buySAFE privacy & security policy

Last Updated on 01/22/2008

We at buySAFE, Inc. ("buySAFE", "us,""we"or "our") take our responsibility to protect the privacy and confidentiality of consumer information very seriously. Because we care about maintaining your trust and confidence, we have adopted the practices described in this Privacy and Security Policy.

buySAFE, Inc is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to enable individuals and organizations to establish trusting relationships based on respect for personal identity and information by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy statement covers the site www.buysafe.com. Because we want to demonstrate our commitment to our users' privacy, we have disclosed our privacy practices to TRUSTe for review to ensure our compliance with best practices.

Questions or Concerns

If users have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact Customer Support by phone at 1-888-9-BONDED, fax at 703.778.4455, email at customersupport@buySAFE.com, or by mail at 1600 Wilson Blvd, Suite 600, Arlington, VA 22209. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or it is not satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact TRUSTe through the TRUSTe Watchdog Dispute Resolution Process (http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php). TRUSTe will serve as a liaison with the Web site to resolve users concerns. However, please understand the TRUSTe program covers only information that is collected through this Web site.

Information Collection and Use

Information Collection
buySAFE, Inc. is the sole owner of the information collected on www.buySAFE.com. buySAFE, Inc. collects information from our users at several different points on our Web site.

Registration
In order to use this Web site, a user must first complete the registration form. During registration a user is required to give contact information (such as name and email address). We use this information to contact the user about services on our site for which he has expressed interest.

Why Personal Information is Needed
The personal information we collect is necessary for us to accomplish important features of our services. We collect personal information about you to fulfill our commitment to pre-qualify only the best sellers. In order to investigate your credit and business background, we must first verify your identity. We use the credit and business information we receive at the core of our analysis. Your contact information is used to maintain communications about our services, for billing purposes, and to resolve problems related to purchases that involve our services.

Sources of Information We Collect
We collect personal information about you from the following sources:

1. Information we receive from you on applications or other forms;
2. Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates, or others;
3. Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency or other similar authentication source; and
4. Information from eBay User Feedback, or similar feedback mechanisms.

Live Person Advisor
If you use our Live Person advisor function, please note that transcripts of all transmissions are automatically retained, and are available to you for limited time. We will use the transcripts only in the event necessary to resolve an issue related to our service. They are deleted after they are no longer needed.

Profile
We store information that we collect through cookies, and/or third parties to create a profile of our users. A profile is stored information that we keep on individual users detailing their viewing preferences. Consequently, collected information is tied to the users' personally identifiable information to provide offers and improve the content of the site for the user. This profile is used to tailor a user's visit to our Web site and to direct pertinent marketing promotions to them. We do not share your profile with other third parties.

Cookies and Log Files

Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close the browser, the cookie is deleted. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user's hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions.

By allowing a cookie to be set by our site, users do not need to log in with a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If users reject the cookie, they may still use our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will be limited in some areas of our site. For example, the user will not be able to participate in any of our sweepstakes, contests or monthly drawings that take place. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site. See the "Profile"section.

We use an outsourced analytics program for understanding usage of our Web site. This application sets a cookie from a third party domain. This third party is not permitted to use these cookies served on our site for any secondary purposes.

Our site has no third party advertising. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our site.

Log Files
All web servers create and use log files to some extent. buySAFE does not use intrusive log files, but uses ordinary web-logging to assess and improve the functionality of www.buysafe.com. The log files track internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's movement in the aggregate, and gather general information about which pages are visited. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
Clear gifs are non displayed graphics that are used for the purpose of additional statistical analysis. Clear gifs are present on most of our pages for this purpose only. We also use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by the recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. If users would like to opt-out of these emails, please see the Opt-out section.

Disclosure of Information
We do not disclose any personally identifiable information collected through the site whether publicly listed elsewhere or not, except as disclosed in this statement or as required by law.

We may disclose personally identifiable information we collect to third-parties to process credit card transactions or to otherwise enable the functions of our service.

buySAFE reserves the right to disclose to third parties aggregate usage statistics that do not contain personal information. In no event will buySAFE include personal information in any such disclosure.

Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with an appropriate law enforcement investigation, current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site, or as required by law.

buySAFE shares personally identifiable information with our surety partners for the sole purpose of completing the bond application and delivering the bond(s) for transactions following the sale of a Sealed item.

Business Transitions
In the event buySAFE goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users' personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. If as a result of the business transition, the users' personally identifiable information will be used in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection they will be given choice consistent with our notification of changes section.

Communications from the Site
We send all new members a welcoming email to verify password and username. Established members will occasionally receive information on products, services, special deals, and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections.

Choice/Opt-out
Our users are given the opportunity to 'opt-out' of having their information used for purposes not directly related to our site at the point where we ask for information. For example, our order form has an 'opt-out' mechanism so users who buy a product from us, but don't want any marketing material, can keep their email address off of our lists.

Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter, special offers, and promotional communications may opt-out of receiving these communications by replying with " unsubscribe" in the subject line in the email or email us at customersupport@buySAFE.com. The user may also opt-out by contacting us at 703.778.4445, or sending a letter to 1600 Wilson Blvd, Suite 600, Arlington, VA 22209.

Users of our site are always notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether or not they should proceed with services that require an outside party.

Referral Function
If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for the friend's name and email address. We will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site.

Live Chat
The TRUSTe program does not govern personal information submitted in bulletin boards, chat rooms, or similar services. WARNING: Posting personally identifiable information in a chat environment is not secure and may be read and used by third-parties.

Confidentiality and Security
We protect your personal information. We restrict access to personal information about you to those employees who need to know that information to provide products or services to you.

We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal and state regulations to guard your nonpublic personal information.

Changes to This Privacy Policy
If we decide to amend this policy at any time, we will inform you of changes as required by law. We will post changes to this privacy and security statement on our homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If, however, we are going to use users' personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection, we will notify users via email and/or by posting a notice on our Web site for at least 30 days.

Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information
We provide you with access to certain of your personally identifiable information in our database. You may view and in certain cases update your personally identifiable information (such as zip code, phone, email or postal address) by visiting the My Account section in the Service Center on the buySAFE Web site, www.buysafe.com. If you believe that any of the information is incorrect, or you would like to delete/deactivate your personally identifiable information, notify us immediately by either completing a Contact Us form or sending an email message to customersupport@buysafe.com, and we will promptly correct erroneous information or discontinue your service.

Links
This Web site contains links to other sites, in particular our surety partners, including Liberty Mutual (www.libertymutual.com), Travelers (www.travelers.com), and ACE USA (www.acelimited.com). Please be aware that we, buySAFE, are 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.

Surveys
From time-to-time our site requests information from users via surveys. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as zip code). Contact information will be used to notify the winners and award prizes. Anonymous Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site. Users' personally identifiable information is not shared with third parties unless we give prior notice and choice. Though we may use an intermediary to conduct these surveys or contests, they may not use users' personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

If users have any questions about the security at our Web site, users can send an email to customersupport@buySAFE.com.