Gaia Intranet :: Privacy Policy

Gaia Interactive, Inc. ("Gaia") values the privacy of its users, members, customers, subscribers, and others who visit and use (collectively or individually, "Members") www.gaiaonline.com and any other web sites or services owned or operated by Gaia (collectively, "Gaia Online").

This Privacy Notice is incorporated into and is subject to the Gaia Online Terms of Use. Your use of Gaia Online and any personal information you provide on Gaia Online remain subject to the terms of this Privacy Notice and our Terms of Use.

NOTE TO KIDS: Gaia Online is not for persons under the age of 13. If you are under 13 years of age, then we encourage you to visit other web sites -- there are lots of other great web sites for you.

NEVER DISPLAY ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT COULD BE USED TO FIND YOU IN THE REAL, OFF-LINE, WORLD -- for example, your full real name, mailing or home address, or phone numbers.
The Information Gaia Collects: (collectively referred to herein as "Member Information")

* Member-provided Information: You may provide to Gaia what is generally called "personally identifiable" information (including but not limited to your name, a Gaia Online user name, email address, postal mailing address, home/mobile telephone number, credit card number and billing information, etc.) when you register as a Member and when you participate in certain activities on Gaia Online. In addition, you may choose to send private messages to other Gaia Members or to post certain information to your public "profile" on Gaia Online such as your date of birth, general location, interests, occupation, web site URLs, videos, blogs, IM addresses, and comments.
* "Cookies" Information: When you visit Gaia Online, we may send one or more cookies -- small text files containing a string of alphanumeric characters -- to your computer. Gaia uses both session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie disappears after you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to Gaia Online. Persistent cookies can be removed. Please review your web browser "Help" file to learn the proper way to modify your cookie settings.
* "Automatically Collected" Information: When you participate in Gaia Online and, for example, if you play games, participate in forums or the Art Arena, spend your Gold, call persons with Gaia's internet calling feature, or open one of our HTML emails, we may automatically record certain information from your web browser by using different types of technology, including "clear gifs" or "web beacons." This "automatically collected" information may include unique "device IDs" (similar to IP addresses), Internet Protocol address ("IP Address"), web browser type, the web pages or sites that you visit just before or just after Gaia Online, the pages you view on our site, and the dates and times that you visit Gaia Online.

The Way Gaia Uses Information:

* When you choose to create a public profile on Gaia Online, you will post, at your option, certain personal information that will be publicly displayed to other Members on Gaia Online.
* Gaia uses the information that we collect to operate, maintain, enhance, and provide to you all of the features and services found on Gaia Online. We will use your email address, without further consent, for administrative purposes such as sending you account activation and "welcome" emails, notifying you of major Gaia Online updates, for customer service purposes, to address copyright infringement issues, or to contact you regarding any Gaia Online activities in which you are presently participating.
* Gaia uses your email address to send to you activity emails, newsletters, and, from time to time, notices about special activities, features, or items available on Gaia Online and, in some cases, sponsored by third-parties. You may opt-out of receiving such notices by indicating your preferences in the Edit Profile section of Gaia Online.
* Gaia uses all of the information that we collect to understand the usage trends and preferences of our Members, to improve the way Gaia Online works and looks, and to create new features and functionality.
* Gaia uses "automatically collected" information and "cookies" information to: (a) remember your information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit Gaia Online; (b) provide customized third-party advertisements, content, and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of third-party marketing campaigns; (d) monitor aggregate site usage metrics such as total number of visitors and pages viewed; and (e) track your entries, submissions, and status in any games, sweepstakes, and contests.

When Gaia Discloses Information:

* Gaia does not share your personally identifiable information with other organizations for their marketing or promotional uses without your express consent.
* Gaia may disclose Automatically Collected and other aggregate non-personally-identifiable information with interested third parties to assist such parties in understanding the usage and demographic patterns for certain programs, content, services, advertisements, promotions, and/or other functionality on Gaia Online.
* Gaia may disclose some types of Member Information to certain affiliated companies or other businesses or persons who provide web site hosting, maintenance and security services, fulfill orders, offer certain functionality, help improve our site and create new site features. We require that these parties process such information in compliance with this Privacy Notice, we authorize only a limited use of such information, and we require these parties to use appropriate confidentiality measures.
* Gaia may disclose Member Information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws (such as U.S. Copyright law) or respond to a court order, judicial or other government subpoena, or warrant. We may make such disclosures, in some cases, without providing Members notice.
* Gaia also reserves the right to disclose Member Information that we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to take precautions against liability; protect Gaia from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses; to investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations; to assist government enforcement agencies; to protect the security or integrity of Gaia Online; and to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of our Members or other persons.

Your Choices:

You may, of course, decline to share your personally-identifiable information with Gaia, in which case you will not be able to participate in many Gaia Online activities. You may update, correct, or delete your Member account information and email subscription preferences at any time by going to the Edit Profile section of Gaia Online; provided, however, that upon deletion of your account or profile, please note that some of your personal information, including billing and contact information, may remain in Gaia's systems for some limited period of time.

To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you account access or making corrections. HOWEVER, You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information at all times.
Third-party Advertisers, Links to Other Sites:

Gaia allows other companies, called third-party ad servers or ad networks, to serve advertisements within Gaia Online. These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to send, directly to your browser, the advertisements that appear within Gaia Online and they automatically receive your IP Address when this happens. Such third-party ad servers may also use other technologies (such as cookies, javascript, or web beacons) to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and to personalize their advertising content.

Gaia does not provide any personally identifiable information to these third-party ad servers or ad networks without your consent or except as part of a specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-in. However, please note that if an advertiser asks Gaia to show an advertisement to a certain audience (for example, males age 15 to 18) or audience segment (for example, males age 15 to 18 who have participated in certain community activities or games) and you respond to that advertisement, the advertiser or ad-server may conclude that you fit the description of the audience that they were trying to reach.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers or ad networks. Gaia's Privacy Notice does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites. Gaia reserves the right the add or remove third-party ad networks or ad servers in its discretion and Gaia may not at all times list such updated ad network or ad server partners in this Privacy Notice.

Currently, Gaia has relationships with the following third-party ad servers or ad networks:

* Tribal Fusion - http://www.tribalfusion.com/TribalFusion/privacy.html
* 24/7 RealMedia - http://www.247realmedia.com/privacy.html
* Ad.com - http://www.advertising.com/abt_privacy2.php
* Burst Media - http://burstmedia.com/isl/index.asp?page=privacy
* Casale - http://casalemedia.com/privacy.html
* ValueClickMedia - http://www.valueclickmedia.com/privacy.shtml
* TrafficMP - http://trafficmp.com/trafficmp/overview/privacy.asp
* Yahoo - http://docs.yahoo.com/info/privacy/us/yas.html
* Google - http://www.google.com/privacy.html
* Blue Lithium - http://www.bluelithium.com/privacy-policy.html
* EuroClick - http://www.euroclick.com/en/main.aspx?FrameID=PrivacyPolicy

Our Commitment to Data Security:

Gaia uses commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of Member Information. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of Member Information collected by Gaia, and you transmit such information at your own risk. Once we receive your Member Information, Gaia makes commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the security of our systems. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.

If Gaia learns of a security systems breach, then we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. Gaia may post a notice on Gaia Online if a security breach occurs. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive a free written notice of a security breach you should notify us at privacy@gaiaonline.com.
Our Commitment to Children's Privacy:

Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. For that reason, Gaia does not knowingly collect or maintain personally identifiable information on Gaia Online from persons under 13 years-of-age, and no part of Gaia Online is directed to persons under 13. If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use or access Gaia Online at any time or in any manner. If Gaia learns that personally-identifiable information of persons less than 13-years-of-age has been collected on Gaia without verifiable parental consent, then Gaia will take the appropriate steps to delete this information. If you are a parent or guardian and discover that your child under the age of 13 has obtained a Gaia Online account, then you may alert Gaia at privacy@gaiaonline.com and request that Gaia delete that child’s personal information from its systems.

Parents, the following are some resources that may help you in monitoring and limiting your childrens' access to certain types of material on the Internet. While Gaia does not endorse these products, we provide information about them as a public service to our Members.

* OnGuard Online, maintainted by the Federal Trade Commission: http://onguardonline.gov/socialnetworking.html
* Control Kids: http://www.controlkids.com
* Cyber Sitter: http://www.solidoak.com
* Net Nanny: http://www.netnanny.com

International Visitors:

Gaia Online is hosted in the United States and is intended for United States visitors. If you are visiting from the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that you are transferring your personal data to the United States and by providing your personal data you consent to that transfer.
In the Event of Merger or Sale:

In the event that Gaia is acquired by or merged with a third-party entity, we reserve the right, in any of these circumstances, to transfer or assign the information we have collected from Members as part of such merger, acquisition, sale, or other change of control.
Changes and Updates to this Privacy Notice:

This Privacy Notice may be revised periodically without further notice to you and this will be reflected by the "last modified" notice below. Please revisit this page to stay aware of any changes. In general, we only use your personal information in the manner described in the Privacy Notice in effect when we received that personal information. Your continued use of Gaia Online constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Notice and any future revisions.

For revisions to this Privacy Notice that may be materially less restrictive on our use or disclosure of personal information you have provided to us, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you and obtain your consent before implementing such revisions with respect to such information.
Effective Date, Date Last Modified:

Gaia Online Privacy Notice effective as of August 14, 2006

Gaia Online Privacy Notice last modified on January 23, 2006.
Gaia Contact Information:

Please contact Gaia with any questions or comments about this Privacy Notice, your personal information, our third-party disclosure practices, or your consent choices at privacy@gaiaonline.com or by postal mail at PO Box 612680, San Jose, CA 95161-2680. We will respond to your inquiry within 30 days of its receipt.
Disclaimer & Copyrights:

AniHQ, GAIA Interactive Inc, Studio XD, and all affiliated developers of GAIA Online will not be held responsible for (1) any content generated by GAIA Online users/members or (2) content that exists through any links posted on the GAIA Online website.