Policy: Privacy

oDesk has created this Privacy Policy in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy. As are the other oDesk Policies, this Privacy Policy is incorporated into our Marketplace User Agreement and by registering for our service, you accept the terms of this Privacy Policy.

By submitting personal information through the oDesk Marketplace, you expressly consent to the processing of your personal information according to this Privacy Policy. Your personal information may be processed by oDesk in the country where it was collected, as well as other countries (including the United States) where laws regarding processing of personal information may be less stringent than the laws in your country.

oDesk is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any other web sites to which the site links or which link to the site. By clicking on a link, logo or other item, please note that you may no longer be on the oDesk Marketplace. To check what Internet location you are on, note the URL at the top and/or bottom of your browser. We encourage you to read the posted privacy statement of that web site whenever interacting with any site.

If you register to buy or sell Services using oDesk, we collect and store information that specifically identifies you or your account ("Personally Identifiable Information"). At this time, the most information you would be required to submit is information about your skills, abilities to perform service work, your first name, last name, password, address, city, state, zip/postal code, country and email address. US Providers are also required to submit information necessary to complete their W-9s, including but not limited to social security/tax identification number. Buyers wishing to pay for Services are also required to enter a valid credit card number and name as it appears on the credit card or other information such as bank routing and account numbers to facilitate ACH payments. We may, in the future, include other optional requests for information from you, to help us to tailor the site for you and deliver personalized information to you. We may supplement our information with additional information purchased from third parties for marketing purposes. Credit card information and any bank information will be transmitted via SSL encryption for your protection.

These areas of the site are provided for the benefit of Users. The private and shared areas of the site help to facilitate communication and the exchange and sharing of information between Buyers and Providers once an assignment has started. These areas of the site only collect such information as is reasonably necessary for oDesk to maintain the marketplace and otherwise conduct its business. Such information includes, but is not limited to: (i) event (sampling|login|resume|aftersleep), (ii) screensaver on? (true|false), (iii) oDesk credentials, (iv) computer uid (client data), (v) versions of all installed oDesk applications, (vi) timestamp (client data), (vii) memo (oDesk data), (viii) task information (oDesk data), (ix) os version (client data), (x) active window title (client data), (xi) active application/process (client data), (xii) list of running processes (client data), (xiii) screenshot plus screenshot metadata (dimensions), (xiv) webcam shot (if present/enabled), (xv) keyboard events (# of keys pressed), (xvi) mouse events (# of mouse clicks) and (xvii) events per minute (sum of keyboard events plus mouse events over each minute). oDesk may use non-Personally Identifiable Information from these and other areas of the site for statistical analysis, product development, marketing and research. oDesk reserves the right to monitor communications throughout our site and, if we believe that a User is violating our Marketplace User Agreement or any international, federal or state laws, we may terminate such usage. oDesk uses commercially reasonable efforts to insure that its collection of such relevant information does not interfere with the operation or security of your system.

Periodically, oDesk conducts online User surveys to collect information about our Users, their preferences and work habits. These surveys are optional and if you choose to respond, your responses will be kept anonymous. Similarly, we may offer contests to qualifying Users in which we ask for contact and demographic information such as name, email address and mailing address. None of this information is shared with third parties, except in summary form, if at all. The demographic information that oDesk collects in the registration process and through online surveys is used to help us improve the oDesk Marketplace to meet the needs and preferences of our Users. This may include targeting advertising or other information to you about our offerings. Information we gather through a contest may also be disclosed to third parties as necessary for prize fulfillment and other aspects of any contest or similar offering.

oDesk offers a payment system that allows Buyers and Providers to pay with a credit card or via ACH (the "Payment System"). If you make use of this service, oDesk will collect your credit card number and/or other entered financial institution information and will use that information to bill you any fees and/or to perform the billing operation on behalf of the Provider, including but not limited to the use and disclosure of such credit card number and information to third parties as necessary to complete such billing operation.

oDesk automatically collects your browser type and browser software version to tailor the presentation of the oDesk Marketplace to your platform and to maintain a record of your activity on the site. oDesk uses cookies to enable Users to specify unique preferences and to track User trends and patterns. Users always have the option of disabling cookies via their browser preferences. If you disable cookies on your browser, please note that some parts of our site may not function as effectively or may be considerably slower. As an automatic process, our webserver software records a log file of IP addresses that access the oDesk Marketplace. We also collect IP address and other system information for purposes of statistical analysis and to maintain the trust and security of the oDesk Marketplace. We will not use IP addresses or other system information to identify a User unless we determine, in our sole discretion, that it is necessary to enforce compliance without various policies to protect our service, site, customers and others. Notwithstanding the foregoing, oDesk gathers only that information that is reasonably necessary for it to operate the oDesk Marketplace and otherwise conduct its business. oDesk uses commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that its collection of such relevant information does not interfere with the operation or security of your system.

oDesk offers the ability to send friends or colleagues emails about Providers or Job Openings available through oDesk. If you choose to use this feature, be assured that oDesk only uses these email addresses on a one-time basis to send the requested posting and we use your email address to copy you on the message or to send on your behalf.

As part of registration, you may set up your profile describing your work experience, rates and qualifications, as a Provider or your company and related information for you, as a Buyer. Some of the information requested in the registration is mandatory. We strongly encourage you to complete your profile as much as possible as this may directly affect your likelihood of finding worthwhile opportunities or, as a Buyer, outstanding Provider candidates.

We use Personally Identifiable Information for our own internal purposes including contacting you via email to inform you about updates to the oDesk Marketplace and providing you with information relating to e-commerce transactions that you conduct on the site. We reserve the right to disclose your information as required by law. We do not rent or sell our Users' Personally Identifiable Information to third parties. We do, however, provide you with the opportunity to receive communications via email. To opt-out from any non-critical email messages, simply click on the "unsubscribe" link contained within the email.

oDesk reserves the right to use the general data it obtains from Users' use of the system, including all statistical information. You acknowledge that such data belongs to oDesk and that oDesk shall have the right to use such data as it determines in its sole discretion.

oDesk may send you email communications including information that we may think may be of interest to you. We do not send any of your Personally Identifiable Information to our advertisers. You may see a cookie from a third-party banner server and this cookie comes from the third-party banner server, not oDesk. Again, we do not pass along any Personally Identifiable Information to this party. To opt-out from any non-critical email messages, simply click on the "unsubscribe" link contained within the email.

oDesk may enter into co-branding relationships with third-party web sites and companies to provide products and services to our Users. oDesk may share your Personally Identifiable Information, including User ID and password, with certain co-branded third-party service or product Providers as required to provide a specific product or service. However, these third-party partners may not use this Personally Identifiable Information for any reason other than to provide the service or product that the User has explicitly signed up for. While it is oDesk's general policy not to share anything other than summarized or aggregated data with the partner, any Personally Identifiable Information you provide may also be received by the co-branded site and could be stored and used by the co-branded service or product Provider according to their privacy policy. Please take the time to review these third-party privacy policies.

oDesk uses an outside credit card processing company to bill Users for Services. oDesk may also engage other third party intermediaries in order to provide our users with additional offerings and services. oDesk makes no representations on these third parties and their use of personal identifiable information. Please refer to the third party’s website and terms of service for their specific privacy policies.

oDesk constantly seeks to improve the quality of and the User experience on the oDesk Marketplace. We value your input and encourage you to help us expand and make improvements to the oDesk Marketplace by providing us with any thoughts or comments you might have regarding the site. When sending us comments we may receive your email address or User ID and the country in which you are located. This information is optional. If you provide this information, we will only use it to acknowledge or respond to your comments. Submitting comments via an email will not cause you to receive any secondary or promotional material, unless specifically requested by you. In certain circumstances, we may ask for your permission to post your comments in marketing or promotional materials.

We will use commercially reasonable methods to keep Personally Identifiable Information securely in our files and systems. Our Payment System is operated using secure Internet connections, including SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption, to help protect your financial data. Please note that with current technology, we cannot guarantee the security of your data as it travels over the Internet.

We save your Personally Identifiable Information until your membership with us is terminated. To terminate membership, contact Customer Support indicating your request. If you terminate your membership, your Personally Identifiable Information cannot be recovered and you may continue to receive email communications for a short period of time until we have updated all of our databases. After termination of your membership, your Personally Identifiable Information may remain on our archived database and records for a reasonable time as residual information. We will not use this residual information. Notwithstanding the above, we will maintain information on Users who have been removed for violating any of our agreements.

Most User Information is User updatable in My oDesk. If you cannot update the information yourself, please contact Customer Support to notify us of any changes or errors related to any of your information that we have on file. Upon receipt of such requests, we will update our files within 30 days.

Though we make every effort to preserve User privacy, we may need to disclose your Personally Identifiable Information when required by law when we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process.

Other than as set forth in this Privacy Policy, oDesk will treat all User information confidentiality and use commercially reasonable efforts, being no less than the efforts it uses to maintain its own confidential information, to keep all such User confidential information confidential. Furthermore, upon your written request, oDesk shall return or destroy your confidential information in oDesk's possession; provided maintenance of such is not reasonably necessary for oDesk to maintain and keep the Marketplace secure or such retention is not required by law.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Agreement or the practices of this website, you may contact Customer Support or write to our office, oDesk Corporation, c/o Privacy Office, 4200 Bohannon Drive, Menlo Park, CA 94025.

All polices are subject to the oDesk Marketplace User Agreement. Any capitalized term undefined in this Policy shall have the meaning ascribed to it in the oDesk Marketplace User Agreement.