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ESI is committed to protecting your privacy. Please read the ESI Online Privacy
Statement below and also any supplemental information listed to the right for additional
details about particular ESI sites and services that you may use. This ESI Online
Privacy Statement applies to data collected by ESI through its Websites and services,
as well as its offline product support services. Collection of Your Personal Information
In order to access some ESI services, you will be asked to sign in with an e-mail
address and password, which we refer to as your credentials. In most cases, these
credentials will be part of the ESI, which means you can use the same credentials
to sign in to many different ESI sites and services, as well as those of select
ESI partners.
By signing in on one ESI site or service, you may be automatically signed into other
ESI sites and services. If you access our services via a mobile phone, you may also
use your telephone number and a PIN as an alternative credential to your username
and password. As part of creating your credentials, you may also be requested to
provide questions and secret answers, which we use to help verify your identity
and assist in resetting your password, as well as an alternate email address. Some
services may require added security, and in these cases, you may be asked to create
an additional security key. Finally, a unique ID number will be assigned to your
credentials which will be used to identify your credentials and associated information.
At some ESI sites, we ask you to provide personal information, such as your e-mail
address, name, home or work address or telephone number. We may also collect demographic
information, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favorites.
If you choose to make a purchase or sign up for a paid subscription service, we
will ask for additional information, such as your credit card number and billing
address, that is used to create a ESI billing account. We may collect information
about your visit, including the pages you view, the links you click and other actions
taken in connection with ESI sites and services. We also collect certain standard
information that your browser sends to every website you visit, such as your IP
address, browser type and language, access times and referring Web site addresses.
When you receive newsletters or promotional e-mail from ESI, we may use web beacons
(described below), customized links or similar technologies to determine whether
the e-mail has been opened and which links you click in order to provide you more
focused e-mail communications or other information. In order to offer you a more
consistent and personalized experience in your interactions with ESI, information
collected through one ESI service may be combined with information obtained through
other ESI services. We may also supplement the information we collect with information
obtained from other companies. For example, we may use services from other companies
that enable us to derive a general geographic area based on your IP address in order
to customize certain services to your geographic area. Use of Your Personal Information
ESI collects and uses your personal information to operate and improve its sites
and deliver the services or carry out the transactions you have requested. These
uses may include providing you with more effective customer service; making the
sites or services easier to use by eliminating the need for you to repeatedly enter
the same information; performing research and analysis aimed at improving our products,
services and technologies; and displaying content and advertising that are customized
to your interests and preferences.
We also use your personal information to communicate with you. We may send certain
mandatory service communications such as welcome letters, billing reminders, information
on technical service issues, and security announcements. Some ESI services, such
as MSN Hotmail, may send periodic member letters that are considered part of the
service. We may also occasionally send you product surveys or promotional mailings
to inform you of other products or services available from ESI and its affiliates.
Personal information collected on the ESI website and by ESI services may be stored
and processed in the United States or any other country in which ESI or its affiliates,
subsidiaries or agents maintain facilities, and by using a ESI site or service,
you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country. ESI abides
by the safe harbor framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding
the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union. Sharing of Your
Personal Information Except as described in this statement, we will not disclose
your personal information outside of ESI and its controlled subsidiaries and affiliates
without your consent. Some ESI sites allow you to choose to share your personal
information with select ESI partners so that they can contact you about their products,
services or offers.
Some ESI services may be co-branded and offered in conjunction with another company.
If you register for or use such services, both ESI and the other company may receive
information collected in conjunction with the co-branded services. We occasionally
hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as handling
the processing and delivery of mailings, providing customer support, hosting websites,
processing transactions, or performing statistical analysis of our services. Those
companies will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to
deliver the service. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information
and are prohibited from using it for any other purpose. We may access and/or disclose
your personal information if we believe such action is necessary to: (a) comply
with the law or legal process served on ESI; (b) protect and defend the rights or
property of ESI (including the enforcement of our agreements); or (c) act in urgent
circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of ESI services or members
of the public. Accessing Your Personal Information You may have the ability to view
or edit your personal information online. In order to help prevent your personal
information from being viewed by others, you will be required to sign in with your
credentials (e-mail address and password). The appropriate method(s) for accessing
your personal information will depend on which sites or services you have used.
Communication Preferences You can stop the delivery of future promotional e-mail
from ESI sites and services by following the specific instructions in the e-mail
you receive. Security of Your Personal Information ESI is committed to protecting
the security of your personal information. We use a variety of security technologies
and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access,
use, or disclosure. For example, we store the personal information you provide on
computer systems with limited access, which are located in controlled facilities.
When we transmit highly confidential information (such as a credit card number or
password) over the Internet, we protect it through the use of encryption, such as
the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. If a password is used to help protect your
accounts and personal information, it is your responsibility to keep your password
confidential. Do not share this information with anyone. If you are sharing a computer
with anyone you should always choose to log out before leaving a site or service
to protect access to your information from subsequent users.
Collection and Use of Children's Personal Information Many ESI sites and services
are intended for general audiences and do not knowingly collect any personal information
from children. When a ESI site does collect age information, and users identify
themselves as under 13, the site will either block such users from providing personal
information, or will seek to obtain consent from parents for the collection, use
and sharing of their children's personal information. We will not knowingly ask
children under the age of 13 to provide more information than is reasonably necessary
to provide our services. Please note that if you grant consent for your child to
use ESI services, this will include such general audience communication services
as e-mail, instant messaging, and online groups, and your child will be able to
communicate with, and disclose personal information to, other users of all ages.
Parents can change or revoke the consent choices previously made, and review, edit
or request the deletion of their children's personal information. For example, on
MSN and Windows Live, parents can visit Account Services, and click on “Permission
for kids.” If we change this privacy statement in a way that expands the collection,
use or disclosure of children's personal information to which a parent has previously
consented, the parent will be notified and we will be required to obtain the parent's
additional consent. We encourage you to talk with your children about communicating
with strangers and disclosing personal information online. You and your child can
visit our online safety resources for additional information about using the Internet
safely. Use of Cookies ESI Web sites use "cookies" to enable you to sign in to our
services and to help personalize your online experience. A cookie is a small text
file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies contain information
that can later be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.
Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. ESI
Web sites use cookies to store your preferences and other information on your computer
in order to save you time by eliminating the need to repeatedly enter the same information
and to display your personalized content and appropriate advertising on your later
visits to these sites. When you sign in to a site using your credentials, the ESI
network stores your unique ID number, and the time you signed in, in an encrypted
cookie on your hard disk. This cookie allows you to move from page to page at the
site without having to sign in again on each page. When you sign out, these cookies
are deleted from your computer.
The ESI network also uses cookies to improve the sign in experience. For example,
your e-mail address may be stored in a cookie that will remain on your computer
after you sign out. This cookie allows your e-mail address to be pre-populated,
so that you will only need to type your password the next time you sign in. If you
are using a public computer or do not otherwise want this information to be stored,
you can select the appropriate radio button on the sign-in page, and this cookie
will not be used. You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers
automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to
decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be
able to sign in or use other interactive features of ESI sites and services that
depend on cookies. Use of Web Beacons ESI Web pages may contain electronic images
known as Web beacons - sometimes called single-pixel gifs - that may be used to
assist in delivering cookies on our websites and allow us to count users who have
visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. We may include Web beacons
in promotional e-mail messages or our newsletters in order to determine whether
messages have been opened and acted upon. Finally, we may work with other companies
that advertise on ESI sites to place Web beacons on their sites in order to allow
us to develop statistics on how often clicking on an advertisement on a ESI site
results in a purchase or other action on the advertiser's site. Controlling "Spam"
or Unsolicited E-mail ESI is concerned about controlling unsolicited commercial
e-mail, or "spam." ESI has a strict Anti-Spam Policy prohibiting the use of a Hotmail
or other MSN e-mail account to send spam. ESI will not sell, lease or rent its e-mail
subscriber lists to third parties.
While ESI continues to actively review and implement new technology, such as expanded
filtering features, there is no currently available technology that will totally
prevent the sending and receiving of unsolicited e-mail. Using tools such as the
Inbox Protector and being cautious about the sharing of your e-mail address while
online will help reduce the amount of unsolicited e-mail you receive. Enforcement
of This Privacy Statement If you have questions regarding this statement, you should
first contact us by using our Web form. If you do not receive acknowledgement of
your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should call
ESI directly. Changes to This Privacy Statement We will occasionally update this
privacy statement to reflect changes in our services and customer feedback. When
we post changes to this Statement, we will revise the "last updated" date at the
top of this statement. If there are material changes to this statement or in how
ESI will use your personal information, we will notify you either by prominently
posting a notice of such changes prior to implementing the change or by directly
sending you a notification.
We encourage you to periodically review this statement to be informed of how ESI
is protecting your information. Contacting Us ESI welcomes your comments regarding
this privacy statement. If you have questions about this statement or believe that
we have not adhered to it, please contact us by phone. © 2007 Elite Systems Integrators,
Inc.
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