READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND THE TERMS OF SERVICE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE.
Parents please read the Privacy Policy and review it with your children that use our Website. It contains valuable information that will help keep them safe while using giantHello. This Privacy Policy is a legal document that addresses the use and operation of giantHello.com.
By using this website ("Website"), you signify your agreement to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service. If you do not agree to the Privacy Policy or the Terms of Service, do not use this Website! Chipzco, Inc., d/b/a giantHello; ("giantHello" or giantHello.com;) may revise and update this Privacy Policy at anytime. Your continued usage of the Website will mean you accept those changes.
This Privacy Policy is incorporated into the giantHello.com Terms of Service, which together with our Code of Conduct and End User License Agreement ("EULA") constitute our entire Agreement between you (a.k.a. the user) and giantHello.com.
giantHello.com is committed to maintaining a website for children that is both secure and fun. We go to great lengths to ensure that our platforms and content are suitable for our users. We also take special measures to help children protect their privacy while online.
This Privacy Policy and the certification seal shown on this page confirm that our website submits to the terms of the Children's Advertising Review Unit's (CARU) Privacy Online Program. CARU's Privacy Online Program is designed to ensure that a website's information disclosure practices are responsible and appropriate. To protect your privacy, we have voluntarily undertaken this privacy initiative and all of our websites have been reviewed and certified by CARU Privacy Online to meet established online information collection and use practices. As part of this privacy program, we are subject to frequent audits of our websites and other enforcement and accountability mechanisms administered independently by CARU.
The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) was founded in 1974 to promote responsible children's advertising as part of a strategic alliance with the major advertising trade associations through the National Advertising Review Council (comprising the AAAA, the AAF, the ANA and the CBBB). CARU is the children's arm of the advertising industry's self-regulation program and evaluates child-directed advertising and promotional material in all media to advance truthfulness, accuracy and consistency with its Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising and relevant laws.
Back to TopgiantHello.com allows users to communicate with their network of friends via messaging and information sharing. The site is designed to allow users to safely communicate ONLY with friends who 1) they have emailed or given a coded invitation to, or 2) they have identified as friends of their existing confirmed friends.
If a child is over the age of 13, or has parental approval they will be granted full access to our online community. Once online, users are linked to their personal group of friends and can share photos, post comments, describe their interests and play games. If a user is under the age of 13 and has not had a parent grant them permission for an "Public Account", they will only be able to play games and view Fan Pages. They will not be able to communicate with others or upload any personally identifiable content of their own and remain in a locked "Private Account".
To allow interaction amongst friends, giantHello.com enables its users to disclose certain personal information to fully utilize its messaging services. Privacy and the sharing of this information are always delicate issues, however giantHello.com cares deeply about the privacy of users' information and we make it our highest priority to protect the privacy of our users.
giantHello.com will adhere to this policy when dealing with any information collected within the giantHello.com website. The information will only be used to provide you with an enriched and finely personalized experience within the site. No personal information collected from our users will ever be sold or leased to any third party without the proper consent.
Back to TopCOPPA requires us to inform parents and legal guardians about how we collect, use, and disclose personal information from children who are under 13 years of age. This policy describes our practices with respect to information we collect from you, as well as from your child.
We do not knowingly collect your personally identifiable information without your consent and we will not condition your participation in activities on giantHello on the disclosure of more personal information than is reasonably necessary. Likewise, we will not collect personal information from children under 13 years of age without the consent of their parent or legal guardian, nor will we condition the participation of a child under 13 years of age on the disclosure of more personal information than is reasonably necessary.
However, since giantHello is a social gaming network, users have the ability to provide as much or as little personal information as they choose. As such, personal information, such as full name, address, phone number, e-mail address, may be read by others if it is posted on message boards or profiles within the site. Users of giantHello.com are encouraged to use common sense when posting, uploading, sending or making their content available on giantHello. Users must not breach the privacy of others and demonstrate the same degree of caution as when publishing content through other means and media.
Users should know that the content they post, upload, send or make available on giantHello will only be shared with other users that they are friends with on the giantHello website. Parents should advise their children NOT to upload identifiable details about themselves, because it will be available to others. Users should always use good judgment about the sort of information they share (even with the closest of friends).
Back to TopIn order to register on giantHello, a child must provide a limited amount of personal information, including: creation of a username and password, gender, and date of birth. If a child is over the age of 13, their login will be complete, however if they are under the age of 13 they will need verifiable Parental consent.
If the child is under the age of 13, they may access limited features of the giantHello site such as games and fan pages. Children who use the site in the aforementioned manner will not be able to post any personally identifiable information.
Before kids are allowed to post personally identifiable information giantHello requires that they have their parent's approval. In order to keep the site safer, and in compliance with the United States of America Government's Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, we offer a Public and Private Mode setting that parents can toggle to manage the communication and information privacy of their child.
Accounts created by users who are under 13 have Private Mode turned on and "locked." We then notify the parent by email that their child has created a giantHello account, at which point they have the option, at their sole discretion, to change this setting to Public Mode.
The Private Mode is the preferred mode for parents looking for the ultimate in online safety. This option prohibits users from interacting with friends, posting images and messaging. Users can still fan pages and play games.
A child with Private Mode access may acquire a username and password. With that they can login, create a profile page, post content, i.e. pictures and writings, play games, fan pages – BUT they will not be able to make any friend connections, nor will anyone on the site be able to contact them.
The Public Mode enables members to interact with friends, post images and send messages. However, messages that are typed first go through a sophisticated filter that blocks inappropriate words and phrases. Please note: Although our filter is continuously being updated and improved, some inappropriate comments may get through. In the event that this happens, members have easy access to a "report abuse" feature.
In the Public Mode giantHello also collects personal information from registered users. Users may provide us with additional personal details such as their name, hobbies and interests. Users of "About Me" and the customizable personal information categories should be aware that any personally identifiable information they submit can be read, collected, or used by other users they invite to these forums, and could be used to send them unsolicited messages. giantHello.com is not responsible for the personally identifiable information users choose to post on their profile.
Also, from time to time, giantHello may collect personally identifiable information from a child under 13 without prior consent of a parent/guardian, but only in these special, limited circumstances.
We may seek a users's name and contact information to the extent reasonably necessary to protect the security or integrity of our website; to take precautions against liability; to respond to judicial process; or to the extent permitted under other legal provisions, to provide information to law enforcement agencies or for an investigation on a matter related to public safety. Such information will not be used for any other purpose. We may seek a users's name and contact information to the extent reasonably necessary to protect the safety of a child participating on our website. In this situation the information will only be used for the sole purpose of protecting the child's safety and, as above, we will provide the parent/guardian with notice of this use.
giantHello also allows users to provide us with their friends' first names and e-mail addresses to have giantHello send an invitation or "electronic postcard" to the friends to link on giantHello. giantHello does not retain these emails after it has sent out the invitation.
Information such as date of birth and gender is used for internal research purposes to better the on-site behaviors of the user population so that giantHello can offer a better user experience to its online community (If you do not enter the requested data, we will not be able to provide you with certain services). We DO NOT rent, sell or disclose our users' private information to any third parties outside of those companies stipulated in our terms of service.
giantHello requires verifiable parental consent which is obtained via the last 4 digits of a parents social security number (SSN) or a credit card transaction. SSN verification is processed through Equifax. Credit cards are processed through Authorize.net and only the last four numbers of the card used are retained by the giantHello website. The last four numbers of the card are retained in case giantHello needs to issue a refund
giantHello.com submits a credit card transaction to the Authorize.net Payment Gateway on behalf of a giantHello registrant via a secure Web site connection. Authorize.net receives the secure transaction information and passes it via a secure connection to the Merchant Bank's processor. The Merchant Bank's Processor submits the transaction to the Credit Card Network (a system of financial entities that communicate to manage the processing, clearing, and settlement of credit card transactions). The Credit Card Network routes the transaction to the Customer's Credit Card Issuing Bank. The Customer's Credit Card Issuing Bank approves or declines the transaction based on the customer's available funds and passes the transaction results back to the Credit Card Network. The Credit Card Network relays the transaction results to the Merchant Bank's Processor. The Merchant Bank's Processor relays the transaction results to Authorize.net. Authorize.net stores the transaction results and sends them to giantHello.com. This step completes the authorization process - all in about three seconds or less! The last four digits of the credit card are stored with a transaction number in the event that giantHello needs to issue a refund for whatever reason.
Click for more information on Authorize.net's privacy policy
We use your e-mail address to link you to your child's account and to communicate with you about support, security, privacy, or administrative issues.
We use visitor's personally identifiable information only for our stated purposes, such as setting up an account or enabling users to enter one of our online contests or sweepstakes. We do not reuse any personally identifiable information we obtain through a contest or sweepstakes after the particular event is completed. We sometimes use the non-personally identifiable information that we collect to improve the design and content of our site, to personalize our visitors' experience on giantHello.com, and to offer products, programs, and services. We also may use this information in the aggregate to analyze site usage, as well as to offer products, programs, or services.
We will disclose information we maintain when required to do so by law. We will disclose information in response to a court order or a subpoena. We also may disclose such information in response to a law enforcement agency's request
We will not use or transfer personally identifiable information in ways that are materially different from the ones described above without also providing parental notification of such practices and obtaining consent for any materially different uses.
Back to TopgiantHello may also document/record the metrics associated with the frequency of use, duration of online sessions, information read while onsite, web pages visited, communications with other users, content used or created, the Internet protocol (IP) address that serves users to access giantHello and users' log-in geographic location. We automatically collect such information through the use of log files and other means. Additional information may be collected when we exchange communications with users, such as a request to customer support. We will use any information that we collect in accordance with this Policy, irrespective of how it is collected.
Like most websites, we use cookies to remember who you are if you choose the "remember me" option when you log in. If you choose "remember me", your username will be kept in a cookie on your computer for up to 7 days.
We will only retain personally identifiable information (PII) about you for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy unless a longer retention period is required by law and/or regulations.
Back to TopgiantHello.com will not sell, lease or give your personal information to third parties without your explicit consent, unless required by law. When signing up via credit card, your card is charged $0.01 and only the last four digits of the card number are stored. The user's credit card is processed through Authorize.net as stated above in section 6, and only the transaction number and last four digits of the card number are issued back to giantHello.com in case a refund is required by the user. If you choose instead to use the last four digits of your social security number to register, we will run that information thru Equifax.
We may share your information in the following circumstances:
-If sharing your information is necessary to execute a specific request by you. In these specific cases, third parties will not retain, share or store any personally identifiable information except to provide the specific services requested by you, and are bound by strict confidentiality agreements which limit their use of such information
-If sharing your information is required by law or is necessary to respond to a subpoena, warrant or court order, or to protect the rights of giantHello.com or its users. We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Website; or
-If you give us explicit permission to share your information for any reason not stated in this privacy policy.
giantHello may also utilize anonymous, statistical or aggregated information about users, including any aggregated information related to users' personal accounts, and share, publish, post, disseminate, transmit or otherwise communicate or make available such information (i.e. without revealing a specific users' identity), to suppliers, business partners, sponsors, affiliates and any other third party, at our sole discretion, provided however, that such information will not personally identify users and that we will not knowingly, or intentionally use such information to reveal users' identity without users' or, in the case of users who are children under 13 years of age, their parent's consent, under the terms of this policy.
Back to TopgiantHello registered users may access their personal account and edit or change their personal information at any time. If users find that their personal account information is inaccurate, or incomplete, then they must make all necessary changes to correct and update it. Users should keep in mind that false, incorrect, or out dated information may prevent them from registering or continue using giantHello properly, or impair our ability to provide you with the Services and impair our ability to contact them. Parents may add users and suspend or reactivate users's accounts from the Parental Controls section.
Users can change any of their personal information stored on the giantHello.com site at any time, whether it be the information supplied at registration (with the exception of their username and birth date), for your profile page or anything else. They can change or deactivate information on any of their pages. In addition, parents may deactivate a child's giantHello.com account by deactivating it via the Parental Controls Management Page. Once we process your request, we will remove your child's name and other personally identifiable information from our database
Back to TopIf giantHello offers children an opportunity to participate in a sweepstakes or contest, only enough information as is required to enroll will be collected. After the drawing or contest is concluded, we will not retain any additional personally identifiable information collected beyond the information already provided at the time of registration for the giantHello Website. If a child wins a sweepstakes or contest, we notify the parent at the parent's e-mail address provided to us during the registration process and request that the parent provide their postal address for purposes of delivering the prize. We may publish a winner's first name, first initial of last name, city, and state of residence on the giantHello Website
Back to TopAll giantHello.com pages are served via our domain name www.giantHello.com. If you see a page that does not have the "properties" giantHello.com it may not be a page served by us. An exception to this is our images that may be served from our distributed caching service, a group of servers managed by a third party. However, no information is disclosed to this third party about you. They do however automatically detect the region from which you are logging in from so as to serve images from the server that is geographically the most efficient. Personal images and information is not usually cached by any third party caching companies we employ, only giantHello.com branding, buttons, and images are cached.
If you do click on a link to visit a site operated by a third party, you may be prompted by a message from giantHello informing you that you are about to leave the site. Users wishing to access the link may do so by confirming "Yes"; Users not wishing to continue on can click "Cancel" and remain on giantHello.com
giantHello.com is not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites you may visit through a link you found on giantHello.com. If you provide information directly to a party other than giantHello.com, different privacy policies may cover those parties' use of your information. Please review any company's privacy policy before disclosing personal information.
Back to TopgiantHello.com deploys robust security measures to protect user information from loss, misuse and alteration. We use industry-standard practices such as encrypted storage, firewalls and password protection systems to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal information. Each of our employees is aware of our security policies, and your information is only available to those particular employees who need it to perform their jobs.
Though we take substantial efforts to reduce the risk of security breaches, we cannot guarantee that the information on giantHello is absolutely secure and that our systems are immune to unauthorized access and to other information security risks. In the event of an unavoidable security breach, we strongly suggest that parents make sure that children avoid posting any information on giantHello that would potentially place them at risk.
Back to TopCalifornia Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits our users who 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 e-mail to: privacy@giantHello.com. You can also write to us using the following mailing address: giantHello, Att: California Privacy Rights Dept, 1607 Pontius Ave., L.A., California, 90025, United States of America.
In complying with the Massachusetts Data Protection Act, 201 CMR 17, we have created a written security program detailing the measures we take to safeguard the personal information of Massachusetts residents. We also ensure that any third parties working on our behalf are capable of properly storing and safeguarding the personal information of Massachusetts residents and all giantHello users.
Back to TopgiantHello.com may from time to time update its privacy policy. The latest version of the privacy policy will always be available at www.giantHello.com/privacypolicy. Please check this page occasionally to make sure you are aware of any updates.
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to our information collection or disclosure practices, we will notify users here, by an email to their parents, or by means of a notice on our homepage.
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at: Website: www.giantHello.com E-mail: privacy@giantHello.com Mail: giantHello Customer Service 1607 Pontius Ave. L.A., California, 90025 United States of America
Back to TopAuthorize.net Merchant Services
giantHello.com has partnered with Authorize.Net, a leading payment gateway since 1996, to offer safe and secure credit card and electronic check transactions for our customers.
The Authorize.Net Payment Gateway manages the routing of sensitive customer information through the credit card and electronic check processing networks: http://www.authorize.net/resources/howitworksdiagram
The company adheres to strict industry standards for payment processing, including:
-128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology for secure Internet Protocol (IP) transactions;
Industry leading encryption hardware and software methods and security protocols to protect customer information; and
Compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard
Through a secure web connection, information entered during registration on the giantHello.com website is sent to authorize.net for processing. Through secure transactions, Authorize.net communicates with the credit card company and the banks involved. Once the payment has been received, a confirmation is sent to authorize.net who in turn sends giantHello.com a transaction I.D. number as well as the last four digits of the credit card number in case a refund needs to be processed at the users request.
giantHello has contracted with Equifax to verify the last four digits of a parent's social security number against certain identifiable information. Equifax empowers businesses and consumers with information they can trust. With a strong heritage of innovation and leadership, they leverage their unique data, advanced analytics and proprietary technology to enrich the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers. The Equifax Vision is to be the trusted provider of information solutions that empower customers to make critical decisions with greater confidence. Equifax adheres to the highest levels of ethical business practices, as embodied by their Codes of Ethics and Business Conduct. On the following pages you will find their fundamental governance documents which exemplify the way that Equifax conducts business.
giantHello appreciates your feedback. To reach us, click on the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of any page. We read every email we receive, and will respond to your questions. Let us know what you like, what you don't like, and if there is anything we can change or add to make your giantHello experience even better.
