Last Modified: November 25, 2009
This is the official privacy policy ("Privacy Policy") for the Flux platform ("Flux," "we," "us," or "our"), an online social-networking and social-media service, and the Flux web sites located at www.Flux.com and www.socialproject.com (the "Flux Sites"). Flux and Flux Sites are offered by Social Project Inc. ("Social Project"). Social Project is an MTV Networks ("MTVN") Company. MTVN is a division of Viacom International Inc. (together with MTVN, the "Parent Companies"). Using Flux, also we power and host certain portions of web sites owned by the Parent Companies or third parties ("Third Party Sites"). The Flux Sites and Third Party Sites make up a community of social-networking web sites that we refer to here as the "Community Sites." The Community Sites, using Flux, allow registered users of the Community Sites ("Members") to create personal profiles online, display content, share information and comments, and establish a network of relationships – all within one Community Site or across multiple Community Sites.
This Privacy Policy is intended to explain our privacy practices and inform you as to
This Privacy Policy applies whether you are accessing Flux and/or Flux Sites via a personal computer, a mobile device or any other technology or devices now known or hereafter developed or discovered (each, a "Device") and whether you are accessing as a Member or other user. This Privacy Policy is a part of the terms and conditions which are set forth in our Terms of Use Agreement. This Privacy Policy governs only the Personal Information and Other Information (as those terms are defined below) collected by us via Flux, Flux Sites or Flux-powered portions of other Community Sites and does not cover any such information collected in any other manner or by any other web site or channel offered by Social Project, the Parent Companies and/or any subsidiaries and affiliates of the Parent Companies (collectively "Affiliates”), or any information collected by any other company or third party, unless specifically stated. We may from time to time, combine Information (as that term is defined below) with other information we collect from other sources, such as information received from our Parent Companies, Affiliates, marketing companies or Advertisers and, if we do so, our use of the resulting combined Information will be subject to this Privacy Policy.
Your continued use of Flux and/or Flux Sites indicates your acceptance of this Privacy Policy and of the collection, use, disclosure, management and storage of your Personal Information and Other Information as described herein. We reserve the right to revise this Privacy Policy at any time by posting an updated Privacy Policy without advance notice to you. Such revisions will be effective immediately upon posting. Notice of material changes will be posted on Flux or Flux Sites and/or will be provided by e-mailing you or notifying you upon login about these changes; the form of such notice is at our discretion. We encourage you to check this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use Agreement often for updates.
We are committed to protecting users' privacy. Keeping the Personal Information you share with us secure and ensuring your understanding of how we collect, use, disclose and maintain your Personal Information is important to us. We maintain reasonable physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect your Personal Information and while no data transmission online is 100% secure from intrusion, we have used and will continue to use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the protection of your Personal Information.
Flux and Flux Sites are offered and made available only to users 13 years or older and certain features (including, but not limited to, registration and newsletter signups) may be subject to heightened age and/or other eligibility requirements. If you are between 13 and 17 or under the age of majority where you live, before you use Flux or Flux Sites please review this Agreement with your parents or guardians. Until you reach the age of majority where you live, you certify that your parents or guardians have consented to your use, they have agreed to this Agreement on your behalf, and you agree to provide them with your current registration e-mail address and password at all times. You understand that your parents or guardians may ask us to modify or terminate your use or access, and we may do so at their request or for any other reason, at any time, without notice or responsibility to anyone.
By your use, you certify that you are at least 13 years of age or the required greater age for certain features and meet any other eligibility requirements. If you are not yet 13 years old or the required greater age for certain features and/or do not meet other eligibility requirements, please discontinue using Flux and Flux Sites immediately and do not send any Information about yourself. If we discover that a user under age 13 has provided us with Personal Information or Other Information, we will delete it.
Flux and Flux Sites are established in the United States, meaning that you are accessing a community network in the U.S. Flux and Flux Sites are governed by and operated in accordance with the laws of the U.S. Social Project and the Parent Companies make no representation that Flux or Flux Sites are governed by or operated in accordance with the laws of other nations. Please be aware that any Personal Information or Other Information you provide to us or we obtain as a result of your use of Flux or Community Sites will be collected in the U.S. or transferred to the U.S. by or on behalf of the Community Sites. By using or participating in Flux or Community Sites and/or providing us with your Personal Information or Other Information, you (i) consent to the transfer, processing and/or storage of any Personal Information and Other Information you provide to Flux and/or the Community Sites, (ii) acknowledge that U.S. law provides a lower standard of protection for personal data than the laws of various countries including, but not limited to, the European Union and (iii) understand that Flux and Flux Sites will collect, transfer to, process and/or store and deal with your Personal Information and Other Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and U.S. law. Consequently, you waive any claims that may arise under the laws and regulations that apply to you in or of any other country or jurisdiction.
"Personal Information" means information that would allow someone to identify you or contact you, such as your full name, e-mail address, telephone number, date of birth, blog or other personal web site URL. "Other Information" means any information other than Personal Information that is collected by Flux, Flux Sites or Flux-powered portions of Community Sites. Other Information includes, but is not limited to, non-personally identifiable data regarding how Members and other users navigate and use Flux, Flux Sites and Flux-powered portions of other Community Sites, including the number and frequency of visitors to each page, the length of their stays, the type of browser used (for example, Internet Explorer or Firefox), the operating system used (for example, Windows or Mac), the domain name of each user’s Internet service provider (for example, Earthlink or AOL) and certain other information (for example, "click stream" data). "Information” means, collectively, Personal Information and Other Information. "IP Address" means the number automatically assigned to your Device when you access the Internet, which our web servers use to identify where to send the information that your Device requests.
We offer you the ability to manage your profile and limit how much of your Personal Information is displayed. When logged-in, you may manage your display settings in the “More” (or “My Pages”) dropdown menu, by selecting "Account" (or “My Account”) and then the “Privacy” tab. Privacy settings include:
To the extent allowed under applicable law, this Privacy Policy does not apply to any Information that you publicly disclose or display, or allow on your profile. Because your Member relationships or other people may view your Information and postings, please exercise caution whenever disclosing Information. You do not know who may access and use such Information, or for what purpose. We are not responsible for the accuracy, use or misuse of any Information you disclose or receive through these venues. Please refer to our Terms of Use Agreement for restrictions with respect to Postings. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to set certain limits on the availability of some or all Flux-powered features on Community Sites.
Unless set to private (viewable only to your Member relationships), your profile may display Information to the general public, including display name, Profile URL, photo, your Member relationships, Community Sites joined and activity Feed (a "Feed" is a dynamic, list of the activities of you, your Member relationships, special users and communities). Postings to Community Sites also are displayed to the public. Publicly displayed Information and Postings may be indexed by third-party search engines and appear in search results on third-party web sites.
When you visit Community Sites, Advertisers may serve certain content, including, for example, advertisements. Advertisers also may set their own Cookies, Beacons or other tracking technologies to identify your preferences, recognize you (if you have previously had contact with the Advertisers) and determine on which web site their advertisement was displayed and whether or not you clicked it. Third-party content providers and service providers also may use tracking technologies to determine how many times you have viewed their content or used their services. This information also helps advertising partners deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be most relevant to you. We do not have access to or control the use of tracking technologies by third parties, what information they collect or how they use it. Third parties’ use of tracking technologies is subject to their own privacy policies. Therefore, we encourage you to investigate and ask questions directly of them in this regard. For some more information about how to “opt-out” of third-party Cookies or other tracking technologies, please click here or here.
If you participate in a sweepstakes, contest, or other promotion, your Information may be disclosed as required by law, for example, on a winners' list. Also, by entering a sweepstakes, contest, or other promotion, we may require you to consent to the use of your Information in advertising materials. In addition, we may offer you sweepstakes, contests, or other promotions that are sponsored or co-sponsored by a third party. If disclosed to you on the promotion registration page and/or Rules, those third parties may obtain the Information that you submit for that promotion. We have no control over such a third party's use of your Information, and any such third party is not subject to this Privacy Policy.
Flux Sites and Flux-powered portions of other Community Sites may contain links to other web sites, whose information practices may be different from ours. You could be directed to other web pages or online content through links that are beyond our control. These other web pages may set their own cookies, collect information, and/or have their own privacy policies. This Privacy Policy only covers information collected by us at Flux Sites and Flux-powered portions of other Community Sites, and we encourage you to review the privacy policy of any other web site you visit, including, Third Party Sites.
We maintain reasonable standards of security and confidentiality. For example, our data networks are protected by firewalls and we limit our employee access to Flux and Flux Sites to those individuals who are authorized for the proper handling of such information and any employee found violating our standards of security and confidentiality will be subject to our disciplinary processes. We request that our operational service providers follow the same policy. However, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure and, for most Internet sites, it is possible that third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. As a result, we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information we receive and we are not responsible for the theft, destruction, or inadvertent disclosure of Information.
All Members and users of Flux, Flux Sites and Flux-powered portions of other Community Sites are required to provide true, current, complete and accurate Information when prompted. We cannot and will not be responsible for any problems or liability that may arise if you do not give us accurate, truthful or complete Information or if you fail to update such Information. We may reject and delete any entry that we believe in good faith to be false, fraudulent or inconsistent with our Terms of Use Agreement or this Privacy Policy. Bear in mind that when you submit Information to us, it does not guarantee that we will permit you to use any or all Flux-powered features or functions.
Generally, you may review or update your Personal Information collected by Flux. You may also correct factual inaccuracies. However, Personal Information that is necessary to check eligibility, such as date of birth or age, cannot be deleted and a change to this information may not be permitted. In addition, Information collected for certain purposes (such as entries for contests, sweepstakes or other promotions) is subject to corporate and regulatory recordkeeping requirements and will not be deleted upon request, unless the entrant is a person under the age of 13 years old. To review, update or delete Personal Information collected by Flux, please log into your Flux account, access the "More" or "My Pages" dropdown menu and select the "Account" (or "My Account") tab. Alternatively, you may e-mail the Flux Privacy Administrator at privacy@flux.com (and be prepared to provide verification of your identity).
You are solely responsible for maintaining the strict confidentiality of your User ID (unique e-mail and password combination) for access to your Flux account, and for any charges, costs, expenses, damages, liabilities and losses we may incur or suffer as a result of your failure to do so. You are solely responsible for your use of, and conduct on, Flux and Community Sites, or any other related activity. You are solely responsible for any use of, and conduct on, Flux and Community Sites, or any other related activity, by any others who use your User ID, unless and until you notify us that your User ID may have been compromised or improperly taken or used.
You also may deactivate your Flux account through the “Account” (or “My Account”) tab. If you deactivate or if we terminate your Flux account, your public profile will be removed from all Community Sites and we reserve the right to retain or delete your Information in our database, subject to our Privacy Policy.
Phishing attacks attempt to steal consumers' personal identity data and financial account credentials. "Phishers" use 'spoofed' e-mails to lead consumers to counterfeit web sites designed to trick recipients into divulging Personal Information such as credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords, and social security numbers. WE DO NOT SEND E-MAILS ASKING YOU TO PROVIDE OR CONFIRM SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION OR YOUR USERNAME OR PASSWORD! If you receive such an e-mail communication, please do not reply or respond to it. Please forward it to us at legal@Flux.com, and then immediately delete it from your computer.
In addition, if you become aware of any Member profile, User Content or other material on Flux or Community Sites that appears to be spam or phishing (or otherwise violates our Terms of Use Agreement by, for example, containing adult material or hate speech), please report it to us for review by clicking the associated "Flag" icon. You may report other violations by accessing the "More" or "My Pages" dropdown menu and selecting "Report Abuse". "Report Abuse" is also available by clicking the "Flag" icon associated with a Member profile or User Content. You may also contact us at legal@Flux.com.
If you are a resident of the State of California, we provide you with information on how to exercise your disclosure choice options such as your right to opt-out (which we may sometimes refer to as "unsubscribe") or opt-in for use of your Personal Information by third parties (such as Advertisers) for marketing purposes. Therefore, pursuant to the California Civil Code, we are not required to maintain or disclose a list of the third parties that received your Personal Information for marketing purposes during the preceding year.
If you are a California resident and wish to request information about how to exercise your third-party disclosure choices, please contact our Privacy Administrator at privacy@Flux.com or:
All requests must be labeled "Your California Privacy Rights" on the e-mail subject line or envelope or post card. For all requests, please clearly state that the request is related to “Your California Privacy Rights”, include your name, street address, city, state, zip code and e-mail address (your street address is optional if you wish to receive a response to your request via e-mail) and indicate your preference on how our response to your request should be sent (e-mail or postal mail). We will not accept requests via the telephone or by fax. We are not responsible for notices that are not labeled or sent properly, or do not have complete information.
If you have other questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact our Privacy Administrator at privacy@Flux.com or by postal mail sent to:
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how we collect, maintain, use or share your Information, you may contact us directly by sending an e-mail to privacy@Flux.com.
This document is the sole statement of the Privacy Policy for Flux and Flux Sites and no summary, restatement or other version thereof, or other privacy statement or policy, in any form, including, without limitation, machine-generated, is valid.
This Privacy Policy was last modified on the date indicated above and is effective immediately.
Copyright © MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International Inc. 2009 - All Rights Reserved.