Effective Date: [Monday, June 9, 2008]

GNIP PRIVACY AND DISCLOSURE POLICY

Let's face it. You're dabbling on the Internet. The concept of true privacy doesn't really exist. That said, we take what you tell and provide us seriously here at Gnip, Inc, and we want you to understand the types of information we collect and what we do with that information. By the way, so we get this out right in front (it's rare anyone ever reads all the way through, but we do repeat it), we make commercially reasonable efforts to protect your information from poacher, hackers, losers, and bad people. But we are not Fort Knox and we cannot guarantee that the information you provide us is immune to inadvertent disclosure. If you're still with us, read on. If you're not, then we'd ask that you not use our site. Actually, we require you not to use our site.

Gnip offers a website that allows Users to more effectively aggregate user generated activities from a wide variety of 3rd party services, as well as other services which may be offered from time to time (collectively the "Service"). This Privacy Policy applies to the Service, and not to any other website, including sites to which you can link to from the Gnip Service (such as the Google Groups service).

You should review this Privacy and Disclosure Policy in conjunction with the Terms of Use located at http://gnipcentral.com/tou.html. This Privacy and Disclosure Policy (or "Policy") is incorporated into and is part of the Terms of Use, and together these documents are the overall Agreement between you and Gnip (us). Certain terms in this privacy and disclosure policy (such as "User," "Content" and "Membership") are defined in the Terms of Use, and we use them here for ease of reference.

Information We Collect

When you use the Gnip Site, we may collect the following types of information:

  • Information you provide – When you register for Membership, we ask you for personally identifiable information ("PII"), which may include your name, street address, e-mail address and an account password. We collect PII to authenticate Users seeking Membership and to send Members notifications about the Service. You can decline to submit PII, in which case Gnip may not be able to provide Membership to you.
  • Gnip cookies – When you visit our website, we send a small file to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. This file is called a cookie. We use cookies to improve the quality of our Site by storing your preferences to share user trends about how people utilize the Site. Your browser is probably set up by default to accept cookies, including Gnip cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to alert you when a cookie is being sent to your computer. You should be aware, however, that some of Gnip's features may not function properly if you disable cookies on your computer. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any PII you submit while on our site.
  • Log information – When you visit and use the website, our servers automatically record information that your computer's browser sends whenever you visit any website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your computer's browser.
  • User communications – When you send e-mail to Gnip, we may retain those communications in order to process your inquiries, respond to your requests and improve our Site.
  • Links -- Gnip contains links to sites, including but not limited to the Google Groups service. Gnip is not responsible for the terms of use, privacy policies and/or practices on other sites. When linking to another site you should read the privacy policy stated on that site. Our Privacy Policy only governs information collected through our Site.

It's Your Information, You Own It.

You own your PII, and we own what you decide to share with us. That doesn't mean we own you. We do not have any current plans to share any PII with third parties (other than for the legal, safety and security reasons as set forth in this Privacy Policy), but but that could change and if so, we'll let you know and give you a chance to opt out. We do look at collected information in the aggregate form, as you will see below. We do not consider such information PII.

California has passed legislation requiring certain specific disclosures be made available to California residents who use the Internet and provide information that may be used for marketing purposes. That legislation requires any business that discloses a customer's PII to any third party for direct marketing purposes to provide the customer a method for obtaining the names, addresses and certain other specified details of anyone who might have received that PII.

We would like to offer this option to any Member, regardless of whether or not you are a California resident. As such, you may request this information from Gnip by writing to:

Gnip, Inc.
1683 27th Ave
SF CA 94122
Attention: Privacy Rights
or by sending an e-mail to privacy@gnipcentral.com. Gnip is not obligated to respond to more than one such request from you per calendar year.

Ways We Use Information

We hold the PII we collect from you and other Users in aggregate form – similar to a counter – to compare website activity information about all of Gnip's Users collectively. We may share with third parties certain pieces of aggregated, non-personal information, such as the number of Gnip Users who searched for a particular term, for example.

In addition to the above, Gnip may process your PII for the following purposes:

  • Providing our Site to you, including the display of customized Content;
  • Auditing, research and analysis in order to maintain, protect and improve our Site;
  • Ensuring the technical functioning of our network; and
  • Developing new services.

Furthermore, Gnip may use your PII without your prior consent when we have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of such PII is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request, (b) enforce applicable Terms of Use http://gnipcentral.com/tou.html, including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or (d) protect against imminent harm to the rights, property or safety of Gnip, its Users or the public as required or permitted by law. From time to time, we may supplement PII collected on our Site with information collected by third parties.

If we propose to use your PII for any purposes other than those described in this Policy, we will offer you an effective way to opt out of the use of your PII for those other purposes. We will not collect or use PII for purposes other than those described in this Policy unless we have obtained your prior consent.

We may also use a Member's email address to send updates, a newsletter or news regarding the Site.

If you are visiting Gnip from outside of the United States, please be advised that your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. The data protection and other laws of the United States might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. Please be assured that we seek to take reasonable steps to ensure that your privacy is protected. By using our Site, you consent to the transfer of your information to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Policy.

Security

Gnip Membership accounts are secured by member-created passwords. Gnip takes commercially reasonable security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data that you share and that we collect we store. These security measures include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems where we store your PII.

Furthermore, we restrict access to PII only to Gnip employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our Site. These individuals are bound by confidentiality obligations and may be subject to discipline, including termination and criminal prosecution, if they fail to meet these obligations. Unfortunately, no security system can be 100% secured; accordingly, Gnip cannot guarantee the security of any information provided to us in connection with the information that we collect through the Site. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors may compromise the security of Member information at any time. For any additional information about the security measures we use on Gnip, please contact us at privacy@gnipcentral.com.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

This Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Policy without your explicit consent, and we expect most such changes will be minor. Regardless, we will post any Policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice (including e-mail notification of Policy changes). Each version of this Policy will be identified at the top of the page by its effective date, and we will also keep prior versions of this Policy in an archive for your review.

If Gnip becomes involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of some or all of our assets, we will provide notice before your PII is transferred to the acquiring company and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Do You Have Questions?

We know that you may have additional questions regarding the privacy of your information when you access the Site. Please feel free to contact us at privacy@gnipcentral.com.