Last Updated: January 1, 2021
GO VC, LLC PRIVACY POLICY
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND READ THE ENTIRE PRIVACY POLICY
GO VC, LLC (“GO VC”) continues to embrace a larger digital presence in order to provide its customers quality products and services at a faster pace. In order to create better products and build an enhanced experience for its customers, GO VC has made some changes to the way it uses the information it collects. Therefore, the Privacy Policy has been updated, and the new Privacy Policy (“Policy”) is effective January 1, 2021 (“Effective Date”).
PRIVACY POLICY OVERVIEW
This website and its subdomains (govc.com) are owned and operated by GO VC, LLC (“GO VC”), a Delaware limited liability company with offices at 18101 Von Karman Ave, Suite 960, Irvine, CA 92612. References to “GO VC,” may be construed as references to GO VC and its parents, subsidiaries, or divisions. This Policy applies to information collected on this website and any GO VC website accessed via a user’s computer, mobile, e-reader, tablet or other device (“Device”) used to access the Devices, and applications and sites affiliated with GO VC products, that link to this Policy (collectively, the “Devices”). This Policy is incorporated into and subject to the terms of use of this website (“Terms of Use”). Each time that you access or use the Devices, you signify that you have read, understand and agree to be bound by the Terms of Use and this Policy. If you do not agree to the Terms of Use and this Policy, you must discontinue using our Devices. From time to time, GO VC may update its Policy. GO VC will post the new Policy with a new effective date to notify you of these changes. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back to this Policy frequently for updates. By accessing the Devices after the Effective Date, you are deemed to consent to our then-current Policy.
HOW DOES GO VC AND THIRD PARTIES GATHER AND/OR TRACK INFORMATION ABOUT YOU?
Information You Provide
Email Newsletters. When you sign-up to receive free or paid GO VC email information newsletters, GO VC may require that you supply your name, email address and other information.
Registration for Other GO VC Products, Services and Events. When you register to receive GO VC products or services or sign up for various events or webinars, whether they are free or paid, and whether they are offered by us or provided in association with our third-party partners, GO VC may require that you supply your full name, email address, contact information, and other information. In some instances, GO VC also collects credit card information to bill subscribers for premium products and to bill attendees for events.
Sweepstakes, Contests and Promotions. We may offer sweepstakes, contests, and other promotions (a “Promotion”) that may require registration. You will be asked to provide certain information in order to participate in any such Promotions, and any information you provide may be used and disclosed as set forth in this Policy, as well as in connection with the administration of such Promotion and as required by law or permitted by the Promotion’s official rules.
Research Surveys. You may elect to provide information in connection with GO VC research surveys or research surveys offered in conjunction with our advertisers and/or partners.
Credit Card Information. If you use a credit card to pay for any GO VC products or services, GO VC may retain your credit card information in order to renew your account in the event you elect to renew your subscription. You should never provide detailed credit card information directly to GO VC via an unsecure form (such as email).
Partner Products & Services Offered on the Devices. Third parties, such as partners, sponsors or advertisers whose services are promoted or advertised on the Devices may request that you provide personal information. Please see below for further details about this.
Awards and Honors. When applying for an award or honor, you may provide personal information.
Third Parties. GO VC may collect information about you that GO VC receives from other sources.
Information Collected from Tracking Technologies
Information Collected Using Technology. GO VC may use a variety of technologies (collectively, “Tracking Technologies”, which are further described here to gather personal and non-personal information (which is any information that does not reveal your specific identity) automatically (or passively) whenever you visit or interact with the Devices. We also work with third parties to provide certain functionalities on the Devices and to improve the effectiveness of the Devices and its content. Separate and distinct from information GO VC shares with third parties (as further described below), third party companies may also use Tracking Technologies to independently collect and store information about you and your usage of the Devices and may combine this information with information they collect from other sources. Please note, we do not control Tracking Technologies used by third parties, and their use may be governed by the privacy policies of the third parties employing the Tracking Technologies. Some of the Tracking Technologies that may be used to collect information are described below. To learn how to turn off certain Tracking Technologies, see below.
Device Information. GO VC may collect certain, non-personal information about the Device you use to access GO VC’s services, including but not limited to IP addresses for your Devices, unique device identifiers, browser types, browser language and other transactional information that does not personally identify you.
User History. GO VC may log certain usage information about your use of the Devices, which may include a history of the pages you view. If you download and use any GO VC software application on your Device, the log files will automatically be collected by the application and sent to GO VC’s servers when your Device syncs up for the latest content available.
Mobile/Location Information. We may collect additional information from you if you access the Devices through a mobile device, for example your unique device identifier, device’s operating system, mobile carrier, or location when you opt in for us to do so. However, the degree to which your location can be identified depends on the device you are using (e.g. laptop, smartphone, tablet) and how you are connected to the internet (e.g. via cable broadband connection, Wi-Fi, etc.). If you enable location services for the Devices, we may collect regional location data periodically as you use or leave open the Devices. We may also collect your location information from you IP address or zip code. We may also use location data internally or in conjunction with our third-party service providers to customize your experience and provide offers that may be relevant to you. Depending on the platform you use to access the Devices (e.g., Apple™ iOS, Google™ Android, Windows, etc.) you may be able to control from within the settings on your wireless device whether location data is collected.
SOCIAL NETWORKING SERVICES:
When you log into GO VC through your social networking accounts, link your social networking accounts with the Devices or engage with Devices through third-party social media platforms, you understand that you may be allowing us ongoing access to certain information stored on those platforms. In addition, as you interact with the Devices, you may also be providing information about your activities to the third-party social networking platforms, as applicable. You should make sure that you are comfortable with the information such services may make available to us by visiting the applicable platforms’ privacy policies and/or modifying your privacy settings directly with those platforms.
WHAT DOES GO VC DO WITH THE INFORMATION IT COLLECTS?
GO VC uses your personal and non-personal information that it collects from you and about you for the purposes set forth below. For the avoidance of doubt, GO VC may use and disclose non-personal information for any purpose, except where GO VC is required to do otherwise under applicable law. If GO VC is required to treat non-personal information as personal information under applicable law, then GO VC may use and disclose it for all the purposes for which GO VC uses and discloses your personal information. GO VC may use the information collected from one portion of the Devices on other portions of the Devices, and GO VC may combine information gathered from multiple portions of the Devices into a single record. GO VC may also use or combine information that GO VC collects offline or from third-party sources with your information collected from the Devices. Additionally, data collected from a particular browser or Device may be used with another computer or Device that is associated with the browser or Device on which such data was collected or transferred to a third party who may be able to track your activity across Devices. GO VC may use this information to:
Enable Usage. GO VC uses the information it gathers about you to enable your use of GO VC’s products and services, including but not limited to accessing the Devices, receiving e-newsletters, renewing paid services, participating in message boards and receiving requested product and services.
Data Enhancement. GO VC may acquire information from other trusted sources to update or supplement the information that you provided or we collected automatically, such as information to validate or update your address or other information.
Customizing Your Experience on the Devices. GO VC uses the information that it collects and acquires to customize your user experience on the Devices, including delivering content to you that we think would be most relevant and of interest to you and providing you with an enhanced experience based on the type of Device you are using.
Advertising. We use third-party ad servers and ad networks that use tracking technology to collect information about your visits on other services and when you access the Devices to send you targeted advertisements. They automatically receive your IP address or mobile device identifier when this happens. They may also use Tracking Technologies to measure the effectiveness of advertisements and to personalize the advertising content and to serve you advertisements that are relevant to your regional location. We may also use information collected using third party cookies and beacons on the Devices and in our emails to deliver advertising about the Devices displayed to you on third party services. Google is one of the companies that we use to serve advertising and perform analytics on some of the Devices. We and third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to report how our ad impressions, other uses of ad services, and interactions with these ad impressions and ad services are related to visits to the Devices. To learn about Google Analytics’ currently available opt-outs for the Web, click here.
Statistical Analysis. GO VC may perform statistical, and marketing analyses of user behavior for a variety of purposes, such as to measure interest in the various areas of GO VC sites, to better understand subscription and purchasing patterns for product development purposes and to inform advertisers about GO VC subscriber base. GO VC also uses third parties to provide GO VC with information, reports and analysis about the usage and browsing patterns of users of GO VC products and services. Such third parties track and analyze non-personally identifiable usage and volume statistical information about GO VC visitors and customers with respect to the Devices and track and analyze anonymous usage and browsing patterns of users of the Devices.
Account Maintenance and Service Updates. GO VC may utilize the contact information you provided at registration, such as your telephone number and email address, to contact you regarding your account, your subscriptions and other products or services which you have requested or in which you are currently enrolled. These may include, but are not limited to, order confirmations, renewals/expiration notices, notifications about credit card issues, and changes to the subscriber agreement and GO VC products.
Push Notifications. The Devices may include a function that allows us to use push notifications to send you updates, communications, and other messages about the Devices. To opt out of getting these push notifications or other messages, you must turn off the push notification function within your device settings.
E-Mail Newsletters. If you have registered to receive email newsletters, you shall receive emails specifically for such newsletters. If you choose to no longer receive such email newsletters, you may unsubscribe from such emails (see below for instructions).
E-Mail Promotions. GO VC may also periodically send you email messages about products and services that GO VC or its partners think may be of interest to you. If you choose not to receive such emails, you may unsubscribe from such emails (see below for instructions).
Other Emails. If you use the “Email a Friend” feature to email links to articles, the email that you supply to GO VC may be saved for your convenience only and are also subject to terms and use and privacy terms of Add This. If you send GO VC emails, you should be aware that any information provided in an email may not be secure or encrypted and therefore may be available to others. Please exercise caution if you decide to disclose any personal or confidential information in such email and please be advised that you should not provide detailed credit card information directly to GO VC via an unsecure form (such as email). GO VC representatives shall use your email address to respond to any of your questions or comments.
Administrator Uses. If your use of the Devices is managed for you by an account Administrator, then your account administrator and resellers who provide user support to your organization may have access to your personal information (including your email and other data). Please refer to your account administrator’s privacy policy for more information.
Archival Purposes. Personal and other information that you provide to us in the course of participating in the Devices may be gathered and stored in one or more of our corporate databases. We may retain information from canceled accounts to comply with law, prevent fraud, assist with investigations, resolve disputes, analyze or troubleshoot programs, enforce our terms of use, or take other actions permitted by law. We may also retain information to prevent re- registration in the event that your account has been suspended or terminated or to create an archival copy of your information, which might be used by us for recordkeeping and internal purposes. We will retain your information for the period of time necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy unless a longer retention period is permitted or required by law.
WITH WHOM DOES GO VC SHARE THE PERSONAL INFORMATION IT COLLECTS?
GO VC may, on occasion, choose to share the personal information collected about users with select third parties for certain purposes, such as:
Third-Party Promotions. GO VC may share your personal information with select third parties so that they may provide you with product or service offerings or promotions via email or direct mail which GO VC feels may be of interest to you. Many of GO VC’s subscribers find these email and direct mail promotions valuable, whether they are shopping for merchandise, taking advantage of special offers, or purchasing unique services. You may opt-out of having your personal information shared for this purpose, as described in greater detail below.
Partner Products & Services Offered on the Devices. If you provide personal information to third parties, such as partners, sponsors or advertisers whose services are promoted or advertised on the Devices, you may be providing your information to both GO VC and the third party. Your personal information will be subject to this Policy as well as the privacy policy and practices of such third party. GO VC cannot make guarantees or warranties as to the nature of a third party’s use of your personal information.
Third-Party Event Sponsors. When you register for a GO VC event (including, but not limited to, any webinars, physical events, and award dinners) GO VC may share the information you provide, such as your name, company name, postal address and email address, with third parties who are sponsoring the applicable event. You may opt-out of having such information shared for this purpose, as described in greater below.
Mobile Carriers. If you access the Devices through a Device or app, we may also share your information with mobile carriers, operating systems and platforms.
Personal information about you as an individual subscriber or registrant may be shared, regardless of your “opt-out” status, in the following instances:
Compliance with Law. GO VC may release information if it is required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to: (1) comply with the law or comply with a subpoena or other legal process served on GO VC; and (2) protect and defend the legitimate business interests, rights or property of GO VC, its users, advertisers, customers, sponsors, advertisers or affiliates.
Vendors. GO VC may on occasion use third-party vendors to assist it in performing its business functions, such as mailing statements to subscribers, email distribution, processing data and payments, and providing customer service. Personal information may be shared with these businesses or individuals to allow them to perform their assigned functions but is limited to that information needed to perform the assigned function and may not be used for any other purpose.
Organizational Changes. Should GO VC undergo a sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, reorganization or liquidation, GO VC’s accumulated customer information will be treated as an asset and, like other business assets, subject to transfer to or acquisition by a third-party. We may also disclose information about our users in connection with a commercial transaction where we, or any one of our businesses, is seeking financing, investment, support or funding. In such event, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our website of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information.
LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES
GO VC is not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of websites to which it may link. This Policy applies solely to information collected by GO VC. You should consult the respective privacy policies of any applicable third parties to learn more about their privacy practices.
PROTECTION OF YOUR INFORMATION
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of information, GO VC has put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to protect the information GO VC collects online. Please understand, however, that while we try our best to safeguard your personally identifiable information once we receive it, no transmission of data over the Internet or any social media or other public network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.
You need to help protect the privacy of your own information, including maintaining the confidentiality of any account information or access credentials. You must take precautions to protect the security of any personally identifiable information that you may transmit over any public or untrusted network by using encryption and other techniques to prevent unauthorized persons from intercepting or receiving any of your personally identifiable information. You are responsible for the security of your information when using unencrypted, open access, public or otherwise unsecured networks.
A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT CHILDREN AND NON-U.S. USERS
The GO VC site is directed to a general audience and not directed to those under the age of 18. GO VC asks that minors not submit any personal information. GO VC does not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 18 years of age and if we obtain actual knowledge that a user is under 18 years of age, we will take steps to remove that user’s personal information from our systems.
The Devices is operated in the United States and is intended for users located in the United States. If you are located anywhere outside of the United States, please be aware that information we collect, including personal information, will be transferred to, processed and stored in the United States. The data protection laws in the United States may differ from those of the country in which you are located, and your personal information may be subject to access requests from governments, courts, or law enforcement in the United States according to the laws of the United States. By using the Devices or providing us with any information, you consent to the transfer, processing and storage of your information in the United States. You are also consenting to the application of United States federal and California state law in all matters concerning the Devices and this Policy.
The laws of the State of California shall govern any dispute, including those disputes arising from GO VC’s use of personal information or otherwise relating to privacy, as specified in the Terms of Use. This Policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties.
OPTING-OUT, CORRECTIONS AND CANCELLATIONS
Email. Any recipient of email notices may opt out of receiving them at any time. To opt out of receiving emails, follow the unsubscribe instructions located near the bottom of each service update, newsletter or promotional email, or email your request to help@govc.com. Please note that even if you opt out of receiving subscriber communications by email, we may continue to send you subscriber communications by direct mail.
Research Surveys. You may elect not to receive GO VC research surveys by using the opt-out link contained in such emails and you may elect not to receive co-branded surveys by unsubscribing from emails from third party partners, as described below.
Postal Addresses. GO VC collects postal mailing address information from you so that GO VC may fulfill the orders you submit and to inform you of GO VC programs, products and services in which you may be interested. You have the right to opt out of receiving postal mailings from GO VC. If you do not wish to receive postal mailings from GO VC in the future, please send an email to help@govc.com.
Third-Party Partners. GO VC selectively makes its postal mailing address list and email list available to third party partners whose products or service offerings may be of interest to you. If you do not wish for GO VC to provide either your postal mailing or email information (or both) to third party partners, please specify this in an email to help@govc.com or send a notice to GO VC at the address listed at the end of this Policy.
Third-Party Event Sponsors. If you do not wish for GO VC to share any information you supply when you register for an event (including, but not limited to any webinars and recognition dinners), such as your name, company name, postal address or email address, please specify this in an email to help@govc.com.
Turning Off Tracking Technologies. You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a persistent or session cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off such cookies through your browser settings. Each browser is a little different, so look at your browser’s Help menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies. However, cookie management tools provided by your browser will not remove Flash cookies. To learn how to manage privacy and storage settings for Flash cookies, please click here. It is important to remember that many of GO VC services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. For example, GO VC needs first-party cookies to log you in to read stories that require registration or a subscription. In that case, you may set your browser to block third-party cookies and allow GO VC’s first-party cookies only
Google Analytics. Google is one of the companies that we use to serve advertising and perform analytics on some of the Devices. We and third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to help implement the above uses of your information. To learn about Google Analytics’ currently available opt-outs for the Web, click here. To learn more about how Google uses cookies in advertising, you can visit the Google ad and content network privacy policy located here. You can opt out of receiving interest-based Google ads, or customize the ads Google shows you, by clicking here. GO VC also uses third-party services for remarketing GO VC products and services, such as Google’s Customer Match via the Google platform, whereby we will deliver targeted ads to you based on your prior usage on the Devices. If you want to opt-out of remarketing, please email us at help@govc.com.
Network Advertising Initiative. Some of our advertising service providers may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative, which offers a single location to opt out of ad targeting from member companies. However, if you opt-out of receiving targeted ads in this manner, you will continue to receive advertising messages from us after you opt-out, but other members of the Network Advertising Initiative will not be able to target you based on your use of the Devices and/or third-party websites. If you would like more information about advertisers’ use of tracking technologies and about your option not to accept these cookies, you can go to https://www.networkadvertising.org. If you would like to learn more about how interest-based information is collected and to know your choices about not having information used in this manner, you can go to https://www.aboutads.info.
“Do Not Track” Signals. Some third-party browsers provide “do not track” machine readable signals for websites which are automatically applied by default and therefore do not necessarily reflect our visitor’s choice as to whether they wish to receive advertisements tailored to their interests. As a result, at this time, GO VC does not respond to browser “do not track” signals or other similar mechanisms. Go to https://www.networkadvertising.org or https://www.aboutads.info if you wish to learn more about your options to not accept tracking cookies for the purpose of receiving targeted interest-based advertisements. Please note that the-opt out is cookie-based and will only affect the specific computer and browser on which the opt-out is applied.
OTHER IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES
NOTICE TO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS
Your California Privacy Rights (As Provided by California Civil Code Section 1798.83).
A California resident who has provided personal information to a business with whom he/she has established a business relationship for personal, family, or household purposes (a “California Customer”) may request information about whether the business has disclosed personal information to any third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes, subject to certain exceptions. In general, again, subject to certain exceptions, if the business has made such a disclosure of personal information, upon receipt of a request by a California Customer, the business is required to provide a list of all third parties to whom it disclosed personal information in the preceding calendar year, as well as a list of the categories of personal information that were disclosed. One of the exceptions allows GO VC to provide California Customers a cost-free means to opt out of these disclosures instead of providing such list. Any customer may request to opt out of these disclosures by contacting GO VC as described below. California Customers may also request further information about our compliance with this law by contacting us at our address below.
GO VC, LLC
Attn: General Counsel
18101 Von Karman, Suite 960
Irvine, CA 92612
Email: help@govc.com
For the avoidance of doubt, it is important to understand that this opt-out shall not prohibit any disclosures made for non-marketing purposes.
Corrections/Cancellations and Questions. Upon your request, GO VC will provide you with its record of the personal information you gave GO VC at registration. For security reasons, this information will only be sent to the email address on file for the subscriber ID associated with it. With respect to corporate or company accounts, aggregated or individual user history may be shared with the account holder, upon request. If you have any questions about this Policy or would like GO VC to correct any of your personal information, you can email your corrections to help@govc.com. We will endeavor to comply with your requests as soon as reasonably possible, but changes requested of us may not be effective immediately. We are not responsible unless required by law, to inform third parties with whom we have already shared your information of any changes requested pursuant to this section. We are not responsible for removing information or causing information to be removed from the databases or records of such entities.
If you would like to mail your inquiry, please direct it to:
GO VC, LLC
Attn: General Counsel
18101 Von Karman, Suite 960
Irvine, CA 92612
Email: help@govc.com
TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES
GO VC may employ the following tracking technologies on its GO VC Applications (as defined in GO VC User License and Terms of Use):
Cookies. “Cookies” give users a special ID, which are small text files that are stored in the memory of a user’s computer, mobile, e-reader, tablet or other device used to access the GO VC Applications (“Device”). GO VC employs cookies to recognize you and your access privileges for certain locations on the Devices as well as to track site usage. Subscribers who do not accept cookies from the Devices cannot access many areas of the Devices. We use both “session ID cookies” and “persistent cookies.” Session ID cookies are used to store information while a user is logged into the Devices and expire when the user closes his/her browser. Persistent cookies are used to make tasks like logging into the Devices easier for returning users by remembering a user’s login information. Persistent cookies stay on a user’s hard drive from one session to the next. “Flash cookies,” known as local shared objects, are data files placed on a Device via the Adobe Flash plug-in that may be built-in to or downloaded by you to your Device to personalize your visit. Our third-party service providers also may use Flash cookies to collect and store information. Flash cookies are different from standard browser cookies because of the amount of data, type of data, and how data is stored.
Web Beacons. Small graphic images or other web programming code called web beacons (also known as “1×1 GIFs” or “clear GIFs”) may be included in our web pages and messages. Web beacons may be invisible to you, but any electronic image or other web programming code inserted into a web page or email can act as a web beacon. Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including, without limitation, to count visitors to the Devices, to monitor how users navigate the Devices, to count how many emails that were sent were actually opened or to count how many particular articles or links were actually viewed.
Embedded Scripts. An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Devices, such as the links you click on. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your Device from our web server or a third-party service provider, is active only while you are connected to the Devices and is deactivated or deleted thereafter.
HTML5. We may use HTML5 in the Devices, including without limitation in GO VC mobile websites and certain mobile applications for the iPhone or iPad (and any other Apple iOS device). HTML5 has browser web storage that does not rely on traditional browser cookies. Like Flash cookies, HTML5 cookies are not stored in a browser “cookies” file and, like Flash cookies, can be used to track users across websites. We are currently unaware of a way for a user to disable local storage while simultaneously leaving cookies enabled.
E-tags/cache browsers/web logs. Like most standard website servers, we log IP addresses (a unique number assigned to every computer on the Internet) and Device identification in order to improve security, analyze trends and administer the Devices. We may track your movement within the Devices, the pages from which you were referred, access times and browser types. This information may include the browser you are using, the Internet address from which you linked to our Devices, the operating system of your computer, the unique IP address of the computer or Device identification from the Device that you used to access our Devices and usage and browsing habits. We use this information in the aggregate to gauge the effectiveness, usage, and popularity of our Devices, track information for statistical purposes, help diagnose and troubleshoot server malfunctions, analyze trends, track user movement in the aggregate, and gather information. We may also use individual information we collect through web logs to send you targeted offers and other communications.
CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY
GO VC may update or revise this Policy from time to time. You agree that you will review this Policy periodically. If we make any changes to this Policy, we will change the “Last Updated” date above. You are free to decide whether or not to accept a modified version of this Policy, but accepting this Policy, as modified, is required for you to continue using the GO VC Applications. If you do not agree to the terms of this Policy or any modified version of this Policy, your sole recourse is to terminate your use of the GO VC Applications.
Last Updated: January 1, 2021