Privacy Policy
This privacy policy applies only to the websites controlled by United Service Animal Registry (USAR) where this privacy policy is posted (collectively, the "Site"). This privacy policy does not pertain to information that is collected offline.
BY USING THE SITE, YOU CONSENT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND TO OUR PROCESSING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES STATED BELOW. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY, PLEASE DO NOT USE THE SITE.
A. Information Collected
This privacy policy applies only to information collected on the Site and does not apply to information collected by USAR through any other means. For details on the information collected and used from children under the age of 13, we follow the guidelines set forth by COPPA.
We collect two types of information from visitors to the Sites: (1) Personally Identifiable Information; and (2) Non-Personally Identifiable Information, such as your IP address or cookies.
(1) Personally Identifiable Information
"Personally Identifiable Information" is information that identifies you personally, such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, or company name. USAR collects and stores the personally identifiable information that you have provided to us. Here are some examples of manners in which we may collect your personally identifiable information on the Sites:
We may collect your email address, first and last name and zip code if you sign up for an online newsletter;
We may collect your email address if you contact us with a question;
We may collect your first and last name, your address, and your credit card and billing information if you make a purchase of a product at the USAR Store.
We may collect your first and last name, your address, and your credit card and billing information if you complete the registration form in order to register your animal as a service animal.
The above list provides an example of the personally identifiable information that may be collected on the Sites. If you do not want USAR to collect your personally identifiable information, please do not provide it to us.
(2) Non-Personally Identifiable Information
"Non-Personally Identifiable Information" can be technical information or it can be demographic information, such as your age or gender. Non-personally identifiable information does NOT identify you personally. Here are some examples of the non-personally identifiable information that is collected via the Sites and a description of how this information is used:
Internet Protocol (IP) address -- Your IP address is a number that lets computers attached to the Internet know where to send you data. We use this information to deliver our webpages to you upon request and to measure traffic within our Sites.
Cookies -- USAR employs "cookies" to provide better service to its customers. USAR does not use cookies to collect any personally-identifying information from users or to track user activities beyond our Web site. USAR does not maintain copies of cookies on our Web site after you leave our Web site.
Cookies are small pieces of temporary data that are exchanged between a Web site and a user's computer which enable a "session," or "dialog," to be established between the two machines. With the session established, USAR is able to tailor its responses (i.e., identify and provide you with the information you want) and help you traverse our Web pages in the most efficient and effective manner possible. The session is often broken when USAR's server does not receive further requests from your computer or you simply exit your browser.
USAR limits its use of cookies to "session cookies" - types of cookies that are temporarily stored in your computer's memory. Session cookies are normally deleted from a user's computer when the user logs off the computer or the user exits the browser. USAR does not issue "persistent cookies" - types of cookies that could be stored permanently on your workstation and reused each time you visit USAR's Web site.
(3) Demographic Information -- "Demographic Information" may be your gender, age, zip code and interests, which you voluntarily provide to us on the Sites. We use this information to provide you with personalized services and to analyze trends to ensure the information provided by the Site meets your needs. Please note that we also consider aggregated information, which is not personally identifiable, to be non-personally identifiable information. The above list provides an example of the non-personally identifiable information that is collected via the Site.
B. Use of Information Collected Via the Sites
(1) Personally Identifiable Information
We use your personally identifiable information that is collected on this Site primarily for the following purposes:
To deliver services, information, newsletters or software you request or purchase;
To alert you to special offers, updated information and other new services from USAR, or other third parties, or to forward promotional materials;
To complete a transaction or service requested by you;
To fulfill the terms of a promotion;
To ensure the Site is relevant to your needs;
To help us create and publish content most relevant to you;
To notify you about a material change to this privacy policy or the Visitor Agreement, if necessary;
To allow you access to limited-entry areas of the Sites; and
To contact you in response to sign up forms such as Contact Us or Registration.
(2) Non-Personally Identifiable Information
Non-personally identifiable information is used as described above and in other ways as permitted by applicable laws, including combining non-personally identifiable information with personally identifiable information (except with respect to non-personally identifiable information collected from children under the age of 13 as set forth by COPPA ).
C. Sharing and Disclosure of Information
(i) To fulfill a service to you. In addition, if you email us a question, we may use your email address to process your request and respond to your question.
(ii) To complete your purchase. If you choose to make a purchase on the Site, we may collect from you your credit card number, billing address and other information related to such purchase, and we may use such collected information in order to fulfill your purchase. We may also provide such information, or other personally identifiable information provided by you, to unaffiliated third parties as necessary to complete your purchase (for example, to process your credit card).
(iii) To comply with the law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary in order to conform to the requirements of law or comply with legal process served on us, protect and defend our rights or property, including the rights and property of USAR and its family of Sites or act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of our end users.
(iv) To track and analyze non-identifying and aggregate usage and volume statistical information from our visitors.
(v) To protect against potential fraud, we may verify with third parties the information collected from these Sites. In the course of such verification, we may receive personally identifiable information about you from such services. In particular, if you use a credit card or debit card to purchase services with us, we may use card authorization and fraud screening services to verify that your card information and address matches the information that you supplied to us, and that the card has not been reported as lost or stolen.
Except as described in this Privacy Policy or at the time we request the information, we do not otherwise use, share or otherwise disclose your personally identifiable information to any third parties.
(2) Non-Personally Identifiable Information
We use non-personally identifiable information collected on the Sites in the manner disclosed above, in the Section A (2). We may share this non-personal information with third parties.
D. Opt-Out
We communicate with users who subscribe to our services on a regular basis via email. For example, we may use your email address to confirm your request, to send you notice of payments, to send you information about changes to our products and services, and to send notices and other disclosures as required by law. Generally, users cannot opt-out of these communications, but they will be primarily informational in nature rather than promotional.
However, we provide you the opportunity to exercise an opt-out choice if you do not want to receive other types of communication from us, such as emails or updates from us regarding new services and products offered on this. The opt-out choice may be exercised by ticking or un-ticking the appropriate box if such checkbox is available at the points where personally identifiable information is collected or by contacting us. We will process your unsubscribe as soon as possible, but please be aware that in some circumstances you may receive a few more messages until the unsubscribe is processed. You also may opt-out of receiving such emails by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link within the text of the email.
E. Forums, Chat Rooms and Other Public Posting Areas
Please note that any information you include in a message you post to any chat room, forum or other public posting area is available to anyone with Internet access. If you don't want people to know your e-mail address, for example, don't include it in any message you post publicly. PLEASE BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WHEN DISCLOSING ANY INFORMATION IN CHAT ROOMS, FORUMS AND OTHER PUBLIC POSTING AREAS. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE BY OTHERS OF THE INFORMATION THAT YOU DISCLOSE IN CHAT ROOMS, FORUMS AND OTHER PUBLIC POSTING AREAS.
F. Third Party Web Sites
This statement applies solely to information collected on the Site. The Site may contain links to other web sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of these other web sites.
G. Third Party Advertisers
We may use advertisers, third party ad networks, and other advertising companies, to serve advertisements on the Sites. Please be advised that such advertising companies may gather information about your visit to the Site or other sites (such as through cookies, web beacons and other technologies) to enable such advertising companies to market products or services to you, to monitor which ads have been served to your browser and which webpages you were viewing when such ads were delivered. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices please click here. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS POLICY DOES NOT COVER THE COLLECTION AND USE OF INFORMATION BY SUCH ADVERTISING COMPANIES.
H. Accessing Your Personally Identifiable Information and Privacy Preferences
We provide you with an opportunity to access your personally identifiable information to ensure it is correct, accurate and current. If for any reason you are not able to update or edit your personally identifiable information at this page, you can access such information by contacting us as described below. We will make reasonable efforts to accommodate your request.
I. Assignment
In the event that all or part of our assets or sold or acquired by another party, or in the event of a merger, you grant us the right to assign the personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable information collected via the Site.
J. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to change this privacy policy from time to time. When we do, we will also revise the "last update" date at the bottom of this privacy policy. For changes to this privacy policy that may be materially less restrictive on our use or disclosure of personal information you have provided to us, we will attempt to obtain your consent before implementing the change by sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your account or by placing a prominent notice on the Sites.
We will also notify parents if we change the kinds of information that we collect from kids and materially alter our practices of sharing and using this information. We will not collect, use or share the information without parental consent.
K. Security
No data transmissions over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us and you understand that any information that you transfer to USAR is done at your own risk.
Once we receive your transmission, we make reasonable efforts to ensure security on our systems. We use firewalls to protect your information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed by breach of such firewalls and secure server software.
If we learn of a security systems breach we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. By using this Site or providing personally identifiable information to us you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy and administrative issues relating to your use of these Sites. We may post a notice on our Site if a security breach occurs. We may also send an email to you at the email address you have provided to us in these circumstances. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach in writing.
L. Age Screening
Some parts of the Sites require that personally identifiable information be submitted in order to participate. For example, if you want to receive one of our newsletters, you must give us your email address. Some parts of the Site will have an age-screening mechanism to prevent kids from registering. We won't knowingly allow anyone under the age of thirteen to register with our Site, or to access those features that require registration, except as explicitly disclosed herein.
If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personally identifiable information from a user under the age of thirteen other than in a legally permissible situation, we will delete the information from our records as soon as we discover it.
M. Contacting USAR
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at privacy_policy@usarplus.com. All information you provide in any written communication will also be covered by this policy.
N. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
Beginning on January 1, 2005, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits our visitors who are California residents to request certain information regarding USAR's disclosure of personally identifiable information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please contact us by email at privacy_policy@usarplus.com.
Click here to see the USARplus Security Policy.
Last Updated On: Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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