User Agreement
THE FOLLOWING DESCRIBES THE TERMS ON WHICH BIDS NORTH OFFERS YOU ACCESS TO OUR SERVICES.
This Agreement describes the terms and conditions applicable to your use of our services available under the domain and subdomains of www.bidsnorth.com (the "Site") and the general principles for the websites of our parent, subsidiaries and international affiliates. If you do not agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Agreement, do not use the Site or access our services.
You must read, agree with and accept all of the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement and the Privacy Policy, which include those terms and conditions expressly set out below and those incorporated by reference, before you may become a member of bidsnorth. We strongly recommend that, as you read this Agreement, you also access and read the information contained in the other pages and websites referred to in this document, as they may contain further terms and conditions that apply to you as a bidsnorth user. By accepting this Agreement, you also agree that your use of other bidsnorth websites will be governed by the user agreement and privacy policies posted on those websites.
We may amend this Agreement at any time by posting the amended terms on our site. Except as stated below, all amended terms shall automatically be effective 30 days after they are initially posted on our site. In addition, we will notify you in accordance with your notification preferences. This Agreement may not be otherwise amended except in a writing signed by you and bidsnorth. This agreement is effective upon acceptance in registration for new registering users and is otherwise effective on October 6th, 2008 for all users registered.
Membership Eligibility
Our services are available only to, and may only be used by individuals who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. Without limiting the foregoing, our services are not available to children (persons under the age of 18) or to temporarily or indefinitely suspended bidsnorth members. If you are under the age of 18, you can use this Site only in conjunction with, and under the supervision of your parents or guardians. If you do not qualify, please do not use the Site. Further, your bidsnorth account (including feedback) and User ID may not be transferred or sold to another party. If you are registering as a business entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind the entity to this Agreement.
Fees and Services
Joining and bidding on items at bidsnorth is free. We do charge fees for listing items for sale through our Site and when you list an item you have an opportunity to review and accept the fees that you will be charged. We may change our Fees and Credits Policy and the fees for our services from time to time. We may choose to temporarily change our Fees and Credits Policy and the fees for our services for promotional events (for example, free listing days) and such changes are effective when we post the temporary promotional event on the Site. We may in our sole discretion change some or all of our services at any time. In the event we introduce a new service, the fees for that service are effective at the launch of the service. Unless otherwise stated, all fees are quoted in Canadian Dollars. You are responsible for paying all fees associated with using our service and our website and all applicable taxes.
Certain taxes and government charges may be payable in relation to the purchase transaction. We accept no responsibility for such taxes and other government charges on transactions on the Site.
Bidsnorth is a Venue
3.1 Bidsnorth is not an Auctioneer. Although we are commonly referred to as an online auction web site, it is important to realize that we are not a traditional "auctioneer." Instead, the Site acts as a venue to allow anyone to offer, sell, and buy just about anything, at anytime, from anywhere, in a variety of pricing formats including a fixed priced format and an auction-style format commonly referred to as "online auctions" or "auctions." We are not involved in the actual transaction between buyers and sellers. As a result, we have no control over the quality, safety or legality of the items advertised, the truth or accuracy of the listings, the ability of sellers to sell items or the ability of buyers to pay for items. We cannot ensure that a buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction.
3.2 Fixed Price Marketplace. We also offer you the availability to purchase items at a fixed price.
3.3 Identity Verification. We use many techniques to verify the accuracy of the information our users provide us when they register on the Site. However, because user authentication on the Internet is difficult, bidsnorth cannot and does not confirm each user's purported identity. Thus, we have established a user-initiated feedback system to help you evaluate with whom you are dealing. We also encourage you to communicate directly with potential trading partners through the tools available on the Site. You may also wish to consider using a third party escrow service or services that provide additional user verification.
3.4 Release. Because we are a venue, in the event that you have a dispute with one or more users, you release bidsnorth (and our parent and its subsidiaries and joint ventures and all such person's, officers, directors, agents and employees) from claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes.
3.5 Information Control. We do not control the information provided by other users which is made available through the Site. You may find other user's information to be offensive, harmful, inaccurate, or deceptive. Please use caution, common sense, and practice safe trading when using the Site. Please note that there are also risks of dealing with foreign nationals, underage persons or people acting under false pretence. By using this Site, you agree to accept such risks and bidsnorth is not responsible for the acts or omissions of its users.
Bidding and Buying
As a buyer, you are obligated to complete the transaction with the seller: (i) if you purchased the item through one of our fixed price formats; or (ii) if you are the highest bidder at the end of an auction (meeting the applicable minimum bid or reserve requirements) and your bid is accepted by the seller, unless the transaction is prohibited by law or by this Agreement. By bidding on an item you agree to be bound by the conditions of sale included in the item's description by the seller so long as those conditions of sale are not in violation of this Agreement or otherwise unlawful. Bids are not retractable except in exceptional circumstances such as when the seller materially changes the item's description after you bid, a clear typographical error is made, or you cannot authenticate the seller's identity. If you choose to bid on adult items, you are certifying that you have the legal right to purchase such items.
Listing and Selling
5.1 Listing Description. You must be legally able to sell the item(s) you list for sale on the Site. You must describe your item and all terms of sale on the listing page of the Site. Your listings may only include text descriptions, graphics, pictures and other content relevant to the sale of that item. All listed items must be listed in an appropriate category. All items in multiple item listings must be identical.
5.2 Binding Bids. Except for items listed in a category under the Non-binding Bid Policy, if you receive at least one bid at or above your stated minimum price (or in the case of reserve auctions, at or above the reserve price), you are obligated to complete the transaction with the highest bidder upon the auction's completion, unless there is an exceptional circumstance, such as: (a) the buyer fails to meet the terms of your listing (such as payment method), or (b) you cannot authenticate the buyer's identity.
5.3 Fraud. Without limiting any other remedies, we may suspend or terminate your account if you are found (by conviction, settlement, insurance or escrow investigation, or otherwise) to have engaged in fraudulent activity in connection with the Site.
5.5 Manipulation. Neither bidders nor sellers may manipulate the price of any item nor may you interfere with other user's listings or transactions.
Your Information
6.1 Definition. "Your Information" is defined as any information you provide to us or other users in the registration, bidding or listing process, in any public message area (including the Café or the feedback area) or through any email feature. You are solely responsible for Your Information, and we act as a passive conduit for your online distribution and publication of Your Information.
6.2 Restricted Activities. Your Information (or any items listed) and your activities on the Site shall not: (a) be false, inaccurate or misleading; (b) be fraudulent or involve the sale of counterfeit or stolen items; (c) infringe any third party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy; (d) violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing export control, consumer protection, unfair competition, antidiscrimination or false advertising); (e) be defamatory, trade libelous, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing; (f) be obscene or contain child pornography or, if otherwise adult in nature or harmful to minors, shall be posted only in the Mature Audiences section and shall be distributed only to people legally permitted to receive such content; (g) contain any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, easter eggs or other computer programming routines that may damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information; (h) create liability for us or cause us to lose (in whole or in part) the services of our ISPs or other suppliers; and (i) link directly or indirectly to or include descriptions of goods or services that: (aa) are prohibited under this Agreement; (bb) are identical to other items you have up for auction but are priced lower than your item's reserve or minimum bid amount; (cc) are concurrently listed for sale on a web site other than bidsnorth's (this does not prevent linking to or advertising an bidsnorth item from another web site); or (dd) you do not have a right to link to or include. Furthermore, you may not list any item on the Site (or consummate any transaction that was initiated using our service) that, by paying to us the listing fee or the final value fee, could cause us to violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation.
6.3 License. Solely to enable us to use the information you supply us with, so that we are not violating any rights you might have in that information, you agree to grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicenseable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise the copyright and publicity rights (but no other rights) you have in Your Information, in any media now known or not currently known, with respect to Your Information. You also waive all moral rights you have in such information. We will only use Your Information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Access and Interference
The Site contains robot exclusion headers. Much of the information on the Site is updated on a real time basis. You agree that you will not use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access the Site for any purpose without our express written permission. Additionally, you agree that you will not: (i) take any action that imposes, or may impose in our sole discretion an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure; (ii) copy, reproduce, modify, create derivative works from, distribute or publicly display any content (except for Your Information) from the Site without the prior expressed written permission of bidsnorth and the appropriate third party, as applicable; (iii) interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site or any activities conducted on the Site; or (iv) bypass our robot exclusion headers or other measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Site.
Feedback
8.1 Integrity. You may not take any actions which may undermine the integrity of the feedback system. We may limit the number of bids and listings you may place on the Site based upon the level of your feedback. If you earn a net feedback rating of -4 (minus four), your membership will be automatically suspended, and you will be unable to list or bid.
8.2 Export. You acknowledge that your feedback consists of comments left by other users and a composite feedback number compiled by us, and that the composite number without the comments does not convey your full user profile. Because feedback ratings are not designed for any purpose other than for facilitating trading between bidsnorth users, you agree that you shall not market or export your bidsnorth feedback rating in any venue other than an bidsnorth operated website.
8.3 Import. We do not provide the technical ability to allow you to import feedback from other (non-bidsnorth operated) websites to bidsnorth because a composite number, without the corresponding feedback does not reflect your true online reputation within our community.
Breach
Without limiting other remedies, we may limit your activity, immediately remove your bids or item listings, warn our community of your actions, issue a warning, temporarily suspend, indefinitely suspend or terminate your membership and refuse to provide our services to you: (a) if you breach this Agreement or the documents it incorporates by reference; (b) if we are unable to verify or authenticate any information you provide to us; or (c) if we believe that your actions may cause financial loss or legal liability for you, our users or us.
Privacy
We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent and we only use your personal information as described in the Privacy Policy. We view protection of users' privacy as a very important community principle. We understand clearly that you and your information is one of our most important assets. We store and process your information on computers located in the United States that are protected by physical as well as technical security devices.
No Warranty
WE, OUR PARENT, SUBSIDIARIES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES AND OUR SUPPLIERS PROVIDE OUR WEB SITE AND SERVICES "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATION, WARRANTY OR CONDITION, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY. WE AND OUR SUPPLIERS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED REPRESENTATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, MERCHANTABLE QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND THOSE ARISING BY LAW OR THROUGH A COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUIRED BY LAW.
Liability Limit
IN NO EVENT SHALL WE, OUR PARENT, SUBSIDIARIES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES OR OUR SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR LOST PROFITS OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH OUR SITE, OUR SERVICES OR THIS AGREEMENT (HOWEVER ARISING, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE). OUR LIABILITY, AND THE LIABILITY OF OUR PARENT, SUBSIDIARIES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES AND OUR SUPPLIERS, TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTIES IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT OF FEES YOU PAY TO US IN THE 12 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACTION GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY, AND C$150.
Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and hold us and our parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, agents, and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of your breach of this Agreement or the documents it incorporates by reference, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.
Legal Compliance
You shall comply with all applicable laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations regarding your use of our service and your bidding on, listing, purchase, solicitation of offers to purchase, and sale of items.
No Agency
You and bidsnorth are independent contractors, and no agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchisor-franchisee relationship is intended or created by this Agreement.
Notices
Except as explicitly stated otherwise, any notices shall be given by registered mail to bidsnorth, Attn: Legal Department 15 Timber Ridge Crt., Sudbury, ON P3E6K1, Canada (in case of bidsnorth) or to the email address you provide to bidsnorth during the registration process (in your case). Notice shall be deemed given 24 hours after email is sent, unless the sending party is notified that the email address is invalid. Alternatively, we may give you notice by certified mail, postage prepaid and return receipt requested, to the address provided to bidsnorth during the registration process. In such case, notice shall be deemed given 3 days after the date of mailing.
Resolution of Disputes
In the event a dispute arises between you and bidsnorth, our goal is to provide you with a neutral and cost effective means of resolving the dispute quickly. Accordingly, you and bidsnorth agree that any claim or controversy at law or equity that arises out of this Agreement or our services ("Claims") shall be resolved in accordance with one of the subsections below or as otherwise mutually agreed upon in writing by the parties. Before resorting to these alternatives, we strongly encourage you to first contact us directly to seek a resolution and we will consider reasonable requests to resolve the dispute through alternative dispute resolution procedures, such as mediation, as an alternative to litigation.
17.1 Binding Arbitration. For any Claim (excluding Claims for injunctive or other equitable relief) where the total amount of the award sought is less than C$15,000, you or bidsnorth may elect to resolve the dispute through binding arbitration conducted by telephone, on-line and/or based solely upon written submissions where no in-person appearance is required.
17.2 Court. Alternatively, any Claim may be adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction located in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada or where the defendant is located.
17.3 Alternative Dispute Resolution. Alternatively, bidsnorth will consider use of other alternative forms of dispute resolution.
All Claims (excluding requests for injunctive or equitable relief) between the parties must be resolved using the dispute resolution mechanism that is selected in accordance with this Section by the first party to file a Claim. Should either party file an action contrary to this Section, the other party may recover attorneys' fees and costs up to C$1500, provided that the party seeking the award has notified the other party in writing of the improperly filed Claim, and the other party has failed to withdraw the Claim.
Additional Terms
This Agreement shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein. We do not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted or secure access to our services, and operation of our Site may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of our control. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions shall be enforced. You agree that this Agreement and all incorporated terms and conditions may be automatically assigned by bidsnorth at our sole discretion. Headings are for reference purposes only and in no way define, limit, construe or describe the scope or extent of such section. Our failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and agreement between us with respect to the subject matter hereof. Fees and Services with respect to fees owed for our services, Release, License, Access and Interference, No Warranty, Liability Limit, Indemnity, Resolution of Disputes shall survive any termination or expiration of this Agreement.
Contracts in English
It is the express wish of the parties that this document and any related documents be drawn up and executed in English. Les parties aux présentes ont expressément demandé que ce document et tous les documents s'y rattachant soient rédigés et signés en anglais.
Disclosures
The services hereunder are offered by bidsnorth. Parental control protections (such as computer hardware, software, or filtering services) are commercially available that may assist you in limiting access to material that is harmful to minors.
Disputes between you and bidsnorth regarding our Site may be reported to members@bidsnorth.com.
Bidsnorth Privacy Policy
Your privacy is very important to us. We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent. Please read this privacy policy to learn more about the ways in which we use and protect your personal information.
If you have additional questions, you may send email to members@bidsnorth.com.
Overview
The privacy practices of this statement apply to our services available under the domain and sub-domains of www.bidsnorth.com and apply generally to our parent, subsidiaries and joint venture websites. By visiting this website you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please to not use or access our Site.
This Privacy Policy describes the information, as part of the normal operation of our services, we collect from you and what may happen to that information. Although this policy may seem long, we have prepared a detailed policy because we believe you should know as much as possible about bidsnorth's practices so that you can make informed decisions. Our subsidiaries and joint venture partners operate under similar privacy practices as described in this Privacy Policy and, subject to the requirements of applicable law, we strive to provide a consistent set of privacy practices throughout our global bidsnorth trading community.
By accepting the Privacy Policy and User Agreement in registration, you expressly consent to our use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and subject to the terms of the bidsnorth User Agreement. This Privacy Policy is effective upon acceptance in registration for new registering users, and is otherwise effective on October 6th, 2008 for all users.
Table of ContentsAn Important Note About Children
Information We Collect
Our Use of Your Information
Our Disclosure of Your Information
Advertisers
Bidsnorth Community
External Service Providers
Internal Service Providers for Our Operations
Other Corporate Entities
Legal Requests
Your Use of Other Users' Information
Use of Email Tools
Control of Your Password
Accessing, Reviewing and Changing Your Personal Information
Other Information Collectors
Security
Privacy Tools
Notice
1. A Special Note About Children
Children (persons under the age of 18) are not eligible to use the Site unsupervised and we ask that children do not submit any personal information to us. If you are under the age of 18, you may only use this Site only in conjunction with and under the supervision of your parents or guardians.
2. Information We Collect
Our primary purpose in collecting personal information from you is to provide you with a safe, smooth, efficient, and customized experience. This allows us to provide services and features that most likely meet your needs, and to customize our service to make your experience safer and easier. We only collect personal information about you that we consider necessary for achieving this purpose.
In general, you can browse the Site without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself. Once you give us your personal information, you are not anonymous to us. If you choose to use our Site, we may require you to provide contact and identity information, billing information, shipping information and other personal information as indicated on the forms throughout the Site. Where possible, we indicate which fields are required and which fields are optional. You always have the option to not provide information by choosing not to use a particular service or feature.
Under some circumstances, we may require some additional financial information, such as but not limited to: if you are registering using an email account at a free email service, or registering to sell on the Site. We use your financial information, including credit card information to verify the accuracy of your name, address, and other information, as well as to bill you for your use of our services.
We automatically track certain information about you based upon your behaviour on our Site. We use this information to do internal research on our users' demographics, interests, and behaviour to better understand, protect and serve you and our community. This information may include the URL that you just came from (whether this URL is on our Site or not), which URL you next go to (whether this URL is on our Site or not), your computer browser information, and your IP address.
We use data collection devices such as "cookies" on certain pages of the Site to help analyze our web page flow, measure promotional effectiveness, and promote trust and safety. "Cookies" are small files placed on your hard drive that assist us in providing our services. We offer certain features that are only available through the use of a "cookie." We also use "cookies" allow you to enter your password less frequently during a session. Cookies can also help us provide information that is targeted to your interests. Most cookies are "session cookies," meaning that they are automatically deleted at the end of a session. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, although in that case you may not be able to use certain features on our Site and you may be required to re-enter your password more frequently during a session.
Additionally, you may encounter "cookies" or other similar devices on certain pages of our Site that are placed by third parties. For example, if you view a web page created by a user, there may be a "cookie" placed within that web page. We do not control the use of cookies by third parties.
If you choose to bid, buy or sell on the Site, we collect information about your bidding, buying and selling behavior. We also collect other users' comments about you in our feedback area.
If you establish a credit account with us to pay the fees we charge, we collect some additional information, such as: a billing address, credit card number and credit card expiration date and tracking information from cheques or money orders.
If you choose to post messages in our Cafés, chat rooms or other message areas or leave feedback for other users, we will collect that information that you provide to us. We retain this information as necessary to resolve disputes, provide customer support and troubleshoot problems as permitted by law.
If you send us personal correspondence, such as emails or letters, or if other users or third parties send us correspondence about your activities or postings on the Site, we may collect such information into a file specific to you.
If you register for bidsnorth on another web site or use a web site providing a service for bidsnorth or a web site that helps facilitate your activity on bidsnorth, that web site may provide personal information about you and your transactions back to bidsnorth.
3. Our Use of Your Information
We use your personal information to facilitate the services you request. We use personal information in the file we maintain about you, and other information we obtain from your current and past activities on the Site to: resolve disputes; troubleshoot problems; bill your account; help promote safe trading; measure consumer interest in our products and services, inform you about online and offline offers, products, services, and updates; customize your experience; detect and protect us against error, fraud and other criminal activity; enforce our User Agreement; and as otherwise described to you at the time of collection, use or disclosure. At times we look across multiple users to identify problems or resolve disputes, and in particular we may examine your personal information to identify users using multiple User ID's or aliases. We may compare and review your personal information for errors, omissions and for accuracy.
If you choose to list an item for sale on the Site or open a Credit account, or otherwise provide us your financial information, we use your address and financial information to bill you and provide associated support.
You agree that we may use personal information about you to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, to analyze Site usage, to improve our content and product offerings, and to customize the Site's content, layout, and services. These uses improve the Site and better tailor it to meet your needs, so as to provide you with a smooth, efficient, safe and customized experience while using the Site.
You agree that we may also use your personal information to contact you and deliver information to you that, in some cases, are targeted to your interests, such as targeted banner advertisements, administrative notices, product offerings, and communications relevant to your use of the Site. By accepting the User Agreement and Privacy Policy, you expressly agree to receive this information.
4. Our Disclosure of Your Information
As a matter of policy, we do not sell or rent any of your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent. However the following describes some of the ways that your personal information may be disclosed in the normal scope of business to provide our services.
Advertisers. We aggregate (gather up data across all user accounts) personal information and disclose such information in a non-personally identifiable manner to advertisers and other third parties for their marketing and promotional purposes. However, in these situations, we do not disclose to these entities any information that could be used to identify you personally. Certain information, such as your name, email address, password, and financial information are not disclosed to these third parties in a personally identifiable manner without your explicit consent.
Bidsnorth Community. Your User ID is displayed throughout the Site, and is therefore available to the public. All of your activities on the Site will be identifiable to your User ID. Other people can see your bids, items that you have purchased in the past, your feedback rating and associated comments, your postings on the Site and so on. Therefore, if you associate your name with your User ID, the people you have revealed your name to will be able to personally identify your bidsnorth activities. Although our pages are coded with robot exclusion headers, others may attempt to automatically collect your email address from our Site. We describe how to change your User ID below in Section 8. We also provide a number of ways to allow other users to find out more about you and your Site activities such as our feature that allows users to quickly see all of the items you are offering at the time. If you are involved in a transaction, we have features that allow other users to view your email address and obtain your contact and shipping information to help complete the transaction. Further, we may send out notices to you or other community members regarding suspicious activity or policy violations on the Site.
External Service Providers. There are a number of separate services offered by third parties that we refer to as external service providers that may be complimentary to your use of the Site (e.g., listing agents, escrow, authentication, mediation, shipping, packaging). If you choose to use these separate services, disclose information to the external service providers, and/or grant them permission to collect information about you, then their use of your information is governed by their privacy policy. We do not disclose your personal information to external service providers unless you provide your explicit consent. With your consent we may provide some of your personal information to the external service provider offering such services, for your convenience. To prevent our disclosure of your personal information to an external service provider, you can decline such consent or simply not to use their services. Because we do not control the privacy practices of these third parties, you should evaluate their practices before deciding to use their services.
Internal Service Providers for Our Operations. We may use third parties that we refer to as internal service providers to facilitate or outsource one or more aspects of the business, product and service operations that we provide to you (e.g. search technology, discussion boards, bill collection, affiliate and rewards programmes, co-branded credit cards) and therefore we may provide some of your personal information directly to these internal service providers. These internal service providers' are subject to confidentiality agreements with us and other legal restrictions that prohibit their use of the personal information we provide them for any other purpose except to facilitate the specific outsourced bidsnorth related operation, unless you have explicitly agreed or given your prior permission to them for additional uses. In some instances, the internal service provider may collect information directly from you (such as for bidsnorth surveys or for a co-branded credit card). In these cases, you will be notified of the involvement of the internal service provider, and all additional information you provide them and their additional uses will be strictly up to you. If you provide additional information to an internal service provider directly, then their use of your information is governed by their applicable privacy policy.
Other Corporate Entities. We share much of our data, including personal information about you, with our subsidiaries and joint ventures that are committed to serving your online trading needs and related services, throughout the world. To the extent that these entities have access to your information, they will treat it at least as protectively as they treat information they obtain from their other users. Our subsidiaries and joint ventures follow privacy practices no less protective of all users than our practices described in this document, to the extent allowed by applicable law. Bidsnorth, its subsidiaries, its joint ventures, or any combination of such, will share some or all of your personal information with another business entity should we plan to, merge with, or be acquired by that business entity. Should such a combination occur, we will require that the new combined entity follow this privacy policy with respect to your personal information. If your personal information will be used contrary to this policy, you will receive prior notice in as provided in Section 12 ("Notice").
Legal Requests. Bidsnorth cooperates with law enforcement inquires, as well as other third parties to enforce laws such as: intellectual property rights, fraud and other rights, to help protect you and the bidsnorth community from bad actors. Therefore, in response to a verified request by law enforcement or other government officials relating to a criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity, we can (and you authorized us to) disclose your name, city, province, telephone number, email address, UserID history, fraud complaints, and bidding and listing history without a subpoena. However, in an effort to balance your right to privacy and the ability to keep the community free from bad actors, we will not disclose additional information to law enforcement or other government officials without a subpoena, court order or substantially similar legal procedure, except when the additional disclosure of information is necessary to prevent imminent physical harm or financial loss.
Due to the existing regulatory environment, we cannot ensure that all of your private communications and other personal information will never be disclosed in ways not otherwise described in this Privacy Policy. By way of example (without limiting the foregoing), we may be forced to disclose personal information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances, third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications, or users may abuse or misuse your personal information that they collect from the Site. Therefore, although we use industry standard practices to protect your privacy, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personal information or private communications will always remain private.
5. Your Use of Other Users' Information
In order to facilitate interaction among all bidsnorth community members, our Site provides you with limited access other users' contact and shipping information. As a seller you have access to the User ID, email address and other contact and shipping information of the buyer or winning bidder(s), and as the buyer or a winning bidder you have access to the User ID, email address and other contact information of the seller.
By entering into our User Agreement, you agree that, with respect to other user's personal information that you obtain through the Site or through a bidsnorth-related communication or bidsnorth-facilitated transaction, bidsnorth hereby grants to you a license to use such information only for: (a) bidsnorth-related communications that are not unsolicited commercial messages, (b) using co-branded services offered through bidsnorth, and (c) any other purpose that a such user expressly agrees to after you tell them the purpose you would like to use it for. In all cases, you must give users an opportunity to remove themselves from your database and a chance to review what information you have collected about them. In addition, under no circumstances, except as defined in this Section, can you disclose personal information about another user to any third party without our consent and the consent of that user. You agree that other users may use your personal information to communicate with you in accordance with this Section. Note that law enforcement personnel and other rights holders are given different rights with respect to information they access.
Bidsnorth and our users do not tolerate spam. Therefore, without limiting the foregoing, you are not licensed to add a bidsnorth user, even a user who has purchased an item from you, to your mail list (email or physical mail) without their express consent.
6. Use of Email Tools
You may not use the Email This Item to a Friend service or other email services that we offer to send spam or otherwise send content that would violate our User Agreement. We do not permanently store email messages or the email addresses sent from these tools.
If you do send an email using the Email This Item to a Friend service to an email address that is not registered on our Site, we do not use that email address for any purpose other than to send your email. We do not rent or sell these email addresses.
7. Control of Your Password
You are responsible for all actions take with your User ID and password, including fees charged to your account. Therefore, we do not recommend that you disclose your bidsnorth password to any third parties. If you choose to share your User ID and password or your personal information with third parties, you are responsible for all actions take with your account and therefore you should review that third party's privacy policy before doing so. If you lose control of your password, you may lose substantial control over your personal information and may be subject to legally binding actions taken on your behalf. Therefore, if your password has been compromised for any reason, you should immediately change your password.
8. Accessing, Reviewing and Changing Your Personal Information
We offer you the ability to automatically review and change the personal information you submit to us by logging into the Site and entering the new information yourself. Generally, we will not modify your personal information based upon your request because it is very difficult to authenticate your account manually. You can change your User ID, email address, contact information, financial information, shipping information and user preferences by going to the preferences and setup section. You must promptly update your information if it changes or is inaccurate. Once posted, you cannot change or remove any public postings made in our chat rooms or other message areas or the feedback area.
Upon your request, we will deactivate your account, contact information, billing information, shipping information and financial information from our active databases.
We will retain in our files some personal information you have requested to remove to prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our User Agreement and comply with legal requirements as is permitted by law. Therefore, you should not expect that all of your personal information will be completely removed from our databases in response to your requests. However, such personal information will be deactivated from public and member viewing and will only be available to select bidsnorth personal.
9. Other Information Collectors
Except as otherwise expressly included in this Privacy Policy, this document only addresses the use and disclosure of information we collect from you. To the extent that you disclose your information to other parties, whether they are bidders, buyers or sellers on our Site or other sites throughout the Internet, different rules may apply to their use or disclosure of the personal information you disclose to them. Since bidsnorth does not control the privacy policies of third parties, you are subject to the privacy customs and policies of that third party. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.
10. Security
Your information is stored and processed on computers located in Canada or United States (some of our servers are located in the United States). Bidsnorth uses procedural and technical safeguards to protect your personal information against loss or theft, as well as against unauthorized access or disclosure, to protect your privacy, including firewalls and encryption. We employ many different security techniques to protect such data from unauthorized access by users inside and outside the company. However, "perfect security" does not exist on the Internet.
11. Privacy Tools
It is our goal to make our privacy practices easy to understand. We have created easy-to-read summaries, privacy principles, a privacy chart and, are working on privacy enhancing technology to help summarize our full privacy policy. If you have questions about any summary or if you would like more detailed information, we encourage you to review our full privacy policy.
12. Notice
We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time by posting the amended terms on the Site. All amended terms shall automatically be effective 30 days after they are initially posted on the Site.
