Policy regarding Information Privacy and Confidentiality

Valid from September 28, 2018

These privacy policies (the “Privacy Policies”) will apply upon acceptance by new users and are effective since April 1, 2007.

The privacy of users’ information is of great importance to Mercado Libre. Therefore, all necessary precautions and measures are taken to safeguard their information, using the most effective and comprehensive IT security mechanisms. As an ordinary part of our activity we collect and, sometimes, disclose information about the users and visitors to our Website. These Privacy Policies describe the information Mercado Libre collects from its users and visitors and what can be done with such information. This Policy is very detailed because it is important that all our users and visitors become aware of Mercado Libre’s practices as accurately as possible. Upon signing in and/or browsing on Mercado Libre Website, users give their consent so that their personal information can be used according to the following policies.

This document is an integral part of Mercado Libre's General Terms and Conditions. By accepting the General Terms and Conditions at the time of registration, user accepts the policies contained herein.

Rights to access, cancel and update personal information

Users are fully entitled to access, cancel and update their Personal Information, including their e-mail address, and they may refuse to the use thereof and require to be informed of any assignments made, in accordance with the provisions contained in the applicable regulations. In any case, users guarantee and will be held liable for the truthfulness, accuracy, validity and authenticity of the Personal Information provided, and they undertake to keep their Personal Information duly updated.

Upon registration in MercadoLibre, Users may review and change the information provided throughout the registration process, including:

Their Nickname and e-mail address. Notwithstanding any changes Users might introduce, Mercado Libre will keep their previous Personal Information for security and fraud control.
registration information, such as: company, address, city, region, zip code, country, main telephone number, secondary telephone number, fax number, e-mail address, etc.
their password.

In some cases, we will keep for the period established by law the Personal Information Users requested to be removed, in order to resolve disputes or respond to claims, detect problems or incidents and solve them, and enforce the General Terms and Conditions. In any event, a user’s Personal Information will not be immediately removed from our files for legal and technical reasons, including security back-up systems. Therefore, Users should not expect us to definitely delete all their Personal Information from our databases.

Users should update their Personal Information on a regular basis in line with any Personal Information changes, so that other Users can trace them when making a transaction. In order to change any of the information provided at the time of registration, you should access the My Account section and click on My Data.

Mercado Libre may at any time amend the terms and conditions of these Privacy and confidentiality Policies and/or its e-mail delivery practices. Should Mercado Libre decide to introduce any material changes to its Privacy Policies, it will notify users by posting an updated version of the Policies in this section, by e-mail, or through a notification on its homepage or other sections of the website to keep users aware of any changes.

Any material changes in the way users’ Personal Information is managed will be informed via e-mail so that users may make an informed decision on whether they accept the new treatment of their Personal Information. Should users not accept these terms, the contract relationship will terminate and their Personal Information will only be used as informed at the time it was received.

For further information on the confidentiality of users’ Personal Information, please contact us by postal mail to: Manuel Bonilla N.º 162, Oficina 203, Miraflores, Lima, Perú.

The information we collect

The first thing to do in order to enjoy the services of Mercado Libre is to sign in, by providing certain accurate and complete personal data (“Personal Information”). We may request, collect, and store the following Personal Information: Username or nickname to operate on the Mercado Libre site, name, valid identity document or card number, contact information (landline, address, e-mail address, etc.). Mercado Libre may verify the personal information so provided by resorting to public agencies, specialized companies or credit reporting companies, for which users hereby expressly give us their authorization. Any information thus obtained by Mercado Libre will be treated as confidential.

Users registering at Mercado Libre through their personal account on a social network (“Personal Account”), or otherwise accessing Mercado Libre through their Personal Account, expressly authorize Mercado Libre to:

Access at any time the entire information contained in their Personal Account, including, in particular but without limitation, their Personal Information, information on their interests, likes, contacts, and any other contents of their Personal Account;
Include in said account messages, photographs, videos, and any other type of content; and
Send to the User’s e-mail address linked to the Personal Account information or messages for the purposes described in the “How we Use the Information” section below.

It is hereby expressly agreed that the user registered in Mercado Libre may at any time request the cancellation of its registration request and/or to close its account or to eliminate its account and information from Mercado Libre’s database. Please, review the “Rights to access, cancel and update personal information” section below.

Mercado Libre automatically collects and stores certain information about the activity of its users and visitors on its website. Such information may include the URL of origin (whether or not on our Site), the URL they subsequently access to (whether or not on our Site), the browser used, and their IP addresses. In addition, pages viewed, searches, postings, purchases or sales, ratings and replies entered, messages posted in forums, among other information, may also be kept on record.

If the users send us correspondence, whether by e-mail or letter, or if other users or third parties send us correspondence regarding other users’ activities or messages on our Site, we can collect and store such Personal Information, including their e-mail addresses.

How we use the information

In order to provide an excellent service and to allow Users to conduct transactions smoothly and securely, Mercado Libre requires some personal information, including the user’s e-mail address. This information enables us to offer Users services and functionalities to better suit Users’ needs and customize our services so that their experience with Mercado Libre is as pleasant as possible. All the Personal Information we collect is intended to:

Help buyer and seller contact each other directly when appropriate depending on the purchase terms or thereafter. In this case, Mercado Libre will provide interested parties with their personal information (name, telephone numbers, location and email), by email or through the Website. The information so disclosed to buyer or seller will only be used for the purpose of closing the transaction originated in Mercado Libre and will not be used by any of them for advertising or marketing purposes, nor for any activities other than those related to Mercado Libre without the User’s express consent.
Develop internal studies on the interests, behavior and demography of Users to better understand their needs and interests and offer them better services or provide them with related information.
Enhance our marketing and commercial initiatives and analyze the most visited pages and the searches conducted by Users, and improve our offer of contents and items and customize said contents, their presentation and services.
Send information or messages about new services, show advertisements or promotions, and banners as may be of interest to Users, and communicate news about Mercado Libre, in addition to the information expressly authorized under the preferences section. If the User so prefers, he/she may choose to be excluded from the mailing lists for promotional or advertising information. You can learn how to do this in the “Changes to e-mail preferences” section below.
The winners of a Promotional campaign and/or contest organized by Mercado Libre hereby expressly give their permission to disclose their names, personal information and images and their relatives’ by any means and in any manner as deemed convenient for promotional and/or advertising purposes, without being entitled to compensation of any kind.
Share the Personal Information (including their e-mail addresses) with service providers or outsourcing companies that contribute to enhance or facilitate transactions through Mercado Libre, including (without limitation) transportation services, payment methods, insurance brokers or payment collection agencies, call centers or loyalty programs, among others. Mercado Libre will ensure that certain standards are met by signing agreements or contracts to protect the privacy of our users’ personal information. Nevertheless, Mercado Libre will not be liable for the wrongful use of a user’s personal information by such companies or Internet sites. In some cases, these service providers will collect information directly from the user (for example, if we require them to conduct surveys or studies). Under such circumstances, users will receive notice about the engagement of a service provider in such activities, and the user at his/her sole discretion may provide any information as he/she wishes and agree to any additional use of the information provided as such providers decide to make. If, on its own initiative, a user directly discloses additional information to such providers, they will use that information in accordance with their own privacy policies. If we decide to share personal information with third parties who are not Mercado Libre’s service providers or affiliated or related companies, we will request your consent.

Among the service providers collecting information directly from the user is Google Inc., a Delaware company headquartered at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View (California), CA 94043, United States ("Google"). Through the use of cookies (see the "Cookies" section below), Google obtains certain information on the activity of Mercado Libre’s users and their IP addresses, which is directly transmitted and stored by Google in its United States servers. Google will use this information on behalf of Mercado Libre to analyze and prepare reports on users’ online activity with a view to improving the services provided by our website. Google may convey this information to third parties where so required by the applicable law or where said third parties process that information on Google’s behalf. The user expressly consents to Google’s use of their information in the manner and for the purposes established herein.

Supply the Personal Information of the users to any organization taking part in the resolution of disputes between them, such as: Insurance companies, Amicable Compounders, Arbitration Tribunals or competent courts involved in the resolution of such disputes.

Confidentiality of the Information

Once Users have registered at our Site, Mercado Libre will not sell, rent, or share the Personal Information except as established in these policies. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the user expressly authorizes Mercado Libre to wholly or partially transfer the Personal Information to any of the subsidiaries, parent companies, and/or related companies of Mercado Libre, for consideration or otherwise, at the time, in the manner, and under the conditions Mercado Libre may deem fit. We will do our best to protect the privacy of the information. Under certain circumstances, we may be compelled to disclose information to the authorities or to third parties by virtue of judicial orders or legal regulations, or in the event third parties have access to or intercept information or data transmissions. In such cases, Mercado Libre will not be liable for the information thus revealed.

Nickname

To interact within the site, users will use a nickname to identify themselves. Users will not have access to the personal information of other users, except in the case of bidders of an Exclusive Auction, after they have conducted a transaction through our platform, when both parties will receive information about the other.

Personal Password

In order to have access to the exclusive services reserved for duly registered users, users will have a personal password to buy, sell, offer, and rate, among other activities. The password must be kept strictly confidential and under no circumstances will it be disclosed to or shared with other persons.

The user will be responsible for all actions taken under their Nickname and Password, including payment of any fees incurred or the damage suffered by other users as a result. If a user has reasons to believe that other people know their password, they must change it by accessing from the browser menu My Account > Configuration > Personal Information.

Minors

Our services are available only to individuals who can legally enter into binding contracts. Therefore, any individual failing to meet this condition must refrain from providing personal information to be included in our databases. However, they can do so through their parents or guardians.

Use of the Information by other Users

In order to facilitate the interaction among all members of the Mercado Libre community, our service enables limited access to the contact information of other users, such as User Name, Telephones, City and e-mail address.

Users may only use the Personal Information of other users obtained through the site for: (a) communications related to Mercado Libre which are not unsolicited commercial communications; (b) the use of the services offered at Mercado Libre (for example: deposit, insurance, shipping or transportation and fraud claims); and for (c) any other purpose to which the relevant user expressly consents after being notified of the legally required information. Under no circumstances may the Personal Information or e-mail address of another user be disclosed to any third party without our consent and that of the affected user. Users may not add the information of another Mercado Libre user to their e-mail list (whether physical or electronic), not even those of a user who has purchased an item offered through Mercado Libre without their express consent.

Cookies

Any user or visitor of the Mercado Libre Site knows and accepts that Mercado Libre may use a tracking system by means of cookies (“Cookies”). Cookies are small files placed on your hard drive, with a limited duration which help customize services. We offer certain functionalities which are only available through the use of Cookies. Cookies are used to identify the interests, behavior and demography of visitors or users of our Site and enable us to have a better understanding of their needs and interests, so that we can offer them better services or provide them with related information. We will also use the information obtained through these Cookies to analyze the pages viewed by the visitor or user and the searches conducted; to enhance our marketing and commercial initiatives; to display promotions or advertisements, banners on interesting issues, and publish news about Mercado Libre, improve our offer of contents and items, and customize said contents, their presentation and services; we may also use Cookies to promote and enforce the Site’s rules and security. Mercado Libre may add Cookies in the e-mails it sends to assess the effectiveness of its promotions.

Additionally, we use Cookies to allow the User to enter his/her password less frequently during a browsing session, to help count and verify Users’ registration, activities and other information for commercial agreements, always ensuring that the installation of Cookies is for the benefit of the User and that Cookies will not be used for any purposes other than those of Mercado Libre.

It is hereby established that the installation and existence of Cookies in the User’s computer depends on their exclusive will, and they can be removed from the computer whenever the User so desires. To find out how to remove Cookies from your system, Users must go to the Help Section on their browsers.

Furthermore, Cookies or other similar systems from third parties may be found on certain pages of our Site. For example, if Users browse a web page created by another User, there may be a Cookie on that web page.

Finally, Mercadolibre stores cookies in order to offer users a more interactive experience on our Website based on their actions. Users may, at any time, remove the cookies stored, set up their browsers to ask for approval prior to storing cookies or directly block cookies from being stored.

This procedure may vary from browser to browser and must be conducted in each browser used. Below is a list of the various procedures to manage these set-up features on the most popular browsers:

- Microsoft Windows Explorer: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies

- Google Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en&p=cpn_cookies

- Mozilla Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences

- Apple Safari: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411?locale=es_US&viewlocale=en_US

It is hereby expressly noted that these policies cover the use of Cookies on this Website and not the use of Cookies by advertisers. We do not control the use of Cookies by third parties.

Web Beacons

A Web beacon is an electronic image, also called single-pixel (1x1) or transparent pixel, embedded in a Webpage’s code. A Web beacon is similar in purpose to Cookies. Additionally, Web beacons are used to measure user traffic patterns from one page to another in order to optimize traffic flow across the Web. Users and visitors on Mercado Libre’s website know and accept that Mercado Libre may use a tracking system based on Web beacons.

Spam

Mercado Libre and its users do not accept spamming behavior, whether it be in opinions, questions, answers and/or by sending unsolicited e-mails. It is hereby expressly forbidden for Mercado Libre’s users to indiscriminately send messages of any kind among themselves.

Mercado Libre may suspend or definitely ban any Users who breach this policy.

Personal Information in special categories

In a posting under the “Cars, motorcycles, and other vehicles” and “Real Estate and Properties” categories, Users are allowed to include the seller’s telephone number. In any posting under the “Service” category, the Seller must include their e-mail address and telephone number, while the inclusion of their address and the URL of their Website will be optional.

The Seller may only be able to enter the referred information, as applicable, in the appropriate space at the time the item is posted. However, under no circumstances may the Seller include this information in the description or title of the posting, nor may it be included outside the space specified to that effect.
Neither may the Seller include any other piece of personal information, whether inside or outside the referred field.
MercadoLibre will not be liable for any use the seller, buyer, any user or other individual may make of the information so posted.

Orders from competent authorities – Legal Requirements

Mercado Libre cooperates with competent authorities and other third parties to ensure compliance with the applicable laws, for instance, with regard to the protection of industrial and intellectual property rights, fraud prevention and other matters.

Mercado Libre may disclose the users’ Personal Information upon request by competent judicial authorities or government officials for the purpose of their investigations, even without a court or executive order or a subpoena, or regarding for example (and without limitation) criminal or fraud investigations or those associated with computer piracy or copyright infringement. Under said circumstances, Mercado Libre will cooperate with the competent authorities in order to safeguard the integrity and security of the Community and its users.
Mercado Libre may (and users expressly give us their consent to) transmit any Personal Information regarding its users in order to comply with applicable laws and cooperate with competent authorities to the extent that we, at our sole discretion, deem necessary in connection with the investigation of an illegal act or fraud, the infringement of industrial or intellectual property rights or any other alleged illegal activity which might subject Mercado Libre or its users to legal liability. In addition, we may (and users expressly give us their consent to) disclose the User’s full name, nickname, street address, city, region, zip code, country, telephone number, e-mail, etc. to the members of the Mercado Libre Intellectual Property Protection Program as we may deem necessary or appropriate in connection with the investigation of fraud, intellectual or industrial property rights infringement, computer piracy or any other illegal activity. This right will be exercised by Mercado Libre in order to contribute to law compliance and enforcement, regardless of the existence of a court or administrative order for that purpose.
Furthermore, Mercado Libre hereby reserves the right (and Users expressly give us their consent) to communicate any information of its users to other users, organizations or third parties if there are sufficient reasons to believe that a user’s activity is suspected of constituting, or being an attempt to commit a crime or cause harm to other persons. This right will be exercised by Mercado Libre at our sole discretion when appropriate or necessary to preserve the integrity and security of the Community and that of its users, to ensure compliance with the General Terms and Conditions and other Site policies, and to contribute to law compliance and enforcement. This right will be exercised by Mercado Libre regardless of the existence of a court or administrative order for that purpose.

Security. Storage of Information

MercadoLibre is bound by all applicable regulations in relation to security measures applicable to Personal Information. Additionally, Mercado Libre meets the industry standards with respect to the protection of the confidentiality of Users’ Personal Information, including among other devices, firewalls and Secure Socket Layers (“SSL”). Mercado Libre treats its Users’ data as an asset that must be protected against any loss or unauthorized access. We use different security devices to protect such personal information against unauthorized access by other Users, whether from inside or outside our company. However, it should be noted that there is no such thing as perfect security on the Internet.

For that reason, Mercado Libre will not be liable for the unlawful access or breach of our systems or databases by unauthorized persons, nor will Mercado Libre be liable for any wrongful use of the information thus obtained.

All Users’ personal information will be stored in an automated personal information archive. The Mercado Libre archive of Users’ Personal Information is located in the United States. Upon registration in Mercado Libre, Users confirm that they are aware of the location of this archive and authorize the international transfer of their information.

Changes to e-mail preferences

Notwithstanding the fact that Mercado Libre wishes to bring its users the latest information at all times regarding promotions, news, changes, etc., users can choose which e-mails and promotional information they would like to receive from Mercado Libre.

If you do not want to receive any e-mails, you can unsubscribe by changing your e-mail preferences, following the instructions provided in our communications or signing in to your account in the My Mercado Libre section. In that section, you can select your preferences for Mercado Libre to take into account in future communications, or you can send your preferences by postal mail to the address set forth in these policies.