Policies

Contents
Terms of Service
Privacy Policy

Our Legal Policies

Even if you don't like to read legal documents, this stuff matters. Rather than bury these policies in complicated jargon, we strive to communicate them as clearly as possible. Our Terms of Service provide you with clear details about our relationship, while our Privacy Policy lays out our guidelines regarding your information.

Terms of Service

Last modified: 4 January 2014

Welcome

First of all, thank you for using HostedGroups! HostedGroups is a service provided by Drakontas Consulting, LLC ("Drakontas Consulting"). By using HostedGroups, you are agreeing to these terms; please read them carefully.

Usage

Don't misuse HostedGroups. For instance, don't try to access HostedGroups using a method other than the interface and instructions that we provide. You may use HostedGroups only as permitted by law, including applicable export and re-export control laws and regulations. We may suspend or stop providing HostedGroups to you if you do not comply with our terms or policies, or if we are investigating suspected misconduct.

Using HostedGroups does not give you ownership of any intellectual property rights in HostedGroups or the content you access. You may not use content from HostedGroups unless you obtain permission from its owner or are otherwise permitted by law. These terms do not grant you the right to use any branding or logos used in HostedGroups. Don't remove, obscure, or alter any legal notices displayed in or along with HostedGroups.

HostedGroups displays some content that is not owned by Drakontas Consulting. This content is the sole responsibility of the entity that makes it available. We may review content to determine whether it is illegal or violates our policies, and we may remove or refuse to display content that we believe violates our policies or the law. However, that does not necessarily mean that we review content, so please don't assume that we do.

In connection with your use of HostedGroups, we may send you service announcements, administrative messages, and other information. You may opt out of some of those communications.

HostedGroups may be accessed using mobile devices. Do not use HostedGroups in a way that distracts you or prevents you from obeying traffic or safety laws.

Accounts

You must have a HostedGroups Account in order to use HostedGroups. To protect your HostedGroups Account, keep your password confidential. You are responsible for the activity that happens on or through your HostedGroups Account. Try to not reuse your HostedGroups Account password on third-party applications.

If you learn of any unauthorized use of your password or HostedGroups Account, please reset your HostedGroups Account password so nobody else can sign in to your account. If you think someone has access to the email address associated with your HostedGroups Account, please change the password for your email as well.

Privacy &
Copyright

HostedGroups allows you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours when you submit it to HostedGroups.

When you upload or otherwise submit content to HostedGroups, you give Drakontas Consulting (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations, or other changes we make so that your cotnent works better with HostedGroups), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display, and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving HostedGroups. This license continues even if you stop using HostedGroups (for example, for a group profile you have created on HostedGroups). Make sure you have the necessary rights to grant us this license for any content that you submit to HostedGroups.

If you have a HostedGroups Account, we may display your Profile name and Profile photo on HostedGroups. We will respect the choices you make to limit sharing or visibility settings in your HostedGroups Account.

You can find more information about how Drakontas Consulting uses and stores content in the Privacy Policy. If you submit feedback or suggestions about HostedGroups, we may use your feedback or suggestions without obligation to you.

Our Privacy Policy explains how we treat your personal data and protect your privacy when you use HostedGroups. By using HostedGroups, you agree that Drakontas Consulting can use such data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement and terminate accounts of repeat infringers according to the process set out in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

We provide information to help copyright holders manage their intellectual property online. If you think somebody is violating your copyrights and want want to notify us, you can find information about submitting notices and Drakontas Consulting's policy about responding to notices on our contact page.

Software
License

HostedGroups gives you a personal, wordwide, royalty-free, non-assignable, and non-exclusive license to use the software provided to you by Drakontas Consulting as part of HostedGroups. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling you to use and enjoy the benefit of HostedGroups as provided by Drakontas Consulting, inthe manner permitted by these terms. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of HostedGroups or included software, nor may you reverse engineer or attempt to extract the source code of that software, unless laws prohibit those restrictions or you have our written permission.

Open source software is important to us. Some software used in HostedGroups may be offered under an open source license that we will make available to you. There may be provisions in the open source license that expressly override some of these terms.

Updates

We are constantly changing and improving HostedGroups. We may add or remove functionalities or features, and we may suspend or stop HostedGroups altogether.

You can stop using HostedGroups at any time, although we'll be sorry to see you go. Drakontas Consulting may also stop providing HostedGroups to you, or add or create new limits to HostedGroups at any time.

We believe that you own your data and preserving your access to such data is important. If we discontinue HostedGroups, where reasonably possible, we will give you reasonable advance notice and a chance to get information out of HostedGroups.

Warranties &
Disclaimers

We provide HostedGroups using a commercially reasonable level of skill and care and we hope that you will enjoy using it. However, there are certain things that we don't promise about HostedGroups.

Other than as expressly set out in these terms, neither Drakontas Consulting nor its suppliers or distributors make any specific promises about HostedGroups. For example, we don't make any commitments about the content within HostedGroups, the specific functions of HostedGroups, or their reliability, availability, or ability to meet your needs. We provide HostedGroups "as is".

Some jurisdictions provide for certain warranties, like the implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. To the extent permitted by law, we exclude all warranties.

Liability

When permitted by law, Drakontas Consulting, and Drakontas Consulting's suppliers and distributors, will not be responsible for lost profits, revenues, or data, financial losses or indirect, special, consequential, exemplary, or punative damages.

To the extent permitted by law, the total liability of Drakontas Consulting, and its suppliers and distributors, for any claims under these terms, including for any implied warranties, is limited to the amount you paid us to use HostedGroups (or, if we choose, to supplying you with HostedGroups again).

In all cases, Drakontas Consulting, and its suppliers and distributors, will not be liable for any loss or damage that is not reasonably foreseeable.

If you are using HostedGroups on behalf of a business, that business accepts these terms. It will hold harmless and indemnify Drakontas Consulting and its affiliates, officers, agents, and employees from any claim, suit or action arising from or related to the use of HostedGroups or violation of these terms, including any liability or expense arising from claims, losses, damages, suits, judgments, litigation costs and attorneys' fees.

A Few
More
Things

We may modify these terms or any additional terms that apply to HostedGroups to, for example, reflect changes to the law or changes to HostedGroups. You should look at the terms regularly. We'll post notice of modifications to these terms on this page. Changes will not apply retroactively and will become effective no sooner than fourteen days after they are posted. However, changes addressing new functions for HostedGroups or changes made for legal reasons will be effective immediately. If you do not agree to the modified terms for HostedGroups, you should discontinue your use of HostedGroups.

These terms control the relationship between Drakontas Consulting and you. They do not create any third party beneficiary rights.

If you do not comply with these terms, and we don't take action right away, this doesn't mean that we are giving up any rights that we may have (such as taking action in the future).

If it turns out that a particular term is not enforceable, this will not affect any other terms.

The laws of North Carolina, U.S.A., excluding North Carolina's conflict of laws rules, will apply to any disputes arising out of or relating to these terms or HostedGroups. All claims arising out of or relating to these terms or HostedGroups will be litigated exclusively in the federal or state courts of Wake County, North Carolina, USA, and you and Drakontas Consulting consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.

For information about how to contact Drakontas Consulting, please visit our contact page.

Privacy Policy

Last Modified: 4 January 2014

Overview

HostedGroups can be used by individuals and organizations in many different ways. When you share information with us, such as when creating a HostedGroups Account, we can use that information to make HostedGroups even better — for example, by creating new features and functionality to enhance group operations. As you use HostedGroups, we want to be clear about how we're using information and the ways in which you can protect your privacy.

This policy explains what information we collect, how we use that information, and choices you can make regarding the availability of that information.

We've tried to keep this policy as simple as possible, but there are some key terms discussed with which you may be unfamiliar. Your privacy matters — whether you are new to HostedGroups or a long-time user — so please take the time to get to know our practices. If you have any questions, please visit our contact page to get in touch with us.

Information
we collect

We collect information to provide better services to all of our users. We collect information in two basic categories:

• Information you give us.
  HostedGroups requires you to sign up for a HostedGroups Account. When signing up for a HostedGroups Account, we'll ask for personal information, like your name, email address, or telephone number. As you use HostedGroups, you may be asked to provide additional information, such as when creating groups, creating events, or RSVP-ing for events.
• Information we get from your use of HostedGroups.
  We may collect information about how you use HostedGroups, such as which features you use. This information includes:
• Device information: We may collect device-specific information, such as the hardware model, operating system version, and unique device identifiers. Drakontas Consulting may associate this identifying information with your HostedGroups Account.
• Log information: When you access HostedGroups or view content provided by HostedGroups, we may automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This may include details of how you use HostedGroups, your Internet Protocol address, device event information, the date and time of your request, the referral URL, and cookies that may uniquely identify your HostedGroups Account.
• Application information: Some software applications (including web browsers) include unique identification numbers. This number and information about your environment (including the operating system type and version number) may be logged by HostedGroups when a user accesses the service.

We use the information we collect to provide, maintain, protect, and improve HostedGroups features, and to develop new ones. We also use this information to offer you tailored content (such as showing you opportunities relevant to your location).

We may use the name you provide for your HostedGroups Profile across all of the groups of which you are a member on HostedGroups. Additionally, we may update past participation records to align with updates to information in your HostedGroups Profile. When you join a group on HostedGroups, the administrators of that group may have access to certain information in your HostedGroups Profile, including your name and email address, so that they can maintain their group's membership more effectively.

When you contact HostedGroups or Drakontas Consulting, we may keep a record of your communication to help solve any issues you might be facing. We may use your email address to inform you about HostedGroups, such as letting you know about upcoming changes or improvements.

We will ask for your consent before using information for a purpose other than those that are set out in this policy.

Drakontas Consulting processes personal information using servers that are located in various geographic locations to improve local user experience. Accordingly, we may process your personal information using a server located outside the country where you live.

Information
you share

HostedGrounds lets you share information with others. Remember that when you share information publicly, it may be indexable by search engines. HostedGroups provides you with options to share and restrict access to your content.

Whenever you use HostedGroups, we aim to provide you with access to your personal information. If that information is wrong, we strive to give you ways to update it quickly or to delete it — unless we have to keep that information for legitimate business or legal purposes. When updating your personal information, we may ask you to verify your identity before we can act on your request.

We may reject requests that are unreasonably repetitive, require disproportionate technical effort (for example, developing a new system or fundamentally changing an existing practice), risk the privacy of others, or would be extremely impractical (for instance, requests concerning information residing on backup systems).

Where we can provide information access and correction, we will do so for free, except where it would require a disproportionate effort. We aim to maintain HostedGroups in a manner that protects information from accidental or malicious destruction. Because of this, after you delete information from HostedGroups, we may not immediately delete residual copies from our active servers and we may not remove information from our backup systems.

Information
we share

We do not share personal information with companies, organizations, or individuals outside of Drakontas Consulting unless one of the following circumstances applies:

• With your consent.
  We will share personal information with companies, organizations, or individuals outside of HostedGroups and Drakontas Consulting when we have your consent to do so. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.
• With group administrators.
  If you join a group on HostedGroups using your HostedGroups Account, then your group administrator(s) will have access to your HostedGroups Account information (including your name, email, and other data). Your group administrator(s) may be able to:
• view statistics regarding your account in the context of their group, like statistics regarding events you attend and your participation record;
• suspend or terminate your access within their group;
• access or retain information stored as part of your account within their group;
• receive your account information in order to satisfy applicable law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request; or
• restrict your ability to delete or edit information or privacy settings within their group.
• For legal reasons.
  We will share personal information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of Drakontas Consulting if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to:
• meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request;
• enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations;
• detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues; or
• protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of Drakontas Consulting, our users, or the public as required or permitted by law.

We may share aggregated, non-personally identifiable information publicly and with our partners — such as publishers, advertisers or connected sites. As an example, we may share information publicly to show trends about the general use of HostedGroups.

If Drakontas Consulting is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, we will continue to ensure the confidentiality of any personal information and give affected users notice before personal information is transferred or becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Information
Assurance

We work hard to protect Drakontas Consulting, HostedGroups, and our users from unauthorized access to, or unauthorized alteration, disclosure, or destruction of information we hold. We accomplish this in several ways:

• We encrypt HostedGroups transactions using SSL to increase the privacy of each user session.
• We review our information collection, storage, and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorized access to systems.
• We restrict access to personal information to Drakontas Consulting employees and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us, and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.

Application

This policy applies to HostedGroups, offered by Drakontas Consulting. However, this policy does not apply to services offered by other organizations or individuals, including organizations that use HostedGroups to manage their activities. Our Privacy Policy does not cover the information practices of other organizations who advertise HostedGroups and who may use various technologies to serve relevant ads.

Enforcement

We regularly review our compliance with this policy. When we receive a formal written complaint, we will contact the person who made the complaint to follow up. We will work with the appropriate regulatory authorities to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of personal data that we cannot resolve with our users directly.

Policy Changes

Our Privacy Policy may change occasionally. We will post any policy changes on this page and we will provide a more prominent notice for significant changes.