Registration

In order to use this Web site, you must first complete the registration form and create a user name and password. During registration you are required to give contact information (such as name and email address). We will use this information to internally identify your account and will occasionally use this information to contact you about the services on our site in which you have expressed interest.

You have the option to provide demographic information (such as class and school) to us; we encourage you to submit this information so we can provide you a more personalized experience on our site.

Openvote, Inc. is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. Openvote™ collects personally identifiable information from our users at several different points on our Web site.

Polls & Voting

One of the primary features of this site is a polling mechanism, whereby users can enter poll questions and vote in polls on the site. The data and text entered by users in these areas and on other portions of the site is the sole property of Openvote™, Inc. Authorship of poll questions will be publicly displayed on the site, and users should be aware that their poll questions will be attributed to them by name. However, neither your votes nor your voting record will be displayed to other users or shared with partners of the site. This data will be used to track user behavior and to personalize information on the site that is presented to each user.

Comments & Opinions

Users have the opportunity to comment and offer written opinions on polls and on other users’ comments or opinions. Authorship of Comments and Opinions will be publicly displayed on the site, and users should be aware that their Comments and Opinions will be attributed to them by name. Like all other user-submitted text on the site, these writings are the sole property of Openvote™, Inc.

We use may use a third party service provider to deliver advertising; in that case such a company will be prohibited from using our users’ personally identifiable information for any other purpose.

Tell-A-Friend

If you choose to use our referral service to tell a friend about our site, we will ask you for your friend’s name and email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the site. Openvote™ stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of our referral program.

Your friend may contact us at feedback@open-vote.com to request that we remove this information from our database.

Profile

We store information that we collect through cookies, log files, clear gifs, and other tools to create a “profile” of your preferences. We tie your personally identifiable information, and your site history to information in the profile, in order to provide tailored promotions and marketing offers and to improve the content of the site for you.

We share your profile information with other third parties in aggregate form only.

Supplementation of Information

In order to provide a personalized experience on the site, we may on occasion supplement the personal information you submitted to us with information from third party sources such as directories, newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users either directly or through the use of this service, in order to provide you with a more personalized experience.

Log Files

As is true of most Web sites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data.

We use this information, which does not identify individual users, to analyze trends, to administer the site, to track users’ movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes. We use cookies on this site. We do link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our site.

We may use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. We use session cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our site. A session ID cookie expires when you close you browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. You can remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browser’s “help” file.

We set a persistent cookie to store your login information, so you don’t have to enter it all every time you visit the site. Persistent cookies also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site.

Some of our advertisers may use cookies on our site. We have no access to or control over these cookies. See “Third Party Advertisers.”

This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by Openvote™ only and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)

We may employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on Web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. We may tie the information gathered by clear gifs to our customers’ personally identifiable information.

We may use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. If you would like to opt-out of these emails, please see “Choice and Opt-out.”

Updates and Offers

We will occasionally send you information on news about the site. Out of respect for your privacy, we present the option not to receive these types of communications. Please see the “Choice and Opt-out.”

Service-related Announcements

We will send you strictly service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an email. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to deactivate your account.

Customer Service

Based upon the personally identifiable information you provide us, we will send you a welcoming email to verify your username and password. We will also communicate with you in response to your inquiries, to provide the services you request, and to manage your account. We will primarily communicate with you by email.

Choice/Opt-out

We provide you the opportunity to ‘opt-out’ of being contacted by Openvote™ in the future. If you no longer wish to receive our updates and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each communication or by emailing us at feedback@open-vote.com.

Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)

We share aggregated demographic information about our user base with our partners and advertisers. This information does not identify individual users. Advertisers will be given the ability to display ads on the site targeted solely to users with a particular voting history, however Openvote™ will not furnish, share, or sell lists of users who voted in any particular manner, nor will it furnish, share or sell their email addresses or contact information.

We do not link aggregate user data with personally identifiable information.

Service Providers

We use other third parties or advertisers to provide special offers on our site. When you sign up for such an offer we will share the information you submit as necessary for the third party to provide that service.

Legal Disclaimer

We may be required to disclose user information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We do not reveal information until we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through this site or using the Openvote™ name, or to prevent imminent bodily harm. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.

By using Openvote™, you are consenting to have your personal data stored, transferred, and processed in the United States.

Third Party Advertisers

The ads appearing on this Web site are delivered to users by advertising partners. We share Web site usage information about users with reputable third parties for the purpose of targeting our Internet banner advertisements on this site.

These partners may use cookies and clear GIFs on this site, which allow them to recognize a user's cookie when a user visits this site. For more information about our third-party advertiser, or to learn more about the choices available to you regarding this anonymous information, please email us at feedback@open-vote.com.

Business Transitions

In the event Openvote™ goes through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your personally identifiable information will likely be among the assets transferred. You will be notified via email or prominent notice on our Web site of any such change in ownership or control of your personal information.

Children Under Age 16

Openvote™ is not for users under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 16 or knowingly allow such persons to register. If you are under 16, please do not attempt to register for or use this site or send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under age 16 may provide any personal information to or on Openvote™. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 16, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 16, please contact us at feedback@open-vote.com.

Children Between the Ages of 16 and 18

We recommend that minors over the age of 16 ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet.

Links to Other Sites

This Web site contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by Openvote™. Please be aware that we, Openvote™, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies only to information collected by this Web site.

User-Submitted Content

If you post information on this site, such as in the Comment or Opinion sections, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you submit there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums. Please see Openvote™’s Terms of Use for a fuller description of the policies users must follow in their submissions to and activities on the site. Users who use these services in a manner inconsistent with the Terms of Use will be immediately deleted and may be barred from the site in the future.

While we make reasonable efforts to ensure that access to this site is limited to specific users, we cannot and do not guarantee that content you post on Openvote™ will not be viewed by unauthorized persons or non-users. We occasionally provide demonstration accounts that allow non-users a glimpse into Openvote™. Additionally, we are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy restrictions or security measures on the site. You understand an accept that even after you remove content, copies of it may remain viewable in saved or archived pages or may have been copied or stored by other users.

Access to Personally Identifiable Information

If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct, update, delete or deactivate it by emailing our Customer Support at feedback@open-vote.com.

Security

Openvote™ does not collect credit card numbers, phone numbers, addresses, social security numbers, or other similarly sensitive data, and therefore does not 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, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

If you have any questions about security on our Web site, you can send email us at feedback@open-vote.com.

Changes in this Privacy Statement

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.

We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page.