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Effective April 25, 2014
The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® ("C.A.R.", “we”, “our”, or “us”) has created this Privacy Policy to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy and so that you, as a visitor to www.realtorrealtalk.com (the "Website"), will be aware of the uses made of information that may be generated as a result of your use of our Website.
I. What information is generated when you visit the Website?
Personal Information
We may collect personal information. Personal information is information that permits direct association with a specific individual. Personal information, such as your name, mailing address, email address and phone number, may be given to us when you complete a registration screen, respond to a questionnaire or submit an e-mail to us.
Non-Personal Information
We also collect non-personal information. Non-personal information is aggregated information and other information that does not permit direct association with any specific individual. For example, we may collect the name of the domain from which you access the Internet (for example, aol.com, if you are connecting from an America Online account), the date and time you access our site, the Internet address of the Website from which you linked directly to our site and information relating to your activities on our website. If we combine your non-personal information with your personal information, we will treat the combined information as personal information.
Use of Cookies
A cookie is a data file that is created and stored on your computer's hard drive when you visit a website. The typical purpose of a cookie is to make your use of the website easier and more convenient and to assist the website in tracking your use of the site. For example, a cookie may save the registration information, passwords, purchases or preferences that you create when using a website so you don't have to reenter this information. Cookies may also tell a website which areas of the site are popular and which aren't. Cookie technology is used by most major websites and is considered an industry standard for the Internet. Our Website uses cookie technology to verify user information. We treat information collected by cookies and other technologies as non-personal information, except when combined with personal information or as provided by law.
Most Internet browsers are initially set to accept cookies. If you prefer, you may set your browser so that it refuses cookies or alerts you when cookies are being created on your hard drive. You should be aware that by not accepting cookies, you may impair your ability to use certain portions of the Website.
II. How do we use information generated from the Website?
Personal Information
Any personal information that you provide to us will be used by us primarily to fulfill the stated objective for which the information was requested or collected (e.g. if information is provided as a result of you e-mailing us, we will use the information provided, such as e-mail address, to respond to you). We may contact you to market or promote third party products or services. We may also send you important information regarding products and services, changes to any terms, conditions or policies or other administrative information. We also store and use personal information to collect information about your Website usage for internal business purposes, including auditing and data analysis. This helps us determine how best to improve our Website and what other products and services may be valuable or of interest to you.
Non-personal Information
We may collect, use and disclose non-personal information for any purpose except as prohibited by law. We use non-personal information to measure the number of visitors to the different sections of our Website, help us make our Website more useful to visitors, understand and analyze trends in your use of our website, gather information about our user base and the real estate industry as a whole, administer our website and to help us determine how to improve our Website and advertising. We may store and use non-personal information to create, use, license and sell general analytic databases that may provide insight into subjects including, but not limited to, real estate market practices, industry trends and general economic conditions. We may also use this information in our marketing and advertising services, in our creation of new products and services and for our internal business purposes.
Disclosure to Third Parties
We occasionally hire other companies to provide services on our behalf, including development and hosting services. We will provide to those companies only the personal information necessary to enable those companies to provide such services, and we prohibit them from using that information for any other purpose. We may also provide your personal information to our affiliates and subsidiaries to offer other products or services that may be valuable or interesting to you. We do not provide your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes. Finally, we may provide non-personal information to third parties for general analytic purposes related to real estate market practices, industry trends and general economic conditions. We will disclose personal information without notice only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to protect and defend the rights or property of C.A.R. When you register or otherwise give us personal information, we do not share that information with third parties without your permission, other than for the limited exceptions set forth in this Privacy Policy.
Surveys
We may from time to time create and use surveys on our Website. Most surveys are simple “click box” surveys where you click a box on the screen to indicate your response. However, we may from time to time ask you for your name, email address or demographic information. If a survey does ask you this information, we will use the information to complete the survey, compile statistics and update member records.
Contests
We may from time to time run contests on our Website. If our contests require you to provide personal or demographic information, we will use this information primarily to complete the contest and update member records.
Advertisements
We may sell advertising space to third parties on our Website, which is usually in the form of a graphic link to the Internet site of the advertiser (a “banner advertisement”). These linked sites are not under our control and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or the contents of any such linked website, or any link contained in any linked website and any personal information you provide will be collected by, and controlled by the privacy policy of, that third party. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS POLICY DOES NOT ADDRESS THE PRIVACY OR INFORMATION PRACTICES OF ANY THIRD PARTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION OUR AFFILIATES OR SUBSIDIARIES.
Submissions to the Website
You may be permitted to upload text, data and/or images or communicate with others on the Website. C.A.R., in its sole discretion, reserves the right to review, edit or remove any text, data, images, files, or other materials that may be uploaded, posted or submitted to the Website ("Submissions") as well as the right to refuse to post any such Submission. All Submissions are subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use. Please remember that any information you disclose in a Submission to the Website may be accessible to the public and you should exercise caution prior to disclosing any personal information in your Submission.
Required by Law
We may disclose information provided by you if we are legally required to do so, such as by court order or subpoena.
III. Miscellaneous
Links to Other Websites
Links to other websites operated by independent, third parties may exist on this Website. While we hope you find these links helpful, we cannot assume responsibility for the privacy practices or the content of any linked website. Therefore, we encourage you to investigate and determine the privacy policy and practices of any linked website prior to providing information to the linked website.
Security
We have adopted what we consider to be reasonable security measures to protect against the loss, theft, misuse and alteration of information collected through our Website. However, if you are concerned about the security of the Internet or our Website, we suggest that you not provide personal information on the Website. Use of the Website by Children The Website is not directed individuals under the age of thirteen (13), and we request that such individuals do not provide personal information through the Website.
Choice/Opt-Out
Our Website provides you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving certain communications from us. To exercise your opt-out privilege, please feel free to e-mail us at [email protected] or write us at 915 L Street, #1460, Sacramento, CA 95814, Attn: car.org Web Developer. You may not be able to opt out of receiving communications from us regarding administrative information about the Website since this information may be important to your use of the Website. Please be advised that if you are a member and choose to opt-out of receiving communications from the Website, this may affect your ability to receive other e-mail communications that are sent to members of C.A.R. Please note that if you opt-out as described above, we will not be able to remove personal information about you from the databases of third parties with which we have already shared personal information about you prior to processing your opt-out request. If you wish to cease receiving emails from third parties, please contact the third parties directly or utilize any opt-out mechanisms set forth in their respective privacy policies or emails to you.
Corrections/Updates
If you are a C.A.R. member and there is information about you on our Website which needs to be corrected or updated, please feel free to email us at [email protected] or write us at 915 L Street, #1460, Sacramento, CA 95814, Attn: car.org Web Developer. However, you may need to also contact your local REALTOR® association and make sure that the correction or update is made in their records as well.
Contacting our Website
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of our Website, or your dealings with our Website, please feel free to email us at [email protected] or write us at 915 L Street, #1460, Sacramento, CA 95814, Attn: car.org Web Developer.
Changes to Privacy Policy Statement
With the ever-changing environment of the Internet and to maintain our ability to improve the quality and safety of our Website, we reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. In the event we make any material changes to our Privacy Policy, we will notify you by updating the Policy's Effective Date and indicating the previous effective date. As you use our Website, we encourage you to periodically check back with this Privacy Policy for changes that we may make. Your continued use of our Website will constitute your agreement to any changes we make and if you do not agree with a change, please refrain from using our Website.