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BLACKSTARVILLAGE.COM PRIVACY POLICY:

 Your privacy on the Internet is paramount to us. At BlackstarVillage.com, we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe. Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we feel you should fully understand our policy and the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather and how we use it. This Privacy Policy is effective upon acceptance for members and is otherwise effective on August 5, 2008.

About BlackstarVillage.com: The Cradle of Social Change BlackstarVillage.com is the first community-building platform powered by the collective work and responsibility of people passionate about creating positive social, economic and political change in Black communities around the globe. If you decide to become a member you will have exclusive access to the Blackstar platform. As a member you will be able to transcend geographic boundaries by exploring issues that impact Black people around the world with others just as passionate as you. Second, you will be able to collaborate with other members both formally and informally to work towards creating solutions to serious problems that plague our communities. Blackstar members are able to share their thoughts on relevant issues with other members via blogs, music, photos, videos and a completely customizable member profile. Because our web-based platform aims to be a place of substance instead of merely a superficial forum for disseminating gossip and/or discussing celebrity fashion trends currently membership is limited to adults age 18 and up.

What kind of information does BlackstarVillage collect and how is that information used? In general BlackstarVillage.com gathers two types of information about users:

BlackstarVillage collects user submitted information such as MyVillageVoice (i.e. username), e-mail address, age, gender, city, state, and zip code during the registration process which is used to authenticate users and send notices to those members relating to their membership (i.e. account). BlackstarVillage also collects other data that is displayed in member profiles including but not limited to: personal interests, gender, age, education and occupation in order to assist members in finding and communicating with other members who share the same interests and passion for certain causes.

Electronic newsletters policy We reserve the right to send members our free monthly, electronic newsletter or other time sensitive information (i.e. breaking news) regarding our platform and important social issues. Members may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every newsletter that points users to the subscription management page.

E-mail this to a friend policy Our site users can choose to electronically forward a link, page, or documents to someone else by clicking "e-mail this to a friend". The user must provide their email address, as well as that of the recipient. This information is used only in the case of transmission errors and, of course, to let the recipient know who sent the email. The information is not used for any other purpose.

Polling We may offer interactive polls to users so they can easily share their opinions with other users and see what our audience thinks about important issues. Opinions or other responses to polls are aggregated and are not identifiable to any particular user. BlackstarVillage may use a system to "tag" users after they have voted, so they can vote only once on a particular question. This tag is not correlated with information about individual users.

Surveys BlackstarVillage may occasionally conduct user surveys to better target our content to our audience. We may sometimes share the aggregated demographic information in these surveys with our sponsors, advertisers and partners. We never share any of this information about specific individuals with any third party.

Special Promotions From time to time, Blackstar or a partner may sponsor a special promotion, contest, or sweepstake on the site. Members may be asked to provide personal and/or contact information in order to participate. We reserve the right to transfer this information to these partners that you have explicitly requested to receive information from. It will always be obvious who is collecting your personal information.

BlackstarVillage also logs non-personally-identifiable data including IP address, profile information, aggregate user data, and browser type, from members and visitors to the site. This information allows us to better tailor our content to members’ needs and to help our advertisers and sponsors better understand the demographics of our audience. Because BlackstarVillage may derive a small portion of revenue from sponsorships and advertising, providing such aggregated demographic data is essential to keeping our service affordable and accessible to all members.

How does BlackstarVillage use the information it collects? BlackstarVillage uses any information voluntarily given by members to enhance their experience using our platform, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the platform or to better prepare future content based on the interests of members.

As stated above, we use information that users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participate in polls, surveys, message boards, and forums. We send out newsletters to subscribers on a monthly basis, and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in an important social issue or something we are doing to improve our community-building platform. BlackstarVillage NEVER shares newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners.

When we use tracking information to determine which areas of our platform users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better platform for you. We track search terms entered in Search function as one of many measures of what interests our users. But we don't track which terms a particular user enters.

BlackstarVillage creates aggregate reports on user demographics and traffic patterns for advertisers, sponsors and partners. This allows our advertisers to advertise more effectively, and allows our users to receive advertisements that are pertinent to their needs and interests. Because we don't track the usage patterns of individual users, an advertiser or sponsor will never know that a specific user clicked their ad. We will not disclose any information about any individual user except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public.

What exactly are “cookies” and does BlackstarVillage use them? Yes, cookies are used on BlackstarVillage to make your experience more enjoyable. A cookie is just computer lingo for a small text file that is sent to your browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape Navigator, etc.) from BlackstarVillage’s web server and that is stored on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies allow us to store members’ preferences and to record session information, for purposes of enhancing our platform and services.

You can set your browser to refuse cookies or to warn you before accepting cookies; however, to use many aspects of our site you must enable cookies to be accepted by your browser.

The cookie itself does not contain personal information although it will enable us to relate your use of this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. BlackstarVillage uses cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above). Our advertising system delivers a one-time cookie to better track ad impressions and click rates.

Is my personal information ever shared with any third parties? In the near future, a small portion of our general operation expenses may be made possible by ad revenue, BlackstarVillage may use the above-described information to tailor our content to suit your needs and help our advertisers better understand our audience's demographics. We fully intend to build a strong member-supported platform but may find it necessary to share aggregate member data only to our partners. We will never share information about individual users with any third party, except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

How does BlackstarVillage protect my account and personal information? Profiles and account information on BlackstarVillage are secured by member-created passwords. Therefore, your password should contain unique numbers, letters and special characters and should not be shared with anyone including family, friends, or co-workers. Remember, ultimately you are responsible for all actions taken in the name of your account. When using public or shared computers be sure to log out when your session is over to prevent others from using and/or doing damage while using your account without your knowledge and/or consent. If your password has been compromised for any reason; you should immediately notify BlackstarVillage and change your password.

BlackstarVillage makes every reasonable effort to operate a secure data network protected by industry standard tools and protocols such as firewall systems, password-protected areas, and data encryption. Even though we work very hard to prevent unauthorized access and disclosure of your information, no technology anywhere is 100% secure; therefore, third parties may unlawfully intercept, access, and/or misuse transmissions, private communications, and stored data. As a result, we do not promise or guarantee the security of information provided or sent to us and ultimately you participate in BlackstarVillage at your own risk.

What information is displayed on my personal page (i.e. profile)? To protect the privacy of each and every v members ONLY the following information is publicly viewable on a base (i.e. profile page): MyVillageVoice (i.e. site alias or username), members’ photos, age, gender, country, city, and state. With the exception of inviting friends, a members’s e-mail address is not shared or displayed to any other member of the site. In this capacity, e-mail addresses are used for the sole purpose of inviting friends to join Blackstar.

If I become a member of this site how much control will I have over my account? Blackstar members have complete control over their account. For example, members are able to control who is able to view their base (i.e. profile) and/or submissions (i.e. member’s profiles, pictures, videos, blogs, and music can be made private and thus viewable to approved parties). Additionally, members can control who is able to post material to their page and manage their newsletter and blog subscriptions as well as manage account and notification settings. Please be mindful that whenever you voluntarily post content to journals, blogs, classifieds, message boards, or any public forum that the information can be accessed by the public and can in turn be used by those people to send you unsolicited communications.

Who do I contact if I have any questions regarding issues of privacy or if I feel my privacy has been compromised? Should you have a question regarding your privacy while using our site and services, please feel free to e-mail marketing@blackstarvillage.com.

What is your e-mail opt-out policy? We give members options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include: Opting not to receive our electronic newsletters and alerts (i.e. breaking news).

Opting not to participate in certain interactive area, which completely alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our users.

Does your privacy policy apply to any third parties? Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that third party website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

How often is your privacy policy amended? We reserve the right to amend our privacy policy from time to time. By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by BlackstarVillage.com. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.


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