Introduction:

The mission of GigBlast is to connect professionals to enable them to take control of their online personal brand, be more productive and successful. We work to fulfill this mission by helping you and your connections exchange ideas, learn, make deals and realize opportunities via network of trusted relationships.

Being part of GigBlast means sharing information about yourself with other professionals, communicating with them, as well as working privately on your own. By default, your account is set up to share the information that we have found the vast majority of our Users are interested in sharing. But the amount and type of information you decide to share, and with whom you share it, is up to you.

Here are the three main types of information on GigBlast:

Information about yourself that you share. This is the information that your connections, other professionals, and companies see about you. This includes your profile and your contributions to discussions on GigBlast Groups, Answers, or other community features GigBlast may offer. You have control over what you share, and you can update information at any time.

Communication. We help you communicate with connections and other professionals. Some of this is one-to-one, some of it is in groups, and some of it is public discussion. You decide how much or how little you wish to communicate to individuals or groups.

Of course, maintaining your trust is our top concern, so we adhere to the following principles to protect your privacy:

We do not rent, sell, or otherwise provide your personally identifiable information to third parties for marketing purposes.

We do not share any information you have not chosen to display on your GigBlast profile to other parties, unless compelled by law, or as necessary to enforce our User Agreement or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of GigBlast, its Users, and the public.

All information that you provide will be protected with industry standard protocols and technology.

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page. By continuing to use the GigBlast service after notice of changes has been sent to you or published on the GigBlast website, you are consenting to the changes.

Please read this policy and send us questions, concerns and suggestions at nextstep@GigBlast.com.

What GigBlast's Privacy Policy Covers:

Information collected by GigBlast.

How GigBlast uses your information.

3.       Your information choices.

4.       Your obligations as a User.

5.       Important information regarding service eligibility and US Department of Commerce Safe Harbor certification.

6.       Security.

7.       How to contact us.

1.       Personal Information Collected

The mission of GigBlast is to connect the world's professionals to enable them to be more productive and successful. To achieve this mission, GigBlast makes services available through our website, mobile applications, and developer platform, to enable professionals to develop, maintain and enhance a network of contacts, seek experts and consultants, fill job opportunities, create, share, and distribute information in collaboration with one another ("Services"). By joining GigBlast, you voluntarily and willingly provide us certain information, including personally identifiable information, which we collect in order to provide the Services. If you have any hesitation about providing information to us and/or having your information displayed on the GigBlast website or otherwise used in any manner permitted in this Privacy Policy and the User Agreement, you should not become a member of the GigBlast community; and, if you are already a member, you should close your account.

We collect your personal information in the following ways:

A.       Registration

In order to become a User, you must provide us the following information to create an account: name, email address, country, and password. Like other passwords, you should choose one that is known only by you. You acknowledge that this information is personal to you, and by creating an account on GigBlast, you allow others, including GigBlast, to identify you.

B.       Profile Information

Once you become a User, you may provide additional information in the profile section describing your skills, professional experiences, educational background, recommendations from other GigBlast Users, group memberships, and networking objectives. Providing additional information about yourself beyond what is minimally required at registration is entirely up to you, but providing additional information enables you to derive more benefit from GigBlast and your professional network by helping you build and leverage your professional network and facilitating your search for professional resources, information, and new opportunities. Any information you provide at registration or in the Profile section may be used by GigBlast as described in the User Agreement and this Privacy Policy, including for the purpose of serving advertisements through the service. If you decide not to share certain information, you may not receive the full benefit of being a GigBlast User.

C.       Contacts Information

In order to connect with others on GigBlast, you may use the Services to send invitations either to their GigBlast profiles or email addresses if they are not Users. The names and email addresses of people whom you invite will be used to send your invitations and reminders as well as to allow GigBlast to help expand your network. Please note that when you send an invitation to connect to another User, that User will have access to your email address because it is displayed in the invitation. Your connections will also have access to your email address. You may not invite anyone you do not know and trust to connect with you.

You may also choose to manually enter or upload data about your contacts to the "Contacts" section of your account on GigBlast. Information entered into Contacts is only viewable by you. By providing email addresses or other information of non-Users to GigBlast, you represent that you have authority to do so. All information that you enter or upload about your contacts will be covered by the User Agreement and this Privacy Policy and will enable us to provide customized services such as suggesting people to connect with on GigBlast.

D.       Customer Service

We may collect information through the GigBlast website or through our customer service page in order to, among other things, accurately categorize and respond to customer inquiries and investigate breaches of our terms.

E.       Site Usage

We may collect information about the fact that you use certain features and functionality of GigBlast, click on ads, or participate in research initiatives like polling and surveys on GigBlast.

F.       Cookies

Like most websites, we use cookies and web log files to track site usage and trends, to improve the quality of our service, to customize your experience on GigBlast, as well as to deliver third-party advertising to Users both on and off the GigBlast site. A cookie is a tiny data file that resides on your computer, mobile phone, or other device, and allows us to recognize you as a User when you return to the GigBlast website using the same computer and web browser. You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases that may impact your ability to use GigBlast. One type of cookie, known as a "persistent" cookie, is set once you've logged in to your GigBlast account. The next time you visit the GigBlast website, the persistent cookie will allow us to recognize you as an existing User so you will not need to log in before using the Services. In order to access or change any of your private information (like a credit card number) or to send a message to another User, however, you must log in securely again with your password even if your computer contains your persistent cookie. Another type of cookie, called a "session" cookie, is used to identify a particular visit to the GigBlast website. Session cookies expire after a short time or when you close your web browser.

In the course of serving advertisements or optimizing the Services to our Users, we may allow authorized third parties to place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. Any information provided to third parties through cookies will not be personally identifiable but may provide general segment information (e.g., your industry or geography, career field, or information about your professional or educational background) for greater customization of your user experience. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. GigBlast does not store unencrypted personally identifiable information in the cookies.

G.       Advertising and Web Beacons

To support the Services we provide at no cost to our Users, as well as provide a more relevant and useful experience for our Users, we serve our own ads and also allow third party advertisements on the site. These advertisements are targeted and served to Users, by both GigBlast and other companies, called ad networks. Ad networks include third party ad servers, ad agencies, ad technology vendors and research firms.

Advertisements on GigBlast may be targeted to Users who fit a certain general profile category (e.g., "product managers in Texas") or may be based on anonymized information inferred from a User's profile (e.g., industry, compensation bracket, gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, religion, or other aspects of your life) in addition to a User's use of the GigBlast site. GigBlast does not provide personally identifiable information to any third party ad network.

To increase the effectiveness of ad delivery, we may include a file, called a web beacon, from an ad network within pages served by GigBlast. The web beacon allows the ad network to provide anonymized, aggregated auditing, research and reporting for advertisers. Web beacons also enable the ad networks to serve ads to you when you visit other websites. Because your web browser must request these advertisements and web beacons from the ad network's servers, these companies can view, edit or set their own cookies, just as if you had requested a web page from their site.

If you opt-out you may lose certain functionality of the GigBlast Services, as well as the potential benefit of receiving ads that are targeted to your interests which, in turn, may limit your ability to fully realize the benefits of the GigBlast Services to build and leverage your professional network.

H.      Log files, IP addresses and information about your computer and mobile device

Due to the communications standards on the internet, when you visit the GigBlast website we automatically receive the URL of the site from which you came and the site to which you are going when you leave GigBlast. GigBlast also receives the internet protocol ("IP") address of your computer (or the proxy server you use to access the World Wide Web), your computer operating system and type of web browser you are using, email patterns, mobile device operating system (if you are accessing GigBlast using a mobile device), as well as the name of your ISP or your mobile carrier. We use this information to analyze overall trends to help improve the service. The linkage between your IP address and your personally identifiable information is not shared with third parties without your permission, except as described in Section 2.K ("Compliance with Legal Process"), below.

I.         Linked Accounts

If you link your GigBlast account to another account or service, or use other, third-party sites or services in conjunction with your GigBlast account, we may collect information related to your use of third party sites and services accessed through GigBlast or when you access GigBlast through a third-party site or service.

J.         Rights to Access, Correct and Eliminate Information About You

You have a right to access, modify, correct and eliminate the data you supplied to GigBlast. If you update any of your information, we may keep a copy of the information that you originally provided to us in our archives for uses documented in this policy. You may request deletion of your information at any time by contacting GigBlast. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

2.       Uses of personal information

A.       Consent to GigBlast Processing Information About You

The information you provide to GigBlast may reveal, or allow others to identify, your nationality, ethnic origin, religion, gender, age, geography, or other aspects of your private life. By providing information to us for the purposes of creating your User account or adding any additional details to your GigBlast profile, you are expressly and voluntarily accepting the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and GigBlast's User Agreement that allow GigBlast to process information about you. Supplying information to GigBlast, including any information deemed "sensitive" by applicable law, is entirely voluntary on your part. You have the right to withdraw your consent to GigBlast's collection and processing of your information at any time, in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy and the User Agreement, but please note that your withdrawal of consent will not be retroactive.

B.       GigBlast Communications

As described in the User Agreement, we will communicate with you through email and notices posted on the GigBlast website, messages to your GigBlast inbox, or through other means available through the service, including mobile text messages. We may send you a series of emails that help inform new Users about the features of the Services, and we will also send you service messages relating to the functioning of the Services. We may also send you messages with promotional information directly or on behalf of our partners, unless you have opted out of receiving promotional information.

If you wish, you can also opt-out of receiving promotional emails by sending a request to GigBlast customer service through our customer service site.

Please be aware that you cannot opt-out of receiving service messages from GigBlast. Also, if we send communications to you via the carrier service with which you have a mobile communications subscription or otherwise have access, you understand you will pay any service fees associated with your receipt of messages on your mobile device (including text messaging charges).

C.       User Communications

Many communications you initiate through GigBlast (e.g., an invitation sent to a non-User) will list your primary email address and name in the header of the message. Messages you initiate may also provide aggregate information about your network (for instance how many people are in your network), but will not list the people to whom you're directly connected. Other communications that you initiate through the GigBlast website, like a request for an introduction, will list your name as the initiator but will not include your personal email address contact information. Your contact information will only be shared with another User if both of you have indicated that you would like to establish contact with each other.

D.       Customized Content

We use information provided to us (or to third parties with whom it offers combined services) to customize your experience on our website. For example, when you login to your account, we will display the names of new Users who have recently joined your network or recent status updates from your connections.

E.       Sharing Information with Third Parties

GigBlast takes the privacy of our Users very seriously, and we do not sell, rent, or otherwise provide your personally identifiable information to third parties for marketing purposes. Further, we will only share your personally identifiable information with third parties to carry out your instructions or to provide the Services or information unless compelled by law, or as necessary to enforce our User Agreement or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of GigBlast, its Users, and the public. For example, we use a credit card processing company to bill Users for subscription fees. These third parties do not retain, share, or store any personally identifiable information except to provide these services, and they are bound by confidentiality agreements limiting the use of your information.

We may provide aggregated anonymous data about the usage of the Services to third parties for purposes that we deem, in our sole discretion, to be appropriate, including to prospective advertisers on GigBlast.

F.       Polls and Surveys

Polls and Surveys may be conducted by GigBlast, GigBlast Users or third parties. As a User, you may be invited to participate in polls and surveys from the GigBlast website. Your selection may be random, or it may be based on your non-personally identifiable information, such as job title, geography, company size and/or industry. Whether or not you decide to participate in a poll or survey is completely up to you.

After you complete a poll, you will be given access to the aggregate responses of the poll on a results page. Some third parties may target advertisements to you on the results page based on your answers in the poll. Further, GigBlast or third parties may follow up with you via GigMail regarding your participation unless you have opted out of receiving GigMail messages.

We may use third parties to deliver incentives to you to participate in surveys or polls. If the delivery of incentives requires your contact information, you may be asked to provide personally identifiable information to the third party fulfilling the incentive offer, which will only be used for the purpose of delivering incentives and/or verifying your contact information. It is up to you whether you provide this information, or whether you desire to take advantage of an incentive.

G.       Search

We offer search services to help find information and learn more about other Users (for example, you can search for Users with particular expertise or consulting experience, or that you may know from your industry or profession), as well as employment opportunities. GigBlast search also allows Users to find jobs, companies, and contributions to the community aspects of the GigBlast Services, such as Groups and Answers that will help Users more effectively use GigBlast and expand their network. We use information from User profiles and contributions to Groups and Answers to inform and refine our search service.

H.      Compliance with Legal Process

It is possible that we may need to disclose personal information, profile information and/or information about your activities as a GigBlast User when required by subpoena or other legal process, or if GigBlast has a good faith belief that disclosure is necessary to (a) investigate, prevent or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities or to assist government enforcement agencies; (b) to enforce the User Agreement, to investigate and defend ourselves against any third party claims or allegations, or to protect the security or integrity of our site; and/or (c) to exercise or protect the rights, property or personal safety of GigBlast, our Users, employees, or others.

I.         Disclosures to others

We may also disclose your personal information and other information you provide to another third party as part of a reorganization or a sale of the assets of GigBlast, a subsidiary or division. Any third party to which GigBlast transfers or sells GigBlast's assets will have the right to continue to use the personal and other information that you provide to us.

3.       Your Information Choices

A.       Accessing and Changing Your Account Information

You can review the personal information you provided to us and make any desired changes to the information you publish, or to the settings for your GigBlast account including your email and contact preferences, at any time by logging in to your account on the GigBlast website. Please be aware that even after your request for a change is processed, GigBlast may, for a time, retain residual information about you in its backup and/or archival copies of its database.

B.       Default Settings

Because the mission of GigBlast is to connect the world's professionals to enable them to become more productive and successful, we have established what we believe to be reasonable default settings that we have found most professionals desire. Because Users may use and interact with GigBlast in a variety of ways, and because those uses may change over time, we designed our settings to provide our users granular control over the information they share. We encourage our Users to review their account settings and adjust them in accordance with their preferences.

GigBlast accounts are also defaulted to allow Users to be contacted to participate in polls, surveys and partner advertising.

C.       Closing Your Account

If you close your GigBlast account, we will remove your name and other personally identifiable information from our publicly viewable database. If you close your account, we have no obligation to retain your information, and may delete any or all of your account information without liability. However, we may retain certain data contributed by you if GigBlast believes it may be necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business purposes, such as analysis of aggregated, non-personally identifiable data, account recovery, or if required by law. GigBlast may also retain and use your information if necessary to provide the Services to other Users. For example, just as an email you may send to another person through an email service provider resides in that person's inbox even after you delete it from your sent files or close your account, emails or GigMails you send on GigBlast to other Users, as well as your contributions to GigBlast Answers or Groups, may remain visible to others after you have closed your account. Similarly, other information you have shared with others, or that other Users have copied, may also remain visible. GigBlast disclaims any liability in relation to the deletion or retention (subject to the terms herein) of information or any obligation not to delete the information. GigBlast does not control when search engines update their cache, which may contain certain public profile information that has since been removed from GigBlast's publicly viewable database.

D.       Memorializing Accounts

If we learn that a User is deceased, we may memorialize the User's account. In these cases we may restrict profile access, remove messaging functionality, and close an account if we receive a formal request from the User's next of kin or other proper legal request to do so.

4.       Your Obligations

As a User, you have certain obligations to other Users. Some of these obligations are imposed by applicable law and regulations, and others have become commonplace in user-friendly communities of like-minded members such as GigBlast:

·         You must, at all times, abide by the terms and conditions of the then-current Privacy Policy and User Agreement. This includes respecting all intellectual property rights that may belong to third parties (such as trademarks or photographs).

·         You must not download or otherwise disseminate any information that may be deemed to be injurious, violent, offensive, racist or xenophobic, or which may otherwise violate the purpose and spirit of GigBlast and its community of Users.

·         You must not provide to GigBlast and/or other Users information that you believe might be injurious or detrimental to your person or to your professional or social status.

·         You must keep your username and password confidential and not share it with others.

·        Any violation of these guidelines may lead to the restriction, suspension or termination of your account at the sole discretion of GigBlast.

5.       Important Information

A.       Children and Minors

Children are not eligible to use our service and we ask that minors (under the age of 18) do not submit any personal information to us or use the service.

C.       Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy at any time, with or without advance notice. In the event there are significant changes in the way we treat your personally identifiable information, or in the Privacy Policy document itself, we will display a notice on the GigBlast website or send you an email, as provided for above. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that GigBlast has about you and your account.

Using the GigBlast Services after a notice of changes has been sent to you or published on our site shall constitute consent to the changed terms or practices.

6.       Security

In order to help secure your personal information, access to your data on GigBlast is password-protected, and sensitive data (such as credit card information) is protected by SSL encryption when it is exchanged between your web browser and the GigBlast website. To protect any data you store on our servers, GigBlast also regularly audits its system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks, and we use a tier-one secured-access data center. However, since the internet is not a 100% secure environment, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to GigBlast. There is no guarantee that information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards. It is your responsibility to protect the security of your login information. Please note that emails, instant messaging, and similar means of communication with other Users of GigBlast are not encrypted, and we strongly advise you not to communicate any confidential information through these means.

7.       How to contact us

If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, please email us at nextstep@GigBlast.com or contact us at:

GigBlast
Attn: Legal Department, Privacy Policy Issues
222 Purchase Street, #177
Rye, NY 10580
USA