Empowr Privacy Policy

Empowr Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy covers how Empowr treats your personal information that it collects when you access or use the Empowr Network. This Privacy Policy also covers Empowr's treatment of any personally identifiable information that its business partners, users, Third Party Providers and other parties share with Empowr. This policy does not apply to the practices of companies that Empowr does not own or control.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully so that you can make an informed decision about using and accessing the Empowr Network. INFORMATION PROVIDED BY YOU AND COLLECTED ABOUT YOU MAY BE MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLY EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY LAW. By using or accessing the Empowr Network, you consent to the information collection and use practices described herein.

The definitions set forth in the Empowr Terms of Service shall have the same meanings herein this Privacy Policy.

1. Introduction

Empowr is meant for users to provide information to develop, retain, and expand connections, intelligence and targeted Services from information provided by and through your use of the Empowr Network. Empowr works to fulfill this mission by developing smart algorithms, technology and services that help you, your connections, and millions of users worldwide meet, exchange ideas, content, applications, find opportunities, and meet new friends and contacts.

Being part of the Empowr Network means sharing information about you with other users, communicating with them and being communicated with. By default, your Account is set up to share the information that Empowr has found the majority of its users are interested in sharing. However, you may decide whether you want to share, or not share some of this information by editing your profile and share settings.

A. No information from users under 18

If you are under age 18, please do not attempt to register, access, or download for any Services offered on, through or by the Empowr Network or provide any personal information about yourself. Empowr does not intend to collect, retain, or use any personal information about users under age 18 and will act to delete that information as quickly as possible upon receiving actual notice of such information. If you believe that Empowr might have any information from a person under age 18, please contact Empowr at support@empowr.com.

2. Information Collection

Empowr collects personally identifiable information when you access or register for an Account, when you use or purchase certain products or services offered by or through the Empowr Network, and when you visit web pages hosted on the Empowr Network. Empowr may also receive personally identifiable information from third parties, including but not limited to Third Party Providers.

Empowr also collects your information in the following ways:

A. Information you provide to us:

When you sign up and during your use of the Empowr Network, Empowr may ask for your first name, last name, time zone, zip/postal code, country, state, city, email, birth date, gender, phone number, mobile phone carrier, and other personally identifiable information. Once you provide any part of this data, you are not anonymous to Empowr.

Empowr gives you the opportunity to connect with your friends, contacts, other users, and to customize the Services by providing data and information. For example, you may add a picture of yourself to your profile or provide other information about yourself to connect with other users who share similar interests and common criteria such as, but not limited to, your city, hometown, family, hobbies, relationships, connections, place of work, networks, activities, interests, political views, religion and places.

One of the primary reasons people access, view or otherwise use the Empowr Network is to share content with others. Examples of content include, but are not limited to, when you update your status, create a wall or blog post, upload or take a photo, upload or record a video, share a link, make a comment, write something on someone's wall or comment on their blog, write a note, or send someone a digital gift, image or message. If you do not want Empowr to store metadata associated with content you share on the Empowr Network, please remove the metadata before uploading the content. If you do not, you should assume it will be available to any viewer of that content.

Some of your information such as country, state, and city of residence, gender, age, name, and other information may be automatically placed in your Profile. You can select to hide some of this information from other members of the Empowr Network by editing your profile and preferences. Please note that even if you request to update or hide some information, such information may still reside in Empowr backups and archives and may remain viewable elsewhere if it had been shared with others. In addition, you can choose to tell other users of the Empowr Network more about your hobbies, interests, hometown, high school, college, and much more. You can fill out as much or as little as you like. The more you fill out the more likely that you'll be able to meet other users based on the things that you have in common. Some information you cannot hide.

In some cases Empowr may ask for additional information for security reasons or to provide specific services to you.

Empowr may retain the details of transactions or payments you make on or through the Empowr Network, including mobile phone number, carrier and details for mobile transactions. If you do not want Empowr to store your payment source account number, including mobile phone number, you can contact Empowr to remove it at support@empowr.com

Also you may be requested to register your mobile phone, pager, or other mobile device to receive mobile products and services, the ability to charge purchases to your mobile phone invoice, text messages, notifications, and other services. If you select to register a mobile phone, pager, or other mobile device you must provide your mobile carrier and your mobile phone number. Depending on your carrier, You may also need to provide the validation code that Empowr will send to your mobile phone, pager, or other mobile device to ensure it belongs to you.

Empowr offers contact importer tools that by using you authorize Empowr to manually or automatically access, upload, and store your friends' names, communication history, email addresses, display names, and other related account details and data so that you can find your friends on the Empowr Network, invite your contacts to join the Empowr Network (“Invitations”), and enable Empowr to suggest people you may know. Invitations to your contacts may either be sent to the user's profile, inbox on the Empowr Network or email address. Invitations may include the names, email addresses, and other uploaded information about you and/or the contacts accessed through the contact importer tool. Your contacts receiving Invitations (including reminders) will have access to your email address, name and profile because it will be sent on your behalf and may use your name and email address. You may not invite anyone you do not know and trust to connect with you. Invitations include invitation reminders and may contain special promotions offers from Empowr and others, including Third Party Providers that are of a commercial nature. Further, by using the contact importer tool, you represent that you have authority to authorize Empowr to contact these persons on your behalf, and to access and store the data about you and your contacts. All information that you enter or upload, or authorized Empowr to access, obtain and store by using the contact importer tool, about you and your contacts will be covered by the Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy.

By using the Empowr Network, you appoint Empowr to be your agent and authorize Empowr to store, in your profile, your usernames and passwords to other web site services (“Other Sites”) and to act on your behalf to access and interact with such Other Sites for purposes of (i) unifying access to your accounts on Other Sites from a single login on the Empowr Network, (ii) retrieving information from, and submitting information to, Other Sites, including but not limited to photos, profile information, friends, posts, communications, applications, use and communication history and other related data (iii) ensuring your preferences are automatically set to receive your Empowr emails and (iv) providing value-added services and features to enhance your experience inside the Empowr Network and Other Sites such as inviting your friends to connect with you on the Empowr Network, displaying people you may know and customizing services offered by Empowr or Third Party Providers and partners.

Empowr may assign you a temporary Account ID and password or you may select an Account ID and password. An Account ID may be your email address or mobile phone number. Your may use your Account ID and password to login to the Empowr Network. Your Account ID cannot be changed and will be visible to the public.

B. Customer Service

Empowr may also collect information through the Empowr Network or through your interactions with Empowr customer service in order to, among other things, accurately categorize and respond to customer inquiries and investigate breaches of the Terms of Service or to maintain the integrity of the Empowr community and the Services.

C. Site Usage, IP addresses, Cookies & Advertising

Empowr uses cookie information and web log files to track usage and trends and to improve, customize, and enhance your user experience and to deliver third-party advertising to users both on and off the Empowr Network. A "persistent" cookie will allow Empowr to recognize you when returning to the Empowr Network (web and mobile) so you will not need to login again. However, if you log out at the end of your session, you may need to login the next time you visit the Empowr Network.

"Session" cookies are also used to identify and your actions during a specific session. Session cookies will expire after a period of time or when you close your browser.

Empowr allows other companies that present advertisements on the Empowr Network to set and access cookies on your computer. Other companies' use of their cookies is subject to their own privacy policies, not this one. Advertisers and other companies do not have access to Empowr cookies.

Empowr allows other companies and ad networks, including but not limited to advertisement agencies, advertisement technology firms, third party ad servers, partners and research firms, to serve advertisements to users. Further Empowr allows the use of web beacons that allow Empowr and others to track, obtain data, optimize performance, audit, research, report and target advertisements to you. In the course of serving advertisements to this site, a Empowr third-party advertiser partner may place or recognize a unique "cookie" on your browser.

Sometimes advertisers use technological methods to personalize the advertising content being offered to you. Empowr may allow the combination of advertisement content with relevant information about you and your settings, contacts and site usage to make Services, content and advertisements more targeted to you, help you find new people or products, or reconnect with existing connections in new ways.

Empowr may also automatically receive and record information on its server logs from your web or mobile browser including your IP address, cookie information, the page you requested, and the data and information contained on such pages. Empowr uses such information for three general purposes: 1) to customize the Services, content and advertising you see, 2) to fulfill your requests for certain products and Services, and 3) to contact you about specials and new products from Empowr, its partners, and Third Party Providers.

Your mobile phone number may be used to associate, identify and track your actions and charge on your behalf purchases to your mobile carrier account. Empowr may use the information to manage or improve the website, track usage, to protect the rights or property of Empowr users and of others, and to bill and collect monies for purchases.

Empowr may collect and use for commercial or other reasons the fact that you use certain features, functionality, and services offered by Empowr and Third Party Partners on and through the Empowr Network, including interactions and usage patterns.

Empowr may track some of the actions you take on the Empowr Network, such as adding connections (for example: following a person or blog or adding a new friend), uploading a photo, sending a digital gift, indicating you “like” a wall post or comment, attending an event, interactions with an application, including Platform Applications and information, data, or content you provide to Empowr. For example, if you send a digital gift, in addition to storing the actual digital gift you uploaded, Empowr might log the fact that you shared it and whom you shared it with.

Empowr also receives the URL you visited prior to accessing the Empowr Network, the internet protocol (“IP”) address of your computer (or the proxy server you use to access the world wide web), your computer operating system and type of web browser you are using, email patterns, mobile device operating system (if accessing Network via mobile), as well as the name of your ISP or your mobile carrier. Empowr uses this information to analyze overall trends to help improve the Services offered to you by Empowr and Third Party Providers.

D. Linked Accounts and Services

If you link your Empowr Account to another account or service, or use other, third-party sites or services in conjunction with your Empowr Account, or provide Empowr your login credentials for other third-party sites or services, Empowr may collect information related to your use of third party sites and services accessed through or by the Empowr Network or when you access the Empowr Network through a third-party site or service.

E. Third Party Providers, Platform Developers and Platform Applications

Empowr does not own or operate the applications, services, content, images, data or websites that you purchase and use through the Empowr Network offered by Third Party Providers including but not limited to Platform Developers, advertisers, and blog content providers (such as blogs, games, videos and utilities). Whenever you connect with a Platform Application, service, content, image, data or website offered by Third Party Providers, Empowr may receive information from them, including information about actions you take. In some cases, in order to personalize the process of connecting, Empowr may receive a limited amount of information even before you connect with said service.

Empowr may have programs, or commence programs, with advertisers, Third Party Partners and other websites in which they share information with Empowr. For example, Empowr may ask advertisers how Empowr users responded to the ads showed them on the Empowr Network and other sites on the world wide web (and for comparison purposes, how other users who didn't see the ads acted on their site). This data sharing, commonly known as “conversion tracking,” helps Empowr measure advertising effectiveness and improve the quality of the advertisements you see.

F. Other Users

Empowr may receive information, data, and images about and of you from other users. Empowr may collect information about you from other users, such as, but not limited to, when a friend tags you in a photo, video, or place, provides friend details, or indicates a relationship with you.

G. Information About Your Rights

You have a right to access, modify, correct and eliminate the data you supplied to Empowr. If you update any of your information, Empowr may, but is not required to, keep a copy of the information that you originally provided in its archives. You may request deletion of your information at any time by contacting Empowr customer service at support@empowr.com. Empowr will respond to your request within 30 days or such time as is prescribed by law.

3. Information Sharing and Disclosure

A. Consent

The information you provide to Empowr may reveal, or allow others to identify, your nationality, ethnic origin, religion, gender, age, geography, or other aspects of your private life. By providing information to Empowr for the purposes of creating, modifying, or supplementing your Account or adding any additional details to your profile, you expressly and voluntarily accept the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and Terms of Service that allow Empowr to collect, retain, and use information about you. Supplying information to Empowr, including any information deemed “sensitive” by applicable law, is entirely voluntary on your part. You have the right to withdraw your consent to Empowr's collection and processing of your information at any time, in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, by editing your Profile, changing your personal settings, or by closing your Account, but please note that your withdrawal of consent will not be retroactive.

B. Empowr Network Communications

Empowr will communicate with you through email and notices posted on the Empowr Network, messages to your Account inbox, or through other means available through the Services, including text messages. Empowr may also send you email advising you about the features of the Services, service messages, or promotional information directly or on behalf of Empowr partners, unless you have opted out of receiving such promotional information.

You can change your e-mail and contact preferences at any time by logging into your account and changing your settings related to your email notification choices. If you wish, you can also opt-out of receiving promotional emails by sending a request to support@empowr.com or by using the unsubscription mechanism in any email sent to you by Empowr.

Please be aware that you cannot opt-out of receiving non-commercial service messages from Empowr. If you wish to stop receiving such messages, You must terminate your Account. Also, if Empowr sends communications to you via a mobile carrier service, and fees apply under your mobile plan, you understand you will pay any service fees associated with your receipt of messages on your mobile device (including text messaging charges).

C. User Communications

Some of the communications you initiate through the Empowr Network, including but not limited to Invitations, may list your email address, profile, display name and given name in the header, subject line, message body, and reply to field. Messages you initiate may also provide information about your profile, connections, preferences, interests and information.

D. Customized Content

Empowr uses information to customize your experience on the Empowr Network. For example, when you login to your Account, Empowr may display the names of users you may know or recent status updates from your connections.

E. Sharing Information with Third Parties

Empowr will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone other than as specifically noted herein. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Empowr may sell and/or transfer your personally identifiable information to an affiliate or subsidiary or to any successor-in-interest as a result of a sale of any part of the Empowr Network or business or upon the merger, reorganization or consolidation of Empowr with another entity.

Empowr may provide personally identifiable information about you to other companies or people when:

Empowr has your consent to share the information;

Empowr determines it needs to send the information to companies who work on behalf of or are partners with Empowr to provide a product or service to you, for example, when you enter into a transaction or make a payment on the Empowr network, Empowr may be required to provide certain information to a third party in order to complete the transaction; or

Empowr responds to subpoenas, court orders or legal process

Empowr may also provide aggregated anonymous data about its users' usage of the Services to third parties for purposes that Empowr deems, in its sole discretion, to be appropriate, including to prospective advertisers on the Empowr Network.

Empowr also offers a “public profile” feature that allows users to publish portions of their profile to the public internet such as your name, profile picture, and connections. This public profile is what a third party search engine may display when someone searches for your name, blog, or specific term displayed on your public profile. Such “public profile” information may, for example, be indexed by third party search engines, and be imported, exported, distributed, and redistributed by Empowr and others without privacy limitations. Such information may also be associated with you, including your name and profile picture, even outside of the Empowr Network, such as on public search engines and when you visit other sites on the internet. The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on the Empowr Network is “public profile.” Users may opt-out of this feature by deleting their account or editing what is displayed; however, Empowr does not warrant how often third-party search engines update their caches, which may contain outdated public profile information.

By default, Empowr makes certain information you have posted to your profile available in search results on the Empowr Network to help your other users find you. However, you can control who can see some of this information, as well as who can find you in searches, through your privacy settings. Empowr also partners with email and instant messaging providers to help their users identify which of their contacts are on the Empowr Network, so that Empowr can promote the Empowr Network to those users.

F. Working with Third Parties to Offer Services.

Empowr collaborates with Third Party Providers to offer services and functionality on and through the Empowr Network. If you choose to use or access a Third Party Provider service, content, or application (“TPP Service”) you may be asked to confirm acceptance of the privacy policy and/or user agreement of that Third Party Provider, which have not necessarily been reviewed or approved by Empowr. It is your choice whether or not to access, make use of, or proceed under any Third Party Provider terms.

When you connect with a TPP Service it may have access to some information about you including your and your connections' names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, purchasing trends, usage trends, and any content shared using the “public profile” setting. Empowr may also make information about the location of your computer or access device and your age available to Third Party Providers in order to help them implement appropriate security measures and control the distribution of age-appropriate content.

Please also note that because of Empowr's relationship with certain Third Party Providers, permission to access certain account information may be automatically granted to provide the combined services or functionality.

To revoke permission granted to a Third Party Provider at any time, please visit the settings page. If the relevant Third Party Provider is not listed, contact the Third Party Provider directly to delete your subscription with them. Note, however, that even if you revoke the permission granted to a Third Party Provider, your connections, other members of your network, or other users of the Empowr Network may still be using the TPP Service, so the TPP Service may still have access to certain information about you, just as those users do. That is why it is important to only connect to users you know and trust. To report any suspected misuse of information, contact Empowr customer service at support@empowr.com. Empowr is not responsible for your use of or your inability to make use of any TPP Service, including the content, accuracy, or reliability of the service and the privacy practices or other policies of Third Party Providers.

In addition, in order to provide you with useful social experiences off of the Empowr Network, Empowr may occasionally need to provide some information about you to third party websites and applications that use the Empowr Network at the time you visit them (if you are still logged in to the Empowr Network). Similarly, when one of your friends visits such website or application, it may receive general information about you so you and your friend can be connected on that website as well (if you also have an account with that website).

G. When your connections use the Empowr Network

If your friend connects with an application, TPP Service or service, it will be able to access your name, profile picture, gender, user ID, and information you have shared on you “public profile.” It will also be able to access your connections, except it may not be able to access your friend list. If you have already connected with (or have a separate account with) that application, TPP Service or service, it may also be able to connect you with your friend on that application, TPP Service or service. If the application, TPP Service or service wants to access any of your other content or information (including your friend list), it will have to obtain specific permission from your friend. If your friend grants specific permission to the application, TPP Service or service, it will generally only be able to access content and information about you that your friend can access. In addition, it will only be allowed to use that content and information in connection with that friend. For example, if a friend gives an application access to a video you only shared with your friends, that application could allow your friend to view or print the video, but the application cannot show that video to anyone else.

Empowr provides you with a number of tools to control how your information is shared when your friend connects with an application, TPP Service or service. For example, you can use your privacy setting to limit some of the information your friends can access and you can delete your account. You can also disconnect from a friend if you are uncomfortable with how they are using your information.

H. Export or Syncing Information

You (and those you make your information available to) may use tools like RSS feeds, mobile phone address sync tools, address book applications, or copy and paste functions, to capture, export (and in some cases, import) information from your Empowr Network account, including your information and information about you. For example, if you share your phone number or photos with your friends, they may use third party applications to sync that information with the address book or photo album on their mobile phone or pc desktop.

I. Search

Empowr offers search services to help find information and learn more about other users (for example, you can search for users with that like biking), as well as find desirable services and applications. Empowr uses information from your profile, contributions to services, applications, connections, location and other criteria about you to inform others about you and refine what results are shown to you.

J. Blogs, Wall Posts, and other Community Applications

If you post on a blog, wall, and other community application section of the Empowr Network, participate in voting, or selecting the designation of “like or dislike” about certain features/elements, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you choose to provide there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these services, as well as other third parties, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages.

K. Testimonials

If you provide any testimonials about the Services or place advertisements on the Empowr Network, Empowr may publish those testimonials and examples of advertisements you place in connection with its promotion of these services on the Empowr Network and related promotion materials. Testimonials and advertisements may include your name and other personal information that you have provided.

4. Information You Share

A. Name and Profile Picture

The Empowr Network is designed to make it easy for you to find and connect with others. For this reason, your name and profile picture will always be part of your “public profile.” If you are uncomfortable with sharing your profile picture, you should delete it (or not add one).

B. Gender and Birth Date

In addition to name and email address, Empowr requires you to provide your gender and birth date. Empowr asks for your date of birth to verify that you are 18 or older. Because your date of birth and gender are required, you cannot delete them.

C. Other Information

Some of the content you share and the actions you take will show up on your friends' home pages and other pages they visit. You should also remember the following:

If another user tags you in a photo or video or at a place, you can remove the tag.

Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may remain viewable elsewhere to the extent it has been shared with others, it was otherwise distributed pursuant to this privacy policy, or it was copied or stored by other users.

You understand that information might be shared multiple times or copied by other users.

Certain types of communications that you send to other users cannot be removed.

When you post information on another user's profile or comment on another user's blog, that information will be subject to the other user's privacy settings.

5. How Information is Used by Empowr

Empowr uses the information collected about its users to optimize, customize and enhance a better, safer, more intelligent, efficient, and customized experience. Here are some of the ways Empowr accomplishes that objective:

A. To Make Suggestions

Empowr uses your profile information, the addresses you import through the contact importer tools and other relevant information such as communications and usage history, to help you connect with people you may know, including making suggestions to you and other users that you connect with or suggest applications and services that might be of interest to you. For example, if another user imports the same email address as you do, Empowr may suggest that you connect with each other.

B. Make the Service Safer

Empowr uses information collected to provide the Services, to measure and improve the Services, and to provide you with customer support. Empowr also uses a variety of technological systems to detect and address undesirable activity and abuse such as spam. These efforts may on occasion result in a temporary or permanent suspension or termination of some functions for some users.

C. To Supplement Your Profile

Empowr may use information collected about you to create a starter profile or to enhance or supplement your profile (e.g. if you are tagged in a video or photo). In such cases Empowr may provide you the ability to remove the information (e.g. allowing you to remove the tagged photo) or modify its visibility on your profile.

D. To Help Connect You with Connections

Empowr allows other users to use contact information they have about you, such as your name and email address, to find you, including through contact importer tools and search.

6. Your Information Options

A. Editing your profile.

You may change or remove your profile information at any time by going to your profile page and clicking “Edit My Profile.” Information will be updated immediately.

B. Delete Uploaded Contacts

If you use the Empowr contact importer tool to upload addresses, you can later request invitations and reminders not be sent by you to your friends by contacting Empowr at support@empowr.com.

C. Deleting Your Account

If you want to stop using your account you may contact Empowr at support@empowr.com.

D. Limitations on removal.

If you close your Account, Empowr will remove your name and other personally identifiable information from being publicly viewable. If you close your Account, Empowr has no obligation to retain your information, and may delete any or all of your Account information without liability. However, Empowr may retain certain data contributed by you if Empowr determines it may be necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business purpo

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