PRIVACY STATEMENT

hopster is preparing to become a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to enable individuals and organizations to establish trusting relationships based on respect for personal identity and information by promoting the use of fair information practices.

This privacy statement covers the site www.hopster.com. Because this Web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to its users' privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.

1. What personally identifiable information hopster collects.
2. What personally identifiable information third parties collect through the Web site.
3. What organization collects the information.
4. How hopster uses the information.
5. With whom hopster may share user information.
6. What choices are available to users regarding collection, use and distribution of the information.
7. What types of security procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under hopster control.
8. How users can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

If users have questions or concerns regarding this statement, they should contact hopster Customer Service by e-mail at .

How to protect your Online Privacy

• Ensure that you do not expose confidential information to online threats and protect you and your family from inappropriate online content.
• Secure your personal information while providing greater control over your family's Internet experience.
• McAfee's Privacy Service is a powerful, integrated service which combines personal identifiable information (PII) protection with online advertisement blocking and content filtering.
  
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Information Collection and Use

Information Collection

hopster is the sole owner of the information collected on hopster.com. hopster collects information from our users at several different points on our Web site.

Order

We request information from the user on our order form. A user must provide contact information (such as name, email, and shipping address) and financial information (such as credit card number, expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill customer's orders. If we have trouble processing an order, the information is used to contact the user.

Information Use

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close the browser, the cookie simply terminates. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user's hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions. [Provide a link to information on cookies.]

By setting a cookie on our site, users would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If users reject the cookie, they may still use our site. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site.

Third Party Advertising

hopster.com does not do Third-Party Advertising.

Log Files

Like most standard Web site servers we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)

We employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users. The main difference between the two is that clear gifs are invisible on the page and are much smaller, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Clear gifs are NOT tied to users' personally identifiable information.

Communications from the Site

Special Offers and Updates

We send all new members a welcoming email to verify password and username. Established members will occasionally receive information on products, services, special deals, and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections.

Newsletter

If a user wishes to subscribe to our newsletter, we ask for contact information such as name and email address. Out of respect for our users privacy we provide a way to opt-out of these communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone, in accordance with the users wishes.

Sponsoring

hopster is an affiliate of several trusted, well-known online shops. When users visit shops that hopster has established an affiliation agreement with, hopster sends a short affiliation-ID to the shop's server. No personally identifiable information is sent to our affiliate partners.

Sharing

Legal Disclaimer

Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.

We DO NOT Share Personal Information with Third Parties

Third Party Intermediaries

We use a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Business Transitions

In the event hopster goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users' personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred.

Users of our site are always notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether or not they should proceed with services that require an outside party.

Links

This Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, hopster, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.

Tell-A-Friend

If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for the friend's name and email address. hopster will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. hopster stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of our referral program. The friend may contact hopster at to request the removal of this information from our database.

Chat Rooms, Message Boards, and Public Forums

Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online - for example on message boards, through e-mail, or in chat areas - that information can be collected and used by others. In short, by posting personal information online that is publicly accessible, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return.

Security

This Web site takes every precaution to protect our users' information. When users submit sensitive information via the Web site, their information is protected both online and off-line.

When our order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL. While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when users are just 'surfing'.

While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line. All of our users' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Our employees must use password-protected screen-savers when they leave their desk. When they return, they must re-enter their password to re-gain access to user information. Furthermore, ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. From time to time, as well as any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our users' information is protected. Finally, the servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment, behind a locked cage in a locked facility.

If users have any questions about the security at our Web site, users can send an email to .

Supplementation of Information

Notification of Changes

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.

If, however, we are going to use users' personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users by posting a notice on our Web site for 30 days.

Contact Information

If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at:

hopster.com
c/o internic gmbH
1 Donau City Str.
A-1220 Vienna
Austria

e-mail: privacy@hopster.com