BUYERS AGENCY USA
PRIVACY STATEMENT
Buyers Agency USA LLC operates the
web site at www.buyersagencyusa.com ("Site").
We respect the privacy of each user
of the Site (referred to as "you" or "a user"), whether you
are just beginning your real estate search or have already become a customer.
This Privacy Statement gives you specific information about how we protect your
privacy, how we treat information we collect on the Site that identifies an
individual user ("Personal Information"), and how we use aggregated
information.
BY REGISTERING FOR OR USING THE
SITE, YOU SIGNIFY YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT
AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT, YOU CANNOT USE THE SITE. We reserve the right to modify this Statement at any time
by posting a notice on the Site's home page. (If we consider it appropriate, we
may also provide additional notice of significant changes.) Your use of the
Site after the date of the last modification listed at the beginning of this
Privacy Statement indicates to us that you agree to the changes.
Location of Servers and Transfer of
Information to the United States
The Site is hosted by servers in the
United States. If you are located outside of the United States, your Personal
Information will be transferred to the United States. By submitting your Personal
Information, you consent to its transfer to the United States and to its
storage, processing, and use there in accordance with this Privacy Statement.
Scope of this Privacy Statement
This Privacy Statement applies to
your use of this Site only. We do not own, operate or control the web sites of
our Franchisees or sales associates. Accordingly, this Statement does not apply
to a Franchisee's or sales associate's web site or to a Franchisee's or sales
associate's collection, use, storage and disclosure of your Personal
Information.
1. Collection
and Use of Your Personal Information
We collect your Personal Information
on the Site in order to enhance the services we offer you. We collect Personal
Information from you only when you voluntarily submit it in order to obtain
certain services or information, including (A) registrations for special
communications, such as saving a search for you and, but only if you request
it, sending you new listings that fit the profile of your saved search; (B)
requests to find a property, to list your property, and to find a sales
associate; (C) requests to contact us; (D) requests to receive periodic
industry updates; (E) requests to email a listing to a friend; and (F)
applications for employment.
Requests
to Find or List a Property and to Find a Sales Associate
If you submit a request through this
Site to find or list a property or to find a sales associate, you will be asked
to provide Personal Information and we refer this information to Franchisees or
sales associates to respond to your request. For example, if you ask that we
list your property or if you ask to see more listings in a given area, you will
be directed to a Franchisee in that area.
Contacting
Us
If you contact us, we collect
Personal Information, which is retained or referred to an independent sales
associate depending on the nature of your inquiry. If you are looking for a
property or a sales associate, it is referred to sales associate; if your
inquiry or complaint requires a response from us, it is referred to the
appropriate department for research and a response. The information we collect
is not used in any other way and is not retained after one year.
Refer
a Listing to a Friend
If you choose to send a listing to a
friend, you will be asked to provide the friend's email address. We do not
store this information, and the information is used only to send the one-time
referral email.
Employment
Inquiry
If you are seeking employment, you
will be asked to provide Personal Information about yourself. We refer this
information to Franchisees in the geographic area in which you live. If you
have sought employment at our company headquarters, the information is forwarded
to our Corporate Human Resources Department.
2. Collection
of Non-Personal Information
Even if you do not send us any
Personal Information, we collect information about how you use our site
("Non-Personal Information"). This information cannot be used to
identify you personally and is explained in more detail below under
"Non-Personal Information".
Cookies
A cookie is a small data file, often
including an anonymous unique identifier, that is sent from a web site's
computer and stored on your computer's hard drive. Use of cookies is common on
the Internet. A web site can send its own cookie to your browser if your
browser's preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser
permits a web site to access only the cookies it has already sent to you, not
the cookies sent to you by other sites. You can configure your browser to
accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is sent.
(Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser
to learn how to change your cookie preferences.) You can reset your browser to
refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent. But if you refuse
cookies, some parts of the Site will not function properly and may not provide
services or information you have requested.
Non-Personal
Information
Like many sites, we obtain
Non-Personal Information such as IP (internet protocol) addresses, browser
types, the name of your ISP (internet service provider), information about
where a user comes from before arriving at our Site, what pages a user visits,
the order of those pages, and the amount of time spent on each. A vendor
performs this service for us by sending a cookie to gather this information,
compile it, and report to us. We use Non-Personal Information to customize the
advertising and content you see, improve our services, conduct research, and
provide anonymous aggregated reporting for internal audits and third-parties.
Advertising
Networks
We send to your web browser some of
the advertisements you see when you use our network of web sites. However, we
also allow other companies, called third-party ad servers or ad networks, to
serve advertisements within our web pages. Because your web browser must
request these advertising banners from the ad network web site, these companies
can send their own cookies to your cookie file, just as if you had requested a
web page from the web site. Please note that if an advertiser asks us to show
an advertisement to a certain audience (for example, men ages 18-34) or
audience segment (for example, men ages 18-24 who have viewed sports content)
and you respond to that ad, the advertiser or ad-server may conclude that you
fit the description of the audience they are trying to reach. As always,
remember we authorize our third-party ad servers to employ anonymous cookies
only for ad delivery and anonymous targeting. Our third-party ad servers do not
collect, nor do we give them access, to any Personal Information about you.
Opting
Out of Third-Party Ad Servers
If you want to prevent a third-party
ad server from sending and reading cookies on your computer, currently you must
visit each ad network's web site individually and opt out (if they offer this
capability). Currently, we have relationships with the following third-party ad
networks (click to visit their Web sites and review their privacy statements):
3. Use of
Information
We use the Personal Information and
the Non-Personal Information we collect on the Site (A) to provide you with the
services that you ask to receive through the Site, including saving searches
and, if you request it, sending you updates about those searches, (B) to
receive, if you choose, to receive periodic industry updates, (C) to answer
your questions or complaints, (D) to refer you to Franchisees and sales
associates about finding or listing a property or to locate a sale associate;
(E) to refer a listing to a friend, and (F) for analytical purposes to help us
improve the Site and for our business generally.
4. Sharing
Your Information
We do not rent, sell, or share with
third parties the Personal Information we collect from you on this Site except
(i) to provide information or services that you have requested, (ii) with your
permission, or (iii) under the following circumstances:
|
A. |
Third party vendors we engage to
provide services on our behalf, such as hosting, web-site development, and
support, have access to Personal Information, but they have agreed not to
disclose the Personal Information or to use it for any purpose other than
providing the requested services. |
|
B. |
There may arise special circumstances where it is
necessary for us to disclose and use Personal Information and Non-Personal
Information, such as: to enforce this Privacy Statement or any other part of
our Terms & Conditions (______________) to protect our property or rights; to
protect the safety of anyone; to investigate, prevent, or take action
regarding illegal or improper activities; to carry out a merger or
consolidation with another entity, a sale or transfer of some or all of our
assets, or any similar transaction; or for other reasons we determine in good
faith are necessary, appropriate, or required by law, such as when we respond
to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal or administrative process. |
The Site contains links to
third-party web sites, including a mortgage company, our Franchisees, our
advertisers, or banner advertising. If you hold your mouse over a link, it will
indicate whether clicking the link will send you off our Site. When you click
on those links, you will go to a third-party site where you will be subject to
that site's privacy statement and we encourage you to read that policy
statement. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy
practices of those other web sites and we expressly disclaim any liability for
their actions, including actions relating to the use and disclosure of Personal
Information by those third parties. We remind you to be aware of when you leave
our Site and enter a third-party web site, including one of our independent
Franchisees, and again encourage you to read the privacy statement on any web
site that collects your Personal Information.
5. Security
Our hosting services maintains its
systems in accordance with reasonable industry standards to reasonably secure
the information of its customers. However, no data transmission over the
Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. "Perfect security" does
not exist on the Internet, and you use the Site at your own risk.
6. Correction/Updating
Personal Information
If your Personal Information changes
or if you no longer wish to use the Site, you may correct or update your
Personal Information or unsubscribe from any industry updates you have
requested by modifying or deleting your profile on the Site, writing to
customer service at:
Buyers Agency USA, LLC Customer
Service
Attn:
or
unsubscribe@buyersagencyusa.com
7. Children
This Site is not directed to
children under the age of 13 ("Children"), and we do not knowingly
collect any information, including Personal Information, from Children.
8. California
Privacy Rights
Under California law, California
residents have the right to request in writing from businesses with whom they
have an established business relationship (1) a list of categories of personal
information, such as name, address, e-mail address, and the type of services
provided to the customer, that a business has disclosed to third parties
[including affiliates that are separate legal entities] during the immediately
preceding calendar year for the third parties' direct marketing purposes and
(2) the names and addresses of all such third parties.
To request the above information
please contact us by writing to customer service at:
Buyers Agency USA, LLC Customer
Service
Attn:
or
by using the "Contact Us" feature.
We will respond to such requests
within 30 days of receipt. Please note that we are only required to respond to
each customer once per calendar year.
9. Comments
and Questions
If you have any questions or
concerns about this Privacy Statement, please contact us by using the "Contact Us" feature or by postal mail at
Buyers Agency USA, LLC Customer
Service
Attn: