Privacy & copyright

The Intelligent Optimist, formerly Ode, Privacy Notice

Global Light Media LLC / The Intelligent Optimist

(“IO”) recognizes that its members, customers, visitors, users, and others who use www.theoptimist.com (the “IO Site”) (collectively or individually “Users”) value their privacy. This Privacy Notice details important information regarding the use and disclosure of User information collected on the Site. IO provides this Privacy Notice to help you make an informed decision about whether to use or continue using the IO Site.

This Privacy Notice is incorporated into and is subject to the IO Terms of Use. Your use of the IO Site and any personal information you provide on the IO Site remains subject to the terms of this Privacy Notice and our Terms of Use.

Please note that any video, image, or other content posted at the direction of Users onto the IO Site becomes published content and is not considered personally identifiable information subject to this Privacy Notice.

The Information IO Collects

User Provided Information: You provide certain personally identifiable information (such as your name and email address) to IO when choosing to participate in various activities on the IO Site such as uploading photos, posting messages in our forums or in the comments section, entering contests or sweepstakes, taking advantage of promotions, responding to surveys, or subscribing to newsletters or other mailing lists.
Cookies Information: When you visit the IO Site, we may send one or more cookies – a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters – to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. IO uses both session cookies and persistent cookies. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser. Persistent cookies may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the site. Persistent cookies can be removed by following your web browser help file directions. A session cookie is temporary and disappears after you close your browser. You can reset your web browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some features of the IO Site may not function properly if the ability to accept cookies is disabled.
Log File Information: When you use the IO Site, our servers automatically record certain information that your web browser sends whenever you visit any website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, browser language, referring / exit pages and URLs, platform type, number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the amount of time spent on particular pages, the date and time of your request, and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.
Clear GIFs Information: When you use the IO Site, we may employ “clear GIFs” (a.k.a. Web Beacons) which are used to track the online usage patterns of our Users anonymously (i.e., in a non-personally-identifiable manner). In addition, we may also use clear GIFs in HTML-based emails sent to our users to track which emails are opened by recipients.

The Way IO Uses Information

If you submit personally identifiable information to us through the IO Site, then we use your personal information to operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of the IO Site.
Any personal information or content that you voluntarily disclose online (on discussion boards, in messages and chat areas, within your public profile page, etc.) becomes publicly available and can be collected and used by others. Your account name (not your email address) is displayed to other Users when you upload content or send messages through the IO Site and other Users can contact you through messages and comments. Any content that you submit to the IO Site may be redistributed through the internet and other media channels, and may be viewed by the general public.
We do not use your email address or other personally identifiable information to send commercial or marketing messages 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. We may, however, use your email address without further consent for non-marketing or administrative purposes (such as notifying you of major IO Site changes or for customer service purposes).
We use both your personally identifiable information and certain non-personally-identifiable information (such as anonymous User usage data, cookies, IP addresses, browser type, clickstream data, etc.) to improve the quality and design of the IO Site and to create new features, promotions, functionality, and services by storing, tracking, and analyzing User preferences and trends.
We use cookies, clear GIFs, and log file information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the IO Site; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns; (d) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, pages viewed, etc.; and (e) track your entries, submissions, and status in promotions, sweepstakes, and contests.

When IO Discloses Information

We provide personally identifiable information and non-personally-identifiable information to our subsidiaries, affiliated companies, or other businesses or persons for the purpose of processing such information on our behalf. We require that these parties agree to process such information in compliance with our privacy policy, and we use reasonable efforts to limit their use of such information and to use other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
We do not share your personally identifiable information (such as name or email address) with other, third-party companies for their commercial or marketing use 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.
We do share non-personally-identifiable information (such as anonymous User usage data, referring / exit pages and URLs, platform types, number of clicks, etc.) with interested third parties to assist them in understanding the usage patterns for certain content, services, advertisements, promotions, and/or functionality on the IO Site.
We may release personally identifiable information and/or non-personally-identifiable information if required to do so by law, or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws (such as U.S. Copyright Law) or respond to a court order, subpoena, or search warrant.
IO also reserves the right to disclose personally identifiable information and/or non-personally-identifiable information that IO believes, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to enforce our Terms of Use, take precautions against liability, to investigate and defend itself against any third-party claims or allegations, to assist government enforcement agencies, to protect the security or integrity of our web site, and to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of IO, our Users or others.

Your Choices About Privacy

You may, of course, decline to submit personally identifiable information through the IO Site, in which case IO may not be able to provide certain services to you. You may update or correct your personal profile information and email preferences at any time by visiting your account profile page. Please note that media files uploaded by Users to the IO Site cannot be removed and remain subject to our Terms of Use.
To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps (such as requesting a unique password) to verify your identity before granting you profile access or making corrections. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information at all times.
Please contact IO at support@theoptimist.com with any questions or comments about this Privacy Notice, your personal information, your consent, or your opt-in or opt-out choices.

Third-party Advertisers, Links to Other Sites

IO allows other companies, called third-party ad servers or ad networks, to serve advertisements within the IO 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 IO 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.
IO 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 IO to show an advertisement to a certain audience (for example, men ages 18-34) or audience segment (for example, men ages 18-24 who have viewed certain channels of content) 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 IO 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 (see links below) for more information on their practices and for instructions on how to opt-out of certain practices. IO’s privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

Our Commitment To Data Security

IO uses commercially reasonable physical, managerial, and technical safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of your personal information. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to IO and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission of information, IO makes commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the security of our systems. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.

If IO learns of a security systems breach, then we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. IO may post a notice on the IO Site if a security breach occurs. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing. To receive a free written notice of a security breach (or to withdraw your consent from receiving electronic notice) you should notify us at support@theoptimist.com.

Our Commitment To Childrens’ Privacy

Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. For that reason, IO does not knowingly collect or maintain personally identifiable information or non-personally-identifiable information on the IO Site from persons under 13 years of age, and no part of our website is directed to persons under 13. If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use or access the IO Site at any time or in any manner. If IO learns that personally identifiable information of persons under 13 years of age has been collected on the IO Site without verified parental consent, then IO will take the appropriate steps to delete this information.
Special Note to International Users
If you are a User accessing the IO Site from the European Union, Asia, or any other region with laws or regulations governing personal data collection, use, and disclosure, that differ from United States laws, please be advised that through your continued use of the IO Site, which are governed by U.S. law, this Privacy Notice, and our Terms of Use, you are transferring your personal information to the United States and you consent to that transfer.

In the Event of Merger, Sale, or Bankruptcy

In the event that IO is acquired by or merged with a third party entity, we reserve the right, in any of these circumstances, to transfer or assign the information we have collected from our Users as part of such merger, acquisition, sale, or other change of control. In the unlikely event of our bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, receivership, or assignment for the benefit of creditors, or the application of laws or equitable principles affecting creditors’ rights generally, we may not be able to control how your personal information is treated, transferred, or used.

Changes and updates to this Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice may be revised periodically and this will be reflected by the “effective date” below. Please revisit this page to stay aware of any changes. In general, we only use your personal information in the manner described in the Privacy Notice in effect when we received the personal information you provided. Your continued use of the IO Site constitutes your agreement to this Privacy Notice and any future revisions.
For revisions to this Privacy Notice that may be materially less restrictive on our use or disclosure of the personal information you have already provided to us, we will attempt to obtain your consent before implementing such revisions with respect to such information.

Date Last Modified:

This Privacy Notice was last modified August 7, 2012.

Contact Information:

Please contact IO with any questions or comments about this Privacy Notice at support@theoptimist.com.

Copyright of Global Light Media LLC

You will note that the copyright notice used for this website is as follows: “© 2012 Global Light Media LLC and Ode International Publishers SNC”. The content generated by IO on this website includes a combination of material protected by the direct copyright ownership of Global Light Media LLC, and content licensed to Global Light Media LLC and owned by Ode International Publishers SNC.

Copyright Infringement Notification

To file a copyright infringement notification with us, you will need to send a written communication that includes substantially the following (please consult your legal counsel or see Section 512(c)(3) of the Copyright Act to confirm these requirements):

i. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. ii. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site. iii. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material. Providing URLs in the body of an email is the best way to help us locate content quickly. iv. Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted. v. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law. vi. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. Such written notice should be sent to our designated agent as follows:

Attn: IO Copyright Complaints
Global Light Media LLC, 268 Bush Street, #4419
San Francisco, CA 94104

Please also note that under Section 512(f) any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be subject to liability.

Counter-Notification

To file a counter notification with us, you must provide a written communication that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys’ fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is not infringing the copyrights of others. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether certain material infringes the copyrights of others, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.

Please understand that filing a counter notice may lead to legal proceedings between you and the complaining party to determine ownership, and if your claim is rejected, you may face severe legal and financial penalties.

To expedite our ability to process your counter notification, please use the following format (including section numbers):

1. Identify the specific URLs of material that IO has removed or to which IO has disabled access. Include the username of your IO account as well.

2. Provide your name, address, telephone number, email address, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or San Francisco County, California if your address is outside of the United States), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.

3. Include the following statement: “I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that each search result or message identified above was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.”

4. Sign the paper.

5. Send the written communication to the following address:

Attn: IO DMCA Counter Notification
Global Light Media LLC, 268 Bush Street, #4419
San Francisco, CA 94104

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability. Please also be advised that we enforce a policy that provides for the termination in appropriate circumstances of subscribers who are repeat infringers.