Privacy Policy
This privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) describes the ways in which Benefit Bidding, LLC., collects, uses, and shares information collected from or about you while you are utilizing the services provided by Benefit Bidding. We at Benefit Bidding respect the privacy of the individuals that use our services, and you can rest assured that the Personal Information you provide will be handled with the utmost care. This Privacy Policy describes how Benefit Bidding uses the data it collects or receives from users of its services.
Your information, including Personal Information, may be stored in the United States or other countries where data protection and other laws may not be as comprehensive as those in your country. By using the services you consent to your information being collected, used and transferred as set forth in this Privacy Policy.
Information on Privacy
The United States federal government and technology industry have developed practical tips to help you guard against Internet fraud, secure your computer, and protect your Personal Information.
Collection of Information
Benefit Bidding is the sole owner of the information collected through the use of its services. Benefit Bidding collects information from our users at several different points through its services:
Organization and Staff Registration. When you register your organization with Benefit Bidding, you provide us with the name and address of your organization as well as your personal name and email address. During registration, all users must provide a personal email address and select a User Name and Password. Your email address is used to contact you about the services on our site. Your User Name and Password allow us to authenticate you when logging in to our site. In order to provide a more personalized experience on our site, we ask all users to provide their first and last names.
Bidder Registration. When you register for a bidder account (enabling you to place bids at any online auction hosted by Benefit Bidding), you provide us with your name, address, phone number and email address (the “Contact Information”). In addition, you will select a personal User Name and Password. The Contact Information will be shared with each organization hosting an auction in which you participate. Participation includes placing a bid for an online auction item, donating an item to be auctioned, donating money or purchasing tickets to a silent/live event auction. Your User Name and Password allow us to authenticate you when logging in to our site.
From time to time, Benefit Bidding may request other Personal Information in order to provide features, functions or services, but you will always have the choice to decide whether or not to provide the requested information. Your User Name may be publically displayed throughout the services and connected with all of your activity, such that any visitors to the site may see your bids, purchases, items for sale, sales rankings, feedback, and any associated comments.
Non-Identifiable Information
Additionally, Benefit Bidding may collect and compile information relating to your use of the Site which is not Personal Information, such as time, date, browser type, browser language, operating system, domain name of your internet service provider, and IP address (collectively, the “Non- Identifiable Information”) as part of the operation of this Site or during the course of your activities on or use of this Site.
Benefit Bidding may also use “cookies” and similar technologies such as bots in connection with operation of the site to help personalize and tailor the services and improve the quality of those services by tracking and storing user preferences, trends and patterns. Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored on your computer by Benefit Bidding’s website server. The use of cookies is common in the industry, and they are used at most major web sites. You may customize your browser to automatically inform you whenever a cookie is to be used or refuse all cookies but doing so may impair or prevent the performance of certain functions of the site, and may not permit access to some areas of the Site. For more information on cookies, see http://www.cookiecentral.com/faq.htm.
Consent to Collection of Information
By using the services (which resides in part on servers located in the United States), you unambiguously consent to any collection, processing, transfer or use of any Personal Information. If you do not consent to any collection, processing, transfer, or use of such information, please discontinue use of the services.
Use of Collected Information
Benefit Bidding uses Personal Information for the purpose for which you provided it. We do not sell or rent your Personal Information to third parties, for their marketing purposes, without your express consent. For instance, if you registered for our services, Benefit Bidding uses your Personal Information to provide you any alerts or feeds that you requested Benefit Bidding send you. If you correspond with us and include Personal Information, Benefit Bidding uses the Personal Information to respond to you. We also use your Personal Information to provide you customer support.
Benefit Bidding may use your email address to send you information about our products or services, but you may opt out from receiving these promotional messages. However, Benefit Bidding always reserves the right to contact you about your account or customer service issues. In general, we may use your personal information to: provide the services and customer support you expect and request; resolve disputes; collect fees; provide support and correct issues; detect, investigate, prevent and reduce illegal and harmful activities; and to enforce our Terms of Use; customize and improve our services, content, advertising and listing; deliver targeted marketing, service updates and promotional offers based on your communication preferences; and to verify any information you provide to third parties for accuracy and to prevent fraud.
Legal Disclaimer
Although 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. For example, we will cooperate with the appropriate legal authorities when presented with a subpoena or other government order
Limited Access to Your Information
The organization and user information you provide is available only to the following parties:
- Your organization’s Administrator
- Your organization’s other users who have been invited and granted access to your information by your organization’s Administrator
- Employees of Benefit Bidding who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our customer service representatives)
- Business partners of Benefit Bidding who need the information to offer a specific requested service (for example, merchant account providers)
- Business partners of Benefit Bidding who need the information to provide us with various analytics and customer support services (for example, customer support and help desk service providers).
Other Benefit Bidding visitors and users (for example, those associated with other organizations) do not have access to your organization and user information.
Employees of Benefit Bidding who need information to perform a specific job (for example, our customer service representatives) are granted temporary access to organization and user information.
Business partners of Benefit Bidding who need information to offer a specific requested service (for example, merchant account providers), are granted access only to the specific information necessary to provide the requested service.
Security
Benefit Bidding uses commercially reasonable technical, physical, operational and procedural safeguards to protect Personal Information from loss, misuse, altercation, and unauthorized access or disclosure. Due to the nature of Benefit Bidding’s business, including its dependence on the public Internet, we cannot ultimately ensure that private communications and Personal Information will not be intercepted by third parties or otherwise obtained in ways not described in this Privacy Policy. Although Benefit Bidding attempts to protect the privacy of users, we cannot absolutely guarantee that such information will remain private. While no security measure can guarantee against compromise, Benefit Bidding regularly reviews and updates its security measures in an effort to provide appropriate security for all information held by Benefit Bidding. If you access the Site from a shared computer, such as a computer in an internet café, certain information about you may be visible to subsequent users of that computer.
Children
Benefit Bidding takes children’s privacy seriously and does not knowingly collect, use or disclose Personal Information from children and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and requirements, such as the United States Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Benefit Bidding encourages all parents and guardians to instruct their children in the safe and responsible use of personal information on the Internet. The services are not intended for or directed at children under the age of 13, and Benefit Bidding does not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 13.
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will prominently post those changes 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 at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.
Your Consent and Changes to the Privacy Policy
By using the Site, you consent to the collection and use of your information as Benefit Bidding has outlined in this Privacy Policy and to Benefit Bidding’s Terms of Use.