News

LEGAL INFORMATION AND NOTICES

Use of Site

You have arrived at the web site of My Little O, the online source for local news, located at mylittleo.com (the “Site”). The Site is the property of My Little O, a sole proprietorship (“My Little O” or “we” or “us”), which aims to provide you with continually updated news and information about the neighborhoods of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. To further this goal, My Little O has created these terms and conditions, which, together with the Privacy Policy and any other legal documents created by My Little O and linked to via this or the home page, sets forth conditions for use of the Site (collectively, the “Terms of Use”). BY USING THE SITE, YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF USE; IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, DO NOT USE THE SITE.

My Little O reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to add, remove and amend existing portions of the Terms of Use at any time and from time to time. All changes will take effect upon being posted to the Site and may also be viewed by you from your web browser by subscribing to the Site’s RSS feed. Whether by checking the Site periodically or by clicking on the RSS icon on the home page and subscribing to “Legal Information and Notices”, you are responsible for remaining current with the latest version of the Terms of Use. Your continued use of the Site once changes have been posted indicates that you have accepted and agreed to the changes. As long as you are complying with the Terms of Use, My Little O grants you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited privilege to use the Site.

Site Content

All text, graphics, user interfaces, visual interfaces, photographs, trademarks, logos, videos, sounds, music, artwork, audiovisual works, and computer code (collectively, “Content”) contained in the Site belong to or are licensed by My Little O. This includes the design, layout, selection, coordination and expression of the Content, as well as the overall “look and feel” of the Site. All of the foregoing are protected by various intellectual property rights and unfair competition laws and remain under our control.

Except as expressly permitted in the Terms of Use, no part of the Site and no Content may be copied, republished, uploaded, posted, publicly displayed, broadcast, networked, encoded, translated, transmitted or distributed in any way to any other computer, server, Web site or other medium existing now or in the future. No part of the Content or Site may be excerpted for commercial exploitation. If you wish to do any of these things, you may only do so with the express written permission of an authorized representative of My Little O. An exception would be Content (such as articles for personal use) purposely made available to readers by My Little O for downloading from the Site. However, in these cases, you must not (1) remove any proprietary language or legends identifying the downloads as the property of My Little O, (2) use the Content in question for commercial purposes, (3) modify the Content in any way, or (4) make any promises, representations or warranties about or relating to the Content.

Your Use of the Site

The limited privilege granted you to use and enjoy the Site is expressly conditioned upon, among other things, your agreement to refrain from acts that alter, dismantle, circumvent, take any actions that could distort server logs, or in any other way impede or disable the proper and normal working of the Site. My Little O reserves the right to bar any such activity and to terminate your membership for such violations.

By way of example, you may not use any “robot”, “spider” or other equivalent methodology, program, device or means to access the Site or acquire information about it in ways not purposely made available by My Little O. You may not circumvent the navigational structure of the Site or gain unauthorized access to portions or features of the Site (or to connected servers or networks) by hacking or password “mining” or other illegitimate or unobvious means.

You may not probe, scan or test the exposure of the Site or of any network connected to the Site, nor breach the security or authentication measures on the Site. You may not reverse look-up, trace or take a step toward tracing any information on any other user of or visitor to the Site, or otherwise seek to uncover information that you are not entitled to have, including but not limited to personal identifying information other than your own.

You agree that you will not initiate any action that results or might result in the imposition of an unreasonable or disproportionate load of data on the infrastructure of the Site or on any systems or networks connected to the Site.

You agree to refrain from all attempts to interfere with any transaction being conducted on the Site, or with any other person’s use of the Site.

You agree you will not present “hot news” items or other exclusive stories breaking on the Site as your own or in any way misrepresent the origin of such information, including by replacing headers or cropping designations and identifiers on articles sourced from the Site, or failing to give proper attribution.

You shall not represent yourself to the Site at any time as being any individual or entity who goes by any name besides your proper legal name or the username assigned by the Site. All impersonations of other users are in violation of the Terms of Use.

You may not use the Site or any Content for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by the Terms of Use, nor may you solicit the performance of or promote any illegal activity or activity that infringes the rights of My Little O, its users, or third parties.

User-Generated Content

You acknowledge that all postings, messages, text, files, images, graphics, photos, video, audio clips, sounds, advertisements, or other materials posted on, transmitted through, or independently linked to from The Site (“UGC”) are the sole responsibility of the person who generated these contributions. My Little O does not prescreen user contributions, either yours or another user’s. My Little O will make a good-faith effort to investigate complaints about user content that it receives, and it expressly retains the right, though not the responsibility, to edit or remove UGC upon receiving any such complaints or for any reason. However, My Little O makes no warranties or promises that it will remove UGC or prevent its display, even if the UGC is alleged to violate the Terms of Use or applicable law. My Little O will bear no liability for any action it takes or fails to take in connection with UGC, even in the case of content you may find offensive or in violation of your rights.

Any contributions made by My Little O or its agents, contractors, or employees, is provided on an “AS IS” basis without warranties or rights to rely of any kind.

You are entirely responsible for all UGC that you post, email or otherwise make available via the Site, both with respect to its impact on others and on yourself. Be constructive in what you post. Remember, you will bear any legal consequences arising from any defamatory, harmful, indecent, harassing, discriminatory, abusive, vulgar, obscene, intrusive upon a person’s privacy, or otherwise objectionable or unlawful material published by you. In availing yourself of any interactive areas or classified opportunities on the Site, please respect your fellow users and adhere to prevailing standards of propriety, decency and good conduct. This also means you must honor others’ intellectual property rights. Do not upload another person’s work or element of another person’s work in any medium, You must never incorporate third-party marks either in your submissions or in classified unless the use being made of this material is in accordance with the requirements of copyright, trademark and unfair competition laws, as well as other relevant laws, rules, and requirements.

For your own safety, we discourage divulging personal phone numbers and addresses or other information that can be used to identify or locate you. Usernames that reveal personal identifying information carry the same warning. If you disclose such information, either through postings articles, comments, blogs, or in classifieds on the Site, we will not necessarily remove it. Accordingly, you make these disclosure s fully understanding that they could have unwelcome repercussions for which My Little O will not be responsible.

You agree not to upload UGC whose main purpose could reasonably be construed to be the sale, promotion or exploitation of your product, business or personality, except in areas specifically designated for such purpose.

In uploading UGC to The Site, you represent and warrant you own or control or otherwise have all necessary rights to provide the UGC in the manner in which you have provided it. You represent and warrant that you have all necessary rights to grant My Little O an unrestricted license in the material contained in the material submitted, as more fully described below.

Each time you upload content, photos, reviews, etc., you agree to grant My Little O a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, play, make available to the public, and exercise all copyright and publicity rights over that material, including all the individual elements that form that material, of whatever nature. This means that we will be free to use this material in any manner, in any form, media, software or technology of any kind now existing or hereinafter developed, including by licensing it to third parties without compensation to you, and even after you have ceased to subscribe. If you do not wish to grant this license and want to retain control over the material you are intending to submit, you should not post that content to the Site.

We have the right to keep all material you submit to the Site in your personal profile and disclose its contents at any time in the future in accordance with the Terms of Use.

We welcome your specific feedback about the Site. However, we ask that you provide it in the areas and format provided for this purpose and in accordance with all the terms of this Terms of Use. In addition, although My Little O appreciates your letting us know how we can best satisfy your needs, we are under no obligation to review your submissions. We are also under no obligation to keep any submissions confidential, so please consider how you will feel about the public exposure of your feedback before contacting us.

User Registration

To submit information to the Site, each user must have a unique user name and password combination. Please review My Little O’s Privacy Policy, which describes how My Little O collects, uses, and protects your personal information. My Little O cannot and will not be responsible for any problems or liability that may arise if you do not provide accurate, truthful and complete information.

It is up to you to protect the confidentiality of your username and password. My Little O cannot and will not be responsible for the results of their misuse by a third person or of their use by a third person with your consent. You may be held liable for any losses and damages arising under your account from the activities of unregistered users, whether such losses are incurred by us or a visitor to the Site.

You may not use another person’s account without first obtaining the account holder’s express consent. Any person who accesses the Site through the consensual use of the account holder’s confidential information will be deemed to have read and accepted the Terms of Use. You may be responsible for any losses or damages resulting from activities you conducted under another’s account.

You must be at least 18 years old to post to the Site. If you have not yet reached the age of majority, you must have your parent or guardian’s permissions to post to the Site. A person or guardian who grants a minor permission to use the Site will be deemed to have read and agreed to the Terms of Use.

If the account is created on behalf of an entity, you must be an authorized representative of the entity, and you must provide complete and accurate information about yourself and the entity you represent.

No account holder may create multiple profiles or provide email addresses not their own.

We reserve the right to close your account at any time for any or no reason. My Little O disclaims all liability to third parties related to the deactivation of your account.

Third Party Content, Sites, and Services

The Site and its Content may contain links to other third-party web sites, which are completely independent of the Site and provided solely as a convenience to our visitors. We make no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or authenticity of the information contained in any such web site, nor do we endorse any of the content or information they contain. Please bear in mind thatyou will have no recourse to My Little O should you suffer harm from your interactions with these web sites. You will need to determine for yourself whether to link to these web sites and if and how to interact with them once you have. Any transactions conducted with persons or entities they represent is strictly between you and them.

Interactions with third-party organizations or persons found on or through the Site, including payment and delivery of goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such third parties. Although My Little O takes user complaints seriously and you are welcome to contact us if you have an unsatisfactory experience, My Little O is not a party to these transactions. This means we will not make you whole if a dispute arises. My Little O makes no representation about sellers or buyers of products or services advertising on or found through the Site. My Little O does not endorse products and services advertised on or found through the Site unless My Little O explicitly states such endorsement in writing. My Little O does not warranty third-party goods or services advertised on or found through the Site.

Claims of Copyright Infringement

The following terms, which are hereby incorporated by reference, also govern and apply to your use of the Site. Please review them carefully.

Disclaimers

Limitations of Liability

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold My Little O, its officers, directors, shareholders, employees agents, and affiliates, harmless from any demands, loss, liability, claims or expenses (including attorneys’ fees), made against My Little O by any third party due to or arising out of or in connection with your violation of the Terms of Use.

Violations of Terms of Use

My Little O may disclose any information we have about you (including your past transmissons) if we determine in our discretion that such disclosure will further any investigation or complaint regarding your use of the Site. We may disclose this information to help us identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be interfering with the functioning of the Site or with our rights or property or those of our visitors. My Little O reserves the right at all times to disclose whatever information it has in its possession if such disclosure proves necessary to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal proceeding or governmental request. My Little O also reserves the right to disclose your information should it determine that applicable law requires or permits such disclosure, including exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud-protection purposes. My Little O may disclose information about you to enforce the Terms of Use.

You agree that My Little O may, in its sole discretion and without advance notice, terminate your right to use the Site for cause. Grounds for such termination includes but are not limited to (i) government advice, (ii) defunct or deleted account information, (iii) a discontinuance or revamping of the Site, or (4) unanticipated technical issues.

If My Little O does take any legal action against you as a result of your violation of the Terms of Use, My Little O will be entitled to recover from you, and you agree to pay, all reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs of such action, in addition to any other relief granted to My Little O. You agree that My Little O will not be liable to you or to any third party for termination of your access to the Site as a result of any such violation.

Governing Law; Dispute Resolution

You agree that all matters relating to your access to or use of the Site, including all disputes with My Little O, will be governed by the laws of the State of New York without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. You agree to the personal jurisdiction by and venue in the state and federal courts in Kings County, New York, and waive any objection to such jurisdiction or venue. Any claim under the Terms of Use must be brought within one (1) year after the cause of action occurs, or such claim or cause of action is barred.

Miscellaneous

You may not use or export any Content in violation of any applicable laws or regulations, including without limitation United States export laws and regulations.

If any provisions of the Terms of Use are held by a court or other tribunal of competent jurisdiction to be void or unenforceable, such provisions shall be limited to the minimum extent necessary and replaced with a valid provision that best embodies the intent of the Terms of Use, so that the Terms of Use shall remain in full force and effect.

The Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and My Little O with regard to your use of the Site, and any and all other written or oral agreements or understandings previously existing between you and us with respect to such use are hereby superseded. You acknowledge that, in agreeing to the Terms of Use, you are agreeing to the express terms set forth in the Terms of Use, and you have not relied on any representation, warranty, collateral contract or other assurances made by or on behalf of another person, or any representation, warranty, etc., made anywhere on the Site itself other than in this Terms of Use.

The Terms of Use shall not be interpreted or construed to confer any rights or rememdies on any third parties.

Updated by My Little O on 09/01/09

Our Privacy Policy

My Little O’s Privacy Policy covers the collection, use and disclosure of personal information that may be collected by My Little O anytime you interact with us, such as when you visit our web site (the “Site”), make a purchase, or register and participate in membership activities such as My Little O’s forums and message boards. Please take a moment to learn more about our information practices, including what information is collected, how we may use that information, whom we may disclose it to, and the choices you have regarding these practices.

Please note that My Little O’s Privacy Policy applies to use of the Site, and the terms described in this policy are made by this reference a part of the Terms of Use that governs interaction with the Site. This means that if you do not wish to consent to the practices described in this policy, you must not access the Site. Based on your ongoing acceptance of this Privacy Policy, My Little O grants you a limited privilege to access the Site. If you wish to continue to access the Site over time, it is your responsibility to keep abreast of any changes made to the Privacy Policy by subscribing to our RSS feed, where current amendments and modifications will be posted under the heading “Privacy Policy.”

In accepting the Terms of Use (of which this Privacy Policy is a part), you acknowledge and agree that Internet transmissions can never be completely private or secure. You understand that any message or information you send to the Site may be read or intercepted by persons for whom they were not intended, even when you are notified that the information at issue has been encrypted.

Why we collect personal information

My Little O cares about your privacy. We collect your personal information as one way to enhance our delivery to you of services and information that you may care about. Your personal information helps us keep you posted on neighborhood and world news, announcements, events, special offers, and issues of concern and enjoyment to your community. It also enables My Little O to make local social networks open to you without necessitating disclosure of your personal information on the Internet. Of course, if now or in the future you do not want to receive our e-newsletter and other mailings circulating news of commercial opportunities, as well as goods and services, available to you through the Site or its affiliates, please click www.mylittleo.com. There you can update your profile, including your contact preferences.

The nature of the information we collect and its possible uses

If you create an account to take advantage of some or all of the full range of services offered on the Site, we ask for and record personal information such as your name, email address, street address, and telephone number. We use your email address in various ways, including to send you updates and news, communicate with you about your posts, announce contests and promotions, respond to feedback, authenticate your user account, provide subscription email services, enroll you in special forums, and contact you on behalf of other users or third parties.

We may collect credit-card information if you make a purchase through the Site, as well as keep information about products you express an interest in. We may also ask for your personal information when you speak with a representative of the Site regarding technical or service support, or when you participate in voting or polling surveys, photo galleries, forums, blogs, and other interactive areas of the Site. If you purchase a gift or item for someone else, we will ask for personal information about that person relevant to your transaction, such as a mailing address. However, we do not sell information about you or those third persons to marketers.

We do not store credit-card information. Credit-card transactions are transmitted to a financial gateway, and we endeavor to protect the security of your payment information during transmission by making commercially reasonable efforts to use strategic partners who employ Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or other advanced technology.

It is possible we will seek to obtain background information about you for market-research purposes. Data such as occupation and sources of news consumption can expand our understanding of our customers and help us diversify our approach to fulfilling customer needs, and so we may keep this kind of data on file.

We collect information about Site users’ activities on our web site. This helps us make choices about the structure and organization of our web site and our communications with users -- choices designed with a view to creating more features and services you may want to take advantage of.

Content, photos, videos, reviews, comments, blogs, messages, and any other materials you submit to the Site (“UGC”) are stored indefinitely as part of your personal profile. We will not disclose UGC that reveals your identity other than in accordance with specific exceptions set forth in the Terms of Use. But please note that if your UGC contains personal identifying information, that information may be taken by third parties from the Internet and used to contact you. My Little O has no control over or responsibility for abuses of privacy that may occur because of your decision to publicly display this information.

When you interact with My Little O, we may use your personal information to offer products that you have requested. In addition, we may gather information on patterns of interaction with the Site, which we store in log files. We do this for auditing, research, and analysis purposes aimed at improving our Site and your user experience. The type of information collected might include information such as demographic information, IP addresses, web pages viewed, referral/exiting pages, requested URLs, browser types, purchasing histories, timestamps, interactions with advertisements, and other data. We may aggregate this collected information (the result being "Aggregate Information"). We use this Aggregate Information, which does not identify individual users, to perform statistical analyses of user behavior and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of the Site. Aggregate Information and other records reside on our server indefinitely.

Apart from for reasons of legal compliance, My Little O also does not use collected information for any purpose other than that for which it was collected. My Little O does not sell or rent your personal contact information to marketers. My Little O does not use information collected from you about a third party to market to that third party. And My Little O does not separate out personal data about you embedded in Aggregate Information to sell or rent to behavioral marketers who would use the information to market to you personally.

Your username and related information

When you become a subscriber to the Site, My Little O assigns you a username in conjunction with a unique password. The system saves your information under your personal profile. Each time you access the Site, you need only input your username and password. If you update the information associated with your personal profile when and as needed, it will be available for all your transactions with My Little O. Please remember that if you use your legal name as your username, this could make your identity visible on the Internet.

When we disclose your information

There are also times when it may be expeditious for My Little O to share certain personal information about you with companies who help the Site operate on your behalf and with our affiliates. These companies may help us process information, extend credit, fulfill customer orders, deliver products to you, manage and enhance customer data, provide customer service, assess your interest in our services, prioritize our offerings geographically, or conduct customer research and satisfaction surveys. My Little O expects these companies to respect the privacy of our users, and employs diligence in selecting its strategic partners. However, third parties, including our partners, advertisers, sponsors, affiliates, local government websites, local merchant web sites, message boards, news web sites and other content providers accessible through the Site, are likely to have their own privacy and data collection policies and practices. We have no control over these. Without these service providers, we would have to curtail the full gamut of services we were capable of delivering to you. Therefore, it is important that you check the privacy policies of these service providers beforehand, to satisfy yourself you wish to interact with them.

My Little O’s Site has links to other sites, as may content uploaded by users in the interactive areas of the Site. My Little O is not responsible for the privacy practices of any of these linked-to sites. Only by investigating them yourself can you reach a proper determination about giving them your information.

At times My Little O may disclose your personal information if we are required or permitted to do so by law, in response to governmental request, or during litigation. In addition, we may disclose information about you if for national security, law enforcement, or other issues that impact the public, such disclosure appears to us necessary or compelling.

How we protect your personal information

My Little O takes precautions to safeguard your personal information against loss, theft, and misuse, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These measures include training its personnel in My Little O’s policies, providing secure physical facilities, and using market-tested encryption that helps protect the confidentiality of your personal and credit-card information while it’s transmitted over the Internet.

If a transaction requires your credit-card information to be processed by a third party, such as Paypal, My Little O uses providers of payment-processing solutions who maintain best practices in the area of online data safety.

You have already acknowledged that no security measures protecting the transmittal of data over the Internet are foolproof. You can help keep your information secure by maintaining a safe, accurate and complete profile. Periodically checking and correcting your personal profile at www. can help avoid mishaps. Be cautious with your information while on the Internet; change your password often, using a combination of letters, symbols, and numbers; and make sure you use a secure web browser.

Cookies and other technologies

Like most company web sites, we collect information automatically and through the use of electronic tools that may be transparent to our visitors. For example, as already described, we may log the name of your Internet service provider or browser type, which is stored in log files. Or we may use "cookie" technology. Among other things, the cookie may store your user name and password, sparing you from having to re-enter that information each time you visit. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them). We use these to customize your contact with the Site and add convenience. By analyzing collective traffic patterns, we gain a better understanding of our user base and what they want from us. We do not use this information to market to you personally.

In certain cases, you can choose not to provide us with information, for example by setting your browser to refuse to accept cookies. Please note that in disabling cookies, you will be unable to gain access to certain parts of the Site.

In some of our email messages, we use a “click-through URL” linked to content on the Site. When subscribers click one of these URLs, they pass through our web server before arriving at the destination web page. We track this click-through data to help us assess subscribers’ interest in particular topics and learn about the effectiveness of our communications. If you prefer not to be tracked, simply avoid clicking text or graphic links in the emails.

Children

The Site does not knowingly collect or solicit Personal Information from or about children under the age of 13, except as permitted by law. If we discover we have received any information from a child under the age of 13 in violation of this policy, we will attempt to delete that information as soon as possible. If you believe the Site has any information from or about anyone under the age of 13, please contact us. Children under the age of 13 are specifically prohibited from registering as members of the Site.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right, at our discretion and at any time, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this Privacy Policy. We will post these amendments on this page. They will become effective as soon as they are posted. We will notify you of all material changes by prominently posting notice and specifics of them on our website and simultaneously on our RSS feed under the heading “Privacy Policy.” You are responsible for keeping current with the version of our Privacy Policy that is in force at any given time.

Changes to this Privacy Policy may affect our use of personal information that you provided us before our notification to you of the changes. If you do not wish to permit any of these changes in our use of your personal information, you must notify us that you wish to deactivate your account with us. Continued use of the Site following publication shall indicate your acknowledgement of these changes and agreement to be bound by the new set of terms and conditions that incorporate them.

E-mails and Opt-out

You may opt-out of receiving notifications from us by changing your notification settings in your personal profile. Unregistered users who receive e-mails from us may also opt-out of receiving future e-mails by following the instructions in our emails. Despite your indicated e-mail preferences, you are still responsible for checking our RSS feed for legal notices. You are also responsible for updating your personal information to provide us with your current e-mail address. In the event that the last e-mail you have provided us is not valid, or for any reason we are not capable of delivering to you certain important legal notices, our last dispatch of the e-mail containing such notice will nonetheless constitute effective notice of the contents described in the notice.

Privacy Questions

If you have any questions or concerns about My Little O’s Privacy Policy or data processing, please email us at mylittleo.com. We will attempt to respond to your message within thirty days.

Last updated August 21, 2009

Smartphone User

1. 
   Let business know you’d like to earn loyalty points for your purchase 


2. 
   Business will ask you to scan a unique QR code 


3. 
   You will be prompted to log into mylittleO 


4. 
   Once logged in, you will be prompted to enter an amount


5. 
   Business confirms amount and submit


6. 
   Points are automatically added to your account

Non-Smartphone User

1. 
   Ask business for mylittleO loyalty voucher that corresponds to purchase amount


2. 
   Log into your mylittleO account (via web)


3. 
   Go to the “Redeem Points” section of the site Enter unique code from voucher


4. 
   Voucher amount is automatically added to your account

Redeeming Points (smartphone & web)

1. 
   Click the link at the bottom of this page to view a list of eligible products and services


2. 
   Select item(s) you’d like to barter points for


3. 
   After making selection, the appropriate number of points will be deducted from your account


4. 
   A unique coupon is generated


5. 
   Print or show coupon on your mobile device to business to collect reward

Valuing Points (smartphone & web)

1. 
   Each dollar spent is worth one loyalty point 


2. 
   Example, if you check-in and then spend $10, you will earn a total of eleven loyalty points for that visit.