Our Commitment to Privacy
Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy to find, we make it available on our homepage and at every point where personally identifiable information may be requested. Our privacy policy is designed to inform you of the types of information we collect, how we use that information, and the circumstances under which we will share it with nonaffiliated third parties.
Information Collection and Use
The Drake Group is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways differently than we have disclosed in this statement. The Drake Group collects information from our users at several different points on our website. We do not sell products on our website. Use of our DONATE button for non-tax deductible donations involves providing information through a secure merchant account. We also collect information from those who volunteer to help advance Congressional legislation and those who register for our newsletter.
Examples of the types of nonpublic personal information collected at these pages are:
- Name
- Address
- Web address
- Email address
- Phone Number
- Donation Information
- Credit/Debit Card Information
Additionally, we collect nonpublic personal information about you from the following sources (in addition to our website):
- Information we receive from you on applications or other forms
- Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates and others
- Information we receive from a consumer-reporting agency
Categories of Nonaffiliated Third Parties to Whom we May Disclose Nonpublic Personal Information Nonaffiliated third parties are those companies not under direct or indirect ownership or control with The Drake Group. We only disclose personal information about you to the following types of nonaffiliated third parties: financial services providers, such as companies engaged in banking, credit cards, and consumer finance.
We may also share the information we collect, as described above, with other nonaffiliated third parties such as third parties who may assist us in preparing monthly statements, and credit reporting agencies to whom we report information about your transactions with us.
Please be advised that any opt out rights described below will not apply with the sharing of information necessary for us to process applications, such as with consumer reporting agencies, or to perform services that you request.
By way of further example:
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s hard drive containing information about the user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site. Once the user closes their browser, the cookie simply terminates
Log Files
We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.
Sharing
We partner with other parties to provide specific services such as participation in webinars. When the user signs up for these services, we will share names, or other contact information that is necessary for the third party to provide these services. These parties are not allowed to use nonpublic personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services. We do not otherwise disclose nonpublic information to anyone, except as permitted by law.
Links
This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, The Drake Group are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site. Operators may be subject to the FTC’s privacy regulations and if so, (i) the FTC’s regulations contain sample disclosures that operators may consider; and (ii) operators may be required to send annual notices in addition to initial disclosures to their customers.
Security
This website takes precautions to protect our users’ information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and off-line. When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number, social security number, and/or Federal Tax ID), that information is encrypted and is protected with SSL encryption software. While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to unlocked, or open, when you are just ‘surfing’. While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also protect user-information off-line. All of our users’ information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Our employees must use password-protected screen-savers when they leave their desk. When they return, they must re-enter their password to regain access to your information. Furthermore, ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Every quarter, as well as any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our customers’ information is protected. Finally, the servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment, behind a locked door or cage.
If you have any questions about the security at our website, you can send an email to [email protected].
Site and Service Updates
We also send the user site and service announcement updates. We may close your account and/or refuse additional services if Members un-subscribe from service announcements, which contain important information about the service. We communicate with the user to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account via email, fax, or phone.
Correction/Updating Personal Information:
If a user’s non-public personally identifiable information changes (such as your zip code), or if a user no longer desires our service, we will endeavor to provide a way to correct, update or remove that user’s personal data provided to us. This can usually be done by emailing our [email protected] for more instructions.
Opt-out requirements:
As provided in this policy, we only provide your nonpublic personal information to a nonaffiliated third party in conjunction with the services that you have requested that we provide to you. All nonaffiliated third parties to whom we disclose your nonpublic personal information are contractually prohibited by us to disclose or use the information other than to carry out the transactions that you have requested. Accordingly, there is nothing for a user to opt out of with respect to how we currently use their non-public personal information.
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on our Homepage so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an email or US mailing so as to enable users to “opt-out” if we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.