Introduction

The Climbtheladder.com website (“Company” or “We”) respects your privacy and we want to ensure you are aware of what data we intend to keep and how we will handle the data you provide to us.

This privacy policy describes the types of information We may collect from individuals (collectively, “Users” or “you”) who visit the website https://climbtheladder.com/.  Whether or not such Users are members of a Community (the “Community Members”) and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information. If you have any questions about this policy, please submit an inquiry to [email protected] (the “Community Contact”) with the subject line “Privacy Policy”.

This policy applies to information We collect from Users:

• on the Site
• via email, or other electronic communications between you and Company;
• when you interact with our advertising and applications on third-party websites and services, if those applications or advertising include links to the Sites.

It does not apply to information collected by:

• us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by Company or any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries); or
• any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries), including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on the Sites.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how We will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, do not use our Sites. If you choose not to use our Sites then you will be prevented from exercising your Community membership. By accessing or using the Sites, you agree to this privacy policy. This policy may change from time to time (see Changes to Our Privacy Policy). Your continued use of the Sites after We make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

It is our policy to post any changes We make to this privacy policy on this page. If We make material changes to how We treat our Users’ personal information, We will notify you through a notice on the Sites’ home page that this privacy policy has been changed. The date this privacy policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring We have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Sites and this privacy policy to check for any changes.  For the avoidance of doubt, if your membership with the Company becomes inactive and you discontinue use of the Sites, the privacy policy current at that time will apply to the treatment of your data.

Terms of Use

Proper access and use of the Sites, including but not limited to the use of member benefits, the member code of conduct, the publication of User Content (as defined below), and terms of renewal or cancellation of memberships is governed by our terms of use (the “Terms of Use”). You may access the current Terms of Use via this link: https://climbtheladder.com/terms-conditions/.

Children Under the Age of 18

Our Sites, and Community membership in general, are not intended for children under 18 years of age. No one under age 18 may provide any information to or on the Sites. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on the Sites or on or through any of its features or attempt to register for a Community membership, make any purchases through the Sites, use any of the interactive or public comment features of the Sites or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use. If We learn We have collected or received personal information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, We will delete that information. If you believe We might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact the Community Contact by email at [email protected] with the subject line “COPPA”.

Individuals in the European Union

Our Sites, and Community membership in general are for residents of the United States and are not intended for residents of the European Union or for the monitoring of the activities of European resident’s behavior as far as that behavior takes place within the European Union.  We are not located in the European Union and are not subject to any provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR). If you are a resident of the European Union, you should not be using our Sites or services.

Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It

We collect several types of information from and about our Users including, but not limited to, information:

• by which you may be personally identified, such as name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, login names, screen names, nicknames, handles, credit card numbers, or any other identifier by which you may be contacted online or offline (“personal information“);
• that is about you but individually does not identify you, such as age, country, state, zip code or city of residence, gender or race, employment history, educational history, criminal records, grades, salary, job positions; and/or
• about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Sites and usage details, such as IP address and web cookies.

We collect this information:

• Directly from you when you provide it to us.
• Automatically as you navigate through the Sites. Information collected automatically may include usage details, web browsers, site navigation information, machine identifiers, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies.
• From third parties, for example, our business partners.

Information You Provide to Us.  The information We collect on or through our Sites, including but not limited to information pertaining to Community Members, may include:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Sites. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Sites, subscribing to our service, posting material, or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our Sites.  When you become a member of a Community or provide information to the Sites in any other manner, you agree to provide only true, accurate, current and complete information, which you have authority to provide and make subject to this privacy policy. 
• Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us.
• Your responses to surveys that We might ask you to complete for research purposes.
• Details of transactions you carry out through our Sites and in connection with your Community membership.
• Your search queries on the Sites.
• Any information you provide to us in the application, registration, or renewal of membership allowing you to access any features of the Sites or your Community membership, if applicable.

You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “posted“) on areas of the Sites viewable by other Users, or transmitted to other Users of the Sites or third parties (collectively, “User Content“). Your User Content is posted on the Sites and transmitted to others at your own risk. Although We limit access to certain pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. Additionally, We cannot control the actions of other Users of the Sites with whom you may choose to share your User Content. Therefore, We cannot and do not guarantee that your User Content will not be viewed by unauthorized persons. If you delete your User Content from the Sites, copies of your User Content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by other Users, and your User Content may continue to be used as permitted in the Terms of Use.

You agree that We may from time-to-time call, email or otherwise communicate with you about your membership or use of the Sites, and to provide offers of products and services, and that, for the purposes of any and all such communications, you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy during those calls; indeed you hereby consent to allow us, in our sole discretion, to record the entirety of such calls or communications regardless of whether We ask or separately advise you on such particular call or communication for consent to record such call or communication, including to the extent that you provide personal information in such call or communication. You further acknowledge and agree that, to the extent permitted by applicable law, any such recording(s) or communication(s) may be submitted in evidence in any legal proceeding in which We are a party.

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies.  As you navigate through and interact with our Sites, We may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:

• Details of your visits to our Sites, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Sites.
• Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

We also may use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking). The Sites may not follow the Do Not Track setting even if selected in your browser settings.

The information We collect automatically may include personal information, or We may maintain it or associate it with personal information We collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Sites and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

• Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
• Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Sites according to your individual interests.
• Speed up your searches.
• Recognize you when you return to our Sites.

The Technologies We Use For This Automatic Data Collection May Include:

• Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Sites. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Sites.
• Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Sites may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from, and on our Sites. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies. For information about managing your privacy and security settings for Flash cookies, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.
• Web Beacons. Certain pages within the Sites and our e-mails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count Users who have visited those pages and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

Third-Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies.

Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Sites are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Sites. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) advertising or other targeted content.

We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly. 

How We Use Your Information

We use information that We collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

• To present our Sites and their contents to you.
• To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us.
• To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
• To provide you with notices about your membership or potential membership, including expiration and renewal notices.
• To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection.
• To notify you about changes to our Sites, memberships or any products or services We offer or provide though the Sites and/or to Community Members.
• To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Sites, including connections with other Community Members for networking purposes.
• For direct marketing purposes.
• In connection with online behavioral advertising.
• To assist other members to find you in our member directory using various search queries, which include your name, company, industry, skills, and location.
• To construct private (members only) and public profiles (indexed on the web) about you and your company.
• In any other way We may describe when you provide the information.
• To comply with our legal obligations.
• For any other purpose with your express consent.

We may use the information We have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers’ target audiences. Even though We do not disclose your personal information for these purposes without your consent, if you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria.

Disclosure Of Your Information

We may disclose aggregated information about our Users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We may disclose personal information that We collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:

• To our subsidiaries and affiliates.
• To contractors, service providers, and other third parties We use to support our business and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which We disclose it to them.
• To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of The Community Company’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by The Community Company about Users is among the assets transferred.
• To third parties to market their products or services to you if you have not opted out of these disclosures. We contractually require these third parties to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which We disclose it to them. For more information, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.
• To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
• For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
• With your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information:

• To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
• To enforce or apply our Policies (as described in the Terms of Use) and any other agreements to which Community Members agree in connection with their membership, including for billing and collection purposes, or in the event of a potential third party dispute.
• If We believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of The Community Company, our partners, customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Choices About How We Use And Disclose Your Information

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. The following are some of the mechanisms available to you to control your information:

• Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You may be enabled to set your browser’s settings to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. However, if you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of the Sites may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
• Disclosure Of Your Information For Third-Party Advertising. If you do not want us to share your personal information with unaffiliated or non-agent third parties for promotional purposes, you can opt-out by sending an email to the Community Contact stating your request with the subject line “Opt Out-third party advertising”. In the event that you opt out of such advertising, you may become ineligible to take advantage of some of the member benefits generally available to Community Members.
• Targeted Advertising. If you do not want us to use information that We collect or that you provide to us to deliver advertisements according to our advertisers’ target-audience preferences, you can opt-out by sending an email to the Community Contact.

We do not control third parties’ collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can opt out of receiving targeted ads from members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI“) on the NAI’s website.

While you may have the ability to opt-out of some communications from Us, we reserve the right to contact You with important information, which may include, but is not limited to, changes in our Terms of Use, billing issues, guideline changes, data breaches, and other notifications required by law.

Accessing And Correcting Your Information

You can review and change portions of your personal information by logging into the Sites and visiting your account profile page.  It is your responsibility to keep your personal information updated and provide Us with any changes to your personal information.

You may also send an email to the Community Contact with the subject line “Change Personal Information” to request access to, correct or delete any personal information that you have provided to us. We cannot delete your personal information except by also deleting your user account and membership. We may not accommodate a request to change information if We believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or, in our opinion, cause the information to be incorrect.  We also may not be able to delete any information that may be stored on backup tapes as it may not possible to delete a portion of a backup tape without destroying the entire backup.

Your California Privacy Rights

California Civil Code Section § 1798.83 permits Users of our Sites that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to the Community Contact with the subject line “California Privacy Rights” 

Data Security

We have implemented reasonable measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers behind firewalls. Any payment transactions and passwords will be encrypted using SSL or equivalent security technology. If you would like to know about the third party platforms we use, please contact the Community Contact by email with the subject line “Third Party Platforms”.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where We have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Sites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.  We also suggest that you select a password that is unique to our site and that it is not used with any other internet site.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although We do our best to protect your personal information, We cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to the Sites. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Sites.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

• IP Address
• Operating System type
• Operating System version
• Device Type
• Language of the website
• Web browser type
• Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.

Contact Information

To ask questions or comment about this privacy policy and our privacy practices, contact us at: [email protected]