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Privacy Statement
byownerlistfree.com.COM TAKES YOUR PRIVACY SERIOUSLY. Please read the following to learn
more about our privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”). This Privacy Policy applies to
the use of the Sites (as defined below) by consumers and real estate professionals
(real estate professionals including, without limitation, REALTORS
®, homebuilders, lenders, remodelers, home
service professionals and other non-consumer service professionals, shall be
referred to as “Professionals”; Professionals and consumers shall be individually
and collectively referred to as “you”) who are customers of byownerlistfree.com.com
and its
subsidiaries, affiliates and marketing allies (collectively, "byownerlistfree.com", "we",
"us" and "our"). We use the Sites to provide you with information, resources, tools,
products and services specific to the real estate industry and related markets, and
to provide you with information about us and our advertisers, and our respective
products and services. We use information that we collect from you to improve your
experience in using the Sites and our various products and services, to aid in
communications among byownerlistfree.com, our advertisers and you, and to notify you of
products, services and information that we think may be of interest to you. Please
read on for more details concerning our privacy policy. We review this Privacy
Policy on an annual basis and we welcome any suggestions you might have about
additional ideas regarding our privacy policy at privacyideas@byownerlistfree.com.com.
Click here
for information on Internet safety and security from the Federal Trade Commission.
The byownerlistfree.com family of sites (individually and collectively, the "Site(s)"),
including but not limited to byownerlistfree.com.com® are 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.
To make this Privacy Policy easy to understand, we have built it around five
simple privacy principles.
- Notice - You have a right to know what data is collected by byownerlistfree.com
at what
part of the Sites and how in general it will be used.
- Choice - You have a right to choose (or choose not to) share information
with us and our marketing allies, where it is reasonable to do so.
- Control of Your Information - You have a right to access, edit and review
your personally identifiable information (information which may, on its own
be directly traceable to you, such as your name, social security number,
financial profile, or contact information) collected by us and stored on
one or more of the Sites.
- Non-Use - You have a right to know how to contact us to ask that we no
longer use your information to market to you, and to have us reasonably
comply with your request.
- Security - You have a right to know what security measures we have
implemented in order to protect your personally identifiable information.
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This privacy policy covers the following issues:
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Information You Give Us:
The kinds of information we collect from you will vary, depending on how you use
the Sites and what information you may choose to provide through your
correspondence with us (whether through email or otherwise). It's possible to
browse most sections of the Sites without submitting any personally identifiable
information (“Personal Information”) at all. However, if you choose to take
advantage of some of our products and/or services, or to access certain of our
tools or Site functionality, you may be asked to provide Personal Information
such as a user name and password, your full name, email address, phone number,
address, or, for certain financial products or services, your social security
number and banking information, and for certain e-commerce transactions your
credit card information. Certain Professionals may also be requested to provide
your license or MLS ID#. Whenever we ask for Personal 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. You can choose
not to provide us with certain Personal Information, but then you may not be able
to fully take advantage of certain features of our Sites and we may not be able to
provide you with certain requested information, products and/or services.
Automatic Collection of Information:
Like many Web sites on the Internet, we automatically track certain information
about you as you visit and use our Sites to help us to better understand how the
Sites are being used and how we can enhance your overall experience on each Site
and improve the information, Site functionality, products and services that we
(and our advertisers and partners) provide to you. This information may include,
for example, your computer’s Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, the URLs and Site
pages you’ve visited, the number of times you visit each Site page, what downloads
and/or search queries you have made, how long you spent on particular sections of
each Site and on each Site generally, and your browser type. This automatically
gathered data includes 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, our partners and affiliates, and
other companies offering products or services through one or more of the Sites may
use cookies to collect, store and use information about you and may collect
information that you submit. byownerlistfree.com affiliates, partners, service providers and
other entities that have links on one or more of the Sites may also collect
information about you when you visit their Web sites or otherwise communicate with
them. Although we encourage such third parties to adopt and follow their own
consumer privacy policies, we are not responsible for their collection and use of
user information. The information practices of those Web sites linked to one or
more of the Sites are not covered by this Privacy Policy. You should refer to the
privacy policies and statements of other Web sites or contact the respective
Webmasters of those Web sites to obtain information regarding their information
collection, use and disclosure policies.
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. We may share the Personal
Information we collect from you only with your consent or under the following
circumstances:
- byownerlistfree.com affiliates and partners. We work closely with our
affiliates with whom we may share Personal Information. In addition, we may
share Personal Information with our partners and service providers.
- Service Providers. We may use other companies and individuals to
perform supporting functions for the various tools, functionality, products
and services offered through our Site on our behalf. These service providers
will not be permitted to use the information collected from you for any other
purpose other than performing the support functions for byownerlistfree.com and/or
offering additional services, promotions or other offers to you. For example,
from time to time, we may use a third-party advertising company to serve ads
when you visit our Web site. Such company may use certain information (not
including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visit
to this Web site in order to provide advertisements about goods and services that
may be of interest to you. In the course of serving advertisements to this site,
our third-party advertiser may place or recognize a unique “cookie” on your
browser. If you would like more information about this practice and to know
your choices about not having this information used by this company, please
click here.
- Protection of rights. We will release Personal Information if we believe
that such action is appropriate to: (1) comply with legal process, (2) enforce
the Terms of Use Agreement for the applicable Site, or (3) identify, contact or
bring legal action against persons or entities who may be causing injury to us
or a third party, or to otherwise protect the rights, property or personal
safety of byownerlistfree.com, its employees, other Site users or others.
- Asset transfers. We continue to develop our business and in doing so might
choose to buy other businesses or assets. Personal Information is generally one
of the transferred assets acquired in such purchases. Also, if we should choose
to sell some or all of our assets, Personal Information, including the
information collected from you through the Sites, could be included in the
transferred assets. However, should any sale of an asset include your Personal
Information we will notify you of the event and give you an opportunity to
respond.
- Additional Functionality. 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 (or our service providers and listing providers, partners or
affiliates) offer content (including, without limitation, listing recommendations),
advertisements, products and services that we believe will be of interest to you,
pre-populate certain data-fields (to assist in your registration or subsequent
use of the tools and/or services available on the Sites), and share such
information among the Sites. In addition, we may share this information, in
aggregate form, with our current and potential advertisers and service providers
so they can present advertisements more effectively.
- Requested Information Exchange. If you have indicated that you want to be
contacted by third parties, we may use the Personal Information we collect 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 (information that provides a means of contacting you), to any such
third party.
- Anonymous Data. In all other circumstances, byownerlistfree.com may use certain
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, service providers and listing providers, partners,
affiliates and/or marketing allies so they can try to present advertisements
and content more effectively. We may also use aggregate information to share
information with the public regarding products, services, content or tools that
may of interest to them.
Information from 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. You are always free to decline any cookies we use if
your browser permits. Some of our advertisers and third-party service providers
may also utilize their own cookies. Also, companies offering products or services
through a byownerlistfree.com Web site may use their own cookies. Several of them may be
part of the Network Advertising Initiative's ("NAI") Self Regulatory
Principles Governing Online Preference Marketing. To opt out of the NAI's
Online Preference Marketing, click here.
In addition, we and our service providers sometimes use "clear GIFs" in connection
with cookies and other website functions. Clear GIFs perform administrative
functions without detracting from 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 Personal Information.
Registration Information:
The Personal Information you provide when you become a registered user or customer
of one of the Sites is used primarily to help us customize your online experience,
increase the convenience of accessing new tools, products and services, and, if
applicable, provide the products and/or services you purchase. 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. Your email address 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 you give us about your
personal preferences and demographics (e.g., your age, ZIP code, occupation or the
like) may be used to help us offer content, advertisements, products, and services
that we believe will be of interest to you. In addition, we may share this
information, in aggregate form, with our current and potential advertisers so that
they can present advertisements more effectively. If you forget your password for
any registered area of the Sites, we have an automated password recovery system,
which can be accessed by clicking on the "Forgot Password?" link on the sign-in
page. Customer Care does not have access to your password.
- Unless you specify that you'd prefer not to hear from us, we may also use
the email address you provide at the time of registration to contact you
for promotional or other purposes. You may have these communications
terminated at any time by opting out through your member profile on the
applicable Site. If you indicate that you're interested in hearing from
other companies, we may also share your contact information with such
companies for that purpose. We may have to contact you from time to time
to inform you of changes to the Site(s), a change in this Privacy Policy
or for other administrative purposes. These administrative emails will not
contain any advertisements.
- Professionals, please note that we reserve the right to use your
contact information to provide you with information about products or
services that may be of interest to you. Information provided to us from
your trade association is not 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 and services. Information such as your
license number 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 applicable law. Additionally, information provided by
you for the purposes of offering your products and services to others via
one or more of the Sites will be shared with others, including consumers
accessing one or more of the Sites. To the extent such information is
necessary to offer such products and services it will be posted on the
applicable Site(s). This may include, without limitation, your full name,
email 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.
Tools:
The Sites allow you to use many helpful tools, such as financial and home
improvement calculators, real estate search tools and other tools many of which
will not ask you to disclose any Personal Information. These tools are for your
benefit, and the information you submit when you use them (typically impersonal
data) is not disclosed to anyone (except, perhaps, the service provider assisting
in our provision of that tool) or used for any purpose other than to provide you
with the service you're seeking. However there are several online tools where we
may ask your permission to use the Personal Information you enter in order to offer
services, products or information that we believe may be of use to you or to merge
such Personal Information into your profile registration. When using such tools
consumers will be given the opportunity to opt-out of sharing or storing such
information, however exercising the opt-out may restrict the functionality of the
tool (including your ability to use the tool at all).
User-Requested Services:
You may choose to request products or services of a more substantial or personal
nature when using the Sites. For example, you may apply for a loan, request our
help in locating a remodeling contractor, store your preferences for convenience
in using the Sites or make an online purchase. The information you provide when
seeking these services may be used in the following ways:
- For products and services provided by the Sites, the information you submit
is used by us to provide the product or service you've requested. We may
also share this information with subcontractors, but only to the extent
necessary to fulfill your request or to facilitate your use of their
services. In addition, we may use the contact information and non-financial
order information you've supplied, such as your email address, as set out
in the registration section, above. Also some tools on REALTOR®
sites in our "Find a REALTOR®" directory
may contain tools that require you to submit information about yourself to the
REALTOR®, such as "The School ReportTM"
or "MoveToolsTM". The REALTOR®
may only use your information for the purposes of responding to your
request and providing services to you. If the service you request requires
submission of financial information, such as a credit card number for an
online purchase, rest assured that this financial information is used only
for processing your payment, and, with respect to consumers, is not
retained after completion of your order (we may, however, retain
Professionals’ financial information as is necessary or expedient to
maintain and service the account). We may, however, store your non-financial
order information for accounting purposes and to help us understand your
preferences better, so that we can offer you products or services in the
future that you may find useful.
- 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, byownerlistfree.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.
- From time to time, we may wish to use Personal Information you provide
when requesting a product or service for purposes beyond those listed above.
If this is the case, you will be notified of the additional use prior to
your submitting the Personal Information, and you'll be given a chance to
opt-out of that use or to not complete the request for the particular
product or service.
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.
Children’s Privacy:
Our Sites are general audience Web sites targeted to the real estate, moving and
relocation markets and neither our Sites (nor any portion thereof) are directed
to children under the age of 13. We do not collect Personal Information from any
person we actually know is a child under the age of 13. If we become aware that
Personal Information regarding an individual under the age of 13 has been stored,
we will promptly delete it from our records.
User-Initiated Communication:
From time to time, portions of the Sites may enable you to send email to us or to
third parties and to participate in public bulletin boards and discussion groups
(hosted by us or one or more of our service providers). 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:
- Consumers: we will use the information you submit to determine which
of our participating professional(s) may be able to serve your needs. We
may then forward your name, contact information and other responses
contained on our sign-up form to the selected professional(s), who may
then contact you using that information. Any information you provide also
may be used by us in accordance with the uses set out in the registration
section, above. In some cases we may store these communications to home
professionals or other third parties, but solely for the purpose of
assisting the professional in tracking their communications.
- Professionals: 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 byownerlistfree.com consumers as if it was still on the
Sites and in accord with this Privacy Policy. You may only use the
information sent to you for the purposes of providing products and/or
services to the consumer. We require that you otherwise not share, use or
transmit this information to or with any third party 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
(including, without limitation, your search queries) through our site – may be
used by byownerlistfree.com so we can understand how to make our Sites convenient and
useful to our audience, and to provide additional functionality (i.e., additional
content and recommendations to you). This information may also be shared among the
Sites and our partners, affiliates, service providers and listing providers, to be
used for similar purposes. In addition, we may share this information, in
aggregate form, with our current and potential marketing allies and advertisers so
they can know how to present their advertisements more effectively. When such data
is aggregated, all Personal Information is eliminated.
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 not collect Personal Information about you without your knowledge,
so the decision whether or not to share this information is completely up to you.
You also have the ability to terminate email correspondence (including, for
Professionals, newsletter correspondence) from us at any time. You may be given
the chance to opt-out of direct mailings when you disclose your email address to
us. Further, all of our email correspondence contains an “Unsubscribe” link at the
conclusion of the message. To opt-out, simply click the link, or, in the case of
text messages, send an email to the “Unsubscribe” URL listed in the email, and you
will be opted-out of future messages from that particular email service. To opt-out
or request that we not use your Personal Information to market information to you,
please email privacy@byownerlistfree.com.com with
your request.
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 certain cookies.
Certain content, products, services, and tools available on the Sites (and
certain enhancements thereto) are dependent upon the collection and use of
non-personally identifiable information and may not include an opt-out opportunity
unless Personal Information is directly used for such content, product, service or
functionality.
To view, edit or delete the Personal Information you submitted on the Sites
during registration, the purchase of a product or service, or elsewhere as
described above:
- Consumers: follow the instructions found in the "My Profile" or
"Edit Your Profile" area of the Site(s) where you registered or submitted
Personal Information. If you would like us to no longer use your Personal
Information we may gather from you to market information to you, please
send a request to Privacy@byownerlistfree.com.com.
- Professionals: you may edit your information by returning to the
area of the Site where you registered and modifying the information there
or by calling our Customer Care Center at (800) 878-4166. By contacting
Customer Care to make such changes, you expressly authorize Customer Care
to access your data for the purposes of completing your requested edits,
modifications and/or deletions.
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 on servers that are located behind a firewall.
Since your financial information and certain other Personal Information (i.e.,
your social security number) 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 secure, designated servers and access is limited to individuals in
departments charged with using such information only in connection with processing
your orders for products and services purchased; provided, however, that those
orders processed by our partners, marketing allies and service providers that
provide the service or product requested may store such information on their
servers which are governed by such third party’s privacy policy. 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 email to: Webmaster@byownerlistfree.com.com.
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. Certain expressly identified portions of this Privacy Policy apply
only to consumers or Professionals.
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 five (5) business days after its posting on the applicable Site(s).
Accordingly, we encourage you to periodically review this Privacy Policy and the
Sites 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 Sites.
If you have concerns about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices in
general, contact us at:
Privacy Administrator
Legal Department
byownerlistfree.com.com
2813 Woodside Ct.
Aurora, IL 60506
Fax: (630) 566-0924
Email: Privacy@byownerlistfree.com.com
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