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[Astro]

Anyone else notice this was a link in RED today??:

Link:  http://www.virtualfamilykingdom.com/privacy_policy.htm

From the VFK Website:



Virtual Family Kingdom Privacy Policy
Effective November 18, 2008
Virtual Family Kingdom is managed and operated by Virtual Management Consulting PTY LTD Windsor, NSW 2757 Australia, ("Virtual Family Kingdom").

This Privacy Policy describes the use of information by Virtual Family Kingdom.

Virtual Family Kingdom is a website which is safe for all ages. Our primary goal is to maintain and keep safe any private information that we collect on the Virtual Family Kingdom website. Our privacy policy and our information practices are compliant with privacy protection laws and legislation including the:

United States Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

European Data Protection legislation

Canadian federal and provincial privacy legislation

This Privacy Policy describes the Virtual Family Kingdom website information practices, including how we collect, use and disclose personal information.

1.  About the Information We Collect

As part of our initial registration on Virtual Family Kingdom, we collect the following information:

Data that is collected at registration for children under 13:

Date of birth, User name, Proposed character name, Character gender, Password, Your first name, Parent's email address


Data that is collected at registration for all others:

Date of birth, User name, Proposed character name, Character gender, Password, Your first name, Your last name, Email, Zip or postal code


When a registered member of Virtual Family Kingdom purchases a membership, additional personally identifiable information ("PII") from the registered member or the registered member's parent may be collected.


The types of PII that may be collected at that time include:

Members full name, e-mail address to use for membership account, credit card billing information including mailing address and phone number, and such other information as may be necessary to process payment.


The Virtual Family Kingdom website does not require any further information from a member including children under age 13 to participate in any part of the website.

How we notify parents of children under 13 if their child has created an account on Virtual Family Kingdom:

Virtual Family Kingdom website requires players to give a parent's valid email address when they create their account. This e-mail address is used to send the parent a message in email that they must act upon to complete the registration of their child's account on Virtual Family Kingdom. So that parents are aware of our privacy policies, the email includes a link to this privacy policy in the message and information on how to contact us.

We may also use the email address to send messages and information about your account or notices about Virtual Family Kingdom and its related companies and affiliates. The email may also be used for any other purposes described in this Privacy Policy. This email address is associated with the registered account user name.

We may also ask for a user name and email address when a registered user submits a communication through the "Contact Us" form of the Virtual Family Kingdom website so that we may answer any questions or reply to comments.

In cases where players can contribute opinions to surveys and polls on the website, players may be asked to provide data that is not considered PII, such as favorite choices and country where player resides. Registered players can participate in the online chat on the website, however measures have been implemented so that players cannot provide personal information through the online chat.

Passive information that we collect on registered users includes certain non-personally identifiable information about the player's computer, such as the players IP address, the type of web browser, the type of computer operating system, and data regarding the player's Internet service provider. This information may be associated with any PII that we have collected and as a result will be treated as PII.

For players with paid memberships, the financial information collected as described in item 6 of this Privacy Policy is not used for any other purpose than processing payments to Virtual Family Kingdom. Any financial information that is required and entered when purchasing a membership is not maintained or stored on Virtual Family Kingdom servers. It is only on the secure servers used by the payment processing company for the reasons of processing payments made to Virtual Family Kingdom.

If the personal information necessary to create an account is not provided by a player, then Virtual Family Kingdom may not agree to provide membership and/or access to some content and features on the Virtual Family Kingdom website. In addition, we may not be able to provide other services, functionality, information, or products which may be requested.

2.  How We Disclose, Store and Use Collected Information:

Besides the purposes outlined in Item 1, Virtual Family Kingdom may actively collect and use email addresses and user names to monitor and track usage and player compliance with the website's Terms of Use and Rules and Regulations.

The registered player's email address and user name may also be utilized to enforce compliance with the Terms of Use. This enforcement may include suspending a player account temporarily or permanently from the Virtual Family Kingdom website if a player fails to use appropriate behavior on the website. In addition, registered player email addresses and user names can be used by parents of children under 13 to enable parents to review PII that the children have submitted to the Virtual Family Kingdom website. It may also be used to notify registered players or parents of any information regarding the site, such as any amendments to this Privacy Policy. The aggregated information may also be used to analyze statistics and usage on the website, and to offer programs, products, or services related to Virtual Family Kingdom.

Any collected information may be disclosed if required by law, for example, in reply to a subpoena or court order. We may also need to disclose information to service providers or companies providing support for the operations of the website which would not be used or disclosed for any other reason or purpose. We may also disclose PII in reply to a public or law enforcement agency's request including schools or children services, to the extent permitted by law. We may also disclose this information if we feel that by doing so, it would protect the safety of a child who is a player on our website, or to prevent the instigation of a crime, or to facilitate a public safety related investigation, or to protect the security of the website, or to enable us to take reasonable steps to reduce liability.

In the event that Virtual Family Kingdom is sold in entirely, or in any part, or that or is involved in any business restructuring or merger, PII may be transferred to a third party associated with that transaction, as permitted by and in compliance with applicable law.

Finally, for reasons of security PII may be transferred and stored outside of the jurisdiction of members of Virtual Family Kingdom.

3.  Information Collected for Third-Party Sites, Affiliates and Sponsors

We do not allow any third-party companies to directly advertise, or solicit to players on our website. It is our intention to not allow this kind of direct advertising in Virtual Family Kingdom.

4.  Unique Identifiers and Cookies

Unique identifiers or "cookies," are small text files that are placed in player's computer browsers to store preferences. Cookies do not collect or contain any PII, however if we link these unique identifiers in any way with your other PII, they will be treated as PII. We may use unique identifiers to track such information as number of players, usage and tracking of frequency and what sections and parts of our site are visited.

5.  Security Policies and Procedures

We have implemented physical, managerial and technological policies and procedures to keep all information and data collected and maintained by Virtual Family Kingdom secure. These measures safeguard against unauthorized access and ensure that we use the information we collect online correctly and appropriately.

6.  Financial Information

As noted in Section 1, when you decide to purchase a membership, we will need to collect additional financial information at the time you purchase. Virtual Family Kingdom does not store the financial information, but instead, it is collected and stored by our payment processing vendor for the purpose of processing payment to Virtual Family Kingdom. All financial collection is secured by the safest measures available and will not be used for purposes other than processing your purchase. The payment processing vendor maintains the strictest security and confidentiality of your financial information. In addition, that information is safeguarded with appropriate security. Our bank is also subject to all the privacy laws which apply and relate to providing financial services.

7.  Access to Information, and Objection to Information Collection and Retention

Please contact our Director of Privacy identified in item 8 if you would like to gain access to your PII that Virtual Family Kingdom has collected for you or your child. You may request that we delete, make changes to, or no longer maintain or collect the PII we have collected. In addition, if you may request information or contact information on any organizations to which we disclose PII.

When requesting information, please include your email address and a telephone number where you can be reached. As additional security measures to protect the privacy of your information, we use measures to verify your identity before allowing you to access the PII that we have collected on you or your child.

8.  Contact Information for Virtual Family Kingdom

To send any comments or questions about this Privacy Policy, just send a message in e-mail with your questions or comments to support@virtualfamilykingdom.com or write to us at:

Virtual Management Consulting PTY LTD

109 Hanckel Rd.

Oakville, NSW 2765 Australia

954-349-3325

Any personal information that you provide in messages to the above e-mail and postal mail address will be kept confidential and will not be used for promotional purposes except upon your request.

9.  Privacy Policy Effective Date and Updates

As of November 18, 2008, the Privacy Policy outlined above is effective and applies to all information obtained by Virtual Family Kingdom to date. The Privacy Policy may be changed at any time at our sole discretion. Any changes will be posted as the new privacy policy on the Virtual Family Kingdom website with the effective date clearly displayed. As required by applicable law, PII will not be used in any way that is essentially different from the uses outlined in this Privacy Policy without notification of additional uses and obtaining consent for those uses.

[PrincessWendyBird]

Woot great find Astro! Looks like they have all their ducks in a row  as far as an address on the home page and COPPA issues. If only we could keep that purpleduck to stop leaving feathers all around and that King duck to stop passing gas. 

[KingQuackATac]

Well, my link is in Green....

htp://www.ipassgas.com/
(add a "t" in the "htp" to actually go to this site - it was the only way I could make the dumb link green, even though it's not really a link now because you have to add your own "t", but I digress...)

Seriously though, I can't believe this guy is paying for this domain name. ROFL  

[Astro]

Well, my link is in Green....

htp://www.ipassgas.com/
(add a "t" in the "htp" to actually go to this site - it was the only way I could make the dumb link green, even though it's not really a link now because you have to add your own "t", but I digress...)

Seriously though, I can't believe this guy is paying for this domain name. ROFL  

Awww, but such a nice picture of Cartman.   

[cyre]

One thing i've never understood is why their phone number is a Weston, FL based home business?  Google the # and you'll see what I mean.

[Happy]

One thing i've never understood is why their phone number is a Weston, FL based home business?  Google the # and you'll see what I mean.

I have never quite figured out the location situation, including the Australia tie in.  According to Google, the phone is listed for "Syndiom LLC".  Based on that info I did find a site for a product that links the company listed for that phone # with Narisopa Media.  The site I found mentions "...consulting teams at Narasopa Media and the brilliant programmers at Syndiom LLC..."    (http://www.sociable1.com/sociable1.html)

I'm so confused  ...still.  Sub-contracted work?  Consulting? Partnerships?   The only certain thing is that, I'm confused too.  Maybe some day we will know. 

[funfly]

I noticed that Red link for privacy policy too. So, the company is managed and operated in Australia; phone number is Florida; didn't someone say they moved from NJ to some state out west?  This is soooo confusing  


 - One thing is for CERTAIN, we are all confused 

[Happy]

I noticed that Red link for privacy policy too. So, the company is managed and operated in Australia; phone number is Florida; didn't someone say they moved from NJ to some state out west?  This is soooo confusing  


 - One thing is for CERTAIN, we are all confused 

I recall a tie to New Mexico. 

[aengus]

Fred and Gail turned it over a while ago. 


http://virtualmanagementconsulting.com/visualcielo/default.aspx.htm

read the quote at the bottom,  which is also a bit of a stretch to the imagination i might add

When you first saw an Australian connection it wasn't a new office, it was turning over operations to them.

[Bugdozer]

"Just one of our clients is www.virtualfamilykingdom.com and this world is now regarded as one of the largest kingdoms in the world. "

OMG now that is just too funny So they are bigger then Club Penguin (from Wiki)By the time Club Penguin was two years old, membership had reached 3.9 million users. At the point when they were purchased by Disney, Club Penguin had 12 million accounts, of which 700,000 were paid subscribers, and were generating $40 million in annual revenue.

Or world of warcraft (wiki) in April 2008, World of Warcraft was estimated to hold 62% of the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) market.

I don't know where they get their numbers but I think VFK ranks way low in the market of online worlds.

I have said from the beginning i play once in a while but I do not trust them at all. Communication is not there and they are not even living up to what they were suppose to give people in the founders package and it seems no one can completely pin point where they are. As always I proceed  with caution.

Bug

[disvaclub]

"Just one of our clients is www.virtualfamilykingdom.com and this world is now regarded as one of the largest kingdoms in the world. "

Bug, just a quick comment - his quote relates to kingdoms not to MMOG's.  So in the world of "kingdoms" online which are not that many, it could possibly be a large kingdom.    It's all in how you say it and who will buy what you say, just need to read between the lines.

Just a little factoid I want to point out, the COPPA compliance issue that was brought up in a previous post here and of course elsewhere (from the beginning of VFK), most likely had alot to do with finding an organization outside the states to run it.   Online sites are regulated to follow rules within the US, more so then those outside the country.  So I would not be surprised if that little issue and the failure to respond CARU's inquiry forced them to add that to the site.   Whether the site was enhanced to have the COPPA requirements now, still many users are playing without having met the compliance rule for COPPA.  The site as we know was not in compliance with COPPA at the time of presenting to the online worlds, therefore, in violation of COPPA.  Makes me wonder what other compliance matters in the US they have not complied with, but not a surprise. heh

Just curious again, has anyone received the items promised?     

[PrincessWendyBird]

I just want to clarify here, so that nobody gets confused. Fred and Gail are still very involved in the day to day workings of VFK. Clearly, there is a partnership of some kind here or some type of client relationship, which is not uncommon for small businesses. Trust me, I know, the small business King works for is having a "transition" period now. The web site listed above states that VFK is a client and we just talked to Gail and a developer on the phone within the past week. Just don't want anyone thinking they are out of the picture completely here, they are not. 

[cyre]

I recall a tie to New Mexico. 

Hmm I recall that, but don't remember the tie.  The IP (174.133.234.146) is based in Houston, Tx

OrgName:    ThePlanet.com Internet Services, Inc.
OrgID:      TPCM
Address:    315 Capitol
Address:    Suite 205
City:       Houston
StateProv:  TX
PostalCode: 77002
Country:    US

I just want to clarify here, so that nobody gets confused. Fred and Gail are still very involved in the day to day workings of VFK. Clearly, there is a partnership of some kind here or some type of client relationship, which is not uncommon for small businesses. Trust me, I know, the small business King works for is having a "transition" period now. The web site listed above states that VFK is a client and we just talked to Gail and a developer on the phone within the past week. Just don't want anyone thinking they are out of the picture completely here, they are not.  Smile

Yes, it's Fred and Sara.  Gail is the answer the phones lady.

[PrincessWendyBird]

I recall a tie to New Mexico. 

Hmm I recall that, but don't remember the tie.  The IP (174.133.234.146) is based in Houston, Tx

OrgName:    ThePlanet.com Internet Services, Inc.
OrgID:      TPCM
Address:    315 Capitol
Address:    Suite 205
City:       Houston
StateProv:  TX
PostalCode: 77002
Country:    US

That is the company that provides part of their servers. I don't know if you remember the explosion and fire they had a little bit into the game opening? I believe that happened at this location.

Just wanted to add, not sure about the "Sarah" connection. Don't know if that is part of their team or simply a character created to represent the game. I know there was a Sarah in game at the start as well. But, Fred and Gail-Anne Wade are husband and wife I believe. 

[disvaclub]

I just want to clarify here, so that nobody gets confused. Fred and Gail are still very involved in the day to day workings of VFK. Clearly, there is a partnership of some kind here or some type of client relationship, which is not uncommon for small businesses. Trust me, I know, the small business King works for is having a "transition" period now. The web site listed above states that VFK is a client and we just talked to Gail and a developer on the phone within the past week. Just don't want anyone thinking they are out of the picture completely here, they are not. 

I don't think there was confusion in that since the link that Aengus provided was for management consulting.   And clearly they are a client, so no total reigns passed over, but some management consulting to help obviously.

[Happy]

I just want to clarify here, so that nobody gets confused. Fred and Gail are still very involved in the day to day workings of VFK. Clearly, there is a partnership of some kind here or some type of client relationship, which is not uncommon for small businesses. Trust me, I know, the small business King works for is having a "transition" period now. The web site listed above states that VFK is a client and we just talked to Gail and a developer on the phone within the past week. Just don't want anyone thinking they are out of the picture completely here, they are not. 

I don't think there was confusion in that since the link that Aengus provided was for management consulting.   And clearly they are a client, so no total reigns passed over, but some management consulting to help obviously.

I'm still a little confused and definately forgot about (or did not see) the name of the management firm in some of the above posts.   In VFK I am a "part time" player. For those that have made VKF more of a virtual home, I'm sure sure the corporate structure doesn't matter all that much.

When the game I enjoy most goes out of beta there may not even be a phone # in the USA for support.  If there is one, and the area code is not in Northern California, then they will have my head spinning too. And of course, then there will be the payment choices and so on.  And honestly, the corporate structure won't be the my primary focus either.  Enjoying what the game offers will be my focus. 


Based on the past 2 days, I think we will have to start calling Astro, "Miss Hot Topics!" Hugs GF! 

[PrincessWendyBird]

I just want to clarify here, so that nobody gets confused. Fred and Gail are still very involved in the day to day workings of VFK. Clearly, there is a partnership of some kind here or some type of client relationship, which is not uncommon for small businesses. Trust me, I know, the small business King works for is having a "transition" period now. The web site listed above states that VFK is a client and we just talked to Gail and a developer on the phone within the past week. Just don't want anyone thinking they are out of the picture completely here, they are not. 

I don't think there was confusion in that since the link that Aengus provided was for management consulting.   And clearly they are a client, so no total reigns passed over, but some management consulting to help obviously.

I'm still a little confused and definately forgot about (or did not see) the name of the management firm in some of the above posts.  In VFK I am a "part time" player. For those that have made VKF more of a virtual home, I'm sure sure the corporate structure doesn't matter all that much.

When the game I enjoy most goes out of beta there may not even be a phone # in the USA for support.  If there is one, and the area code is not in Northern California, then they will have my head spinning too. And of course, then there will be the payment choices and so on.  And honestly, the corporate structure won't be the my primary focus either.  Enjoying what the game offers will be my focus. 

Excellent point Happy.  The thing for our family is that we love playing this game together. I wish all of you could have been here to watch Princess Red, Prince Blue, and King playing hide and seek throughout VFK the other evening! Priceless! (The only rule was no using the "go to friend" feature to find someone.) The squeels of laughter in this house were what mattered and it was really a great family moment. That has always been my wish for all of our VMK friends - to find a game that you will enjoy playing. We always have places like NoBS to connect in between.  Now, off to see how many threads King has soiled with his stinky gas passing today.