Privacy Policy

 

We recognize that your privacy is important. This Privacy Policy details how we use your personal identifying information. This Privacy Policy may change at any time and the revised version will be posted on this page—if the changes are significant, we will provide more prominent notice. Please review this document each time you visit the Site.

 

You can access our Site home page and browse our site without disclosing your personal data. Voting requires the disclosure of certain personal information, which we do not share except as disclosed herein.  You can share your voting record with friends or make it public by opting in, but we will not show your voting activity to anyone without your consent.  We will present aggregate voting results and demographic analysis as part of the process, and may provide that information to third parties.  We may choose to disclose nonpublic personal information about you, the consumer, to a third party for compensation.  For example, we may provide information that “The people who voted “Yes” on the current question also voted “Yes” on the following questions: . . .” or “The people in ZIP code 56789 say they do not have a clear understanding of  the Mayor’s proposed plan on [issue X].”  In the latter case, if you choose to make your voting record public, you might receive an e-mail from the Mayor explaining the proposed plan.

 

As always, you may opt-out of receiving any email from us by following the opt-out procedure set forth in the emails that you receive from us.  If you wish to access or update your personal information, you should click on the “My Data” link.

 

Information We Collect

 

Creation of an account is required in order to vote on any issues on this Site.  To register, you must provide the following information (i) your name; (ii) birthdate; (iii) ZIP code; and (iv) your e-mail address. You agree to provide accurate and complete information during the registration process.  We reserve the right to terminate your account if you give us inaccurate or incomplete information.  As we describe below, we also collect certain information through cookies and further data collection.  For third parties that wish to purchase our services, we also require credit card or other payment information. 

 

We only collect information to the extent reasonably necessary for the purposes of meeting our legitimate business objectives.  These purposes include:  providing a voting forum to you and showing you and others—including decision makers—the results of those votes, enabling research on voting patterns with limited demographic data that voters have opted to share; developing new services and refining the existing service; conducting research and analysis on the site in order to maintain, protect, and improve our service, including the technical functions of the site; and auditing the site.  In order to seek out and repair functionality issues with our servers and related programming, we may use your email and IP addresses for evaluation and diagnostic purposes.

 

We do not collect information about our visitors from third party sources, such as public records or entities, or private organizations.

 

We do not knowingly collect personal data or information from minors.

 

This Privacy Policy is subject to all applicable laws.

 

Cookies

 

Please note that the site employs the use of cookies. Currently we employ cookies when users create user accounts, but we may further employ cookies to assist the functionality of other tools, services and functions in the future.  Currently, our cookies collect information such as your IP address and the type of browser you are using.

 

Cookies are small programs that enhance your use of the Internet, in general, and specifically we use cookies to enhance your usage of our functions.  Cookies may provide recording session information, show us visitor preferences regarding return visits to our website, help us to mange subscription or private areas on our website, record user specific tracking or aggregate tracking information of visitors and deliver user customized content based on user specific information, such as browser type, screen type and resolution and so forth.

 

This information gathered by cookies is not shared with third parties.

 

You may turn off your cookies by adjusting the appropriate setting on your browser.  Please consult the HELP menu of your browser to learn how to turn your cookies off.  If you turn off your cookies you may find your enjoyment of the Internet, and our site, to be reduced or impaired.

 

Further Data Collection

 

We also may collect user-specific information about pages that users visit on our site. Any information that you give us when you complete a contact form or inquiry form, survey and so forth is collected by us.

 

We may, from time to time, send you emails regarding our service so that we can directly communicate with you regarding issues we determine to be relevant.   If you send an e-mail to us, we may retain that communication in order to respond to you and/or to improve our services.

 

Exceptions to our Privacy Policy:  Disclosures to Third Parties

 

Possible exceptions to our policy include the following circumstances, and as indicated herein, where we would release your personal identifying information to a third party or entity:

 

  • If a governmental agency, or an attorney, subpoenas your private information, or makes a formal request for discovery pursuant to any legal action, or pending legal action.
  • If our attorney requests such information relevant to a current or pending legal matter in which you are a potential or actual party or otherwise contributed in some way to the causation of the legal matter.
  • If we believe that disclosure of that information is reasonably necessary in order to enforce our web site Terms of Use, including any investigation of potential violations of that Agreement.
  • If we believe disclosure is reasonably necessary in order to detect, prevent, or take action on fraud, security or technical issues.
  • If we believe disclosure is reasonably necessary in order to protect against imminent harm to the rights, property or safety of VotaVox, its users, or the public, as required or permitted by law.
  • In the event that all or substantially all of VotaVox’s assets are acquired by a third party, and any due diligence associated with any proposed acquisition.

 

If any of these events occurs, you may not be able to correct or delete any personal information.

 

Administrative, Physical, and Technical Security Measures

 

We have implemented security policies, rules and technical measures designed to protect the personal data that we have under our control. These policies, rules and technical measures help to protect your data from unauthorized access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorized modification, and unlawful destruction or accidental loss. However, note that no policy, rule or technical measure can offer 100% protection against unauthorized access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorized modification, unlawful destruction or accidental loss.

 

All our employees, contractors, and data processors, who have access to, and are associated with the processing of, personal data are obliged to respect and protect the confidentiality of our visitor's and members' personal data.  We prohibit any unlawful disclosure of any personal data, and we use a variety of administrative, physical, and technical controls to limit access to, and alteration of, personal data.  Anyone exceeding authorized access to any personal data or to any part of this site, including to personal data on this site, or anyone making any unauthorized disclosure of personal data may be subject to sanctions, including but not limited to disciplinary measures, termination of employment or user account, civil penalties, and/or criminal prosecution.

 

We do not control third party sites that may be linked to our site.  Those third-party sites may have different terms of use and privacy policies, which we encourage you to review.

 

Privacy Contact

 

Please contact us if you should have any questions, comments or concerns about this privacy policy at:

Eli Halliwell

eli@votavox.com

 

 

Effective Date:           September 20, 2009

 

 

Your California Privacy Rights:

 

In addition to our Privacy Policy, California residents have additional rights.

 

After the receipt of a written or electronic mail request from you directed to:

 

Eli Halliwell

eli@votavox.com

 

VotaVox will provide within a reasonable time following your request, all of the following information to you free of charge:

 

(1) In writing or by electronic mail, a list of the categories of  personal information disclosed by VotaVox to third parties for the third parties' direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year.

 

(2) In writing or by electronic mail, the names and addresses of all of the third parties that received personal information from VotaVox for the third parties' direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year and, if the nature of the third parties' business cannot reasonably be determined from the third parties' name, examples of the products or services marketed, if known to VotaVox, sufficient to give the customer a reasonable indication of the nature of the third parties' business.