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PROPERTY REFERRAL SERVICES, INC. dba WHERESMYCONDO.COM PRIVACY POLICY
Property Referral Services Inc. dba wheresmycondo.com (referred to herein as "PRS") provides an online real estate marketplace that connects consumers to the sellers of property, lenders and other real estate professionals and service providers.
PRS recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of certain information ("Information") collected about our customers and prospective customers (referred to herein as "Customers," "you" or "your"). This privacy statement discloses what information PRS gathers on or in connection with wheresmycondo.com (the ÒWeb SiteÓ), how we use it, and how to correct or change it. At PRS, it is our intention to give you an understanding about how we collect your Information and the use we make of it in the course of our business.
To that end, PRS gathers two types of information about Customers: 1) data that Customers provide through optional, voluntary registration on our sites; and 2) data that PRS gathers through aggregated tracking, mainly by tallying page views throughout our site(s). Such information enables us to tailor our content to fit Customers' needs better and to help our advertisers understand our audience. Because PRS derives its revenue mainly from advertising and e-commerce, providing such aggregated data is essential to keeping our service free to Customers. However, be assured that PRS will not disclose personal Information to third parties without your consent, except as may be noted in this Privacy Policy or disclosed to you when the Information is submitted.
HOW DOES PRS COLLECT INFORMATION?
Optional registration
We collect information by specifically requesting it from you. Generally this occurs when you register at a site or request information or a service. Usually, PRS sites and PRS's service partners use your information to operate the sites and to deliver services. PRS sites also use your information to inform you about other products or services available from PRS and its affiliates, sponsors and advertisers.
You may contact PRS through the "Contact Us" feature. Participation in this area is completely voluntary and it is your choice whether or not you wish to disclose your Information to us.
PRS makes several resources available to you to help you determine what real estate product is right for you. One of these resources is the "Calculators" section of the Web Site. PRS does not collect any personal data you may input into any calculators on the Web Site.
Every survey presented to you will include specific instructions regarding how your information may be shared. By clicking the "Submit" button at the end of the survey, you authorize PRS to share your data in the manner outlined on the survey.
Usage tracking
Use of Internet Protocol ("IP") Addresses:
An IP address is a unique number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Internet so that your computer can be identified by the main computers, known as "Web servers" that provide access to Web pages.
PRS and/or its affiliates may collect IP addresses for the purposes of system administration, to report aggregated information to our sponsors and advertisers, and to audit the use of our site. When Customers request pages from PRS's and/or its affiliates' sites, our servers may log the Customers' IP addresses. We do not normally link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable, which means that a Customer's session will be logged, but the Customer will remain anonymous to us. We can and will use IP addresses to identify a Customer when we feel it is necessary to enforce compliance with our site terms of use or terms of service or to protect our service, site, customers or others.
Use Of Cookies
What are cookies? Cookies are small pieces of information that the Web Site sends to your computer for record-keeping purposes, which information is stored in a file on your computer. Cookies make Web surfing easier for you by saving your preferences so that we can use the saved information to facilitate your use of the Web Site when you return to the Web Site. Cookies do not tell PRS your individual identity unless you have chosen to provide it to us. PRS never saves passwords or credit card information in cookies. The use of cookies is an industry standard, and as such, you will find that most major Web sites use them.
By showing how and when Customers use a site, cookies help PRS see which areas are popular and which are not. Many improvements and updates to the site are based on such data as total number of visitors and pages viewed. This information is most easily tracked with cookies. We use the information from cookies to provide services better tailored to our Customers' needs.
Most cookies expire after a defined period of time, or you can delete your cookie file at any time. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, note that some parts of PRS and/or its affiliates' services will not function properly or may be considerably slower if you refuse cookies. For example, without cookies, you will not be able to set personalized preferences, and/or may have difficulty completing marketing transactions.
PRS and/or its affiliates have two primary uses for its cookies. First, PRS uses them to specify a Customer's preferences. For example, Customers may be able to specify keywords across several categories or markets so that you don't have to repeatedly complete information about certain features in a property that you are seeking. Second, PRS uses cookies to track usage trends and patterns relating to the Web Site. This helps PRS understand our Customers' needs better and improve areas of PRS's and/or its affiliatesÕ services that our Customers find valuable. While both of these activities depend on the use of cookies, you have the option of disabling the cookies via your browser preferences.
You may occasionally get cookies from our advertisers. PRS and/or its affiliates do not control these cookies. The use of advertising cookies sent by third-party servers is standard in the Internet industry.
PRS also utilizes Web Logs to track aggregate information about how our site is being used. Web Logs track anonymous user information, including the number of visitors to our site, operating systems, Internet Provider addresses (if publicly available), and browser type. Unlike cookies, Web Logs are maintained only on PRS servers and do not store or place anything on the user's computer.
If you come to the Web Site from an online banner ad, an anonymous identification number may be passed to our site. This information cannot be used to gather any personally identifiable information about you. It will only allow us to track the overall effectiveness of our online advertising campaigns. Each of our partners in this program have their own privacy policies and opt-out information, which you can review on their sites.
WITH WHOM DOES PRS SHARE MY INFORMATION?
As a general rule, PRS will not disclose any specific personal information that you submit to us about you ("Personal Information") in a manner that connects you with the Personal Information, except when we have your permission or under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it or under the circumstances described below. The following describes some of the ways that your Personal Information may be disclosed.
Business Partners, Sponsors and Providers: PRS may disclose some or all of your Personal Information to business partners, sponsors and information providers, but this use will be specifically described to you prior to data collection or prior to transferring the data. Many promotions offer opportunities to request additional information from sponsors. Furthermore, the property profiles on the Web Site have a link pursuant to which you are able to request further information about the subject property by providing Information about yourself. Finally, there are sections of the Web Site that seek to match you up with a loan broker or lender. By requesting more information, you hereby give PRS express permission to transfer your Personal Information to the sponsor or the person responsible for posting a property on the Web Site (e.g., the propertyÕs listing broker or owner) or a loan broker or lender, as applicable (the ÒProvidersÓ), so that they can fulfill your request. In some instances, only your e-mail address will be shared, but additional Information (e.g., all of the Information provided by you at the time more information about you is requested) may also be shared. If more Personal Information will be shared with the sponsor or the Providers, you will be notified prior to the transfer.
PRS will use the information you provide on your loan or property request to match you with the participating Providers that posted the information regarding such loan or property. PRS may also send your information to other third parties relevant to your transaction. If you provide information on the Web Site to secure a loan, lenders or loan brokers may receive your credit history when they review your request. PRS may also share certain aggregated data with our Providers and other third parties for general marketing and demographic purposes; however, this data DOES NOT include any of your personal identifying information.
Third Party & Aggregate Data: From time to time, you may be offered the opportunity to receive materials or special offers from third parties. If you voluntarily opt to receive information from these third parties, PRS will share your name and e-mail address with such third parties. Under confidentiality agreements, PRS may match Personal Information with third party data. Also, PRS may keep track of what portions of the Web site Customers are visiting and other Customer statistics and aggregate this information to help PRS create a better experience for users of our Web site. This is all done without knowing your name or other Personal Information in order to describe our viewers and services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes.
Other: PRS may also disclose account Information in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this Information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating PRS's terms of use or terms of service, or may be causing injury to or interference (either intentionally or unintentionally) with any of PRSÕs rights or property, other users of the Web Site or PRS customers, or anyone else. PRS may disclose or access account Information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it and for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service, and improve our products and services.
HOW CAN YOU CONTROL THE USAGE OF INFORMATION?
In case you change your mind or some Personal Information changes (such as your Zip Code or e-mail address), we will try to provide a way to correct, update or remove the Personal Information that you give us. We also give you the opportunity to control the communications we direct to you. We offer Customers the opportunity to "opt out" of having Personal Information shared with parties outside of PRS and/or its affiliated companies and the Providers. If a Customer wishes to update Personal Information or objects to any usage provided herein for any reason, he/she may e-mail the requested change to: help@wheresmycondo.com
Federal and state regulations require that we store completed loan and real estate requests for various periods of time. In order to comply with these regulations, we cannot delete information from our databases.
Periodically, PRS may send you emails to alert you to money saving tips, special offers, updated property listings and/or properties that meet your search criteria. If you do not wish to receive any of these offers, please visit our subscription area where you can remove yourself from our mailing list.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LINK TO A THIRD PARTY SITE?
You should be aware that when you are on PRS's and/or its affiliates' sites you could hyperlink or be directed to other sites that are beyond our control and/or outside our services. For example, if you "click" on a banner advertisement or a wheresmycondo.com search result, the "click" may transfer you off the Web Site. These other sites may include sites of advertisers, sponsors and partners that may use PRS's and/or its affiliates' logo as part of a co-branding agreement. These other sites may send their own cookies to Customers, collect data, or solicit Information.
PRS and its affiliates do not control such sites and, therefore, neither PRS nor its affiliates are responsible for their contents or the hyperlinks or advertising they choose to place on such sites. PRS's and/or its affiliates' inclusion of hyperlinks to these sites do not imply any endorsement of the material on such sites or any association with their operators. PRS's policy does not extend to anything that is inherent in the operation of the Internet, which is beyond PRS's and its affiliates' control.
Please keep in mind that whenever you give out information online (for example, via message boards or chat), that information can be collected and used by people you do not know. While PRS and its affiliates strive to protect their Customers' information and privacy, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you disclose online, and you disclose such information at your own risk.
IS MY INFORMATION SECURE FROM OTHERS USING THE PRS SITE?
The security of all information associated with our Customers is an important concern to us. We exercise care in providing secure transmission of your information from your computer to our servers. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your Information, PRS and its affiliates can not ensure or warrant the security of any Information you transmit to us or from our online products or services, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, PRS uses industry standard efforts to safeguard the confidentiality of your Information, such as firewalls and Secure Socket Layers. However, "perfect security" does not exist on the Internet.
YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS
By using the Web Site, you signify your agreement to PRS's Privacy Policy. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS POLICY, PLEASE DO NOT USE THE WEB SITE. Your continued use of PRS's and/or its affiliates' sites following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept those changes.
This Privacy Policy was last updated on September 19, 2005.
PLEASE PRINT AND RETAIN A COPY OF THIS AGREEMENT FOR YOUR RECORDS.
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