GENERAL
The Expats Club is a UK-based company that owns and operates the Internet websites www.theexpatsclub.net and www.meetconnectdevelop.com (“Websites”). Your use of The websites are subject to your acceptance of the Terms of Use and this Privacy Policy. If you do not accept the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy, then you may not use the Websites. In the course of your use of the Websites, you may provide us with Personal Information and General Information. We respect your privacy and we seek to comply with applicable legal requirements in respect of data collection, processing and transfer. By accepting the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy and using the Websites, you consent to our processing of your Personal Information and General Information.
TYPES OF INFORMATION
“Personal Information”: When you register as a user, update your information, comment on Content, take part in discussions, upload your own content, answer questionnaires, send emails to us, contact other users via the Websites or otherwise participate in The Expats Club/meetconnectdevelop.com, you may provide us with information which we may store and process. Such information may include your name, address, phone number, email address, purchase history, interests, and such other ‘Personal Information’. “General Information”: We may also receive more general information from you as a result of your visits to and use of the Websites. This general information does not identify you personally and can include information such as your IP address, the length of time you spend on the site, your browsing history and other such ‘General Information’..
USE OF INFORMATION
We take all steps reasonably necessary to protect your Personal Information against unauthorised access, use, alteration, disclosure or destruction. Other than as may be required in order to operate the Websites or as otherwise described in the Terms of Service or this Privacy Policy, we disclose your Personal Information to third parties only as reasonably required to protect the rights and safety of ourselves and the Website’s users, and only upon your active consent or as required by law enforcement authorities. With regard to General Information, we may use that for tracking activity on the Websites, preparing reports, assessing trends, and otherwise monitoring the way in which the Websites are being used – none of which would be in a way that personally identifies any users. By using the Websites you accept that we may use your Personal Information and General Information for a variety of purposes, including those described above, and including purposes intended to:
(a) enhance your experience of the Websites and to make them more user-friendly (including by sending you information about new features on the Websites and other announcements and notifications or to seek your feedback);
(b) provide you with advertising information (including advertising for goods and services provided by other users or commercial entities);
(c) any additional purposes that may be communicated to you from time to time before your Personal Data is used for such additional purposes; and
(d) provide you with newsletters, service related announcements, or other notifications or emails in relation to the Website.
If we sell The Expats Club or the websites to a third party or it otherwise becomes subject to a merger, consolidation or acquisition, it may become necessary for us to transfer your Personal Information to a third party and in such case we would require that the third party handles your Personal Information with the same care as exercised by us. We only provide data to our advertising partners or customers after we have removed your name or any other personally identifying information from it, or have combined it with other peoples data in a way that it is no longer associated with you.
We only provide data to our advertising partners or customers after we have removed your name or any other personally identifying information from it, or have combined it with other people’s data in a way that it is no longer associated with you.
PRIVACY SETTINGS
There are default settings for what Personal Information other users of The Expats Club and the websites can see about you. Generally, most of the non-sensitive Personal Information (like user name, name, nationality, industry, age group etc.) is visible to other users. Some of your most sensitive information is only visible to you and the administrator (like your email address). Sometimes you may not be able to select an audience when you post something (like when you write on a group forum wall or comment on a news article that uses our comments plugin. This is because some types of stories are always public. Generally, you should assume that the information will be publicly available. When others share information about you, they may also choose to make it public.
INFORMATION IS ALWAYS PUBLICLY AVAILABLE
All the information you provide other than your email address is always publicly available and is treated just like information you decided to make public. This helps people in your network find you. If you are uncomfortable sharing your real name, city or age etc. then you can use an alias or you can always delete your account. (Please email the administrator at info@theexpatsclub.net if you would like to delete your account) As per our default privacy settings all your information (other than your email address) your name, user name, city, your home country, your work industry and your age group is also displayed.
YOUR USERNAME, USER ID AND PROFILE PICTURE
We also use your user ID to identify your account. If someone has your username or user ID and your password they can use it to access information about you through the Websites. Please keep your password safe. Your current profile picture can appear as part of a random selection of users on our home page or on group pages.
SECURITY
The Expats Club and it’s websites are committed to ensuring that your Personal Information and General Information is secure and we take all steps reasonably necessary to protect your Personal Information against the unauthorised access, use, alteration, disclosure or destruction. Our employees treat Personal Information held by us as confidential and maintain the confidentiality of that Personal Information. Any information that we collect and store that is personally identifiable is protected using appropriate means. Although we take appropriate precautions, we will not be held responsible for any unauthorized access by third parties.
ACCESS AND CORRECTION
Please contact us through the email provided on the Websites if you believe that any Personal Information that we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete or if you want to change any marketing preferences. You can also make these changes yourself. We will revise any information that is incorrect or change your preferences upon receipt of your request.
COOKIES
In addition to the Personal Information and General Information that The Expats Club collects through its Websites, the Websites uses cookies and you hereby consent to this use. Most web browsers are set by default to accept cookies. However, if you do not wish to receive any cookies, you may set your browser to either prompt you on or refuse cookies. Please note that rejecting cookies will restrict the functionality of the Websites as a whole. We also use cookies for tracking the statistics of the Websites. This allows us to better understand our users and improve the layout and functionality of the Websites.
EFFECTIVENESS; CHANGES
This Privacy Policy is effective with respect to all Information that we have collected since the launch of the Websites. You will be informed of any changes in our Privacy Policy and they will be posted on the Websites and with respect to any Personal Information we collect in the future will become effective as of the date of the information collection. With regard to Personal Information previously collected, there will be no retroactive changes to the Privacy Policy.
LINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES
This Website may contain links to other websites. The Expats Club is not responsible for the privacy practices of websites not operated by it and we encourage you to read the privacy statements of each and every website that you access that collects your information.
MISCELLANEOUS
As per our Terms of Use, children and minors (under the age of 21) are not eligible to use any services on the Websites and therefore we will not be responsible for any Personal Information submitted by any persons under the age of 21.
PRIVACY SETTINGS
Profile information the User submits to will be available to other Users of The Expats Club and its website users based on the default privacy settings. These defaults cannot be changed but the user can use an alias or upload a stock photo if they are uncomfortable sharing their information.
NEWSLETTERS, EMAILS, AND NOTIFICATIONS TO USERS
We regularly send out newsletters, service-related announcements, or other notification messages and emails (altogether “Member Communication”) to all users of our websites. You may send an email to info@theexpatsclub.net if you wish to turn them off.
If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us by sending an email to info@theexpatsclub.net