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Last updated December 28, 2002 Dear Professional, 800HomeTours.com™ TAKES YOUR PRIVACY SERIOUSLY. Please read the following to learn more about our Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy applies to the use of this Site. This includes, without limitation, REALTORS®, homebuilders, lenders, remodelers, home service professionals and other non-consumer services professionals that use the Sites. For information about consumer privacy, please access our Consumer Privacy Policy. Click here for information on Internet safety and security from the Federal Trade Commission. 800HomeTours.com is committed to your privacy and security and want to provide you with the best possible online experience. To that end, we want you to understand what kinds of information we gather from you, how this information is used and safeguarded, and how you can control its use. What information is collected from me? The kinds of information we collect from you will vary, depending on how you use the Sites. It’s possible to browse the Sites without submitting any personally identifiable information (“personal information”) at all, but if you choose to take advantage of some of our products and services, you may be asked to provide information such as a user name and password, your full name, e-mail address, phone number, address, your license or MLS ID# or, for certain e-commerce transactions, your credit card information. Whenever we ask for this kind of information, we strive to provide a link to this Privacy Policy to help you understand how your personal information will be used before you decide whether to disclose it. In addition to the personal information you choose to submit, our systems are set up to gather certain anonymous data to help us to better understand how the Site is being used and how we can improve it. This automatically gathered data includes your computer’s Internet” Protocol (“IP”) address, statistics about how visitors navigate through the Sites and information provided through the use of cookies (which is described in more detail below). As you visit the Sites, be aware that third parties may at times be able to gather information from and about you. For example, third party advertiser servers, companies that place advertisements on the Sites and companies offering products or services through the Sites may use cookies to collect and use information about you and may collect information that you submit. In these cases, the third parties will use such information according to their own privacy policies that may differ from this Privacy Policy. The use of your information depends on the context in which it is collected. Therefore, pay special attention to the categories below that relate to the features of the Sites that you wish to utilize. In addition to using your personal information as set forth below, note that we may disclose the information that we collect about you when we have reason to believe that it is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against persons or entities who may be causing injury to you, to us or to others, and may also disclose such information when we believe that the law requires it, such as (but not limited to) identifying the violations of our Terms of Use. We may link information collected from you through various means, including information collected automatically and through the use of cookies and purchase information, or other personal information you provide to help us offer content, advertisements, products and services that we believe will be of interest to you, and this information may also be shared among the Sites. In addition, we may share this information, in aggregate form, with our current and potential advertisers so they can present advertisements more effectively. If you have indicated that you want to be contacted by third parties, we may use this information to select which names to provide to a particular third party in order to present you with products and services that we believe will be of interest to you, but we will not disclose this type of information, other than your contact information, to any such third party. 800HomeTours may use the anonymous data automatically gathered by our servers so that we can understand how to make the Sites more convenient and useful to our audience. This information may also be shared among the Sites and used for similar purposes. In addition, we may share this information, in aggregate form, with our current and potential advertisers so they can present advertisements more effectively. Finally, if we sell off a division, merge with another company or spin off a business, your information may in included in such a transaction. However if such a transaction occurs we will notify you of the event and give you an opportunity to respond. Cookies: Cookies are small files that we send to and store on your computer so that we can recognize it as a unique machine the next time you visit the Sites. Our cookies are used for three purposes: (1) to keep track of your information for your own convenience; (2) to help us optimize your online experience by altering our content depending on your particular needs or browsing patterns, and to provide you with advertisements, products and services that we believe will be of interest to you; and (3) to help us understand the size of our audience and their traffic patterns within the Sites. Some of our advertisers and third-party ad servers may also utilize their own cookies. Also, companies offering products or services through a 800HomeTours.com Web site may use their own cookies. In addition, we sometimes use “clear GIFs” in connection with cookies and other website functions. Clear GIFs perform administrative functions without detracting from the your online experience. They may be used to perform statistical and administrative tasks including measuring site and page traffic, verifying advertising avenues and positioning images on the web. Clear GIFs do not collect personally identifiable information. Purchasing Products and Managing your Services: The personal information you provide when you become a customer on of one of the Sites is used primarily to provide the services you purchase, help us customize your online experience and increase the convenience of accessing new services. This personal information may also be shared among the Sites to make your use of the Sites more convenient by, for example, limiting the number of times you have to register with us. We reserve the right to use your contact information to provide you with information about services or products that may be of interest to you. Information provided to us from your trade association is never shared with third parties. We also may offer a newsletter to keep you abreast of the products and services on the Sites or other professional products or services, but we will always get your permission before sending you such a newsletter. Information such as your license number, MLS ID# or personal financial information will not be shared with third parties except to complete a transaction or as a disclosure that is required pursuant to federal, state or local law. Your access to such information is protected by unique identifiers such as your e-mail address, name or ID numbers, and serves as a unique identifier in our record system, and it is used together with your password to prevent unauthorized access to any information you choose to store on the Sites. The data that you give us about your personal preferences and demographics (such as age, ZIP code, occupation and the like) may be used to help us offer advertisements, products and services that we believe will be of interest to you. Information provided by you for the purposes of offering your products and services to others via the Sites will be shared with others, including consumers accessing the Sites. To the extent such information is necessary to offer such products and services it will be posted on the Sites. This may include, without limitation, your full name, e-mail address, license number, state of license, address, phone number, graphic images and any other data intended to help consumers identify or contact you and your products and services. For products and services offered to you jointly by us and a third party, your personal information may be shared with or independently gathered by the third party. In these situations, 800HomeTours.com will only use your personal information as outlined in this Privacy Policy, but the third party may use the information in different ways. You can tell when a product or service is offered by a third party, because a page of the Sites will be “co-branded” and will display the third party’s logo and/or name along with our own, or you will be linked to the third party’s site to complete the transaction. Please be aware that each company we do business with has its own policies regarding the use and protection of your information that may differ from those outlined in this Privacy Policy. If you are concerned about how your personal information might be used or protected by a third party, we encourage you to become familiar with its Privacy Policy before using the service or requesting the product. Solicited Information: You may occasionally see contests, surveys and other features of the Sites that ask you to provide us with personal information. When you choose to respond to these requests, the personal information you offer may be used for several purposes. These include the uses set out in the registration section above. They also include providing information to third parties as necessary for prize fulfillment and other aspects of any contest, sweepstakes, game or other promotion. If we are going to use your personal information for any other purpose, we will notify you of that purpose and give you a chance to opt-out before responding to our survey, or participating in our contest, sweepstakes, game or other promotion. Any contest, sweepstakes, game or other promotion that is accessible through the Site is governed by specific rules. By entering any such contest, sweepstakes, game or other promotion, you will become subject to those rules. We urge you to read the applicable rules, which are linked from the particular contest, sweepstakes, game or other promotion. User-Initiated Communication: Portions of the Sites enable you to send e-mail to us or to third parties and to participate in public bulletin boards and discussion groups. All postings to public bulletin boards and discussion groups become our property. Whenever you choose to initiate these kinds of communication with us, or anyone else, you may expect to be contacted in return. Also, remember that our bulletin boards and discussion groups are open to the public, and therefore, your postings can be seen by anyone and are not protected by us or any other entity. Please use your own discretion when deciding what to post publicly and whom to contact. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to edit or delete inappropriate postings from our bulletin boards and discussion groups; provided, however, the reservation of this right shall not, under any circumstances obligate us to conduct such editing or deletions. Referrals: If you participate in any referral service we may offer, you may receive information from consumers seeking your products or services. This data may include, without limitation, the full name, and other contact information of consumers as well as other responses. As protecting consumer privacy is important, we require that you treat data received from 800HomeTours.com™ consumers as if it was still on the Sites and in accord with our Consumer Privacy Policy. You may only use the information sent to you for the purposes of providing products or services to the consumer. We require that you otherwise not share, use or transmit this information to or with third parties without the consent of the consumer. Automatically Gathered Data: The information gathered automatically by our system—such as your computer’s IP address, the kind of browser you’re using, and a record of your navigation through our site—may be used by 800HomeTours.com so we can understand how to make our sites convenient and useful to our audience. This information may also be shared among the various Web sites in the 800HomeTours.com family and used for similar purposes. In addition, we may share this information, in aggregate form, with our current and potential advertisers so they can know how to present their advertisements more effectively. What choices do I have regarding the use of my information? Reading this Privacy Policy should help you understand how any information you share with us might be used. If you feel concerned about any of these uses, you might elect not to participate in certain services, features or products that we offer. We will never collect personal information about you without your knowledge, so the decision whether or not to share this information is completely up to you. You have the ability to terminate e-mail newsletter correspondence from us at any time. You will be given the chance to opt-out of direct mailings when you disclose your e-mail address to us. Once you have begun receiving email newsletters, you can simply reply to any of them and type “Unsubscribe” in the subject line or send an e-mail to ProfessionalPrivacy@800HomeTours.com with your request to be taken off the subscription list, and we will promptly remove you from the e-mail newsletter subscription list. If you feel concerned about the cookies that are sent between our computers and yours, you may, through your Web browser, either choose to reject them automatically, or have your computer prompt you before accepting them. Generally, this is done by selecting the appropriate cookies setting on your Web browser (usually found in “Internet Options” or “Preferences”). Please note, however, that some of our features and services depend on the use of cookies. Therefore, you will be unable to take advantage of those features and services if you choose not to accept cookies. How can I access and change my information? To view, edit or delete the personal information you submitted at the Sites during the purchase of a product or elsewhere as described above, you may edit your information by returning to your site or by calling our Customer Care Center at (650-365-1748) area of the site where you registered. By contacting Customer Care to make such changes you are giving them permission to access your data solely for the purposes of completing your requested changes, edits or deletions How is my information protected? Whenever personal information about you is stored on our computers, that information is password-protected from unauthorized access or use. In addition, this information is kept only on servers that are located behind a firewall which makes their contents inaccessible to outside users. Since your financial information is especially sensitive, we take special care to keep it secure. We will only transmit or ask for this information over secure Internet connections, using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption, the currently accepted standard for online security, and security keys. In addition, we require password authentication from any third parties you’ve authorized to receive this information. Finally, your Social Security number, credit card number and financial information are stored on special servers and access is limited to individuals who may only use such information in connection with processing your orders for services and products purchased. While this means you may have to enter this information more than once, we believe the added security is worth the extra effort. Of course, we appreciate your help in safeguarding the integrity of your own and others’ privacy. We hope you’ll use common sense whenever you disclose personal information over the Internet. Just as importantly, we encourage you to let us know immediately if you suspect that the information you share with us is being used in any way contrary to this privacy policy. Finally, unfortunately no data transmission over the Internet or the storage of information on servers can be guaranteed to be 100% secure and while we strive to protect your personal information (as described herein), we cannot guarantee or warrant its complete security. To contact us, please send an e-mail to: Webmaster@800HomeTours.com. Scope of This Privacy Policy: Outside Links This Privacy Policy only applies to the Sites. The Sites contain links to sites operated and maintained by third parties over which we have absolutely no control. Please be aware that these sites may collect information about you, and operate according to their own privacy practices that may differ from this Privacy Policy. Remember that once you’re outside the Sites, any information you submit is outside of our control. Furthermore, this Privacy Policy only applies to professionals. Effective Date and Modifications This Privacy Policy is effective as of the date first written above and may be updated and modified from time to time by us in our sole discretion. If we choose to update or modify this Privacy Policy, such updated or modified policy shall become effective upon its posting on the Site. Accordingly, we encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy and the Site in order to keep apprised of our current privacy practices. If you do not agree to any provision of this Privacy Policy, or any update or modification thereto, please do not use the Site. If you have concerns about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices in general, contact us at: Privacy Administrator |
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