Kismet World Wide Consulting Privacy Policy

version 1.2, Last updated: March 16, 2010

All of our current and future products and services will always follow the most recent version of our Privacy Policy posted here on our website.

You can check back here at any time to see our latest Privacy Policy. Or, if you would like to have our Privacy Policy and any subsequent updates sent to you via email, you can subscribe to our Privacy Policy Update Notification mailing list by completing this form.

If you have any questions or feedback about any of our policies, please let us know by emailing us at:

Support@KismetWorldWide.com

I. Kismet World Wide Privacy Policy Guiding Principles:

Because we care so deeply about your privacy, we have chosen to exceed the industry standard "Fair Information Practices" which require that we provide you with: notice, choice, access, security, and enforcement. Detailed explanations of each of these are provided below.

We have chosen to follow the industry standard "Fair Information Practices" which require that we provide you with: notice, choice, access, security, enforcement, and collection limitation. Detailed explanations of each of these are provided below.

We have also written a chapter in our book describing in detail why we care about privacy, what the Fair Information Practices are, and detailed instructions on how to follow them. We have also written a chapter in our book describing in detail why we care about privacy, what the Fair Information Practices are, and detailed instructions on how to follow them. Learn more about our book.

We are committed to ensuring that our Privacy Policy will always guarantee the following to any customers who choose to allow us to collect, store, or use their personal information:

  • Opt-In -- no personally identifiable or private information will be collected about any customer without either first getting their permission, or requiring them to perform an action to disclose it (for instance, if they plant a Seed in WasteNot or choose to use our in-app voting mechanism). For all customers, whenever we ask for personally identifiable or private information from them we promise to always provide them with a means to find out (1) what we want to collect (at a minimum through this privacy policy), (2) why we want to collect it, and (3) how we will use that information.
  • Accessible -- every customer will be able to find out what has been collected about them and what information we are currently storing.
  • Secure -- any personally identifiable information that we have collected and stored will be done so in a secure way that meets or exceeds standard industry security practices.
  • Modifiable -- any customer can modify or delete any information we have collected about them at any time by emailing Support@KismetWorldWide.com.

Email you send us and email lists that you subscribe to:

If you choose to email us or subscribe to any of our email lists, your name, email address, and any emails you choose to send us will be stored only on our servers and mail clients and will only be used for the purpose of sending you an email response or the mailing list emails you have explicitly subscribed to.

Your name, email address, or any emails you have sent us will never be used for any purpose other than the ones listed above without your explicit permission.

Your email address will never be rented or sold to any 3rd party for any purpose other than the ones you explicitly asked for or pre-approved.

We promise to meet or exceed industry standard security policies when collecting, storing, and responding to your emails.

You may choose to unsubscribe to any mailing list at any time by following the instructions sent to you when you subscribed to the list, or by emailing us at Support@KismetWorldWide.com

II. Detailed disclosure, and full explanations of how we follow each aspect of the Fair Information Practices for each of our products or services:

1. Notice: Let users know what privacy practices we adhere to, what information we need to collect (before we collect it), and why we need to collect it.

Our privacy practices are detailed in this privacy policy.

We may ask you to allow us to collect different information depending on what product or service you use:

1.1 TaxiFlasher:

TaxiFlasher does not automatically collect any personally identifiable information from you. Your Flashes are stored only on your device, and are never reported to us. If you delete TaxiFlasher off of your device, any saved information (including your Flashes) will be deleted with it -- because we don't collect or store that information, we have no way to recover it.

If you choose to use our in-app voting mechanism, our servers do collect which items you have voted for, and we link those votes to your device's UDID (the unique device identifier for each device) so that we can store and allow you to change your votes. This UDID is not linked to any other information in our database. Although the UDID is specific to your device, only Apple knows which UDID is associated with which iTunes user. The only way the information we collect can be linked back to you would be if someone got access to our database, and then was able to get access to Apple's user database, and then link the two together. In that extremely unlikely case, the only information anyone would be able to gather is who voted for what, which we believe is incredibly unlikely, and a very, very minor privacy risk.

1.2 WasteNot:

WasteNot is a complex app which collects and uses several different pieces of information depending on how you use the app. When you first start WasteNot, no information about you is collected or stored on our server. If you choose to use the app in anonymous mode (i.e. you never choose to log in), then no personally identifiable information about you is ever collected or stored on our server.

1.2.1 WasteNot User Accounts:

If you choose to create a WasteNot account, we store the email address you provide and the password you choose on our servers. This information is provided by you and is never linked to any other personally identifiable information, such as your device's unique identifier (UDID), which we never collect or store in the WasteNot app or on our WasteNot servers or databases. You can use any email address you have access to, including a private account or an anonymous remailer. If you are worried about the privacy of your personal email address, we encourage you to use a different email address when you create your WasteNot account. There are many free web-based email services available that you can use for this purpose.

We ask for an email address so that we have a mechanism to contact you about any Seeds you might plant, including notifying you when your Seed has been added to the WasteNot servers, or notifying you if there is a problem found with your Seed.

We will only use your email address to contact you about your WasteNot account.

We will never use, rent, sell, or distribute your email address to any other person or company for any reason, other than the ones listed above, without your explicit permission.

1.2.2 Watering a WasteNot Seed:

If you choose to Water a Seed, that information is stored on our server, and is only linked to your WasteNot account.

The first time you choose to Water a Seed, you are asked if you would like to allow us to collect and store an anonymized version of your location (assuming your device supports GPS / location services). You can change your preference at any time in our Settings page in the "More" section of the app.

If you do allow location-based information to be collected and associated with your watering, we only record and store low-accuracy latitude and longitude coordinates. Specifically, WasteNot records locations to one-tenth of a degree precision for latitude and longitude. This is no more than one-thousandth of the accuracy that can be provided by the assisted GPS that is part of the iPhone 3GS device.

One-tenth of a degree precision in latitude translates into masking the location by +/- 5.5 km in the N-S direction. The masking of longitude (E-W direction) is a bit more complicated. The accuracy in km in the E-W direction depends on latitude. The E-W +/- is 5.5 km at the equator, 4.5 km in Tokyo, 4.4 km in San Francisco, 4.2 km in New York City, 3.8 km in Seattle, and 3.4 km in London. Even though the latitude masking is relative, the longitude masking is constant, so the total accuracy always remains above 5.5 km.

So if you watered a Seed at the equator, your location would be masked by 11km, or put another way, you could be anywhere within a circle with a diameter of 11km.

1.2.3 Planting a WasteNot Seed:

If you choose to Plant a Seed, that information is stored on our server and is only linked to your WasteNot account. Only your Username will be displayed to other WasteNot customers, along with the Seeds you've planted. Your email address is never shared with any other WasteNot customers.

Currently we do not associate any location information with a Seed that has been planted. We may add this feature in the future and if we do, we will update our privacy policy to reflect that change.

1.2.4 Favorite Seeds

If you are logged into a WasteNot account, and you mark a Seed as a favorite, we store that information on our server. We do this to (1) show the worldwide totals of how many people have marked a Seed as a favorite, and (2) remember your favorites for you so that they will be automagically synced if you use multiple devices and restored if you change devices. This information is only linked to your WasteNot account. If you want to use a WasteNot account but do not want favorite Seed information collected and stored on our servers, do not use the Favorite feature in WasteNot.

1.2.5 In-App Voting

If you choose to use our in-app voting feature, your votes are stored on our server and are only linked to your WasteNot account. Unlike TaxiFlasher, we DO NOT associate any information, including your votes, with your device's unique identifier (UDID). (We learned how to do it better.)

1.2.6 Future WasteNot Functionality

We plan to enhance WasteNot over the coming months with new features. Some of those features may ask you to allow us to collect and store additional information. Whenever we add a new feature of this type, we will update this privacy policy to include details about any relevant new features.

1.3 Email you send us and email lists that you subscribe to:

If you choose to email us or subscribe to any of our email lists, your name, email address, and any emails you choose to send us will be stored only on our servers and mail clients and will only be used for the purpose of sending you an email response or the mailing list emails you have explicitly subscribed to.

Your name, email address, or any emails you have sent us will never be used for any purpose other than the ones listed above without your explicit permission.

Your email address will never be rented or sold to any 3rd party for any purpose other than the ones you explicitly asked for or pre-approved.

We promise to meet or exceed industry standard security policies when collecting, storing, and responding to your emails.

You may choose to unsubscribe to any mailing list at any time by following the instructions sent to you when you subscribed to the list, or by emailing us at Support@KismetWorldWide.com

1.4 Posting on our public forums:

If you choose to post to our public forums, then the information you choose to post will be available publicly. Please do not post any personally identifiable or private information that you are not comfortable sharing in these public forums. If you have posted something that you no longer wish to be available on our site and you are not able to remove it yourself using our online tools, email Support@KismetWorldWide.com and we will gladly remove it for you.

Please don't hesitate to email Support@KismetWorldWide.com at any time with any questions or concerns you have about our policies, including this Privacy Policy.

1.5 The www.KismetWorldWide.com website:

1.5.1 Web Browser Cookies

Our website does not use cookies to track you by default. Most of our pages do not ever require cookies or any other tracking technologies.

Some of our pages, including our blog and our support system, may try to set a cookie if you try to submit information or login. This is part of the technology required to enable you to use those services. We will not invade your privacy by using these cookies to track your behavior or to do any kind of profiling.

1.5.2 Flash Cookies, LSO's, Super Cookies, and other tracking technologies

Our website does not use Flash Cookies, LSO's, Super Cookies, or any other tracking technology to track your behavior, to do any kind of profiling, or to invade your privacy. Third party websites that are linked from our site, such as our WasteNot demo video served by YouTube, may use their own technologies. Please consult their posted privacy policies to find out what they use.

1.5.3 IP address and clickstream logging

Our website does use standard web logging to help us monitor the health of our web server and track down problems with our servers. Your IP address and browser information may be stored (depending on your browser's settings). We only collect this information to help us make sure our website is working and to generate aggregate statistics (such as how many people are viewing our site, and what days/times create peak loads).

Our policy is to delete this clickstream data at regular intervals, usually no longer than every 3-6 months or so, depending on the status of our website and what we are testing. As we grow and stabilize our products and offerings, we will refine this policy.

Since our website does not collect any private information from you unless you explicitly choose to provide it, nor do we believe that the information we provide is privacy-sensitive, we don't see any major privacy issues with collecting this clickstream information to help us make sure our website is performing as best it can for you.

We do NOT use any user profiling tools on our clickstream data that we believe would be privacy invasive in any way to you.

1.6 Backups

From time to time our website and servers are backed up to allow for quick recovery. Your information may be contained in those backups. We will delete any information you request (email us at Support@KismetWorldWide.com), but may not be able to delete them from our backups immediately.

Our policy is to delete old backups on a regular basis, usually every few weeks, but sometimes it could take a few months or more. If you would like your information explicitly deleted from our backups, please email us at Support@KismetWorldWide.com and we'll discuss it with you.

1.7 3rd parties that we use to provide our products and services:

From time to time we may choose to use 3rd party products or services to host our support forums, email lists, and other services. Any 3rd party service we choose to use will either be controlled by us, or we'll make sure they follow our current posted Privacy Policy.

2 Choice: Give users the choice to participate in our products and services. Let them decide if they want to share their information; don't ever assume that we can collect it. Specify if you provide an opt-in or an opt-out option for the collection and use of their data.

Our policy, as stated above, is to specifically require that all users of our products and services explicitly Opt-In to those services. No personally identifiable or private information will be collected about any customer without either first getting their permission, or requiring them to perform an action to disclose it (for instance, if they plant a Seed in WasteNot or choose to use our in-app voting mechanism). For all customers, whenever we ask for personally identifiable or private information from them we promise to always provide them with a means to find out (1) what we want to collect (at a minimum through this privacy policy or by email requests to Support@KismetWorldWide.com), (2) why we want to collect it, and (3) how we will use that information.

3 Access: How can users gain access to the information you are collecting about them? Can they request to remove any data about them that you have collected?

Most of our customer's information is stored and accessible within the relevant products. For instance, most of the information that a user can allow us to collect in our WasteNot app is visible inside the user's "MyGarden" page. Some information, however, is not immediately accessible, such as the anonymized location data associated with each Seed watering.

Anyone who would like to know what information we have collected about them can contact us at any time. We will be happy to tell you exactly what we have collected, and respect your request to have any of that information deleted from our servers and databases. If you would like us to do this, please email us at: Support@KismetWorldWide.com

4 Security: Make sure that you have policies to insure that customer data is securely transmitted and stored. Assume from the start that you will have at least one unexpected security failure, data breach, or other privacy violation. Make sure you have plans in place to respond quickly, honestly, and effectively in all of these cases.

We strive to collect the minimum information necessary to provide our products and services. We use industry standard practices and technologies to safely store any information we collect. We make sure that any communication over the internet that contains any private information is encrypted using the industry-standard SSL technology. We work to make sure that any security failure, data breach, or privacy violation is limited in both size and scope.

If we learn of a security failure, data breach, or privacy violation and we have your email address, we will email you with details about what happened, how we're working to make sure it won't happen again, and what your exposure is.

Since we don't require any private and sensitive information from our customers (such as your real name, your telephone number, credit card information, social security number, physical address, etc...), we believe that we've already protected them from the scariest kinds of privacy invasions and security fears.

If you'd like to know more about our security policies, or what they mean specifically for the information you have provided us, please email us at: Support@KismetWorldWide.com

5 Enforcement: What confidence can you give that you enforce your privacy policies? Who will provide potential customers with the third party privacy verification that many need before they will choose to buy your product or service?

We perform regular reviews of our privacy policies, our products, and our services with our privacy advisory board. Before we distribute any product or service that collects information, we must first get approval from our privacy board that it (1) meets our privacy principles and posted privacy policy, (2) is designed in the most privacy-protective way feasible, and (3) conforms to our goal of providing exceptional privacy and security protection.

6 Collection Limitation: Be precise and open about the amount of information you collect. Limit what you collect to the bare minimum necessary to support your products or services. Don't collect what you don't need. Don't store information long-term if you don't need to.

7 Acquisition Policy: If any of our products or services are acquired by another party (for instance: if Kismet World Wide Consulting LLC was acquired by another company), either (1) the new company will have a privacy policy that is at least as restrictive as this one, or (2) they will be required to have you opt-in to their new privacy policy before they can use any data we have collected about your account(s).

We believe that the best way to protect someone's private information is to not collect it in the first place. The principle of collection limitation is therefore at the heart of our privacy policy. We do not ask for any information that is not absolutely necessary to provide you with our product or service.

We have provided precise details about what we collect and why in this privacy policy.

Long-term, we only store the bare minimum of information that we need to provide our products and services.

This is the end of the Kismet World Wide Privacy Policy. If you have any questions or comments, please email Support@KismetWorldWide.com