Last revised on 29 July, 2012.
Zooot's Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand how we collect and use the personal information you decide to share, and help you make informed decisions when using Zooot International and its directly associated domains (collectively, "Zooot" or "Website")
BY USING OR ACCESSING ZOOOT, YOU ARE ACCEPTING THE PRACTICES DESCRIBED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY
When you visit Zooot you provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected by us and Website use information collected by us as you interact with our Website. When you register with Zooot, you provide us with certain personal information, such as your name, your email address and any other personal or preference information that you provide to us.
When you enter Zooot, we collect your browser type and IP address. This information is gathered for all Zooot 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. You can remove or block this cookie using the settings in your browser if you want to disable this convenience feature.
When you use Zooot, you may set up your personal Profile, form relationships, send messages, perform searches and queries and transmit information through various channels. We collect this information so that we can provide you the service and offer personalised features. In most cases, we retain it so that, for instance, you can return to view prior messages you have sent or easily see your friend list. When you update information, we usually keep a backup copy of the prior version for a reasonable period of time to enable reversion to the prior version of that information.
You post User Content (as defined in the Zooot Terms of Use) on the Site at your own risk. Although we allow you to set privacy options that limit access to your pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. We cannot control the actions of other Users with whom you may choose to share your pages and information. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that User Content you post on the Site will not be viewed by unauthorized persons. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site. You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal, copies of User Content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other Users have copied or stored your User Content.
Any improper collection or misuse of information provided on Zooot is a violation of the Zooot Terms of Service and should be reported.
If you choose to use our invitation service to tell a friend about our site, we will ask you for information needed to send the invitation, such as your friend's email address. We will send your friend an email or instant message in your name inviting him or her to visit the site. Zooot stores this information to send invitations, to register a friend connection if your invitation is accepted, to allow you to see invitations you have sent. Your friend may contact us using the website contact form to request that we remove this information from our database.
Zooot may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services and other users of the Zooot service through the operation of the service in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalised experience.
Children Aged Under 16
Zooot does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 16 or knowingly allow such persons to register. If you are under 16, please do not attempt to register for Zooot or send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number or email address. No one aged under 16 may provide any personal information to or on Zooot. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child aged under 16 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child aged under 16, please contact us using the website contact form.
Minors Between the Ages of 16 and 18
We recommend that children over the age of 16 ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet.
Use of Information Obtained by Zooot
When you register with Zooot, you create your own profile and privacy settings. Your Profile information, as well as your name, email address and photo, are displayed to people in the networks specified in your privacy settings to enable you to connect with people on Zooot. We may occasionally use your name and email address to send you notifications regarding new services offered by Zooot that we think you may find valuable. Profile information is used by Zooot primarily to be presented back to and edited by you when you access the service and to be presented to others permitted to view that information by your privacy settings. In some cases where your privacy settings permit it (e.g. posting to your guestbook), other Zooot users may be able to supplement your Profile.
The Profile information that you submit to Zooot will be available to users of Zooot who belong to at least one of the groups you allow to access the information through your privacy settings (e.g. friends, family, colleagues). Your name, network names and Profile picture thumbnail will be available in search results across the Zooot. This is primarily so your friends can find you and send a friend request. People who see your name in searches, however, will not be able to access your Profile information unless they have a relationship to you (friend, family, colleague) that allows such access based on your privacy settings.
Zooot may send you service-related announcements from time to time through the general operation of the service. For instance, if a friend sends you a new message, you may receive an email alerting you to that fact.
Generally, you may opt out of such emails through the Notifications page, though Zooot reserves the right to send you notices about your account even if you opt out of all voluntary email notifications.
Sharing Your Information with Third Parties
- Zooot is about sharing information with others — friends and people in your networks — while providing you with privacy settings that restrict other users from accessing your information. We allow you to choose the information you provide to friends and networks through Zooot. Our network architecture and your privacy settings allow you to make informed choices about who has access to your information. We do not provide contact information to third party marketers.
- Your News Feed and Wall may aggregate the information you provide and make it available to your friends and network members according to your privacy settings. You may set your preferences for your News Feed and Wall on your Privacy page.
- Unlike most sites on the Web, Zooot blocks access to site information by third party search engine "crawlers" (e.g. Google, Yahoo, Live Search, Ask). Zooot takes action to block access by these engines.
- We occasionally provide demonstration accounts that allow non-users a glimpse into the Zooot world. Such accounts have only limited capabilities (e.g. messaging is disabled) and passwords are changed regularly to limit possible misuse.
- We may be required to disclose user information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We do not reveal information until we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the Zooot service or using the Zooot name, or to prevent imminent bodily harm. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.
- If the ownership of all or substantially all of the Zooot business, or individual business units owned by Zooot, Inc., were to change, your user information may be transferred to the new owner so the service can continue operations. In any such transfer of information, your user information would remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Policy.
When you use Zooot, certain information you post or share with third parties (e.g. a friend or someone in your network), such as personal information, comments, messages, photos, videos or other information, may be shared with other users in accordance with the privacy settings you select. All such sharing of information is done at your own risk. Please keep in mind that if you disclose personal information in your Profile or when posting comments, messages, photos, videos or other items, this information may become publicly available.
Links
Zooot may contain links to other websites. We are of course not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by Zooot.
Changing or Removing Information
Access and control over most personal information on Zooot is readily available through the Profile editing tools. Zooot users may modify or delete any of their Profile information at any time by logging into their account. Information will be updated immediately. Individuals who wish to delete their Zooot account may do so on the Edit My Account page. Removed information may persist in backup copies for a limited period of time but will not be generally available to members of Zooot.
Where you make use of the communication features of the service to share information with other individuals on Zooot, however, (e.g. sending a personal message to another Zooot user) you generally cannot remove such communications.
Terms of Use, Notices and Revisions
Your use of Zooot, and any disputes arising from it, is subject to this Privacy Policy as well as our Terms of Use and all of its dispute resolution provisions including arbitration, limitation on damages and choice of law. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use at any time. Non-material changes and clarifications will take effect immediately, and material changes will take effect within 30 days of their posting on this site. If we make changes, we will post them and will indicate at the top of this page the policy's new effective date. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email or through notice on our home page. We encourage you to refer to this policy on an ongoing basis so that you understand our current privacy policy. Unless stated otherwise, our current privacy policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account.
Contacting the Website
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact by using the website contact form.