PRIVACY
POLICY
We value the trust you place in ApartmentGurus.
Please read the following statement to learn about
our information gathering and dissemination practices.
Note: Our privacy policy is subject to change at
any time. To make sure you are aware of any changes,
please review this policy periodically.
ApartmentGurus.com is a Texas Limited Liability Company owned and operated
by West End Realty Advisors, LLC and RLM, Interest,
LLC. The rental advertisements and related services
posted on ApartmentGurus.com are procured and provided
by ApartmentGurus, LLC and/or its subsidiaries and
affiliates as listed here.
All references to "ApartmentGurus.com",
"we", or "us" include ApartmentGurus,
LLC, its subsidiaries and affiliates including West
End Realty Advisors, LLC and RLM, Interest, LLC
and its subsidiaries.
1.
Scope.
This privacy policy describes how we handle your
personal information for our services available
through the website (the "Website"). 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 five (5) days after "Last
Update" date listed below for all other users.
2. Collection
of Personally Identifiable Information.
While you can browse some sections of the Website
without being a registered user, certain activities
(such as searching for properties, viewing property
contact information, and registering a property)
do require registration. In most cases, this information
will be gathered from the Website but it may also
include personal information we gather from private-label,
co-branded, and affiliate websites. Once you give
us your personal information, you are not anonymous
to us. Our servers are located in the United States.
Therefore, if you choose to provide us with personal
information, you consent to the transfer and storage
of that information.
We
may collect and store the following personal information:
name, email address, address, telephone number,
and (depending on the service used), move-in dates,
sometimes financial information such as credit card
or bank account numbers; transactional information
based on your activities on the Website (such as
search information); other transactional information
(such as guest card information, lease terms, lease
parties); computer sign-on data, statistics on page
views, traffic to and from the Website, and ad data;
other information, including IP address and standard
web log information; and supplemental information
from third parties. (For example, if you incur a
debt to ApartmentGurus.com, we may conduct a credit
check by obtaining additional information about
you from a credit bureau, as permitted by law. As
another example, if the information you provide
cannot be verified, we may ask you to send us additional
information (such as your driver's license, credit card statement, and/or a recent utility bill or
other information confirming your address) or to
answer additional questions online to help verify
your identity).
3.
Use.
Our primary purpose in collecting personal information
is to provide you with a safe, smooth, efficient,
and customized experience. For example, we may use
your personal information and share your personal
information within our corporate family to: provide
the services and customer support you request, including
confirming emails related to the Website services,
reminders, and transaction; resolve disputes, collect
fees, and troubleshoot problems; prevent potentially
prohibited or illegal activities; customize, measure,
and improve our services and the Website's content
and layout; tell you about targeted marketing, service
updates, and promotional offers based on your communication
preferences; compare information for accuracy, and
verify it with third parties; do other things for
you as described when we collect the information;
help promote a safe service; measure consumer interest
in our products and services; inform you about online and offline offers, products, services, and updates;
customize your experience; detect and protect us
against error, fraud and other criminal activity;
enforce our agreements, terms, conditions, and policies;
and as otherwise described to you at the time of
collection.
In our efforts to continually improve our product
and service offerings, we collect and analyze demographic
and profile data about our users' activity on our
Website. We identify and use your IP address to
help diagnose problems with our server, and to administer
our Website. Your IP address is also used to help
identify you and to gather broad demographic information.
We will occasionally ask you to complete optional
surveys. These surveys may ask you for contact information
and demographic information (like zip code, age,
or income level). We use this data to tailor your
experience at our Website, providing you with content
that we think you might be interested in, and to
display content according to your preferences.
ApartmentGurus.com
Renters:
Our Website requires you to give us contact information
and move-in date. We use this information to create
a unique user account, and to send you relevant
apartment advertisements, rebate claim reminders,
offers for moving-related services, and other information
related to our services and Website. Further, when
you contact a Lessor via the Website, we capture
your telephone number and may contact you via telephone.
Moving Quotes
Requesters:
You may be offered an opportunity to request a quote
for moving services through our Website. In such
case, we will collect your contact information (including
name, address, phone number, and email address)
as well as information related to your move. By
requesting this quote and submitting your information,
you are expressly consenting to our using and selling
that information to third-party moving companies
and authorizing such moving companies to contact
you regarding their services. To
the extent we use your personal information to market
to you, we will provide you the ability to opt-out
of such uses; see the Choice/Opt-Out section below.
4. Cookies.
A "cookie" is a small piece of information
stored by a website's server on a website's browser
so it can be later read back from that browser.
Cookies are useful for enabling the browser to remember
information specific to a given user. ApartmentGurus.com
places both permanent and temporary cookies in your
computer's hard drive. Our permanent cookies allow
us to provide personalized features, such as automatically
logging you into your personalized Start page. In
order to use this feature, you must set your browser's
preferences to allow permanent cookies. We also
use temporary cookies (a.k.a. "per-session
cookies") to improve the functionality and
usability of our Website. These temporary cookies
are permanently erased from your computer as soon
as you log out of your ApartmentGurus.com account
or link to a different website from your parent
browser window. In order to use ApartmentGurus.com,
you must set your browser's preferences to allow
per-session cookies (most web browsers automatically
accept cookies). We may use third-party advertising
companies such as DoubleClick to serve ads on our
behalf. These companies may employ cookies and action
tags (also known as single pixel gifs or web beacons)
to measure advertising effectiveness. Any information
that these third parties collect via cookies and
action tags is completely anonymous. Please visit
the DoubleClick Web site for more information about
its business practices, privacy policies, and how
to "opt-out".
5. Sharing of information.
We may also disclose personal information if permitted
to do so by law or in the good faith belief that
such disclosure is reasonably necessary to respond
to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process.
We may also share some or all of your personal information
with: law enforcement offices, third party
rights owners, or others in the good faith belief
that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to:
enforce our Terms of Use or Privacy Policy; respond
to claims that an advertisement, posting or other
content violates the rights of a third party; or
protect the rights, property or personal safety
of our users or the general public, another business
entity should we (or our assets) plan to merge with,
or be acquired by that business entity. Should such
a transaction occur, that other business entity
(or the new combined entity) will be required to
follow this privacy policy with respect to your
personal information.
6.
Lead Responder.
When a Renter contacts a Lessor through the Website
(by clicking on the "contact now") button
or by calling the Website-issued telephone number
of the Lessor, we will collect the Renter's telephone
number, and other information related to the communication.
If the Lessor communicates with the Renter by dialing
that telephone number or by email, we will collect
information related to that communication. If the
communication is by telephone, we will collect information
related to the call, including its duration, but
we will not collect the content of the telephone
call. If the communication is by email, we will
collect the content of the email in addition to
other information related to the email. We may share
with Lessors a log of these communications, to allow
them to manage their communications with Renters.
Without limiting any other provisions of this Policy,
you expressly agree that we may use this data ("impression
data") to enforce our rights to collect fees
payable by the Lessors.
7.
Links to Other Sites.
Our website links to other websites that may collect
personally identifiable information about you. ApartmentGurus.com
is not responsible for the privacy practices or
the content of those linked websites.
8. Security Precautions.
Our website has stringent security measures in place
to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the
information under our control. Once your information
is in our possession we adhere to strict security
guidelines, protecting it against unauthorized access.
9. Choice/Opt-Out.
ApartmentGurus.com provides all users with the opportunity
to opt-out of receiving non-essential (promotional,
marketing-related) communications from us on behalf
of our partners, and from us in general, after setting
up an account. To remove your contact information
from all ApartmentGurus.com lists and newsletters,
simply edit your email preferences.
10.
Account Protection.
Your password is the key to your account. Use unique
numbers, letters, and special characters and do
not disclose your ApartmentGurus.com password to
anyone. If you do share your password or your personal
information with others, remember that you are responsible
for all actions taken in the name of your account.
If you lose control of your password, you may lose
substantial control over your personal information
and may be subject to legally binding actions taken
on your behalf. Therefore, if your password has
been compromised for any reason, you should immediately
notify ApartmentGurus.com and change your password.
11. Accessing,
Reviewing and Changing Your Personal Information.
You can see, review and change most of your personal
information by logging into the Website. Generally,
we will not manually modify your personal information
because it is very difficult to verify your identity
remotely. You must promptly update your personal
information if it changes or is inaccurate. Once
you make a public posting, you may not be able to
change or remove it. Upon your request, we will
close your account and remove your personal information
from view as soon as reasonably possible based on
your account activity and in accordance with applicable
law. We do retain personal information from closed
accounts in order to comply with law, prevent fraud,
collect any fees owed, resolve disputes, troubleshoot
problems, assist with any investigations, enforce
our Terms of Use, and take other actions otherwise
permitted by law.
12.
Security.
Your information is stored on our servers located
in the United States. We treat data as an asset
that must be protected and use lots of tools (encryption,
passwords, physical security, etc.) to protect your
personal information against unauthorized access
and disclosure. However, as you probably know, third
parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions
or private communications, and other users may abuse
or misuse your personal information that they collect
from the Website. Therefore, although we work very
hard to protect your privacy, we do not promise,
and you should not expect, that your personal information
or private communications will always remain private.
13. Third Parties
Except as otherwise expressly included in this Privacy
Policy, this document addresses only the use and
disclosure of information we collect from you. If
you disclose your information to others, whether
they are Renters, Lessors, Roommates or other sites
throughout the Internet, different rules may apply
to their use or disclosure of the information you
disclose to them. Since ApartmentGurus.com does
not control the privacy policies of third parties,
you are subject to the privacy policies of those
third parties. We encourage you to ask questions
before you disclose your personal information to
others.
14. General
We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time by
posting the amended terms on the Website. All amended
terms automatically take effect 5 days after they
are initially posted on the Website.
15.
Questions
Questions regarding this statement should be directed
to the following address:
Attn:
Privacy Guidelines Compliance Officer
ApartmentGurus.com, LLC
c/o Law Firm
506 W. 19th Street, Suite 335
Houston, Texas 77008
or Contact
Us
Last updated January 1, 2007 |
