20DC.com Privacy Policy
Date of Revision: November 9, 2007
Information Collection & Use
In order to use 20DC's Services, you must first complete the registration process, including providing your name, age, e-mail address, geographic location and a password. During registration, you are required to give this contact information to 20DC so we may use it to communicate with our Citizens and so you are able to personalize aspects of this site.
You also have the option to provide demographic information about your interests and political affiliations; we encourage you to submit this information so that you can get the most out of your use of 20DC's Services.
20DC, L.L.C. is the sole owner of the information collected on 20DC.com and directly related servers. We collect personally identifiable information from our users at several different points on our Web site.
When you view 20DC.com, we collect your browser type and IP address. This information is gathered for all 20DC.com visitors. In addition, we store certain information from your browser using "cookies." A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. We use these cookies to confirm that users are logged in. These cookies terminate after two weeks or when the user clicks the link to logout.
When you become a Citizen of 20DC, you will receive e-mails from time to time about new features or events associated with 20DC. At any time, you may discontinue these updates by changing your account settings. We do not recommend this because these e-mails may contain important information about your use of the site.
Based upon the personally identifiable information you provide us, we will send you a welcoming e-mail. We will also communicate with you in response to your inquiries, to provide the services you request, and to manage your account using this information.
We will also use the e-mail you provide to send you personal comments or notices sent by other Citizens ONLY who you have condoned to do so by adding them to your Constituency. You may opt-out of these only by canceling your Citizenship. E-mails from any other Citizen or person posing as a Citizen may be an attempt to defraud you and should be reported to 20DC.
Profile Information
When you personalize your Citizen Card, the information you enter will be stored so that you may access it whenever you visit 20DC.com. The information on your card will also be available to all Citizens who are logged in. Additionally, if you choose to export or print your Citizen Card in any manner, any information displayed on the card will be available to whoever views it.
You have control over who may access features of your profile other than the Citizen Card. If you choose, you may change your Citizen Settings to customize access. For instance, you may change your profile to a "private" profile, and users who are not your constitents will only be able to view your citizen card and posted articles.
You post your Citizen Content to 20DC.com at your own risk. We follow generally accepted industry standards for protecting your information, but even that may not deter all fraudulent activities. We are unable to control the actions of each visitor or Citizen and ask that each Citizen makes his or her own concerted effort to deter fraudulent activity. As such, we cannot guarantee that your information will not be viewed by unauthorized individuals and do not assume any liability for circumstances related to such activities as per our Terms of Use.
By accessing 20DC.com, you are consenting to have your personal data transferred and processed in the United States.
Citizen Content
When you write an article, post content to your articles, or comment on another Citizen's article, it may be seen by all Citizens and visitors to 20DC.com. You should be aware that any personally identifiable information you submit there can be read, collected, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these manners.
Using these services for the disbursement or collection of personal information is inconsistent with 20DC's Terms of Use and subject to penalties outlined in that agreement.
Surveys or Contests
From time-to-time, we may provide you the opportunity to participate in contests or surveys on 20DC.com. If you participate, we will request certain personally identifiable information from you. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and you, therefore, have a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as zip code).
We use this information to notify contest winners and deliver prizes as well as to track participation in the contest or survey. Tracking information may be associated with your username and other identifying information, and stored to assess Citizen satisfaction and opinion.
At any given time, 20DC is collecting a numeric value associated with your political leaning (the spectrum of liberal and conservative thought) and using it to display the total political leaning of the site. This value is not associated with your personal information for this purpose.
We may use a third party service provider to conduct these surveys or contests; that company will be contractually prohibited from using our Citizens' personally identifiable information for any other purpose.
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 e-mail inviting him or her to visit the site. 20DC stores this information for the sole purposes of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of our referral program.
Your friend may contact us at contact@20DC.com to request that we remove this information from our database.
Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)
We share aggregated demographic information about our user base with our advertisers. This information does not identify individual users. When users click on our advertisements, information such as the location, gender, political party and browser type may be collected.
We do not link aggregate user data with personally identifiable information, such as usernames, e-mail addresses, or first or last names.
Personally identifiable information
We do not share Personally Identifiable Information with Third Parties in conjunction with any other information. Your name, political philosophy, and/or political party will never be available to anyone without your knowledge and consent.
Service Provider
We use a third party service for hosting 20DC.com. This service logs information about the usage of its servers on which 20DC's files are stored.
This service does not collect any personal information about 20DC users but does log statistics of usage, including browser types and IP addresses. This service stores this information for the purposes of enforcing its own agreements and settling disputes.
Merchandise
20DC includes links to our third-party store at CafePress.com. You may purchase 20DC merchandise at this Web site. This company collects both personal and non-personal information when you visit. 20DC's Privacy Policy is not in effect when you navigate away from our site. You are subject to the Privacy Policy for CafePress.com when you access that site. 20DC does not share or store any information related to your purchases on CafePress.com, but they do.
Disclaimer
We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Web site
Choice/Opt-out
If you no longer wish to receive any communication from 20DC, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in any e-mail sent by 20DC or by emailing us at contact@20DC.com.
You will be notified before your personal information is collected by any third party that is not our agent/service provider, so you can make an informed choice as to whether or not to share your information with that party.
Cookies
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 20DC only and does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.
Third Party Advertisers
The ads appearing on this Web site are delivered to users by Google AdSense, our advertising partner.
You may read more about this program by visiting www.google.com/adsense.
Links to Other Sites
This Web site contains links to other sites that are not owned or controlled by 20DC. Please be aware that we, 20DC, L.L.C., are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites.
We encourage you to be aware when you leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information.
This privacy statement applies only to information collected by this Web site.
Access to Personally Identifiable Information
If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct, update, delete or deactivate your Citizenship by making the necessary change in your account information.
General Security Information
We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. 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, you can send email us at privacy@20DC.com.
Business Transitions
In the event 20DC, L.L.C. goes through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your personally identifiable information will likely be among the assets transferred. You will be notified via e-mail of any such change in ownership or control of your personal information.
Changes in this Privacy Statement
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will indicate these changes by the Date of Revision at the top of this document.
We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at: contact@20DC.com.