Privacy Policy

Our Commitment From the start of Friends Worldwide, our desire was to establish a solid relationship with our members based on trust. We have no desire to market or trade the personal data of our members with any third party, or to spam members of our site. We understand the foundation of our business depends on this bond of trust, and we operate our business based on this principle.

Information Collected When you register as a member of Friends Worldwide you are asked for specific personal information, including email address, zip code, occupation, and general interests. Our website automatically receives and records information on our server logs from your browser, including your IP address, browser type and Friends Worldwide cookie information. We use this information to personalize the content you see, to fulfill your service requests, and to inform you of updates to our services. We gather information about all users collectively, such as what areas users visit most frequently, and what services users access the most. We only use such data anonymously and in the aggregate. This information helps us determine what is the most beneficial for our users, and how we can continually create a better overall user experience. We may share this information with our partners, but only in the aggregate, so that they may also understand how our visitors use our website.

When I give you my e-mail address, who else will you give it to? We do not trade, sell, or distribute, or disclose in any fashion our members' e-mail addresses to third parties. We do not use any member's e-mail address to send unsolicited e-mail of any kind. Your e-mail address will be used to notify you when another member contacts you, or to inform you concerning any matters which may affect your membership. We provide you with the opportunity to opt-opt out of the receipt of e-mail notifications which notify you when another member contacts you by changing your preferences from the My Membership page located from the My Account link on the Main Menu after you login. If a purchase is made on our site, it is used to send you details and/or receipts concerning your order. It may also be used for credit card verification purposes when making any optional purchase on our site.

What information of mine do you share with others? We do not disclose your personal information to other members, companies, partners, or individuals, or to any third parties which would disclose your true identity. Do not attempt to embed your real name, address, phone number, e-mail address, or any other identifiable information within your profile. The username you choose is up to you to remain private. In the event we receive an official government document such as a warrant or subpoena we will provide the information to the government agency making the request in compliance with the law, however your information is safe with Friends Worldwide. We employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Examples may include hosting our web servers, analyzing data, providing marketing services, processing credit card payments, and other services. These companies may have access to your personal information as necessary to perform their functions, but they may not share that information with any third party.

Accessing, Reviewing and Changing Your Profile Following registration, you can review and change the information you submitted during registration. For instructions on how to do so, visit the Help section of the Websites. If you change your password and email address we will retain a record of your old password and email address. You can also change your registration information such as: name, address, city, state, zip code, country, phone number, profile, likes and dislikes, desired date profile, essays and saved search criteria.

Upon your notification, we will remove your membership from our active databases as soon as reasonably possible in accordance with our policy and applicable law. To learn how to hide or remove your profile so that others cannot view it, visit the Help section of the Websites on the Membership page. You can opt out of any notifications regarding communications from us via the Settings page from within your account. If you wish to opt out as a visitor, please send us a request using our Contact Us Form.

We will retain in our files information you have requested be removed from our active databases for certain purposes, such as to resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems and enforce our terms and conditions. Further, such prior information may never be completely removed from our databases due to technical and legal constraints, including stored 'back up' systems. Therefore, you should not expect that all of your personally identifiable information will be completely removed from our databases in response to any request you may submit.

Once joining your site, am I going to get a ton of junk mail? No. We do not spam our members or allow our staff to send any unsolicited e-mail to you other than general notifications when another member contacts you, or to inform you about upgrades/changes to your membership on our site. The security of your personal information is our highest priority.

Is my data encrypted when it is stored? Yes. Your critical and private data is encrypted before it is stored in our databases. Our data center is maintained with the highest level of security. Our system security boasts system patching to provide ongoing protection, dedicated firewall and VPN services, dedicated intrusion detection and many other features.

How secure are your offices and data center? Our data center is maintained by the most recognized, respected company in the world serving the largest corporations which utmost attention to security. Entry to the data center requires biometric scanning, security monitoring, 24/7 onsite staff to prevent unauthorized entry, unmarked facilities to provide a low profile, and physical security audited by an independent firm. Access to confidential information is only permitted by authorized personnel according to documented processes.

How secure is your Internet connection and Network? Our site is hosted by the leading provider of managed Internet hosting services who additionally supplies our Internet connection via the top tier Internet providers in the world. Our rock solid relationship helps to ensure maximum security and protection against site outages or other disturbances which could affect your experience as a member. Large blocks of network addresses and Internet traffic from various locations, countries, or various regions known for fraudulent, malicious, or criminal activity are blocked by our state of the art network security tools. Your security and ensuring a positive experience for you as a member of our site is our highest priority.

What if your privacy policy changes? If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes here so that you will always be informed of any information we gather, or how we might use that information. Friends Worldwide uses the highest level of security to maintain your personal information, however his privacy policy is not intended to, and does not, create any contractual or other legal rights in or on behalf of any party.