Privacy Policy
Our Commitment to Privacy
Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide this
notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make
about the way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy
to find, we make it available on our homepage and at every point where
personally identifiable information may be requested. Our privacy policy is
designed to inform you of the types of information we collect, how we use that
information, and the circumstances under which we will share it with
nonaffiliated third parties.
Information Collection and Use
USA Watchdog is the sole owner of the information collected on this
site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways
differently than we have disclosed in this statement. USA Watchdog
collects information from our
users at several different points on our website.
Examples of the types of nonpublic personal information collected at these pages are:
Additionally, we collect nonpublic personal information about you from the following sources (in addition to our website):
Categories of Nonaffiliated Third Parties
to Whom we May Disclose Nonpublic Personal Information
Nonaffiliated third parties are those companies not under direct or indirect
ownership or control withUSA Watchdog
We only disclose personal information about you to the
following types of nonaffiliated third parties: Financial services providers,
such as companies engaged in banking, credit cards, and consumer finance.
We may also share the information we collect, as described
above, with other nonaffiliated third parties such as third parties who may
assist us in preparing monthly statements, and credit reporting agencies to
whom we report information about your transactions with us.
Please be advised that any opt out rights described below will
not apply with the sharing of information necessary for us to process
applications, such as with consumer reporting agencies, or to perform services
that you request.
By way of further example:
Registration
In order to use this website, a user must first complete the
registration form. During registration a user is required to give their full
contact information. This information is used to evaluate the application and
contact the user about the services on our site for which they have expressed
interest. In order for this website to properly fulfill its obligation to our
customers, it is necessary for us to supplement the information we receive with
information from 3rd party sources. For example, to determine if our customers
qualify for our service as an ISO, we use the name, driver's license, and
social security number to request a credit report for use in evaluating the
creditworthiness of the applicant.
Order
We request
information from consumers making purchases from our registered merchants within
our shopping cart and order processing interfaces. Here a user must provide
contact information (like name and shipping address), financial information
(like credit card number, expiration date), and identity information (like
social security number or Federal Tax ID). This information is used to fill
customer's orders, for billing purposes, and to verify the identity of the
consumer to protect against fraud. If we have trouble processing an order, this
contact information is used to get in touch with the user.
Cookies
A cookie is a
piece of data stored on the user's hard drive containing information about the
user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable
information while on our site. Once the user closes their browser, the cookie
simply terminates
Log Files
We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site,
track user's movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate
use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.
Sharing
We partner with other parties to provide specific services.
When the user signs up for these services, we will share names, or other
contact information that is necessary for the third party to provide these
services. These parties are not allowed to use use
nonpublic personally identifiable information except for the purpose of
providing these services. We do not otherwise disclose nonpublic information to
anyone, except as permitted by law.
Links
This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware
that we,USA Watchdogare not responsible for
the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware
when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every
web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy
statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site. Operators
may be subject to the FTC's privacy regulations and if so, (i)
the FTC's regulations contain sample disclosures that operators may consider;
and (ii) operators may be required to send annual notices in addition to
initial disclosures to their customers.
Security
This website takes precautions to protect our users'
information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, your
information is protected both online and off-line. When our registration/order
form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number,
social security number, and/or Federal Tax ID), that information is encrypted
and is protected with SSL encryption software. While on a secure page, such as
our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape
Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to
un-locked, or open, when you are just 'surfing'. While we use SSL encryption to
protect sensitive information online, we also protect user-information
off-line. All of our users' information, not just the sensitive information
mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the
information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a
customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable
information. Our employees must use password-protected screen-savers when they
leave their desk. When they return, they must re-enter their password to
re-gain access to your information. Furthermore, ALL employees are kept
up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Every quarter, as well as any
time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about
the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our
customers' information is protected. Finally, the servers that we store
personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment, behind
a locked door or cage.
If you have any questions about the security at our website,
you can send an email to [email protected]
Site and Service Updates
We also send the user site and service
announcement updates. We may close your account and/or refuse additional
services if Members un-subscribe from service
announcements, which contain important information about the service. We
communicate with the user to provide requested services and in regards to
issues relating to their account via email, fax, or phone.
Correction/Updating Personal Information:
If a user’s nonpublic personally identifiable information
changes (such as your zip code), or if a user no longer desires our service, we
will endeavor to provide a way to correct, update or remove that user's
personal data provided to us. This can usually be done by calling our
headquarters at or by emailing our Customer
Support Department at [email protected] for more instructions.
Opt-out requirements:
As provided in this policy, we only provide your nonpublic
personal information to a nonaffiliated third party in conjunction with the
services that you have requested that we provide to you. All nonaffiliated
third parties to whom we disclose your nonpublic personal information are
contractually prohibited by us to disclose or use the information other than to
carry out the transactions that you have requested. Accordingly, there is
nothing for a user to opt out of with respect to how we currently use their
non-public personal information.
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those
changes on our Homepage so our users are always aware of what information we
collect, how we use it, and under circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at
any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner
different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users
by way of an email or US mailing so as to enable users to "opt-out"
if we use their information in this different manner. We will use information
in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was
collected.