Laughing Squid Web Hosting
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Privacy Policy
last updated February 14, 2005
Fair information practices
Laughing Squid is dedicated to treating our customers’ information in a manner that is consistently fair, ethical, and responsible. This commitment to fair electronic information practices is vital to our business, and means that we will always endeavor to:
- Exercise reasonable precautions to protect personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction.
- Implement reasonable policies and procedures to ensure that personal information is used or retained only for the purpose for which it was gathered.
- Take reasonable measures to ensure that we have accurately and completely recorded information as provided by you.
- Provide you with reasonable access to your personal information, and with procedures for correcting or updating that information as needed.
Types of information collected
In the normal course of business, Laughing Squid receives various types of digital information from our customers and other website visitors:
- Browser data - Laughing Squid may opt to analyze users’ browser settings and IP address data to optimize delivery of web content through our sites. Any data collected in this way will be entirely anonymous, and will be used solely for analytical purposes.
- Cookie data - We employ cookies on a very limited basis to facilitate certain interactions with our customers. For instance, logging into our control panel will set a session cookie to maintain your logged-in state. We do not employ cookies to track anonymous visitors, and we will never set a persistent cookie without your explicit prior approval. If you are concerned about cookies, we recommend that you set your browser to notify you accordingly; however, if you set the browser to refuse all cookies, you will not have access to certain functionality within our website.
- Form data - In the process of creating and managing their accounts, Laughing Squid customers provide personal information and security passwords. In many cases, credit card information is also communicated to us. This personal information is used to set up and manage your account, to authorize payment for services, and as a means for Laughing Squid to contact you.
- User data - In the course of using their accounts, Laughing Squid customers routinely send, receive, and store various files using our servers, e.g. their personal email. While we do not solicit this information, and we are not responsible for its content, we take reasonable precautions to ensure that it is safeguarded while in our possession.
Information security safeguards
Laughing Squid will protect the confidentiality of its customers’ account information and personal communications to the fullest extent possible, consistent with the law and the legitimate interests of Laughing Squid and our customers. To that end, we have implemented substantial security measures to prevent the loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, or unauthorized alteration of information under our control. These safeguards are both procedural and technological in nature. We take our responsibility very seriously in this area, and perform regular security reviews and updates on all relevant systems.
To safeguard the electronic transmission of sensitive data, including credit card information, our control panel and customer forms use industry-standard SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) with 128 bit encryption and signed SSL Certificates.
Putting your information to good use
We use the information received from our customers to ensure that they are billed properly, that their accounts are administered correctly, and that services are correctly delivered.
After you’ve signed-up for Laughing Squid’s web hosting services, we may be in contact regarding your account, any support questions you’ve sent to our Help Desk, or other matters relating to the services. These communications are essential to our relationship with you and our ability to serve you. Furthermore, they sometimes give us helpful insights into our customers’ needs and preferences, and for that reason may be retained for our future use.
Keeping your information current
Our primary means of knowing our customers is through the information they provide when they sign-up for our web hosting services. All of the information requested from you when you sign-up for our services is required unless otherwise noted on the relevant form. When you purchase our services, you agree to provide and maintain accurate, complete and updated information.
Laughing Squid customers can update their account information at any time by filling out our Account Update form. You may update your information at any time, and as often as necessary.
Overlap with public records
Laughing Squid customers should keep in mind that whenever an Internet domain name is registered, the contact information provided to the domain registrar becomes a matter of public record. Even though Laughing Squid will not disclose this information to unauthorized parties, by ICANN rules it is already freely available to marketers.
Disclosure of personal information
Laughing Squid never sells, leases, or exchanges customer information for marketing purposes. We appreciate your business, and we put a premium on your privacy that’s much higher than any potential gain from advertising sales. For the same reason, we do not accept advertising on our web sites.
As a result of doing business with us, our vendors may from time to time have access to our customers’ information, but they may not use such information for any purpose other than providing the agreed-upon service. For example, we routinely transmit credit card information to our merchant bank, but the bank is not authorized to use that information for any purpose other than processing the payment at hand. Whenever our vendors have access to our customers’ information, we hold them to the same standards of security and confidentiality that we observe.
Laughing Squid will disclose personal data, including customer email or server files in our possession, only if directed to do so by court order, warrant, subpoena, or other valid legal process. We will only disclose personal data when we have a good faith belief that the law requires such disclosure, or when we have reason to believe that such disclosure is both legal and necessary to identify, make contact with, or bring legal action against someone who may be causing harm or interfering with the rights or property of Laughing Squid, our customers, or others.
Laughing Squid disclaims any intention to censor, edit or engage in ongoing review or surveillance of communications stored on or transmitted through its facilities. Laughing Squid will, however, review, delete or block access to communications that may harm Laughing Squid or others. The grounds on which we may take such action include, but are not limited to, actual or suspected violations of our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and Terms of Service.
Our accountability to you
You have our promise that we will not treat your personal information in any way that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy. If you ever believe that this is not the case, please let us know about it, using the information located on our Contact page.