Terms & Conditions 

Acceptable Use Policy
Privacy Policy

This website, domain name and all other websites and domain names affiliated with SME, Inc. (“SME”), and any other linked pages, features, content or application services offered from time to time by SME in connection therewith (collectively, the “Site”) is a property owned by SME.  The Site and the content herein are provided to you subject to these terms and conditions.  This document is a contractual agreement (“Agreement”) between User, on one hand, and SME on the other.  For purposes of this Agreement, “User,” “you,” or "your" refers to any and all individuals, companies, organizations and other entities that access or use this Site or participate in any contest offered, operated, sponsored or administrated by SME, or request, subscribe to, access, or otherwise use the services and products offered by SME.  You must be at least eighteen (18) years old (or the age of majority in the jurisdiction in which you reside) to enter into this Agreement, use this Site, or enter any contest offered hereon.  If you are between the ages of thirteen (13) and seventeen (17), inclusive, you must obtain consent from your parent or legal guardian and he/she must agree to be bound by the terms and conditions hereof individually and on your behalf.  Persons under the age of thirteen (13) are not permitted to access or use this Site.

The Agreement contains three parts: (i) the Terms & Conditions, (ii) the Acceptable Use Policy; and (iii) the Privacy Policy, all of which are incorporated by reference in the SME Signature Series Contest (“Contest”) Rules.  Your use of this Site and/or participation in the Contest constitutes your agreement to all of the terms of the Agreement and the official rules of the Contest.  SME may modify this Agreement at any time without prior notice to you.  Such modification shall be effective immediately upon the first of the following events to occur: (1) posting of the modified Agreement to the Site, or (2) upon otherwise notifying you of the modified Agreement.  You agree to periodically review the terms and conditions set forth in this Agreement to ensure that you are aware of any modifications.

Terms & Conditions

These Terms & Conditions are incorporated by reference in the Acceptable Use Policy and Privacy Policy.

1. Security.  You agree to keep your password confidential and not to distribute it or otherwise allow any one other than you to access your account.  Your password is the ultimate key to all of the information in your account, including your email, postings, files, and any other information you have provided to us.  Any communication you make to SME or any other person or profile on the Site over the Internet, whether sent via e-mail, a form on the Site, through a wireless communication, or otherwise, should be regarded as an insecure communication, unless we explicitly state on an appropriate web page that you can expect the communication to be secure or encrypted.

2. Account Restrictions & Termination of Service.  SME reserves the right to terminate or refuse service to anyone, at any time, for any reason or no reason at all, without prior notice, including, without limitation, for violating any provision of this Agreement.  You may establish only one account per person, and up to two accounts per computer or address, to participate in the activities offered on the Site.  All additional accounts will be closed without notice and continued violations will result in the termination of all of your accounts. SME also reserves the right to deny access to anyone, including, but not limited to those who use proxy servers and/or IP addresses outside of the United States.

3. License.  SME grants to you, subject to the terms of this Agreement, a limited, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, and non-exclusive license to use the software necessary to access, explore and otherwise use the Site in real time and to use the materials in the Site in a manner consistent with Paragraph 4 (Intellectual Property Rights) below.

4. Intellectual Property Rights.  Unauthorized duplication of this Site, in whole or in part, or of any content downloaded from the Site is a violation of United States copyright law and international treaties.

                A. Copyrights

SME owns the copyright in this Site and the content thereof, including, without limitation, all text, graphics, images, video material, audio material, and other content (“Copyright Material”), excluding materials uploaded by you.  The Copyright Material is protected by federal and international copyright laws. You may display portions of the Site solely for your own personal, non-commercial use.  You agree not to change or delete any proprietary notices from materials downloaded from this Site.  All other uses, including, without limitation, the reproduction, distribution, sale, lease, transmission, republication, public performance, public display, preparation of derivative works or compilations, reverse-engineering, and all other commercial uses of the Site or its content are strictly prohibited by this Agreement and the law.

                B. Trademarks

SME’s trade names and word and design marks (and goodwill appurtenant thereto), including, without limitation, the SME® mark and the SM:E® mark (jointly and severally “Trademarks”), are owned by or licensed to SME.  The Trademarks may not be used in any manner by you or any other person, organization, or entity without the prior express written authorization, in a separate and subsequent document, of an officer of SME.  All other trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners and are used on this site by virtue of a right or license from their respective owners.

                C. Notice and Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement

Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 512, claims of copyright infringement must be submitted to the following designated agent for SME:

Ilona Wheat
SME, Inc.
P.O. Box 50872
Irvine, California 92619
infringement@SMEmenow.com

To be effective, the notification must be a written communication that includes the following:

(i) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;

(ii). A reasonably detailed description of the alleged infringing material, or, if multiple copyrighted works are alleged to be infringing, a representative list of such works on this website;

(iii). A reasonably detailed description of where the alleged infringing material is located on this website;

(iv). Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted;

(v). A statement that the complaining party has a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;

(vi). A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

5. Grant of License in User Materials.  You hereby grant to SME a perpetual, nonexclusive, royalty-free and compensation-free, sublicensable, fully transferable license to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, prepare derivative works of, transmit (digitally and otherwise), and otherwise exploit any and all audiovisual materials, text, data; your name, image, likeness voice, biographical material and other personal attributes; and any other information uploaded or otherwise transmitted or delivered to the Site or SME (jointly and severally the “User Materials”) throughout the universe (the "Territory").  For avoidance of doubt, User Materials include any and all materials, information and data submitted or entered as part of any Contest.  Without limitation, the license granted hereunder authorizes, but does not obligate, SME to use the User Materials on the Site, in advertising and promotional materials, and for any other reasonable business purpose.

6. Idea Submissions.  We value and encourage your feedback.  Pursuant to our company policies, however, we do not accept or consider creative ideas, suggestions, or materials.  This policy is intended to protect you and SME.  If you choose to send any submissions despite our request that you do not, then you hereby irrevocably transfer, free of any present of future compensation, any and all rights, throughout the universe, in and to each submission (including the individual elements of each submission), including, without limitation, all copyright rights, trademark rights (and goodwill appurtenant thereto), trade secret rights, industrial rights, and moral rights, whether now existing or hereafter arising.  To the extent moral rights may not be assigned or transferred, you hereby waive enforcement of any and all moral rights.  SME shall be entitled to complete unrestricted use of the submissions and all information contained therein for any purpose, whether commercial or otherwise, without compensation to or recognition of the author or provider of the submissions.

7. User Representations & Warranties.  You represent and warrant that (i) you are at least 18 years of age (or the age of majority in the jurisdiction in which you reside), or you are between the ages of 13 and 17, inclusive, and have obtained consent from your parent or legal guardian and he/she have agreed to be bound by the terms and conditions hereof individually and on your behalf, and that you possess the legal right and ability to enter into and comply with the terms of this Agreement and to use the Site in accordance with this Agreement; (ii) you own or otherwise possess all of the rights required by law to legally reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, prepare derivative works of, transmit (digitally and otherwise) and to otherwise make available the User Materials and to grant the license in the User Materials to SME; (iii) you shall provide true, accurate, current and complete information about you as requested by SME, whether via forms available on the Site, email or otherwise; and (iv) you shall not export, re-export, share, transmit or otherwise furnish any software on this Site to any person on the Specially Designated Nationals List or Blocked Persons List of the U.S. Treasury Department; the Denied Persons List or the Entity List of the U.S. Department of Commerce; or to any country or regime to which the U.S has embargoed goods or which is the subject of a U.S. sanctions program.

8. Governing Law, Jurisdiction, & Venue.  This Agreement and the Contest shall be governed by and interpreted pursuant to the laws of the State of California and the United States of America without regard for conflicts of law principles.  You irrevocably agree that the state and federal courts situated in Orange County, California shall have exclusive jurisdiction and venue over any and all disputes arising under or related to this Agreement and/or the Contest, and you hereby expressly waive jurisdiction and venue in any other forum.

9. INDEMNIFICATION.  YOU AGREE TO DEFEND, INDEMNIFY, AND HOLD HARMLESS SME, AND ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES SUCCESSORS, ASSIGNS AND PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, SHAREHOLDERS, PARTNERS, MEMBERS, PRINCIPALS, AGENTS AND REPRESENTATIVES, FROM AND AGAINST ALL LIABILITIES, DAMAGES, CLAIMS, CAUSES OF ACTION, COURT COSTS, ATTORNEY’S FEES, AND ALL OTHER COSTS AND EXPENSES, IN CONNECTION WITH, ARISING FROM, OR RELATING TO, (a) any user material posted or otherwise provided by you that infringes any copyright, trademark, trade secret, trade dress, patent or other intellectual property right of any person, defames any person or violates their rights of publicity or privacy; (b) any misrepresentation made by you in connection with your use of the SITE; (c) any non-compliance by you with the terms and conditions of this Agreement; and (d) claims brought by persons or entities other than the parties to this Agreement arising from or related to your access and use of the SITE, including, WITHOUT LIMITATION, the information obtained through the SITE.  SME MAY, AT ITS SOLE DISCRETION, CHOOSE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE DEFENSE OR ANY MATTER OR CLAIM OR NEGOTIATED SETTLEMENT.  NO SETTLEMENT WHICH MAY HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO AFFECT SME’S RIGHTS IN ANY WAY SHALL BE ENTERED INTO WITHOUT ITS PRIOR WRITTEN APPROVAL.

10. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.  YOU AGREE THAT SME, AND ITS PARENTS, SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, SUCCESSORS, ASSIGNS AND PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, SHAREHOLDERS, PARTNERS, MEMBERS, PRINCIPALS, AGENTS AND REPRESENTATIVES SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OR INDEMNITY, REGARDLESS OF THE NATURE OR CAUSE OF THE DAMAGES OR INDEMNITY, THAT ARISE FROM OR RELATE IN ANY WAY TO YOUR USE OF, OR SME’S PROVISION OF THE CONTENT, INFORMATION, OR OTHER MATERIAL EITHER MADE AVAILABLE ON THIS SITE, THROUGH ANY PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS, OR ON ANY EXTERNALLY-LINKED THIRD PARTY SITE.  WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, SPONOSR SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY, SPECIAL, AND/OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY OTHER CAUSE, LOSS, ACTION, CLAIM, OR DAMAGE, INCLUDING LOSS OF TIME, OR INJURY TO PERSON OR PROPERTY, REGARDLESS OF THE SOURCE OR CAUSE.  FOR AVOIDANCE OF DOUBT, THIS PROVISION SHALL SURVIVE THE TERMINATION OF THIS AGREEMENT.  Some jurisdictions may not permit limitations of liability.  In such jurisdictions, the above disclaimer may not apply with respect to implied warranties.

11. DISCLAIMER OF ALL OTHER WARRANTIES.  ALL PRODUCTS, SERVICES, MATERIALS, INFORMATION, AND OTHER CONTENT ON THIS SITE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, TEXT, GRAPHICS, IMAGES, VIDEO CLIPS, AUDIO CLIPS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND EXTERNAL LINKS, ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS.  SME MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY TYPE, NEITHER EXPRESS NOR IMPLIED, AS TO THE OPERATION OF THE SITE OR THE INFORMATION, MATERIALS, CONTENT, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES CONTAINED HEREIN.  SME EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF ALL TYPES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  SME SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE ACCESS OR USE OF THIS SITE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY, SPECIAL, AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY OTHER CAUSE, LOSS, ACTION, CLAIM, OR DAMAGE, INCLUDING LOSS OF TIME, OR INJURY TO PERSON OR PROPERTY.  FOR AVOIDANCE OF DOUBT, THIS PROVISION SHALL SURVIVE THE TERMINATION OF THIS AGREEMENT. Some jurisdictions do not permit the disclaimer of implied warranties.  In such jurisdictions, the above disclaimer may not apply with respect to implied warranties.

12. Child Online Protection Act Notification.  Pursuant to 47 U.S.C. § 230(d), please note that parental control protections (such as computer hardware, software, or filtering services) are commercially available that may assist you in limiting access to material that is harmful to minors.  Information identifying current providers of such protections is available at the Electronic Frontier Foundation Web site, http://www.eff.org, and at the GetNetWise Coalition website, http://www.getnetwise.org.

 13. Export Controls.  Software is subject to the export control laws of the United States.  You shall not export, re-export, share, transmit or otherwise furnish any software on this Site to any person on the Specially Designated Nationals List or Blocked Persons List of the U.S. Treasury Department; the Denied Persons List or the Entity List of the U.S. Department of Commerce; or to any country or regime to which the U.S has embargoed goods or which is the subject of a U.S. sanctions program.

14. Limitation of Actions.  You acknowledge and agree that, regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action you may have arising out of, or relating to, your use of the Site must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arises, or it shall be forever be barred.

 15. Dealings with Third Parties.  Your correspondence with, business dealings with, or participation in promotions of third parties whose information is available on the Site (such as advertisers), including payment and delivery of related goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties, or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such third party.  SME will not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of such merchants on the Site.

 16. Termination of Agreement.  SME may, in its sole discretion, terminate your password, account (or any part thereof), or use of the Site and permanently delete any and all User Materials without prior notice for any reason (or no reason at all), including, but not limited to: (i) concurrent access of the Site with identical user identification numbers, (ii) permitting another person or entity to use your user identification number to access the Site, (iii) any other access or use of the Site except as expressly provided in this Agreement, (iv) any violation of the terms and conditions of this Agreement, the Acceptable Use Policy, or the Contest rules, (v) tampering with or alteration of any of the software and/or data files contained in, or accessed through, the Service, or (vi) failure to use the Site on a regular basis.  Termination, suspension, or cancellation of this Agreement or your access rights shall not affect any right or relief to which SME may be entitled.  Upon termination of this Agreement, all rights granted to you will automatically terminate and immediately revert to SME.  All rights granted by you to SME shall continue in perpetuity.

ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

This Acceptable Use Policy must be read in conjunction with the general Terms and Conditions which are incorporated herein by reference.

 1. Personal Safety.  When using the Site, please be certain that anything you post or say does not compromise your personal safety.  Do not provide your name, phone number, postal or e-mail address, your password, or any other personally identifying information to people you do not know.  Do not continue any conversation online that makes you feel uncomfortable.

2. Lawful Purpose.  This Site may be used only for lawful purposes.  The transmission, storage, routing, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any applicable local, state, or federal law or regulation, or in violation of the Agreement, this Acceptable Use Policy, or the Contest rules is strictly prohibited.  Without limitation, the following uses are strictly prohibited.  You agree not to engage in such conduct, directly or indirectly.   You shall not:

i. restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying the Site;

ii. post, upload, perform, or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation, any images or other material depicting Nudity.  For the purposes of this Agreement, “Nudity” shall include, without limitation, images depicting persons with unclothed genitalia or persons wearing transparent clothing over genitalia.

iii. post, upload, perform, or transmit comments containing harassing or offensive language, including sexual references, sexual nicknames, racial slurs, hate propaganda, hate mongering, swearing, or rude or deliberately offensive comments, or engage in disruptive activities online, including excessive use of scripts, sound waves, scrolling (repeating the same message over and over), or use of viruses, bots, worms or trojan horses;

 iv. post, upload, create, or transmit any information (including without limitation User Materials), software or other material that is fraudulent or violates or infringes the rights of others, including material that violates privacy or publicity rights, or infringes copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights, without first obtaining permission from the owner or right holder;

 v. post, upload, or transmit any information, software or other material that contains a virus or other harmful component;

 vi. post, upload, or transmit content that encourages or provides instructional activities about illegal activities, in particular hacking, cracking or phreaking;

 vii. post, upload, transmit or in any way exploit any information, software or other material for commercial purposes or that contains advertising, “junk mail,” “spam,” or “chain letters” except that you may provide promotional materials in those areas of the Site that may be designated for such purpose;

 viii. solicit other users to join, become members of, or contribute money to any online service or other organization, advocate or attempt to get users to join in legal or illegal schemes or plan or participate in scams involving other users;

 ix. impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your professional or other affiliation with any person or entity;

 x. resell, redistribute, broadcast or transfer the information or use the information derived from the Service in a searchable, machine-readable database;

xi. use the Site to collect personally identifying information about users of the Site in violation of our Privacy Policy;

 xii. disguise a file type to thwart SME's detection processes;

 xiii. forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any User Materials or other content submitted to the Site;

xiv. upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any User Materials that that violate the law or rights of third parties;

xv. interfere with or disrupt the Site or servers or networks connected to the Site, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Site;

xvi. provide support or resources (or to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, or ownership of material support or resources) to any organization(s) designated by the United States government as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act;

xvii. “stalk” or otherwise harass another;

xviii. post, provide, or transmit any information constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law; or

 xix. attempt to gain unauthorized access to other computer systems or networks connected to the Site.

 Any violation of the Acceptable Use Policy may result in the immediate termination of your account, denial of access to the Site, and disqualification from the Contest, without further notice to you. 

PRIVACY POLICY

This Acceptable Use Policy must be read in conjunction with the general Terms and Conditions which are incorporated herein by reference.

 1. Introduction.  This policy describes the personal information we collect about you, why we collect it, how we use it and when we share it with third parties. Our policy also describes the choices you can make about how we collect and use your information. If you have any questions about our privacy policy, you can contact SME by writing or emailing below:

 SME, Inc.
Attn: Privacy Officer
P.O. Box 50872
Irvine, California 92619
privacypolicy@SMEmenow.com

 

 2.  Information Collected By SME.  SME collects two types of personally identifying information from users: personal data (such as names and e-mail addresses); and aggregated data (such as information about traffic patterns on the Site, for example how many users log into the Site on a daily basis).

                a.  Personal Data

Personal data is collected when users provide personal data to SME, for example in registering for electronic newsletters or other membership services, in answering surveys, purchasing items from SME, and registering for contests and other promotional opportunities provided by SME.  Also, we collect the e-mail addresses of users who post messages to our message boards and chat areas.

                b.  Aggregated Information

Aggregated information, such as which pages users access or visit and information volunteered by users, such as survey information and/or site registrations, is collected through various methods.  For example, SME collects IP addresses.  An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you're surfing the Web.  Web servers, the computers that "serve up" web pages, automatically identify your computer by its IP address, and when you request a page from SME, our servers log your IP address.  SME does not link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable, so although your session will be logged, you will remain anonymous to us.  SME collects IP addresses for the purposes of system administration and to provide aggregate data to advertisers about the volume of use on the Site.

                c.  Use of Cookies

SME also uses "cookies" to collect information.  A cookie is a small data file that most major Web sites write to your hard drive for record keeping purposes when you visit them.  Cookies allow SME to measure activity on the Site and to improve your user experience, for example by remembering your passwords and viewing preferences, thus allowing you to visit various parts of the Site without re-registering.  Cookies are used by SME to measure activity on the Site and make improvements and updates based on which areas are popular and which are not.  SME does not use cookies to retrieve information from your computer that was not originally sent in a cookie.

We may allow third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit the Site.  The third-party advertising technology that we use on the Site uses information derived from your visits to the Site to target advertising within the Site.  In addition, our advertisers may use other third-party advertising technology to target advertising on the Site and other sites.  In the course of advertisements being served to you, a unique third-party cookie or cookies may be placed in your browser.  In addition, we may use web beacons, provided by third-party advertising companies, to help manage and optimize our online advertising.  Web beacons enable us to recognize a browser’s cookie when a browser visits the Site, and to learn which banner ads bring users to the Site.

To "opt-out," please visit: http://www.networkadvertising.org/consumer/opt_out.asp  

SME does not control the cookies placed in the course of advertisements being served to you, and these cookies are not subject to SME's privacy policies.

Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies.  If you'd prefer, you can set yours to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent.  However, it is possible that some parts of the Site will not function properly if you do so.

3. Use of Information Collected by SME.  SME uses personal and aggregated information we collect for multiple purposes.  The information is used to improve the content of the Site, to customize the content and/or layout of the Site for each individual user and to notify users about updates to the Site, promotional offers or opportunities that we believe will be of interest to you.  In addition, any content you submit to the Site (videos, voting, comments, etc.) will be publicly available.  When you send email or other communications to SME, we may retain those communications in order to process your inquiries, respond to your requests and improve our services.

SME shares aggregated information with third parties for both advertising and promotional purposes.  SME may also share personal information with prescreened third parties for marketing or promotional purposes.  SME will try to provide users with an opportunity to decline this service when such information is requested from you online.

SME may also share information with consultants and affiliates for internal business purposes and may divulge personal information if such information is subpoenaed, or if SME believes that any user has committed unlawful acts or acts that endanger the health or safety of another user or of the general public.  In some situations, we will share your personal information, on a confidential basis, with third parties who perform a particular service on our behalf, such as sending e-mails and processing credit card or other transactions.  Also, SME may be sold or transferred to another entity.  Should such an event occur, customer information will of course be one of the transferred assets.

SME may use third party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Site.  These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to our Site and to other Web sites in order to provide advertisements on this Site and other sites about goods and services of interest to you.  In addition, SME may share with such companies certain Site usage information about visitors for the purpose of managing and targeting advertisements on the Site.  For this purpose, we and our third-party advertising SMEs note some of the pages you visit on our sites through the use of pixel tags (also called clear gifs).

4. Children Under 13 Years Old.  The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act imposes certain requirements upon websites directed toward children under 13 that collect information from those children.  Persons under the age of 13 are prohibited from visiting or accessing this site.  It is our policy not to collect personal information on any person under 13.

5. Persons Between 13 and 17 Years Old.  SME asks that children under the age of 18 do not submit or post information to the Site without a parent or guardian's consent.  SME may collect and use personally identifying information, in a manner consistent with the terms of this policy, from users between the ages of 13 and 17.  If a user or his/her parent or guardian changes his/her mind with respect to such use, such user, parent or guardian may instruct us to cease the use of such information by contacting us as set forth in paragraph 8 below.

6. Message Boards and Chat.  Please remember that information posted to message boards and chat areas becomes public information.  Use caution when posting.  Users under the age of 18 should be especially careful not to provide any personally identifying information while using chat rooms or message boards.  As set forth in the Acceptable Use Policy, users of chat rooms and message boards must follow acceptable standards of behavior when posting messages online.

7. Links to Other Sites.  It is important to note that this Site may contain links to third party websites over which SME has no control, and that those sites may not follow the same privacy policies as SME.  For instance, if you click on an advertisement on this Site you will be redirected to an entirely different site.  This can include links from advertisers, content providers and partners who may use SME's logo and/or style as a result of a co-branding agreement.  These sites may send their own cookies to you, and may collect data and make uses of it that SME would not.

 8. Your Choices About Receiving Promotional Communications.  We want to communicate with you only if you want to hear from us.  If you would like to have your name and address removed from our list, please contact us by writing or emailing us below:

SME, Inc.
Attn: Privacy Officer
P.O. Box 50872
Irvine, California 92619
privacypolicy@SMEmenow.com

We will add your name and address to our "Do Not Contact" list and do our best to ensure that we honor your request.  Please note that any requests to update your personal information may take up to ten days to process.  If, due to human error, you continue to receive unwanted communications, please contact us again and we will make every effort to correct the situation.

If for any reason you do not want to receive promotional (i.e. not order-related) emails that notify you of new product arrivals, exclusive offers, upcoming events, store openings and more, simply click the unsubscribe link provided at the bottom of every email we send.

   9. California Privacy Requirements.  Under California Civil Code sections 1798.83-1798.84, California residents are entitled to ask us for a notice describing what categories of personal customer information SMEshares with third parties and affiliates for direct marketing purposes.  That notice will identify the categories of information shared and will include a list of the third parties and affiliates with which it was shared, along with their names and addresses.  If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to the following address: SME, Inc., Attn: Privacy Officer, P.O. Box 50872, Irvine, California 92619, privacypolicy@SMEmenow.com.

Questions or Comments?
For questions, comments, or assistance, we invite you to contact us:
SME, Inc.
Attn: Privacy Officer
P.O. Box 50872
Irvine, California 92619
[privacypolicy@SMEmenow.com]