PRIVACY AND INFORMATION COLLECTION POLICY

(LAST REVISED: December 05, 2013)

This privacy and information collection policy explains how we obtain information made available on the AboutUs website (the “Site”), and governs the information you provide us, whether actively (e.g., personally Identifiable Information you submit to us) or passively (e.g., information we obtain through the use of Cookies). The policy does not govern the entries or edits (content) you submit to the Site. That information is dealt with separately at this link Terms of Service. Any revised privacy and information collection policy shall be effective immediately after it is posted on the Site, either at this location or at any other location accessible via the front page of the Site.


If users have questions or concerns regarding this statement, they should contact AboutUs at or send mail to AboutUs at PO BOX 372421Denver, CO 80237 USA. We will endeavor to respond to every inquiry. However, the volume of inquiries we receive at any given time may prevent us from promptly responding to your inquiry.

How We Obtain The Information We Make Available On The Site:


AboutUs compiles information regarding websites from the publicly available “whois” databases which domain name registries and registrars publish on the Internet. We also obtain information regarding websites from other publicly available sources (e.g., Alexa) and from the “about us” section of websites. (Sometimes we get info from other similar pages, such as the main page.) We then make that data available, along with a link to the websites, logos, thumbnail screenshots, in a centralized location at the Site. We also make available a map, which is nothing more than a spatial representation of otherwise publicly available information. Anyone can construct this map using the “about us” tool and one of a myriad free web-based mapping applications on the internet. While we only make available from the Site data which is publicly available (either from publicly available whois databases, from public areas of websites, or otherwise), we may make available contact information for a website. Users may freely edit and append information regarding websites.

How can I prevent the AboutUs bot from gathering information about my site?


If you'd like to prevent our bot from gathering information about your website follow the instructions on the AboutUs bot page.

Verification of User Provided/Edited Entries:


AboutUs is a “wiki” – i.e., it allows users to freely edit entries. (Some portions of the site are not editable.) At this point we do not verify the identity of any user who provides information or edits. We will roll out an "Owner Contributed Information" feature which will allow you as the owner of a website to verify the basic information about that website. In any event, you should know we have not taken steps to verify any information and, to the extent necessary, you should verify this information yourself before relying on it.

AboutUs Respects Intellectual Property Rights:

AboutUs absolutely respects the intellectual property rights of third parties. It will never engage in acts which constitute copyright or trademark infringement. AboutUs is intended for the Internet community to promote the free flow of information about domain names and related websites. Here, you will find information about websites, which is intended to be informative, educational, critical, and accurate. We do not publish text or images from a site for the purpose of providing the text or images, but rather we make them available to provide information about the site itself. We cannot accurately provide complete information about a site without tracking a small amount of information from the site itself.

AboutUs provides information which may not be entitled to copyright protection in the first instance. To the extent it does, AboutUs’s display of reduced thumbnail-size images and of publicly available text falls under “fair use”. Both copyright and trademark law contain exceptions for “fair use”. Fair use is a statutorily recognized exception to copyright law, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 107. Trademark law fair use principles generally track copyright law fair use. United States courts employ a four factor test to determine whether a use constitutes “fair use” under copyright law. Under this test, AboutUs’s use constitutes fair use. First, AboutUs’s use of the information is transformatively different from the original expressive purpose of the information. AboutUs has gathered this information in one place in a central editable directory format for the purpose of providing knowledge about domain names and web sites, open to user editing. Second, AboutUs does not exploit the expressive value of text or images we make available, but rather we use the text and images to educate and inform users about the domain names and website at which the complete text and full images may be found. Third, the reduced or truncated use of the images and information is consistent with AboutUs’s transformative purpose. Finally, AboutUs does not harm the market for the underlying information. By reproducing information about your website we are merely increasing potential exposure for your website. This will enlarge your “market” rather than harm it. AboutUs’s use of the information thus constitutes fair use under application of the fair use test.

If you would prefer we do not include information from your site, then please opt-out consistent with the instructions above.

What Information We Collect And How We Use It:

We do not collect any Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) about you (i.e., users) from the Site unless you choose to provide it to us. This means you can visit most areas of the Site without informing us who you are or revealing any PII about yourself. However, if you edit any of the information on the Site we log your Internet Protocol (IP) address. This information will be displayed along with the edited information and is publicly accessible. Third parties may use your IP address to try to ascertain additional information about you.

  • a) Log-in/Registration Information You Provide. When you register or log-in to use certain services available on the Site, you may be required to provide PII in order to use such services. Some log-in information will be displayed alongside content you submit to the Site. This will be clearly disclosed to you at the time of registration. Otherwise, any information you provide as part of registration or log-in will not be shared with anyone unless otherwise allowed by this privacy policy and will be used for the purpose for which you provide the information.
  • b) Information Tracked by Cookies. When you use the Site (whether you register or not) we may send your computer a Cookie to identify your browser. Cookies allow us to track and compile your browsing habits on the Site.
How We Use Such Information: We use Cookies for such functions as verifying whether you are a registered user and tracking your visits to the Site. We further use Cookies to determine the number of visitors that come to the Site. Your Cookie number is also used to create usage paths and to correlate those with any demographic information you provide, but we do not use your cookies or usage paths to attempt to determine your identity. We may use Cookies to serve specific advertisements to your on the Site based on you browsing habits which were tracked by the Cookies. Most browsers allow you to disable Cookies (i.e., not allow our servers to send Cookies to your browser); however, some of our services may not function properly if you disable Cookies.
  • c) Information Tracked by Web Beacons. We may use Web Beacons in connection with e-mails we may send you (provided you consent to receive emails) to let us know if you opened our email. We also may use Web Beacons to track your browsing habits on the Site.
How We Use Such Information: We use Web Beacons to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. We may use Web Beacons to serve specific advertisements to you on the Site based on your browsing habits which were tracked by the Web Beacons.
  • d) Non-Personally Identifiable Information or Aggregated PII. We will not use information obtained from server logs, Cookies and Web Beacons to identify you personally unless requested by law enforcement or subpoena, or necessary to protect the safety or rights of AboutUs, its customers, employees or property. Further, we may aggregate PII and compile statistics or metrics based on such aggregated information, but such aggregate information will not identify you personally.
How We Use Such Information: AboutUs may share non-Personally Identifiable Information or aggregated PII (which does not specifically identify you) with third party companies in order to assess the results of a promotion, event or third party relationship, to provide information to current or prospective customers, or to enhance your online experience.

Information Other Companies and Advertisers Collect:


  • a) Sites We Do Not Own or Operate. We may provide links to third party websites or content from websites which are owned or operated by other companies not controlled by us. Such websites may collect information about you, but we do not have control over the collection practices of such companies. If you are visiting such a website, please read the privacy policy of that website for its policies regarding information collection and usage.
  • b) Advertisers. AboutUs may host (or contract with third parties to host) advertising on the Site. If you provide PII while visiting any website depicted in an advertisement, you will be providing the PII to a third party (e.g., the advertiser). Privacy policies and practices employed by the advertiser may be different from those of AboutUs, and you should check the advertiser's privacy policy before supplying such information. Third party advertising partners may use cookies and clear GIFs on the sites, which allow them to recognize a user's cookie when a user visits the sites. The information that these advertising partners collect through this technology is not personally identifiable.

Information Sharing:


In general, we will not sell or disclose PII you provide us to other people or non-affiliated companies. We may provide your PII to third parties for the following reasons:

Reason for Disclosure Type or Recipient
you specifically authorize it authorized recipient
requested by law enforcement or required by law law enforcement, attorneys, court officials, beneficiaries of a court issued subpoena
to protect the safety or rights of AboutUs, its customers, employees or property law enforcement, attorneys, court officials, beneficiaries of a court issued subpoena, investigators, technical contractors
to complete a transaction initiated by you credit card processors, recipients of communications you initiate, third party service providers
Acquisition/re-organization of AboutUs company acquiring AboutUs

Changes to This Policy:


  • a) Notice. We pledge to notify you of any material changes that may be made in our privacy policies by posting a notice on our Site or some other reasonable means. Upon any material change to our privacy policy, you are free to discontinue your use of the Site. Any previously provided information shall be governed by the then-existing policy unless you specifically contact us regarding your information.
  • b) Assignment of Data. AboutUs may engage in a transaction which requires it to assign any of the data governed by this privacy policy. This may include a sale, merger, or a transfer of all or substantially all of AboutUs’s assets. In this context, we may assign or transfer to a third party the information you provide, including PII.

Children's Privacy:


NOTE: AboutUs services, and the Site are not intended for and may not be used by children under the age of 18 without the prior written consent of a parent or legal guardian. AboutUs does not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 18 and does not target its services, software and the Site to children under 18.

NOTE: This privacy policy applies only to the privacy of users of the Site. By using any portion of the AboutUs Site you agree to the terms in this privacy policy.

Privacy Policy—Glossary of Terms


“Cookies” means small files containing a string of characters which our servers send to your computer that uniquely identify your browser.

“Personally Identifiable Information” or “Personal Information” or “PII” means information provided by you in connection with your use of the Site – e.g., your name, address, telephone number or other information which by its nature can identify you personally. This does not include information provided to any third party sources (e.g., “whois”) which is compiled by AboutUs.

“Web Beacons” a pixel tag or a clear GIF that is attached to an email or website that is used to monitor the behavior of the user visiting the website or viewing the email.