Privacy Policy

Effective Date: Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Hospigaiety.com values you, the members of our LGBT travel club. The privacy and trust of you, our members are very important to us. We recognize that our members may be concerned about our collection, use, and disclosure of the personal information that we collect when you sign-up on our website and become a member of the website LGBT travel club, Hospigaiety.com.

This Privacy Policy describes the information that we collect from you, how we collect this information, and what we do with it after we collect it. By joining or becoming a member of our website you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions or comments regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@hospigaiety.com.

Does Hospigaiety.com Ever Make Changes to its Privacy Policy?

We do not plan to make changes to the Privacy Policy at any time. If, however, we discover that a change in our Privacy Policy must occur, we will notify you of any changes by sending you an email, posting a notice on the home page of the Website, or posting a notice in your account when you first login after we have made changes. If you receive notification of a change in our Privacy Policy, you must review the new Privacy Policy carefully to make sure you understand our practices and procedures.

NOTE: You may not be able to receive notices from us if your cookies are not set to accept and/or are disabled.

What Types of Information Does Hospigaiety.com Collect From Me?

Personal Information/Registration. When you register as a member, we collect Personal Information that you provide to us, such as your actual name, mailing address, email address, phone number, credit card number, and financial information. This personal information is never disclosed to other Hospigaiety.com members, never sold to third parties, or shared with anyone. It is intended to be used by the owners of Hospigaiety.com in order to contact the member if there is a problem with undeliverable "bounced" e-mails, or member accounts that have expired.

Non-Personal Information. We also collect non-personal information from you, such as your browser type, the URL of the previous website you visited, your ISP, operating system, and your Internet protocol (IP) Address ("Non-Personal Information"). Non-Personal Information cannot be easily used to personally identify you. We use this information to track the use of our site, determine where new members are "coming from" on the internet, and for marketing purposes.

Member Directory/Member Profile Information. Hospigaiety.com Members are asked to fill-out their Member Profile. The information on this form is seen by other members in our online Member Directory to secure safe accommodations while traveling. It is imperative that members understand they should not share personal information (i.e. phone numbers, e-mail addresses, credit card information, physical addresses -- or ANY personal information with another member until you feel it is safe  to do so.) Our internal member-to-member message system is set-up to allow members to communicate with each other easily without having to disclose this personal information. When a message is sent from one member to another, an e-mail is dispatched letting that member know that a message awaits them.

How and When Does Hospigaiety.com Collect This Information?

Providing Information to Us. We collect Personal Information from you when you provide it to us. For example, if you join our LGBT travel club, we collect your name, mailing address, telephone number, credit card number, and email address when you register. We collect your Member Profile information when you fill-out of update your Profile.

Communications With Us. If you communicate with us regarding the Website or the Hospigaiety.com Services, either via internal memeber-messages or e-mail, we may collect any information that you provide to us in any such communication.

Analytic and Reporting Technologies. Like the operators of most websites, we use analytic and reporting technologies to record Non-Personal Information such as Internet domain and ISP host names, Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser software, operating system types, clickstream patterns, and the dates and times that the Website and Hospigaiety.com are accessed. To help manage, monitor and optimize our website Hospigaiety.com and to help us measure the effectiveness of our advertising, communications and how visitors and members use the website, we may use web beacons and cookies.

How Does Hospigaiety.com Use My Information?

Personal Information. We use Personal Information primarily for our own internal purposes, such as providing, maintaining, evaluating, and improving the Hospigaiety.com Services and the Website, fulfilling requests for information, and providing customer support. For example, if you join as a member, we will use the information that you provide us to communicate with you and keep you informed of new messages awaiting you from other members or from the site administrators. Similarly, when you join as a member you sign up to receive a periodic Hospigaiety.com newsletter, we will use the email address you provide to send you the newsletters and you may opt-out, or cancel this newsletter delivery at anytime.

Providing False Information. Members who falsify information in order to obtain member information from others, shall be removed from membership and no refund shall be provided. Criminal intent from one member to another shall be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Additional information is used to assess the individual member in regards to "hosting" or "traveling as a guest" with other members. The purpose of the website is to "match" hosts and traveling guest to secure inexpensive (even free) accommodations. Our Member Profiles display information only to other members with the intention of a successful "match" of LGBT host and guest. It is strictly against Hospigaiety.com's policies to allow members to deliberately falsify information for personal gain, or to gain advantage over other members. Please contact us immediately if you feel a particular member has abused his member priviledges or the trust of another member. If you find that a member has committed a crime in your home, immediately notify the authorities, then notify us at lewlew@Hospigaiety.com or dolphin@hospigaiety.com.

Membership Restrictions. We have no membership restrictions other than legal age of consent – 18 and over. Though some countries view legal age below 18 years of age, we feel obligated to comply with the laws and restrictions of our country of origin, the United States of America. Though we market to a worldwide LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) audience, our Hospigaiety.com website and memberships are open to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, race, creed, color, national origin, religion, and HIV status. This means that "straight" individuals are also welcome. Remember that Hospigaiety.com is NOT a "sex club." Our aim is not to connect members for the purposes of sexual encounters; but to secure friendships and inexpensive accommodations while traveling the world.

Non-Personal Information. We use Non-Personal Information to track the use of the Website and the Hospigaiety.com Services and for other internal purposes, such as providing, maintaining, evaluating, and improving the Hospigaiety.com Services and the Website.

When Will Hospigaiety.com Disclose My Information to Third Parties?

Hospigaiety.com does not sell or share your information with anyone. The following are the only times when your information could or would be disclosed to anyone.

Disclosure to Successors. We may disclose your Personal Information to any successor-in-interest of ours, such as a company that acquires us. In the event Hospigaiety.com goes through a business transition, such as a merger or acquisition by or with another company, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your Personal Information will likely be among the assets transferred. You will be notified via email or by a notice on our Website of any such change in ownership or control of your Personal Information.

Disclosure to Unaffiliated Third Parties. Hospigaiety.com may disclose your Personal Information to prevent an emergency, to prevent harm to others, to respond to legal requirements, to protect or enforce our rights and policies, to protect or enforce the rights of a third party, or as required or permitted by law (including, without limitation, to comply with a subpoena or court order). In particular, if you are a member, we may disclose your information to a third party member that alleges that you have infringed their intellectual property rights through the use of an accommodation by falcifying information. Similarly, if you allege that a guest member is infringing upon your intellectual property rights, we may disclose the personal information supplied to us by you to that host member, if it appears you knowingly provided false information to the host member to perpetrate a crime upon that member. When the laws of foreign countries come into effect, we will always comply with the dictates of those laws in regards to disclosure of information provided us by members of that foreign country. However, members of our LGBT travel club, who are merely visiting these countries as guests, our obligation to disclose personal information shall be limited to the laws of the countries wherein the traveler resides, and shall only be shared with law enforcement officials of the countries visited if we are legally bound to do so.

Disclosure to Third Party Service Providers and Online Partners. We may contract with various third parties who help us provide, maintain and improve the Website and the Hospigaiety.com Services. For example, we use PayPal, a third party to process payments made to us, and may subcontract out production, fulfillment, analytics, reporting or other operations. We also contract with several online partners to help manage, monitor and optimize our Website and the Hospigaiety.com Services and to help us measure the effectiveness of our advertising, communications and how visitors use the Website. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to prevent such third parties from disclosing your Personal Information, except for the purpose of providing the services in question. We cannot guarantee that such third parties will not disclose your Personal Information.

Disclosure to PayPal, CafePress, and other affiliates and vendors of Hospigaiety.com. If you become a member and pay using PayPal or purchase a product from our Excess Baggage, CafePress Shop or choose, on your own, to provide your personal information to other Hospigaiety.com members or to any outside vendors providing services to Hospigaiety.com, you understand you provide your own name, and the city and state or other personal information to the other parties. In our Agreement wih outside vendors, Hospigaiety.com contractually obligates each outside vendor not to use or disclose this information for any purposes other than internal record keeping, and for marketing their services & products, only if you have opted in to receive marketing material directly from these vendors. We cannot guarantee all members and outside vendors will comply with this obligation; but we make every effort to insist that they comply with our policies.

Disclosure of Non-Personal Information. We will disclose Non-Personal Information, in aggregate form, to potential strategic partners, advertisers, investors, customers, and others. You may not opt-out of the sharing of this information. However, it cannot be easily used to identify you personally.

About Cookies and Web Beacons. A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. Most websites use cookies. We use cookies to track your use of the Website and the Hospigaiety.com Services, provide you with a more personalized user experience, and to allow you to login and begin use of the Hospigaiety.com Services automatically when you visit the Website. A web beacon is an often-transparent graphic image, usually no larger than a 1x1 pixel that is placed on a web page or in an e-mail that is used to monitor the behavior of the user visiting the Website or receiving the e-mail. Cookies and web beacons used by Hospigaiety.com and our online partners are not linked to Personal Information. Some of our outside vendors may use cookies or web beacons on the non-private, non-member areas of our Website. We have no access to or control over these cookies and web beacons. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies and web beacons by Hospigaiety.com and our online partners only and does not cover the use of cookies or web beacons by any other third party, vendor, member or advertiser.

Does Hospigaiety.com Protect My Personal Information?

Personal Information. Whenever we obtain your Personal Information, we use commercially reasonable efforts to protect it from unauthorized access or disclosure. However, we are not insurers of the security of your Personal Information. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any disclosure of data due to errors in transmission, unauthorized third party access or other acts of third parties, or acts or omissions beyond our reasonable control.

Website Content. The content that you store, post, or transmit on or through the Website -- such as message board postings, blogs, personal pages, Member Profile, and images on your member pages -- may be accessed by other users, including people that you do not know. We are not responsible for the actions of others. Therefore, you should use care in communicating with other members and only disclose your Personal Information to other members whom you know to be trustworthy. You should not assume that your content will be kept private.

How Can I Review and Make Changes to My Personal Information?

We, the owner's of Hospigaiety.com think of your Persoanl Information as the information you provide us in registering. Therefore, "Registration Information" and "Personal Information" are in effect the same information. The Registration Information is kept seperate from your Profile Information. Members do not have access to your Registration Information; but members can access and view your Profile Information through the Member Directory. You can view or change your personal information at any time by logging into your Member Home Page and clicking the link Registration Information in your Member's Console. If your Personal Information changes or if you no longer want to use the Hospigaiety.com Services, you may correct, update or deactivate your Personal Information and/or your account through the account management screen. If you would like to deactivate or terminate your account you can also contact Customer Service by e-mail at customerservice@hospigaiety.com.

Tell-A-Friend, Referrals, etc.

If you choose to use a referral service to tell a friend about the Website or the Hospigaiety.com Services, we will sometimes ask you for your friend's name and email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the Website. We store this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of our referral program.

Security

The security of your Personal Information is important to us. When you enter sensitive information such as a credit card number and/or phone number, address, etc. on our registration forms, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL).

We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the Personal Information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Does This Privacy Policy Apply When I Access Third Party Websites?

You may be able to access third party websites directly from the Hospigaiety.com Website. This Privacy Policy does not apply when you access third party websites. We cannot control how third parties may use Personal Information you disclose to them, so you should carefully review the privacy policy of any third party website you visit before using it or disclosing your Personal Information to its provider.

What About Children's and Teens Privacy?

No One Under Twenty-one. The Hospigaiety.com Services are intended for users ages 18 and older only. Accordingly, we will not knowingly collect or use any Personal Information from children or teenagers that we know to be under the age of 18. In addition, we will delete any information in our database that we know originates from a child under the age of 18. Hospigaiety.com, its founders, or co-owners, do not knowingly or deliberately encourage or promote the membership or participation in this LGBT travel club to anyone under the legal of age of consent.

If you are under the age of 18, and it is determined that you have falsified information about your age to obtain membership, you, your parent, or your legal guardian may request that we deactivate any of your Personal Information in our database and/or opt-out from receiving communications from us. If you wish to do so, please contact us at privacy@hospigaiety.com. A refund of an amortized annual membership fee shall be provided to any members over or under 18 only if requested by the member who has not falsified information to obtain membership or services from us or our members.

Can I Opt-Out From Receiving Communications From Hospigaiety.com?

We provide you the opportunity to opt-out of having your Personal Information used for  certain purposes. For example, if you purchase a product/service but do not wish to receive any additional marketing material from us, you can indicate your preference on the order form.

If you no longer wish to receive our newsletters and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by emailing us at privacy@hospigaiety.com. We also offer you an opportunity to opt-out of certain communications through the account management screen. If you need assistance you may contact us at privacy@hospigaiety.com; Customer Service; or via mail sent to 820 Bartholomew Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70117, USA.

If we feel we must disclose your Personal Information to a third party in a manner that is not set forth in this Privacy Policy you will be notified so that you can make an informed choice about sharing your Personal Information with that third party.