FAQ

Privacy Policy

Last updated April 17, 2008

Zoodango is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build user's trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy statement covers the Web site http://www.zoodango.com. Because this Web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact Zoodango's Privacy Group through email at or sent through postal mail at:
Zoodango, Inc.
Attn: Privacy Policy Issues
900 Lenora Street Suite W305
Seattle, WA 98121
If you do not receive acknowledgement of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should contact TRUSTe. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with us to resolve your concerns.
Zoodango Privacy Commitment
Zoodango is committed to protecting the privacy of our users. This privacy policy explains when and how personal information is collected, used, disclosed and protected with respect to our web site at www.zoodango.com (the "Site"). By using the Site, you consent to the privacy practices described in this Policy, as modified from time to time by us. Please carefully review this policy so you understand our data privacy practices.
About Zoodango
Zoodango.com is an online site and community that allows people to discover new places, share places with friends, and meet up through a smart recommendation and invitation engine. It allows people to send invitations, find places, find events, create profiles, track their favorite places, connect with friends, meet others, exchange services, buy and sell goods, and perform other transactions.
Information We Collect
Registration:
In order to become a Zoodango user, you must first create an account on this web site. To create an account you are required to provide the following contact information: username, email, and password. We also provide you the opportunity to enter optional information which includes: first name, last name, time zone, country, state/province, and metropolitan area.
Profile Information:
Once a user, you may provide additional information in the Profile section including favorite places, events, pictures, life stories, and additional information about yourself. Providing additional information beyond what is required at registration is entirely optional, but enables you to better identify yourself and personalize your Service in the Zoodango system. All users have the option of making their profile public, friends only, or private. A public profile allows all visitors and users to see your profile page. A friends only status only allows registered users who are connected to you to see your profile page. A private status prevents all visitors and users from seeing your profile page. You can set this privacy setting under your "Account Settings - Profile Visible To:" section when you are logged into the Zoodango web site.
Response to Invitations:
Without registering or creating a profile account, you may respond to an event invitation or venue feedback request from another user on Zoodango. To enhance your online experience with us, we will store your responses and preferences in order to provide you with a personalized experience the next time you come to Zoodango.com. Email addresses of non-members may be recorded through invite lists, friend invitations or other sources on the Site without the permission of such non-member or the individual who included the non-member's email address on the Site initially. Although Zoodango itself does not send any emails to non-members, third parties (e.g., event organizers) may send emails to recipients whose email address they have previously acquired through other means. As a result, Zoodango has instituted mechanisms to allow such non-members to opt out of certain emails from these third parties or all emails and advertisements of Zoodango altogether.
Cookies & Log Files
Like most web sites, Zoodango uses cookies and web log files to track site usage. A cookie is a tiny data file which resides on your computer that allows Zoodango to recognize you as a user when you return to our site using the same computer and web browser. Unfortunately, if your browser settings do not allow cookies, you will not be able to use our web site. Like the information you enter at registration or in your Profile, cookie and log file data is used to customize your experience on the web site.
Due to the communications standards on the Internet, when you visit the Zoodango web site we automatically receive the URL of the site from which you came and the site to which you are going when you leave Zoodango. We also receive 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, as well as the name of your ISP. This information is used to analyze overall trends to help us improve the Zoodango service. We do not directly link these types of information with your personally identifiable information. For purposes of this Policy, "personally identifiable information" means any information that could be used to identify you personally (e.g., your email address, username, or name).
How We Use Information
We use the information we collect about you (including your personally identifiable information) to create a better, more personalized experience for you based on your individual usage habits, improve our marketing and promotional efforts, analyze site usage, improve our content and product offerings, and customize our site's content, layout and Services. These uses improve our site and allow us to better customize it to meet your needs. We also use the information we collect about you to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, and enforce our Terms of Use Agreement.
We may compile the information we collect about you and use it, in an aggregate form only, in the negotiation and establishment of service agreements with public and/or private enterprises under which such enterprises will serve as Zoodango partners, event hosts, associations, or as venues for meetings between our users.
For all events posted by premium account holders, the online meetings and invitations are tracked by the event host or group. The event host has rights to this data and can use this data within the scope of the agreement with Zoodango. If you do not wish to have your networking meetings and invitations tracked to your particular profile, do not respond to the invitations.
Communications from the Site
We may use your information to contact you and deliver information to you that, in some cases, are targeted to your interests, such as topic group newsletters or Zoodango announcements (which also may include promotional communications), administrative notices, product or service offerings, and other communications relevant to your use of our Platform.
Out of respect for your privacy, we present the option not to receive these types of communications. Please see the "Choice/Opt-Out/Deactivate."
Service-related Announcements
We will send you 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. Please see the section "Choice/Opt-Out/Deactivate" for instructions on requesting a deactivation of 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 communicate with you by email or telephone, in accordance with your wishes.
Access to Personally Identifiable Information
If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct or update your information by making the change on your My Zoodango page or by contacting us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed at the bottom of this privacy statement.
Disclosure of Information
Opt-in requirement. WITHOUT YOUR AFFIRMATIVE CONSENT WE DO NOT SELL, RENT OR OTHERWISE SHARE YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION WITH OTHER THIRD PARTIES. INSTEAD, TO THE EXTENT WE SHARE INFORMATION WITH OUR PARTNERS AND ADVERTISERS, WE SHARE ONLY AGGREGATED INFORMATION THAT IS NOT LINKED TO YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION. Aggregated information that we may share with our marketing partners includes, but is not limited to, information showing the relative popularity of one venue or event over another (for example, the number of individuals present at an event).
You should understand that information you provide through the registration process or use of our Platform (including your name (if provided) and location information) may be accessible by and made public through syndication programs and by search engines, metasearch tools, crawlers, metacrawlers and other similar programs.
Required disclosures. Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose your personal information when required by law or if we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our web site, (b) enforce this Policy or the Terms of Use Agreement, (c) respond to claims that your Personal Information violates the rights of third parties; or (d) protect the rights, property or personal safety of Zoodango, its users and the public. You authorize us to disclose any information about you to law enforcement or other government officials as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate, in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringements, or other activity that is illegal or may expose us or you to legal liability.
Content and Ratings
You can publish reviews, comments and other content. Members can choose to rate products, services or other reviews, and to connect to other members. As an unregistered visitor, we may allow you to rate businesses and reviews.
We, and our licensees, can republish your review as described in the Zoodango's Terms of Use. We publish event ratings and use them to develop aggregate ratings, personalize site views and merchandise products. We use your reviews to personalize the site and identify/feature popular members. For example, we may promote most popular reviews and members. While we don't expect to transfer the complete review and member database to others (except as contemplated elsewhere in this statement), we use the database throughout our networks and to generate results for others.
Links to Other Web Sites
Our web site contains links to other web sites. Any personal information you provide on the linked pages is provided directly to that third party and is subject to that third party's privacy policy. Except as described above, we are not responsible for the content or privacy and security practices and policies of web sites to which we link. Links from our web site to third parties or to other sites are provided for your convenience. We encourage you to learn about their privacy and security practices and policies before providing them with personal information.
Communications with the Event Host
You may receive communication from your group manager or event host (an "Organizer") in the normal course of utilizing our Platform. By joining a group or event, you agree to receive this communication from the Organizer, who will not be provided with your email address by us, but will communicate with you through our Platform. If you are an Organizer, you agree to receive messages from individual members of your organization or event group.
Communications Between Users
Many emails you initiate through Zoodango or invitation emails, an invitation sent to a non-user for instance, will list your email and name in the header of the message. Emails you initiate may also provide aggregate information about your network (for instance how many people are in your network), but will never list the people to whom you're directly connected.
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. Zoodango 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 to request that we remove this information from our database.
Account Information (Updating/Editing/Deleting)
After registration for our Platform and for specific events and groups, we provide a way for you to update your personally identifiable information. This can be done through the editing functionality under your My Zoodango view on the Zoodango platform.
Nonetheless, we will retain in our files information you may have requested us to remove if, in our discretion, retention of the information is necessary to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems or to enforce the Terms of Use Agreement. Furthermore, your information is never completely removed from our databases due to technical and legal constraints (for example, we will not remove your information from our back up storage).
Children
Our Site is not geared towards children under the age of 13. Our Site will not knowingly accept personal information from anyone under 13 years old. If you believe that your child under 13 has gained access to our Site without your permission, you may contact us at legal@zoodango.com. Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. For that reason, Zoodango does not knowingly collect or maintain personally identifiable information or non-personally-identifiable information on the Site from persons under 13 years of age, and no part of our website is directed to persons under 13. If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use or access the Site at any time or in any manner. If Zoodango learns that personally identifiable information of persons under 13 years of age has been collected on the Site without verified parental consent, then Zoodango will take the appropriate steps to delete this information.
Security
In order to secure your personal information, access to your data on Zoodango is password-protected. To protect any data you store on our servers we also regularly audit our system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks and we use a tier-one secured-access data center.
Service Providers
We use other third parties to provide supplemental web analytics on our site. When you sign up for the Zoodango platform, we will share site traffic and usage information as necessary for the third party to provide that service.
Some of our business partners (e.g., advertisers) use cookies on our site. We have no access to or control over these cookies.
This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by Zoodango.com only and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.
Use of Bulletin Boards and Blogs
If you use a bulletin board, blog, or chat room on this Web site, 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.
Choice/Opt-Out/Deactivate
You may elect not to receive future communications from Zoodango or to discontinue use of our service. If you are a registered user, please login and visit your settings on the "Account Settings" (found under My Zoodango) page of the web site and select "Receive no emails" under Email Notifications.
If you have previously made contact with Zoodango business partners, you must independently opt-out of communications from that individual company.
Individuals who wish to deactivate their Zoodango account may do so by sending us email at Zoodango Support with your request. Once we've confirmed your request, we will remove your account. Removed information may persist in backup or cached copies for a reasonable period of time but will not be generally available to any user of Zoodango.
You have the option to change or remove your personally identifiable information for certain purposes. This can be done by editing or removing information previously provided. This may be done through the following method:
Log into the Zoodango web site, access the various "Profile" views under My Zoodango. From here you can delete, update or change any content that you have previously submitted.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
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.
Questions or Comments
If you have questions or comments about this privacy policy, please email us at or contact us at:
Zoodango, Inc.
Attn: Privacy Policy Issues
900 Lenora Street Suite W305
Seattle, WA 98121