26th March 2008

Aussie Kittens recognises that privacy is very important and that your personal information is confidential. This policy applies to services and products on this website owned and operated by Kittens International Pty Ltd under the registered trademark Aussie Kittens.
If you have any questions about this Policy, please feel free to contact us through our website.

Users Information we collect and how we use it

We do not require you to register for an account or provide personal information to us if you are only viewing our website. However, we do collect from you or add to your browser the following types of information:

• Aussie Kitten cookies - When using the Aussie Kittens website cookies - small files containing a string of characters - will be stored on your computer that uniquely identify your browser and allows the website to operate and function properly.  Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, refusing or blocking cookies will prevent you from being able to view and use the website properly unless you accept the cookies from our website. You may also choose to delete the cookies from your browser under internet options. However, performing this will delete the history of profiles you currently have stored under 'my favourite kittens' and greater speed of data retrieval when viewing the website in the future as the cookies will need to be restored. Remember also that cookies are specific to the computer that you are currently using and not assigned to you personally, therefore if you view the Aussie Kittens website from another computer your 'my favourite kittens' portfolio will not be available and all other cookies may not be installed. Anyone using the computer that you were on when adding profiles to your 'my favourite kittens' portfolio will be able to view this portfolio if the cookies are not deleted.

As mentioned the cookies are only used for making the website operational on your computer, we will never put spyware (files used to access and siphon your computer or personal details) or any malicious code knowingly and/or purposefully.  

• Log information - When you visit the Aussie Kittens website we may log information about which pages, profiles & links within the website you viewed. We may also log information about the geographic region in which your browsing computer is located. We use this information for sales and market research purposes and to help improve our services, it does not identify you personally.
• User communications - When you send email or other communication to Aussie Kittens, we may retain those communications in order to process your inquiries, respond to your requests and improve our services.
• Other sites & links - This Privacy Policy applies only to websites trading and operating under the trademark Aussie Kittens. We do not exercise control over the websites you are directed to from within the site, for example, through sponsored and advertising links or independent website links in the advertised profiles.  Please be aware that these other sites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you to which this Privacy Policy does not apply.  

Advertiser's information we collect and how we use it

If you are an advertiser on the Aussie Kittens website in order to provide our services and perform our business processes, we do need to collect some personal and private information from you as follows:

• Information you provide - When you sign up to advertise with Aussie Kittens we may ask you for personal or private information depending on your type of advertising (such as, your full name, company name, address, private email address, account password, memorable question in case you forget your password, and contact telephone number).  We use this information to create customer accounts; make subscription payments and refunds and it's also used for us to contact you and verify you are a legitimate user of our services and to identify you from our other advertisers.

Aussie Kittens processes and stores personal information on a hosted web server and our individual business computers within Australia. Your credit card details are stored on a highly secured server in an encrypted format with our payment provider WorldPay of which you have full access to under a user account created with them. There may be times when your personal information is processed by a subsidiary, affiliated company or other trusted business or person for which our policy is explained under information sharing below. Please note that once you cancel your subscription with us, although your advertisement is no longer viewable on the website, we will still have your account information stored within our server, which you can reactivate by re-subscribing to our service at a future date within a 6 month period following deactivation for category susbcribers. If you do not wish to have your advertised information stored on our server after cancelling your subscription, please contact us and we will delete it, however please note that this will disallow the possibility of reactivating your account in the future. For more information please see Accessing and updating your personal information below.

Choices for personal information

When you sign up for a particular service that requires registration, we ask you to provide personal information. If we use this information in a manner different than the purpose for which it was collected, then we will ask for your consent prior to such use.
If we propose to use personal information for any purposes other than those described in this Policy, we will offer you an effective way to opt out of the use of personal information for those other purposes. We will not collect or use sensitive information for purposes other than those described in this Policy, unless we have obtained your prior consent or it is unlawful for us not to do so.

You can decline to submit personal information to any of our services, in which case Aussie Kittens will not be able to provide those services to you. In order for your account to be activated you must supply all the requested personal information.

Information sharing

Aussie Kittens will only share personal information with other companies or individuals outside of Aussie Kittens in the following limited circumstances:

• We have your expressed consent.
• We provide such information to our subsidiaries, affiliated companies or other trusted businesses or persons for the purpose of processing personal information on our behalf. We require that these parties agree to process such information based on our instructions and in compliance with this policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
• We have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request, (b) enforce applicable terms and conditions including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or (d) protect against imminent harm to the rights, property or safety of Aussie Kittens, its users or the public as required or permitted by law.

If Aussie Kittens becomes involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of some or all of its assets, we will provide notice before personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

We may share with third parties certain pieces of aggregated, non-personal information, such as, the number of users who visited a particular page, profile or advertising link over a particular period.  Such information does not identify you individually.
Please contact us via the website for any additional questions about the management or use of personal data.

Information security

We take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorised access to or unauthorised alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, as well as physical security measures to guard against unauthorised access to systems where we store personal data.

We restrict access to personal information to Aussie Kittens employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our services. These individuals are bound by confidentiality obligations and may be subject to discipline, including termination and criminal prosecution, if they fail to meet these obligations.
In a broad sense of internet usage and data storage, please be aware that although virtually impossible with most secure data storing facilities (including ours), someone with highly specialised IT skills external to any organisation storing your personal information may be able to access your information. 

Data integrity

Aussie Kittens processes personal information only for the purposes for which it was collected and in accordance with this Policy. We review our data collection, storage and processing practices to ensure that we only collect, store and process the personal information needed to provide or improve our services. We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we process is accurate, complete, and current, but we depend on our subscribers to update or correct their personal information whenever necessary.

Accessing and updating personal information

When you use Aussie Kittens services, we make a good faith effort to provide you with access to your personal information and either to correct this data if it is inaccurate or to delete such data at your request if it is not otherwise required to be retained by law or for legitimate business purposes. We ask customers to identify themselves and the information requested to be accessed, corrected or removed before processing such requests, and we may decline to process requests that are unreasonably repetitive or systematic, require disproportionate technical effort, jeopardize the privacy of others, or would be extremely impractical (for instance, requests concerning information residing on backup files), or for which access is not otherwise required. In any case where we provide information access and correction, we perform this service free of charge, except if doing so would require a disproportionate effort.

Enforcement and complaints

Aussie Kittens regularly reviews its compliance with this Policy.  When we receive formal written complaints, it is Aussie Kittens policy to contact the complainant regarding their concerns. We will cooperate with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of personal data that cannot be resolved between Aussie Kittens and the complaining individual.

Changes to this policy

Please note that this Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Policy without your explicit consent, and we expect most such changes will be minor. Regardless, we will post any Policy changes on this page of the website and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice (including, for certain services, email notification of Policy changes). Each version of this Policy will be identified at the top of the page by its effective date.