The mission of ExpeditionQuest (EQ) is to provide an online community for people who are passionate about field research, adventure and exploration and who wish to share information and stories and form groups and expeditions. We work to fulfill this mission by helping you, your connections, and thousands of other outdoor enthusiasts meet, exchange ideas, learn, connect, discuss, join expeditions, find opportunities or employees and make decisions in a network of trusted relationships and groups.

Being part of ExpeditionQuest means sharing information about yourself with other outdoor enthusiasts, students and arm-chair adventurers. By default, your account is set up to share the information that we have found the vast majority of our members are interested in sharing. But the amount and type of information you decide to share, and with whom you share it, is up to you.

Here are the four main types of information on ExpeditionQuest:

Information about yourself that you share.(ExpeSearch Index Form, Resume, Stories, your location)    This is the information that your connections, othermembers, and organizations and companies see about you. This includes your profile and your contributions to discussions on EQ Groups, Blogs, or other community features EQ may offer. You have control over what you share, and you can update, restrict or delete information at any time.

Communication. We help you communicate with other EQ members, expeditions, organizations, educators and journalists. Some of this is one-to-one, some of it is in groups, and some of it is public discussion. You decide how much or how little you wish to communicate to individuals or groups.

Private Activity. We also provide tools that you can use privately on EQ (for example, searching for like-minded members using ExpeSearch.) These actions and information are private and we don't share or distribute them to others on the website.

News Information. If you send us news or stories for inclusion on EQ News or EQ Member Story Highlights and Features, this information may become public and viewable not only to all EQ members but also non-members visiting the site.

Of course, maintaining your trust is our top concern, so we adhere to the following principles to protect your privacy:

·         We do not rent, sell, or otherwise provide your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except as described in this policy or as required by law.

·         We do not share any information you have not chosen to display on your EQ profile to other parties, unless compelled by law, or as necessary to enforce our User Agreement or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of ExpeditionQuest, its Users, and the public.

·         All information that you provide will be protected with industry standard protocols and technology.

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by means of a notice on our home page so that you may access and review the changes to this document in advance of your continued use of the service. If you object to any changes, you may close your account. By continuing to use the EQ service after notice of changes has been sent to you or published on the EQ website, you are consenting to the changes.

Please read this policy and send us questions, concerns and suggestions to webmaster@expeditionquest.com .

What ExpeditionQuest’sPrivacy Policy Covers:

1.       Information collected by EQ.

2.       How EQ uses your information.

3.       Your information choices.

4.       Your obligations as a User.

5.       Important information regarding service eligibility and US Department of Commerce EU Safe Harbor certification

6.       How to contact us.

1.       Information Collected

To achieve EQ’s mission, ExpeditionQuest makes features and functionality available through our website, including our mobile and other applications, developer platform, premium services, and other information provided as part of the EQ services (“Services”) to enable members to develop, maintain and enhance a network of contacts, seek experts and consultants, fill job opportunities, create, share, and distribute information and stories in collaboration with one another. By joiningExpeditionQuest, you voluntarily and willingly provideExpeditionQuest, Inc., certain information, including personally identifiable information, which we collect in order to provide the Services. If you have any hesitation about providing information to us and/or having your information displayed on the ExpeditionQuest website or otherwise used in any manner permitted in this Privacy Policy and the User Agreement, you should not become a member of the ExpeditionQuest community; and, if you are already a member, you should close your account.

We collect your personal information in the following ways:

1. Registration

In order to become a User, you must provide us the following information to create an account: name, email address, country, and password. Without this minimal amount of information, you cannot create an EQ account. Like other passwords, you should choose one that is known only by you.

ExpeditionQuest also requests other optional information from you during the registration process, (e.g., gender, location, etc.) that EQ uses to provide better, more customized services such as language-specific profile pages, location based services and updates, and more valuable opportunities. You acknowledge that this information is personal to you, and by creating an account on ExpeditionQuest, you allow others, including ExpeditionQuest, to identify you and to allow EQ to use your information in accordance with our user Agreement.

2. Profile Information

Once you become a User, you may provide additional information to your ExpeditionQuestprofiles including resume, ExpeSearch Index system and stories describing your outdoor and technical skills, professional experiences, educational background, previous and planned expeditions, group memberships, and networking objectives (among other options). Providing additional information about yourself beyond what is minimally required at registration is entirely up to you, but providing additional information enables you to derive more benefit from ExpeditionQuest by helping you build your identity and leverage your experience and background in your search for connections and new opportunities. Any information you provide at registration or in the Profile sections (ExpeSearch, Resume, Your Stories) may be used by ExpeditionQuest as described in the User Agreement and this Privacy Policy, including for the purpose of allowing other EQ members to find you on ExpeditionQuest, or for serving more relevant advertisements on ExpeditionQuest. Learn more about EQ’s advertising practices by reading this privacy policy, in particular Sections 1.H, 2.J, and 2.K. If you decide not to share certain information, you may not receive the full benefit of being an EQ member.

3.  Information

In order to connect with others on ExpeditionQuest, you may use the services to send messages and invitations to other members via theirExpeSearchand  ResumeProfiles as well as stories. You may also share information about EQ with friends outside of the EQ Network (Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc). The names and email addresses of people whom you invite may be used to send your invitations and reminders as well as to allow ExpeditionQuestto help expand your network. Please note that when you send an invitation to connect to a non-member, that User will have access to your email address because it is displayed in the invitation. Your ExpeditionQuest connections may also have access to your email address. When you contact other EQ members using ExpeSearch, communication is initially handled anonymously on your EQ Inbound page. You can then decide if you want to respond anonymously or with your email address visible.

You may also choose to manually enter or upload data about your contacts to the “Contacts” section of your account onExpeditionQuest. Information entered into Contacts is only viewable by you. By providing email addresses or other information of non-members to your contacts , you represent that you have authority to do so. All information that you enter or upload about your contacts is covered by the User Agreement and this Privacy Policy and will enable us to provide customized services such as suggesting people to connect with on ExpeditionQuest.

We also collect information when you interact with EQ’s Customer Service in order to accurately categorize and respond to customer inquiries and investigate breaches of our terms.

4. Using the ExpeditionQuest Site and Applications

We receive information when you interact with and use the EQ website, EQ Applications (e.g. ExpeditionQuest’s Mobile App, VENUS, etc.), and ExpeditionQuest platform technologies (such as “ExpeSearch” and “Stories”). For example, we know when you click on ads, upload your address book, join groups, participate in polls, install anExpeditionQuest mobile application, use VENUS (Voice Activated News Update System), share articles on EQ news, register an expedition, etc.

5. Using Third Party Services and Visiting Third Party Sites

We receive information when you use your ExpeditionQuest account to log in or authenticate to a third-party website or application (for example to confirm you are an EQ Member to get discounts on equipment.) Also, if you are logged into ExpeditionQuestand visit a third party site that embeds ExpeditionQuest plugins like “Share on ExpeditionQuest” web publishers, ExpeditionQuest will receive information that those pages have loaded in your web browser. ExpeditionQuest will use this information to personalize the EQ-provided functionality, including providing you insights from your EQ network, allowing you to share information with your network, enabling you to use ExpeditionQuest functionality off the EQ site and serving you more relevant advertising. Users wishing to disable this personalization may opt-out at any time. EQ’s retention of this data is addressed in Section 1.K.

6. Cookies

Like most websites, we use cookies and web log files to track site usage and trends, to improve the quality of our service, to customize your experience on ExpeditionQuest, as well as to deliver EQ and third-party advertising to Users both on and off the EQ site. A cookie is a small data file that resides on your computer, mobile phone, or other device, which allows us to recognize you as a User when you return to the EQ website using the same computer and web browser. You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases doing so may impact your ability to use ExpeditionQuest. One type of cookie, known as a “persistent” cookie, is set once you’ve logged in to your EQ account. The next time you visit the EQ website, the persistent cookie will allow us to recognize you as an existing member so you will not need to log in before using the Services. In order to access or change any of your private information (like a credit card number) or to send a message to another EQ Member, however, you must log in securely again with your password even if your computer contains your persistent cookie. Another type of cookie, called a “session” cookie, is used to identify a particular visit to the EQ website. Session cookies expire after a short time or when you close your web browser.

In the course of serving advertisements or optimizing the Services to our Users, we may allow authorized third parties to place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. Any information provided to third parties through cookies will not be personally identifiable but may provide general segment information (e.g., your geography, level of education, age, etc.) for the enhancement of your user experience by providing more relevant advertising. 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. ExpeditionQuest does not store unencrypted personally identifiable information in the cookies.

7. Advertising

To help support the Services we provide to our Users, as well as provide a more relevant and useful experience for our Members, we may target and serve our own space ads and third-party ads both on and off the site using ad networks. Ad networks include third party ad servers, ad agencies, ad exchanges, ad technology vendors and research firms.

ExpeditionQuest does not provide personally identifiable information to any third party ad network.

Registered EQ profit and non-profit organizations may send you offers and notices via your EQ messages account based upon your skills outlined in ExpeSearch. You can control what kind of organizations and which members can send you messages, what kinds of messages you are willing to receive and whether or not GPS geo-location services are activated. You also have the ability to select “None” so you will not receive any messages.

8. Log files, IP Addresses and information about your computer and mobile device

Due to the communications standards on the internet, when you visit the ExpeditionQuest website we automatically receive the URL of the site from which you came and the site to which you are going when you leave EQ. Additionally, advertisers receive the URL of the page you were on when you click on an ad on EQ. ExpeditionQuest also receives the internet protocol (“IP”) address of your computer (or the proxy server you use to access the World Wide Web), your computer operating system and type of web browser you are using, your mobile device (including your UDID) and mobile operating system (if you are accessing EQ using a mobile device), as well as the name of your ISP or your mobile carrier. ExpeditionQuest may also receive location data passed to it from third-party services or GPS-enabled devices that you have enabled. Also, as described above, EQ receives information when you access web pages containing EQ interactive plugins, such as “Share onExpeditionQuest” or “Send news to ExpeditionQuest” functionality. You can control the collection and use of this information.The link between your IP address and your personally identifiable information is not shared with third parties without your permission, except as described in Section 2.L (“Compliance with Legal Process”), below.

9. Rights to Access, Correct and Eliminate Information About You

You have a right to access, modify, correct and eliminate the data you supplied to ExpeditionQuest. If you update any of your information, we may keep a copy of the information that you originally provided to us in our archives for uses documented in this policy. You may request deletion of your information at any time by contacting EQ Customer service. We will respond to your request within 30 days. Please note, however that information you have shared with others, or that other Users have copied, may also remain visible even if you request its deletion.

10. Data Retention

ExpeditionQuestwill retain your information as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, except in the case of your ExpeSearch Profile and Resume which we maypermanently delete 12 months after cancellation in case you decide to renew your membership within that period. If you wish to close your account, you may do so in your Account section. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce this Agreement.

2.       Uses of personal information

1. Consent to ExpeditionQuest Processing Information About You

The information you provide to EQ may reveal, or allow others to identify, your nationality, gender, age, and other aspects of your life. By providing information to us for the purposes of creating your User account or adding any additional details to your ExpeditionQuest profile, you are expressly and voluntarily accepting the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy and EQ’s User Agreement that allow EQ to process information about you. Supplying information to ExpeditionQuest is entirely voluntary on your part. You have the right to withdraw your consent to EQ’s collection and processing of your information at any time, in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy and the User Agreement, by changing your settings or closing your account, but please note that your withdrawal of consent will not be retroactive.

2. EQ Communications

As described in the User Agreement, we will communicate with you through email, notices posted on the ExpeditionQuest website, messages to your Inbound page or through other means available through the service, including mobile text messages. We may send you a series of emails that help inform new Users about the features of the Services, and we will also send you service messages relating to the functioning of the Services. We may also send you messages with promotional information directly or on behalf of our partners, unless you have opted out of receiving promotional information.

You can change your e-mail and contact preferences at any time by logging into your account and changing your settings related to your email notification choices. If you wish, you can also opt-out of receiving promotional emails by sending a request to ExpeditionQuest customer service.

Please be aware that you cannot opt-out of receiving service messages from EQ. Also, if we send communications to you via the carrier service with which you have a mobile communications subscription or otherwise have access, you understand you will pay any service fees associated with your receipt of messages on your mobile device (including text messaging charges).

3. User Communications

Many communications you initiate through ExpeditionQuest (e.g., an invitation sent to a non-User or non-Member) may list your primary email address and name in the header of the message. Other communications that you initiate through the EQ  website, like a request for an introduction using ExpeSearch, will list your user name as the initiator but will not include your personal email address contact information. Your contact information will only be shared with another User if both of you have indicated that you would like to establish contact with each other. Your ability to remain anonymous depends largely upon your choice of user settings.

4. Customized Content

We use information you provide to us to customize your experience on our website. For example, when you login to your account, we may display on your Inbound Page, the names of new Members who have recently joined ExpeditionQuest who have similar skills and interests which you have requested and designated in your settings.

5. Sharing Information with Third Parties

ExpeditionQuesttakes the privacy of our Users very seriously, and we do not sell, rent, or otherwise provide your personally identifiable information to third parties, except as described in this policy. We will also not share other personal information not published to your profile and ExpeSearch form, or generated through engagement with other EQ services without your explicit consent or to carry out your instructions (for example, to process payment information) unless, disclosure is reasonably necessary in our opinion to: (1) comply with legal process, including, but not limited to, civil and criminal subpoenas, court orders or other compulsory disclosures; (2) enforce this Agreement; (3) respond to claims of a violation of the rights of third parties, whether or not the third party is a User, individual, or government agency; (4) respond to customer service inquiries; or (5) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of ExpeditionQuest, our Users or the public.

Content distributed through EQ’s sharing features and third party integrations may result in displaying some of your information outside of EQ. For example, when you post content to your Stories, that is open for public discussion, your content, including your user name as the contributor, may be displayed in search engine results. Or, if you have tied your ExpeditionQuestaccount to your Facebook or Twitter account, you can easily share your content into both EQ as well as to Twitter and/or Facebook.

We may provide aggregated anonymous data about the usage of the Services to third parties for purposes that we deem, in our sole discretion, to be appropriate, including to prospective advertisers onExpeditionQuest.

EQ also enables certain registered and approved profit and non-profit businesses to send messages to EQ members based upon their skills and experiences indexed in ExpeSearch. (For example, an Adventure Travel company which offers guided climbs up Cho Oyu may send you offers if you checked the box “Mountains I hope to climb – Cho Oyu”)  You have complete control over who can send you messages and what kinds of messages you wish to receive. Or none at all.

6. Search

We offer search services such as ExpeSearchto help find information and learn more about other Members (for example, you can search for Members with particular expertise or outdoor skills).EQ’s search also allows Members to find jobs, expeditions, videos, and news articles. We may use information from User profiles in ExpeSearch, Resumes, and  EQ Member Stories to inform and refine our search service.

7. EQ Member Stories

If you post a story on EQ either on your Profile page or an Expedition news page, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you choose to provide there can be read, collected, or used by other members of these forums, as well as Platform Developers and other third parties, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. ExpeditionQuest is not responsible for the information you choose to submit in these forums.

H. Testimonials and Advertisements Placed on EQ

If you provide any testimonials about the ExpeditionQuest services, place advertisements on EQ pages or use the ExpeSearch targeted email service, we may post those testimonials and examples of advertisements you place in connection with our promotion of these services to third parties. Testimonials and advertisements may include your name and other personal information that you have provided

I.  Compliance with Legal Process

It is possible that we may need to disclose personal information, profile information and/or information about your activities as an EQ Member or User when required by subpoena or other legal process, or if  EQ has a good faith belief that disclosure is necessary to (a) investigate, prevent or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities or to assist government enforcement agencies; (b) to enforce the User Agreement, to investigate and defend ourselves against any third party claims or allegations, or to protect the security or integrity of our site; and/or (c) to exercise or protect the rights, property or personal safety of ExpeditionQuest, our Users, employees, or others.

K.  Disclosures to Others as the Result of a Change in Control or Sale of ExpeditionQuest, Inc.

We may also disclose your personal information and other information you provide to another third party as part of a sale of the assets of ExpeditionQuest, Inc, a subsidiary or division, or as the result of a change in control of the company. Any third party to which ExpeditionQuest transfers or sells ExpeditionQuest’s assets will have the right to continue to use the personal and other information that you provide to us.

3.       Your Information Choices

1. Accessing and Changing Your Account Information

You can review the personal information you provided to us and make any desired changes to the information you publish, or to the settings for your EQ account including your email and contact preferences, at any time by logging into your account settings. (Located at the top right of every page) on the ExpeditionQuest website or the bottom right on the Mobile App. Please be aware that even after your request for a change is processed, ExpeditionQuest may, for a time, retain residual information about you in its backup and/or archival copies of its database.

2. Default Settings

ExpeditionQuest has established what we believe to be reasonable default settings that we have found most EQ Members desire. (For example , GPS radius options for searching for members). Because Users may use and interact with ExpeditionQuest in a variety of ways, and because those uses may change over time, we designed our settings to provide our users granular control over the information they share. We encourage our Users to review their account settings and adjust them in accordance with their preferences.

3. Closing Your Account

You can close your account with ExpeditionQuest at any time. If you close your EQ account, we will remove your name and other personally identifiable information from our publicly viewable database. If you close your account, we have no obligation to retain your information, and may delete any or all of your account information without liability. However, we may retain certain data contributed by you if EQ believes it may be necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business purposes, such as analysis of aggregated, non-personally identifiable data, account recovery, easier membership renewal, or if required by law. EQ may also retain and use your information if necessary to provide the Services to other Users. For example, just as an email you may send to another person through an email service provider resides in that person’s inbox even after you delete it from your sent files or close your account, emails or ExpeSearch notifications you send on ExpeditionQuest to other members, as well as your contributions to EQ Stories, may remain visible to others after you have closed your account. Similarly, other information you have shared with others, or that other Users have copied, may also remain visible. ExpeditionQuest disclaims any liability in relation to the deletion or retention (subject to the terms here) of information or any obligation not to delete the information. ExpeditionQuest does not control when search engines update their cache, which may contain certain public profile information that has since been removed from EQ’s publicly viewable database.

4.       Your Obligations

As a User, you have certain obligations to other Users. Some of these obligations are imposed by applicable law and regulations, and others have become commonplace in user-friendly communities of like-minded members such asExpeditionQuest:

·         You must, at all times, abide by the terms and conditions of the current Privacy Policy and User Agreement. This includes respecting all intellectual property rights that may belong to third parties (such as trademarks or photographs).

·         You must not download or otherwise disseminate any information that may be deemed to be injurious, violent, spam, offensive, racist or xenophobic, or which may otherwise violate the purpose and spirit of ExpeditionQuestand its community of Users.

·         You must not provide to ExpeditionQuestand/or other Users information that you believe might be injurious or detrimental to your person or to your professional or social status.

·         You must keep your username and password confidential and not share it with others.

Any violation of these guidelines may lead to the restriction, suspension or termination of your account at the sole discretion of ExpeditionQuest.

Important information

A.Children and Minors

Children under the age of 16 are not eligible to use our service with the exception of students who have received EQ Student digital Badges from their teachers.

B. EU Safe Harbor Privacy Framework

ExpeditionQuest, Inc.  participates in the EU Safe Harbor Privacy Framework as administered by the United States Department of Commerce as a data controller, and has self-certified our privacy practices as consistent with U.S.-E.U. Safe Harbor principles: Notice, Choice, Onward Transfer, Access and Accuracy, Security, Data Integrity and Enforcement. Please note that by becoming a User, you have given us your express and informed consent to transfer the data that you provide to us to the United States and to process it in the United States.

If Users have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, including the Safe Harbor Privacy Framework, you should contactExpeditionQuest.

C.  Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy at any time, with or without advance notice. In the event there are significant changes in the way we treat your personally identifiable information, or in the Privacy Policy document itself, we will display a notice on the ExpeditionQuest website or send you an email, so that you may review the changed terms prior to continuing to use the site. As always, if you object to any of the changes to our terms, and you no longer wish to useExpeditionQuest, you may close your account. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that ExpeditionQuesthas about you and your account.

Using the ExpeditionQuestServices after a notice of changes has been sent to you or published on our site shall constitute consent to the changed terms or practices.

Security

In order to help secure your personal information, access to your data on ExpeditionQuestis password-protected, and sensitive data (such as credit card information) is protected by SSL encryption when it is exchanged between your web browser and the ExpeditionQuest website. To protect any data you store on our servers,  we use a secured-access data center. However, since the internet is not a 100% secure environment, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to ExpeditionQuest. There is no guarantee that information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards. It is your responsibility to protect the security of your login information. Please note that emails, instant messaging, and similar means of communication with other Users of ExpeditionQuest are not encrypted, and we strongly advise you not to communicate any confidential information through these means.

How to contact us

If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

ExpeditionQuest, Inc.

Attn: Legal Department, Privacy Policy Issues

13110 NE 177^th Place, Woodinville, WA 98072 USA