Updated: July 1, 2006
Low Rate DirectTM Privacy Policy
PLEASE NOTE: OUR PRIVACY POLICY CHANGES FROM TIME TO TIME. PLEASE CHECK BACK FREQUENTLY FOR UPDATES AS YOUR USE OF THE LowRateDirectTM' WEBSITE IS SUBJECT TO THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY.
LowRateDirectTM has created this privacy policy ("Privacy Policy") in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to the very important issue of customer information privacy. The following Privacy Policy discloses our personal information gathering and sharing practices with respect to our website located at http://www.LowRateDirect.com/ (the "Website").
LowRateDirectTM is the sole owner of the personal information collected on the Website. We will not sell, share or rent this information to others in ways other than as set forth in this Privacy Policy.
We use your network (IP) address to help detect fraudulent credit card orders, diagnose problems with our server and to administer the downloading services ("Services") offered at our Website. We may use your IP address to verify your identity internally or with a third party, but we will never utilize it to send any IP based advertising to you. Your IP address is recorded so that we can offer the best possible customer service to you at all times.
LowRateDirectTM currently employs cookie and web bug technology to associate certain Internet-related habits of Visitors to our Website with information that we have in our database. Additionally, LowRateDirectTM may use other new and evolving sources of information gathering technology in the future (together, "Technology Information"). A cookie is a small amount of data stored on the hard drive of computer users that allows Low Rate DirectTM to identify the individuals with corresponding data on file in the LowRateDirectTM database or the database of a third party service provider. Individuals that use the Website need to accept cookies in order to access all of the features and functionality available through use of the Website. A web bug consists of source code embedded in an html e-mail or web page that can be used to transfer an individual's unique user identification to a database and associate the individual with previously acquired information on that individual that resides in a database. Use of web bugs allows Low Rate DirectTM to track certain websites that an individual may visit online. Web bugs are also used to assist in ascertaining the products and services that individuals are interested in and to track online behavioral habits for marketing purposes. In addition to using web bugs on web pages, Low Rate DirectTM also uses web bugs in connection with e-mail messages sent to individuals listed in the Low Rate DirectTM database. You may erase any cookies that your browser installs on your hard drive and/or disable web bug functionality by following the instructions contained in your browser.
Low Rate DirectTM is a membership-based service. We collect personal information when you register for membership at the Website. In particular, and without limitation, we collect your first name, last name, e-mail address, mailing address, telephone number and credit card information during the registration process. All visitors to the Website may browse selected portions of the Website and obtain information about our Services without entering any personal information.
Any personal information that you submit at the Website remains your property. However, by submitting that information to LowRateDirectTM, you grant to us the right to use your personal information for any legal purpose including, without limitation: a) marketing purposes such as sharing your information with third party advertisers; b) providing promotional offers to you by means of e-mail advertising, telemarketing, direct mail marketing, online banner advertising and/or package stuffers; c) transferring your personal information to a third party, when necessary, to receive a product or service that you may have ordered from such third party while using the Website or when responding to offers provided by Low Rate DirectTM; d) tracking compliance with our Terms and Conditions; and e) for validation, suppression, content improvement and feedback purposes. In addition, you agree that LowRateDirectTM may contact you with updates and/or any other information that we may deem appropriate for you to receive in connection with the Services.
By submitting your e-mail address at the Website, you agree to receive e-mail marketing from Low Rate DirectTM and our third party advertisers. LowRateDirectTM may maintain separate e-mail lists for different purposes. If you wish to end your e-mail subscription to a particular list, you must follow the instructions contained in any e-mail correspondence that you receive from Low Rate DirectTM or a third party advertiser in order to unsubscribe from a particular list. Low Rate DirectTM only sends e-mail marketing to individuals that have agreed to receive e-mail from LowRateDirectTM and to individuals that have otherwise agreed, on third party websites, to receive e-mail marketing from other companies, such as Low Rate DirectTM. LowRateDirectTM does not send unsolicited commercial e-mail. As a result, certain statutes requiring particular formatting for unsolicited commercial e-mail may not be applicable to the commercial e-mail that is sent by Low Rate DirectTM. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Low Rate DirectTM will not send you any e-mail marketing, or allow any third party to send you e-mail marketing, from which you cannot unsubscribe.
In addition, you agree that by submitting your e-mail address at the Website, such act constitutes a purchase, an inquiry and/or an application for purposes of the Amended Telemarketing Sales Rule, 16 CFR ?310 et seq. (the "ATSR"). Notwithstanding that your telephone number may be listed on the Federal Trade Commission's Do-Not-Call List, Low Rate DirectTM retains the right to contact you via telemarketing in accordance with the ATSR. Moreover, by registering with, or requesting information from, a third party advertiser at or through the Website, such action shall constitute a purchase, an inquiry and/or an application with the respective third party advertiser for purposes of the ATSR and you may be contacted via e-mail, direct mail and/or telemarketing by such third party advertiser in accordance with the ATSR.
LowRateDirectTM reserves the right to release current or past user information: a) in the event that we believe that the Website is being or has been used in violation of the Terms and Conditions or to commit unlawful acts; b) if the information is subpoenaed; or c) if LowRateDirectTM is sold or acquired. Moreover, you hereby consent to disclosure of any record or communication to any third party when Low Rate DirectTM, in its sole discretion, determines the disclosure to be appropriate including, without limitation, sharing your e-mail address with other third parties for suppression purposes in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, as amended from time to time.
In connection with most purchases and transactions that take place on the Website, Low Rate DirectTM will collect your credit card information. This will be done via third party merchant transaction providers and during transmission, such information will be encrypted and protected with SSL encryption software. The third party merchant transaction providers that we contract with do not retain, share, store or use any personally identifying information for any secondary purposes. However, your own credit card company may, in some circumstances, make secondary use of your personal information and purchasing history. Please contact your credit card company for more information. In addition, by submitting your credit card information to us, you authorize LowRateDirectTM to periodically verify that your credit card account continues to be a valid and active one by charging and, thereafter immediately crediting, a small sum to the card. Such verification may be conducted through a third party service provider and, in that case, LowRateDirectTM will share your specific credit card information with this third party for verification purposes. Apart from the foregoing uses, Low Rate DirectTM reserves the right to share with other third parties the fact that we have credit card information on file for specific individuals, but we will not share the actual credit card information with other third parties without the applicable individual's prior informed consent.
LowRateDirectTM reserves the right to transfer and/or sell aggregate or group data about LowRateDirectTM users for lawful purposes. Aggregate or group data is data that describes the demographics, usage and/or other characteristics of LowRateDirectTM users as a group without disclosing personally identifiable information. By submitting your personal information to, and/or using, the Website, you agree to allow LowRateDirectTM to transfer and/or sell such aggregate data to third parties.
LowRateDirectTM does not endorse, nor is LowRateDirectTM responsible for the accuracy of, the privacy policies and/or terms and conditions of each of the third party advertisers on the Website. The entities that advertise and/or place banner ads on the Website are independent third parties and are not affiliated with LowRateDirectTM.
LowRateDirectTM does not knowingly solicit or collect information from visitors under 18 years of age. If you are under 18 years of age, you are not permitted to use, or submit your personal information at, the Website. Accordingly, in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"), Low Rate DirectTM will never knowingly collect any personal information from children under 13 years of age. If LowRateDirectTM obtains actual knowledge that it has collected personal information from a child under 13 years of age, or 18 years of age for that matter, the information will be immediately deleted from our database. Because it does not collect such information, LowRateDirectTM has no such information to use or to disclose to third parties. We encourage parents and guardians to spend time online with their children and to participate and monitor the interactive activities of their children.
LowRateDirectTM stores your personal information in a secure database on either the Low Rate DirectTM computer network or a third party service provider's computer network. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the correct use of such information, Low Rate DirectTM employs appropriate industry standard procedures to safeguard the confidentiality of your personal information, such as firewall, encryption, token authentication, application proxies, monitoring technology and adaptive analysis of network traffic. However, no data transmitted over the Internet can be 100% secure. Accordingly, while Low Rate DirectTM endeavors to protect the security of your personal information, LowRateDirectTM cannot guarantee the security of any personal information that you transmit to us over the Internet and, as such, you assume the risk of transmitting such information to us.
LowRateDirectTM Affiliates (Privacy Practices for Affiliates, Only)
Third party website owners who register as Low Rate DirectTM Webmaster affiliates ("Affiliates") must supply additional personal information to us in order to qualify for the Low Rate DirectTM Affiliate program ("Affiliate Program"). Affiliates will earn sales commissions on purchases made by users that they refer to LowRateDirectTM. In particular, and without limitation, you must provide your website address and your U.S. taxpayer identification number or that of your company (social security number or employer identification number, respectively) when you register for the Affiliate Program. We use this personal information to facilitate your participation in the Affiliate Program and we will make disclosures to third parties, such as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service ("IRS"), whenever necessary. We cannot make any payments that would cause your Affiliate commissions to exceed $600 US during a calendar year, until you also submit (to us) an original signed copy of an IRS form W-9. We are required to collect this information from our Affiliates in order to report their earnings to the IRS (and to the taxing authorities of any nation, state or political subdivision whose laws or regulations we are obligated to respect) and to issue an IRS form 1099 to both Affiliates and the IRS. If you are neither a citizen, nor a resident of the United States, you do not need to provide a U.S. taxpayer identification number, but in such a case, we are required to withhold a portion of your Affiliate commissions and we will remit them to the IRS. You must apply to the IRS for a refund of this money if you do not owe any U.S. income taxes. You should not be asked for (and you should never provide) your taxpayer identification number to us, unless you are applying as an Affiliate to earn sales commissions.
By using the Website and/or agreeing to receive information via e-mail from LowRateDirectTM, you agree to this Privacy Policy. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to change, modify, add and/or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time. All Privacy Policy changes will take effect immediately upon their posting on the Website. Please check this page periodically for any changes. Your continued use of the Website and/or acceptance of our e-mail communications following the posting of changes to this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of any and all changes.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, LowRateDirectTM' privacy practices or your dealings on the Website, please contact us.