Privacy Policy
At Oakville Chit Chat, we are committed to maintaining your privacy and your trust. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, protect, use and share information about you when you use the Oakville Chit Chat website (the “Site”). We hope this information increases your confidence in Oakville Chit Chat and enhances your experience on our Site. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the Chit Chat Terms and Conditions. Each time that you use the Site, you signify that you agree to be bound by the Terms and Conditions and this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, you must discontinue using the Service and terminate your membership.
Oakville Chit Chat is an online service. It allows you to set up a membership for some of the services on the Site. Members can view comments you post in group forums. This site may, however, in the future provide services that allow members to review profile information or information you post, communicate with old friends and make new friends on the Site, share photos, post journals and comments, and describe their interests. We are looking at expanding the site functionality to include this type of activity in the future. If and when it becomes available we will request and display some personal information to other Members and visitors, which allows our users to identify each other and expand their network of friends. If this functionality becomes available and you register as a member, Oakville Chit Chat will be able to change their profile information at any time and can control how other Members and communicates with them.
Information Collected
Oakville Chit Chat collects personal information from you when you register with our Site, interact with other members, and use various features on the Site.
We may collect information regarding your interaction with other users and your use of the Site. From time to time we may ask you to respond to surveys or other requests for information and we collect the information you provide. We may collect information from you when you participate in sweepstakes and promotions offered on our Site. We may also collect information about you through other methods, including research surveys or information we obtain from third parties, including verification services, data services, as well as public sources. We use this information to continually offer you the most value as a Chit Chat Member.
All personally identifiable information that we collect may become part of your Oakville Chit Chat Member file and may be used by Oakville Chit Chat as provided in this Privacy Policy or as disclosed at the time you provide the information or as otherwise agreed by you.
Web Logs
Like most standard Website servers, we collect information from all visitors to the Site. This information may include the browser you are using, the internet address from which you linked to our Site, the operating system of your computer, the unique IP address of the computer you used to access our Site, and usage and browsing habits. We use this information to help diagnose and troubleshoot server malfunctions, to analyze trends, track user movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information. We may also use individual information we collect through web logs to send you targeted offers and other communications.
Cookies
To help make sure you receive information that is relevant to you, our Site uses data “cookies.” These cookies are small data files stored on your computer which identify you as a previous visitor to the Site and help us to personalize your experience when you arrive. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies. You can instruct your browser not to accept cookies. However, if you disable this function, you will not be able to use some of the features on our Site.
Web Beacons
Our Web pages and our e-mail newsletters contain “web beacons.” Web beacons allow us to count users that have visited a web page or opened an email that contains a web beacon and collect other types of aggregate information. Using this information, we are able to measure the effectiveness of our advertising and how visitors use our Site. This allows us to learn what pages are most attractive to our visitors, which parts of our Site are the most interesting and what kind of offers our Members like to see. Some of the web beacons that are in place on our Site are used only by Oakville Chit Chat, and other web beacons are from our vendors and advertisers who use this data to assist us in analyzing how our Members use the Site. In addition, we have agreements with various affiliate networks that promote Oakville Chit Chat on their affiliate websites. These affiliate advertisers may use web beacons in their advertisements to track users who click through from the affiliate website to the Site.
Your Information
The information you provide when registering on the Site will be displayed to users. This information currently will consist of a username and information posted on the forums. As functionality increases, the information you provide may be visible to other Members. In addition, because this information is publicly displayed on the Site, it may appear in the results of searches conducted on Internet search engines while you are a Member of the Site and potentially for some time period after your membership is terminated, depending upon the search engine’s indexing practices.
We have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor any activity and content associated with the public and private forums and interactive areas on our Site. Please review our Terms and Conditions for more information regarding your appropriate use of these areas. Oakville Chit Chat may send you service-related announcements and information from time to time. We may also use your information to send you e-newsletters, updates and communications about Oakville Chit Chat.
Sweepstakes and Promotions
On occasion, we offer sweepstakes and other promotions in conjunction with a sponsor. By participating in a promotion, you submit to that promotion’s terms and conditions including providing us with permission, if required, to share your personally identifiable information with a particular sponsor.
Third Party Offers
On occasion, we are able to offer you special products or services through a relationship with a third party. In those cases, the offer will be brought to you by Oakville Chit Chat and fulfilled by the third party. If you accept the offer, you will become a customer of the company that is fulfilling the offer and we will not have control over their use of the personally identifiable information that you provide to them when you accept the offer.
Legal Matters and Safety
We may, without your consent, access and disclose your information, any communications sent or received by you, and any other information that we may have about you or your account as may be permitted or required by law (including, but not limited to, court order or subpoena), or to prevent or investigate suspected fraud, violations of our Terms and Conditions, or activity that appears to us to be illegal or may expose us to legal liability. Additionally, we may disclose your information in situations that we believe to be emergencies involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person or property if we believe that your information in any way relates to that threat.
Sale of Business or Assets
If Oakville Chit Chat, substantially all of its assets, or a line of business are acquired or merged with another company, personally identifiable information of our Members may be one of the assets sold or merged in connection with that transaction. Oakville Chit Chat will notify users of the Site of such a change in ownership or transfer of assets by posting a notice on the Site.
Third Party Ad Servers
We may use third party advertising technology to serve ads when you visit our Site. For instance, we may Google AdSense, among others, to provide advertising on our Site or in our e-newsletters. If your browser is set up to accept cookies, Google AdSense and some of Oakville Chit Chat Name’s advertisers and partners may place cookies or web beacons on your computer when you visit our Site or interact with our email messages. Please note that this happens whether or not you click on an advertisement placed by these companies. Google AdSense and Oakville Chit Chat’s advertisers and partners use cookies and web beacons according to their own privacy and security polices which you can find on their websites.
Important Disclosures, Practices and Contact Information
Oakville Chit Chat contains links to other sites. It is possible for you to receive information directly from our partners and other companies if you access them through a link from our Site or if you go directly to their Websites. Once you are on their sites, any data that you supply to these partners, for example, to obtain information or buy products directly from them is beyond our reach and will be the responsibility of each of the linked-to entities and not Oakville Chit Chat. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of these websites or any other sites linked to or referenced on our Site.
Security
Oakville Chit Chat has multiple layers of security on its systems. We have implemented software and hardware security, including firewalls, data encryption, and private networks intended to protect your personally identifiable information from unauthorized access. We use firewalls and intrusion-detection devices that are designed to defend against hackers and notify us if any attempts are made to compromise our network. We regularly review additional software upgrades to enhance our security measures. However, despite our efforts, no system can completely guaranty that there will never be unauthorized access to your personally identifiable information, and your use of the Site indicates that you are willing to assume this risk.
International Users
Oakville Chit Chat is hosted in Canada. If you are using the Site from outside Canada, by providing your information to this Site, you are consenting to the transfer of your information to Canada for processing and maintaining in accordance with this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. You are also consenting to the application of Canadian law in all matters concerning this Site.
Children’s Privacy
Oakville Chit Chat does not encourage participation or visitation by children. Visitors who are known to be under the age of 16 are prohibited from becoming Oakville Chit Chat Members. Oakville Chit Chat does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 16.
Changes to the Privacy Policy
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. The most recent version of the Privacy Policy will always be posted on the Site.
