PRIVACY POLICY

Introduction

Thank you for visiting ShockHound.com (the "Site"). Respecting and protecting the privacy of our customers (including users of the Site) is of great importance to us at ShockHound. This notice describes our policies of information collection and our use practices and highlights choices you may have about the way we use and share such information. Please read this policy so that you can understand how we use your personal information. References in this policy to "ShockHound," "we," "us" or "our" mean Hot Topic, Inc. ShockHound is a business of Hot Topic, Inc.

Collection of Information

On the Site, you may be able to purchase digital media content, merchandise, participate in our community features like chat rooms or bulletin boards, upload photos, become a registered user, maintain a wish list, create a Piggy Bank, or store other information on the Site, enter sweepstakes and contests, participate in surveys and polls, email or instant message, subscribe to a service, or enroll to receive certain entertainment or information. We may need or request certain types of personally identifiable information (i.e., information that can directly identify you or indicate where you might be contacted, such as name, address, email address, telephone number, fax number, and credit card information) and collect it in connection with these various activities and offerings. We may also collect age, date of birth, and sex. We do not consider demographic information about you indications of your interests, likes and dislikes, or general characteristics such as clothing size or hair color, to be personally identifiable information unless it is somehow grouped with other information so as to permit identification of you specifically.

As you use the Site, certain information may also be collected passively, including your Internet protocol address, browser type, and operating system. We also use cookies and navigational data like uniform resource locators (URLs) to gather information regarding the date and time of your visit and the information for which you searched and which you viewed. This type of information is collected to better understand how you use our community and make the community and the services we provide more useful to you.

When you sign up to become a ShockHound member, we collect the following information about you: name, address, telephone number, birth date, and email address. If you are a ShockHound member, when you purchase products through the Site, we collect information about the products you purchase and we associate this information with your personally identifiable information.

Sometimes you can submit information about other people. For example, you might submit a person's name and email address to send an electronic greeting card and, if you order a gift online and want it sent directly to a friend, you might submit the friend's name and address, should we be offering that service. The types of personally identifiable information that may be collected about other people at these pages may include: recipient's name, address, age, date of birth, email address, sex, and telephone number.

Use and Disclosure of Information

We use personally identifiable information for various purposes. For example, we may use information you provide to process your purchases of digital media content, merchandise or to provide for merchandise delivery to your home. As a registered user, you provide us with information that we maintain and reference as part of our attempts to provide better and more personalized service to you. We might also use online registries or other databases to permit you to use and participate in certain portions in or features of our Site. We also use information users provide to conduct sweepstakes and contests, notify you if you win, and fulfill prizes or awards. In addition, unless you tell us not to, we like to provide you with certain information about our digital media content, merchandise, sales or other offerings, and other marketing materials designed to help you use our Site. We also use such information to make our online marketing and other communications with you more efficient. Similarly, we may use personally identifiable information in connection with certain of our activities with our partners, such as marketing efforts, co-sponsorships, and other initiatives. We also collect this information as may be reasonably necessary for tracking/verifying compliance with federal, state and local laws or for editorial and feedback solicitation purposes.

We may create anonymous records from personally identifiable information by excluding information (such as your name) that make the information personally identifiable to you. We reserve the right to use, and disclose anonymous information to third parties, in our discretion.

We may from time to time augment information you give us with information from other sources, such as information validating your address. Thus, information we obtain may be intermingled with and used in conjunction with information obtained through other sources, including both offline and online sources.

We may share personal information with third parties. For instance, there may be third party service providers for our operations or business activities, with whom we have an agreement for services who transmit, store, analyze or otherwise use such information in connection with their services to us. We also occasionally share information about our users with advertisers, business partners, sponsors and other third parties. In most cases, we limit the information shared with third parties to anonymous information or aggregate information. In some cases, we share your personally identifiable information (including ShockHound membership information) with third parties for their marketing purposes.

We may share some or all of your information with our parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under common control with us (collectively, "Affiliates"). We will require our Affiliates to comply with this policy. If our company or our assets are acquired by another company, that company will possess the information collected by us.

We may offer email services, contests, sweepstakes, or promotions that are sponsored by or co-sponsored with non-affiliated companies. Based on our agreement with them, these third parties may obtain personally identifiable information that site visitors voluntarily submit to participate in the contest, sweepstakes, or promotion. We have no control over the use of this information by these companies.

Opting Out

We strive to make sure your preferences are respected. Therefore, you can tell us if you don't want us to share your personal information with third parties for third parties’ marketing purposes, by contacting us either at the address below or by calling ShockHound Customer Service at 866-272-1124. We will endeavor to implement this request within a reasonable period of time after receiving it.

Internet Administrator
Internet Department
Opt-Outs
18305 East San Jose Avenue
City of Industry, CA 91748
(626) 839-4686 Fax
internetadministrator@shockhound.com

In the emails and other communications we send you, we include the ability to "opt out" of receiving any further such communications, and we encourage you to exercise those rights should you see fit.

Security

We are committed to treating your personal information with high standards of information security. We work hard to maintain the security and accuracy of personally identifiable information we collect, including limiting the number of people who have physical access to our database servers, as well as employing electronic security systems and password protections that guard against unauthorized access. We use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology to protect the security of your credit card information as it is transmitted to us. Please click on the Verisign Logo to learn more. Also, our customer service center implements industry-standard security measures. Please note that email is not encrypted and is not considered to be a secure means of transmitting credit card information.

Persons Under 13

We do not intentionally collect information from persons under the age of 13.

International Users

If you use the Site from outside of the United States, your connection will be through and to servers located in the United States, your orders placed through the Site will be fully processed in and shipped from the United States and all information you provide will be processed and maintained in our web servers and internal systems located within the United States. By using the Site, you authorize the export of personal information to the United States and its storage and use as specified above when you provide such information to us. This policy and our legal obligations are subject to the laws of the State of California and the United States, regardless of the location of any user. Any claims or complaints must be filed in the state and federal courts located in Los Angeles County, California.

Links to Other Sites and Public Areas

You should be aware that when you are on the Site you could be directed to other sites that are beyond our control. There may be links to other sites from pages on the Site that take you outside our service. For example, if you "click" on a banner advertisement or a link, the "click" takes you off the Site. We are not responsible for the content or privacy policy of those sites. These other sites may send their own cookies to users, collect data or solicit personal information. Always be aware where you end up!

Please keep in mind that whenever you give out personal information online -- for example, via message boards -- that information can be collected and used by people you don't know. While we strive to protect personal information provided to us and our users' privacy, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit online and you do so at your own risk.

Our policy does not extend to anything inherent in the operation of the Internet, and such inherent traits are therefore beyond our control.

Changes in this Privacy Policy

This policy is a living document. We reserve the right to make changes to this policy, at any time and without any separate notice to you. Please review this policy on a periodic basis, so that you are aware of any changes. Continued use of ShockHound following implementation of any such changes shall indicate your acknowledgement of such changes and agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions of such changes. Please note that the information that we collect from you will be governed by the most recent version of this policy then in effect, so it is important that you check this policy periodically so that you are aware of any and all changes.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this policy please contact us.

This policy was last updated in September 2008.