This policy is effective as of December 1, 2008.
Mekwa was built to allow you to go beyond your existing social network. There are countless sites that allow you to connect with the people you already know. Mekwa also allows you to connect with your friends, but makes it very easy to connect with strangers. We understand that you have a faceted identity and there is information you have that you would only like to make available to your friends. Mekwa gives you control over your personal information in your privacy settings.
Mekwa is a part of you that goes out there and comes back with content from other users. All content posted by others is set so that you have to approve it before it becomes part of your public mekwa.
By using or accessing mekwa, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
Mekwa's Privacy Policy is designed to help you understand how we collect and use the personal information you decide to share, and help you make informed decisions when using mekwa, located at www.mekwa.com and its directly associated domains (collectively, "mekwa" or "website")
When you visit mekwa you provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected by us and Web Site use information collected by us as you interact with our Web Site.
When you register with mekwa, you provide us with certain personal information, such as your name, your email address, your telephone number, your address, your gender, and any other personal or preference information that you provide to us.
When you enter mekwa, we collect your browser type and IP address. This information is gathered for all mekwa visitors. In addition, we store certain information from your browser using "cookies."
You post User Content on the Site at your own risk. Although we allow you to set privacy options that limit access to your user details, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. We cannot control the actions of other Users who beam your mekwa and add content to it. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that User Content posted on the Site will be to your liking. Mekwas are about surprise, we cannot control what content will be gathered by your mekwa. Anyone can see your mekwa, we cannot control that (nor do we want to). You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal, copies of User Content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other Users have copied or stored your User Content.
Any improper collection or misuse of information provided on mekwa is a violation of the mekwa Terms of Service and should be reported to privacy@mekwa.com.
If you choose to use our invitation service to tell a friend about our site, we will ask you for information needed to send the invitation, such as your friend's email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email or instant message inviting him or her to visit the site. Mekwa stores this information to send this one-time invitation, to register a friend connection if your invitation is accepted, and to track the success of our referral program. Your friend may contact us at privacy@mekwa.com to request that we remove this information from our database.
Mekwa may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the mekwa service through the operation of the service (e.g., photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience.
By using mekwa, you are consenting to have your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States.
Mekwa does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register.
We recommend that minors over the age of 13 ask their parents for permission before sending any information about themselves to anyone over the Internet. In reality we know that the internet empowers teenagers with tools to explore the world and develop social and technical skills, regardless of what 'growups' say or do. If you are a teenager, take extra care and be happy. Mekwa will empower you to go beyond your existing 'real' social network.
When you register with mekwa, you create your own mekwa and user profile. Your profile information, as well as your name, email and photo, are displayed to people specified by you in your privacy settings. We may occasionally use your name and email address to send you notifications regarding new services offered by mekwa that we think you may find valuable.
Profile information is used by mekwa primarily to be presented back to and edited by you when you access the service and to be presented to others permitted to view that information by your privacy settings.
Mekwa may send you service-related announcements from time to time through the general operation of the service. For instance, if a friend sends you a new message or poke, or someone posts on your mekwa, you may receive an email alerting you to that fact.
Generally, you may opt out of such emails from the Notifications page, though mekwa reserves the right to send you notices about your account even if you opt out of all voluntary email notifications.
Mekwa may use information in your profile without identifying you as an individual to third parties. We do this for purposes such as aggregating how many people in a network like a band or movie and personalizing advertisements and promotions so that we can provide you mekwa. We believe this benefits you. You can know more about the world around you and, where there are advertisements, they're more likely to be interesting to you. For example, if you put a favorite movie in your profile, we might serve you an advertisement highlighting a screening of a similar one in your town. But we don't tell the movie company who you are.
Mekwa is about sharing some information with others while providing you with privacy settings that restrict other users from accessing your information. We allow you to choose the information you provide to friends and networks through mekwa. Our network architecture and your privacy settings allow you to make informed choices about who has access to your information. We do not provide contact information to third party marketers without your permission. We share your information with third parties only in limited circumstances where we believe such sharing is 1) reasonably necessary to offer the service, 2) legally required or, 3) permitted by you. For example:
Please keep in mind that if you disclose personal information in your profile or when posting comments, messages, photos or other items, this information may become publicly available.
Mekwa may contain links to other websites. We are of course not responsible for the privacy practices of other web sites.
Advertisements that appear on mekwa are sometimes delivered (or "served") directly to users by third party advertisers. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. These third party advertisers may also download cookies to your computer, or use other technologies such as JavaScript and "web beacons" (also known as "1x1 gifs") to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. Doing this allows the advertising network to recognize your computer each time they send you an advertisement in order to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. In this way, they may compile information about where individuals using your computer or browser saw their advertisements and determine which advertisements are clicked. mekwa does not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed by the third party advertisers. Third party advertisers have no access to your contact information.
This privacy policy covers the use of cookies by mekwa and does not cover the use of cookies or other tracking technologies by any of its advertisers.
Access and control over most personal information on mekwa is readily available through the profile editing tools. mekwa users may modify or delete any of their profile information at any time by logging into their account. Information will be updated immediately. Individuals who wish to deactivate their mekwa account may do so on the My Account page. Removed information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time but will not be generally available to members of mekwa.
Where you make use of the communication features of the service to share information with other individuals on mekwa, however, (e.g., sending a personal message to another mekwa user) you generally cannot remove such communications.
Mekwa takes appropriate precautions to protect our users' information. Your account information is located on a secured server behind a firewall.
Your use of mekwa, and any disputes arising from it, is subject to this Privacy Policy as well as our Terms of Use and all of its dispute resolution provisions including arbitration, limitation on damages and choice of law. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use at any time. Unless stated otherwise, our current privacy policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account.
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact us at privacy@mekwa.com.