PRIVACY POLICY
BlogBells exists to
promote sharing and community. But when you share any information through a service
like BlogBells, it’s important to remember that you are potentially sharing
it with the entire world. The information you publish to BlogBells may be accessible
to anyone who visits the BlogBells site (including people who are not registered
BlogBells users), or through search engines, mobile devices, and a variety of other
devices and services. It may also be copied and redistributed by anyone who has
access to it. As a result, to help you make your BlogBells experience more safe
and fun, please read the safety tips below.
Flagging - BlogBells has developed a flagging system that allows quick reporting of
sites that violate BlogBells’ terms of use. The flagging system helps BlogBells
staff identify inappropriate posts, which may be shut down and reported to authorities,
such as the
CyberTipline run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children.
Friends Only Lock - With
Friends Only Lock, only users on the BlogBells network you have designated as friends
will be able to view your site.
Registered Users Lock - With
Registered Users Lock, only *Registered* members on the BlogBells network will be
able to see posts on your site. This option helps hide your site from outsiders.
We take your privacy
seriously and so should you. BlogBells has many features designed to help you manage
your information and control how it is shared with others. This privacy policy discusses
how personal information is collected and disclosed through BlogBells, as well as
the tools available to help you control your information.
CHILDREN
Children under 13 are not allowed to
register for BlogBells accounts It is BlogBells’ policy not to collect information
from children under 13. BlogBells does not collect Date of Birth and has no way
of verifying age but by joining BlogBells you certify you are above the age of 13.
If you are the Parent
or Legal Guardian of a child under 13 who has become a BlogBells member please email
us atBlogbells@blogbells.com .
For more information
about protecting your child’s privacy online, please visit the “OnGuard Online” website maintained by the Federal
Trade Commission.
INFORMATION COLLECTED
BY BLOGBELLS
BlogBells may collect
certain information from you as described below. BlogBells uses the information
it collects for authentication purposes, to customize the advertising and content
you see, to fulfill your requests for products and services, to provide aggregated,
anonymous reporting for BlogBells or third parties, to improve our services, and
to communicate with you as part of the BlogBells service.
Registration - Required
Information
When you register for
a BlogBells account, BlogBells requires you to provide the following information:
- Username - a unique nickname or handle that acts as your primary identifier to other BlogBells users and visitors, or viewers of BlogBells material on other systems (e.g. search engines, RSS readers, cell phones, etc.). You cannot change your username and it is always publicly displayed, so please choose carefully.
- Password - required for signing into your BlogBells account. Your password provides access to all of the information in your account, so never share your password with anyone except a parent or guardian.
- Email Address – an email address is required so that BlogBells can contact you about your account. In addition, BlogBells has several features through which information may be forwarded to this email address - including messages or invitations from other BlogBells users, alerts, or logs of activity related to your account. When you email someone through BlogBells, your email address will be revealed to them (e.g. as the “from” or “reply to” address on the email you send through BlogBells). In addition, BlogBells has a search feature that allows others to search for you by your email address. Users will not be able to change the email address associated with their account. All passwords forgotten can and will only be sent to the provided email address so please select carefully.
Profile Information
After you have registered
for a BlogBells account, you are given the opportunity to fill out information on
our profile pages. Filling out the profile page is optional - you are not required
to fill out any of the profile information. If you choose to fill out the profile
information, please note that this information will be posted on your BlogBells
site and the account setting you select will determine who will have access to the
contents you post to your profile. Additionally, under the setting tab you can change your
profile settings. Profile settings are by default private; however additional
options include – ‘Private’, ‘Public’, ‘Registered
Users’ and ‘Friends Only’. Private profiles are hidden and the
contents of your profile will only be viewable by you. Public profiles are viewable
by both registered and non registered users thus posts on your profile will be viewable
to both. The ‘Registered Users’
display option will allow posts on your wall accessible to only registered users. The ‘Friends Only’ setting limits access/view
to your friends list. Anything you select to publish will be viewable by registered
and non registered which is potentially accessible to the entire world
Information Submitted
to Your BlogBells Site
As a registered member
of BlogBells, you get a personal website (called a “BlogBells site”)
where you can publish weblog entries, photos, videos and additional profile information,
etc. When you “publish” information to the BlogBells site, this means
you are sharing the information publicly. Only
blogs you select to publish can be viewed by the public. Blogs saved to your profile are controlled by the privacy
setting you select under the accounts settings tab.
Other individuals may
submit information to your BlogBells site in the form of comments. BlogBells gives
you control over which blogs others can post comments to. Your BlogBells site and
allows you to delete comments
submitted to your BlogBells site.
Comments & Other
Interactive Forums
BlogBells offers many
ways for users to interact by posting information to each others’ BlogBells
sites or other parts of BlogBells. These features include comments on individual
weblog entries or photos and videos.
- Comments on Your Own BlogBells Site – BlogBells gives you the ability to delete comments left on your own BlogBells site. For certain comment features, you also have the ability to control if anyone and to which entries comments can submitted for.
- Comments not on Your Own Entries- if you post a comment anywhere other than your own posts, you have limited control over that comment. And if you are still not satisfied, you can ALWAYS delete your comment and post a new one. But remember: any comments you leave on another’s site may be copied and posted elsewhere by anyone who has access to it - so think before you submit!
Email Addresses
of Others (Sending Emails through BlogBells)
For features such as
inviting others to join BlogBells or participate in specific areas of the service
“invitations” or for forwarding information published through the service
(e.g. specific weblog entries), you may provide email addresses of others to BlogBells.
BlogBells stores the
email addresses that you provide and uses them solely to contact the owner of the email address. For invitations
(such as invitations to join a network of “BlogBells Friends”), BlogBells
sends one invitation email and may send multiple invitation reminders; for other
email-based communications, BlogBells sends an email specific to that communication
(e.g. a copy of a specific weblog entry that you are forwarding). BlogBells does
not share, sell or rent these email addresses with any third parties (other than
certain contractors performing work for BlogBells under confidentiality agreements.
Verification of
Age and Parental (or Guardian) Status
BlogBells uses this
information in order to verify that you are 13 or older. We retain this information
in order to keep a record of our verification of your age.
Verification of Parental (or Guardian)
Status
Persons under the age
of 13 are not permitted to become BlogBells members and it is BlogBells’ policy
not to collect any personally identifiable information from persons under 13. If
you discover that your child under the age of 13 has obtained a BlogBells account,
you may alert BlogBells and request that BlogBells close the account. In this case
BlogBells verifies that you are the child’s parent or legal guardian by asking
you to provide the following information:
- Your child’s full name
- Your child’s BlogBells username
- Your child’s birthday
- Your full name
- Your relationship to the child (parent or legal guardian)
- Your full mailing address
- Your daytime and evening telephone number
- Your e-mail address
- A signed statement that you are 18 or older and the child’s parent or legal guardian.
BlogBells uses this
information in order to verify that you are the parent or legal guardian of a child
under 13. We retain this information in order to keep a record or our verification
that you are the parent or legal guardian of your child under 13.
Other
Information Collected by BlogBells
Browser Information
Every time you visit
a page on the Internet, your web browser sends specific information to the web site
you are visiting. BlogBells’ servers may automatically collect and store this
information, including your IP address, specific type of browser software, the pages
you visit at BlogBells, and information from BlogBells cookies (see below). This
information is also collected by third-party tracking companies that provide traffic
analytics to BlogBells.
Cookies
BlogBells may set and
access BlogBells cookies on your computer.
Like most sites that
have interactive features, BlogBells uses cookies to recognize you when you return
to BlogBells and to keep track of when you are signed in (so you don’t have
to re-sign in every time you visit a new page at BlogBells). BlogBells also uses
cookies to target advertisements based on information provided by you (e.g. profile
information suggesting age, gender, or interests), browser information (e.g. geographic
location based on your IP address), or past activities on BlogBells (e.g. whether
or not you’ve seen or responded to a specific advertisement already).
Some third-party advertisers
may also set and access their own cookies on your computer. Other companies’
use of their cookies is subject to their own privacy policies, not this one.
Most browsers come
with the ability to restrict cookies from specific or unknown sources. Please review
your browser’s documentation for more information. Please be aware, however,
that many BlogBells features will not be available to you if you block the placement
of our cookies on your computer.
Error Logs
If an error occurs
in BlogBells’ systems while you are using the service, BlogBells’ servers
may automatically collect and store information relating to that error, including
your browser information, information from BlogBells cookies, and other information
that you may have input at the time the error occurred (e.g. information you had
written into any web forms). BlogBells uses this information solely to investigate
the error and help prevent future errors.
MANAGING AND PROTECTING
YOUR INFORMATION
BlogBells provides
many features designed to help you manage and control access to your information.
Your profile page is set to Private by default and you have to option to change
that under account settings. Anything you enter and select to publish will be made
public automatically. BlogBells does allow you to remove entries you have published
by accessing the my published posts under you profile and selecting delete
Your BlogBells Site
– Restricting Overall Access
You can restrict overall
access to your BlogBells site using one of BlogBells’ privacy features called
“Private” or “Friends Only”. These features are designed
to let you specify which individuals or groups of individuals can view the posts
on your BlogBells profile based on their status (e.g. whether they are signed in,
you have added them as a “Friend
Please note: If you
save posts to your BlogBells site, you can restrict access to those posts using
the controls described in “Your BlogBells Site – Account Setting –
Privacy Setting”.
Your BlogBells Site
– Restricting Access to Specific Posts
When you save posts
to your BlogBells profile site (e.g. weblog entries, photos and the like), you have
your profile “Privacy Setting” under the Account Setting options to
help you control access to those posts:
- Private – if you choose this option, your profile and posts to your profile are accessible only by signing into your account with your username and password (remember, never share your password with anyone except a parent or guardian)
- Friends Only – if you choose this option, your profile and posts to your profile are only accessible to a limited set of individuals or groups (or accessible to anyone excluding a specific set of individuals or groups) that you select.
- Registered Users- if you choose this option, your profile and posts to your profile are only accessible to users who are registered with BlogBells.
- Public – with this option, your profile and posts to your profile are potentially accessible to the entire world. The information you voluntarily submit to BlogBells for public display on your own BlogBells site may be accessible to anyone who visits your BlogBells site, through search engines, syndication feed readers, cell phones and other mobile devices, etc.
Please note that all
profile settings are set to “Private” by default. These settings can
be modified in the account setting tab under the privacy settings. Anything
you publish will always be public.
Your BlogBells Site
– Profile Information
Unless specifically
stated otherwise (e.g. on the page where you submit the information), any information
that you choose to fill out on our profile pages will be posted on your BlogBells
site profile and the Privacy Setting you choose will determine who has access to
your information.
Filling out the profile
pages is optional. You are not required to fill out any of the profile information.
But if you do fill out any profile information, you can restrict access to that
information using the Privacy Setting described in “Your BlogBells Site –
Restricting Overall Access” above. You may also delete or edit this profile information by using the controls
inside your BlogBells account. Please
note Privacy Settings control your blog entries as well as any other information
entered under the Info tab.
Your Email Address
BlogBells requires
that you provide an email address when registering for a BlogBells account. Users
will not be able to change their email address associated with their account, so
please select a current and active email account as any passwords that have been
forgotten will only be sent to the provided email address. Access to the account
is also limited through the provided email address.
Effective: October 17, 2011
