BigString Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

The following are the terms and conditions for use of all BigString Corporation (“BigString”) services including without limitation instant messenger, email, web portal and other services which may be offered from time to time by either BigString, BigString's wholly owned subsidiary, BigString Interactive, Inc., or services for others hosted by BigString (including private label, white label, branded and hosted), for use with your BigString account (each feature individually and collectively referred to as the "Service"). Please read them carefully. This Service is provided to individuals who are at least 18 years old or minors who have parental permission to open and maintain an account. BY CLICKING THE "I ACCEPT" BUTTON AND COMPLETING THE REGISTRATION PROCESS, YOU ARE STATING THAT YOU ARE ELIGIBLE FOR AN ACCOUNT AND THAT YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ALL OF THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE SERVICE ("TOS").

The Service is offered to you conditioned on your acceptance without modification of the terms, conditions, and notices contained herein.

MEMBER ACCOUNT, PASSWORD, AND SECURITY

To open an account, you must complete the registration process by providing us with current, complete and accurate information as prompted by the Registration Form. You are entirely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and account. Furthermore, you are entirely responsible for any and all activities that occur under your account. You agree to notify BigString immediately of any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security.

MEMBER PRIVACY

It is BigString's policy to respect the privacy of its members. BigString will not monitor, edit, or disclose any personal information about you or your use of the Service, including its contents, without your prior permission unless BigString has a good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (1) conform to legal requirements or comply with legal process; (2) protect and defend the rights or property of BigString; (3) enforce the TOS; or (4) act to protect the interests of its members or others. BigString does provide certain user information in aggregate form to third parties, including its advertisers, for demographics. In addition, your Internet Protocol address is transmitted with each message sent from your account. Some personal information you provide to BigString may be stored outside of the country in which you reside. You agree that BigString may access your account, including its contents, as stated above or to respond to service or technical issues that may or may not be brought on by yourself.

MESSAGE STORAGE, OUTBOUND MESSAGES AND OTHER LIMITATIONS

The amount of storage space per member may be limited; please contact our support staff for details. Some messages may not be processed due to space constraints or outbound message limitations. BigString reserves the right to limit the number of messages received by any individual account or from any IP address. Storage allotments are calculated on both messages received to your account as well as any messages to others. You agree that BigString is not responsible or liable for the deletion or failure to store messages or other information.

MEMBER CONDUCT

As a condition of your use of the Service, you warrant to BigString that you will not use the Service for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these terms, conditions, and notices.

You agree to abide by all applicable local, state, national and international laws and regulations and are solely responsible for all acts or omissions that occur under your account or password, including the content of your transmissions through the Service. By way of example, and not as a limitation, you agree NOT to:

• Use the Service in connection with surveys, contests, pyramid schemes, chain letters, junk email, spamming or any duplicative or unsolicited messages (commercial or otherwise).
• Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others.
• Publish, distribute or disseminate any inappropriate, profane, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent or unlawful material or information.
• Harvest or otherwise collect information about others, including user addresses, without their consent.
• Create a false identity for the purpose of misleading others as to the identity of the sender or the origin of a message.
• Use, download or otherwise copy, or provide (whether or not for a fee) to a person or entity that is not a Service member any directory of the Service members or other user or usage information or any portion thereof other than in the context of your use of the Service as permitted under the TOS.
• Transmit or upload any material that contains viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, or any other harmful or deleterious programs.
• Transmit or upload any material that contains software or other material protected by intellectual property laws, rights of privacy or publicity or any other applicable law unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all necessary consents.
• Interfere with or disrupt networks connected to the Service or violate the regulations, policies or procedures of such networks.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Service, other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Service, through password mining or any other means.
• Violate any applicable laws or regulations including, without limitation, laws regarding the transmission of technical data or software exported from the United States through the Service.
• Interfere with another member's use and enjoyment of the Service or another individual's or entity's use and enjoyment of similar services.

BigString has no obligation to monitor the Service or any user's use thereof or retain the content of any user session. However, BigString reserves the right at all times to monitor, review, retain and/or disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request.

LINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES

The links included within the service may let you leave the service web sites ("linked sites"). The linked sites are not under the control of BigString and BigString is not responsible for the contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site, or any changes or updates to such sites. BigString is not responsible for webcasting or any other form of transmission received from any linked site. BigString is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by BigString of the site or any association with their operators.

DISCLAIMERS/LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

The information and services included in or available through the Service may include inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically added to the information herein. BigString and/or its respective suppliers may make improvements and/or changes in the Service at any time.

BigString does not represent or warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that the Service or the server that makes it available, are free of viruses or other harmful components. BigString does not warrant or represent that the use or the results of the use of the Service or the materials made available as part of the Service will be correct, accurate, timely, or otherwise reliable.

You specifically agree that BigString shall not be responsible for unauthorized access to or alteration of your transmissions or data, any material or data sent or received or not sent or received, or any transactions entered into through the Service. You specifically agree that BigString is not responsible or liable for any threatening, defamatory, obscene, offensive or illegal content or conduct of any other party or any infringement of another's rights, including intellectual property rights. You specifically agree that BigString is not responsible for any content sent using and/or included in the Service by any third party.

BigString and/or its respective suppliers make no representations about the suitability, reliability, availability, timeliness, and accuracy of the service for any purpose. The service is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. BigString and/or its respective suppliers hereby disclaim all warranties and conditions with regard to the service, including all implied warranties and conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement.

In no event shall BigString and/or its suppliers be liable for any direct, indirect, punitive, incidental, special, consequential damages or any damages whatsoever including, without limitation, damages for loss of use, data or profits, arising out of or in any way connected with the use or performance of the service or related web sites, with the delay or inability to use the service or related web sites, the provision of or failure to provide services, or for any information, software, products, services and related graphics obtained through the service, or otherwise arising out of the use of the service, whether based on contract, tort, negligence, strict liability or otherwise, even if BigString or any of its suppliers has been advised of the possibility of damages. Because some states/jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you. If you are dissatisfied with any portion of the service, or with any of these terms of use, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue using the service and its related web sites.

INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to indemnify and hold BigString, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors and employees, harmless from any claim, demand, or damage, including reasonable attorneys' fees, asserted by any third party due to or arising out of your use of or conduct on the Service.

You agree to defend, at your expense, any action brought against BigString arising out of your use of the Service with any third parties or from your willful misconduct. You will indemnify BigString from any costs, damages and fees incurred by BigString which are attributable to such a claim. You will reimburse BigString the full cost of any and all losses your use or misuse of the Service may incur, and you authorize BigString to recover such losses without prior notice by any means.

TERMINATION

BigString may terminate your access to any part or all of the Service and any related service(s) at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately, for any reason whatsoever. BigString may also terminate or suspend your account for inactivity, which is defined as failing to sign-in to the Service for an extended period of time, as determined by BigString. Upon termination of the Service, your right to use the Service immediately ceases and all saved information will be lost indefinitely.

If you wish to terminate your account, your only recourse is to discontinue the use of the Service. BigString shall have no obligation to maintain any content in your account or to forward any unread or unsent messages to you or any third party.

NO SPAM; DAMAGES

BigString will immediately terminate any account which it believes, in its sole discretion, is transmitting or is otherwise connected with any spam or other unsolicited bulk email. Any Spam that is determined to be sent in a malicious manner may result in criminal action against the sender. BigString will work with its users to combat both inbound and external spam messages. In the event that an account is hijacked, or a password is stolen, you should contact BigString as soon as possible.

PARTICIPATION IN PROMOTIONS OF ADVERTISERS

Any dealings with Advertisers on the Service or participation in promotions, including the delivery of and the payment for goods and services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings or promotions, are solely between you and the Advertiser or other third party. BigString shall not be responsible or liable for any part of any such dealings or promotions.

PROPRIETARY RIGHTS TO CONTENT

You acknowledge that content, including but not limited to text, software, music, sound, photographs, video, graphics or other material contained in either sponsor advertisements or electronically distributed, commercially produced information presented to you by the Service, by BigString, or BigString's Advertisers or other content providers, is protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents or other proprietary rights and laws. You may make a copy of this content if authorized by the originator or owner for your personal, non-commercial use only, provided that you keep all copyright and other proprietary notices intact. You may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, or distribute in any way content available through the Service and its associated Web sites, including code and software.

GENERAL

This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of New Jersey, and the United States of America. Use of the Service is unauthorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to all provisions of these terms and conditions, including without limitation this paragraph. You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and BigString as a result of this agreement or use of the Service. BigString's performance of this agreement is subject to existing laws and legal process, and nothing contained in this agreement is in derogation of BigString's right to comply with governmental, court and law enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of the Service or information provided to or gathered by BigString with respect to such use. If any part of this agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original provision and the remainder of the agreement shall continue in effect. Unless otherwise specified herein, this agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the user and BigString with respect to the Service (excluding the use of any software which may be subject to an end-user license agreement) and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between the user and BigString with respect to the Service. A printed version of this agreement and of any notice given in electronic form shall be admissible in judicial or administrative proceedings based upon or relating to this agreement to the same extent and subject to the same conditions as other business documents and records originally generated and maintained in printed form. You and BigString agree that any cause of action arising out of or related to this Service must commence within one (1) year after the cause of action arose; otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred. The section titles in the TOS are solely used for the convenience of the parties and have no legal or contractual significance.

LANGUAGE

It is the express will of the parties that this agreement and all related documents have been drawn up in English. C'est la volonté expresse des parties que la présente convention ainsi que les documents qui s'y rattachent soient rédigés en anglais. Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved.

NOTICES AND PROCEDURE FOR MAKING CLAIMS OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT.

Pursuant to Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c)(2), notifications of claimed copyright infringement should be sent to Service Provider's Designated Agent. Please contact webmaster@BigString.com for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES, CLAIMS OR REPRESENTATIONS MADE BY BIGSTRING, EITHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, NON INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NOR ARE THERE ANY WARRANTIES CREATED BY COURSE OF DEALING, COURSE OF PERFORMANCE, OR TRADE USAGE. BIGSTRING DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR NEEDS OR BE FREE FROM ERRORS, OR THAT THE OPERATIONS OF THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED. THE FOREGOING EXCLUSIONS AND DISCLAIMERS ARE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THIS AGREEMENT AND FORMED THE BASIS FOR DETERMINING THE PRICE CHARGED FOR THE PRODUCTS. SHOULD ANY PART OF THIS DISCLAIMER NOT BE ALLOWED UNDER CERTAIN JURISDICTIONS, THOSE PARTS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. WHERE LAWFUL, BIGSTRING RESERVES THE RIGHT TO NOMINATE THE JURISDICTION OF ITS CHOICE UNDER WHICH THIS CONTRACT WILL BE ENFORCED.

EXCLUSIVE REMEDY

BigString's cumulative liability to you or any other party for any loss or damages resulting from any claims, demands, or actions arising out of or relating to this Agreement shall not exceed the license fee paid to BIGSTRING for use of the Service. In no event shall BIGSTRING be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary damages or lost profits, even if BIGSTRING has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

MODIFICATIONS TO TERMS OF SERVICE, MEMBER POLICIES

BigString reserves the right to change the TOS or policies regarding the use of the Service at any time and to notify you by posting an updated version of the TOS on the Web site. You are responsible for regularly reviewing the TOS. Continued use of the Service after any such changes shall constitute your consent to such changes.

MODIFICATIONS TO TERMS OF SERVICE AND OTHER POLICIES

BigString from time to time may make changes to the Terms of Service and other policies. Current Terms of Service and other policies are posted on BigString’s websites. You are responsible for regularly reviewing the policy. Continued use of the service after any such changes shall constitute your consent to such changes. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT INCLUDING THE PRIVACY POLICY, THE COMPANY IS UNWILLING TO OFFER YOU THE SERVICE. YOU SHOULD LEAVE THE SITE.

CONTACTING US.

If you have questions about the Service or this Agreement, please contact SUPPORT@BigString.com.

Privacy Policy

BigString is committed to respecting your privacy. Our self-destructing email, IM and messaging products can better help you protect your and your recipients’ privacy. We recognize your need for control of personally identifiable information that you share with BigString. Personally identifiable information is information that only pertains to you as an individual such as your name, address, phone number or credit card number. BigString does not collect sensitive information about individuals except when specifically and knowingly provided by such individuals.

SECURITY

In addition to providing you with secure email, IM and messaging products, BigString uses a Thawte (http://www.thawte.com) digitally signed certificate to process all sensitive information securely through SSL encryption. This encryption is used during the registration process, credit card processing, and user login.

REGISTRATION

In order to use this Web site, you must first register for an account with BigString. The user account name that you create will be used as your Screen name. A password must be created that contains at minimum six (6) characters. Your gender, date of birth, email address, country of residence and zip code/mail code are required as well. For email accounts, your first name, last name and alternative email address are also required.

If you are signing up for any of BigString's paid accounts you will be required to enter your credit card type, card number, CCID number, expiration date of your card, your name as it appears on your account and the billing address on your account. Please note, for your safety, we do not maintain any data from your credit card submission. We use authorize.net to process your payment. Your credit card debit will show as a charge from either Email Emissary Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of BigString Corp) or Bigstring.com. Your data is sent to a third party credit card processor such as authorize.net for credit card processing. The credit card processor is prohibited from using any personally identifiable information for any other purpose than for payment processing. You will be returned to the BigString site on successful completion to learn more about your new account and begin using it.

From time to time BigString may offer coupons to new users that are not normally available to BigString users. At these times a coupon code or a referrer address may be required to obtain these additional features. At no time will the referrer address be stored and used for marketing purposes by BigString.

BigString Corporation (“BigString”) is the sole owner of the personal information collected on www.BigString.com, www.BigStringIM.com or any other of BigString’s owned and/or operated websites. BigString collects personally identifiable information from our users at several different points on our Web sites.

REFER FRIENDS

If you choose to use our referral service to tell a friend about BigString, we will ask you for your friend's email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time message inviting him or her to visit BigString’s sites. BigString does not store this information and your friend will only receive the initial message from us.

USES OF INFORMATION

BigStringIM.com is an Instant Messenger service provider; your screen name will appear on Instant Messages that you send from our system. BigString.com is an email service provider; your first and last name may appear on certain emails that you send from our system. BigString will only use the information provided in a registration form to provide users with important information about our service (including upgrades, modifications, etc.) and to announce new products and services available to users. BigString will not share, sell or lease any personally identifiable information about any user to any third party for any secondary purposes without the user's permission unless we find it reasonably necessary in order to provide a service you have requested to you. For example, when signing on to a third party IM service, we will have to share your username and password with that service; when IM’ing a friend on another service, we will have to send your messages to that service; in order to comply with valid laws, regulations, or government requests; or to detect or prevent abuse such as spamming, harassment, fraud or security violations.

NON-PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION

BigString will use certain non-personally identifiable information provided by users for the following purposes:

• Create aggregate, non-personal, demographic reports about the users of the Service; and
• Provide users with certain content that may be of interest to that user based on the information the user provides.

SERVICE PROVIDERS

We use other third parties to provide credit card processing on our site. When you sign up for a paid BigString email account, we will share your name, address, phone number and credit card information as necessary for the third party to provide that service. The credit card processor is prohibited from using any personally identifiable information for any other purpose than for payment processing.

THIRD PARTY ADVERTISERS

The ads appearing on this Web site are delivered to users by our advertising partners. We share Web site usage information about users with these reputable third parties for the purpose of targeting our Internet advertisements on our sites.

PREMIUM SERVICES

BigString may occasionally send you notifications of special promotions. These notices will be sent to your BigString account. At no time will BigString use your non-BigString account as methods of solicitation unless you OPT-IN to receive such messages from us. At any point, you may OPT-OUT by contacting us at support@BigString.com.

INFORMATION AVAILABLE THROUGH USE OF THE SERVICE

The Service will enable users to send messages to other people (both users and non-users). Subject to all general security limitations inherent in communicating via the Internet, a message will not be generally accessible to users or others who are not intended recipients of the message. Please use the same discretion when sending messages through the Service as you would when sending ordinary electronic mail, instant messages, or any other electronic messages. Except as expressly described herein, BigString will not collect or maintain any information about the messages users send through the Service, including the addresses to whom messages are sent and the content of the messages.

GENERAL USAGE PATTERNS

BigString gathers information related generally to users' use of the software, Service, and sites including without limitation:

• The number of messages that a user sends;
• The number of messages that are read;
• What elements of the Service are most often used;
• User log-in dates and time; and message size data; and
• User log-in IP information.
• This information, which will only be collected and maintained in aggregate, anonymous form, will be used to, among other things:
• Provide BigString with a better understanding of how users use the Service and the various features thereof;
• Help BigString to create and provide new services and offerings to users; and
• Conduct and publish aggregate, anonymous, market research results.

COMPUTER SETTINGS

BigString collects settings, technical and other information from users' computers, such as a computer's operating system, BigString and browser versions used, connectivity, various communication parameters and other information related to the operation and interaction of the software, subject to the provisions herein. This information will neither contain nor be linked to any personally identifiable information.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

A user may review and update his/her information by accessing "Options" or "MY ACCOUNT" on the BigString Menu.

LEGAL DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Agreement, BigString shall, pursuant to valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena or court order, allow access to all available and relevant information, including users' IP addresses, in order to comply with such valid legal process and to otherwise protect BigString's rights and property.v

OTHER WEB SITES

The Service may contain links to other Web sites. BigString is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such Web sites.

COOKIES

A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user's computer for record-keeping purposes. We obtain the right to use cookies on this site. We do link the information we store in cookies to the personally identifiable you submit while on our site. We use session ID cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our site. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. If you reject cookies your ability to send messages will be limited. Some of our business partners (e.g. advertisers) use cookies on our site. We have no access to or control over these cookies. See "Third Party Advertisers."

QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact BigString: Adam Kotkin
BigString Corporation
3 Harding Road, Suite F
Red Bank, NJ 07701
adam@bigstring.com

AMENDMENTS TO PRIVACY STATEMENT

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the home page, and other places that we deem, appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our homepage.

Last updated 4/15/08