Topica’s Privacy Policy
Topica is committed to protecting your privacy. We want you to feel free to express yourself on the Topica system, so we are committed to allowing you to feel secure in an environment that puts you in control of what you share with the rest of the community, and with Topica.
Topica will never willfully disclose personally identifiable information about its customers to any third party without first receiving that customer’s permission, unless necessary for legal reasons.
Topica Inc. is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. This statement discloses the privacy practices for Topica.com. TRUSTe certifies the gathering and dissemination of information on the website, not any services or software. When you visit a Web site displaying the TRUSTe trustmark, you can expect to be notified of what personally identifiable information of yours is collected; how the information is used; with whom the information may be shared; and how you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.
Questions regarding this statement should be directed
to our Privacy and Standards department.
If Topica has not responded to your inquiry or your
inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you can
contact TRUSTe.
This policy effective as of July 13, 2006.
What information does Topica collect?
You don’t need to provide any information in order to browse the Topica directory, use the search functionality to find an email newsletter or discussion group, or view the archives of lists that the list publisher has chosen to make public. A public list is one whose archives are readable not only by subscribers, but by any visitor to the Topica site – whether registered or not. On all public lists viewable through the Topica Web site, the email addresses of participants are partially obscured so they are not obtainable by unauthorized visitors. A private list is one whose archives are only accessible to registered Topica users who are subscribed to that list. On both public and private lists, subscribers of any given list have access to one another’s email addresses. It is the list owner’s choice as to whether a list is public or private.
If you choose to start a list at Topica or subscribe to one, we will ask you to register. During registration, we ask you to provide the following information: name, email address, zip code, birth date, gender and country.
If you choose to sign up for the Topica service, we will ask you to provide the following information: name, company name, email address, credit card type, credit card number, credit card expiration date, name on card, billing address, city, state, country, zip code and phone number. We use this information to provide the services you request, send you notifications about product updates, system events such as downtime, respond to customer support requests, etc. You can access and change your information by logging into your account and going to the "Admin" or "Account" pages. You will also be signed up for the Topica newsletter we send customers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time by clicking on the "unsubscribe" button at the bottom of the message.
We will NOT disclose, sell or exchange your personally identifiable information (name and email address) to or with anyone, without your approval. The only circumstances under which personally identifiable information about Topica users will be shared in a manner inconsistent to that stated above is if we believe disclosure is reasonably necessary to:
- comply with the law or legal process;
- protect or defend the rights or property of Topica
or others;
- enforce our Terms of Service; or
- respond to claims that the content of any communication
on the Topica system violates the rights of others.
During registration, you can sign up for deals and offers from Topica partners: third parties with whom Topica has agreements. To activate third-party subscriptions, Topica shares your registration information with only those third parties whose offers you choose. In any case where information is shared, you will see a disclosure statement to that effect. In signing up for offers with such disclosures, you give Topica permission to share the relevant information with the indicated third party.
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If you sign up for magazine offers, you will be asked to provide a mailing address. Mailing address information is shared with the magazine publisher and/or distributor in order to fulfill your subscription request.
How does Topica use the information
collected?
We will aggregate user information and perform statistical analyses of the collective characteristics and behavior of our members and visitors, to measure overall demographics and interests regarding specific areas of the Topica domain and to analyze how and where to use our resources. Topica shares general demographic and interest information with third parties and sales prospects, but such aggregate information is not personally identifiable. We also use the aggregate data collected to inform our sponsors as to the number of people who have seen and "clicked" on their advertisement. In addition, Topica may compile and disclose aggregate information about its users for promotional or other purposes. For example, we might want to disclose that a certain percentage of our users are located within a particular geographic area or fall within a particular age range.
Does Topica use cookies?
Topica uses both session cookies and persistent cookies (for an
explanation of cookies, please see
http://www.epic.org/privacy/internet/cookies/).
Cookies help us determine how long users view particular content, which
particular content (e.g., advertising) users view, which content or
sites users link to, and which Topica services members and visitors use.
Persistent cookies are used if you choose to enable the auto-login feature. These cookies are randomly generated and uniquely assigned to each user. They are not associated with any personally identifiable information such as name or password.
Session cookies help us keep track of when a person is logged in. Once a user is logged in, session cookies allow us to personalize information on our Web site for them, as well as keep track of lists to which they have subscription privileges.
Some of our business partners (e.g., advertisers) use cookies on our
Free Discussion List site (http://lists.topica.com). We have no access
to, or control over, these cookies.
How can I change or delete information
about me stored at Topica?
As a registered Topica user, you have easy access to your information, along with the ability to change it. And, you can always choose to unsubscribe from any list you’ve signed up to at Topica.
To change personal information: Log in to your "My
Topica" account (http:/lists.topica.com/my/).
From the Preferences menu on the left, click the Password
and User Profile link. Make any changes you like to
your user profile, and save them when you are done.
To change your email address: Log in to your "My
Topica" account (http:/lists.topica.com/my/).
From the Preferences menu on the left, click the Email
Addresses link. Follow the instructions on the page
to change or delete your email address.
To terminate your Topica service: You may terminate
all of your Topica subscriptions and your "My Topica"
account by contacting our Customer Care department.
How can I unsubscribe from email lists
at Topica?
There are three ways to unsubscribe from Topica lists.
- Use the Easy Unsubscribe link that appears at the
bottom of every message you receive from a Topica
list. Clicking the link takes you to an unsubscribe
page at the Topica site, where you’re asked to confirm
that you want to unsubscribe. Click the confirmation
link, and you are unsubscribed.
- Use your "My Topica" account to unsubscribe.
Log in to your "My
Topica" account (http:/lists.topica.com/my/).
Look for the column called "Delivery Method,"
located to the right of the names of the lists you
are subscribed to. Using the drop-down menu in the
"Delivery Method" column, highlight "Unsubscribe,"
then go to the bottom of the page and click the "Save
Changes" button.
- Send an email message to [listname]-unsubscribe@topica.com,
where [listname] is replaced by the actual name of
the list. For instance, if you were subscribed to
a list called CarClub, you could remove yourself from
the list by sending a message to the following address:
CarClub-unsubscribe@topica.com
How does Topica protect the privacy
of children?
As the Topica service is not intended for use by children under the age of 13, there are certain safeguards in place to prevent children from registering with our service. However, as with any Web site, children can access all parts of the site which are accessible to the general public. See the "What information does Topica collect?" section of this document for an explanation of what information is publicly accessible through the Topica site.
Third Party Partners
We use third parties for the specific services below. These third parties are prohibited from using your personally identifiable information for any other purpose.
SalesForce.com
Topica works with SalesForce.com to organize requests for Sales contacts. If you request that a member of our Sales team contact you, we send your contact and other information to our account at SalesForce.com. SalesForce.com is an application service provider that many companies use to organize call-back requests, etc. They are prohibited from using your personally identifiable information for any other purpose. SalesForce.com participates in the TrustE Privacy Seal program. To learn more about SalesForce.com’s privacy policies:
Aptimus, Inc.
Topica works with Aptimus to provide back-end processing services for our Top Offers mailing list. If you have signed up for the Top Offers newletter, we will transmit your e-mail address and certain other personal data such as name and gender to Aptimus to better deliver our Newsletter. Aptimus is prohibited from using this information for any other purpose.
Separately from this process, Topica also partners with Aptimus to offer
Aptimus-sponsored third-party co-registration offers. These offers are
labeled as being through Aptimus. Subscribers can choose whether to opt
in to the various offers. If a subscriber elects to participate in such
an offer, the information they supply through that opt-in process is
forwarded to the third-party whose offer(s) the subscriber opts into and
to Aptimus for their use.
See Aptimus’s Privacy Policy.
Adteractive
Topica partners with Adteractive to offer Adteractive-sponsored third-party co-registration offers. These offers are labeled as being through Adteractive. Subscribers can choose whether to opt in to the various offers. If a subscriber elects to participate in such an offer, the information they supply through that opt-in process is forwarded to the third-party whose offer(s) the subscriber opts into and to Adteractive for their use.
Verisign
Topica uses Verisign to process credit card payments. If you pay for
your Topica account by credit card, we send your credit card information
to our Verisign account. Verisign is one of the most well-known
companies doing credit card processing. Verisign is a licensee of the
TRUSTe Privacy Program.
More about Verisign’s privacy policies.
Security Policy
The security of your personal information is important to us. Our web site protects sensitive information such as your login and credit card information using Internet industry standard encryption protocols to encrypt the information in transit.
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, please
contact us.
Notification of Changes
If Topica intends to use your personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection, we will notify you via email. You will have a choice as to whether or not we use your information in this different manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our web site notifying users of the change. In some cases when we post such a notice we will also email users who have opted to receive communications from us notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.
If you have any questions or comments about this policy,
please contact our Privacy and Standards department.
Topica Inc. 685 Market St. Suite 300, San Francisco, CA 94105
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