party Accounts so that it is available on and through your BuddyExpress Account on the Site and Service. If there is information about your “friends” or people with whom you are associated in your Third Party Account, the information we obtain about those “friends” or people with whom you are associated, may also depend on the privacy settings such people have with the applicable SNS.
We also collect the other information that you provide as part of registration and the administration and personalization of your BuddyExpress Account profile (e.g., without limitation, your zip code (independently of Personal Information) and individual preferences or demographic information) (“Non-Identifying Information”). We use your Personal Information (in some cases, in conjunction with your Non-Identifying Information) mainly to provide the Service, help you complete your Transactions, and administer your inquiries.
Certain Non-Identifying Information would be considered a part of your Personal Information if it were combined with other identifiers (for example, combining your zip code with your street address) in a way that enables you to be identified. But the same pieces of information are considered Non-Identifying Information when they are taken alone or combined only with other non-identifying information (for example, your demographic information). We may combine your Personal Information with Non-Identifying Information and aggregate it with information collected from other BuddyExpress Users (defined below) to attempt to provide you with a better experience, to improve the quality and value of the Service and to analyze and understand how our Site, Apps and Service are used. We may also use the combined information without aggregating it to serve you specifically, for instance to inform you of a product based on your preferences or restrictions.
We also use your Personal Information to contact you with BuddyExpress newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you. If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive such communications from us, please follow the unsubscribe instructions provided in any of the communications. Please note that we may also use your Personal Information to contact you with information related to your use of the Service; you may not opt out of these notifications.
(d) Log Data. When you visit the Site and Apps, whether as a Member or a non-registered User just browsing (any of these, a “BuddyExpress User”), our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a Site (“Log Data”). This Log Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type or the webpage you were visiting before you came to our Site, pages of our Site that you visit, the time spent on those pages, information you search for on our Site, access times and dates, and other statistics. We use this information to monitor and analyze use of the Site, Apps and Services and for the Site’s technical administration, to increase our Site’s functionality and user-friendliness, and to better tailor our Site to our visitors’ needs. We also use this information to verify that visitors to the Site meet the criteria required to process their requests. We do not treat Log Data as Personal Information or use it in association with other Personal Information, though we may aggregate, analyze and evaluate such information for the same purposes as stated above regarding other Non-Identifying Information.
(e) Cookies. 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 use cookies for two purposes. First, we utilize persistent cookies to save your login information for future logins to the Site. Second, we utilize session ID cookies to enable certain features of the Site, to better understand how you interact with the Site and to monitor aggregate usage by BuddyExpress Users and web traffic routing on the Site. Unlike persistent cookies, session cookies are deleted from your computer when you log off from the Site and Service and then close your browser. Third party advertisers on the Site 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, you may not be able to use all portions of the Site or all functionality of the Service.
(f) Web Beacons. Our Site and Apps may contain electronic images known as Web beacons (sometimes called single-pixel gifs) and are used along with cookies to compile aggregated statistics to analyze how our Site is used and may be used in some of our emails to let us know which emails and links have been opened by recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of our customer communications and marketing campaigns.
(g) Contacting a BuddyExpress Member. As part of the Service, after a Delivery Agreement BuddyExpress the Traveling Member and Sending Member will be able to their share contact information such as mobile phone number and email address (“Contact Information”) so that members can contact each other for the purposes of coordinating Package pickup and delivery. The shared Contact Information also includes the contact information of the Recipient for the purposes of coordinating delivery. The Sending Member may also opt to have BuddyExpress notify the Recipient of the pending Package delivery via the provided Contact Information. BuddyExpress will only share Contact Information among the Traveling Member, Sending Member and Recipient of a Delivery Agreement.
BuddyExpress will also send messages via email, SMS or push notifications to Members as appropriate to guide and inform Members as they navigate the Site or Apps.
(h) Phishing. Identity theft and the practice currently known as “phishing” are of great concern to BuddyExpress. Safeguarding information to help protect you from identity theft is a top priority. We do not and will not, at any time, request your credit card information, your bank account information, your BuddyExpress Account login, or identification in a non-secure or unsolicited e-mail or telephone communication. For more information about phishing, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s Site at http://www.ftc.gov.
(i) Information Sharing and Disclosure – Overview. The Site, Apps and Service can be used to facilitate the posting and execution of Trips and Requests that are made available via the Site, Apps and Services by Members. Trips and Requests posted by Members and Member ratings and reviews and their Profile Information (as defined below) may be visible to any BuddyExpress User.
(j). BuddyExpress Members and User Profiles. When you create an BuddyExpress Account, we will set up an BuddyExpress Account profile page for you. Your BuddyExpress Account profile page will include your first name and last initial. You can select other items of Personal Information that you wish to be included in your BuddyExpress Account profile page – including, but not limited to, a profile picture, a list of the SNS groups to which you belong, a list of any of your SNS friends or connections who are also BuddyExpress Members, connections you have established between your BuddyExpress Account and any SNSs, and a biography and links to your Trips and/or Requests, if applicable (together, your “Profile Information”). We may display your Profile Information from Facebook, such as gender, country, joined date and last login, in your BuddyExpress Account profile page publicly via the Site and Apps, and, with your prior permission, on third party sites. Any information you choose to provide as part of your Profile Information may be publicly visible to all BuddyExpress Users and consequently should reflect how much you want other BuddyExpress Users to know about you. We recommend that you guard your anonymity and sensitive information and we encourage members to think carefully about what information about themselves they disclose in their profile pages. You can review and revise your Profile Information at any time.
(k) Trips and Requests. If you post a Trip or Request, we may publish that Trip or Request publicly via the Site and Apps and may enable third parties to publish your Trip or Request on their websites through the use of an HTML “widget”. We may also display the geographical location of the Point of Origin and Destination of your Trip or Request in the form of a map so that potential Users can see the general areas applicable to your Trip or Request. If you contact another Member in connection with a proposed Transaction via the Site and Services, BuddyExpress will share the following information about you with the Member: (i) your first and last name, (ii) a link to your BuddyExpress Account profile page, (iii) the names of any members of an SNS with whom you are “friends” or associated on the SNS if such individuals are also “friends” or associated with you on such SNS, and (iv) an indication that the name that you provided to BuddyExpress when you became a Member matches the name that you provided to the SNSs to which you have linked your BuddyExpress Account.
(l) Aggregated Information and Non-Identifying Information. We may share aggregated information that does not include Personal Information and we may otherwise disclose Non-Identifying Information and Log Data with third parties for industry analysis, demographic profiling and other purposes. Any aggregated information shared in these contexts will not contain your Personal Information.
(m) Service Providers. We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Services, to provide the Services on our behalf, to perform Site-related services (e.g., without limitation, maintenance services, database management, web analytics, fraud detection services relating to the activity of BuddyExpress Users and improvement of the Site’s features) or to assist us in analyzing how our Site, Apps and Service are used. These third parties may have access to your Personal Information; if they do, this access is only so that they may perform these tasks on our behalf and they are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on an BuddyExpress User’s prior visits to BuddyExpress. You can disable these specific cookies that track prior visits for the sake of follow-up advertising by opting out at www.google.com/privacy_ads.html.
(n) Compliance with Laws and Law Enforcement; Guarantee Program. BuddyExpress cooperates with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not limited to subpoenas), to protect the property and rights of BuddyExpress or a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, any illegal, unethical or legally actionable activity. We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials and to our insurance services providers as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to protect the property and rights of BuddyExpress or a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, illegal, unethical or legally actionable activity. We reserve the right to delete your account if you use our services to transport illegal goods and will cooperate with law enforcement.
(o) Business Transfers. BuddyExpress may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of its assets, including your Personal Information, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy.
(p) Changing or Deleting Your Information. All Members may review, update, correct or delete the Personal Information in their registration profile by contacting us at [email protected] or editing the relevant part of their profile. If you would like us to cancel your BuddyExpress Account, please contact us and we will accommodate your request if we do not have any legal obligation or a legitimate business reason to retain the information contained in your BuddyExpress Account. Please note that, if you cancel your BuddyExpress Account, any reviews you have posted via the Site and Apps will remain publicly viewable via the Site and Apps. Please see below for privacy contact information.
(q) Security.
BuddyExpress is very concerned with safeguarding your information. When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card number or bank account information) on our registration or order forms, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the Personal Information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about security on our Site, you can contact us. We will make any legally required disclosures of any breach of the security, confidentiality, or integrity of your unencrypted electronically stored “personal data” (as defined in applicable law on security breach notification) to you via email or conspicuous posting on the Site in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, insofar as consistent with (i) the legitimate needs of law enforcement or (ii) any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system.
(r) Links to Other Websites. Our Site may contain links to other websites. If you choose to visit an advertiser by “clicking on” a banner ad or other type of advertisement, or click on another third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s Site. The fact that we link to a Site or present a banner ad or other type of advertisement is not an endorsement, authorization or representation of our affiliation with that third party, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices. We do not exercise control over third party websites. These other websites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you. Other websites follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of the personal information you submit to them. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit. Some portions of the BuddyExpress platform implement Apple or Google Maps/Earth mapping services, including Apple or Google Maps API(s). Your use of Apple or Google Maps/Earth is subject to their terms of use, located at, https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/maps/terms-en.html and http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/help/terms_maps.html respectively, which incorporates their privacy policies, located at, https://www.apple.com/privacy/privacy-policy/ and http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ respectively.
(s) Testimonials. With your consent we may post your testimonial on the Site and Apps along with your name. If you want your testimonial removed please contact us.
(t) Minimum Age to Use our Services. The Site and Apps are not directed to individuals under 18. Furthermore, we do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with Personal Information without their consent, he or she should contact us. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with Personal Information, we will delete such information and the User account from our files.
(u) Contacting Us. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please visit our help center.
2. Definitions.
The below words and phrases shall have the following meanings for purposes of these Terms:
“Apps” means any mobile internet application that BuddyExpress makes available for interacting with the Site.
“Collective Content” means Member Content and BuddyExpress Content.
“Content” means text, graphics, images, music, software (excluding the Apps), audio, video, information or other materials.
“BuddyExpress Content” means all Content that BuddyExpress makes available through the Site, Apps, or Services, including any Content licensed from a third party, but excluding Member Content.
“Member” means a person who obtains and completes BuddyExpress Account registration process.
“Member Content” means all Content that a Member posts, uploads, publishes, submits or transmits to be made available through the Site, Apps or Services.