MyTripBits Privacy Policy

Last Revised on May 17, 2015

MyTripBits is an online service that provides travel stories, travel advice, personal reviews of travel experiences, and travel themed entertainment and games. Our website, mobile properties, and related applications (collectively, our "Website") is owned and operated by MyTripBits. We understand that providing information online involves a great deal of trust on your part. We take this trust very seriously, and make it a high priority to ensure the security and confidentiality of the personal information you provide to us when you visit our Website or use our services. Before submitting your personal information to us, please read this Policy carefully to learn about our privacy practices. By visiting MyTripBits's website, www.myTripBits.com, you are accepting the practices described herein.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us.

Our Commitment to Security

What information we collect from you
How we use your information
With whom we share your information
How we protect your information
Children's privacy
External links
Visiting our Website from outside the United States
Your California privacy rights
Changes to this Privacy Policy

What information we collect from you

In General

We receive and store any information you enter on our Website or give us in any other way. This includes information that can identify you ("personal information"), including your first and last name, telephone number, postal and email addresses, and user name and password. You can choose not to provide information to us, but in general some information about you is required in order for you to receive relevant offerings from MyTripBits and its partners and enjoy other benefits of being a registered member. For example, only registered members are able to post travel reviews, participate in discussion forums, email MyTripBits content to themselves and others, access members-only newsletters and travel planning content, and enter surveys, contests, or sweepstakes. In addition, some information is also required in order for you to ask us a question or initiate other transactions on our site.

Information from Other Sources

We also may periodically obtain both personal and non-personal information about you from affiliated entities, business partners and other independent third-party sources and add it to other information about you. For example, if you visit MyTripBits by "clicking through" from a site operated by one of our business partners, and you have registered with that partner, then information about you that you have provided to that partner may be shared with us, such as contact information and demographic information. As another example, if you access third party services, such as social media services, through our Website or before coming to our Website, we may collect information such as your user name, password, and other information made available to us through those services. We will work with our existing partners and potential future partners to improve and personalize your use of our Website in accordance with the practices outlined in this section and Policy.

Automatic Information

We automatically collect some information from your computer or Device when you visit MyTripBits. For example, we will collect session data, including your IP address, Web browser software, and referring website. We also may collect information about your online activity, such as content viewed, pages visited, and searches and/or reservations facilitated or made. One of our goals in collecting this automatic information is to help us understand the interests and preferences of our users and customize your user experience.

Location Information and Other Information from Devices

When you use an Application on a Device, we will collect and use information about you in generally similar ways and for similar purposes as when you use the MyTripBits website. In addition, we may collect information about your location if you have instructed your Device to send such information to the Application via the privacy settings on that Device, or if you have uploaded photos tagged with location information. We may use the location information collected from your Device or photos to enhance your use of the Application by providing you with relevant content and contextual advertising. For example, we may use your location to show you reviews of hotels or restaurants near you when you are traveling. You can change the privacy settings of your Device at any time, in order to turn off the functionality to share location information with the Application and/or the functionality to tag your photos with location information. Please note that turning off location sharing may affect certain features of our App. If you have any queries about the privacy settings of your Device, we suggest you contact the manufacturer of your Device or your mobile service provider for help.

Cookies and Other Web Technologies

Cookies are small data text files and can be stored on your computer's hard drive or your Device (if your Web browser permits). MyTripBits, its affiliated websites, and Apps use cookies for the following general purposes:

• To help us recognize your browser as a previous visitor and save and remember any preferences that may have been set while your browser was visiting our site. For example, if you register on our site, we may use cookies to remember your registration information, so you do not need to log into our site each time you visit. We also may record your password in a cookie, if you checked the box entitled "Save this password for automatic sign-in." Please note that member IDs, passwords, and any other account-related data included in such cookies are encrypted for security purposes.
• To help us customize the content, experience, and advertisements provided to you on our websites and Apps and on other websites across the Internet. For example, when you access a web page, a cookie is automatically set by us, our service providers, or our partners to recognize your browser as you navigate on the Internet and to present you with information and advertising based on your apparent interests. See Display of Advertising/Your Choices for more information about our online advertising practices and your choices.
• To help measure and research the effectiveness of features and offerings, advertisements, and email communications (by determining which emails you open and act upon).

The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers should tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable most types of cookies. Please note that if you refuse to accept cookies, you may not be able to access many of the travel tools offered on our sites.

Our sites also may use Web beacons (also known as clear gifs, pixel tags or Web bugs), which are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, that are placed in the code of a Web page. We use Web beacons to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one page within our sites to another, to deliver or communicate with cookies, to understand whether you have come to our site from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, and to improve site performance. We also may allow our service providers to use Web beacons to help us understand which emails have been opened by recipients and to track the visitor traffic and actions on our site. This helps us measure the effectiveness of our content and other offerings.

Display of Advertising/Your Choices

This site leverages Google Analytics Advertising Features. Third-party vendors use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) or other first-party identifiers, and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together. Visitors can opt-out of the Google Analytics Advertising Features, including through Ads Settings, Ad Settings for mobile apps, or any other available means (for example, the NAI's consumer opt-out). More information regarding opt-outs can be found at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/ We do not share your personal information (such as email addresses) with unaffiliated third parties so they can serve you with advertisements.

Many of the advertisements you see on the MyTripBits family of sites are served by MyTripBits or its service providers. But we also allow third parties to collect information about your online activities through cookies and other technologies. These third parties include (1) business partners, who collect information when you view or interact with one of their advertisements on our sites, and (2) advertising networks, who collect information about your interests when you view or interact with one of the advertisements they place on many different websites on the Internet. The information gathered by these third parties is used to make predictions about your characteristics, interests or preferences and to display advertisements on our sites and across the Internet tailored to your apparent interests.

Please note that we do not have access to or control over cookies or other technologies these third parties may use to collect information about your interests, and the information practices of these third parties are not covered by this Privacy Policy. Some of these companies are members of the Network Advertising Initiative, which offers a single location to opt out of ad targeting from member companies.

Response to Do Not Track signals

Your web browser may transmit a "Do Not Track" ("DNT") signal to MyTripBits and other websites. Because of differences in web browsers' default settings and the manner in which browsers incorporate DNT signals, it is sometimes unclear to site operators whether site visitors have selected the DNT setting themselves, or whether they are aware that they have a choice in determining the setting. MyTripBits does not currently respond to DNT signals. Once the Internet industry has settled on standards related to this issue and MyTripBits recognizes such standards, we may reevaluate this approach.

How we use your information

MyTripBits uses the information we collect about you for the following general purposes: for registration and to manage your account, including to allow your access to and use of our site; to communicate with you in general, including to provide information about MyTripBits and invitations from the MyTripBits community; to enable us to publish your reviews, forum posts, and other content to the MyTripBits community; to respond to your questions and comments; to measure interest in and improve our products, services, and Website; to notify you about special offers and products or services available from us or our partners that may be of interest to you; to otherwise customize your experience with MyTripBits, including customizing the ads shown to you; to solicit information from you, including through surveys; to resolve disputes or troubleshoot problems; to prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities; to enforce our Terms of Use; and as otherwise described to you at the point of collection.

With whom we share your information

MyTripBits may share your information with the following entities:

• Third-party vendors who provide services or functions on our behalf, including business analytics, payment processing, customer service, marketing, public relations, distribution of surveys or sweepstakes programs, and fraud prevention. We may also authorize third-party vendors to collect information on our behalf, including, for example, as necessary to operate features of our Website or to facilitate the delivery of online advertising tailored to your interests. Third-party vendors have access to and may collect information only as needed to perform their functions and are not permitted to share or use the information for any other purpose.
• Business partners with whom we may offer products or services in conjunction. You can tell when a third party is involved in a product or service you have requested because their name will appear either with ours or separately. If you choose to access these optional services, we may share information about you, including your personal information, with those partners. Please note that we do not control the privacy practices of these third-party business partners.
• Referring Websites. If you were referred to MyTripBits from another website, we may share your registration information, such as your name, email address, mailing address, telephone number and travel preferences, about you with that referring website. We have not placed limitations on the referring websites' use of personal information and we encourage you to review the privacy policies of any website that referred you to MyTripBits.
• Social Media Services. You can choose to access certain third party social media websites and services through our site (such as Facebook). When you do so, you are sharing information with those sites, and the information you share will be governed by their privacy policies. You may also be able to modify your privacy settings with these third party social media websites.

We also may share your information if we believe, in our sole discretion, that such disclosure is necessary...

• To comply with legitimate and enforceable subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases we reserve the right to raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us.
• To investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal or suspected illegal activities; to protect and defend the rights, property, or safety of MyTripBits, our customers, or others; and in connection with our Terms of Use and other agreements.
• In connection with a corporate transaction, such as a divestiture, merger, consolidation, or asset sale, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.

If you choose to create a profile on MyTripBits, certain information in your profile will be publicly viewable and identifiable via your screen name. You will have the ability to view your profile as members of the public will see it. Other than as set out above, you will be notified when personal information about you will be shared with third parties, and you will have an opportunity to choose not to have us share such information.

We also may share aggregate or anonymous information with third parties, including advertisers and investors. For example, we may tell our advertisers the number of visitors our Website receives or the most popular hotels and vacation destinations. This information does not contain any personal information and is used to develop content and services we hope you will find of interest.

How we protect your information

We want you to feel confident about using MyTripBits, and we are committed to protecting the information we collect. While no website can guarantee security, we have implemented appropriate administrative, technical, and physical security procedures to help protect the personal information you provide to us. For example, only authorized employees are permitted to access personal information, and they only may do so for permitted business functions. In addition, we use encryption when transmitting your personal information between your system and ours, and between our system and those of the parties with whom we share sensitive information, and we employ firewalls and intrusion detection systems to help prevent unauthorized persons from gaining access to your information.

Children's privacy

MyTripBits is a general audience site and does not offer services directed to children. Should an individual whom we know to be a child under age 13 send personal information to us, we will delete or destroy such information as soon as reasonably possible.

External links

If any part of the MyTripBits Website links you to other websites, those external websites do not operate under this Privacy Policy. We recommend that you examine the privacy statements posted on those other websites to understand their procedures for collecting, using, and disclosing personal information.

Visiting our Website from outside the United States

If you are visiting our Website from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country, but please be assured that MyTripBits does take steps pursuant to laws in the United States to ensure that your privacy is protected. By using our services, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Policy.

Your California privacy rights

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

MyTripBits may change or modify this Privacy Policy in the future. We will note the date that revisions were last made to this Privacy Policy, and any revisions will take effect upon posting. We will notify our members of material changes to this Privacy Policy by either sending a notice to the email address you provided to us or by placing a notice on our Website. We encourage you to check this Privacy Policy from time to time to review the most current version.