Point the first: Liability
We're just here to record data for you and though we have an awesome resident
fitness expert who will be glad to help you try to pick reasonable goals, you
don't get to hold us responsible if you pick a stupid goal and injure yourself
or whatever.
Point the second: Privacy
We're going to respect the privacy of your data; in other words, we won't whore
out your email addresses or steal your identity or anything.
We also won't share your data unless you ask us to.
Though if you're really doing well, or have a unique goal that we think shows
off Beeminder in a cool way, we may beg you to let us show you off, like
featuring your graph on the front page.
In any case, your data is yours and we'll delete it at your request at any time.
Otherwise, we reserve the right to anonymize your data and use it in the name of
research.
Terms of Service:
This is thanks to WordPress who generously
open-sourced their terms of service.
The following terms and conditions govern all use of the Beeminder.com website
and all content, services, and products available at or through the website,
including, but not limited to, GmailZero by Beeminder.com
(“GmailZero”) and RunKeeper+Beeminder, etc
(taken together, the Website).
The Website is owned and operated by Beeminder, Inc. (“Beeminder”).
The Website is offered subject to your acceptance without modification of all of
the terms and conditions contained herein and all other operating rules,
policies (including, without limitation, Beeminder’s Privacy Policy, below)
and procedures that may be published from time to time on this Site by
Beeminder (collectively, the “Agreement”).
By accessing or using any part of the web site, you agree to become bound by
the terms and conditions of this agreement. (Lawyers seem to have a funny
definition of “agree”.)
If you do not agree to all the terms and conditions of this agreement, then you
may not access the Website or use any services.
If these terms and conditions are considered an offer by Beeminder, acceptance
is expressly limited to these terms.
The Website is available only to individuals who are at least 13 years old.
Presumably there are paranoid "think of the children" laws about this sort of
thing and saying that puts us in compliance?
So, yeah, screw you, 12-year-olds! Get off our lawn!
- Your Beeminder.com Account and Site.
If you create an account on the Website, you are responsible for maintaining
the security of your account and graphs, and you are fully responsible for all
activities that occur under the account and any other actions taken in
connection with your account.
You must not describe or assign keywords to your account in a misleading or
unlawful manner, including in a manner intended to trade on the name or
reputation of others, and Beeminder may change or remove any description or
keyword that it considers inappropriate or unlawful, or otherwise likely to
cause Beeminder liability.
You must immediately notify Beeminder of any unauthorized uses of your account
or any other breaches of security.
Beeminder will not be liable for any acts or omissions by You, including any
damages of any kind incurred as a result of such acts or omissions.
- Responsibility of Contributors.
If you operate a graph, comment on a graph, post material to the Website, post
links on the Website, or otherwise make (or allow any third party to make)
material available by means of the Website (any such material, “Content”),
You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from,
that Content.
That is the case regardless of whether the Content in question constitutes text,
graphics, an audio file, or computer software.
By making Content available, you represent and warrant that:
- the downloading, copying and use of the Content will not infringe the
proprietary rights, including but not limited to the copyright, patent,
trademark or trade secret rights, of any third party;
- if your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you have
either (i) received permission from your employer to post or make available the
Content, including but not limited to any software, or (ii) secured from your
employer a waiver as to all rights in or to the Content;
- you have fully complied with any third-party licenses relating to the
Content, and have done all things necessary to successfully pass through to end
users any required terms;
- the Content does not contain or install any viruses, worms, malware, Trojan
horses or other harmful or destructive content;
- the Content is not spam, is not machine- or
randomly-generated, and does not contain unethical or unwanted commercial
content designed to drive traffic to third party sites or boost the search
engine rankings of third party sites, or to further unlawful acts (such as
phishing) or mislead recipients as to the source of the material (such as
spoofing);
- the Content is not pornographic, does not contain threats or incite
violence towards individuals or entities, and does not violate the privacy or
publicity rights of any third party;
- your content is not getting advertised via unwanted electronic messages
such as spam links on newsgroups, email lists, other blogs and web sites, and
similar unsolicited promotional methods;
- your content is not named in a manner that misleads your readers into
thinking that you are another person or company.
For example, your graph’s URL or name is not the name of a person other
than yourself or company other than your own; and
- you have, in the case of Content that includes computer code, accurately
categorized and/or described the type, nature, uses and effects of the
materials, whether requested to do so by Beeminder or otherwise.
By submitting Content to Beeminder for inclusion on your Website, you grant
Beeminder a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce,
modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying,
distributing and promoting your graph.
If you delete Content, Beeminder will use reasonable efforts to remove it from
the Website, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may
not be made immediately unavailable.
Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, Beeminder has the
right (though not the obligation) to, in Beeminder’s sole discretion (i) refuse
or remove any content that, in Beeminder’s reasonable opinion, violates any
Beeminder policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or
deny access to and use of the Website to any individual or entity for any
reason, in Beeminder’s sole discretion.
Beeminder will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously
paid.
- Payment and Renewal.
- General Terms.
Optional paid services may be available on the Website (any such services,
an “Upgrade”).
By selecting an Upgrade you agree to pay Beeminder the monthly or annual
subscription fees indicated for that service.
Payments will be charged on a pre-pay basis on the day you sign up for an
Upgrade and will cover the use of that service for a monthly or annual
subscription period as indicated.
Upgrade fees are not refundable.
- Responsibility of Website Visitors.
Beeminder has not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including
computer software, posted to the Website, and cannot therefore be responsible
for that material’s content, use or effects.
By operating the Website, Beeminder does not represent or imply that it endorses
the material there posted, or that it believes such material to be accurate,
useful or non-harmful.
You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and
your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or
destructive content.
The Website may contain content that is offensive, indecent, or otherwise
objectionable, as well as content containing technical inaccuracies,
typographical mistakes, and other errors.
The Website may also contain material that violates the privacy or publicity
rights, or infringes the intellectual property and other proprietary rights, of
third parties, or the downloading, copying or use of which is subject to
additional terms and conditions, stated or unstated.
Beeminder disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from the use by
visitors of the Website, or from any downloading by those visitors of content
there posted.
- Content Posted on Other Websites.
We have not reviewed, and cannot review, all of the material, including computer
software, made available through the websites and webpages to which
Beeminder.com links, and that link to Beeminder.com.
Beeminder does not have any control over those non-Beeminder websites and
webpages, and is not responsible for their contents or their use.
By linking to a non-Beeminder website or webpage, Beeminder does not represent
or imply that it endorses such website or webpage.
You are responsible for taking precautions as necessary to protect yourself and
your computer systems from viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other harmful or
destructive content.
Beeminder disclaims any responsibility for any harm resulting from your use of
non-Beeminder websites and webpages.
- Copyright Infringement and DMCA Policy.
As Beeminder asks others to respect its intellectual property rights, it
respects the intellectual property rights of others.
If you believe that material located on or linked to by Beeminder.com violates
your copyright, you are encouraged to notify Beeminder in accordance with
Automattic’s
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Policy
(our DMCA policy is identical but for the contact info, use [email protected],
Beeminder, Inc., attn: Daniel Reeves, 3006 NE 58th Ave, Portland OR 97213).
Beeminder will respond to all such notices, including as required or
appropriate by removing the infringing material or disabling all links to the
infringing material.
Beeminder will terminate a visitor’s access to and use of the Website if,
under appropriate circumstances, the visitor is determined to be a repeat
infringer of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of Beeminder
or others.
In the case of such termination, Beeminder will have no obligation to provide a
refund of any amounts previously paid to Beeminder.
- Intellectual Property.
This Agreement does not transfer from Beeminder to you any Beeminder or third
party intellectual property, and all right, title and interest in and to such
property will remain (as between the parties) solely with Beeminder.
Beeminder, Beeminder.com, GmailZero, the Beeminder logo, and all other
trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with
Beeminder.com, or the Website are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Beeminder or Beeminder’s licensors.
Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the
Website may be the trademarks of other third parties.
Your use of the Website grants you no right or license to reproduce or
otherwise use any Beeminder or third-party trademarks.
- Advertisements.
Beeminder reserves the right to display advertisements on your graph page
unless you have purchased an Ad-free Upgrade or somesuch.
- Attribution.
Beeminder reserves the right to display attribution links on your graph page.
This probably goes without saying right now since we don't really have any
customization options that would give you the faintest idea that you might be
able to strip Beeminder attribution from your graph!
Footer credits and the Beeminder.com toolbar/navbar may not be removed
regardless of upgrades purchased.
- Domain Names.
If you are registering a domain name, using or transferring a previously
registered domain name, you acknowledge and agree that use of the domain name is
also subject to the policies of the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”),
including their
Registration Rights and Responsibilities.
This doesn't currently apply to Beeminder in any way we can think of but what
the heck.
Yes, your use of domain names is subject to ICANN policies.
You better agree or you can't use Beeminder!
- Changes.
Beeminder reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any
part of this Agreement.
It is your responsibility to check this Agreement periodically for changes.
(Lawyers gots chutzpah, eh? But yeah, we'll probably change this.)
Your continued use of or access to the Website following the posting of any
changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes.
Beeminder may also, in the future, offer new services and/or features through
the Website (including, the release of new tools and resources).
Such new features and/or services shall be subject to the terms and conditions
of this Agreement.
- Termination.
Beeminder may terminate your access to all or any part of the Website at any
time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately.
If you wish to terminate this Agreement or your Beeminder.com account (if you
have one), you may simply discontinue using the Website.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, if you have any special kind of paid account,
such account can only be terminated by Beeminder if you materially breach this
Agreement and fail to cure such breach within thirty
(30, one score and ten, XXX, are we clear?)
days from Beeminder’s notice to you thereof; provided that, Beeminder can
terminate the Website immediately as part of a general shut down of our service.
All provisions of this Agreement which by their nature should survive
termination shall survive termination, including, without limitation, ownership
provisions, warranty disclaimers, indemnity and limitations of liability.
- Disclaimer of Warranties.
The Website is provided “as is”.
Beeminder and its suppliers and licensors hereby disclaim all warranties of any
kind, express or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.
Neither Beeminder nor its suppliers and licensors, makes any warranty that the
Website will be error free or that access thereto will be continuous or
uninterrupted.
If you’re actually reading this,
here’s a treat.
(WordPress had that little easter egg in there so, what the hay, we'll leave it
there too. In the spirit of this agreement we feel we should warn you that it's
a very vegan-unfriendly treat and we accept no responsibility, express or
implied, ipso facto vis a vis holy crap is this getting tedious.)
You understand that you download from, or otherwise obtain content or services
through, the Website at your own discretion and risk.
- Limitation of Liability.
In no event will Beeminder, or its suppliers or licensors, be liable with
respect to any subject matter of this agreement under any contract, negligence,
strict liability or other legal or equitable theory for:
(i) any special, incidental or consequential damages;
(ii) the cost of procurement for substitute products or services;
(iii) for interruption of use or loss or corruption of data; or
(iv) for any amounts that exceed the fees paid by you to Beeminder under this
agreement during the twelve (12, a dozen, the number written with a one in the
ten's place and a two in the one's place) month period prior to the cause of
action.
Beeminder shall have no liability for any failure or delay due to matters
beyond their reasonable control.
The foregoing shall not apply to the extent prohibited by applicable law.
You'd think “except as prohibited by law” would just go without
saying.
Or maybe it's legalese for “ok, we admit, what we just said might not fly
but we thought it was worth a shot”.
Did we mention we're just copying all this from
WordPress?
Thanks again, WordPress!
- General Representation and Warranty.
You represent and warrant that
(i) your use of the Website will be in strict accordance with the
Beeminder Privacy Policy (below),
with this Agreement and with all applicable laws and regulations
(including without limitation any local laws or regulations in your country,
state, city, or other governmental area, regarding online conduct and
acceptable content, and including all applicable laws regarding the
transmission of technical data exported from the United States or the country
in which you reside) and
(ii) your use of the Website will not infringe or misappropriate the
intellectual property rights of any third party.
- Indemnification.
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Beeminder, its contractors, and its
licensors, and their respective directors, officers, employees and agents from
and against any and all claims and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, arising
out of your use of the Website, including but not limited to your violation of
this Agreement.
- Miscellaneous.
This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between Beeminder and you
concerning the subject matter hereof, and they may only be modified by a
written amendment signed by an authorized executive of Beeminder, or by the
posting by Beeminder of a revised version.
Except to the extent applicable law, if any, provides otherwise, this Agreement,
any access to or use of the Website will be governed by the laws of the state of
California, U.S.A., or maybe Oregon since Beeminder is an Oregon corporation
excluding its conflict of law provisions, and the proper venue for any disputes
arising out of or relating to any of the same will be the state and federal
courts located in San Francisco County, California, or maybe whatever county
Portland is in. Multnomah County, maybe?
Except for claims for injunctive or equitable relief or claims regarding
intellectual property rights (which may be brought in any competent court
without the posting of a bond), any dispute arising under this Agreement shall
be finally settled in accordance with the Comprehensive Arbitration Rules of
the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service, Inc. (“JAMS”) by three
arbitrators appointed in accordance with such Rules.
The arbitration shall take place in Portland, Oregon, in the English
language (we might accept German or Russian, or any major programming language)
and the arbitral decision may be enforced in any court.
The prevailing party in any action or proceeding to enforce this Agreement shall
be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees.
If any part of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, that part will
be construed to reflect the parties’ original intent, and the remaining
portions will remain in full force and effect. A
waiver by either party of any term or condition of this Agreement or any
breach thereof, in any one instance, will not waive such term or condition or
any subsequent breach thereof.
You may assign your rights under this Agreement to any party that consents to,
and agrees to be bound by, its terms and conditions;
Beeminder may assign its rights under this Agreement without condition.
This Agreement will be binding upon and will inure to the benefit of the
parties, their successors and permitted assigns.
Privacy Policy:
We were tempted to just use
“The
First Truly Honest Privacy Policy”
but that's a little too pessimistic.
For example, we really don't want to ever whore out your data.
But we do want to use your data for science!
In any case, we're extremely careful with your payment information
(we don't even store it on our own servers) and we take the
reasonable precautions that you'd expect in a Ruby on Rails app with
information like your email address and phone number.
Definitely contact us ([email protected]) if you have any questions
or concerns.
For completeness, here's the official policy, which, as above, is modeled
on WordPress's generously shared document.
Website Visitors
Like most website operators, Beeminder collects non-personally-identifying
information (but see the link above about that!) of the sort that web browsers
and servers typically make available,
such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and
time of each visitor request.
Beeminder’s purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information
is to better understand how Beeminder’s visitors use its website.
From time to time, Beeminder may release non-personally-identifying information
in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its
website.
Beeminder also collects potentially personally-identifying information like
Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for logged in users and for users leaving
comments or whatnot.
Beeminder only discloses logged in user and commenter IP addresses under the
same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information
as described below, except that commenter IP addresses may be visible and
disclosed to the administrators of the page where the comment was left.
Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information
Certain visitors to Beeminder’s websites choose to interact with Beeminder in
ways that require Beeminder to gather personally-identifying information.
The amount and type of information that Beeminder gathers depends on the nature
of the interaction.
For example, we ask visitors who sign up for an account at
Beeminder.com to provide a username and
email address.
Those who engage in transactions with Beeminder
— like by pledging money on a goal —
are asked to provide additional information, including as necessary the personal
and financial information required to process those transactions.
In each case, Beeminder collects such information only insofar as is necessary
or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor’s interaction with
Beeminder.
Beeminder does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as
described below.
And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information,
with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain
website-related activities.
Aggregated Statistics
Beeminder may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to its websites.
For instance, Beeminder may monitor the most popular goals on the
Beeminder.com site or use spam screened by the Akismet service or maybe Disqus
to help identify spam.
Beeminder may display this information publicly or provide it to others.
However, Beeminder does not disclose personally-identifying information other
than as described below.
Protection of Certain Personally-Identifying Information
Beeminder discloses potentially personally-identifying and
personally-identifying information only to those of its employees, contractors
and affiliated organizations that
(i) need to know that information in order to process it on Beeminder’s behalf
or to provide services available at Beeminder’s websites, and
(ii) that have agreed not to disclose it to others.
Some of those employees, contractors, and affiliated organizations may be
located outside of your home country; by using Beeminder’s websites, you consent
to the transfer of such information to them.
Beeminder will not rent or sell potentially personally-identifying and
personally-identifying information to anyone.
Other than to its employees, contractors, and affiliated organizations, as
described above, Beeminder discloses potentially personally-identifying and
personally-identifying information only in response to a subpoena, court order
or other governmental request, or when Beeminder believes in good faith that
disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of
Beeminder, third parties or the public at large.
If you are a registered user of a Beeminder website and have supplied your email
address, Beeminder may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new
features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what’s going
on with Beeminder and our products.
We're pretty paranoid about being spammy so that kind of thing is minimal and
always with instant unsubscribe links, etc.
If you send us a request (for example via a support email or via one of our
feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in order to help us
clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users.
Beeminder takes all measures reasonably necessary to protect against the
unauthorized access, use, alteration or destruction of potentially
personally-identifying and personally-identifying information.
Cookies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s
computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the
visitor returns.
Beeminder uses cookies to help Beeminder identify and track visitors, their
usage of Beeminder, and their website access preferences.
Beeminder visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers
should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using Beeminder’s websites,
with the drawback that certain features of Beeminder’s websites may not function
properly without the aid of cookies.
Business Transfers
If Beeminder, or substantially all of its assets, were acquired, or in the
unlikely event that Beeminder goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user
information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a
third party.
You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of
Beeminder may continue to use your personal information as set forth in this
policy.
This clause seems a little worrisome since part of this policy is that it can
be changed in any way at any time!
If it's any consolation, you have our assurance that we wouldn't ever sell
Beeminder to anyone we didn't feel was on board with the spirit of all this.
Ads
Ads appearing on any of our websites may be delivered to users by advertising
partners, who may set cookies.
These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send
you an online advertisement to compile information about you or others who use
your computer.
This information allows ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted
advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you.
This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by Beeminder and does not cover
the use of cookies by any advertisers.
Privacy Policy Changes
Although most changes are likely to be minor, Beeminder may change its Privacy
Policy from time to time, and in Beeminder’s sole discretion.
Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will
constitute your acceptance of such change.
Change log:
2012 September 7:
Original version is just mutatis mutandis from WordPress's generously shared
version.
Thanks again, WordPress!
2012 September 8:
Added Privacy Policy from WordPress as well.
Edited references to it in the Terms of Service.
2012 September 9:
Updated the reference to Automattic's DMCA policy and added Beeminder's contact
information.
2015 May 27:
Updated broken link to "first truly honest privacy policy".
