Last
updated March 18, 2003.
PLEASE READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY CAREFULLY. BY USING THE
SERVICE OR WEBSITE REFERENCING THIS PRIVACY POLICY, YOU AGREE, WITHOUT LIMITATION
OR QUALIFICATION, TO BE BOUND BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY, AS AMENDED FROM TIME TO
TIME.
Stocktrends Publications ("STOCKTRENDS") owns, operates,
and/or maintains various STOCKTRENDS branded web sites and other Internet-accessible
areas, both password-protected and publicly accessible (collectively, the “Sites”;
each individually a “Site”). Protecting your (“You”
and “Your” includes any person and/or entity using any Site) privacy
is very important to us at STOCKTRENDS. Our goal is to treat the Personal Information
you furnish us with the utmost respect and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy explains how personal information about you may be collected,
used, or disclosed as a consequence of your activities on or related to a STOCKTRENDS
website or service. It also explains how you can ask questions and make suggestions
about our privacy practices, and review and update your personal information.
We urge you to read this Privacy Policy carefully.
PERSONAL INFORMATION:
For purposes of this Privacy Policy, "Personal Information"
is defined as information about an identifiable individual, not including the
name, title or business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization.
This Privacy Policy contains information on:
- What information do we collect?
- Personal information collection, use and distribution to third parties
- How is your information secured and protected?
- What if we change our Privacy Policy?
- Web site links
- Additional Privacy Procedures
- How do you access and update your information?
- Who can I contact with questions, comments or suggestions?
1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
Internet Protocol Address, Domain, and Browser Information
Our Web server may collect your IP (which stands for Internet Protocol) address,
which is the unique number assigned to every computer directly connected to
the Internet, often provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Our Web
server may also collect the domain you used to access this Site, the type and
version of browser and operating system you are using, and the Web site you
came from and visit next. This information may be used by us and our business
associates to measure the number of visits, average time spent, page views,
and other statistics about visitors to this Site in general. We may also use
this data to monitor Site performance for systems administration purposes, to
make this Site easier and more convenient to use and to report information in
aggregate form to our advertisers (e.g. how many visitors log in to this Site).
We may also use this information to serve you advertising that we think is likely
to be more interesting for you and more productive for our advertisers ("targeted
advertising"). For example, if you live in British Columbia, we may provide
you with ads targeting British Columbia, based upon your IP address if it is
associated with a geographically based ISP.
Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of data stored by your Internet browser on your computer's
hard drive, which permit us to recognize your computer when you access this
Site. If you are browsing, a cookie is used to help us measure the number of
visits, average time spent, page views, and other statistics relating to your
use of this Site. This cookie, by itself, doesn't tell us your email address
or who you are.
We may also use cookies to track aggregate information, such as the number
of visitors to our Sites, and we may provide this information to third parties
such as advertisers, but in such instances this information is disclosed in
aggregate format only.
In some cases, we use cookies to provide you with personalized features. For
example, if you create or update a stock list on stocktrends.ca, we store a
cookie file on your computer to identify your particular computer and connect
it with your report. The cookie file communicates with our server, enabling
you to view your stock list report each time you return to the Site using the
same browser.
Similarly, if you decide to register on-line as a subscriber with us, we may
collect additional information to provide you with services, such as maintaining
your Stock Trends Portfolio, (see Personal Information Collection below). In
this case, we use cookies to recognize you on subsequent visits and make your
on-line experience more convenient.
Please note certain features on this Site may not function if you do not accept
cookies.
User-Provided Information
There are times, such as during a registration of subscription process, when
we may ask you for or you may choose to provide information about yourself or
your business to assist us in meeting your various needs. To provide certain
services, we may ask you to provide, among other things, your name, postal code,
email address, and a user name and password ("Registration Information").
At times, we may conduct on-line surveys to better understand the needs, profiles,
and experience of our visitors. We may also use information that you provide
to us in order to respond to a specific request from you.
2. PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTION,
USE AND DISTRIBUTION TO THIRD PARTIES
Generally
There are times when we may ask you for or you may choose to provide information
about yourself or your business to assist us in meeting your various needs.
This information may be used for the following purposes: answering your questions,
providing you with services you have requested, giving producers and developers
of the Site information that is useful in determining appropriate new features,
content and services, to provide advertisers with aggregate, not individual,
information about our customers, informing you of additional services provided
by STOCKTRENDS or by our business partners, that may interest you, or as otherwise
set out in the Terms and Conditions applicable to the Site or the Services.
Personally identifiable information about individual users is not shared with
any third parties, except (a) for service providers acting on our behalf solely
to enable us to more efficiently provide the services and features offered on
our Site, and in such cases, the service providers act under strict contractual
controls requiring them to maintain the confidentiality of information and restricting
them from accessing or using the information for any purpose other than providing
the service for which the information was provided, or (b) as set out in the
Terms and Conditions applicable to the Site or the Services, to facilitate the
provision of the Services, such as, fulfilling Stock Exchange reporting requirements.
We may also aggregate statistics that we gather about the visitors to the
Site, sales, traffic patterns, and services and provide these statistics to
third parties; however, when we do, except as provided in the applicable Terms
and Conditions, these statistics will not include any personal information that
identifies individuals.
We may also use, disclose and communicate your personal information in good
faith if required to do so by law, including by an order of any court, or in
order to protect or defend a legal interest.
We do not knowingly solicit information from children and we do not knowingly
market our services to children.
Although we use all reasonable means to ensure that third parties do not use
the information you provide to us for purposes other than those described in
this Privacy Policy or the Terms and Conditions, STOCKTRENDS is not responsible
for any improper use of your personal information that is beyond our control.
Registration/Subscription
In order to have access to a certain Site or Service we may ask you to register
for and/or subscribe to such Site or Service. In such cases, you will be required
to provide certain Registration Information. Once you register for, or subscribe
to, any Site or Service operated by STOCKTRENDS, if you later register with
another STOCKTRENDS site, your Registration Information may be shared, for registration
purposes only, so that you do not need to completely re-register.
Your Registration Information is used only to provide requested services to
you, for demographic statistics and to display appropriate targeted advertisements.
Except as set out in the applicable Terms and Conditions, STOCKTRENDS keeps
all of your Personal Information private and does not share it with any third
parties. Upon completion of your registration or subscription, we will send
you an email containing your user name and useful information regarding the
relevant Site and Service. If, during the registration or subscription process,
you agreed that you would like us to keep you updated on new Site developments,
and information about our services or about offerings from STOCKTRENDS Sites,
we will send you these updates by e-mail. You may choose to unsubscribe to these
e-mails at any time by following the instructions at the end of such e-mail
messages.
STOCKTRENDS may also send periodic e-mails when necessary to announce important
service changes and technical issue updates.
Surveys
At times, we may conduct on-line surveys to better understand the needs, profiles,
and experience of our visitors. You will be given the option to participate
in such surveys. Unless you request to receive the results of the survey via
e-mail, no information that could identify you personally is requested during
such surveys and all information is used on an aggregated basis only.
Enquiries, Requests and Feedback
We may use information that you provide to us in order to respond to a specific
request from you. For example, if you are a Stock Trends Portfolio user requesting
assistance with your Portfolio, you have the option of sending your Username
to the support staff in order for them to investigate. By sending us your Username,
you are authorizing representatives of STOCKTRENDS to access your portfolio
in order to investigate the problem you are reporting. Information provided
or gained in this case will be used solely to investigate and address the problem
you have reported and will not be shared with any third party.
We may also provide information that you provide to us in order to improve
the Site or Service or to share, in an aggregate format, with advertisers or
third party service providers.
If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence. We retain
e-mail addresses of those who communicate via email only for purposes of improving
our services or responding to requests.
3. HOW IS YOUR INFORMATION SECURED AND PROTECTED?
The security of your Personal Information is important to us. STOCKTRENDS
takes technical, contractual, administrative, and physical security steps to
protect Personal Information that you provide to us.
If you provide credit card information to us, we work to protect the security
of your credit card information during transmission by using Secure Sockets
Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts information you input. We do not reveal
your credit card number when confirming an order. We transmit the entire credit
card number using a secure connection to the appropriate credit card company
during order processing.
We instruct our employees with access to your Personal Information that it is
to be used only in adherence with the principles set forth in this Privacy Policy
and the laws applicable to each specific business. Employees who misuse customer
information may be subject to disciplinary action.
There are some things that you can do to help protect the security of your
Personal Information as well. For instance, never give out your password, since
this is what is used to access all of your account information. Also remember
to log out of your account and close your browser window when you finish using
the Site or Service or surfing the Web, so that other people using the same
computer won't have access to your information.
4. WHAT IF WE CHANGE OUR PRIVACY POLICY?
STOCKTRENDS reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to add to, remove,
modify or otherwise change any part of this Privacy Policy or the Terms and
Conditions, in whole or in part, at any time. Changes will be effective when
notice of such change is posted at the Site. Please check this Privacy Policy
regularly for updates by checking the date of "Last Update" at the
top of this document. If any change is not acceptable to you, you must discontinue
your use of the Site and the Services immediately and you may cancel your registration
or subscription, if applicable. Your continued use of the Site or the Services
after any such changes are posted will constitute acceptance of those changes.
Further, STOCKTRENDS reserves the right to change, modify, suspend or discontinue
any aspect of the Site, or the Services from time to time without notice or
liability and for any reason whatsoever.
5. WEB SITE LINKS
This Site may contain links to other Web sites, including those of our business
partners, vendors, advertisers, and other business associates. While we try
to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy,
please understand that we are not responsible for the content of, or the privacy
practices employed by, other Web sites.
6. ADDITIONAL PRIVACY PROCEDURES
Privacy procedures specific to certain services from STOCKTRENDS can be found
on our Sites at the location of the particular services, or in additional terms
referenced at such Sites. Those procedures are an addendum to this policy, and
are provided to you at the place where they will be of most use to you.
7. HOW DO YOU ACCESS AND UPDATE YOUR INFORMATION?
STOCKTRENDS provides you with the means to access, update, edit or delete
the Registration Information you have provided to us at any time on your own
by going to the appropriate page in the registration section, and changing or
deleting the Registration Information as desired. If you are unsure whether
we have a record containing your personal information and would like to confirm
whether or not we do, please send an email to privacymanager@stocktrends.ca,
indicating all e-mail addresses that you may have given us.
If you decide at any time that you do not want to receive any updates to which
you have subscribed, you may choose to unsubscribe to these e-mails by following
the instructions at the end of the message.
8. WHO CAN I CONTACT WITH QUESTIONS, COMMENTS OR SUGGESTIONS?
We welcome any suggestions about our Privacy Policy. If at any time you believe
that STOCKTRENDS has not adhered to this Privacy Policy, please notify us by
e-mail at privacymanager@stocktrends.ca and we will use all commercially reasonable
efforts to promptly determine and correct the problem.