Yawdie Online World Link (YOWLink) Principles

YOWLink is intended to facilitate the sharingof  information with your family, relatives, friends, and people of Caribbean origin. We understand you may not want everyone in the world to have the information you share on YOWLink.  Therefore we give you control of your information. Our default privacy settings limit the information displayed in your profile to your networks and other reasonable community limitations that we tell you about.

YOWLink will continue to follow the principles that:

1. You should have control over your personal information.
YOWLink helps you share information with your friends and people around you. You choose what information you put in your profile, including contact and personal information, pictures, interests and groups you join, etc.

2. You should have access to the information others want to share.
As a person of Caribbean origin, or a friend of someone of Caribbean origin, there is an increasing amount of information available out there, and you may want to know what relates to you, your friends, and people around you. We want to help you easily get that information.  Of course that information SHOULD ALWAYS BE NON-COPYRIGHTED information.  Use GOOD judgement. 

Sharing information should be easy. And we want to provide you with the privacy tools necessary to control how and with whom you share that information.

 

Safe Use of YOWLink

We are trying to keep this at the level of High-school graduates and above (i.e. People of 16+) to avoid too many issues.

YOWLink Privacy Policy

The YOWLink Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand how we collect and use the personal information you decide to share, and help you make informed decisions when using YOWLink (http://www.yowlink.com or http://www.yowlink.net) and its directly associated domains (collectively, “YOWLink” or “Website”)

By using or accessing YOWLink, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

If you have questions regarding this statement, please contact us.

  

The Information We Collect

When you visit YOWLink you provide us with two types of information:

(1) basic personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected by us, and

(2) Web Site use information collected by us as you interact with our Web Site.

When you register with YOWLink, you provide us with certain personal information, such as your name, your email address, your telephone number, your address, your gender, country of origin, schools attended and any other personal or preference information that you provide to us.

When you enter YOWLink, we collect your browser type and IP address. This information is gathered for all YOWLink visitors. In addition, we may store certain information from your browser using “cookies.” A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. We use session ID cookies to confirm that users are logged in. These cookies terminate once the user closes the browser.  We may use a persistent cookie that stores your login ID (but not your password) to make it easier for you to login when you come back to YOWLink. You can remove or block this cookie using the settings in your browser if you want to disable this convenience feature.

When you use YOWLink, you may set up your personal profile, form relationships, send messages, perform searches and queries, form groups, set up events, add applications, and transmit information through various channels. We collect this information so that we can provide you the service and offer personalized features. In most cases, we retain it so that, for instance, you can return to view prior messages you have sent or easily see your friend list. When you update information, we usually keep a backup copy of the prior version for a reasonable period of time to enable reversion to the prior version of that information.

You post Content on YOWLink at your own risk. Although we allow you to set privacy options that limit access to your pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable.  We cannot control the actions of other Users with whom you may choose to share your pages and information. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that User Content you post on the Site will not be viewed by unauthorized persons. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site. You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal, copies of User Content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other Users have copied or stored your User Content.

Any improper collection or misuse of information provided on YOWLink is a violation of the YOWLink Terms of Service and should be reported immediately to us.

If you choose to use our invitation service to tell a friend about our site, we will ask you for information needed to send the invitation, such as your friend’s email address. We will send an email invite (e-vite) in your name asking your friend to visit the site, and may send up to two reminders to them. YOWLink stores this information to send invitations and reminders, to register a friend connection if your invitation is accepted, to allow you to see invitations you have sent, and to track the success of our referral program. Your friend may contact us through to request that we remove this information from our database.

YOWLink may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the YOWLink service through the operation of the service (e.g., photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience.

By using YOWLink, you consent to have your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States (where the YOWLink site and databases are).

 

Children Under Age 16

YOWLink does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 16 or knowingly allow such persons to register. If you are under 16, please do not attempt to register for YOWLink or send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under age 16 may provide any personal information to or on YOWLink. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 16 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 16, please contact us immediately.

Though minors of 16 and 17 years of age are allowed to register on YOWLink and use YOWLink, we strongly recommend that they get parental / guardian permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet.

 

Use of Information Obtained by YOWLink

 

When you register with YOWLink, you create your own profile and privacy settings. Your profile information, as well as your name, email and (optional) photo, are displayed to people in the networks specified in your privacy settings to enable you to connect with people on YOWLink. We may occasionally use your name and email address to send you notifications regarding new services offered by YOWLink  that we think you may find valuable.

Profile information is used by YOWLink primarily to be presented back to and edited by you when you access the service and to be presented to others permitted to view that information by your privacy settings. In some cases where your privacy settings permit it (e.g., posting to your wall), other YOWLink users may be able to supplement your profile.

Profile information you submit to YOWLink will be available to users of YOWLink who belong to at least one of the networks you allow to access the information through your privacy settings (e.g., school, geography, Country of origin, friends of friends, etc.). Your name, network names, and profile picture thumbnail will be available in search results across the YOWLink network and those limited pieces of information may be made available to third party search engines. This is primarily so your friends can find you and send a friend request. People who see your name in searches, however, will not be able to access your profile information unless they have a relationship to you (friend, friend of friend, member of your networks, etc.) that allows such access based on your privacy settings.

YOWLink may send you service-related announcements from time to time through the general operation of the service. For instance, if a friend sends you a new message or poke, or someone posts on your wall, you may receive an email alerting you to that fact.

Generally, while you may opt out of such emails, YOWLink reserves the right to send you notices about your account even if you opt out of all voluntary email notifications.

YOWLink may use information in your profile without identifying you as an individual to third parties. We do this for purposes such as aggregating how many people in a network like a band or movie and personalizing advertisements and promotions so that we can provide you YOWLink. We believe this benefits you. You can know more about the world around you and, where there are advertisements, they’re more likely to be interesting to you. For example, if you put a favorite movie in your profile, we might serve you an advertisement highlighting a screening of a similar one in your town. But we don’t tell the movie company who you are.

We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, YOWLink developers and other users of YOWLink, to supplement your profile. Where such information is used, we generally allow you to specify in your privacy settings that you do not want this to be done or to take other actions that limit the connection of this information to your profile (e.g., removing photo tag links).

 

Sharing Your Information with Third Parties

 

YOWLink is about sharing information with others — friends and people in your networks — while providing you with privacy settings that restrict other users from accessing your information. We allow you to choose the information you provide to friends and networks through YOWLink. Our network architecture and your privacy settings allow you to make informed choices about who has access to your information. We do not provide contact information to third party marketers without your permission. We share your information with third parties only in limited circumstances where we believe such sharing is 1) reasonably necessary to offer the service, 2) legally required or, 3) permitted by you. For example:

• Your News Feed and Wall may aggregate the information you provide and make it available to your friends and network members according to your privacy settings.
• Unlike the big global “Social Networking and Blog sites on the Web, YOWLink limits access to site information by third party search engine “crawlers” (e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask). YOWLink takes action to block access by these engines to personal information beyond your name, profile picture, and limited aggregated data about your profile (e.g. number of wall postings).
• We may provide information to service providers to help us bring you the services we offer. Specifically, we may use third parties to facilitate our business, such as to host the service at a co-location facility for servers, to send out email updates about YOWLink, to remove repetitive information from our user lists, to process payments for products or services, to offer an online job application process, or to provide search results or links (including sponsored links). In connection with these offerings and business operations, our service providers may have access to your personal information for use for a limited time in connection with these business activities. Where we utilize third parties for the processing of any personal information, we implement reasonable contractual and technical protections limiting the use of that information to the YOWLink-specified purposes.
• We may provide demonstration accounts that allow non-users a glimpse into the YOWLink world. Such accounts have only limited capabilities and passwords are changed regularly to limit possible misuse.
• We may be required to disclose user information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We do not reveal information until we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the YOWLink service or using the YOWLink name, or to prevent imminent bodily harm. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.
• We let you choose to share information with marketers or electronic commerce providers through on-site offers.

When you use YOWLink, certain information you post or share with third parties (e.g., a friend or someone in your network), such as personal information, comments, messages, photos, videos, Marketplace listings or other information, may be shared with other users in accordance with the privacy settings you select. All such sharing of information is done at your own risk. Please keep in mind that if you disclose personal information in your profile or when posting comments, messages, photos, videos, Marketplace listings or other items , this information may become publicly available.

Links TO Other Web Sites

 

YOWLink may contain links to other websites. We are of course not responsible for the privacy practices of other web sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by YOWLink.

 

Third Party Advertising

 

Advertisements that appear on YOWLink are sometimes delivered (or “served”) directly to users by third party advertisers. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. These third party advertisers may also download cookies to your computer, or use other technologies such as JavaScript and “web beacons” (also known as “1×1 gifs”) to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. Doing this allows the advertising network to recognize your computer each time they send you an advertisement in order to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. In this way, they may compile information about where individuals using your computer or browser saw their advertisements and determine which advertisements are clicked. YOWLink does not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed by the third party advertisers. Third party advertisers have no access to your contact information stored on YOWLink unless you choose to share it with them.

This privacy policy covers the use of cookies by YOWLink and does not cover the use of cookies or other tracking technologies by any of its advertisers.

 

Changing or Removing Information

 

Access and control over most personal information on YOWLink is readily available through the profile editing tools. YOWLink users may modify or delete any of their profile information at any time by logging into their account. Information will be updated immediately. Individuals who wish to deactivate their YOWLink account may do so in their profile page. Removed information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time but will not be generally available to members of YOWLink.

Where you make use of the communication features of the service to share information with other individuals on YOWLink, however, (e.g., sending a personal message to another YOWLink user) you generally cannot remove such communications.

 

Security

 

YOWLink takes appropriate precautions to protect our users’ information. Your account information is located on a secured server behind a firewall.  

Terms of Use, Notices and Revisions

 

Your use of YOWLink, and any disputes arising from it, is subject to this Privacy Policy as well as our Terms of Use and all of its dispute resolution provisions including arbitration, limitation on damages and choice of law. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use at any time. Non-material changes and clarifications will take effect immediately, and material changes will take effect within 30 days of their posting on this site. If we make changes, we will post them and will indicate at the top of this page the policy’s new effective date. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or through notice on our home page. We encourage you to refer to this policy on an ongoing basis so that you understand our current privacy policy. Unless stated otherwise, our current privacy policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account.

 

Contacting YOWLink

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please free to use the online forms to contact us.