600block Privacy Policy

The effective date of this agreement is March 24, 2008.

600block's Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand how we collect and use the personal information you decide to share when using 600block, located at www.600block.com and its directly associated domains (collectively, "600block" or "Website"). For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, a "user" is defined as someone using 600block, and a "friend" is defined as someone you have explicitly invited to share local places with you.

By using or accessing 600block, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy. You should visit this page periodically to review any changes to the Privacy Policy.

Information We Collect

When you visit 600block, we collect two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose and website usage information collected as you interact with our website.

When you enter 600block, we collect information about your activity on this website that you do not explicitly submit to us, including your browser type, IP address, requested URL, referring URL, and timestamp. This information is gathered for all 600block visitors.

When you register with 600block, you provide us with certain personal information, such as your name, email address, location, date of birth and any other personal or preference information.

When you use 600block, you may setup a personal profile, establish personal relationships, perform searches and queries, save your favorite places, rate and review local places, and transmit other information through various channels. We collect and store this information so that we can offer you a personalized website service. For example, we maintain a list of your favorite places and friends so you can easily access them when you return to the website.

We also collect information in the form of the content that you submit as you use the website, such as photos and reviews of local places (“User Content” as defined in the 600block Terms of Use).

If you choose to use our invitation service to tell a friend about our site, we will ask you for information needed to send the invitation, such as your friend's email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the site. We store this information to send this one-time invitation, to register a friend connection if your invitation is accepted, and to track the success of our referral program.

Any improper collection or misuse of information provided on 600block is a violation of the 600block Terms of Service and should be reported to us immediately.

How We Use Your Information

When you register with 600block, you create your own profile and privacy settings. Your profile information, including your first name and last initial, profile photos, list of favorite places, and reviews are displayed to all users. However, your public profile does not display certain private information, including your full name, email address, zip code and date of birth.

Other members will be able to view your first name, last initial and profile picture when searching for your email address. This is primarily so your friends can find you and send a friend request.

Information such as your full name, profile photo and any personally identifiable information you have included in your reviews may be shown to friends or other users primarily in conjunction with reviews you have contributed. If a person is a friend they may be able to see your name or email address in their list of friends.

As a registered member, you can create a list of your favorite local places, which we display on your public profile. Other users may be able to view what places you have added and also view other members who have added that specific place to their profile.

Browser-type related information, IP address, requested URL, referring URL, and timestamp data help us diagnose problems with our server, administer 600block, and otherwise provide the highest possible level of service to you. In addition, we use this information to perform statistical analyses of user behavior and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of the site and to inform advertisers of such information as well as the number of users that have been exposed to, or clicked on, their advertising banners.

We may occasionally use your full name and email address to send you notifications regarding new services offered by 600block that we think you may find valuable. 600block may send you service-related announcements from time to time through the general operation of the service. For instance, if a friend sends you a new message, or someone posts a note on your profile, you may receive an email alerting you to that fact. Generally, you may opt out of such emails, though 600block reserves the right to send you notices about your account even if you opt out of all voluntary email notifications.

Transfer of Information
We do not provide contact information to third party marketers without your permission. We only share your information with third parties under the following limited circumstances:

We may sell your reviews to third parties. Your first name and last initial, profile photo, and any personally identifiable information you have included in your reviews may be transferred to such third parties and displayed on their websites in connection with such third parties’ publication of your reviews.

We may aggregate personal information from all of our users and provide that information in the aggregate to other parties, including advertisers, for marketing and promotional purposes. However, if we do so, that information will not be in a form that will allow any third party to identify you personally.

We may provide information to service providers to help us bring you the services we offer. Specifically, we may use third parties to facilitate our business, such as to host the service at a co-location facility for servers, to send out email updates about 600block, to remove repetitive information from our user lists, to process payments for products or services, or to provide search results or links (including sponsored links). In connection with these offerings and business operations, our service providers may have access to your personal information for use for a limited time in connection with these business activities. Where we utilize third parties for the processing of any personal information, we implement reasonable contractual and technical protections limiting the use of that information to the 600block-specified purposes.

We may be required to disclose user information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We do not reveal information until we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the 600block service or using the 600block name, or to prevent imminent bodily harm. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.

If the ownership of all or substantially all of the 600block business, or individual business units owned by 600block, Inc., were to change, your user information may be transferred to the new owner so the service can continue operations. In such an event, 600block will notify you before information about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy, we do not sell, rent, share, trade or give away any of your personal information.

Links
600block may contain links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other web sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by 600block.

Use of Cookies
Like most websites, 600block requires cookies to function properly. Cookies are small text files that reside on a user's computer and identify you as a unique user. We use session ID cookies to confirm that users are logged in. By default, we use a persistent cookie that stores your login ID (but not your password) to make it easier for you to login when you come back to 600block. You can remove or block this cookie using the settings in your browser if you want to disable this convenience feature. You should be aware that 600block cannot control the use of cookies by advertisers or any information advertisers may gather from their use of cookies.

Controlling Your Personal Information
600block users should be aware that voluntarily disclosing personally identifiable information (e.g., user name, e-mail address) via reviews, messages, forums, postings, or in other areas of the 600block site, that information, along with any substantive information disclosed in your communication, can be collected and correlated and used by third parties and may result in unsolicited messages from other posters or third parties. Such activities are beyond the control of 600block. Please do not post any personal information on the 600block site or in other areas that you expect to keep private.

Changing or Removing Information
Access and control over most personal information on 600block is readily available through the profile editing tools. 600block users may modify or delete any of their profile information at any time by logging into their account. Information will be updated immediately. Individuals who wish to deactivate their 600block account may do so by contacting us. Removed information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time but will not be generally available to members of 600block.

Where you make use of the communication features of the service to share information with other individuals on 600block, however, (e.g., sending a personal message to another 600block user) you generally cannot remove such communications.

Security
600block takes appropriate precautions to protect our users' information. Your account information is located on a secured server behind a firewall. We limit the access to your information to those employees who need access to perform their job function such as our customer service representatives. Because email and instant messaging are not recognized as secure communications, we request that you not send private information to us by email or instant messaging services. You hereby acknowledge that 600block is not responsible for any intercepted information sent via the Internet, and you hereby release us from any and all claims arising out of or related to the use of intercepted information in any unauthorized manner. If you have any questions about the security of 600block website, please contact us at privacy@600block.com.

Emails and Opt-out
At this time, registered members cannot opt-out of personal messages initiated by friends and users. However, 600block users may opt-out of receiving emails initiated by 600block by following the instructions contained in all emails.

Third Party Advertising
Advertisements that appear on 600block are sometimes delivered (or "served") directly to users by third party advertisers. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. These third party advertisers may also download cookies to your computer, or use other technologies such as JavaScript and "web beacons" (also known as "1x1 gifs") to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. Doing this allows the advertising network to recognize your computer each time they send you an advertisement in order to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. In this way, they may compile information about where individuals using your computer or browser saw their advertisements and determine which advertisements are clicked. 600block does not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed by the third party advertisers. Third party advertisers have no access to your contact information stored on 600block unless you choose to share it with them.

This privacy policy covers the use of cookies by 600block and does not cover the use of cookies or other tracking technologies by any of its advertisers.

Children Under Age 13
600block does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register. If you are under 13, please do not attempt to register for 600block or send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under age 13 may provide any personal information to or on 600block. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us privacy@600block.com.

Terms of Use, Notices and Revisions
Your use of 600block, and any disputes arising from it, is subject to this Privacy Policy as well as our Terms of Use and all of its dispute resolution provisions including arbitration, limitation on damages and choice of law. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use at any time. Non-material changes and clarifications will take effect immediately, and material changes will take effect within 30 days of their posting on this site. If we make changes, we will post them and will indicate at the top of this page the policy's new effective date. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or through notice on our home page. We encourage you to refer to this policy on an ongoing basis so that you understand our current privacy policy. Unless stated otherwise, our current privacy policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account.

Contacting the Web Site
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the privacy practices of this website, or if you want to exercise any of the rights that you are given under this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@600block.com. You may also contact us by mail at PO Box 6022, Baltimore, MD 21231.