Secured with SHA-256 EncryptionFreeAdvice.com’s Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy in effect through 3/23/09
FreeAdvice, recognized as the Number 1 Legal Website for consumers and small businesses, respects the privacy of visitors to our site. FreeAdvice.com is a unit of Advice Company (Advice & Counsel Incorporated), a leading provider of information and advice and E-commerce solutions on the Internet.
Please read this Privacy Policy so that you can understand how we seek to enforce our firm commitment to privacy. Questions regarding this statement should be directed to the Officer named below by emailing [email protected]
We invite you to explore FreeAdvice.com and its affiliated Websites, including AttorneyPages.com and ExpertPages.com.
Information this Site Gathers / Tracks
The information gathered by Advice Company falls into two categories: (1) information voluntarily supplied by visitors to our websites when they register or initiate transactions, and (2) tracking information gathered as visitors navigate through our sites. Third party providers featured on or linked to from our websites, such as vendors of products and services offered through our sites, may be gathering the same kinds of information.
To help make our sites more responsive to the needs of our visitors, help you navigate between sections, tailor content to your needs and to measure traffic within our sites, our web servers automatically collect limited information about your computer’s connection to the Internet, including your IP address, when you visit our sites. They also invoke a standard feature of browser software, called a “cookie,” to assign each visitor a unique, random number, a sort of user ID, which resides on your computer. The cookie helps give us an idea of which parts of our site users are visiting and doesn’t actually identify the visitor, just the computer that a visitor uses to access our site.
Unless you voluntarily identify yourself (through registration, for example), we won’t know who you are, even if we assign a cookie to your computer. The only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply. Our cookies can’t read unrelated data from your computer. Our advertisers and the third parties that provide products or services through our sites may also assign their own cookies to your browser, but we don’t control their cookies or their processes, and they do not regularly share information they gather with us.
To make use of certain features on our websites (such as free email, personal web pages, our ask a lawyer live chat, bulletin boards and other interactive forums) visitors need to register and to provide certain information as part of the registration process. We may also ask for information from those who buy products or services or conduct other transactions on our websites. We may ask, for example, for your name, email address, street address, sex, age, city or town, zip code (and for those who seek to purchase a product or service, credit card number), and we sometimes request information on your interest in other topics.
The information you supply may help us to offer you more personalized features, to tailor our sites to your interests and make them more useful to you, and to process e-commerce transactions. Of course, even if you want to remain completely anonymous, you’re still free to take advantage of the wealth of content available on our sites without registration. The vast majority of our site does NOT require visitors to complete a registration form or give us contact information (such as a name and email address) to visit.
The more we know about our visitors the more value we can potentially offer them. Supplying such information is entirely voluntary. But if you don’t supply the information we require, we may be unable to provide you with services we make available to other visitors to our sites. For example, while we allow anyone to read postings in our Bulletin Board / Forums without registration, asking a question or furnishing an answer requires registration, which enables visitors to modify their own posts. Our one-on-one live chat feature, FreeAdvice Live! also requires a separate registration. And we can’t send you targeted email alerting you to a relevant new service we’re offering, or articles on topics of interest to you, if you don’t tell us what you’re interested in and give us your email address. Similarly, we can’t notify you that you’ve been lucky enough to win a prize in a promotional contest if we don’t know how to contact you. Such personal information is gathered by us only with our users` knowing and active permission and participation.
Our online surveys and contests ask visitors for contact information (like their email address) and demographic information (like their zip code, age, or income level). Demographic and profile data collected at our site may be shared with advertisers on an aggregate basis.
We collect financial information (like an account or credit card numbers) only from visitors making a credit card or other purchase. We use the financial information solely to bill the user for products and services and necessary information from the order form to send orders.
We also use customer contact information from the various registration forms, opt in features and service features to send the user information about our site, our company and our affiliates. Users may opt-out of receiving routine future mailings; see the choice/opt-out section below
As this privacy policy reaffirms, we strive to protect confidentiality for our visitors. We do reserve the right to use customer contact and other information when we deem it necessary or appropriate to comply with applicable laws, rules, or lawful orders of courts and governmental agencies, to enforce compliance with the terms and conditions for use of our sites, or to protect third parties from what we regard as threats of serious harm.
Links to Other Sites
This site contains links to thousands of other sites. The establishment of a link does not mean that FreeAdvice.com has approved of a site, is endorsing a site, has reviewed its content, or is in any manner recommending a visit. FreeAdvice.com is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of linked Web sites.
Third Party Features
Certain features of and portions on our site are also the result of special relationships, such as “Powered By” or Co-Branding or affiliate programs. For example, we provide a Free Email feature in cooperation with EveryOne.net, the latest SEC information in cooperation with Edgar Online, a bookstore in affiliation with Amazon. and Legal Forms in conjunction with US Legal Forms, and interactive chat using LivePerson’s technology. These firms share varying amounts of information with us. You are encouraged to review the privacy policies of such providers before providing information to them.
Advertising and Cookies
FreeAdvice displays advertising on the Web site and we also work with several unaffiliated companies that serve ads when you visit portions of our website. Among the outside ad companies are Latitude 90, DoubleClick’s Sonar Network, and Engage Media’s Flycast to display ads on our site. These ads may contain cookies. Cookies received with such banner or other ads are collected by our advertisers and/or ad companies, and we do not have access to such information. These companies may use that information (not including your name, address, email address, telephone number, or credit card number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements on this site and about other sites and goods and services that they think may be of interest to you.
To find out more about their practices, how these sites have told us they manage the privacy of information in conjunction with serving ads on our site, and to know your choices about not having this information used by such companies, please go to:
Public Forums
This site makes chat rooms, forums, message boards, and/or news groups available to its users. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information. We do reserve the right to delete any postings at any time.
Security
This site has numerous security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. The measures include passwords, linkages to secure servers, encryption, backup tapes, and conventional locks and alarm systems. However we cannot guarantee that the measures in place have been, are now, or will remain adequate.
Children’s Guidelines
This Web site is directed at adults, not children, and we do not seek to collect from children online contact information, or distribute to third parties any personally identifiable information from children, or entice children by the prospect of a special game, prize or other activity, to divulge information to us. We won’t knowingly allow anyone under 13 to register with any of our sites or to provide any other personally identifying information without written approval of a parent or guardian.
Choice/Opt-Out
Our site provides users the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from us and sites associated with us at the point where we request information about the visitor. This site gives users various options for removing postings and other information, and to discontinue receive future communications from us. For example, the Forums have provisions for visitors to edit or remove postings they have made, and our Newsletters have linkages or return addresses for recipients to direct that they unsubscribe. For specifics concerning a matter impacting you, you can send email to [email protected] or by mail to the following postal address: PO Box 1739, Sausalito, CA 94965
Revisions / Corrections / Updates
We reserve the right to change our privacy policy from time to time. If we do change our privacy policy in the future, we’ll post the changes when they take effect. This site gives users options for changing and modifying information previously provided, often at the feature on which you registered. For specifics concerning a matter impacting you, you can send email to [email protected] or by mail to the following postal address: PO Box 1739, Sausalito, CA 94966
Contacting the Web Site
If you have any questions about this privacy statement, which is effective March 21, 2001, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this Web site, you can contact
Mary Martin, Vice-President
FreeAdvice.com / Advice Company
PO Box 1739
Sausalito, CA 94966
[email protected]