Privacy Policy
HiPoLiving Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy describes the policies and procedures of HiPoLiving (“we”, “our” or “us”) on the collection, use and disclosure of your information on www.HiPoLiving.com (the “Site”) and the services, features, content or applications we offer (collectively with the Site, the “Services”). We receive information about you from various sources, including: (i) if you register for the Site and the Services, through your user account on the Services (your “Account”); (ii) if you apply to become a member of the HiPoLiving community (a “HiPoLiving Membership,” and such members, “Members”) through the Services; (iii) your use of the Services generally; and (iv) from third party websites and services. When you use the Services, you are consenting to the collection, transfer, manipulation, storage, disclosure and other uses of your information as described in this Privacy Policy.
What Does This Privacy Policy Cover?
This Privacy Policy covers the treatment of personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) gathered when you are using or accessing the Services. This Privacy Policy also covers our treatment of any Personal Information that our business partners share with us or that we share with our business partners.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that we do not own or control, including but not limited to any third party websites, services and applications (“Third Party Services”) that you elect to access through the Service or to individuals that we do not manage or employ, including without limitation third party payment processors and third party background or credit check services. While we attempt to facilitate access only to those Third Party Services that share our respect for your privacy, we cannot take responsibility for the content or privacy policies of those Third Party Services. We encourage you to carefully review the privacy policies of any Third Party Services you access.
What Information Do We Collect?
The information we gather enables us to personalize, improve and continue to operate the Services. In connection with certain aspects of the Services, we may request, collect and/or display some of your Personal Information. We collect the following types of information from our users.
Account Information:
When you create an Account, you will provide information that could be Personal Information, such as your username, password and email address. You acknowledge that this information may be personal to you, and by creating an account on the Services and providing Personal Information to us, you allow others, including us, to identify you and therefore may not be anonymous. We may use your contact information to send you information about our Services, but only rarely when we feel such information is important. You may unsubscribe from these messages through your Account settings, although we, regardless, reserve the right to contact you when we believe it is necessary, such as for account recovery purposes.
HiPoLiving Membership Application Information:
If you apply for a HiPoLiving Membership you will provide information that could be Personal Information, such as your name, phone number and email address. You acknowledge that this information may be personal to you, and by applying for a HiPoLiving Membership through the Services and providing Personal Information to us, you allow others, including us, to identify you and therefore may not be anonymous. We will use this information to evaluate your eligibility for HiPoLiving Membership.
Financial Information:
We do not currently collect financial information, such as your payment method (valid credit card number, type, expiration date or other financial information); that information is collected and stored by our third party payment processing company (the “Payment Processor”), and use and storage of that information is governed by the Payment Processor’s applicable terms of service and privacy policy.
IP Address Information and Other Information Collected Automatically:
We automatically receive and record information from your web browser when you interact with the Services, including your IP address and cookie information. This information is used for fighting spam/malware and also to facilitate collection of data concerning your interaction with the Services (e.g., what links you have clicked on).
Generally, the Services automatically collect usage information, such as the number and frequency of visitors to the Site. We may use this data in aggregate form, that is, as a statistical measure, but not in a manner that would identify you personally. This type of aggregate data enables us and third parties authorized by us to figure out how often individuals use parts of the Services so that we can analyze and improve them.
Email Communications:
We may receive a confirmation when you open an email from us. We use this confirmation to improve our customer service.
Information Collected Using Cookies:
Cookies are pieces of text that may be provided to your computer through your web browser when you access a website. Your browser stores cookies in a manner associated with each website you visit. We use cookies to enable our servers to recognize your web browser and tell us how and when you visit the Site and otherwise use the Services through the Internet.
Our cookies do not, by themselves, contain Personal Information, and we do not combine the general information collected through cookies with other Personal Information to tell us who you are. As noted, however, we do use cookies to identify that your web browser has accessed aspects of the Services and may associate that information with your Account if you have one.
Most browsers have an option for turning off the cookie feature, which will prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, as well as (depending on the sophistication of your browser software) allowing you to decide on acceptance of each new cookie in a variety of ways. We strongly recommend that you leave cookies active, because they enable you to take advantage the most attractive features of the Services.
his Privacy Policy covers our use of cookies only and does not cover the use of cookies by third parties. We do not control when or how third parties place cookies on your computer. For example, third party websites to which a link points may set cookies on your computer.
Aggregate Information:
We collect statistical information about how both unregistered and registered users, collectively, use the Services (“Aggregate Information”). Some of this information is derived from Personal Information. This statistical information is not Personal Information and cannot be tied back to you, your Account or your web browser.
How, and With Whom, Is My Information Shared?
The Services are designed to help you share information with others. As a result, some of the information generated through the Services is shared publicly or with third parties.
IP Address Information:
While we collect and store IP address information, that information is not made public. We do at times, however, share this information with our partners, service providers and other persons with whom we conduct business, and as otherwise specified in this Privacy Policy.
Information You Elect to Share:
You may access other Third Party Services through the Services, for example by clicking on links to those Third Party Services from within the Site. For example, you may elect to share Personal Information with Third Party Services for the purposes of running a background or credit check as part your application for HiPoLiving Membership. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and/or practices of any Third Party Services, and you are responsible for reading and understanding those Third Party Services’ privacy policies. This Privacy Policy only governs information collected on the Services.
You may elect to share your information with other users or Members through the Services. We strongly advise you to use the utmost caution before sharing any Personal Information with others, including users and Members. You should not, under any circumstances, provide your financial information (for example, credit card or bank account numbers) to other individuals.
Aggregate Information:
We share Aggregate Information with our partners, service providers and other persons with whom we conduct business. We share this type of statistical data so that our partners can understand how and how often people use our Services and their services or websites, which facilitates improving both their services and how our Services interface with them. In addition, these third parties may share with us non-private, aggregated or otherwise non Personal Information about you that they have independently developed or acquired.
Email Communications with Us:
As part of the Services, you may occasionally receive email and other communications from us, such as communications relating to your Account. Communications relating to your Account will only be sent for purposes important to the Services, such as password recovery.
User Profile Information:
User profile information including your username and other information you enter may be displayed to other users or Members to facilitate user interaction within the Services. If you are approved for a HiPoLiving Membership, we may also share your name and email address with other Members as part of providing the Services.
Financial Information:
As stated above, we do not currently collect financial information, as that information is collected and stored by our Payment Processor. However, we may from time to time request and receive some of your financial information from our Payment Processor for the purposes of completing transactions you have initiated through the Services, enrolling you in discount, rebate, and other programs in which you elect to participate, protecting against or identifying possible fraudulent transactions, and otherwise as needed to manage our business.
Information Shared with Our Agents:
We employ and contract with people and other entities that perform certain tasks on our behalf and who are under our control (our “Agents”). We may need to share Personal Information with our Agents in order to provide products or services to you. For example, if you apply for a HiPoLiving Membership, we share your name, email address and phone number with our third party landlords and property management companies who require such information in order for us to provide the Services. Unless we tell you differently, our Agents do not have any right to use Personal Information or other information we share with them beyond what is necessary to assist us. You hereby consent to our sharing of Personal Information with our Agents.
Information Disclosed Pursuant to Business Transfers:
In some cases, we may choose to buy or sell assets. In these types of transactions, user information is typically one of the transferred business assets. Moreover, if we, or substantially all of our assets, were acquired, or if we go out of business or enter bankruptcy, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of us or our assets may continue to use your Personal Information as set forth in this policy.
Information Disclosed for Our Protection and the Protection of Others:
We also reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information as we reasonably believe is necessary to (i) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, (ii) enforce this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations hereof, (iii) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, (iv) respond to user support requests, or (v) protect our rights, property or safety or our users, Members or the public (such as when harm or violence against any person is threatened). This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and spam/malware prevention.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Service, we reserve the right, but have no obligation, to disclose any information that you provide through the Services, if in our sole opinion, we suspect or have reason to suspect, that the information involves a party who may be the victim of abuse in any form. Abuse may include, without limitation, elder abuse, child abuse, spousal abuse, neglect or domestic violence. Information may be disclosed to authorities that we, in our sole discretion, deem appropriate to handle such disclosure. Appropriate authorities may include, without limitation, law enforcement agencies, child protection agencies or court officials.
Information We Share With Your Consent:
Except as set forth above, you will be notified when your Personal Information may be shared with third parties, and will be able to prevent the sharing of this information.
Is Information About Me Secure?
Your Account information will be protected by a password for your privacy and security. You need to prevent unauthorized access to your Account and Personal Information by selecting and protecting your password appropriately and limiting access to your computer and browser by signing off after you have finished accessing your Account.
We seek to protect Account information to ensure that it is kept private; however, we cannot guarantee the security of any Account information. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors, may compromise the security of user information at any time.
We otherwise store all of our information, including your IP address information, using industry-standard techniques. We do not guarantee or warrant that such techniques will prevent unauthorized access to information about you that we store, Personal Information or otherwise.
What Information of Mine Can I Access?
If you are a registered user, you can access information associated with your Account by logging into the Services. Registered and unregistered users can access and delete cookies through their web browser settings.