Overall Privacy Statement
We take your privacy seriously. Because we gather certain types of information about our users we want to help you understand the terms and conditions surrounding the collection and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses the types of information we gather, how we use it, and how to correct or change it.
1. What information does GreenHomeGuide collect?
Our primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you with the best and most useful content and services. Because we derive revenue mainly from advertising, collecting information is essential to keeping our services affordable to users.
We collect personally identifiable information when you provide it to us, such as when you register on our site, when you subscribe to an e-mail newsletter or when you register to use certain services. Several of the services that we offer on our site, such as our business directory, our product ranking system, and the My Green Home feature, may require registration as a condition of use. Once you register you are no longer anonymous to us. We may also receive information about you from other sources and add it to the information you provided to us.
2. What is GreenHomeGuide’s practice regarding cookies?
Your Internet browser has a feature called “cookies” which stores small amounts of data on your computer about your visit to our site. You do not need to have cookies turned on to visit our site, although active participation in certain areas of our site may require cookies. Cookies alone tell us nothing about who you are unless you specifically give us personally identifiable information when, in which case we use the information to enhance your services in the ways described below. You may elect not to allow cookies to be collected by adjusting your settings on your browser.
We use cookies and tracking technologies in a variety of ways, including:
* Keeping count of return visits to our site or our advertisers’ or partners’ sites
* Accumulating and reporting anonymous, aggregate (data collected in mass), statistical information on Web site and advertisement usage
* Determining which features our overall user population likes best
* Saving your password so you don’t have to re-enter it each time you visit our site
3. How does GreenHomeGuide use the information?
We use the information we gather for four general purposes:
* To customize the content you see.
* To enhance the user experience on our site. We use tracking information to determine how well each page performs overall based on aggregate user demographics and traffic patterns to those pages. This helps us continue to build a better service for you.
* To fulfill your requests for certain products and services, such as sending out electronic newsletters and enabling users to participate in paid services, polls, contests, and message boards.
* To send you information you agreed to receive about topics we think will be of interest to you.
4. How does GreenHomeGuide share the information?
Personally identifiable information
The only circumstance in which we will make your personally identifiable information available to other companies or people is when we respond to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process; or we believe that your actions violate applicable laws, GreenHomeGuide’s Terms of Use or any usage guidelines for specific products or services, or threaten the rights, property, or safety of our company, our users, or others.
Aggregate information
We aggregate personally identifiable information and disclose such information in a non-personally identifiable manner to advertisers and other third parties for marketing, promotional, and other purposes. We do not disclose to these entities any information that could be used to identify you personally.
Business transfers
We are always seeking to improve our business. In accomplishing this objective, we may buy or sell a company, or we may merge with or be acquired by another company. If we sell a business, we may transfer some or all of your information as a part of the sale in order that the service being provided to you may continue or for other business purposes.
5. What are my options?
Users who would rather not provide any of the user data requested by our registration process do not need to register with us. You can still view much of the content and use many of the services offered by our site without registering.
We also give users the following options:
* Opting not to receive our electronic newsletter when registering. Users who opt-in may remove themselves from mailing lists at any time by following the instructions at the end of the e-mail they received from us;
* Opting not to provide certain personal information when registering for the site, provided, however that you may not be able to utilize certain of our products or services without providing us with certain information.
6. How can I update my personally identifiable information?
You can correct or change the personally identifiable information collected during registration by using the My Green Home feature. The instructions for doing this can be found in our FAQ section. Users may change personally identifiable information at any time and as often as necessary. Users who are experiencing problems with our services or who have questions about how our services work can contact us using our Contact page. Currently, we do not offer users a means by which to completely delete personal information established at the time of registration.
7. How will I know if the privacy policy is changed?
Any modifications to our privacy practices will be reflected first within this document. If there is a material change in our privacy practices, we will indicate on our site that our privacy practices have changed and provide a link to the new privacy statement. If we are going to be using the information collected from users in a manner materially different from that stated at the time of collection we will send affected users written notice by email of the change.