Geeknet

Geeknet, INC. PRIVACY STATEMENT (“PRIVACY STATEMENT”)

(Last Updated July 9, 2012)
(Effective Date May 24, 2008)

Geeknet, Inc. and its subsidiaries (“Geeknet”), operate the Internet sites Geek.net, GeeknetMedia.com, SourceForge.net, Slashdot.org, ThinkGeek.com, feedery.com, and Freecode.com (the “Sites”). Geeknet is committed to protecting the privacy of users of the Sites. This Privacy Statement applies to each of the Sites and describes the information Geeknet collects about users and how that information may be used.

Geeknet complies with the United States (“US”)/European Union (“EU”) and US/Swiss Safe Harbor frameworks as set forth by the US Department of Commerce regarding the transfer of personally identifiable information from the EU and Switzerland to the United States. 

We self-certify compliance with

Geeknet agrees to notify users of the following privacy principles: Notice, Choice, Onward Transfer, Security, Data Integrity, Access, and Enforcement. For additional information about what to do if you have questions or concerns about our Safe Harbor program, please see the enforcement section below.

Geeknet reserves the right to update and change this Privacy Statement from time to time. If Geeknet makes material changes to its privacy practices, a prominent notice will be posted on this web page. Each time a user uses the Sites, the current version of the Privacy Statement applies. Accordingly, a user should check the date of this Privacy Statement (which appears at the top) and review for any changes since the last version. If a user does not agree to the Privacy Statement, the user should not use the Sites.

Geeknet has been awarded TRUSTe's Privacy Seal signifying that this privacy policy and practices have been reviewed by TRUSTe for compliance with TRUSTe's program requirements including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information. TRUSTe's mission, as an independent third party, is to accelerate online trust among consumers and organizations globally through its leading privacy trustmark and innovative trust solutions. If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or practices, please contact us at legal@geek.net If you are not satisfied with our response you can contact TRUSTe here.

NOTICE

Geeknet provides this Privacy Statement to make users aware of Geeknet privacy practices, and of the choices a user may make about the way the user’s information is collected and used.

Children

Users represent they are of legal age to create binding and financial obligations for any liability users may incur as a result of their use of the Sites. The Sites are not directed to children under the age of 13. Geeknet does not knowingly collect, or wish to obtain, personally identifiable information from children. If Geeknet becomes aware that a user is under the age of 13 and has provided personally identifiable information without prior verifiable parental or guardian consent, it will remove user’s personally identifiable information from its files.

What information Geeknet collects

Geeknet may collect three types of information from users of Sites: "personally identifiable information"; "device information" about the device you are using to access our site; and "aggregate information." 

Personally identifiable information is any piece of information which can potentially be used to uniquely identify, contact, or locate a user of the Sites (such as name, email address, postal address, telephone number). 

Device information is information about the device and its attributes (such as information about how your browser is configured, whether your device has enabled cookies, its Flash settings, the device's identification number and other characteristics about the device); it also may be personally identifiable information in cases where it is associated with the name or other identifier for a Site user.  We use device information for purposes such as enhancing the user experience and fraud prevention.  

Aggregate information is non-personally identifiable/anonymous information about users of the Sites (such as frequency of visits to Sites, Site pages most frequently accessed browser type).  Aggregate information also may include pages visited along with any navigation and in-page interactions used during each visit. In-page interactions monitored include: clicks and selections, mouse movement, page scrolling, and form fields focused on (specific keystrokes entered into each field are not collected).  Aggregate information is used in a collective manner and no single person can be identified by that compiled information.

If you would like to opt-out of monitoring by ClickTale (the service we use for in-page interaction monitoring), please visit www.clicktale.net/disable.html and follow the instructions for each computer that you wish to opt-out of ClickTale. More information about ClickTale is available at: www.clicktale.com/privacy_service.aspx.  

We also use Omniture, comScore and Google Analytics for aggregation and analysis of session information.

• If you would like to opt-out of the aggregation and analysis of your session information by Omniture, please see the section about browser cookies below for information about how you can control browser cookies.
• If you would like to opt-out of information collection by comScore, please visit: www.scorecardresearch.com/preferences.aspx.
• If you would like to opt-out of Google Analytics, Google has developed a tool that works with major internet browsers to permit you to opt-out.  For more information and install their opt-out tool please visit: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. If you opt-out of ClickTale, Google Analytics, and Omniture monitoring, we still may collect some device and aggregate information ourselves through log files as discussed below or in connection with our forms. 

On the Sites, users may order products or services, and register to receive materials. Personally identifiable information collected on the Sites includes community forum content, diaries, profiles, photographs, name, unique identifiers (e.g., passwords), contact and billing information (e.g., email address, postal address, telephone, fax), and transaction information.

In order to tailor Geeknet’s subsequent communications to users and continuously improve the Sites’ products and services, Geeknet may also ask users to provide information regarding their interests, demographics, experience with its products, and detailed contact preferences.

Web beacons

Geeknet uses web beacons from time to time. Such web beacons may be provided by Geeknet’s third party advertising companies to help manage and optimize Geeknet’s online advertising. To opt out of targeted advertising delivered by Network Advertising Initiative members, click here: www.networkadvertising.org/consumer/opt_out.asp  A web beacon is a string of code that provides a method for delivering a graphic image on a web page or in an email message for the purpose of transferring data, or determining how many times a specific web page has been viewed. Web beacons enable Geeknet to recognize a browser’s cookie when a browser visits a Site, and to learn which banner ads bring users to each Site. For example, when a user visits a web page, the code for the page may include instructions to go to another server to gather a single pixel graphic image. Web beacons are not placed on a user’s computer.

Cookies

Geeknet uses cookies on the Sites. A “browser” or “HTTP” cookie is a unique text file that may be used for data analysis, and enables a web site to tailor information presented to a user based on a user’s browsing program. Geeknet may use browser cookies to personalize a user’s pages at a Site, to remember a user when the user registers for products or services, for fraud prevention, or to track visits to a Site. If a user does not want Geeknet or its partners to deploy browser cookies in the user’s browser when the user visits the Sites, the user may set the browser to reject cookies or to notify the user when a web site tries to place cookies in the browser program. Rejecting cookies may affect a user’s ability to use some of the products, features, functions, or services on a Site.

Our website also may use local shared objects, also known as "Flash cookies" to store your preferences or display content based upon what you view on our website to personalize your visit. Flash cookies are different from “browser” cookies because of the amount of, type of, and how data is stored. Cookie management tools provided by your browser will not remove Flash cookies. To learn how to manage privacy and storage settings for Flash cookies, including how to delete Flash cookies, click here for additional information: www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html#117118.

The ads appearing on the Sites may be delivered to visitors by third parties, such as Google. The third party advertising technology that Geeknet uses on the Sites uses information derived from a user’s visits to the Sites to target advertising within the Sites. In addition, Geeknet’s advertisers may use other third party advertising technology to target advertising on the Sites. In the course of serving advertisements to the Sites, our partners may place or recognize a unique cookie on a user’s browser. Information about users’ visits to the Sites, such as the number of times users have viewed an ad (but not users’ names, addresses, or other personally identifiable information), are used to serve ads to visitors. The use of cookies enables our partners to serve ads to users based on such user's visit to Geeknet's sites and other sites on the Internet. As with other cookies, and consistent with Geeknet’s policy on cookies stated above, the user may block or delete such cookies from the user's drive or memory. For more information about Google, Google’s use of cookies, and how to "opt out" of Google’s email/information lists, please click here: www.google.com/privacy_ads.html. As noted in the Web Beacon discussion above, users also can opt-out of receiving these types of targeted network advertisements from many advertising networks by visiting the National Advertising Initiative website identified above.

Log files

Geeknet web servers may automatically log aggregate information, such as a user’s IP address, domain name, browser type, date and time of access, and other log file data. This information may be used to analyze trends or administer the Sites.

With respect to SourceForge.net, Geeknet contracts with third party mirror providers, who deliver integrated communications services, including Internet access services, to deploy mirrors of downloads in order to make file downloading via SourceForge.net faster and more convenient. The logging practices and other policies of mirror sites may differ from those set forth in this Privacy Statement.

How Geeknet uses the information collected

Geeknet may use the personally identifiable information a user submits for any purposes related to Geeknet’s business, including, but not limited to:

1. To understand a user’s needs and create content that is relevant to the user;

2. To generate statistical studies;

3. To conduct market research and planning by sending user surveys;

4. To notify user referrals of Geeknet services, information, or products when a user requests that Geeknet send such information to referrals;

5. To improve services, information, and products;

6. To help a user complete a transaction, or provide services or customer support to users and to recipients of Geeknet products;

7. To communicate with the user and with recipients of Geeknet products;

8. To update users and recipients of Geeknet products about services, information, and products;

9. To personalize a Site for the user;

10. To notify the user of any changes with a Site which may affect the user;

11. To enforce terms of use on a Site; and

12. To allow the user to purchase products, access services, or otherwise engage in activities the user selects.

User names, identifications (“IDs”), and email addresses (as well as any additional information that a user may choose to post) may be publicly available on a Site when a user voluntarily and publicly discloses personally identifiable information, such as when a user posts personally identifiable information in conjunction with content subject to an Open Source license, or as part of a message posted to a public forum or a publicly-released software application. Users may not be able to change or remove public postings once posted. Such personally identifiable information may be used by visitors of these pages to send unsolicited messages. Geeknet is not responsible for any consequences which may occur from the use of personally identifiable information that a user chooses to submit to public pages.

With respect to surveys, in the event that responses are publicly disclosed, users will be notified at the time they take the survey. Geeknet will disclose only aggregate information regarding its users, which as stated earlier is anonymous information that does not identify any specific individual. Circumstances under which Geeknet would publicly disclose such aggregate information include, but are not limited to, sharing survey results with the site population, providing data to Geeknet advertisers on user preferences and/or demographics, and publicizing overall usage data in press communications.

Where surveys allow users to submit written comments, and where Geeknet advises users of the possibility of such disclosure at the time they take the survey, Geeknet reserves the right to disclose any information provided by users, provided that no personal information identifying a specific user is disclosed. Participation in surveys is at a user's option; Geeknet does not conduct mandatory surveys.

Gift Certificates

If you choose to send a gift certificate to a geek in your life, we will ask you for your friend’s name and email address. The gift certificate will be delivered via email. ThinkGeek stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this gift certificate.

Your friend may contact us at www.thinkgeek.com/bug-us to request that we remove this information from our database.

CHOICE/OPT OUT

A user makes the decision whether to proceed with activities that request personally identifiable information, such as online contact us and order forms. If a user does not provide requested information, the user may not be able to complete certain transactions.

Users who use the personally identifiable information of other users agree to use such information only for:

1. Using services offered through a Site;

2. Site transaction-related purposes and not for unsolicited commercial messages; or

3. Other purposes that the other user expressly chooses.

Users are not licensed to add other users to a Site, even users who entered into transactions with them, or to their mail lists without consent.

Geeknet encourages users to evaluate privacy and security policies of any of the Sites’ transaction partners before entering into transactions or choosing to disclose personally identifiable information.

Email

Geeknet will not use the personally identifiable information provided to it online in ways unrelated to the purposes identified in the “How Geeknet Uses Personal Information” section above without first letting a user know and offering the user a choice. If a user no longer wishes to receive direct marketing materials, Geeknet will provide instructions in its marketing email messages on how to be removed from any lists. Geeknet will make commercially reasonable efforts to honor such requests. For information about how Geeknet may share personally identifiable information, please see the Onward Transfer section below.

Profile or User ID Display

A user’s personally identifiable information may be publicly available through a user's profile or user ID display. Depending upon which of the Sites the user visits, the user may have the option to opt out of publicly displaying their real names by changing their display name under the Sites’ user preferences. Profile or user ID display may allow other users to see a user’s activities, including purchase and sales content, ratings, and comments.

Email Display

Users may have the opportunity to use a service to send electronic mail to another user or email list. In such cases, a user's valid email address and real name will be included with such messages. In order to prevent abuse, users may not opt out of such a display, but may choose to refrain from using such service to transmit an email message.

Geeknet sites may offer an email alias service that allows a user to create an email alias that forwards to the user’s personal email account. Geeknet does not publish a user’s personal email address, but does publicize email aliases which may allow an individual to identify or contact a user. A user who obtains an email alias may not opt out of such publication of the email alias. Please note, however, in certain cases, such as a “bounced-back” email message, it is possible that the user’s personal email address could be exposed to other parties to the communication.

Photographs

Users may have the opportunity to submit photographs to the Sites for product promotions, contests, and other purposes to be disclosed at the time of request. In these circumstances, the Sites are designed to allow the public to view, download, save, and otherwise access the photographs posted. By submitting a photograph, users waive any privacy expectations users have with respect to the security of such photographs, and Geeknet’s use or exploitation of users’ likeness. All photographs submitted to Geeknet become the property of Geeknet and will not be returned.

ONWARD TRANSFER

With whom may Geeknet share information?

Unless Geeknet has a user’s permission, as otherwise described in this Privacy Statement, or as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, Geeknet will only share the personally identifiable information a user provides online with other entities that are part of the Geeknet corporate family and/or outside service providers who may be used to ship products, process credit cards, provide technical support, handle order processing, or otherwise act on Geeknet’s behalf. These third party service providers are prohibited from using users’ information for any other purpose, including their own marketing.

When Geeknet uses third parties to assist in processing a Site user’s personally identifiable information, Geeknet requires that these third parties establish safeguards to protect the confidentiality of the information that we provide them. For processing that involves information subject to Safe Harbor, we take steps to confirm that they subscribe to Safe Harbor, are subject to the EU Directive or another adequacy finding, or we enter into a written agreement requiring that they provide at least the same level of protection as required by the relevant Safe Harbor principles.

Geeknet businesses other than ThinkGeek may share personally identifiable information with third parties for marketing purposes, but will provide users with choices about disclosures of personally identifiable information for marketing purposes. ThinkGeek does not share, sell, or rent personally identifiable information to third parties for marketing purposes.

Please be advised that in certain instances, it may be necessary for Geeknet to disclose a user’s personally identifiable information without a user’s permission to government officials or otherwise as required by legal obligations. Geeknet may disclose such personally identifiable information when responding to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, or to establish or exercise legal rights or defend against claims, including fraud or infringement investigations.

Data collected online may be combined with information a user provides through other means of communication, such as postal mail or third parties to further carry out the purposes described above under the heading “NOTICE, How Geeknet uses the information collected regarding users”.

When users choose to provide Geeknet with personally identifiable information, users consent to the transfer and storage of such information by Geeknet servers in the United States.

In addition, Geeknet reserves the right to share aggregate information collected from users of the Sites, without prior notice, with entities that are part of the Geeknet corporate family and unrelated third parties. As stated earlier, aggregate information is used in a collective manner and no single person can be identified by such compiled information.

Geeknet may share certain data from SourceForge.net, Freecode.com, Feedery.com, and Slashdot.org with researchers and research organizations for the sole purpose of supporting academic and scholarly research on free and/or open source software.  Geeknet may further choose to establish agreements, as in the case of University of Notre Dame, for these parties to act in a clearinghouse capacity and authorize them to share this data with other researchers studying free and/or open source software.  When data from these websites is transmitted to researchers, Geeknet makes commercially reasonable efforts to remove personally identifiable information from data fields designed to capture personally identifiable information (other than user names and information that users have made publicly available through one of the sites).  Geeknet, however, does not guarantee the complete removal of information that may identify a user, particularly in cases where the user has provided that information in comment fields or other fields not specifically designed for the collection of identifiers.