Scope. This Privacy Policy describes how we handle your personal information for our services on the BarterThing.com (“BarterThing”) websites. It applies generally to the BarterThing.com website and other related websites where this policy appears in the footer of the page.
Our partner’s and affiliate’s privacy practices are similar to those described in this Privacy Policy. By accepting the Privacy Policy and the
Terms of Service Agreement in registration, you expressly consent to our collection, storage, use and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is effective upon acceptance for new users.
Collection of Information. Our primary purpose in collecting personal information is to provide you with a more efficient experience when using our Site. You can browse our sites without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself. Once you give us your personal information, you are not anonymous to us. If you choose to provide us with personal information, you consent to the transfer and storage of that information on our servers located in the United States. You agree that we may use your personal information to:
- Analyze use of and improve our website, products and services;
- Provide the services and support you request;
- Resolve disputes, collect fees, and troubleshoot problems;
- Prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities;
- Enforce our Terms of Service;
- Customize the advertising and content that you see on our website;
We also may collect other types of information in the following ways when you visit our website:
- Our server logs automatically collect information, such as your IP address, your browser type and language, and the date and time of your visit, which helps us track users’ movements around our site and understand trends. This may also include statistics on page views, traffic to and from the sites, ad data and standard web log information as well as information from other companies, such as demographic and traffic data; and
- We may assign your computer one or more cookies which may collect information to facilitate access to our website and to personalize your online experience.
- We may use standard Internet tools, such web beacons, which collect information that tracks your use of our website and enables us to customize our services and advertisements.
- We may collect information on community discussions, chats, dispute resolution, correspondence through our sites, and correspondence sent to us;
- We may also collect information on other supplemental information from third parties (for example, if you incur a debt to BarterThing, we will generally conduct a credit check by obtaining additional information about you from a credit bureau, as permitted by law; or if the information you provide cannot be verified, we may ask you to send us additional information, such as your driver license, credit card statement, or a recent utility bill or other information confirming your address, or to answer additional questions online to help verify your information).
Disclosure of Information. We will not share your personal information with others except as indicated below. We may disclose personal information to respond to legal requirements, enforce our policies, respond to claims that a listing or other content violates the rights of others, or protect anyone's rights, property, or safety.
We may also share your personal information with:
- Service providers under contract who help with our business operations (such as fraud investigations, bill collection, affiliate and rewards programs and co-branded credit cards).
- Law enforcement or other governmental officials, in response to a verified request relating to a criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity. In such events, we will disclose information relevant to the investigation, such as name, city, state, zip code, telephone number, email address, User ID history, IP address, fraud complaints, and bidding and listing history.
- Other business entities, should we plan to merge with or be acquired by that business entity. (Should such a combination occur, we will require that the new combined entity follow this privacy policy with respect to your personal information. If your personal information will be used contrary to this policy, you will receive prior notice.)
Your Use of Information on BarterThing. BarterThing enables you to share personal information to complete transactions. We encourage you to disclose your privacy practices and respect the privacy of other users. We encourage you to evaluate the privacy and security policies of your trading partner before entering into a transaction and choosing to share your information. To help protect your privacy, we allow only limited access to other users' contact information to facilitate your transactions. When users have confirmed a barter, they may have access to each other's first name, User ID, and email address. In all cases, you must give other users a chance to remove themselves from your database and a chance to review what information you have collected about them.
You agree to use user information only for:
- BarterThing transaction-related purposes that are not unsolicited commercial messages;
- using services offered through BarterThing (e.g. escrow, insurance, shipping and fraud complaints), or
- other purposes that a user expressly chooses.
Cookies. We use "cookies" (small files placed on your hard drive) on certain of our pages to help analyze our web page flow; customize our services, content and advertising; measure promotional effectiveness, and promote trust and safety.
A few important things you should know about cookies are that:
- We offer certain features that are available only through the use of cookies.
- We use cookies to help identify you and maintain your signed-in status.
- Most cookies are "session cookies," meaning that they are automatically deleted from your hard drive at the end of a session.
- You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, although doing so may interfere with your use of some of our sites or services.
- You may encounter cookies from third parties on certain pages of the sites that we do not control. (For example, if you view a web page created by another user, there may be a cookie placed by that web page.)
Security. We take appropriate physical, electronic, and other security measures to help safeguard personal information from unauthorized access, alteration, or disclosure. We treat data as an asset that must be protected and use lots of tools (encryption, passwords, physical security, etc.) to protect your personal information against unauthorized access and disclosure. However, no system can be completely secure. Therefore, although we take steps to secure your information, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personal information, searches, or other communications will always remain secure.
Reviewing and Changing Your Personal Information. You can see, review and change most of your personal information by signing on to BarterThing. Generally, we will not manually modify your personal information because it is very difficult to verify your identity remotely. You must promptly update your personal information if it changes or is inaccurate. Once you make a public posting, you may not be able to change or remove it. Upon your request, we will close your account and remove your personal information from view as soon as reasonably possible, based on your account activity and in accordance with applicable law. We do retain personal information from closed accounts to comply with law, prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our BarterThing
Terms of Service, and take other actions otherwise permitted by law.
Third Parties. Except as otherwise expressly included in this Privacy Policy, this document addresses only the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. If you disclose your information to others, whether they are bidders, buyers or sellers on our sites or other sites throughout the internet, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the information you disclose to them. BarterThing does not control the privacy policies of third parties, and you are subject to the privacy policies of those third parties where applicable. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.
General
We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time by posting the amended terms on this site. All amended terms automatically take effect immeditately. In addition, we will notify you through email if the terms of this Policy change materially. If you have questions, please contact us online using the
Contact Us link at the top of the home page.