Terms & Policies

Effective April 1, 2007 for current Techtain users, and upon acceptance, during registration, for new users.   Privacy Policy Techtain is unreservedly committed to your privacy and the security of your information. By using Techtain, you agree to - and accept - the terms of this policy. We hope that you will read Techtain's Privacy Policy so as to appreciate and understand the information we collect from you, why and how we do so, how we protect the information you provide, and how you can act responsibly as you use Techtain's website, www.techtain.com The Information We Ask of You When your browser lands on the Techtain homepage, you will only be able to login (enter the main site) after you have registered. During registration, you provide us with four pieces of personal information: first name, last name, email, and password. Every student user provides us with two extra pieces of information: college/university name and dormitory/residence hall name; these two are to enable us offer students absolutely free services, but they are not mandatory. After registering, using Techtain involves telling our system the items or services that you can offer and those which you seek. At the first instance of your requesting an item/service or when wish to add it to your "MyWants", our secure and powerful matching algorithm senses that in order for others to deliver the item/service you need, they must know where to send it to. You are thus prompted to create a profile which is a composite of your address, phone number, and date of birth. Of these, only your address is mandatory. It is the only information others on Techtain can see; in fact, only those who agree to send you an item will see your full address. Others merely browsing your profile will be privy to nothing beyond your name and school. We allow you upload a picture of your choice; often, people upload pictures of themselves. Techtain is largely about user-generated content (user-defined content), and as such we must allow you post content, but please know that you post them at your own risk. There is always a trade-off between disclosure/description and user experience. On the one hand, withholding information will reduce the depth of utility to derive as a user. On the other, inordinate disclosure may be exploited by others. It is our resolve to kick out persons who do not adhere to basic, normally accepted, and stipulated standards of propriety on Techtain. This website is yours not Techtain’s and its success is purely hinged on the trust based elements in the Techtain society. We do everything humanly and technically possible to protect you, and we mean it. Yet, we cannot control the actions of others. Consequently, we do not guarantee that user-generated content available on the website will be properly and appropriately used or regarded by all. Techtain is not responsible for manipulation of any settings, by unauthorized parties, on the site. Like you, we seek to see that this does not happen. We expect that you will understand that once a piece of information is uploaded, others may store the information using any means such that even after your remove such content, those persons may still have access to it from their storage device(s). We use cookies to save certain information about all browsers pointing to Techtain. Cookies are small files that collect information about a computer/user. We do this in order to secure your information as you have a nice time on our platform. If you forget to log off, cookies allow us to know that you are no more at your computer and that you may have forgotten to log off. This enables us to protect your information by saving the state or by making sure no one else can log on using your information. We do not use cookies to store your passwords as we feel it is your responsibility to remember it. We, however, use cookies to save your login email address so that you may not always have to retype it anytime you visit Techtain. If you choose, you can disable cookies by using the settings in your browser. We keep copies of certain activities on Techtain so as to garner a growing back up in the event that something goes wrong. This way, we can provide you with information you inadvertently deleted. As you use Techtain, our platform learns intelligently and attempts to tailor itself to your characteristic patterns so as to enrich your experience by customization. When listing your "MyHaves" or "MyWants", you often have to upload an item’s name, service description, or a picture. Such information are saved onto our database so that when someone else is looking for that information (whether to provide the item/service or request it), the information is less difficultly available. It is important to note that the more searches members perform on Techtain, the more they help us. Techtain's human-to-machine feature imitates life in that the more you use the system, the more robust it gets. As an invite-only platform, we provide tools for friends to invite friends. Using the simple tool means providing the invitee's email address. All inappropriate gathering or misuse of data and information on Techtain is a violation of Techtain's Terms of Service. Report tools are being made available on the website. If you feel you must contact us, proceed to send an email to info@techtain.com Techtain's vision will reached when the company is truly global. Currently, Techtain’s secure servers are only in the United States and by using Techtain, you agree to have your information stored, processed, and guarded in the United States. Use of Information During registration, you provide us with four pieces of personal information: first name, last name, email, and password. Students provide two additional pieces of information. All of these do not constitute your profile on Techtain; we just need them to get you started. Your full profile is created when you ask for an item to be sent to you (i.e. when you add to you MyWants). At this stage, we ask for your address, phone number, and date of birth. Of these, only your address is mandatory. Here is how we use the information we collect from you. Your email address and your password are used by our intelligent algorithms and servers to authenticate your identity; your email address is also used to notify you whenever an item/service you want has been agreed to be delivered by a friend or when an item/service you have has been requested by a friend. We display your name to other Techtain members who view your needs or haves. Your address is essential so that persons willing to offer you items and services you have asked for can do so. You will, however, be informed before we enable people to deliver items and services to you, and we inform you via your email address. If you provide your date of birth and phone number, we use this information to understand the demographic and geographic nature and patterns on the site so that we can understand how best to serve our users. We give you the option of uploading picture of yourself or anything, on your profile page. We allow your friends to write on a section of your profile called "Who said what!" You will, nonetheless, be notified when anyone says anything about you, and you will be given the ability to delete what you wish to erase. The "Who said what!" section can be seen by only those in your TtCircle (i.e. those with whom you have a connection) and we make it visible only to your friends because we find that it is a good way for people to leave good comments about you. Age Requirement Techtain is a safe platform, but unfortunately, we cannot control the actions of others. As such, only persons above twelve years of age are allowed to join the Techtain community. That is to say, all members must be 13 years of age or older. Peradventure we gather that an under-aged person is on Techtain, we will wield our prerogative to deactivate the individual's account immediately. We urge that parents help us see that their children are 13 years or older before joining Techtain. If you believe we have, on www.techtain.com, information of persons below 13 years of age, please kindly let us know by writing to info@techtain.com Your Security Maintaining the integrity of the information you provide us is prime. It is as vital to us as is our success. Our success in delivering superlative services rests on our ability to protect your account information. We do this by saving your information on secure serves that are themselves protected by layers of advanced encryption technologies. Altering your Information You are in absolute control of your information and you can go to your My Account link to edit your information. We do not allow the editing of first and last names because they seldom change. However, on the rare occasions when users have to change their names, we ask that they email us at info@techtain.com When you correspond with other Techtain members, what you write on their personalized platforms and the messages you send them cannot be altered by you nor can messages in your Sent folder be altered. Other Website links Currently, Techtain does not provide links to other websites and Techtain is not responsible for the privacy terms (or their enforcement) of other website whose links are made available on Techtain by its users.