Privacy Policy

CrowdBurst is here to serve you, not harvest your personal information. Here's the gist of our privacy policy: we use the information you give us only for the purposes you expect (like sending or asking for advice), and we're committed to keeping it secure and private.

Want more details? Keep reading.

What is the purpose of this Privacy Policy?

This privacy policy addresses the use of your personally identifiable information (PII) on CrowdBurst.com. PII, as used in US privacy law and information security, is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context.

What personal information do we collect from you?

We may collect the following types of information:

  • the email address of the person you want to send advice to or ask advice from, so that we can get in touch with them on your behalf;
  • information that you provide to us when you sign up for the site and complete a profile, including name, email, title and company, etc.;
  • your email address, if you sign up for our newsletter;
  • posts, comments, surveys, and other content that you create on our site;
  • other information you post on our site for publication on the Internet, like profile pictures;
  • information you send us over email, on social media, or through the website's Feedback page;
  • (non-PII) technical information about your browser, location, operating system, etc., to improve your experience on our site;
  • (non-PII) navigation information about your page visits, click-throughs, length of visit, etc., to improve our site's layout, organization, and services; and
  • (non-PII) referral information about how you came to our site, to improve our marketing skillz.

When do we collect personal information?

We may collect personal information from you when you

  • register on our site and create a profile;
  • subscribe to our newsletter;
  • create surveys, posts, comments, or other content on the site; and/or
  • send or ask for advice (in which case we'll need somebody's email address to send it to).

How do we use your information?

We may use the information we collect from you in order to:

  • personalize your experience on the site;
  • contact you when someone sends you advice;
  • send you occasional important information about changes to our service or to your account;
  • send you other email communications you have specifically requested (and can opt out of at any time);
  • provide Google Analytics or other third parties with non-identifiable statistical information about site usage, to improve user experience;
  • provide other third parties with anonymized, statistical information about our users, for research or other purposes;
  • communicate with you in response to an inquiry or complaint; and
  • enforce our Terms and Conditions.

How do we protect your information?

Your personal information is secure. Our site is built with the industry standard Ruby on Rails framework, which has been thoroughly tested and deployed worldwide on thousands of popular sites. Your data is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a small number of CrowdBurst employees, contractors, and/or partners who have special access rights to our system, and are required to keep the information confidential. All of your interaction with our site is encrypted via state-of-the-art Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology (look for the lock in your browser's url bar). Your personal data is stored on secure, password-protected, firewalled servers on the Heroku platform.

Of course, no security system is perfect; you do accept some level of risk when you use our site. Should we experience a data breach on our servers, we will notify you via email and in-site notification within seven business days.

Do we use cookies?

Obviously. Everyone uses cookies! Cookies are not (inherently) evil; they're an integral part of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) the web is built on. Specifically, cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site's or service provider's systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information (like your user id, if you're logged in). Cookies are the only way we can remember who you are as you navigate from page to page in our site. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can improve our service by seeing what works and what doesn't.

We use cookies to:

  • keep you logged in between visits (if you choose);
  • understand and save your preferences for future visits;
  • ensure the security of your account, and prevent cross-site scripting and other attacks on our site;
  • provide continuity as you navigate our site; for instance, if you leave the Send Advice page to look for a survey; and
  • compile aggregate (non-personal) data about site traffic and site interactions in order to offer better site experiences and tools in the future. (We may also use trusted third party services, like Google Analytics, that track this information on our behalf.)

You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser's Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies. If you disable cookies in your browser, some features of the site may no longer work, but you'll probably get by.

Under what circumstances will we disclose your information?

We may disclose your information to our own employees, contractors, or other service providers to the extent required to operate and maintain our website. In extraordinary circumstances, we might also release your information to comply with the law; participate in pending or ongoing legal proceedings; enforce our Terms of Use or other site policies; protect ours or others' rights, property, or safety; or appease the awakened dread Cthulhu.

What information do you make public?

Some (not all) information that you provide on your personal profile, or when you create content on the site, will be publicly available on the Internet. We can't be responsible for what others do with that information once it's public. This public information may include:

  • your name;
  • your username;
  • your profile picture;
  • your location;
  • your Listed Surveys, if you have any;
  • your description or other information you provide in your 'About Me' section;
  • your skin thickness level;
  • other miscellaneous profile information;
  • any surveys you create to list publicly; and
  • posts or comments on other people's posts.

If you're ever surprised by what we share, let us know. You can change this information at any time, or delete your profile entirely :(

What information do you disclose to third parties?

We will not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information unless we provide you with advance notice. (We have no plans to do this and can't really imagine why we ever would.) This does not include website hosting partners and other parties who assist us in operating our website so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may provide non-personally identifiable information (like click-throughs and pages visited) to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Do you include links to third parties?

Our site includes some links to products and services offered by a select few third parties who we really dig (for instance, on our Resources page). These third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. If they're not up to snuff, let us know.

How do we comply with the California Online Privacy Protection Act?

CalOPPA is the first state law in the nation to require commercial websites and online services to post a privacy policy. The law's reach stretches well beyond California to require a person or company in the United States (and conceivably the world) that operates websites collecting personally identifiable information from California consumers to post a conspicuous privacy policy on its website stating exactly the information being collected and those individuals with whom it is being shared, and to comply with this policy.

In accordance with CalOPPA we agree to the following:

  • Users can visit our site anonymously.
  • Once this privacy policy is created, we will add a link to it on our home page, or as a minimum on the first significant page after entering our website.
  • Our Privacy Policy link includes the word 'Privacy', and can be easily be found on the page specified above.
  • Users will be notified of any privacy policy changes on our Privacy Policy Page.
  • Users are able to change their personal information by editing their account on the website, or by emailing us to request a change.

How do we comply with the COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act)?

We do not market to children under 13. Go away, kids!

How do we comply with Fair Information Practices?

The Fair Information Practices Principles form the backbone of privacy law in the United States and the concepts they include have played a significant role in the development of data protection laws around the globe. Understanding the Fair Information Practice Principles and how they should be implemented is critical to comply with the various privacy laws that protect personal information.

We agree to the individual redress principle, which requires that individuals have a right to pursue legally enforceable rights against data collectors and processors who fail to adhere to the law. This principle requires not only that individuals have enforceable rights against data users, but also that individuals have recourse to courts or a government agency to investigate and/or prosecute non-compliance by data processors.

How does our site handle do not track signals?

Some browsers can indicate that they do not wish to be tracked by sending a special Do Not Track (DNT) HTTP header to a website's server. Unfortunately, support for the DNT mechanism is limited. We don't honor DNT because we use Google Analytics, which ignores it. Hopefully someone more important than we are, probably in California, will sort this out soon.

Does our site allow third party behavioral tracking?

No, we don't allow any third party behavioral tracking.

Who owns this site?

This website is owned and operated by USBling, LLC, a Georgia Limited Liability Company. If you really want to, you can look up our address with the Georgia Secretary of State. Frankly, we'd rather you just sent us an email.

Is CrowdBurst basically evil, with some good tendencies, or basically good, with some evil tendencies?

Basically good, with some evil tendencies. (We try to keep those to a minimum.)