Privacy

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT

By using the AmericasFootprints.com® Website and its Services you consent to the collection, use, storage, and disclosure of your personal information by AmericasFootprints.com® in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy is effective as of the date last updated shown above and applies to all visitors and new users registering as Members on the Website on or after such date.

Capitalized terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same definitions as in the Terms of Use unless otherwise defined herein.

1.  What Does This Privacy Policy Cover?

This Privacy Policy covers information about you. This includes information that you provide to us, information that others provide to us about you or your Footprint, and information that we collect when you use the Website and Services.

2.  What Personal Information Does AmericasFootprints.com® Collect From or About You?

We receive a number of different types of information about you. Here are examples of the type of personal information we request or collect or you provide.

2.1  Membership Information.

Membership information is the information that is required when you sign up to become a Member of the Website, payment information, and the information you choose to share when you use the Services.

2.1(a) Name, Contact Information and Payment Details.

When you sign up for Membership with AmericasFootprints.com, you are required to provide information such as your name, email address, birthday, and gender. In addition we will need to know your postal address and payment details to facilitate payment and fulfillment for any Membership subscription or purchases you may choose to make through the Website. We endeavor to maintain the accuracy of personal information and rely on you to ensure your personal information is complete and accurate.

2.1(b)     Information You Choose to Share.

Your information also includes the information you choose to share on the AmericasFootprints.com Website, such as when you publish a Footprint, upload a photo, or send an email message to another Member through our Website. Please be aware that when you publish a Footprint, the information that you provide to us about yourself results in the creation of a profile about you. We will list you in our Member directory which means that other Members and the general public will be able to search for you by name.

2.1(c)     Deleting Your Information. If you wish to request the removal of your Footprint or any other publicly viewable information about you from our directory, contact us [here]. Click here to read more about deleting your Footprint.  To request that an unauthorized Footprint or any other information about you be deleted, please contact us to request removal.

2.2 Information Others Share About You.

By becoming a Member and publishing your online Footprint legacy you become part of an historical resource in which Members of the Website view the legacies written by our Members as they wish to be remembered.   Just a reminder that the Website is publicly available.  Non-paying visitors to the site may also view the Footprints and they are subject to this Privacy Policy.

We receive and store information about you and your Footprint from your family members, friends, and other Members, such as when they send you an email message through your Footprint or if they are a Member, when they upload your contact information, post a photo of you, tag you in a photo, or provide text about you in their own Footprints or in a Family and Friends Tree.

2.3 Other Information We Receive About You (Non-personal Information, “cookies”, IP addresses and Tracking Technologies).

We also receive other types of information about you. We receive data about you whenever you use the Website or any Services, such as when you look at a Footprint, send or receive a message, search for a person or a Footprint, click on, view, access or otherwise interact with pages and links on the Website, or make purchases through the AmericasFootprints.com website.

When you post photos or videos on the Website, we may receive additional related data (or metadata), such as the time, date, and place you took the photo or video.

AmericasFootprints.com receives data from or about the computer, mobile phone, or other devices you use to access the Website and/or the Services. This may include network and communication information, such as your IP address or mobile phone number, and other information about things like your internet service, operating system, location, the type (including identifiers) of the device or browser you use, or the pages you visit. For example, we may get your GPS or other location information, or we could request device information to improve how our Services work on your equipment or device.

We (either ourselves or our third party service providers) place cookies, small files, on your computer, to optimize and customize the Website and your use of the Services. Our cookies do not extract any contact information or other private or personal information from your computer’s memory, but rather record only information your computer sends us when you visit our Website. Cookies enable our server to recognize or “remember” who you are each time you return. AmericasFootprints.com may make limited use of cookies to deliver content specific to your interests. For instance, they may be used to retain your personal preferences, hold session information for a “shopping basket,” or save your password so it doesn’t have to be re-entered each time you login. They may also be used to see how you move around and interact with the Website or may be used to show you relevant products/services ad either on or off the Website.

You can erase or block cookies from your computer if you want to (your help screen or manual should tell you how to do this), but certain AmericasFootprints.com Services may not work correctly or at all if you set your browser not to accept cookies.

When you visit our Website, we may automatically collect non-personal information about you, such as the website from which you have come to our Website, your computer type, screen resolution, operating system version and Internet browser. We may also collect non-personal information via third parties (e.g Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to collect conversion tracking data such as demographic data, for example your geographic area. Non-personal information also includes personal information that has been aggregated in a manner such that the end-product does not personally identify you or any other user of the Website, for example, by using personal information to calculate the percentage of our users who have a particular telephone area code or who are female. Because non-personal information does not personally identify you, we may use such non-personal information for any purpose. In addition, we reserve the right to share such non-personal information, with our affiliates and with other third parties, for any purpose. In some instances, we may combine non-personal information with personal information (such as combining your name with your geographical location). If we do combine any non-personal information with personal information, the combined information will be treated by us as personal information, as long as it is combined, and its use by us will be subject to this Privacy Policy.  We also obtain your  IP address(es). We need your IP address to deliver the Website and our Services to you and to help diagnose problems with our server(s). We also use your IP address to collect broad demographic information such as geographic location of our Members.

2.4 Children’s Privacy. We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 13. Any children’s information we collect for Mini-Footprints will be provided  directly by the parent or guardian and only with the prior express and informed consent of the child’s parent or guardian in compliance with applicable law. We strongly recommend that minors under the age of 18 ask their parents for permission before sending any personal information to anyone over the Internet, and we encourage parents to teach their children about safe Internet use practices.

3.  How Does AmericasFootprints.com Use Your Personal Information?

3.1 (a) To Provide the Services. We primarily use your personal information to provide you with relevant information such as appropriate search results, information about content releases or other Members’ activity. AmericasFootprints.com may also use registration information to let you know about new features or other offers of interest fromAmericasFootprints.com, or to address customer service needs and requests. We also use your data to fulfill the purposes for which you have provided the personal information, such as processing your Membership subscription, as well as to provide services and Website updates and newsletters..

3.2(b)  To Verify your Identity. We use your personal information to verify and carry out financial transactions relating to your payments to us online.

3.2(c) For our Internal Business Purposes. We use your personal information for internal business purposes such as data analysis, doing research, evaluations, and tests on how our Website is used, audits, developing new products and services, improving our Services, identifying usage trends, and determining the effectiveness of promotional campaigns. In addition, we may use both the personal information you provided and the information your web browser sends (see Section 2.3 above) in order to detect and/or users who appear to be causing harm to the Website.

3.2(d) To Communicate With You.  AmericasFootprints.com may communicate with you to inform you of issues with your Membership or changes to AmericasFootprints.com or of any AmericasFootprints.com-related products and services. Our communication with you will generally be via email, but may be made via telephone or another method of communication in select circumstances.

3.2(e) To Display Advertisements on the Website. We do not provide advertisers with access to individual account information. AmericasFootprints.com does not sell, rent or otherwise distribute the personal information you provide us to these advertisers unless you have given us your consent to do so. AmericasFootprints.com strives to display relevant advertisements. To that end, we use aggregated demographic information, anonymized data compared to data from third parties, or the placement of cookies. In these ways, AmericasFootprints.com can display relevant ads to appropriate users either on our Website or on third party websites.

3.2(f)  For Promotional Offers From Third Parties. You may choose to receive promotional offers from third parties trusted by AmericasFootprints.com. If you do not want to continue to receive such emails, you may opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe link listed in the e-mail, or by amending your ‘e-mail preferences’ in the ‘My Account’ section of our Website.

3.3 Transfer of Information. When you provide us with any personal information, that personal information may be transferred to and stored and processed in other countries which may provide a different level of protection for personal data than in your country of residence. By providing us with personal information, you specifically consent to the transfer, storage and processing of personal information.

4.  Will AmericasFootprints.com Disclose any of Your Personal Information to Third Parties?

4.1  Limited Disclosure. AmericasFootprints.com will not disclose any of your personal information to third parties except in very limited circumstances.

Examples of the limited circumstances when AmericasFootprints.com may disclose your personal information to third parties are: (a) with your knowledge and any relevant consents; (b) as described in this Privacy Policy; (c) where you share your personal information in a Footprint,  send an email message through  the Footprint of another Member, or otherwise provide us with your information as a part of the use of this Website; (d) as may be required by law, regulatory authorities, legal process or to protect the rights or property of AmericasFootprints.com or other users (including outside your country of residence); (e) to enforce our Terms of Use; (f) to protect our rights, privacy, safety, confidentiality, reputation or property, and/or that of you or others; (g) to prevent fraud or criminal activity; or (h) to permit us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.

4.2  Third Party Service Providers. We may use third parties service providers and contractors to perform various tasks or services for us including data storage, consolidation, retrieval, analysis or the management of Member information. For example, we use third parties to process payments from you and to help manage our Website and relationships with you. These third parties service providers are only given access to that information needed to perform their support functions, and are prohibited from using it for other purposes. Processors include affiliated and unaffiliated service providers in the United States and in other jurisdictions. We enter into appropriate agreements with such third parties and attempt to ensure adequate safeguards for your personal information, as required by applicable law and endeavor to confirm that they have adopted, are subject to, or are contractually obligated to comply with the principles and objectives of this Privacy Policy.

4.3 Third Party Sites. Please note:   If you click away from our Website to visit the site of any third party advertiser or sponsor, you may be asked for your payment card or other personal information in order to purchase or use products and services offered. These companies have their own privacy and data collection practices. We have no responsibility or liability for these independent policies. You should therefore review their privacy notices carefully if you have concerns about how your information may be used.

4.4 Transfer of Member Information. As our business continues to grow and change, we might restructure, buy, or sell subsidiaries or business units. In these transactions, Member information is often one of the transferred assets, remaining subject to the terms and conditions of then prevailing Privacy Policy. Also, in the event that AmericasFootprints.com, or substantially all of its assets or stock are acquired, transferred, disposed of (in whole or part and including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings), personal information will as a matter of course be one of the transferred assets.

4.5 Legal Requirements. We may access and disclose your personal information, posts, email messages, Footprint, content, photographs, text, or other submissions to our Website if required by a subpoena or other judicial or administrative order or otherwise required by law. Additionally, we may disclose your personal information and other information where we, in good faith, deem it appropriate or necessary to prevent a violation of our other agreements; to take precautions against liability; to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Website, of any individual, or of the general public; to maintain and protect the security and integrity of our Services or infrastructure; to protect ourselves and our Services from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses; to investigate and defend ourselves against third party claims or allegations; or to assist government law enforcement agencies.

5.  May You Refuse to Provide Personal Information to AmericasFootprints.com?

Visitors may access AmericasFootprints.com’s free Services by browsing the Website. To gain full access to the paid Membership Services and the ability to create a Footprint, a username, e-mail address, birth date, and appropriate billing information are required. The amount of other personal information you decide to submit to AmericasFootprints.com as a part of Footprint or in an email message about a Footprint is up to you but your experience using the Services is decreased if you choose to provide no additional information.

6.  No Adjustable Privacy Settings.

AmericasFootprints.com does not have different levels of privacy settings, except for Mini-Footprints of minors as described here. Please be aware that any personal information you elect to post on our Website will be visible to both registered Members and non-registered users of the Website, and in most instances will be publicly available. We recommend that you use caution when providing content intended to be viewed publicly and that you avoid posting information in your Footprint that could cause harm or injury, or risk of harm or injury, to yourself or others.

7.  How to Report, Change or Delete Information.

Deleting or editing your Footprint. Any information or material that you have uploaded into your Footprint is controlled by you and can be edited, added to, or deleted by you at any time by logging into your account and using the Footprint Manager.

After you have passed on, your Footprint cannot be deleted or modified by anyone except AmericasFootprints.com personnel.

Deleting or editing information that others have posted about you or your Footprint. If this information is in the Footprint of another Member, you are not able to delete or edit this information. You should contact them through the Website to try to resolve the issue between you. If you cannot resolve the issue yourself, then you should contact us [here].

For disputes or issues with other personal information on the site about you. You may contact us by clicking [here]. For your protection, we will only implement such requests with respect to the personal information associated with the particular email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before considering your request.

Please note that where you or we delete content or your Footprint, copies of that information may remain viewable elsewhere to the extent any such copy has been shared with others or was copied or stored by other users. You will no longer be identified with that content. Additionally, we may retain certain information to prevent identity theft and other misconduct even if deletion has been requested. If you have given third party applications or websites access to your information, they may retain your information to the extent permitted under their terms of service or privacy policies but they will no longer be able to access the information through our platform after you disconnect from them.

Backup copies: Removed and deleted information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable time for our internal business purposes but will not be available to others.

Though we are under no obligation to monitor your Footprint or other content submissions, we reserve the right to do so at our sole discretion. We also reserve the right to block or remove any content we deem inappropriate, obscene, lewd, lascivious, violent, harassing, defamatory, libelous, tortious, illegal, threatening, or otherwise objectionable, regardless of whether it was intended to be private or public. Since we do not review all content submitted through every feature on every site, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to take protective measures in the event you provide content disclosing information about a person who is a victim of harm or abuse or is at risk of becoming a victim of harm or abuse. When we become aware of content that we consider to be offensive or that could compromise the privacy of your personal or confidential information or that of another person, we will make a good-faith effort to block or remove such content.

8.  Security.

AmericasFootprints.com places great importance on the security of all personally identifiable information associated with our Members. We have security measures consistent with industry practices in place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of Member data under our control. For example, our security and privacy practices are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized personnel have access to you personal information. We use secure server software to encrypt financial information you input before it is sent to us. While we use commercially reasonable efforts to prevent it, we cannot, however, guarantee that loss, misuse, or alteration of data will not occur. It is also important for you to guard against unauthorized access to your passwords and the unauthorized use of your computer.

9.  Contests, Surveys, & Promotions.

We may occasionally run contests, surveys, or other special promotions on our Websites in which we ask Members or visitors for personal information (like an e-mail address or name) or demographic information (like a zip code, age, or income level). We use this data to send users promotional material about our company or third parties we deal with. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The participant’s contact information is also used to contact him or her when necessary and may be shared with other companies for promotional purposes, but only with your prior permission and under the terms and conditions specified when you take part in the promotion. At any time, you may opt-out of receiving future mailings of this kind by following the unsubscribe instructions in each promotional email, or simply decline to take part in the promotions.

10.  Updates to the Privacy Policy.

We regularly review  our Privacy Policy and may change, modify, add, or remove portions as needed. If we change this Privacy Policy in ways that affect how we use your personal information, we will notify you here or in a notice on our home page. We will also update the revision date at the top of the Privacy Policy. We encourage you to check this Privacy Policy from time to time to remain informed of any changes.  .

11.  Contacting us about this Privacy Policy.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Website, or your dealings with this Website, or wish to request access to and receive information about the personal information we maintain about you, update and correct inaccuracies in your personal information, have the information blocked or deleted, as appropriate,  or if you would like to make a complaint about a possible breach of local privacy laws, you can contact us by clicking [here].  All such communications are examined and replies issued where appropriate as soon as possible.