Last updated: December 12, 2009

This Privacy Policy applies to your use of the websites located at www.designersand.com (collectively, the "Designers & Sites"), but not does apply to any third party sites that may be linked to them, or any relationships you may have with the businesses listed on the Designers & Sites.

The terms "we", "us", and "Designers &" refer to Designers And Us. The terms "you" and "your" refer to you, as a user of any of the Designers & Sites. The term "personal information" means information that you provide to us which personally identifies you to be contacted or identified, such as your name, phone number, email address, and any other data that is tied to such information.

Because our business needs may change over time, Designers & reserves the right, at any time and from time to time, to change, modify, add or remove portions from this Privacy Policy.

BY USING THE DESIGNERS & SITES, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THESE TERMS, PLEASE DO NOT USE THE DESIGNERS & SITES.

I. Information We Collect and How We Use It
We use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that the collection of personal information is limited to that which is necessary to fulfill the purposes identified below. If we use your information in a manner different than the purpose for which it is collected, then we will ask you for your consent prior to such use.

Account information. If you create an account to take advantage of the full range of services offered on the Designers & Sites, we ask for and record personal information such as your name and email address. We use your email address to send you updates and news, and contact you on behalf of other users (such as other users who send you compliments, personal messages, or favorite reviews). You may opt-out of receiving further e-mails by following the instructions contained in Designers & e-mails.

Submissions. We store and may publicly display your submissions in order to provide the services that we offer. When we display your submissions, we do so together with your account name ("Username"). The term "submissions" refers to the information that you submit or post to the Designers & Sites for public display, such as business ratings, reviews, compliments, and the information that you display as part of your account profile.

Feedback. If you contact us to provide feedback, register a complaint, or ask a question, we will record any personal information and other content that you provide in your communication so that we can effectively respond to your communication.

Activity. We record information relating to your use of the Designers & Sites, such as the searches you undertake, the pages you view, your browser type, IP address, requested URL, referring URL, and timestamp information. We use this type of information to administer the Designers & Sites and provide the highest possible level of service to you. We also use this information in the aggregate to perform statistical analyses of user behavior and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of the Designers & Sites. You cannot be identified from this aggregate information.

Cookies. We send cookies to your computer in order to uniquely identify your browser and improve the quality of our service. The term "cookies" refers to small pieces of information that a website sends to your computer's hard drive while you are viewing the site. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them). Persistent cookies can be removed by following your browser help file directions. If you choose to disable cookies, some areas of the Designers & Sites may not work properly or at all.

Enforcement. We may use the information we collect in connection with your use of the Designers & Sites (including your personal information) in order to investigate, enforce, and apply our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

II. Transfer of Information
We may distribute your submissions to third parties, as permitted pursuant to our Terms of Service. The third parties may in turn publicly display or publish your submissions in connection with their own websites and media platforms. When we distribute your submissions to third parties, we typically include your Username (but not your personal information unless you include your personal information in your submissions).

We may share your personal information with third parties to provide you with services that we offer through the Designers & Sites, conduct quality assurance testing, facilitate creation of accounts, provide technical and customer support, or provide specific services, in accordance with your instructions. These third parties are required not to use your personal information other than to provide the services requested by you.

We may share your personal information with our subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under a common control (collectively, "Affiliates") that we may have now or in the future, in which case we will require them to honor this Privacy Policy. If another company acquires our company or our assets, that company will possess your personal information, and will assume the rights and obligations with respect to that information as described in this Privacy Policy.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) take action regarding suspected illegal activities; (b) enforce or apply our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy; (c) comply with legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order; or (d) protect our rights, reputation, and property, or that of our users, affiliates, or the public. Please note that we are not required to question or contest the validity of any search warrant, subpoena or other similar governmental request that we receive.

We may disclose information in the aggregate to third parties relating to user behavior in connection with actual or prospective business relationship with those third parties, such as advertisers and content distributors. For example, we may disclose the number of users that have been exposed to, or clicked on, advertising banners.

We use third party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit the Designers & Sites. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.

III. Third-party Advertisers, Links to Other Sites
The Designers & Sites may contain links to third party websites to which we have no affiliation. Except as set forth herein, we do not share your personal information with those third parties, and are not responsible for their privacy practices.

Designers & may allow other companies, called third-party ad servers or ad networks, to serve advertisements within the Site. These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to send, directly to your browser, the advertisements and links that appear on the Site. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. They may also use other technologies (such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons) to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and to personalize the advertising content you see.

Designers & 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 or opt-out. However, please note that if an advertiser asks Designers & to show an advertisement to a certain audience (for example, men ages 18-34) or audience segment (for example, men ages 18-34 who work with particular products) and you respond to that advertisement, the advertiser or ad-server may conclude that you fit the description of the audience they are trying to reach. The advertiser may also use information regarding your use of the Site, such as the number of times you viewed an ad (but not any personally identifiable information), to determine which ads to deliver to you.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers or ad networks for more information on their practices and for instructions on how to opt-out of certain practices if you so desire. The Designers & Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

IV. Controlling Your Personal Data
To the extent you include personal information in your submissions (such as your last name or e-mail address), third parties may be able to identify you, associate you with your user account, and contact you. Third parties can also associate you with your user account using the member lookup feature on the Designers & Sites. Please do not include information in your submissions that you expect to keep private. In addition, you can reduce the risk of being personally identified by choosing a fictitious account name, though doing so could detract from the credibility of your submissions.

As a registered Designers & user, you can modify some of your personal information and your privacy preferences by accessing the "Account" section of this website. Upon your request, Designers & will use commercially reasonable efforts to close your account and cease displaying your submissions on the Designers & Sites; nevertheless, we may still retain your personal information in our systems.

V. Security
Your account is password protected. We use industry standard measures to protect the personal information that is stored in our database. We limit the access to your personal information to those employees and contractors who need access to perform their job function, such as our customer service personnel. If you have any questions about the security on the Designers & Sites, please contact us. Although we take appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that your personal information will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.

You hereby acknowledge that Designers & 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.

VI. E-mails and Opt-out
Registered and unregistered users who receive e-mails from us may opt-out of receiving further e-mails by following the instructions contained in Designers & e-mails. Despite your indicated e-mail preferences, we may send you notices of any updates to our Terms of Use or Privacy Policy.

VII. Terms and Modifications to this Privacy Policy
We may modify this Privacy Policy at any time, and we will post any new versions on this page. If we make any material changes in the way we use your personal information, we will notify you by sending an e-mail to the last e-mail address you provided to us and/or by prominently posting notice of the changes on our website. Any such changes will be effective upon the earlier of thirty (30) calendar days following our dispatch of an e-mail notice to you or thirty (30) calendar days following our posting of notice of the changes on our website. These changes will be effective immediately for new users of the Designers & Sites. Please note that at all times you are responsible for updating your personal information to provide us with your most current e-mail address. In the event that the last e-mail you have provided us is not valid, or for any reason is not capable of delivering to you the notice described above, our dispatch of the e-mail containing such notice will nonetheless constitute effective notice of the changes described in the notice. In any event, changes to this Privacy Policy may affect our use of personal information that you provided us prior to our notification to you of the changes. If you do not wish to permit changes in our use of your personal information, you must notify us prior to the effective date of the changes that you wish to deactivate your account with us. Continued use of the Designers & Sites following notice of such changes shall indicate your acknowledgement of such changes and agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions of such changes. Your continued use of the Designers & Sites following the posting of any changes to this policy means you accept such changes. This Privacy Policy is effective as of the date indicated at the beginning of the policy. Please review this Privacy Policy from time to time and before you provide any personal information to the Site.

VIII. Dispute Resolution
If you believe that Designers & has not adhered to this Privacy Policy you may write to the Designers & Privacy Office at the following address:
Designers & Us
Privacy Officer
241 Centre Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10013
United States of America
Email:info@designersand.com

In your letter, please describe in as much detail as possible ways in which you believe the Privacy Policy has not been complied with. We will investigate your complaint promptly.

IX. Contacting the Website & Access to Your Personal Information
Upon written request, subject to certain exceptions, Designers & will inform you of the existence, use, and disclosure of your personal information and will give you access to that information. Access requests should be sent to our Privacy Officer, using the contact information above. When requesting access to your personal information, we may request specific information from you to enable us to confirm your identity and right to access, as well as to search for and provide the personal information that we hold about you. We may charge you a fee to access your personal information to cover our costs; however, we will advise you of any fee in advance, which will be no more than any maximum fee prescribed by law.

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, you can contact us using the contact information listed above.