petaDishoom Policies
Safeguarding your privacy is serious business. That’s why petaDishoom’s policy is simple: Except as provided in this statement, petaDishoom will not disclose, sell or rent any personally identifiable information without proper consent.
You, the petaDishoom user, always have the final word on whether petaDishoom knows who you are. It is your choice whether you wish to share personally identifiable information with petaDishoom. Please use discretion when revealing personally identifiable information while using petaDishoom tools, as it may be collected and used by unauthorised third parties. Such activities are beyond the control of petaDishoom. In other words, if for some reason you post your home phone number on the petaDishoom boards (which, by the way, you should NOT do), you’re on your own.
Please take a minute to read our policy so that you understand your options and how petaDishoom collects, processes and shares information. If you have any questions about petaDishoom’s information practices, send an e-mail to us at Dishoom@petaindia.org. We reserve the right to remove any material posted at any time.
If you decide to join petaDishoom, registration is the only place where you are required to submit information about yourself. To become a petaDishoom member, you need to submit your e-mail address, gender, birth date and location.
We at petaDishoom want to be your number one destination on the Internet. To encourage your participation, your petaDishoom experience is personalised so that you are offered the services, products and information most relevant to you. This requires the collection of information to help distinguish you from the rest of the folks on petaDishoom. The forms are specially designed so that you don’t have to disclose any more information than is necessary to participate in a given activity or use a given tool.
Two kinds of information are collected by petaDishoom: anonymous and personally identifiable. Anonymous information is not associated with specific individuals. For example, petaDishoom may know how many people view this policy today, but we don’t necessarily know viewers names, addresses or birthdays. Personally identifiable information reveals who you are and/or how you can be contacted. It includes your name, address, phone number and e-mail address.
Below is a summary of the different ways that petaDishoom collects various kinds of information about members:
Registration (mandatory to be a petaDishoom member)
If you decide to join petaDishoom, registration is the only place where you will be required to submit information about yourself. To become a petaDishoom member, you need to complete a form with your e-mail address, gender, birthday and location. This information is used to provide you with more personalised service and to learn more about our audience demographics.
Only when you choose to participate in optional petaDishoom programmes or services will registration information be linked to information you submit for other purposes. This information is kept in petaDishoom’s database with your member name and other registration data. If you decide that you no longer want petaDishoom to have a certain piece of information about you, e-mail us at Dishoom@petaindia.org.
Your Profile (optional)
Information from registration will automatically be placed in your member profile. In addition, you can choose to tell everyone your hobbies, interests, likes and dislikes. You can fill out as much or as little of your profile as you want. The more you fill out, the more likely it is that you’ll be able to meet members based on things you have (or don’t have!) in common.
Public Forums (privacy warning)
Your decision to post in public areas will be regarded by petaDishoom as permission to contact you through your petaDishoom account.
One Last Thing to Keep in Mind
Whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information in public places, it can be collected and used by anyone. If you post personal information in public places, others may send you unsolicited e-mails. Always be smart about the information you provide online.
What are cookies, and how does petaDishoom use them?
The main function of cookies is to connect members with their stored account information so that petaDishoom can deliver better and more personalised service. Cookies do not enable the petaDishoom staff to access personally identifiable information that you haven’t already provided.
Anonymous information is collected by petaDishoom through cookies. A cookie is a small piece of data containing a unique identification number that is sent to your browser from a Web server and is stored on your computer’s hard drive. The unique ID number identifies your browser to petaDishoom’s computers whenever you visit. This helps petaDishoom deliver better and more personalised service. Cookies are also used by petaDishoom to estimate petaDishoom’s audience size for advertisers; to track the number of entries in petaDishoom promotions, sweepstakes and contests; to identify the areas of the site you visit; to determine the kinds of merchandise and prizes that are preferred; to hold session information and to track user preferences.
Cookies are part of the technology implemented by your browser. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to either notify you when you have received a cookie or to refuse them all together.
Cookies help preserve the petaDishoom identity you have created while logged on. If you choose not to accept cookies, you cannot participate as a registered, signed-in member.
How does petaDishoom use member information?
Two things drive petaDishoom's decisions regarding the use of information collected from petaDishoom members: 1) improving the user experience by offering personalised services and content and 2) market research.
Information provided directly by you or obtained through cookies or third parties may be analysed by petaDishoom to direct services and content based on your interests. This is done in the aggregate (for example, let's say half of petaDishoom's members are females who visit the boards more than any other part of the site) and at the individual level (for example, petaDishoom User1234 mostly visits the “Your Life” section). Again, this helps the staff produce and feature tools and content appropriately tailored to your interests.
Wherever you provide us with your contact details, we may share these with PETA India's international affiliates in order to keep you apprised of developments in your part of the world. If you don't want your information to be given to other organizations, please contact petaDishoom's policy manager.
What is petaDishoom’s information retention policy?
To preserve the integrity of our databases, standard procedure calls for us to retain information submitted by members for an indefinite length of time. Your submissions are understood by petaDishoom as consent to store all your information in one place for this indefinite length of time, if we so wish. When required by law, we will nullify (scramble so that it is unrecognisable) member information. We will also respond to written member requests to nullify account information. If you wish to make such a request, which requires that we verify your identity, or if you have any questions regarding this policy, contact Dishoom@petaindia.org.
How does petaDishoom secure collected information?
Your petaDishoom profile is password-protected so that only you and authorised petaDishoom employees have access to your account information. In order to maintain this protection, do not give your password to anyone. If anyone asks you for information and claims to be a member of the petaDishoom staff, check his or her member profile – it will say whether he or she is a staff member. Also, if you share a computer, you should sign out of your petaDishoom account and close the browser window before someone else logs on. This will protect your information on public terminals.
Every effort is made by petaDishoom to ensure that your information is secure on its system. Extremely sensitive information, like credit card numbers, is always transmitted in encrypted form. Only certain authorised petaDishoom employees can access this information if it’s relevant to their job duties. We periodically review Web security to make sure that all standards and practices are up to date and relevant.
Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed 100 per cent secure. As a result, petaDishoom cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.
What is petaDishoom’s opt-in/out policy?
During registration, you choose whether to receive correspondence from petaDishoom and whether you want to participate in a variety of petaDishoom programmes. This information lives on your profile where you can, at any point, easily edit it to indicate that you have changed your mind. If you purchase anything through petaDishoom, we may occasionally contact you with information about special events, sales and activities. You always have the option to ask petaDishoom not to contact you with this information again. As for promotions, contests, submission opportunities and programmes, you will not be included unless you opt-in.
If you receive unsolicited e-mail from a petaDishoom domain, please contact us at Dishoom@petaindia.org.
How can petaDishoom members edit their information?
Giving you the ability to access and edit your personal information is very important to petaDishoom (after all, it’s yours). To update your personal info, please contact Dishoom@petaindia.org.
So that we can protect the integrity of sensitive data, there are certain pieces of information, such as your birthday, that you cannot alter yourself. For example, because children are not allowed to register as petaDishoom members, we need to take reasonable measures to preserve the accuracy of our members’ ages. Go to petaDishoom’s “Help” section to find out how to change information that you cannot access through your profile.
Our databases automatically update any personal information you edit in your profile or that you request we edit. Information transmitted through boards, miniboards and petaDishoom “Notes” remains in our databases. Keep this in mind if you decide to communicate personal information through any of these applications.
What action has petaDishoom taken to protect children’s privacy?
People ages 15 and over are the intended audience of petaDishoom. Our registration process is intentionally designed to identify children under 15 years of age. We have also made an effort to specifically limit petaDishoom’s appeal to people of age 15 and older. We will not knowingly collect any information from children under 13.
If it comes to our attention that a member has revealed on petaDishoom that he or she is under 13, a member of petaDishoom’s staff will immediately close the account.
Note to parents: If your child is under 13 and has become a petaDishoom member using a false age, please notify us at Dishoom@petaindia.org so that we may immediately close the account and nullify all personally identifiable information collected from your child. If your child is under the age of 18 and you would like to know more about our site, information practices, stored information on your child or how to close your child’s account, contact petaDishoom. In both instances, you will need to provide your full name, address, phone number, child’s full name, petaDishoom member name and possibly other information so that your identity can be verified for the protection of the member’s privacy.
Notification of Changes
This privacy policy is periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary. It might change as petaDishoom updates and expands its services. You will be contacted by petaDishoom via e-mail and post notification if there are any material changes in its privacy practices. We encourage you to read the privacy policy periodically.
