Privacy Policy

VBC LLC (together with its subsidiaries, “VBC” or “we”) considers the protection of personal privacy to be one of our most important values. This privacy policy (“Policy”) gives you specific information on how we protect your privacy, how we treat personal information, and the choices you have.

This Policy applies to all websites and services owned or provided by VBC and its subsidiaries, which we refer to here collectively as “VBC Sites”. VBC Sites include, but are not limited to https://www.verybigcomics.com, as well as other VBC-branded services. From time to time we may add new sites, domain names, or services to those listed above. Please note that this Policy applies only to sites owned and services maintained by VBC or its corporate subsidiaries and not to websites or services provided by other companies or organizations to which we link.

As a condition of using the VBC Sites, you agree to be bound by the terms of this Policy. Additional terms and conditions which govern your use of the VBC Sites are contained in our Terms of Service, and, as applicable, in certain other service-specific license agreements or terms of use, which you will be notified of at the time of your registration for the applicable services.

You acknowledge that this Policy may change over time. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to revise this Policy at any time. If we decide to change our Policy, we will post the revised policy on the VBC Sites. Any changes are effective immediately upon posting to the VBC Sites. As we may make changes at any time without notifying you, we suggest that you periodically consult this Policy. Please note that our rights to use your personally identifiable information will be based on the privacy policy in effect at the time the information is collected. Your continued use of the VBC Sites constitutes your agreement to all such terms and conditions of the Policy.

1. Information Collection, Storage, and Use

We refer to information that identifies an individual as “Personal Information.” In general, VBC may collect Personal Information from users of the VBC Sites in connection with access to certain online areas or services, including during

1. registration for communications or transactional services, such as email updates and newsletters; 
2. subscription or supporter registration; 
3. user surveys, through the VBC Sites. 

Your Personal Information is stored on VBC computer servers (or those of its service providers) located in the United States.

We may gather navigational, clickstream data that indicates the areas of the VBC Sites you visit or access. This navigational data does not identify you as an individual user (i.e., based on your PII). We may enter into agreements with outside companies that possess the technology that allows VBC to customize the advertising and marketing messages you receive on the VBC Sites. Your non-PII and click stream data about your activities on the VBC Sites may be shared with these companies so this customization can be accomplished. These companies have agreed not to share your information with any third party or use it for any other purpose. Anonymous click stream and demographic information may also be shared with VBC’s advertisers and business partners. We also use and share navigational data in the aggregate, non-personal form to understand how our Users as a group use the VBC Sites.

Below are more details about the Personal Information we, or third parties, may gather from you and how we may use it.

• Email Updates to Members. If you so elect at registration, we may periodically send you promotional emails about products or services offered by the VBC Sites, our partners, and advertisers. If you want to update your email address or stop receiving these types of promotional emails, please follow the procedures to unsubscribe at the bottom of any email we send you.
  
  We may contact you regarding account status, changes to this Policy, our User Agreement, or other terms of use, to confirm your registration or for any other business reason related to your use of VBC Sites.
• Use of Cookies. On the Internet, a “cookie” is a piece of information (a file) that a Web site transfers to a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes. The use of cookies is common on the Internet. The process we use to serve advertisements and to track the use of the VBC Sites involves cookies. We use cookies to recognize users who have already registered for an VBC Site, allowing those users to speed up their future activities on the VBC Sites. Cookies help VBC and our advertising service (discussed below) track the frequency and placement of advertisements. Cookies also enable us to measure aggregate (total) usage and traffic to the VBC Sites and to specific offerings. This aids us in producing content that best meets our users’ preferences. To implement new services, we may use other types of cookies as well. We also may use cookies to understand better what parts of the VBC Sites you like best. We may use that information to display advertisements that we think will be of particular interest to you. You may configure your browser to reject cookies, but this may interfere with some functionality of the VBC Sites. To find out more about changing your browser to reject cookies, we suggest the EPIC Cookies Page www.epic.org/privacy/internet/cookies. Certain pages of the VBC Sites may contain electronic images (called a “single-pixel GIF” or “web beacon”) that allow a website to count users who have visited that page. VBC occasionally uses web beacons on the VBC Sites to count users and to recognize registered users by accessing the VBC cookies.

• Software Updates; Interactive Material. VBC automatically updates software used in conjunction with certain of the services available on the VBC Sites. To update this software, VBC collects a user’s current version information from the user’s computer. This information is not archived and is only used to determine which software requires updating. VBC may record audio conversations or copy text chat or video images from chat rooms on the VBC Sites and may disclose such material for use in connection with promoting the VBC Sites.

• Sites You Visit. As you access our Partner Sites and browse around the VBC Sites, VBC may store information about which pages and which Partner Sites you visit and other information presented in your browser’s URL address line. VBC will use this information to help determine what our users are most interested in.

• Sharing Non-Personal Information. VBC may share information that is not Personal Information — meaning non-personal, aggregate, or summary, information regarding our users — with other third parties not mentioned in this Policy. This kind of information does not identify you individually.

• Future Business Transactions. As we continue to develop our business, we might sell certain of our assets. In such transactions, user information, including personally identifiable information, Personal Information, generally is one of the transferred business assets. By submitting your personal information on one of the VBC Sites, you agree that in the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of all or substantially all of its assets, or the sale of an individual website owned by VBC, VBC may transfer your Personal Information to a third party as a part of such merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale, or other future business transaction.

• Legal Authorities. We may also disclose Personal Information in cases when we reasonably believe that it is necessary to identify someone who may be violating VBC policies or VBC Sites” User Agreements or other terms of use, or who may be a threat to VBC or third party rights, property, or personal safety. The VBC Sites may disclose Personal Information to comply with valid legal processes such as a duly issued search warrant, subpoena, or court order.

2. Information Storage and Security

Your Personal Information is stored on VBC computer servers (or those of its service providers) located in the United States. We protect your Personal Information with technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect against the loss, unauthorized access, destruction, misuse, modification, and improper disclosure. No computer system or information can ever be fully protected against every possible hazard. But VBC is committed to providing reasonable and appropriate security controls to protect our VBC Sites and all Personal Information against foreseeable hazards.

Notwithstanding these security measures, please be aware that when you submit Personal Information to the VBC Sites over the Internet, the information may travel over many systems that are not under VBC’s control. We take the protection of user data very seriously and to that end take reasonable safeguards to prevent interception of any Personal Information. In the case of shopping pages, for example, the credit card information you submit is protected by secure servers.

3. Complaints 

If you have any other questions, comments, or complaints about this Policy, write to us at: contact@verybigcomics.com.

4. Unsubscribe

When you register or enter one of the VBC Site, you may opt out of receiving future e-mail communications from us. You may change your e-mail preferences at any time by emailing us at contact@verybigcomics.com. Below are specific instructions to unsubscribe from newsletters, e-mail updates and special offers, and other services.

Email updates and special offers: You may unsubscribe to email announcements by following the instructions at the bottom of each email.

5. Services: 

You may unsubscribe to any service for which you have previously elected by following the instructions included in the VBC User Agreement.