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Peterson Realty's Privacy Policy
Last updated: 12/4/08
- We do not sell information about you to others.
- We protect the security and confidentiality of
information about you.
- We share information outside of our company only when
necessary to administer products or services we or our
subsidiaries may provide, when we have your permission, when
required by law, or as otherwise described in this Privacy
Policy.
This Privacy Policy describes how we handle your personal
information for our services available through
www.PetersonRealty.com (the
"Site"). By accepting the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use in
registration, you expressly consent to our collection, storage, use
and disclosure of your personal information as described in this
Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is effective upon acceptance for
new users and is otherwise effective beginning 30 days after first
posted on the Site.
At Peterson Realty, we adhere to a philosophy of integrity,
trust, and mutual respect among all parties involved with the real
estate transaction. We understand that the privacy and security of
information that personally identifies you is important to you.
Therefore, Peterson Realty has created this Privacy Policy in order
to demonstrate our firm commitment to ensure the protection of your
information that is collected by us on this Site and through
off-line communications with you, including telephone conversations
and in-person communications.
Please read the following policy to understand how your personal
information will be used while you take advantage of the services we
offer. This policy may change from time to time as new features are
added to the Site and as we incorporate suggestions from our users.
We will post an amended Privacy Policy prominently on the Site so
that you can always review what information we gather, how we might
use that information, and whether we disclose it to anyone. Please
check the Site at any time for the most recent version of our
Privacy Policy. We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time by
posting the amended terms on the Site. All amended terms
automatically take effect upon acceptance for new users and
otherwise 30 days after they are initially posted on the Site. If
you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
Our Privacy Policy discloses the following information:
1.
What personally identifiable information is collected and how it is
used
2. What general information is collected and how it
is used
3. With whom personally identifiable information is
shared
4. User choices regarding collection and use of
information
5. User access and ability to update information
6. Security measures used to protect personally
identifiable information
What personally identifiable information is collected and how
it is used
Peterson Realty collects personally identifiable information
from you in order to respond to your requests for our products and
services. Depending on the services you request, this information
may include, but is not limited to, your name, address, ZIP Code,
email address, telephone number, a login name, password, whether you
plan on buying, selling or both buying and selling property,
information about the properties in which you are interested and
your home search criteria. If you are seeking to buy or sell a
property with another person, we will collect much of the same
information about them as well.
You will be asked to provide personally identifiable information
at various places on our Site and through off-line communications
with us, including, but not limited to, the following:
- Registration — When you register to use our Site, we
collect your first and last name, email address, and information
on whether you are buying or selling, or both buying and
selling. You will also select a Login Name and Password. Your
Login Name and Password help ensure that the personally
identifiable information you provide to us remains secure. Your
Password should never be shared with anyone.
- Search for Homes — In order to help narrow your
search for a new home, we collect information from you regarding
the type of home you want, including, but not limited to: price
range, number of rooms, square footage, and property type.
- Consult an Agent — If you want to consult with an
agent to discuss selling real estate, we collect your first and
last name, your email address, your preferred telephone number,
your preferred method of contact, and the metropolitan area in
which the property you plan on selling is located. In order to
better serve you, we may also collect the following, optional
information, including the street address, city, state and ZIP
Code of the property you plan on selling.
- Make An Offer — If you choose to proceed to this
step, you will be engaged in a complete negotiation for the
purchase of a new home. You will need to provide information
regarding the property you wish to purchase, your telephone
number, your offer amount, your down payment amount, when you
would like to close, your loan officer's name, your lender's
name and telephone number, whether you need to sell a property
to complete the purchase and if so, the address of the property
you need to sell, the listing broker of the property, the escrow
number, the name of the escrow company and the closing date. The
information you provide at this stage, after consultation with
your Agent, will be incorporated into a purchase agreement to be
presented to the seller of the property or their agent.
- Make An Appointment — If you proceed to this step, we
will collect information in order to have an Agent contact you
to discuss the selling of your home. The information we collect
includes your first and last name, email address, telephone
number, preferred method of contact, the metropolitan area in
which the property you are selling is located, the street
address, city, state and ZIP Code of the property you are
selling, and various times that would be convenient for you to
meet with a Agent.
- email — Throughout your use of the Site, you will
communicate extensively with our Agents and other staff. We will
use your email address and all of the information you submit in
order to provide you with guidance, suggestions and service in
your efforts to sell your existing home or in your search for a
new home.
- Contact Us — We collect an email address in order to
respond to your questions or suggestions.
- Off-line Discussions and Meetings — If you choose to
interact with one of our Agents, we may collect information in
the course of helping you buy or sell property. The purchase or
sale of real estate is a complex transaction and requires a
considerable amount of information.
Please note that our Site is a general audience web site. If you are
under the age of 13 you should not register or provide information
on this Site. We do not collect personal information from any person
we actually know is a child under the age of 13.
What general information is collected and how it is used
When you visit Peterson Realty, our computer system, like most, will
automatically log some basic information about you and your
computer, including, but not limited to, your IP address, operating
system and browser software. We use this information for routine
maintenance and to gather broad demographic information to help us
decide how better to implement our Site.
We use "cookies" to store non-personally identifiable information
to track users as they move through our Site and on to other web
sites. Those cookies may trigger beacons to other web sites to
prompt them to show users advertisements solely for Peterson
Realty's services. If a user obtains a cookie from a lead generation
site and then visits and confirms registration on our Site, the
cookie may trigger a beacon to the lead generation site in order to
confirm lead conversion. Similarly, if a user comes to our Site
through a link on another web site, Peterson Realty may be required,
as part of our agreement with that site, to provide that site with
email addresses for the purposes of email suppression or email
address invalidation. If users do not accept cookies, they will not
be able to register on our Site or re-log in as registered users.
With whom personally identifiable information is shared
We recognize that the information we collect from you may, in
itself, or when tied together with other information, identify you
as a specific individual. Your account information and personal data
is maintained by Peterson Realty in order to fulfill our legal and
regulatory requirements and to provide you with the information,
products and services you have requested or which we believe you may
want in connection with your home ownership. As a general rule,
Peterson Realty will not disclose your personal information to any
third party except with your permission or under special
circumstances where your personally identifiable information is
protected, as discussed below.
Peterson Realty will disclose to interested parties information
pertaining to the sale of a house listed in our database. This
information will be posted on our Site and in the local Multiple
Listing Service (MLS) for the purpose of marketing the home to the
greatest number of potential buyers.
By requesting information or services from Peterson Realty or
other companies specified by you, you give Peterson Realty
permission to transfer your information, as necessary, to the
appropriate parties, such as the title insurer, homeowners insurer,
lender, appraiser, escrow or settlement provider, home warranty
company or inspector you select, so that they can fulfill your
request and provide you with the services you require. You
information may also be transmitted to other parties in a
transaction or their agent. Our Agents are employees of Peterson
Realty. All personally identifiable information you provide to
Peterson Realty will be made available to your Agent and other
Peterson Realty employees with a need for the information.
Generally, your Agent will coordinate the disclosure of your
information to third parties. This will be done in much the same way
as a traditional real estate agent shares information with third
parties. For example, your Agent may disclose your name and the
address of the property you want to purchase to a building inspector
when you request our assistance in arranging an inspection of the
property.
We may also share your information with our subsidiaries and with
nonaffiliated companies with which we or our subsidiaries have
marketing arrangements to help coordinate the services that they may
provide to you in connection with your home ownership including
mortgage services, homeowners insurance services, home warranties
and title insurance. Unless you have consented to that sharing or to
receiving services from any such company, that company will be
required to protect the privacy of your information with the same
level of protection that Peterson Realty provides and will not
release personally identifiable information about you to any other
parties.
The various lending institutions, title companies, homeowners
insurers, home warranty companies and other service providers you
choose for your real estate transaction may each have their own
privacy policies governing how they handle your personally
identifiable information. Peterson Realty accepts no responsibility
or liability for third party privacy policies or the actions of any
third party with respect to your personally identifiable
information.
We may share your information with companies that assist us or
our subsidiaries with essential services such as data processing or
servicing accounts, as well as with companies used to update and
verify the accuracy of your personally identifiable information in
the records of us or our subsidiaries. These third parties are
required to protect the privacy of your information with the same
level of protection that Peterson Realty provides and will not
release personally identifiable information about you to any other
parties.
Peterson Realty does conduct research on our users' demographics,
interests and behavior based on the information provided by the user
and from our server log files. This research is compiled and
analyzed on both on aggregated and individual bases. For example, we
may review how many users are women, or the average price range of
our users. Additionally, we may analyze the behavior of a particular
user. If you came to our Site through a link on another web site,
Peterson Realty maybe required, as part of our agreement with that
site, to provide that site with aggregated data.
Peterson Realty may disclose personally identifiable information
in certain circumstances when we have reason to believe that
disclosing such information is necessary to contact, identify or
bring legal action against someone who may be intentionally or
unintentionally causing injury to or interference with our rights or
property, our users, our employees or anyone else who could be
harmed by such activities. We may disclose personally identifiable
information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it
and for administrative or other purposes that we deem necessary to
maintain and improve our products and services. We may disclose
personally identifiable information to a multiple listing service
which provides us with listing data if, the multiple listing service
suspects that a person is involved in breach of security of the data
or a violation of our Terms of Use or the multiple listing service's
rules. Additionally, we may disclose personally identifiable
information in response to a valid subpoena or court order.
Our Site provides links to other web sites. Please be aware that
when you click on one of these links, you are going to another web
site even though the Peterson Realty logo, banner, or tool bar may
still be visible. Information you enter on these other web sites is
being collected by that site, not Peterson Realty. We encourage you
to read the privacy statements of these linked sites as their
privacy policy may differ from ours.
User choices regarding collection and use of information
On occasion, we may use your email address to send you
communications with information, valuable tips, or services and
product information that we believe may be of interest to you. If
you do not want to receive such communications from Peterson Realty,
simply contact us or click on the "opt-out" link contained
in the email.
You are free not to provide any of the information requested on
the Site. However, certain information may be necessary or required
by law in order for you to obtain some services provided by Peterson
Realty. Therefore, if you choose not to provide the requested
information, you may not be able to access certain Peterson Realty
services.
Your Peterson Realty account can be deleted or de-activated at
any time by contacting
us. However, you will not be able to access
any of the products and services offered by Peterson Realty if you
choose to delete your account. When you delete or de-activate your
account, Peterson Realty will no longer disclose any of your
personally identifiable information to nonaffiliated third parties,
except as required by law. For example, some loan programs are
governed by state and federal law and require the disclosure and
retention of certain information regarding loan applicants. Please
note that Peterson Realty will never share or sell your information
without your permission, except as described in this Privacy Policy.
User access and ability to update information
You may edit your preferences and the information you have provided
at any time by contacting us
or mail to Peterson Realty, Inc., PO Box
324 West Harwich, MA 02671. You may also visit
www.PetersonRealty.com. You
will need your Login ID and Password to access your account
information online. If you have lost your password, you may request
a new one by contacting us. You may also contact your Agent to edit
the information you provide to Peterson Realty.
Security measures used to protect personally identifiable
information
We restrict access to the Peterson Realty server and the personal
information we store there by using a log-in process. When you enter
the area of the Site that is designed for account holders only, you
are required to provide your selected Login Name and Password. Your
password should never be shared with anyone. Peterson Realty will
never ask you for your password in an unsolicited telephone call or
email.
Email is an important communication channel for our online
customers. Email sent to our Agents, Buyers or Sellers are carefully
routed to the intended party. Unfortunately, no email transmission
over the Internet is guaranteed secure. While we strive to protect
your information, Peterson Realty cannot guarantee the security of
any information you transmit to us from our Site, and you do so at
your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we make our best
effort to ensure its security on our system. Finally, we store all
data on our system in a password protected database system, which is
protected by our corporate firewall.
If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, or
privacy issues in general, please feel free to contact us.
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