Privacy Policy
January 11, 2010
BestRated.com has been awarded TRUSTe's Privacy Seal signifying that this privacy policy and practices have been reviewed by TRUSTe for compliance with TRUSTe's program requirements[HB1] including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information. TRUSTe's mission, as an independent third party, is to accelerate online trust among consumers and organizations globally through its leading privacy trustmark and innovative trust solutions.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact us at kyle.k@bestrated.com. If you are not satisfied with our response you can contact TRUSTe here[HB2] . TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with the Web site to resolve your concerns.
YOUR PRIVACY IS A PRIORITY
Your privacy is very important to us. Our Privacy Policy is designed so that you understand the manner in which we collect, use and safeguard the personally identifiable information that you voluntarily provide to us as well as the non-personally identifiable information that we collect from you. It is also designed to assist you in making informed decisions when using the BestRated website (“Site”) and our products and services.
INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT
We collect two categories of information from you. The first type is personal information that you actively choose to disclose ("Active Information") and the second type is anonymous aggregate information collected in a manner not visible to you or others visiting our Site ("Passive Information").
ACTIVE INFORMATION
Examples of personally identifiable data that you may provide to us include your name, address, and email address. In providing Active Information, you consent and agree that you may be contacted with information related to your inquiry and/or information regarding our or third parties’ products and services. If you provide personally identifiable data to us, you may later elect to have that information deleted from our files, or kept from being used for purposes other than for the service requested, by following the opt-out procedures set forth below.
PASSIVE INFORMATION
We collect Passive Information related to your activity on our Site. Whether or not you register on the Site, we record information relating to your use of the Site, such as the frequency and size of data transfers, the information you display about yourself, the information you click on, your browser type, IP address, requested URL, referring URL, and timestamp information. If you are logged in, we may associate this information with your account. We use this type of information to administer the Site and provide the highest possible level of service to you. We also use this information in the aggregate to perform statistical analyses of User behavior and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of the Site. You cannot be identified from this aggregate information.
HOW COLLECTED INFORMATION IS USED
The passive information that BestRated collects is used for marketing and sales efforts to better target advertisements and other content in an effort to create a more personally relevant experience. The information is also used to predict responses to advertisements, and to help determine which ads perform best and which content is most appropriate for different individuals.
If you elect to provide BestRated with active information, we may utilize such information for marketing purposes, and this use may result in follow-up communications from BestRated and from our clients. In addition, that information may be combined with information collected from other sources to assist with targeting ads to your preferences and behaviors, and for other BestRated sales and marketing efforts.
SHARING INFORMATION WITH MARKETING PARTNERS
BestRated compiles, sorts and sells contact information to businesses on behalf of individual consumers who have shown an interest in applying for insurance products or services and have affirmatively asked to be contacted by a representative offering those products or services.
We utilize third party vendors, third party affiliates, and a variety of media advertisements to promote the Site to consumers interested in completing an online application. We may also use these sources to purchase database of consumers who have completed applications on websites other than BestRated.com, and have affirmatively requested information about product or service offerings similar to those offered on BestRated.com.
BestRated will only sell information contained in our consumer database to a company that is affiliated with BestRated, provided that company agrees to adequately protect consumers' privacy.
When a User selects a quote on the Site, his or her data may be transferred to an affiliate company and/or website. The insurance policy entered into may be with an affiliate company and the contracting insurance provider may have a different name from the Site you are visiting.
YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
California has passed legislation requiring certain specific disclosures be made available to California residents who use the Internet and provide information that may be used for marketing purposes. That legislation requires any business that discloses a customer's personal information (as defined by the act) to any third party for direct marketing purposes to provide the customer a method for obtaining the names, addresses and certain other specified details of anyone who might have received that personal information.
If you are a California resident you may request this information from BestRated or any of its affiliates by writing to us via email at kyle.k@bestrated.com or you may send us correspondence at the following address: BestRated, Attn: Privacy, 15503 Ventura Blvd., Suite 300, Encino, CA 91436. BestRated shall not be obligated to respond to more than one such request from a customer per calendar year.
THIRD PARTY ADVERTISING
Advertisements that appear on the Site are sometimes delivered (or "served") directly to Users by third party advertisers. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. These third party advertisers may also download cookies to your computer, or use other technologies such as JavaScript and "web-beacons" to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. Doing this allows the advertising network to recognize your computer each time they send you an advertisement in order to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize advertising content. In this way, they may compile information about where individuals using your computer or browser saw their advertisements and determine which advertisements are clicked. BestRated does not have access to or control of the cookies that may be placed by the third party advertisers. Third party advertisers have no access to your contact information stored on the Site unless you choose to share it with them.
This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by BestRated and does not cover the use of cookies or other tracking technologies by any of its advertisers.
USE OF COOKIES
We use cookies to store Users' preferences and to record session information, for purposes including ensuring that users are not repeatedly offered the same advertisements and to customize newsletter, advertising, and webpage content based on browser type and user profile information. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable data you submit while on our site. You may be able to configure your browser to accept or reject all or some cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set – each browser is different, you may wish to review the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences. Please note; however, that you must enable cookies in order to use most functions on our Site. Please note that we may allow third party advertisers that are presenting advertisements on some of our pages to set and access their cookies on your computer. Advertisers' use of cookies is subject to their own privacy policies, not our Privacy Policy.
ADDITIONAL SHARING OF INFORMATION
We also reserve the right to release your information (both Active Information and Passive Information) in the event that: (1) we believe that the Site is being or has been used to commit unlawful acts; (2) if the information is subpoenaed or otherwise required in a court proceeding; (3) in the event that you violate or breach an agreement with the Site including, but not limited to, this Privacy Policy; (4) in the event that you have submitted fraudulent or otherwise invalid information to this Site; (5) we believe that you may harm, or have harmed, the property or rights of us, the Program's other Users or any other third party; (6) if we are sold or acquired; or (7) when we otherwise deem it necessary or appropriate. By agreeing to this Privacy Policy, you hereby consent to disclosure of any record or communication to any third-party when we, in our sole discretion, determine the disclosure to be appropriate including, without limitation, sharing your e-mail address with other third-parties for suppression purposes in compliance with the requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, as amended from time to time ("CAN-SPAM") or any other applicable state or federal law, rule or regulation.
LINKS AND PARTICIPATING VENDOR POLICIES
BestRated may contain links to participating vendor websites or third party websites to which we have no affiliation. Except as set forth herein, we do not share your personal information with those third parties or participating vendors, and are not responsible for their privacy practices. We suggest you read the privacy policies on all such third party and participating vendor websites.
SECURITY
Wherever your personally identifiable information may be held within BestRated or on its behalf, we intend to take reasonable and appropriate steps to protect the information you shared with us from unauthorized access or disclosure. Please note that while BestRated will make every reasonable effort to protect your information, no transmission of data over the Internet is 100% secure.
SECURING ACTIVE AND PASSIVE INFORMATION
We take reasonable efforts to secure your personal information. Efforts we may take to ensure security include but are not limited to monitoring of our network and data for intrusions. Communications you may have with us via email or mail may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures are in place prior to your sending information. Therefore, if you choose to communicate with us through these means, you are assuming the risk of doing so and we request that you do not send or post sensitive information through these means. You hereby acknowledge that BestRated is not responsible for any intercepted information sent via the internet, and you hereby release us from any and all claims arising out of or related to the use of intercepted information in any unauthorized manner.
ACCESS/ACCURACY
To the extent that you do provide us with personally identifiable information, BestRated wishes to maintain the accuracy of this information. Where we collect personally identifiable information from you on the Internet, our goal is to provide a means of contacting BestRated should you need to update or correct that information. If for any reason those means are unavailable or inaccessible, you may send updates and corrections about your personally identifiable information to kyle.k@bestrated.com and we will make reasonable efforts to incorporate the changes in the information that we hold as soon as practicable.
CHILDREN
In compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), BestRated is not structured to attract children. Accordingly, we do not intend to collect personally identifiable information from anyone we know to be under 13 years of age.
REFER A FRIEND
Some of BestRated's web sites offer you the opportunity to easily notify a friend of the offer or information promoted on the site. If you choose to use our referral service to tell a friend about a BestRated site, we will ask you for your friend's personally identifiable information, including name and email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the site. BestRated stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of our referral program.
Your friend may contact us at kyle.k@bestrated.com to request that we remove this information from our database. Our one-time email to your friend will inform him or her of this fact.
COMMITMENT
Protecting your privacy online is an evolving area, and BestRated's websites are constantly changing to meet these demands. If you have any comments or questions regarding our Online Privacy Policy, please contact us at kyle.k@bestrated.com.
While we cannot guarantee privacy perfection, we will address any issue to the best of our abilities as soon as practicable after you bring it to our attention.
YOUR CONSENT
By using this website, you consent to the terms of our Online Privacy Policy and to BestRated's processing of personally identifiable information for the purposes given above. Should the Online Privacy Policy change, we will post all changes in an amended version of this privacy policy.
YOUR USE OF OUR SITE AND/OR PARTICIPATION IN OUR PROGRAMS MEAN THAT YOU ACCEPT THE PRACTICES SET FORTH IN THIS POLICY. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE CHANGES TO THE POLICY BY POSTING A NEW VERSION WITH A NEW DATE. YOUR CONTINUED USE INDICATES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THE CHANGES. IT IS SOLELY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CHECK FOR UPDATES TO THIS POLICY.
CONTACT US & OPTING-OUT
For more information, or if you have questions or concerns regarding BestRated's Privacy Policy, or you wish to opt-out as provided above in this policy, you may email us at kyle.k@bestrated.com or you can send correspondence to the following address: D and D Marketing, attention: BestRated Insurance, 15503 Ventura Blvd., Suite 300, Encino, CA 91436.
