Privacy Policy

Overview

The privacy practices of this statement apply to our services available under the domain of www.MyStoreCredit.com. By visiting this web site you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree please do not use or access our services.

As described below, as part of the normal operation of our services, your information is collected by us, disclosed to third parties including your future buyers and used by third parties and us. This Privacy Policy describes the information we collect about you and what may happen to that information. Although this policy may seem long, we have prepared a detailed policy because we believe you should know as much as possible about MyStoreCredit's practices so that you can make informed decisions.

By accepting the Privacy Policy and the User Agreement in registration, you expressly consent to our use and disclosure of your personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the terms of the MyStoreCredit User Agreement. This Privacy Policy is effective on May 31, 2005 for new registering users.

1. Information We Collect.

Our primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you with a smooth, efficient, and customized experience. This allows us to provide services and features that most likely meet your needs, and to customize our service to make your experience easier.

In general, you can browse our site without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself. However, to access certain parts of our site, you will need to become a registered user by providing us with some of your personal information. Once you give us your personal information, you are not anonymous to us. If you choose to use our services, we require you to provide contact and identity information, billing information and other personal information as indicated on the forms throughout our site. Where possible, we indicate which fields are required and which fields are optional. You always have the option to not provide information by choosing not to use a particular service or feature.

Under some circumstances we may require some additional financial information, such as, but not limited to, when you are registering using an email account at a free email service. We use your financial information, including credit card information to verify your name, address, and other information, as well as to bill you for your use of our services.

If you establish a credit account with us to pay the fees we charge, we collect some additional information, including a billing address, a credit card number and a credit card expiration date and tracking information from checks or money orders.

If you choose to post messages in other message areas or leave messages for other users, we will collect that information you provide to us.

If you send us personal correspondence, such as emails or letters, or if other users or third parties send us correspondence about your activities or postings on the site, we may collect such information into a file specific to you.

If you register for MyStoreCredit on another web site or use a web site providing a service for MyStoreCredit or a web site that helps facilitate your activity with MyStoreCredit, such as an auction management service web site or international shipping company, that web site may provide personal information about you and your transactions back to MyStoreCredit.

We automatically track certain information based upon your behavior on the Site. We use this information to do internal research on our users' demographics, interests, and behavior to better understand, and protect and serve you and our community. This information may include the URL that you recently came from (whether this URL is on the Site or not), which URL you next go to (whether this URL is on the Site or not), your computer browser information, and your IP address.

We use data collection devices such as "cookies" on certain pages of the site to help analyze our web page flow, measure promotional effectiveness, and promote trust and safety. "Cookies" are small files placed on your hard drive that assist us in providing our services. We offer certain features that are only available through the use of a "cookie". We also use cookies to allow you to enter your password less frequently during a session. Cookies can also help us provide information that is targeted to your interests. Most cookies are "session cookies," meaning that they are automatically deleted from your hard drive at the end of a session. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, although in that case you will not be able to use our site.

2. Our Use of Your Information.

We use your information to facilitate the services you request. We use information in the file we maintain about you and other information we obtain from your current and past activities on the site, to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems and enforce our User Agreement. At times, we may look across multiple users to identify problems or resolve disputes.

If you choose to use our service when you list an item for sale on another site such as eBay®, we use and capture the transaction information regarding that particular sale at that particular site. Such transaction information includes, but is not limited to, the buyer’s id, buyer’s email and physical address, the final price paid during the transaction, the method of transaction (such as fixed price or auction), the date and time of the transaction, the title of the purchase, the category of the purchase and the presence of a qualifying bonus store credit offer and any other information relevant to the establishment or use of store credit within the context of your listing.

If you choose to become a user of our service or open a credit account, or otherwise provide us with your credit card information, we use your address and billing information to bill you and provide associated support.

You agree that we may use personally identifiable information about you to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, to analyze site usage, improve our content and product offerings, and customize our site's content, layout, and services. These uses improve our site and services and better tailor it to meet your needs and the needs of other users.

You agree that we may use your information to contact you and deliver information to you that, in some cases, are targeted to your interests, such as administrative notices, update emails, product offerings, and communications relevant to your use of the site. By accepting the User Agreement and Privacy Policy, you expressly agree to receive this information. If you do not wish to receive these communications, please do not use our service.

3. Our Disclosure of Your Information.

Due to the existing regulatory environment, we cannot ensure that all of your private communications and other personally identifiable information will never be disclosed in ways not otherwise described in this Privacy Policy. By way of example (without limiting the foregoing), we may be forced to disclose information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances, third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. Therefore, although we use industry standard practices to protect your privacy, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personally identifiable information or private communications will always remain private.

The following describes some of the ways that your personally identifiable information may be disclosed.

Transaction information: Whenever you conclude a transaction at another market venue site which leads to the creation of a MyStoreCredit record for your buyer in that transaction, we use information relating to that transaction for several purposes as follows.

1. For our Map(s) Service: We will use the transaction information to track where your buyer resides and we will represent this information on the map you selected when choosing our service. If you selected the option to show your total customer counts by geography, we will also use your total transaction counts for each identified geography in the map. If you have signed up for the Map(s) Service through a third party, such as an international shipping company, we will share your information as described under the sign-up agreement offered by the third-party.
2. For our Loyalty Service: We use that transaction information to send your buyer a confirmation email confirming the creation of a MyStoreCredit record between you and that buyer. If MyStoreCredit does not already have that buyer’s opt-in permission on record, MyStoreCredit will request the buyer’s opt-in permission within the body of the confirmation email. MyStoreCredit request the buyer’s opt-in permission for MyStoreCredit to send additional future emails to that buyer. Second, prior to sending your buyer any update email, we capture your then currently active transaction listings at the appropriate market venue in your record for inclusion in the update email being sent to your buyer. Thus, as part of our service we may share your listing information with any buyer who opts-in to receive our update emails. Third, if you choose the free email option presented to you during your MyStoreCredit registration, you will be authorizing MyStoreCredit to send periodic emails showing up to 12 of your then current eBay listings to your opted-in buyers. These periodic update emails will remind your buyer of their store credit and show your buyer up to 12 other items you are then selling on your preferred market venue. This is a free option that is subsidized by advertising fees we receive from sellers who want their current listings shown at the bottom of the update email we send your buyer. To keep this option free for you, you authorize us to include other MyStoreCredit registered seller’s listings in the update email we send your buyer and you authorize us to use your transaction information including the title of the item purchased or the category of the item purchased to best select other MyStoreCredit seller’s listings to promote at the bottom of the free email. We do not disclose your original transaction information to any other MyStoreCredit user or third party. Rather, we use your transaction information as the basis of matching or excluding other MyStoreCredit user listings. If you do not want your buyer transaction information to be used by us to identify appropriate other listings from other MyStoreCredit users ( for inclusion in the periodic update e-mails sent to your buyers), you should choose the exclusive e-mail option offered to you during the registration process. Selecting the exclusive e-mail option will result in no other use of your transaction information. If these two options are not acceptable to you, do not use our service. If you choose the free option, please note that MyStoreCredit always ask for a buyer’s permission to share the buyer’s eBay user ID and the date and time they click through an advertisement with any seller running the ad before we share that information.

Certain transaction information, such as your name, email address, password, credit card number, and PayPal® account information, are not disclosed to marketing advertisers ever.

External Service Providers. There are a number of services offered by external service providers that help you use our site (e.g., market venue sites like eBay and auction management services). If you choose to use these services, disclose information to the external service providers, and/or grant them permission to collect information about you, then their use of your information is governed by their privacy policy. We may, for your convenience, provide some of your personally identifiable information to the external service provider offering such services. However, before we disclose your personally identifiable information to an external service provider, you will see what data is to be sent and have the ability to approve the disclosure. To prevent our disclosure of your personally identifiable information to an external service provider, you can decline such disclosures or simply not use their services. By using our service in conjunction with any market venue site, including but not limited to, eBay, you agree to allow us to share any and all personal information as it relates to transactions you close on those sites. If you use our service in conjunction with your listings at these third party sites you should understand that we do not control the privacy practices of these third parties, and you should evaluate their practices before deciding to use their services.

Internal Service Providers. We may use internal service providers to facilitate our services (e.g., search, discussion boards, surveys) and therefore we may provide some of your personally identifiable information directly to them. In some instances, the internal service provider may collect information directly from you (such as the situation where we ask an internal service provider to conduct a survey for us). In these cases, you will be notified of the involvement of the internal service provider, and all information disclosures you make will be strictly optional. In all cases, these internal service providers' use of information we supply them is restricted by confidentiality agreements. If you provide additional information to an internal service provider directly, then their use of your information is governed by their applicable privacy policy.

Other Corporate Entities. We share much of our data, including personally identifiable information about you, with our subsidiaries and joint ventures that are committed to serving your online trading needs and related services, throughout the world. To the extent that these entities have access to your information, they will treat it at least as protectively as they treat information they obtain from their other users. Our subsidiaries and joint ventures follow privacy practices no less protective of all users than our practices described in this document, to the extent allowed by applicable law. It is possible that MyStoreCredit, its subsidiaries, its joint ventures, or any combination of such, could merge with or be acquired by another business entity. Should such a combination occur, you should expect that MyStoreCredit would share some or all of your information in order to continue to provide the service. You will receive notice of such event (to the extent it occurs) as provided in Section 10 ("Notice") and we will require that the new combined entity follow the practices disclosed in this Privacy Policy.

Legal Requests. MyStoreCredit cooperates with law enforcement inquiries, as well as other third parties to enforce laws, such as: intellectual property rights, fraud and other rights. We can (and you authorize us to) disclose any information about you to law enforcement or other government officials as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate, in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringements, or other activity that is illegal or may expose us or you to legal liability. Additionally, MyStoreCredit reserves the right (and you authorize MyStoreCredit) to communicate any information about you (including, but not limited to your policy violations, ended items, and item status) to other users and law enforcement agencies as we in our sole discretion determine necessary or appropriate to maintain a level of trust and safety in our community and to enforce our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and any posted policies or rules applicable to services you use through our site.

4. Use of Email Tools.

For our Loyalty Service only: When you provide a MyStoreCredit bonus store credit offer as part of a qualifying transaction between you and your buyer, you will create an obligation to notify your buyer about the process and confirmation of the store credit. Because of the inclusion of the store credit in the transaction, this notification becomes a necessary and integral part of your sale transaction. As such, the single initial email from MyStoreCredit which explains the process and confirms the store credit amount is an acceptable form of email communication by every industry standard and definition, including the email policies of the major market venues.

For illustrative purposes, the single, initial MyStoreCredit email is similar to you sending a buyer an email invoice at the close of a transaction. In this example it is acceptable industry practice to recognize that, while the buyer has never expressly given you permission to send them commercial email, the buyer’s active participation in a transaction with you provides implied consent for you to send the email invoice. Likewise, it is acceptable industry standards for you to send buyers an email telling them whenever you ship their purchase. Industry practice and SPAM definitions provide that opt-in permission is NOT required for either of these emails because both the invoice and shipping notice emails are integral parts of the initial transaction. However, if you were to send additional emails that simply listed items you had for sale without getting the buyer’s opt-in permission, those emails would clearly NOT be integral to the initial transaction and would fall within the definition of unsolicited SPAM email.

As should be evident by these two examples, the single initial MyStoreCredit email which provides a buyer with the validation and confirmation of their open store credit, relates directly to your closed transaction and is therefore an integral part of the transaction. Like an invoice or a shipping notice, this initial email is not considered SPAM nor does it violate any industry or market venue policy on email communication.

MyStoreCredit does seek the buyer’s opt-in permission for subsequent email communications that are not integral to the original open store credit transaction. If we do not have the buyer’s prior opt-in permission, we do include requests for the buyer’s opt-in permission within emails that we send that are integral to the open store credit transaction. We will never send commercial email communications to the buyer unless we receive the buyer’s opt-in permission. When we do receive the buyer’s opt-in permission, and also only with your expressed permission, MyStoreCredit will send update emails to the buyer which provide the buyer with your then current market venue listings. In any update email, we gather your listings solely from the market venue site used in the first transaction. We show those listing titles as HTML links within the update emails. We send update emails approximately every two to four weeks for one year.

The HTML listings in the update emails provide your buyer with the exact web addresses of your listings so they can easily navigate to your listings by clicking on the links. By participating in our service, you grant us the right to publish your listings in the update emails.

5. Your Use of Other Users' Information.

MyStoreCredit does not tolerate SPAM and we require that you certify you do not support or send SPAM as part of our registration. MyStoreCredit always seeks and receives opt-in permission from buyers before we send commercial emails to those buyers. When MyStoreCredit is granted the buyer’s permission, you acknowledge that the buyer is providing opt-in permission to MyStoreCredit for commercial email communications and not to you. We encourage you to seek opt-in permission directly from your buyer for your own email communications.

You acknowledge that if a buyer opts-in to receive MyStoreCredit update emails, you cannot consider that equal to opt-in permission for you to send emails to your buyer.

If you wish to send your buyer any form of commercial email, including communications about the MyStoreCredit program or for any other purposes, you agree to seek and receive the buyer’s opt-in permission for yourself before sending such commercial email.

6. Control of Your Password.

You are responsible for all actions taken with your User ID and password, including fees. Therefore we do not recommend that you disclose your MyStoreCredit password to any third parties. If you choose to share your User ID and password or your information with third parties to provide you additional services, you are responsible for all actions taken with your User ID and password and therefore you should review that third party's privacy policy. If you lose control of your password, you may lose substantial control over your personally identifiable information and may be subject to legally binding actions taken on your behalf. Therefore, if your password has been compromised for any reason, you should immediately change your password as detailed in Section 7.

7. Reviewing and Changing Your Personally Identifiable Information.

We offer you the ability to automatically review and change the information you submit to us by logging into the site and entering in the new information yourself. Generally, we will not modify your information based on your request because it is very difficult to authenticate your account manually. You will be required to make changes yourself. You can change your user Id, email address, contact information, financial information, and user preferences by going to the registration section in My MyStoreCredit.

We will retain in our files information you have requested to remove in some circumstances, such as to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems and enforce our User Agreement. Further, such prior information is never completely removed from our databases due to technical and legal constraints, including stored "back up" systems. Therefore, you should not expect that all of your personally identifiable information will be completely removed from our databases in response to your requests.

8. Other Information Collectors.

Except as otherwise expressly included in this Privacy Policy, this document only addresses the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. To the extent that you disclose your information to other parties, whether they are market venues, buyers or others on our site or other sites throughout the Internet, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the information you disclose to them. To the extent that we use third party advertisers, they adhere to their own privacy policies. Since MyStoreCredit does not control the privacy policies of third parties, you are subject to the privacy policies of that third party. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.

9. Security.

MyStoreCredit uses industry standard practices to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal identifiable information, including "firewalls" and Secure Socket Layers. MyStoreCredit treats data as an asset that must be protected against loss and unauthorized access. We employ many different security techniques to protect such data from unauthorized access by users inside and outside the company. However, "perfect security" does not exist on the Internet.

10. Notice.

We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time by posting the amended terms on our site. All amended terms shall automatically be effective 30 days after they are initially posted on our site. In addition, we will notify you in accordance with your Notification Preferences.