Thank you for visiting CreditCritics.com’s (“CreditCritics.com”) forge Internet web site located at the URL: https//www.creditcritics.com (“Site”). This Privacy Policy details certain policies implemented throughout CreditCritics.com governing CreditCritics.com’s use of personally identifiable information about users of our Site and users of services available through this Site (the “Services”).
Privacy Policy Updates
Due to the Internet’s rapidly evolving nature, CreditCritics.com may need to update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If so, CreditCritics.com will post its updated Privacy Policy on our Site located at www.creditcritics.com and we may send registered users an email, so you are always aware of what personally identifiable information we may collect and how we may use this information. If any modification is unacceptable to you, you shall cease using this Site and the Services. If you do not cease using this Site and the Services, you will be deemed to have accepted the change.
Information Collection and Use
You can generally visit our Site without revealing any personally identifiable information about yourself. However, in certain sections of this Site and when you use our Services, we may invite you to contact us with questions or comments, request quotes or information, post content and other materials, participate in a user forum or blog, or complete a registration form. Due to the nature of some of these activities, we may collect personally identifiable information that you submit such as your name, contact data (address, email address, phone number), gender, social security number, driver’s license number, income level and other financial information, license information, username, password, age or date of birth and employment information. We may also collect additional personally identifiable information that you voluntarily include in your postings or transmit with your communications to us. Other users will be able to view who has posted certain content or documents.
We may use your personally identifiable information to deliver requested services or information, provide you, or have our third party service partners (as described in the Disclosure Section below) provide you, with notices regarding goods or services you may be interested in purchasing in the future, register you to use our Site and Services, verify your authority to enter our Site and to improve the content and general administration of the Site and our Services.
Children’s Privacy
CreditCritics.com recognizes the privacy interests of children and we encourage parents and guardians to take an active role in their children’s online activities and interests. This Site is not intended for children under the age of 13. CreditCritics.com does not target its Services or this Site to children under 13. CreditCritics.com does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13.
Cookies
We may use small text files called cookies to improve overall Site experience. A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s hard drive containing information about the user. Cookies generally do not permit us to personally identify you.
Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
We employ [or our third party advertising partner employs] a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on Web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. We tie [do not tie] the information gathered by clear gifs to our customers’ personally identifiable information.
Aggregate Information
The Site may track the total number of visitors to our Site, the number of visitors to each page of our Site, browser type, and IP addresses, and we may analyze this data for trends and statistics in the aggregate, but such information will be maintained, used and disclosed in aggregate form only and it will not contain personally identifiable information. We may use such aggregate information to analyze trends, administer the Site, track users’ movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.
Disclosure
We may provide your personally identifiable information and the data generated by cookies and the aggregate information to the vendors and service agencies that we may engage to assist us in providing our Services to you. These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us. We may disclose your personally identifiable information and your communications on this Site when we reasonably believe we are required to do so by law, or when we deem it appropriate or necessary to provide such information to law enforcement authorities. We will not sell your personally identifiable information to any company or organization except we may transfer your personally identifiable information to a successor entity upon a merger, consolidation or other corporate reorganization in which CreditCritics.com participates or to a purchaser of all or substantially all of CreditCritics.com’s assets to which this Site relates. You will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Web site of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personally identifiable information. When you request a quote, make an inquiry about a loan or certain other mortgage information on this Site, you are expressly choosing to, and opting-in to, have CreditCritics.com transfer your personally identifiable information to our third party service partners, such as SecureRights, and for such third party service partners to provide your personally identifiable information to other businesses who provide financial products or services (such as loans and mortgages) that match your inquiry. For more information, please see SecureRights’ privacy policy located at http://www.securerights.org. The third party service partners may contact you regarding your inquiry and financial products and services, but CreditCritics.com will not contact you to offer you a loan or mortgage.
Links to Third Party Sites
The Site may provide links to other Web sites or resources over which CreditCritics.com does not have control (“External Web Sites”). Such links do not constitute an endorsement by CreditCritics.com of those External Web Sites. You acknowledge that CreditCritics.com is providing these links to you only as a convenience, and further agree that CreditCritics.com is not responsible for the content of such External Web Sites. Your use of External Web Sites is subject to the terms of use and privacy policies located on the linked to External Web Sites.
Security
We may employ procedural and technological security measures that are reasonably designed to help protect your personally identifiable information from loss, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration or destruction. CreditCritics.com may use secure socket layer and other security measures to help prevent unauthorized access to your personally identifiable information.
Data Retention
We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services contact us at http://www.creditcritics.com/contact. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
Users Outside of the United States
Some of our computer systems are currently based in the United States, so your personal data will be processed by us in the United States where data protection and privacy regulations may not offer the same level of protection as in other parts of the world, such as the European Union. As a visitor from outside the United States, by using the Site you agree to this Privacy Policy and you consent to the transfer of all such information to the United States, which may not offer an equivalent level of protection of that required in the European Union or certain other countries, and to the processing of that information as described in this Privacy Policy.
Correction/Updating Personally Identifiable Information
CreditCritics.com provides you with the ability to review, correct and delete any of your contact information. If you wish to review or correct any contact information you have provided to us, you may access your account online or you may contact us through our contact form. If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy please contact us through our contact form