Privacy Policy

1. Realty Trends, LLC ("Realty Trends," “us,” or “we”) is committed to protecting the privacy of the users of the http://www.realtytrends.com web site (the “Site”) and the services offered through the Site (the “Services”). This privacy policy (the “Policy”) discloses our information privacy practices for the Site and Services. Your use of the Site and Services is also subject to our current Terms of Use available at [http://www.realtytrends.com/terms], which are incorporated herein. Please see the “Notification of Changes” section below for information regarding changes to this Policy. If you have questions or concerns regarding this Policy, you should contact us by e-mail at info@realtytrends.com.
2. OWNERSHIP AND USE. We are the owner of the information collected on the Site and through the Services. We will not sell, share, transfer, or use this information other than as stated in this Policy.
3. REALTY TRENDS CUSTOMERS AND OTHER THIRD PARTIES. Certain of the web sites of our customers, advertisers or affiliates and other third-parties may be accessible through the Site or Services. You may be asked to provide personally identifiable information (or other information) to these third parties through these web sites, including by way of example when you click on a link on the Site to one of these other web sites. These customers, advertisers, affiliates and other third parties maintain their own privacy and data collection policies and practices. This Policy covers only the Site and Services and does not extend to our customers, advertisers, affiliates or any other third parties. REALTY TRENDS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE POLICIES OR PRACTICES OF OUR CUSTOMERS, ADVERTISERS, AFFILIATES OR ANY OTHER THIRD PARTIES, AND YOU SHOULD REVIEW THE APPLICABLE PRIVACY BEFORE PROVIDING THEM WITH ANY PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION.
4. PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION. We only collect and share personally identifiable information regarding users of the Site or Services as described in this Policy. Except as noted in this Policy, personally identifiable information collected on the Site or through the Services is NOT shared with third parties without your consent. We may automatically collect personally identifiable information from you when you access the Site or use or access the Services. We may also collect personally identifiable information from you through a number of voluntary sources on the Site and through the Services, such as responses, registrations, surveys, reviews, comments, confirmations, emails, postings, messages or other electronic submissions and communications sent by you to the Site or through Services. The personally identifiable information we may collect from you will include, by way of example: • Domain name and Internet Protocol (IP) address; • Wireless carrier, mobile phone number and geographic location; • E-mail address; • Contact information (including postal address and telephone number); • Financial information, such as account or credit card numbers; • User-specific and aggregate information on areas of the Site accessed and Services used; • Username and password information for the Site or Services; and • Other information you volunteer to the Site or through the Services, such as information provided through responses, registrations, surveys, reviews, comments, emails, postings, messages or other electronic submissions and communications sent by you to us or the Site or Services.
5. YOU SHOULD NOT PROVIDE REALTY TRENDS WITH ANY PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION (OR SUBMIT OR POST ANY PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION TO THE SITE OR IN RESPONSE TO ANY COMMUNICATION) UNLESS YOU WOULD LIKE THAT INFORMATION TO BE USED BY REALTY TRENDS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS POLICY. The personally identifiable information that we collect from users of the Site or Services (both registered and unregistered) may be used for a variety of purposes, including by way of example: • Providing the Services; • Customizing advertising or other content displayed on the Site or through the Services; • Customizing the layout of the Site or Services; • Notifying users of the Site or Services about updates to and activities on the Site or Services; • Improving the content of the Site or Services; • Analyzing data and patterns regarding usage of the Site or Services; • Processing payment for the Services; • Contacting users of the Site or Services for marketing purposes; and • Contacting users of the Site or Services for information verification purposes. We may also share certain personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable information we collect through the Site or Services with third party companies so that they may offer products and services to users of our Site or Services that we believe will be of interest to those users.
6. NON-PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION. Where possible, our server automatically recognizes and collects certain non-personally identifiable information regarding visitors to the Site and users of the Services, including by way of example, IP address, browser type, and other information regarding the system and connection of each visitor or user. We also collect information about how visitors access and use the Site and Services, including by way of example what pages of the Site are viewed and what portions of services are used. This information allows us to improve the content of the Site and Services, facilitate research and analysis of the Site and Services, and develop and refine our Services. Sometimes, we utilize the services of a third party to help us understand this information better, see the “Consent to the Use of Third Party Providers” section below.
7. DISCLOSURE AS REQUIRED BY LAW. Though we make every reasonable effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personally identifiable information of certain users of the Site or Services when we have a reasonable and good-faith belief that the disclosure is necessary to enforce the Terms of Use for the Site, comply with a judicial proceeding, court order or other legal process, or to otherwise enforce or protect our rights under applicable law, including, without limitation, our intellectual property rights. In this situation we will use reasonable efforts to provide notice of this disclosure to all affected users, to the extent reasonably possible under the circumstances.
8. ENHANCEMENT OF PERSONAL INFORMATION. We may combine and enhance our user database information with third party data and information to better target our advertising and provide pertinent offers in which we think our users would be interested. Certain summary demographics are also used in our research product offerings.
9. SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS. On occasion, it is necessary to send out service related announcements. For instance, if the Site or any of the Services is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. These communications are not promotional in nature.
10. SPECIAL OFFERS AND UPDATES. We may send new registrants of the Site or Services a welcoming email to verify password and username. Established members may occasionally also receive information on services and special deals, and periodic newsletters. 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 section.
11. YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS. California law provides that California residents have a right to request that businesses tell them how their personally identifiable information has been shared with third parties for those third parties’ direct marketing purposes. However, there is an exception to this requirement for businesses that have adopted and disclosed, in their privacy policy, a policy of not disclosing a person’s personally identifiable information to third parties for those third parties’ direct marketing purposes if that person has exercised an option to opt-out of the disclosure of their personally identifiable information to third parties for such purposes. We have adopted a policy of allowing you to opt-out of the disclosure of your personally identifiable information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes and thus falls within this exception. Instructions for opting out can be found in the section below entitled “Choice and Opt-Out.”
12. CHOICE AND OPT-OUT. We provide you with a choice whether to receive certain emails and other communications through the Site and Services. We provide you the opportunity to 'opt-out' of having your personally identifiable information used for certain purposes. If you are a user of the Site or Services and you no longer wish to receive emails from us or have your email address shared with third parties, you may opt-out of receiving email from us or having your email address shared with third parties. In addition, if you would prefer that we not share your personally identifiable information with third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes, you may opt-out of having your personally identifiable information shared with third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. All opt-out requests may be made through the Site or by emailing us at: info@realtytrends.com.
13. CHILDREN. The Site and Services are not directed to children under 13 years of age. Realty Trends does not knowingly solicit or collect personal information from children under 13 years of age.
14. CUSTOMER SERVICE. We provide customer service as set forth in our Terms of Use. We communicate with users to provide these services in accordance with our Terms of Use.
15. COOKIES. “Cookies” include commonly used pieces of information in the form of small files that are placed on an individual's computer hard drive to enable the individual to more easily communicate and interact with the Site and Services. We may use cookies on the site or in communications sent through the Services for various purposes, including by way of example: • Saving user preferences; • Customizing advertising and other content of the Site for individual users; • Recording session information; • Saving certain information about users of the Site and others who visit the Site; and • Facilitating and enhancing interaction with the Site. We do not use cookies to retrieve information from a computer that is unrelated to Realty Trends or the Site or Services. A cookie does not collect or keep your name or other personally identifying information; however, we may link the information obtained through cookies to other personally identifiable information to give us a better understanding of your preferences, so that we can provide a more meaningful experience to you on our Site and through our Services. We may also use a third party provider to analyze data and patterns regarding usage of the Site and the communications sent through Services. This third party provider may use cookies to collect such information. Most browsers will allow you to erase cookies from your computer hard drive, block acceptance of cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. You may also be able to refuse certain web beacons by adjusting the settings on your browser or email software. Please refer to your browser or email software instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions.
16. ACCESS, REVIEW, UPDATE. Users of the Site and Services may review, delete, deactivate, update or change contact information that was previously provided to or collected by us by emailing us at info@realtytrends.com.
17. CONSENT TO THE USE OF THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS. In addition to the specific third parties noted in this Policy, we may also contract with other third parties to provide various services to us relating to the Site or Services on an outsourced basis rather than performing the services itself. For example, we may contract with a web site hosting provider to host all or a portion of the Site or Services. We may also use a third party payment processor to facilitate payments for the Site or Services. In addition, we may use a third party to collect and analyze information about the usage of the Site and Services. By visiting the Site or using the Services, you consent to our use of these third party providers to collect both personal and non-personal information from you as part of the services that these third parties provide to us. You also consent to our providing your personal and non-personal information to these third party providers for the purpose of enabling the providers to provide their services to us. In each case, your personal and non-personal information will be used by our third party service providers on our behalf under the terms of this Policy, and you consent to the maintenance, processing, and use of your personal and non-personal information by us and these third party providers as described in this Policy.
18. NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES. If we decide to change this Policy, we will either notify users by posting material changes on the Site so our users are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and if we disclose it. Your continued use of the Site or Services after such notice will indicate your consent to the revised Policy Unless we seek and receive your consent, we will use information in accordance with the Policy under which the information was last collected. Users may prevent their information from being used for purposes other than those for which it was originally collected by emailing us at info@realtytrends.com.
19. SECURITY. We will use at least industry standard security measures on the Site to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. While there is no such thing as "perfect security" on the Internet, we will take all reasonable steps to insure the safety of your personal information. For example, our policy is that only those individuals who need your personally identifiable information to perform a specific job are granted access to that personally identifiable information. Likewise, the servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment.
20. TRANSFER OF INFORMATION. If we elect, in our sole discretion, to transfer ownership or control of the Site or Services to a third party, whether or not in the context of an acquisition, merger, or reorganization, you consent to the transfer of your personally identifiable information and non-personally identifiable information by us to that third party, provided that all use of your information by that third party remains subject to the terms of this Policy.