Privacy Policy / Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

Overview

Food Mafia, Inc. ("FMI") cares about protecting your privacy and understands that you care how information about you is used and shared. This notice (this "Privacy Policy") describes how we may collect and use personal information about you, with whom we may share it, what choices you have regarding it, and how we protect it. This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and made a part of the User Agreement governing the use of FMI reviews, restaurant recommendations, online magazine content, news aggregation services, photos, video, social networking, and other activities and related online services (the "Service"). We encourage you to become familiar with our privacy practices, as stated below. By accessing and using the Service, you agree that you have read and understand this Privacy Policy and you accept and consent to the privacy practices described below.

What Information Do We Collect?

FMI may collect various types of information from or about you through or in connection with the Service. For example:

  1. When you create an account with us, you supply us with basic account information and information about your interest in the food and restaurant marketplace. Your account information may include a user name, e-mail address and password, as well as other information you may voluntarily choose to provide to us. You may also supply us with information about your relationship to the food and restaurant industry (for example, you may indicate in your profile that you are a chef or server and your employer or place of business) and a short narrative profile or explanation of your particular interests. You may also select terms from available set fields that describe you and your food and restaurant preferences and choices.
  2. You may submit reviews, recommendations or other materials relating to food and restaurants. These submissions may take the form of free narrative text entry, population of form fields, or choices among pre-set selections. Submission of this information is voluntary, and in your discretion.
  3. You may submit videos, pictures and other materials in connection with your participation in the FMI community. Some of these materials may be submitted in connection with contests or other entertainment activities. We may require registration for participation in these contests or activities, and special rules may apply to such contests or activities.
  4. You may authorize FMI to access and store your Facebook ID or IDs related to other social networking services. FMI may additionally have access to information available through social networking services, in accordance with your privacy selections through such other services, and to the extent otherwise made available through such other services.
  5. FMI may collect and record information about your interactions with the Service. This may include many different aspects of your interactions, such as information about profiles, reviews or other materials that you follow, track or review, information about photos and videos you may upload or view, and information about prospective users that you invite, as well as information about other users' interactions with your profiles, reviews and other materials.
  6. You may from time to time provide additional information or content to FMI, in connection with discussion boards, user forums, and similar shared communications. This information may be displayed, stored, copied, archived, and otherwise used by FMI for purposes of facilitating discussion, improving, modifying or developing the Service, or otherwise understanding the preferences, priorities and choices of the FMI user base.

In addition, if you correspond or communicate with FMI or its customer service representatives, FMI may retain the content of and metadata regarding that correspondence and communication, regardless of the mode or medium by which it was made. This information helps FMI to improve the Service and the materials, products, and services that we offer through the Service, and to more effectively and efficiently respond to both current and future inquiries.

The Service is intended for general audiences, and is not directed to children under 13, or to anyone under age 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under age 18. If you become aware that your child has provided us with personal information without your consent, please contact us here info@foodmafia.com. If we become aware that a person under age 18 has provided us with personal information without parental consent, we take steps to remove such information and terminate the person's account.

How Do We Use The Information That We Collect?

Certain information about your account or profile may be shown publicly on the Service, including your username (we encourage you to choose a username that will allow you to exercise control over your privacy), as well as information about the reviews you have submitted, your favorites, recommended restaurants, visited restaurants, followers among other users, users you follow, information that you've submitted about your relationship to the food and restaurant industry, including information about your employer or place of business, and materials you have submitted to be shared on the Service. You may elect whether or not certain information is shared with other social networking sites, such as Facebook or Twitter.

We may use any photos or videos that you submit for advertising and promotion of the Service.

If you invite someone to join the Service, through the Service, we may use the e-mail address you submit to allow us to invite that person to join and connect with you on the Service.

We may make your account information and other information available to our third party service providers, including the companies who provide hosting and other infrastructure for the Service and others, for the purpose of operating and maintaining the Service.

FMI may use your Facebook ID, and related information available through Facebook to track your activities with respect to the Service, to allow FMI to compile and track analytics of user behavior. This information is used to target and improve our current and future goods and services, and to better understand FMI's user group. We will not provide user information that has been correlated or compiled with our public Facebook information or other public sources to advertisers or marketing companies, although we have no way to prevent third parties from compiling any publicly-available information in this fashion.

FMI may additionally use third-party providers to assist FMI in tracking user behavior. In order to undertake this analysis, FMI may send information to these third-party service providers, including your demographic information, to the extent available through your Facebook privacy settings. This information may include such details as gender, location, age, and other information available with the Facebook "basic authentication" permissions. FMI may also provide to third-party service providers information regarding the amount of your usage of reviews or recommendations. FMI may supply to its third party service providers information about your usage of Facebook communication channels, including information such as: (a) the number of Facebook posts you make using the Service; (b) the number of targeted invitations or messages sent to other members, and (c) the number of received or accepted invitations and messages sent from other members.

In addition to the uses mentioned or described above, FMI uses the information that it collects from or about you to improve the materials, products, and services that are made available on the Service, to notify you of changes made to the Service or of new products or services that are made available on or through the Service, to evaluate your needs and customize the Service content that is delivered to you, to facilitate the processing of any purchases you make through the Service and the delivery of our products and services to you, and for other legitimate and lawful business purposes of FMI. FMI may offer an electronic newsletter, and use your e-mail address for delivery of this newsletter. FMI may make information you have provided available, on a confidential basis, to its third-party services providers for the purposes of assisting FMI in its own internal processing and use of such information.

FMI may use cookies and other technologies to recognize you and uniquely identify your browser. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to reset all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Certain functions of the Service may not function correctly if your browser is set to refuse cookies, or if cookies have been reset. We also automatically receive such information as your IP address, your type of browser and ISP. We may use information about your location to target the information you receive to the area you indicate in your profile, or the area from which you access the Service.

FMI does not otherwise share personally identifiable information collected about you with third parties, except that we may combine or aggregate personal information about you, in de-identified form (that is, in a form that does not personally or individually identify you), with other data regarding our products, services, or other customers and use the resulting aggregated information for various purposes, including sharing it with our customers and with third parties. For example, we may aggregate your information with that of other users so that we can provide certain statistics about our user community to advertisers, employers and others.

It is our policy not to sell lists containing personal information about Service users, registrants, or subscribers, and we do not share credit card or other financial information about you except as necessary to deliver, bill, and collect for the products or services that you purchase or subscribe to through the Service.
We may disclose information in response to a court order or request of law enforcement personnel, or in connection with litigation or other legal proceedings.

What Choices Do You Have?

You may update at any time the registration information that you entered in subscribing to any of the products or services that we offer through the Service. By contacting or sending a request to us at the numbers or addresses given below, you may also ask us to remove your name from our list of Service users who wish to receive communications from FMI. Once you opt-out through such a request, we will honor your choice until you inform us otherwise. Please remember, however, that if we have already shared information about you pursuant to your registration or participation in services offered by our third party service providers, such service providers may further use that information and you will need to contact them directly in that regard.

E-mail: info@foodmafia.com

Food Mafia, Inc.
Attn: Customer Support
Address: 980 N Michigan Avenue, Suite 1400, Chicago, IL 60611

How Do We Protect Information Collected About You?

We encourage you to choose a username that will allow you to exercise control over your privacy (you may choose a username that bears little or no relation to your name or identity). We also encourage you to choose a password with care, and to protect that password from unwanted disclosure.

FMI places a high value on protecting personal information transmitted through the Service. For this reason, we use advanced security solutions, including 128-bit secure sockets layer ("SSL") encryption technology to help provide secure communications. In addition, the Service is protected by a firewall that provides a high degree of security. However, while FMI takes commercially reasonable measures to secure and protect customer-specific information transmitted through or stored on our Service, no security system is impenetrable and communications over the Internet may be intercepted. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that personal information supplied by users of the Service will be totally secure.

Changes to Privacy Policy

From time to time, FMI may change its privacy practices because of changes in the relevant and applicable legal or regulatory requirements, in our business or business practices or features, or in our attempts to better serve your needs. In the event of such a change to our privacy practices, notice will be given in the manner described in the Terms of Use for the Service and a revised Privacy Policy will be posted on the Service.

Business Transfers

As FMI continues to grow and develop its business, it is possible that its entity structure might change or that FMI might merge or otherwise combine with, or that substantially all of its assets might be acquired by, another company. In any such transactions, customer information generally is, most probably will be, and should be expected to be, among the transferred business assets.

Linked Services

For your convenience, some hyperlinks or other interfaces may be posted on the Service that link to other online offerings not under the control of FMI. We are not responsible for, and this Privacy Policy does not apply to, the privacy practices of those sites. We encourage you to seek out and read the privacy policy of any online service that you visit. In addition, when you initiate a transaction on another online service, even if you reached that site through a link posted on our Service, the information that you submit to complete that transaction becomes subject to the privacy practices of that online service. You should read the privacy policy of that site to understand how personal information that it collects is used, shared, and protected. FMI is not responsible for the privacy or information practices of its suppliers or business associates or of any third-party Web sites.

Who Can You Contact For More Information?

Please direct any other questions regarding our privacy practices or this Privacy Policy to FMI through the feedback form on our website.

Acknowledgement

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTAND AND CONSENT TO THE PRIVACY PRACTICES DESCRIBED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE USER AGREEMENT


TERMS OF ACCESS AND USE

(Last Revised November, 2010)

The following are terms of a legal agreement ("Agreement") between you and Food Mafia, Inc. ("Company"). By accessing, browsing and/or otherwise using this web site and the services available through the site or otherwise offered by the Company in connection with your membership in or use of the site (the "Service"), you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agreed to be bound by these terms and conditions, and to comply with all applicable laws and regulations, including U.S. export and re-export control laws and regulations. If you do not agree to all of these terms and conditions, you may not access, browse and/or use this Service. The material provided through this Service is protected by law, including, but not limited to, United States copyright law and international treaties.

These terms of access apply to your access to and use of this Service and other interactions with the Company. If you breach any of these terms and conditions, your authorization to use this Service automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy any downloaded or printed materials and discontinue use of any hyperlinks to this Service.

USE RESTRICTIONS

Copyright. All Service materials, including, without limitation, text, pictures, graphics and other files and the selection and arrangement thereof are copyrighted materials of Food Mafia, Inc. © 2013, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, or by the original creator of the material. Permission is granted to display, copy, distribute, and download the materials through this Service for personal, noncommercial use only, provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the materials. You may not, however, distribute, copy, reproduce, display, republish, download, or transmit any material through this Service for commercial use without prior written approval of Company. You may not "mirror" any material contained on this Service on any other server without prior written permission from Company. Any unauthorized use of any material contained on this Service may violate copyright laws, trademark laws, the laws of privacy and publicity and communications regulations and statutes.

Trademarks. The trademarks, service marks, trade names, and logos (the "Trademarks") used and displayed through this Service, including but not limited to Food Mafia™, are registered and unregistered trademarks of Company. In addition, all page headers, custom graphics, button icons, and scripts are service marks, trademarks and/or trade dress of Company, and may not be copied, imitated or used, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of Company. You acknowledge that the Trademarks used and displayed through this Service are and shall remain the sole property of Company or the Trademark owner. Nothing in this Agreement shall confer any right of ownership of any of the Trademarks in you. Further, nothing in the Service shall be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise any license or right to use any Trademark used or displayed through the Service, without the express written permission of Company or the Trademark owner. The misuse of the trademarks displayed through this Service, or any other content of the Service, is strictly prohibited.

Hyperlinks. You are granted a limited, nonexclusive right to create a "hypertext" link to this web site provided that such link is to the entry page of this web site and does not portray Company or any of its products or services in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise defamatory manner. This limited right may be revoked at any time for any reason whatsoever. You may not use framing techniques to enclose any Company trademark, logo or trade name or other proprietary information including the images available through the Service, the content of any text or the layout/design of any page or any form contained on a page without Company's express written consent. Links to third party sites on this web site are provided solely as convenience to you. If you use these links, you will leave this web site. Company has not reviewed all of these third party sites and does not control and is not responsible for any of these sites, their content or their policies, including, without limitation, privacy policies or lack thereof. Company does not endorse or make any representations about third party sites or any information, software or other products or materials found there, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you decide to access any of the third party sites linked to this site, you do so entirely at your own risk. You acknowledge and agree that Company shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by, or in connection with the use of or reliance on any such third party sites.

Downloadable Materials. Any software, including codes or other materials that are made available to download through the Service, or which may be used through the Service, are the copyrighted works of Company and/or its suppliers and affiliates. If you download or use software from the Service, use of the software is subject to the license terms in the software license agreement that accompanies or is provided with the software, if any, but in any event, is subject to the restrictions contained herein. You may not use, download or install the software until you have read and accepted the terms of any applicable software license agreement. Without limiting the foregoing, copying or reproduction of the software to any other server or location for further reproduction or redistribution is expressly prohibited unless otherwise provided for in the applicable software license agreement in the case of software, or the express written consent of Company in the case of codes or other downloadable materials.

Limited Access. Except as otherwise expressly permitted by Company, any access or attempt to access other areas of the Company computer system or other information contained on the system for any purposes is strictly prohibited. You agree that you will not use any robot, spider, other automatic device, or manual process to "screen scrape," monitor, "mine," or copy the web pages on the web site or the content available through the Service without Company's prior, express, and written permission. You will not spam or send unsolicited e-mail to any other user of the Service for any reason. You agree that you will not use any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Service. You agree that you will not take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on Company's infrastructure.

Additional Use Restrictions. You shall not post, transmit, e-mail, re-transmit or store material on or through any of the services provided by Company (the "Services") which, in the sole judgment of the Company: (i) is in violation of any local, state, federal or non-United States law or regulation, (ii) is threatening, obscene, indecent, defamatory or that otherwise could adversely affect any individual, group or entity (collectively, "Persons") or (iii) violates the rights of any person, including rights protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual property or similar laws or regulations including, but not limited to, the installation or distribution of "pirated" or other software products that are not appropriately licensed for use by you. You shall be responsible for determining what laws or regulations are applicable to its use of the Services. In addition, you may only use the Services in a manner that, in the Company's sole judgment, is consistent with the purposes of such Services. If you are unsure of whether any contemplated use or action is permitted, please contact the Company at info@foodmafia.com. By way of example, and not limitation, the following uses described below of the Services are expressly prohibited:

a. upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit any information, data, text, software, music, sound, photographs, graphics, video, messages or other materials (collectively, "Content") that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable. Pornography and pornographic related merchandising are prohibited under all Services, including providing links to pornographic content elsewhere. By uploading photos, video or other materials, you represent and warrant that you have all rights, including intellectual property rights, necessary to allow you to distribute and make such materials available through the Service and to the Company;

b. harm minors in any way;

c. impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a the Company official, forum leader, guide or host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity. The Company does not permit anonymous profiles, and reserves the right to remove any profiles at any time for any reason - or to deny or cancel membership;

d. forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted through the Services or develop restricted or password-only access pages, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to from another accessible page);

e. upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit any Content that you do not have a right to transmit under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements;

f. upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;

g. upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation, except in those areas of the Services that are designated for such purpose;

h. upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;

i. disrupt the normal flow of dialogue, cause a screen to "scroll" faster than other users of the Services are able to type, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users' ability to engage in real time exchanges;

j. interfere with or disrupt the Services or servers or networks connected to the Services, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Services;

k. intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including, but not limited to, regulations promulgated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, any rules of any national or other securities exchange, including, without limitation, the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ, and any regulations having the force of law;

l. "stalk" or otherwise harass another;

m. promote or provide instructional information about illegal activities, promote physical harm or injury against any group or individual, or promote any act of cruelty to animals. This may include, but is not limited to, providing instructions on how to assemble bombs, grenades and other weapons, and creating "Crush" sites; and

n. effecting security breaches or disruptions of Internet communication. Security breaches include, but are not limited to, accessing data of which you are not an intended recipient or logging into a server or account that you are not expressly authorized to access.

The limited right to access the Service granted to users in these Terms of Use is available only for individual, non-commercial purposes. You may not access or use the Service on behalf of any competitive site or service, or for purposes of affecting the quality of the Service or any competing service.

Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement. The Company has registered a designated agent with the United States Copyright Office pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. 512(c)) and if you believe that your copyrighted material is being used in connection with the Services without required permission, please notify our designated agent at:

Food Mafia, Inc.
980 N Michigan Avenue
Suite 1400
Chicago, IL
60622
Attn: Stacy Johnson
Info@foodmafia.com

Privacy Policy. The Company recognizes your right to confidentiality and is committed to protecting your privacy. Our Privacy Policy describes what information is collected by the Service, how it may be used, with whom it may be shared, as well as your control over these matters. While the Company is taking reasonable and appropriate measures to ensure that your personal information is disclosed only as set forth in the Privacy Policy, you understand and agree that the Internet is an open system and that the Company cannot and does not guarantee that data entered by you into the Service will not be intercepted and decrypted by others. Please read in full our Privacy Policy, which may be amended from time to time. You understand that by accessing or using the Service, you agree to accept without modification the terms, conditions, and notices contained in the Company Privacy Policy and agree to be bound by them. If you do not agree with the rules contained in our Privacy Policy, please do not use the Service.

RULES APPLICABLE TO PARTICIPATION IN THE SERVICE

We may post supplemental Rules from time to time that apply to specific aspects of your use of the Service, and the status and structure available through the Service, either in this Agreement or in the relevant parts of the Service. Any and all such supplemental Rules are hereby incorporated by reference into this Agreement.

Supplemental Rules Regarding Status

  • Associate & Goodfella status will be determined by member contribution and evaluation by other members to establish levels of status / crediblity
  • Godfather level status is at our exclusive discretion.
  • Status on the Service is not redeemable for any sum of money or monetary value.

When you sign up for Food Mafia you are agreeing not only to get our content delivered to you free, but also to occasionally receive Dedicated emails from our sponsors. These emails are paid for and will be sent out on behalf of our sponsors and will state "Dedicated email" in the subject line. If you would prefer not to receive these emails, simply unsubscribe at the bottom. Please note, this action may unsubscribe you from all Food Mafia emails.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

The Service, including all software, functions, materials, and information, is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Company disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, warranties of quiet enjoyment and non-infringement and implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, title, quiet enjoyment, merchantability of computer programs, data accuracy, system integration, and informational content. Company does not warrant or make any representations regarding the operation of the Service, the use, validity, accuracy or reliability of, or the results of the use of the materials on the Service or any other sites linked to this web site. The materials available through the Service may be out of date, and Company makes no commitment to update the materials provided through the Service. Company does not and cannot guarantee or warrant that the files available for downloading through the Service, if any, will be free from infection, viruses, worms, Trojan horses, or other code that manifest contaminating or destructive properties. Company does not warrant that the Service, software, materials, products, or services will be uninterrupted or error-free or that any defects in the Service, software, materials, products, or services will be corrected.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

In no event will Company, its suppliers or other third parties mentioned at or through the Service be liable for any damages, including, without limitation direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages, damages resulting from lost profits, lost data or business interruption arising out of relating to the use, inability to use, or resulting from the use of the Service, any web sites linked to this web site, the materials, software or other information contained in any or all such sites, whether based on warranty, contracts, statutes, regulations, tort (including but not limited to, negligence) or any other legal theory and whether or not advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you.

Restaurants and other businesses associated with the Service may from time to time offer promotions or experience. The Company has no liability for any interactions with restaurants or others, and any issues related to any promotion, experience or other interaction must be addressed directly with the restaurant or other business.

U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS

The materials available through the Service are provided with "RESTRICTED RIGHTS." Use, duplication, or disclosure by the government is subject to restrictions as set forth in applicable laws and regulations. Use of the materials by the government constitutes acknowledgment of Company's or other owner's proprietary rights in them.

REVISIONS TO THIS AGREEMENT

Company may revise this Agreement and/ or the Privacy Policy at any time without notice by updating this Agreement or the Privacy Policy on our web site. By using this Service you agree to be bound by any such revisions and should therefore periodically visit this web site and page to determine the then current terms and conditions of use to which you are bound.

TRANSMISSIONS

Any material, information or idea you transmit to or post through the Service by any means, including photos and videos, will be treated as non-confidential and non-proprietary and may be disseminated or used by Company or its affiliates for any purpose whatsoever, including, but not limited to, developing, marketing, and advertising products and services.

The Company reserves the right to remove any content we deem irrelevant or inappropriate. The Company cannot verify the accuracy of all information submitted by users or otherwise available through the Service. Any opinions reflected through the Service are individual opinions and do not represent the views of the Company.

You are prohibited from posting or transmitting to or through this Service any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic, profane material or any other material, including but not limited to any material that could give rise to any civil or criminal liability under both domestic and international law.

APPLICABLE LAWS & MISCELLANEOUS

If any provision(s) of this Agreement is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be contrary to law, then such provision(s) shall be construed, as nearly as possible, to reflect the intentions of the parties with the other provisions remaining in full force and effect. Company's failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision unless acknowledged and agreed to by Company in writing. The section titles in this Agreement are solely used for the convenience of the parties and have no legal or contractual significance. This Agreement may be assigned in whole or in part by Company. This Agreement may not be assigned in any manner by you without the express, prior written permission of Company. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois notwithstanding any conflict of laws provisions. You irrevocably and unconditionally (i) consent to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal in the County of Cook, Illinois (the "Illinois Courts") for any litigation or dispute arising out of or relating to this Agreement, (ii) agree not to commence any litigation arising out of or relating to this Agreement except in the Illinois Courts, (iii) agree not to plead or claim that such litigation brought therein has been brought in an inconvenient forum, and (iv) agree the Illinois courts represent the exclusive jurisdiction for all disputes relating to this Agreement.