Privacy Policy
Sponge Hacks understands the importance of your personal privacy. Therefore, we have created this Privacy Policy so that you know how we use and disclose your information when you make it available to us. The Privacy Policy below discloses our practices regarding information collection and usage website located at spongehacks.com, the related mobile website, and the mobile application (collectively, the “Websites”) and the service provided thereon (the “Service”).
By using or accessing the Websites and the Service, you signify your agreement to be bound by this Privacy Policy. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY YOU MAY NOT ACCESS OR OTHERWISE USE OUR SERVICE OR PARTICIPATE IN OUR SERVICES.
Key aspects of our privacy practices described in this Privacy Policy include the following explanations:
• The information we collect and why we collect it;
• How we use that information;
• How we share information; and
• The choices we offer.
Personally Identifiable Information That We Collect:
We may ask you for, or you may voluntarily submit, personally identifiable information when you are using the Service. The personally identifiable information which you may provide to us could include, but is not limited to:
· Your name
· Your contact information (including, without limitation, address and email address);
· Your IP address; and
· Other personal information.
Non-Personal Or Aggregate Information That We Collect:
When you access our Service, we may automatically collect non-personally identifiable information from you, such as IP host address, web pages viewed, browser type, operating system, referring service, search information, device type, page views, usage and browsing habits on the Service and similar data. We may also aggregate demographic information collected from our users (such as the number of users in a particular geographical location) in a manner which does not identify any one individual. We may also aggregate information collected offline in connection with the Service, obtain non-personally identifiable information from third party sources and develop aggregate information by anonymizing previously collected personally identifiable information.
It is possible at times when collecting non-personally identifiable information through automatic means that we may unintentionally collect or receive personally identifiable information that is mixed in with the non-personally identifiable information. While we will make reasonable efforts to prevent such incidental data collection, the possibility still exists. If you believe that we have inadvertently collected your personal information, please notify us at https://www.spongehacks.com/contact/.
Information Usage:
We will only use your personally identifiable information as described below, unless you have specifically consented to another type of use, either at the time the personally identifiable information is collected from you or through some other form of consent from you or notification to you:
·We may share your personally identifiable information collected in connection with providing the Service.
·We may use your personally identifiable information to respond to your inquires or requests.
·We may use your personally identifiable information to send you emails from time to time about our services, but we will not provide your personally identifiable information to third parties for them to contact you directly unless otherwise permitted by this Privacy Policy or you provide your consent.
·We may share your personally identifiable information with third parties (collectively, the “Third
Party Vendors”) to further the purpose for which you provided such information to us. For example, we may share your information with Elastic Email, for the purpose of sending emails. We urge you to read the privacy practices of all of our Third Party Vendors before submitting any personally identifiable information through the Service.
·We may disclose personally identifiable information as required by law or legal process.
·We may disclose personally identifiable information to investigate suspected fraud, harassment or other violations of any law, rule or regulation, or the terms or policies for our services or our sponsors.
·We may transfer your personally identifiable information in connection with the sale or merger
or change of control of Sponge Hacks or the division responsible for the services with which your personally identifiable information is associated.
·We may share your personally identifiable information with an affiliate of Sponge Hacks who is in the same corporate family as us as long as their privacy practices are substantially similar to ours.
Non-personally identifiable or aggregate information may be used by us for any purposes permitted by law and may be shared with any number of parties, provided that such information shall not specifically identify you.
Cookies and Similar Technologies:
“Cookies” are pieces of information that may be placed on your computer by a service for the purpose of facilitating and enhancing your communication and interaction with that service. Many services use cookies for these purposes. We may use cookies (and similar items such as clear gifs, web beacons, tags, etc.) on our Service to customize your visit and for other purposes to make your visit more convenient or to enable us to enhance our Service. We may also use and place cookies (and similar items) on your computer from our third party service providers in connection with the Service, such as an analytics provider that helps us manage and analyze Service usage, as described more fully below. In addition, our advertisers and business partners may set cookies and similar items on your computer when you use our Service. You may stop or restrict the placement of cookies on your computer or flush them from your browser by adjusting your web browser preferences, in which case you may still use our Service, but it may interfere with some of its functionality. Cookies and similar items are not used by us to automatically retrieve personally identifiable information from your computer without your knowledge.
If you delete your cookies, change browsers or use a different cookie, our cookie (or an opt-out cookie) may no longer work and you will have to reinput (or opt-out) again.
Analytics and Conversion Tracking:
We may use analytics services that use cookies, javascript and similar technologies to help us analyze how users use the Service. The information generated by these services about your use of the Service (including your IP address or a truncated version of your IP address) is transmitted to and stored by analytics service providers on their servers. Those service providers will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your, and other users’, use of the Service, compiling reports for us on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and Internet usage.
We may collect information about your computer, including your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and in order to create reports. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.
For example, we use cookies on our site for Google Analytics (the “Analytics Service”). The Analytics Service is a web-based analytics tool that helps website owners understand how visitors engage with their website. The Analytics Service customers can view a variety of reports about how visitors interact with their website so that they can improve it.
Like many services, the Analytics Service uses first-party cookies to track visitor interactions as in our case, where they are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We then use the information to compile reports and to help us improve our site.
Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. These cookies are used to store information, such as the time that the current visit occurred, whether the visitor has been to the site before and what site referred the visitor to the web page.
The Analytics Service collects information anonymously. They report website trends without identifying individual visitors. You can opt out of the Analytics Service without affecting how you visit our site. For more information on opting out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites you use, visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
We may also use Google conversion tracking and/or similar services to help us understand your and other users’ use of the Service.
Automatically Collected Information:
When you access the Service or open one of our HTML emails, we may automatically record certain information from your system by using cookies and other types of tracking technologies. This “automatically collected” information may include Internet Protocol address (“IP Address”), a unique user ID, device type, device identifiers, browser types and language, referring and exit pages, platform type, version of software installed, system type, the content and pages that you access on the Service, the number of clicks, the amount of time spent on pages, the dates and times that you visit the Service, and other similar information. Depending on the law of your country of residence, your IP address may legally be considered personally identifiable information.
Security:
The security of your personally identifiable information is very important to us. When we collect your personally identifiable information online, we use reasonable efforts to protect it from unauthorized access. However, due to the inherent open nature of the Internet, we cannot guarantee that your personally identifiable information will be completely free from unauthorized access by third parties such as hackers and your use of our Service demonstrates your assumption of this risk. We have put in place reasonable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard the information we collect. Only those employees who need access to your information in order to perform their duties are authorized to have access to your personally identifiable information. For more information on protecting your privacy, please visit www.ftc.gov/privacy.
Your Disclosures In Blogs And Other Social Media:
You should be aware that personally identifiable information which you voluntarily include and transmit online on the Service or in a publicly accessible blog, chat room, social media platform or otherwise online, or that you share in an open forum such as an in-person panel or survey, may be viewed and used by others without any restrictions. We are unable to control such uses of your personally identifiable information, and by using the Service or any other online services you assume the risk that the personally identifiable information provided by you may be viewed and used by third parties for any number of purposes.
If you login to the Websites and/or Service through your Facebook account, connect to a third party service such as Facebook or Twitter through an icon or link on the Service or otherwise link your Sponge Hacks account with a third party service, we may share the contents of your post and associated information (such as your user name, the fact that your connection originated from the Service, and other relevant usage and diagnostic information) with such third party. With your one-time consent, we may also send information about the content you watch and your activities on the Service to such third parties. Once such information is shared, the use of your information will be subject to that service’s privacy policy and this Privacy Policy will not apply.
Protection for Children:
We generally do not collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If at any time in the future we plan to collect personally identifiable information from children under 13, such collection and use, to the extent applicable, shall, when required, be done in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and appropriate consent from the child’s parent or guardian will be sought where required by COPPA. When we become aware that personally identifiable information from a child under 13 has been collected without such child’s parent or guardian’s consent, we will use all reasonable efforts to delete such information from our database.
Other Services:
As a convenience to you, we may provide links to third-party Services from within our Service. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these third-party sites. When you link away from our Service, you do so at your own risk.
Changes to this Privacy Policy:
We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions from this Privacy Policy at any time. However, if at any time in the future we plan to use personally identifiable information in a way that materially differs from this Privacy Policy, including sharing such information with more third parties, we will post such changes here and provide you the opportunity to opt-out of such differing uses. Your continued use of the Service and our services following the posting of any changes to this Privacy Policy means you accept such changes.
Mediavine Programmatic Advertising
The Website uses Mediavine to manage all third-party advertising on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website. The cookie may collect information relating to your use of the Website, information about your device such as the device’s IP address and browser type, demographic data and, if you arrived at the Website via a link from a third-party site, the URL of the linking page.
First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/.
Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site.
The Website may collect IP addresses and location information to serve personalized ads and pass it to Mediavine. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp. You may also visit http://optout.aboutads.info/#/ and http://optout.networkadvertising.org/# to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.
Mediavine partners with the following data processors:
- Pubmatic. You may find Pubmatic’s privacy policy through this link. The data collected on the Website may be transferred to Pubmatic and its demand partners for interest-based advertising. Statistical information and other non-cookie technologies (such as eTags and web or browser cache) may be used by third parties on this Website. Browser settings that block cookies may have no effect on these technologies, but you may clear your cache to delete such trackers. Data collected from a particular browser or device may be used with another computer or device that is linked to the browser or device on which such data was collected.
- Criteo. You may find Criteo’s privacy policy through this link. The data collected on the Website may be transferred to Criteo and its demand partners for interest-based advertising. Criteo may collect, access, and use non-identifying data to improve the Criteo Technology and other Criteo products, programs, and/or services. This non-identifying data may include on-site user behavior and user/page content data, URLs, statistics, or internal search queries. The non-identifying data are collected through the ad call and stored with a Criteo cookie for a maximum period of 13 months.
- Pulsepoint. You may find Pulsepoint’s privacy policy through this link.
- LiveRamp. You may find LiveRamp’s privacy policy through this link. When you use the Website, we share information that we may collect from you, such as your email (in hashed, de-identified form), IP address or information about your browser or operating system, with LiveRamp Inc, and its group companies (‘LiveRamp’). LiveRamp may use a cookie on your browser and match your shared information to their on- and offline marketing databases and those of its advertising partners to create a link between your browser and information in those other databases. This link may be shared by our partners globally for the purpose of enabling interest-based content or advertising throughout your online experience (e.g. cross device, web, email, in-app, etc.) by third parties unaffiliated with our website. These third parties may in turn link further demographic or interest-based information to your browser. To opt out of LiveRamp’s targeted advertising, please go here: https://liveramp.com/opt_out/
- RhythmOne. You may view RhythmOne’s privacy policy through this link. RhythmOne uses cookies and similar tracking technologies (such as mobile device identifiers and digital fingerprinting) to provide its services. RhythmOne may use aggregated information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please visit the following webpage: http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.
- District M. You may find District M’s privacy policy through this link.
- YieldMo. You may find YieldMo’s privacy policy through this link. If you want to opt out of receiving interest based ads from Yieldmo or exercise your right under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) to opt-out of the sale of your personal information, you may do so through this link.
- The Rubicon Project. You may find Rubicon’s privacy policy through this link. If you want to opt out of receiving interest based ads from Rubicon or exercise your right under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) to opt-out of the sale of your personal information, you may do so through this link. You may also utilize the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page.
- Amazon Publisher Services. You may find Amazon Publisher Services’ privacy policy through this link.
- AppNexus. You may find the AppNexus privacy policy through this link.
- OpenX. You may find OpenX’s privacy policy through this link.
- Verizon Media formerly known as Oath. You may find Verizon Media’s privacy policy through this link. You may also utilize the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page to opt-out of the use of cookies for interest-based advertising.
- TripleLift. You may find TripleLift’s privacy policy through this link. To opt out of receiving interest-based advertising (including retargeting) from TripleLift’s services through the use of cookies in your current browser and for more information on what it means to opt-out, please go to www.triplelift.com/consumer-opt-out.
- Index Exchange. You may find Index Exchange’s privacy policy through this link. You may also utilize the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page to opt-out of the use of cookies for interest-based advertising.
- Sovrn. You may find Sovrn’s privacy policy through this link.
- GumGum. You may find GumGum’s privacy policy through this link. GumGum may (i) use place and use cookies on end users’ browsers or use web beacons to collect information about end users who visit such Publisher Websites and (ii) link such collected end user information to other end user information provided by third parties in order to deliver targeted Advertisements to such end users.
- Digital Remedy. You may find Digital Remedy’s privacy policy through this link.
- MediaGrid. You may find MediaGrid’s privacy policy through this link. MediaGrid may collect and store information about end-user interactions with this website through cookies, advertising IDS, pixels and server-to-server connections. MediaGrid was receive the following information: the page an End-User has requested and the referring/exit pages; Timestamp information (i.e., the date and time the End-User has visited the page); IP address; mobile device identifier; device model; device operating system; browser type; carrier; gender; age; geolocation (including GPS coordinates); clickstream data; cookie information; first-party identifiers’; and hashed email addresses; demographic and inferred interest information; and post-conversion data (from both online and offline behaviour). Some of this data is gathered from this website and others is gathered from advertisers. MediaGrid uses this data to provide its services. You may also utilize the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page to opt-out of the use of cookies for interest-based advertising or review their privacy policy for more information.
- RevContent – You may find RevContent’s privacy policy through this link. RevContent may collect information about your browser or device, including browser type, IP Address, device type, user agent string, and operating system. RevContent also collects information about the websites you visit through their services, such as date and time of access and specific pages accessed and the content and ads you click on. You may opt-out of any personalization track by opting-out of RevContent’s data collection.
- Centro, Inc. – You may find Centro’s privacy policy through this link. You may find opt-out information for Centro’s services through the privacy policy link.
- 33Across, Inc. – You may find 33Across’s privacy policy through this link. To opt-out of personalized advertising, please visit https://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1.
- Conversant. LLC – You may find Conversant’s privacy policy through this link. Conversant uses information that does not directly identify you, such as information about your browser type, time and date of visit, your browsing or transaction activity, the subject of advertisements clicked or scrolled over, and a unique identifier (such as a cookie string, or a unique advertising identifier provided by your mobile device) during your visits to this and other websites and apps in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. Conversant may use technologies such as cookies and other tracking technologies to collect this information. To learn more about interest-based advertising, or to opt-out, you can visit www.youronlinechoices.eu or https://www.networkadvertising.org/.
Opt-Out Process:
All unsubscribe or opt-out requests may be made by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the relevant email. We will process your request within a reasonable time after receipt. However, we are not responsible for, and in some cases we are incapable of, removing your personally identifiable information from the lists of any third party who has previously been provided your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy or your consent. You should contact such third parties directly. If you would like to update or correct any personally identifiable information that you have provided to us, please email us at Sponge Hacks and once we confirm your information, we will update such information within a reasonable amount of time.
Communications with Sponge Hacks:
By providing your contact information to us (including, without limitation, your email address, physical address, and phone number) (collectively the “Channels”) to us, you expressly consent to receive communications from us. We may use the Channels to communicate with you, to send information that you have requested or to send information about other products or services developed or provided by us or our business partners, provided that, we will not give your contact information to another party to promote their products or services directly to you without your consent or as set forth in this Privacy Policy.
By using the Service, you expressly consent to receive in-product communications from us (including, without limitation, push notifications on the App).
By providing your phone number to us, you expressly consent to receive phone calls and/or text messages from us. We will not give your phone number to another party to promote their products or services directly to you without your consent or as set forth in this Privacy Policy.
Any phone calls and/or text messages delivered to your phone or device may cause you to incur extra data, text messaging, or other charges from your wireless carrier. MESSAGE AND DATA RATES MAY APPLY. You are solely responsible for any carrier charges incurred as a result of phone and/or text communications from Sponge Hacks.
Any communication or material you transmit to us by email or otherwise, including any data, questions, comments, suggestions, or the like is, and will be treated as, non-confidential and nonproprietary. Except to the extent expressly covered by this Privacy Policy, anything you transmit or post may be used by us for any purpose, including but not limited to, reproduction, disclosure, transmission, publication, broadcast and posting. Furthermore, you expressly agree that we are free to use any ideas, concepts, know-how, or techniques contained in any communication you send to us, as well as any data developed using the content of such communication, without compensation and for any purpose whatsoever, including but not limited to, developing, manufacturing and marketing products and services using such information.
No Rights of Third Parties:
This Privacy Policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties, nor does it require disclosure of any personal information relating to users of the Service.
Site Terms of Use:
Use of this Service is governed by, and subject to, the Terms of Use (the “Terms”). This Privacy Policy is incorporated into the Terms. Your use, or access, of the Service constitutes your agreement to be bound by these provisions. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS AND THIS PRIVACY POLICY YOU MAY NOT ACCESS OR OTHERWISE USE THE SERVICE.
Servers:
Our servers are maintained in the United States. By using the Service, you freely and specifically give us your consent to export your personally identifiable information to the United States and to store and use it in the United States as specified in this Privacy Policy. You understand that data stored in the United States may be subject to lawful requests by the courts or law enforcement authorities in the United States.
Governing Law:
This Privacy Policy and our legal obligations hereunder are subject to the laws of Canada regardless of your location.
Contact:
For questions or concerns relating to privacy, we can be contacted at https://www.spongehacks.com/contact/.