Privacy Policy
Last Updated: January 14, 2008
Your privacy is HauteNet's top concern. We work hard to earn and keep your trust, so we adhere to the following principles to protect your privacy:
- We will never rent or sell your personally identifiable information to third-parties for marketing purposes.
- We will never share your contact information with another user, without your consent.
- Any sensitive information that you provide will be secured with all industry standard protocols and technology.
Notice of all changes that materially affect ways in which your personally identifiable data may be used or shared will be posted in updates to our Privacy Policy. If you continue to use the HauteNet service after notice of changes have been sent to you or published on our site, you hereby provide your consent to the changed practices.
Please read this Privacy Policy to learn more about:
- what personally identifiable information of yours is collected by HauteNet.
- how the information is used.
- with whom the information may be shared.
- how you can access and change your HauteNet account information.
- what security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information collected by HauteNet.
- how to contact us.
Information Collection
Registration:
In order to become a HauteNet user, you must first create an account on this website. To create an account you are required to provide the following contact information: name, email address, country, ZIP/postal code and/or city name, a brief summary of your professional background (main specialty & networking objectives), and choose a password.
Profile Information:
Once a user, you may provide additional information in the Profile section describing your skills, professional experience, networking objectives and more. Providing additional information beyond what is required at registration is entirely optional, but enables you to better identify yourself and find new opportunities with the HauteNet service.
Information About Your Contacts
In order to invite others to connect with you directly on HauteNet, you will either enter their names and email addresses manually or upload this information from your email address book. This information will only be viewable by you and will not be searchable by other HauteNet users. The information will be used by HauteNet to send your invitation including a message that you write. The names and email addresses of people that you invite will be used only to send your invitation and reminders.
All information that you enter or upload about your contacts will be covered by the same terms of this Privacy Policy as cover your own personally identifiable information.
Cookies & Log Files:
Like most websites, HauteNet uses cookies and web log files to track site usage. A cookie is a tiny data file which resides on your computer which allows HauteNet to recognize you as a user when you return to our site using the same computer and web browser. Unfortunately, if your browser settings do not allow cookies, you will not be able to use most features of the HauteNet website.
One type of cookie, known as a "persistent" cookie, is set once you've signed in to your HauteNet account. The next time you visit the HauteNet website, the persistent cookie will allow us to recognize you as an existing user so you will not need to sign in before using the service. In order to access or change any of your private information, however, you must sign in securely again with your password even if your computer contains the persistent cookie. Additionally, if you sign out of the HauteNet site you will need to re-enter your password the next time you visit in order to sign in to your account. Another type of cookie, called a "session" cookie, is used to identify a particular visit to the HauteNet site. Session cookies expire after a short time or when you close your web browser.
Due to communications standards on the Internet, when you visit the HauteNet website we automatically receive the URL of the website from which you came and the site to which you go when you leave the HauteNet website. We also receive the Internet protocol (IP) address of your computer (or the proxy server you use to access the World Wide Web), your computer operating system and type of web browser you are using, as well as the name of your ISP. This information is used to analyze overall trends to help us improve the HauteNet service. The linkage between your IP address and your personally identifiable information is never shared with third-parties without your permission, except when required by law.
Web Beacons:
We may allow other companies, called ad networks, to serve advertisements to HauteNet users. Ad networks include third-party ad servers, ad agencies, ad technology vendors and research firms. HauteNet may "target" some ads to users that fit a certain general profile — for example, "fashion designers in California." HauteNet does not use personally identifiable information to target ads.
To deliver these ads properly, HauteNet may include a file, called a web beacon, from these ad networks within pages served by HauteNet so the networks may provide anonymized, aggregated auditing, research and reporting for advertisers as well as to target ads to you while you visit other websites.
Because your web browser must request these advertisements and web beacons from the ad network's servers, these companies can view, edit or set their own cookies, just as if you had requested a web page from their site.
These general targets may also be used by ad networks to display targeted ads on other websites as a substitute for random, irrelevant ads. You will never see additional ads as a result of being a HauteNet user and HauteNet never provides personally identifiable information to any advertiser or third-party.
Children:
Children are not eligible to use our service and we ask that minors (under the age of 18) do not submit any personal information to us or use the service.
Information Use
HauteNet is an online service dedicated to helping fashion industry professionals more effectively connect with one another. The personally identifiable information you choose to provide on this site is used to help you describe yourself to other users. Other information that does not personally identify you as an individual is collected by HauteNet from the site (for example, patterns of utilization) and is exclusively owned by HauteNet, LLC. This information can be utilized by HauteNet in such manner as HauteNet, in its sole discretion, deems appropriate.
HauteNet Communications:
HauteNet will communicate with you through email and notices posted on this website. Please be aware that you will always receive certain emails from HauteNet related to the proper functioning of your account, such as email notices when a user requests to connect with you or when a user in your network sends you an introduction. HauteNet may send you emails that are critical to your use of the site, such as update announcements. Because these messages contain important information related to your use of the site, you are not able to opt-out of receiving such messages if you have an account. HauteNet may also send you email about HauteNet news and promotions, unless you have opted out of receiving such information (you can opt out in the Settings area of your account).
Customized Content:
Information you provide at registration or in your Profile section is also used to customize your experience on the website. For example, when you sign in to your account we will display the screen names of new users who have recently joined your network.
Information Sharing
Sharing Information With Third-Parties:
HauteNet takes the privacy of our users very seriously. We will never sell, rent, or otherwise provide your personally identifiable information to any third-parties for marketing purposes. We will only share your personally identifiable with third-parties to carry out your instructions and to provide specific services. For instance, we use a credit card processing company to bill users for subscription fees, job postings, and other services. These third-parties do not retain, share, or store any personally identifiable information except to provide these services and are bound by strict confidentiality agreements which limit their use of such information.
HauteNet offers a "Public Profile" feature which allows users to publish their HauteNet profile to the public Internet. This feature is optional and no information in your profile will be made public unless you choose to make it so. Public Profiles are accessible to anyone with Internet access. Users may opt out of this feature at any time; however HauteNet does not warrant how third-party search engines will update their cache.
We may provide aggregated data about the usage of our services to third-parties for such purposes as we deem, in our sole discretion, to be appropriate. We may segment our users by role (i.e. designers, vice presidents), industry segment, geographic location, or company. No personally identifiable information will ever be included in this aggregated data.
Partnering with Other Organizations to Offer Combined Services:
HauteNet may partner with other online services to give you the combined results of both services. For example, we may partner with other online job posting websites to let you use their services to find jobs and use HauteNet to find trusted referrals to those jobs. Whenever we offer such combined services, it will be your choice to make use of the combined services or not. In these cases, your personally identifiable information will only be passed from HauteNet to the partner if you choose to use the combined service.
Communications Between Users:
Many emails you initiate through HauteNet, such as an introduction request sent to a user in your network or a request to connect sent to another user, will list your name as the initiator but will not include your personal contact information. Emails you initiate through HauteNet may also provide aggregate information about your network (for instance how many people are in your network), but will never list the people to whom you're directly connected. Your personal contact information will never be shared with another user without your prior permission.
Legal Disclaimer:
It is possible that we may need to disclose personal information when required by law. We will disclose such information wherein we have a good-faith belief that it is necessary to comply with a court order, ongoing judicial proceeding, or other legal process served on our company or to exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims.
Accessing and Changing Your Account Information
You can review the personal information you provided us and make any desired changes to the information, or to the settings for your HauteNet account, at any time by signing in to your account on the HauteNet website. You can also close your account at any time. If you close your HauteNet account, we will remove your name and other personally identifiable information from our user-viewable data. We may retain certain data contributed by you if it may be necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business purposes, such as analysis of aggregated, non-personally-identifiable data, account recovery, or if required by law. All retained data will continue to be subject to the terms of the HauteNet Privacy Policy that you previously agreed to. To request that we close your account and remove your information from HauteNet, please send your request, using an email account that you have verified with HauteNet under your name, to ten.etuah@troppus. You will receive a response within three business days.
Security
In order to secure your personal information, access to your data on HauteNet is password-protected, and sensitive data (such as credit card information) is protected by SSL encryption when it is exchanged between your web browser and our website. To protect any data you store on our servers, we also regularly audit our system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks and we use a tier-one secured-access data center.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at anytime, and without prior notice, by posting the amended Privacy Policy on this website. Your continued use of the HauteNet website indicates your acceptance of the amended Privacy Policy. In the event there are significant changes in the way we treat your personally identifiable information, we will display a notice on this website. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account.
Questions or Comments
If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, please email us at: ten.etuah@troppus
