BlockChalk, Inc. ("Blockboard") provides this Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information we receive from users of www.blockboard.org (this "Site") and our Services (defined below). This Privacy Policy applies only to information that you provide to us through the Site and the Services. This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on the Site. You are advised to consult this policy regularly for any changes. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms of Service. BY USING THE SITE, YOU ARE ACCEPTING THE PRACTICES SET OUT IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND THE APPLICABLE TERMS OF SERVICE AGREEMENT.
As used in this policy, the terms "using" and "processing" information include using cookies on a computer, subjecting the information to statistical or other analysis and using or handling information in any way, including, but not limited to, collecting, storing, evaluating, modifying, deleting, using, combining, disclosing and transferring information within our organization or among our affiliates within the United States or internationally.
PUBLIC POINT OF VIEW
Blockboard is primarily designed to help you share information with your local community. Most of the information you post to Blockboard is publicly available. This includes new messages (posts) and comments. In addition, posts and comments are searchable by search engines and may appear in public networks like Twitter (www.twitter.com) and Facebook (www.facebook.com). Please refer to Blockboard's Terms of Service for more information regarding User Content rights and restrictions.
AMBIGUATION OF LOCATION DATA
Blockboard does not reveal the exact GPS coordinates attained by your mobile device. Our service instead reveals an approximation of your location as represented by the neighborhood you are in. You can choose to reveal your exact location by attaching a map to your post. This feature will disclose your exact location as determined by your device's GPS accuracy. Most GPS enabled mobile devices can define your location to within 50 feet. You will also have the ability to adjust or change your location when providing it.
In certain geographic areas with low population densities (especially rural areas) your posts could be associated with your home address. If you post from your home and the nearest home or business is beyond the range of our GPS ambiguation, your posts could be easily associated with your home location. Your home location could then be correlated with publicly available residential address information and subsequently your personal identity.
INFORMATION WE COLLECT
Our primary goals in collecting information are to provide and improve our "Site", "Service", features and content and to administer your account. You may access the Blockboard "Services" through our Native Device Applications and Browser-based Device Applications ("Device Applications"). Users can also interact with blockboard.org ("Site") through a desktop Browser.
In order to use Blockboard you must choose a unique nickname which will be associated with your use of the system. We use a unique identifier that helps associate user preferences, posts and comments. Native Device Applications use a unique randomly-generated alphanumeric code. For iPhone applications we additionally store the device's unique alphanumeric code (UDID) which we use exclusively for identifying the user. We do not share or sell this information with any third party. We also store a unique alphanumeric code that is provided by Apple and which enables the delivery of messages via Apple's Push Notification (APN) Service. Browser-based Device Applications use a unique randomly-generated alphanumeric code which is stored in a client-side browser cookie.
We collect information and associate it with the previously mentioned unique identifier. This information includes: home neighborhood settings, posts, comments, post locations (latitude and longitude), push notifications settings (when applicable) and location check-ins. Blockboard does not at this time provide a way to delete posts or comments.
Blockboard reserves the right to use any post for promotional purposes (e.g . cross-post to Twitter, Facebook, Blockboard blog and Site). These promotions will include any ambiguated location data and specific location data provided. Any Personal Information or other content that you voluntarily disclose online (for example, your nickname, or information such as phone numbers or email addresses that you write in your posts or comments) becomes publicly available and could be collected and used by others.
We use your nickname to allow other users to contact you directly using our commenting feature. Blockboard does not at this time provide a way to delete these comments or block their sender.
With Blockboard's notifications feature (available only with specific mobile device types) you can choose to be notified when a new user joins your home neighborhood (i.e. blockboard) or someone comments on one of your posts. These notifications will appear as pop-up windows on your mobile device. The first time you launch the Blockboard application your mobile device will ask for your permission to send these notifications. You can also disable these notifications at any time by changing the settings of your mobile device.
When you visit the Site or use the Services our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website ("Log Data"). This Log Data may include information such as your computer's Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type or the webpage you were visiting before you came to our Site or while you are using the Services, pages of our and third party sites that you visit, the time spent on those pages, information you search for on our Site or through the Services, access times and dates, and other statistics. We use this information to monitor and analyze use of the Site and the Service and for the Site and Services' technical administration, to increase the Site and Services' functionality and user-friendliness, and to better tailor it to our Visitors' needs. For example, some of this information is collected so that when you visit the Site again, it will recognize you and the Services will serve information appropriate to your interests. We also use this information to verify that Visitors and Users meet the criteria required to process their requests. We do not treat Log Data as Personal Information but we may use in association with other information and we may aggregate, analyze and evaluate such information for the same purposes as stated above regarding other Non-Identifying Information.
In the future we may use "cookies" to collect information on our Site. A cookie is a small data file that we transfer to your computer's hard disk for record-keeping purposes. We use cookies for two purposes. First, we utilize persistent cookies to save your registration ID and login password for future logins to the Site. Second, we utilize session ID cookies to enable certain features of the Site, to better understand how you interact with the Site and to monitor aggregate usage by Visitors and web traffic routing on the Site. Unlike persistent cookies, session cookies are deleted from your computer when you log off from the Site and Service and then close your browser. Third party advertisers on the Site may also place or read cookies on your browser. You can instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions of the Site or all functionality of the Service.
We may use 3rd party services like Google Analytics to help understand use of our Services. Through Google, Analytics collects the information sent by your browser as part of a web page request, including cookies and your IP address. Google also receives this information and their use of it is governed by their Privacy Policy.
We anonymously aggregate user data to understand and report on geographic areas of activity (e.g. top cities). In the future we may also anonymously aggregate user-generated content and present this data to our user community (e.g. hot words or phrases).
INFORMATION SHARING AND DISCLOSURE
We may share aggregated information that includes Non-Identifying Information and Log Data with third parties for industry analysis, demographic profiling and to deliver targeted advertising about other products and services.
We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service, to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Site-related services (e.g., without limitation, maintenance services, database management, web analytics and improvement of the Site's features) or to assist us in analyzing how our Site and Service are used. These third parties have access to your Personal Information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose. We may also provide Personal Information to our business partners or other trusted entities for the purpose of providing you with information on goods or services we believe will be of interest to you. You can, at any time, opt out of receiving such communications.
Blockboard cooperates with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not limited to subpoenas), to protect the property and rights of Blockboard or a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, an illegal, unethical or legally actionable activity.
Blockboard may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of its assets, including your Personal Information, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy.
DELETING YOUR INFORMATION
Blockboard does not provide users with personally identifiable user accounts. If you would like to delete your account, remove the Blockboard application from your mobile device and your account will become deactivated. If you would like us to delete the record of this account in our system, please contact us and we will attempt to accommodate your request if we do not have any legal obligation to retain the record. See below for privacy contact information.
INVITATIONS
Users can invite friends to become Blockboard users by sending invitation emails via your mobile device's email client. We do not share with third-parties the email addresses provided for these purposes.
SECURITY
Blockboard is very concerned with safeguarding your information. We employ administrative, physical and electronic measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access.
We will make any legally required disclosures of any breach of the security, confidentiality, or integrity of your unencrypted electronically stored "data" (as defined in applicable state statutes on security breach notification) to you via conspicuous posting on this Site in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, insofar as consistent with (i) the legitimate needs of law enforcement or (ii) any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system.
INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER
Your information may be transferred to -- and maintained on -- computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. If you are located outside the United States and choose to provide information to us, Blockboard transfers Personal Information to the United States and processes it there. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.
LINKS TO OTHER SITES
Our Site, Service and the Application contain links to, and may allow you to visit, other websites ("Third Party Sites"). If you choose to visit any of these Third Party Sites by "clicking on" another third party link or navigating to a Third Party Site, you will be directed to that third party's website. The fact that we link to a website or present a banner ad or other type of advertisement is not an endorsement, authorization or representation of our affiliation with that third party, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices. We do not exercise control over third party websites. These other websites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you. Other sites follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of the personal information you submit to them. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit.
OUR POLICY TOWARD CHILDREN
The Site and the Services are not directed to Users under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 13.
Children aged 13 or older should not submit any Information without the permission of their parents or guardians. By using the Site and the Services, you are representing that you are at least 18, or that you are at least 13 years old and have your parents' permission to use the Site and the Services.
If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with information without their consent, he or she should contact us at support@blockboard.org.
CONTACTING US
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@blockboard.org.