Privacy Policy
Last updated: 10/1/10.
About the Plummelo Privacy Policy
At Plummelo, Inc. (“Plummelo”), we recognize the importance of your privacy. You may,
nevertheless, be concerned about the information you provide to us or that is collected
by us and how we use and disclose it. This Privacy Policy explains Plummelo’s privacy
practices for visitors to the various web sites owned and operated by Plummelo (the
“Sites”). By accessing or using any of the Sites, you consent to the collection, use
and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. This
Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the terms of the Plummelo Terms and
Conditions of Use that is available for viewing
here.
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make any
changes to our Privacy Policy, we will post a new policy on the Sites and
update the “last updated” date set forth above. Therefore, we encourage you to check
our Privacy Policy whenever you visit any of the Sites to see if it has been updated
since your last visit. Your continued use of the Sites following our notice of any
such changes constitutes your acceptance of those changes. If you have any questions
about our Privacy Policy, you can contact us at CustomerService@plummelo.com.
Types of Information We Collect
Personal Information: Personal information is information that
specifically identifies an individual, such as a customer’s name, address,
telephone number, e-mail address, credit card or other account number, and
information about that individual’s activities when directly linked to that person
such as information about his or her purchases. Personal information also includes
demographic information, such as date of birth, gender, geographic area, and
preferences, when such information is linked to other personal information that
identifies the individual.
Aggregate Information: Personal information does not include “aggregate” information. Aggregate information is data we collect about a group or category of products, services or customers, from which individual customer identities have been removed. In other words, information about how you use a service might be collected and combined with information about how others use the same service, but no personal information will be included in the resulting data. Likewise, information about the products you purchase might be collected and combined with information about the products purchased by others. Aggregate data helps us understand trends and customer needs so that we can better consider new products and services, and tailor existing products and services to customer desires. We might share aggregate information about our users with third parties for various purposes, such as helping us better understand and improve our services, and for advertising and marketing purposes.
How We Collect and Use Personal Information
Plummelo collects personal information from you at several different points on our
Sites, as set forth below. In general, we use personal information for the purpose
for which it was collected (such as to provide services or complete transactions you
have requested, for billing purposes, and to anticipate and resolve problems with our
Sites and our products and services), for our own internal business operations, to
respond to customer support inquiries and for other purposes as described below.
User Account; Other Information Submissions
When you create a user account on our Sites, you are asked to create a unique
login (user name) and password, and are required to give certain personal
information. We might also request certain information about your tastes and
preferences (such as your favorite food or recipes).
Information you provide during account creation might be used for some or all of the following:
Additionally, your account information might be used, together with other information you submit to us in conjunction with your use of the Sites, for the following purposes:
Any information that is publicly displayed on our Sites (such as user names) might appear in the results of searches conducted on Internet search engines while you are a member of the Sites and potentially for some time period after your Account is terminated, depending upon the search engine’s indexing practices.
Communication
As a Plummelo account user, you will receive our transactional business
communications (e.g., e-mail address confirmation, administrative messages, renewal
notifications, etc.) at your e-mail address or street address. We might also send
such communications to you through the Message Center. In addition, you might be
automatically enrolled in one or more of our e-mail subscription programs. While we
reserve the right to send you our transactional business communications without
offering you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving them, we do provide you with
the opportunity to select whether or not you wish to continue to receive our
subscription-based e-mails. You will also be given the opportunity to select whether
to receive promotional offerings, such as new product offerings.
E-mail-A-Friend
When you elect to use our referral service for e-mailing a recipe or other content
to a friend, we ask you for your friend’s name and e-mail address. Plummelo will
automatically send your friend a one-time e-mail on your behalf which contains the
recipe or other content, and which invites your friend to visit the Sites. Plummelo
uses your friend’s name and e-mail address only to send this one-time e-mail, and does
not store this information. If your friend does not wish to receive “e-mail-a-friend”
messages to be sent on your behalf, he or she must contact you. You will not use our
referral service for e-mailing a recipe or other content to a friend who does not want
to receive such recipe or other content.
Public Forums
We may offer chat rooms, message boards, bulletin boards, blogs or similar public
forums where you and other users of our Sites can communicate. The protections
described in this Privacy Policy do not apply when you provide information (including
personal information) in connection with your use of these public forums. We may use
your user name to identify you with a posting in a public forum. Any information you
share in a public forum is public information and may be seen or collected by anyone,
including third parties that do not adhere to our Privacy Policy. We are not
responsible for events arising from the distribution of any information you choose to
publicly post or share through our Sites.
Contests, Promotions, Offers, and Survey
From time to time, we may request personal information from users in connection with
contests, promotions, offers and/or surveys. Participation in these contests,
promotions, offers, and surveys is completely voluntary and you therefore may choose
whether to disclose personal information in connection with these activities. Personal
information requested in connection with these activities might include contact
information (e.g., your name and shipping address) and demographic information (e.g.,
your zip code). We use the information collected in connection with contests,
promotions and offers to notify you if you’ve won and to award prizes and to otherwise
communicate with you regarding the applicable contest, promotion or offer. We use
information we collect in surveys for internal purposes, such as to ascertain the use
of the Sites and improve their usefulness to you. We might also provide third parties
with this information, and might combine it with some or all of your registration
information. Third parties might use the information we provide them to contact you
regarding products or services that might be of interest to you. These disclosures are
discussed in greater detail below in the “Disclosure of Personal Information” Section.
When we intend to provide information collected from you during a contest, promotion,
offer, or survey on the Sites to third parties, we always disclose this to you at the
time of collection of the information.
Customer Service
We collect personal information when you submit comments, questions or suggestions
to our customer service department. We use the information you provide to respond to
your submission and to make improvements to the Sites and for other internal purposes.
Cookies, Web Beacons, and Log Files
Cookies: We use “cookie” technology on our Sites. We might place one or more
cookies in the browser file of your computer. Although such cookies do not contain
any personally identifying information about you, we might link this information to
personal information about you. If we do, we will treat it as personal information
under this Privacy Policy. We use cookies to provide functional information about
your browser, which is recorded in the Sites’ logs and which allows us to provide a
better user experience on our Sites. We also use cookies to gather broad demographic
information and general usage patterns about you and other users of our Sites. In
the course of placing advertisements on our Sites, our third-party advertisers may
place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. We use cookies to enhance and
personalize your experience on the Sites, including helping authenticate you when
you use the Sites, remembering your preferences and registration information and
customizing the content and advertisements provided to you by the Sites. For example,
storing a cookie on your computer allows you to log in without typing the registered
e-mail address or user name and password. We also use cookies to deliver information
and fresh content specific to your interests. If you do not want these cookies stored
on your computer, you can reject cookies by modifying your browser settings
accordingly (each browser is different, so check the “Help” menu of your browser to
learn how to change your cookie preferences). However, if you choose to reject
cookies, you might not be able to access certain products and services we offer.
Please also note certain types of e-mails available through the Sites might
automatically log you in to the Sites and/or set new cookies when you click on the
links in the e-mails and you might need to manually remove such cookies if you do
not want them to be set on your computer. Please see the Section titled “Third-Party
Web Site Advertising - General” below for additional information about cookies.
Web Beacons: We use, and permit third parties to use, “Web beacons” (also known as Internet tags, pixel tags, single-pixel GIFs, clear GIFs, invisible GIFs, 1-by-1 GIFs, and Web bugs) on our Sites and in our e-mail newsletters, to monitor the effectiveness of advertising and for other lawful purposes. These Web beacons do not collect personally identifying information about you on our Sites.
Log Files: We track log files on our Sites (i.e., we log your computer’s IP address into our log files when you visit a page on our Sites) and use them to analyze trends, administer the Sites, track your movements on the Sites, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. We might link some or all of this information to personally identifiable information that is stored on a cookie in your computer. We only use information gathered from these activities for our internal marketing and operational purposes.
Disclosure of Personal Information
Plummelo will not sell, rent, or share personal information with third parties
without your prior consent except in the limited circumstances described in this
Privacy Policy.
Consent:With your consent, we might disclose your personal information to third parties in order to provide you with products and services that you have requested.
• During or following the creation of your user account, you have the option to view and select offers from various third party companies that may be of interest to you, such as retailers and consumer products manufacturers. If you choose to view these offers, we will make information you provide during registration (along with any other information you provide in conjunction with your request) available to these vendors (through an intermediary or otherwise) in order to fulfill, or facilitate fulfillment of, your request(s). Please note that any information that is passed on to these vendors is subject to those involved third parties’ privacy practices.
• With your consent, we might disclose information you provide to us during registration to third parties in conjunction with (i) your entry into a contest or promotion, (ii) your request with respect to an offer, or (iii) your participation in a survey or similar activity on the Sites. You might be asked for additional information in order to enter the contest or promotion, make a request with respect to an offer, or participate in a survey. The third parties will use the information we provide to them, along with any information you provide in connection with your entry, request, or participation, in order to (a) notify you if you have won a prize in a contest or promotion, and/or (b) fulfill, or facilitate fulfillment of, requests for products or services you may make in connection with your entry, request, or participation. Please note that any information that is passed on to these third parties is subject to those involved third parties’ privacy practices. When we intend to provide information collected during a contest, promotion, offer, or survey on the Sites to third parties, we always disclose this to you at the time of collection.
Plummelo’s Own Business Purposes:We use and disclose information about you for our own internal statistical, design, or operational purposes, such as to estimate our audience size, measure aggregate traffic patterns, and understand demographic, user interest, purchasing and other trends among our users. We might outsource tasks and disclose personal information about you to third parties, provided the use and disclosure of your personal information by these third parties is restricted to performance of such tasks. We might also share personal information with third-party vendors who assist us in performing internal functions necessary to operate our business. We require our third party vendors to keep such information confidential and to only use the information for the purpose it was provided.
Protection of Plummelo and Others:We disclose personal information when we believe it is appropriate to comply with the law (e.g., a lawful subpoena, warrant or court order); to enforce or apply this Privacy Policy or our other policies or agreements; to initiate, render, bill, and collect for amounts owed to us; to protect our or our users’ rights, property or safety; or to protect our users from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful use of our Sites; or if we reasonably believe that an emergency involving immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure of communications or justifies disclosure of personal information without delay.
Business Transfers: Information about our users, including personal information, might be disclosed as part of any merger, acquisition, financing, sale of company assets, as well as in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy or receivership in which personally identifiable information could be transferred to third parties as one of the business assets of the company.
Children
We do not intend, and the Sites are not designed, to collect personal information
from children under the age of 13. If you are 12 years old or younger, please do not
register for our services or otherwise provide information on our Sites.
Third Party Web Site Advertising - General
We use one or more third-party advertising companies to serve ads on our Sites. We
do not share personal information about you with any third party advertiser except as
described in this Privacy Policy, unless you give us permission to do so otherwise.
These advertisers might seek to use cookies and web beacons to track data about the ads
you have seen and types of things in which you appear interested. These advertisers
might also use combined information about your visits to our Sites and other web sites
in order to provide advertisements about related goods and services of interest to you.
Third party advertising networks may place a cookie on your computer to tailor ad
content both on the Sites and on sites within the third party advertising network that
you visit in the future. If you would like more information about this practice and how
to opt-out of having this information used by Network Advertising Initiative (NAI)
companies, please
click here. To opt-out of other cookies used by other advertisers, please see the
Section entitled “Cookies, Web Beacons, and Log Files”.
Third Party Links
Our Sites have links to other web sites. We do not control, and therefore cannot be
responsible for, the collection, use, or disclosure of your information by any such
third party web site. Please carefully review the privacy policy of any third party
web site that you link to from our Sites. The privacy policies of such web sites might
differ from that of our Sites; therefore, we encourage you to review and understand the
privacy policies of such web sites before providing them with any information.
Third Party Sources
Plummelo might also obtain information about you from third parties, such as
demographic marketing information, address verification information, or information
contained in third party mailing lists, and Plummelo may add such information to, or
combine it with, your personal information. Should we ever obtain this information and
link it to you, we will treat it as personal information under this Privacy Policy.
Security
We use reasonable security measures to store and maintain personally identifying
information so as to protect it from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction by
unauthorized parties while it is under our control. We use secure socket layer (“SSL”)
encryption when transmitting certain kinds of information, such as payment information,
over the Internet.
International Users
We collect, process, and maintain your information in the United States, where
privacy laws might not be as protective as in your home country. If you are using the
Sites from outside of the United States, by providing your information to us you are
consenting to the transfer of your information to the United States for processing and
maintaining in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy.
Correcting/Updating Personal Information
We give you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving commercial e-mail from us by
following the opt-out instructions provided in the message. Even if you opt-out in this
manner, however, you will still receive transactional business communications (i.e.,
account-related messages such as e-mail address confirmation, administrative messages
and renewal notifications) from us. To get placed on our “DO NOT E-MAIL” list for
commercial e-mail, send a request to
CustomerService@plummelo.com. If your e-mail
address is added to the “DO NOT E- MAIL” list, you will not receive any commercial
e-mail from us. Please note, however, that your e-mail address being placed on the “DO
NOT E-MAIL” list does not prevent you from receiving “send-to-a-friend” e-mail
messages, or email messages from third parties from which you requested information,
products, or services from, during or after registration. To opt-out from such
messages, or from any other communications that you receive directly from third
parties, you must contact them directly in order to opt-out. Please note too that your
e-mail address being placed on the “DO NOT E-MAIL” list does not prevent you from
receiving transactional business communications (as described above) from Plummelo.
It is important to keep in mind the following with respect to your personal
information:
• You can always opt not to disclose information, even though it may be needed to take
advantage of certain features or services on the Sites.
• You are able to add or update certain registration information. When you update
information, however, we often maintain a copy of the unrevised information in our
records.
• You may request deletion of your Plummelo account by sending an e-mail to
CustomerService@plummelo.com. Please note
that some information may remain in our records after deletion of your account.
• As explained earlier, the “help” portion of the toolbar on the majority of browsers
will direct you on how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to
command the browser to tell you when you receive a new cookie, or how to fully disable
cookies. Please note, however, that if cookies are disabled, you may not be able to
take advantage of some of our attractive features. Also, if you would like to opt-out
of having Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) companies use information gathered from
the placement of cookies on your computer for the purpose of tailoring ad content both
on the Sites and on sites within the third party advertising network that you visit in
the future, then please see the Section entitled “Third Party Web Site Advertising –
General”.
California Privacy Rights
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits customers who are California residents
to request certain information regarding disclosure of personal information to third
parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not provide your personal
information to any third party for their direct marketing purposes without your
consent. If, having provided your consent, you would like to revoke your consent to
future disclosure of your personal information to third parties, send a request to
CustomerService@plummelo.com with
“California Opt-Out” in the subject line. Please note that this opt-out will not
prevent the use of information that has already been disclosed to third parties with
your consent and you should contact them directly to opt-out from such communications.
If you would like more information with respect to your privacy rights under California
law, you may contact us at CustomerService@plummelo.com. Please indicate such a request
by placing “California Disclosure Information” in the subject line.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, the privacy
practices of our Sites, or your dealings with Plummelo, please contact us at
CustomerService@plummelo.com or use
the following address, phone or fax number:
222 Third Street
Suite 4000
Cambridge, MA 02459
Phone: 617-398-0855
Fax: 707-222-1651
