meebo privacy policy

Last Updated: August 4, 2008

Meebo, Inc. ("Meebo") owns and runs various websites, including but not limited to meebo.com, meeborooms.com, meebome.com, and gomeebo.com and any part of them, (the "Websites"). A link to this privacy policy is included on the homepage of each of the Websites. Meebo respects the privacy of its users. This document explains how Meebo will use the information that you provide to us via the Websites. Meebo may amend this privacy policy from time to time. If Meebo does so, the revised privacy policy will be posted on the Websites.

1. Information collected. You are not required to provide personally identifiable information to visit the Websites; however, in order to take advantage of certain features you may need to provide some personally identifiable information.

• User Name and Password. In order to access your third party message accounts, you must enter your applicable user name(s) and password(s) on Meebo. To use the basic services of the Websites, Meebo does not store your password(s) on our server. If you wish to utilize advanced features of the Websites, such as automatic sign-in, storage of your password(s) may be necessary.
• Aggregate Usage Data. Meebo may collect usage data and other information on all users, including data about their usage of the site and its various features, but it is not personally identifiable except as described below under the IP Addresses section.
• Social Features. From time to time, Meebo introduces features that allow friends to share more information about themselves with other friends, including information about what they are doing on Meebo. Meebo may store the personally identifiable information that you provide us in order to provide these services, including your friends list. Whenever a social feature involves the disclosure of personally identifiable information about you to other people, Meebo will either provide you with an opportunity to opt out of the disclosure or will seek your consent prior to making the disclosure.
• File Transfer. When you use the file transfer feature of Meebo, the file that you transfer is copied and retained on the servers of our third party service provider for a period of time following the transfer. Neither Meebo nor the third party service provider accesses or uses these files for any purpose, but you should be aware that these files are not encrypted.
• Platform Applications. Meebo has entered into agreements with third party developers ("Developers") to make their applications available through the Meebo Platform so that you can use them through the Websites (the "Platform Applications"). In order to enable the Platform Applications to work, Meebo may need to provide the Developers with your Meebo user name or other personally identifiable information that is related to your use of the Platform Applications. Meebo has required that the Developers only use this information to provide the Platform Applications to you and not disclose it to any third party.

In addition, some of the Platform Applications may collect personally identifiable information from you directly. In that case, any information that you provide through the Platform Application will be governed by the Developer's privacy policy, which you should review carefully before using the Platform Application. Each Developer will be solely responsible for complying with its own privacy policy.

2. Storage and Disclosure of Your Communications. You can use Meebo to chat in private IM sessions, to chat in public sessions through Meebo Rooms, or to post on the Meebo message boards.

If you are registered as a Meebo user and are logged onto Meebo, your preferences are automatically set to log your IM chats on Meebo's servers. You can view or delete your IM chat logs by clicking on the chat log icon in your chat window. You can turn off chat logging in your Meebo account preferences. Keep in mind that even if you elect not to store your chat logs, the person that you're chatting with may be storing them. By using Meebo, you consent to the storage of your chat logs as the default option and to the storing of your chat logs by other users with whom you are chatting. For more information about chat log features and settings, please see Meebo's support documentation.

Your posting to Meebo message boards and chats in Meebo Rooms are public and are also saved on our servers as chat or message histories, which are also accessible to the public, who may include law officers and other authorities. To the extent that your postings on message boards or in Meebo Rooms include personally identifiable information, such information may be saved on our server(s) and may be disclosed to the public in perpetuity.

Meebo may disclose chat logs in legal proceedings in the same manner as other personally identifiable information as described in Section 5.

3. Cookies. Meebo may use cookies on the Websites. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer's hard drive by our servers to identify your computer to our servers. Except as provided in Section 5, below, no personally identifiable information stored in the Meebo cookies will be shared with outside companies for any purpose without your permission. You can also disable cookies or otherwise manage them through tools provided with your browser software and with third-party software packages, or not use the features that require cookies.

We and our advertisers may use third-party companies to serve ads when you visit the Websites. These third-party ad-serving companies may also place cookies on your computer. Sometimes these cookies may be used to provide targeted advertising to you. These advertising companies may also use Web beacons to help manage and optimize our online advertising.

To the extent that Meebo allows advertisers or other third parties to use cookies or Web beacons on the Websites, Meebo will require that they agree to adopt a substantially similar privacy policy with respect to your information. Some third-party ad serving companies have agreed to allow users to opt-out of receiving targeted advertising.

4. IP Addresses. Meebo compiles logs of IP addresses of visitors to the Websites for administrative and analytical purposes. Meebo does not routinely collect any personally identifiable information through its compilation of IP address or the location of computers on the Internet. However, in cases of suspected abuse or service problems, Meebo may use an IP address in conjunction with other personally identifiable information to enforce our Terms of Use and/or to protect or troubleshoot the Websites, its users or others who may be affected. Except as provided in Section 5, below, Meebo will not share personally identifiable information associated with IP addresses with third parties without your permission.

Meebo may share data about aggregate IP addresses, but such data does not include personally identifiable information.

5. Sharing of Information. Meebo may share personally identifiable information with third parties in the following cases:

• to enable the normal course of functionality of the Websites (for example, your user name(s) and password(s) and IP address will be shared with your message services in order to permit you to log onto and utilize that message service through Meebo). Meebo engages third party service providers in the normal course of business to help in the operation of the Meebo service. We may share your personally identifiable information with these third party service providers to the extent necessary for them to provide their services, on the condition that the third party maintains the information as confidential and uses the information only to perform the services specified by Meebo;
• Meebo may provide your user name and other personal information to the Developers who provide Platform Applications, as described above;
• as part of Meebo's social features, as described above;
• in cases of abusive behavior or suspected violations of the terms of use of either Meebo or of the messaging service you have logged onto through Meebo, we may share personal information, including IP address, with that messaging service in order to investigate the violation and to take appropriate action;
• to respond to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, to prevent fraud or imminent harm, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims; and/or
• in the event that Meebo is acquired by or merged with another company, Meebo will transfer information about you to that other company.

Meebo reserves the right to send you certain communications relating to the Websites and the services offered thereby, such as service announcements and administrative messages, but we plan on doing so sparingly, if ever. In any case, we reserve the right to contact you regarding violation of this privacy policy, the Terms of Use, and any other violation of law or applicable regulations and policies.

6. Notification of Changes. Any changes to this policy will be posted on the Websites in this location.

7. Links to Other Sites. The Websites contain links to and media and other content from other sites. In addition, such third-party media and content may also contain external links. Because of the dynamic media capabilities of the Websites, it may not be clear to you which links are embedded in the Websites and which are embedded in third-party media and/or content. Although Meebo requires our business partners and advertisers to adopt privacy policies similar to this privacy policy with respect to any information collected on the Websites, Meebo cannot and does not guarantee the privacy policies and practices of any third party, including the Developers who provide the Platform Applications. Meebo does not control, operate or endorse any information, products or services of any third-party Websites that may be reached through links from the Websites or of any Platform Application. The use of any personal information provided to such a third party will be governed by that party's privacy policy.

8. Non-U.S. Users. Meebo is hosted and operated entirely in the United States and is subject to United States law. Any personal information that you provide to Meebo is being provided to Meebo solely in the United States and will be hosted on United States servers. If you are accessing Meebo from outside the United States, please be advised that United States law may not offer the same privacy protections as the law of your jurisdiction.

9. Acceptance. This privacy policy is incorporated into and subject to the terms and conditions of Meebo's Terms of Use, available on the Websites. Use of the Websites and the services offered thereby is subject to your compliance with the Terms of Use, which constitutes a legal agreement between you and Meebo. Each time you use the Websites and the services offered thereby you signify that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by the Terms of Use, which incorporates the privacy policy, and the applicable posted guidelines. USE OF THE WEBSITES AND THE SERVICES OFFERED THEREBY SIGNIFIES THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS OF USE AND THE PRIVACY POLICY. If you do not agree with the terms of either of these documents, please do not provide Meebo with any information and do not use the Websites and the services offered thereby. Your continued use of the Websites and the services offered thereby in light of changes to this privacy policy, the Terms of Use, or to the relevant principles thereof will signify your acceptance of the changes.

10. Comments and Questions. If you have any comments or questions you may address them to our customer service department at comments@meebo.com, or via mail addressed to Customer Service, Meebo, Inc., at 215 Castro Street, Third Floor, Mountain View, CA 94041.