Privacy Policy

Overview

Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy, we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way the information obtained through this website is collected and used.

This notice applies only to personal information collected by Cortera from users of our website, www.cortera.com.  This notice does not apply to information collected by Cortera in other ways, including offline.  Except as expressly set forth below, this notice does not apply to information contained in the business profiles displayed through this website.  Our website contains links to other websites operated by third parties.  Cortera is not responsible for the online information practices or policies of such third party websites, and this notice does not apply to those websites.

Information We Collect and How We Use It

We use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that the collection of personal information is limited to that which is necessary to fulfill the purposes identified below. If we use your information in a manner different than the purpose for which it is collected, then we will ask you for your consent prior to such use.

Account Setup. If you create an account to take advantage of the full range of services offered on this website, we ask for and record personal information such as your name, address, phone number, and email address. We use your email address to send you updates and news, and contact you at the request of other users (such as other registered users who wish to contact you about a rating you have submitted). Your contact information will not be shared with other users.

Logging in to Use Features.  In a few areas on our website, we also ask you to provide information that will enable us to verify whether you are entitled to access and use certain information, materials and services available from our website.  It is completely optional for you to participate. However, failure to participate may mean that you cannot access and use certain information, materials and services. These include areas where users log on to certain areas of our website, at which point you may be prompted to provide us with your User ID code and password as a condition to gaining access to certain information, materials or services.

Submissions. We store and may publicly display your submissions in order to provide the services that we offer. When we display your submissions, we do so together with the user identification code (the “User ID”) you have established.  If we display your submission, we may also contact you at the request of other users who wish to discuss your submission with you.  We will not reveal your contact information to other users.  The term “submissions” refers to the information that you submit or post to the website  for public display, such as business ratings and reviews.

Requests to Contact Other Users.  If you request that Cortera contact another registered user on your behalf to discuss a submission, we will share your email address with such other registered user.  The decision of whether another registered user wishes to respond to you rests solely with that user.

Feedback. If you contact us to provide feedback, update a business listing, dispute a payment rating, or ask a question, we will record any personal information and other content that you provide in your communication so that we can effectively respond to your communication.

Activity. We record information relating to your use of the website, such as the searches you undertake, the pages you view, your browser type, IP address, requested URL, referring URL, and timestamp information. We use this type of information to administer the website and provide the highest possible level of service to you. We also use this information in the aggregate to perform statistical analyses of user behavior and characteristics in order to measure interest in and use of the various areas of the website. We also use technology from a third party contractor to monitor our standard web logs at the record-by-record level so we can better understand who is using our website and determine which online features they prefer.  You cannot be personally identified from this information.

Cookies. We send cookies to your computer in order to uniquely indentify your browser and improve the quality of our service. The term “cookies” refers to small pieces of information that a website sends to your computer’s hard drive while you are viewing the site. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them). Persistent cookies can be removed by following your browser help file directions. If you choose to disable cookies, some areas of the website may not work properly or at all.

Enforcement. We may use the information we collect in connection with your use of the website (including your personal information) in order to investigate, enforce, and apply our Terms and Privacy Notice.

Transfer of Information

We may distribute your submissions to third parties, as permitted pursuant to our Terms.  When we distribute your submissions to third parties, we typically include your User ID (but not your personal information unless you include your personal information in your submissions).

We may share your personal information with third parties to provide you with services that we offer through the website, conduct quality assurance testing, facilitate creation of accounts, provide technical and customer support, or provide other specific services in accordance with your instructions. These third parties are required not to use your personal information other than to provide the services requested by you.

If you request that Cortera contact another registered user on your behalf to discuss a submission, we will share your email address with such other registered user.

We may share your personal information with our parent company, subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under a common control (collectively, “Affiliates“) that we may have now or in the future, in which case we will require them to honor this Privacy Notice. If another company acquires our company or our assets, that company will possess your personal information, and will assume the rights and obligations with respect to that information as described in this Privacy Notice.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) take action regarding suspected illegal activities; (b) enforce or apply our Terms and Privacy Notice; (c) comply with legal process, such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order; or (d) protect our rights, reputation, and property, or that of our users, affiliates, or the public. Please note that we are not required to question or contest the validity of any search warrant, subpoena or other similar governmental request that we receive.

We may disclose information in the aggregate to third parties relating to user behavior in connection with actual or prospective business relationship with those third parties, such as advertisers and content distributors. For example, we may disclose the number of users that have been exposed to, or clicked on, advertising banners.

Responding to Inquiries from Other Users

If we display your submission, we may contact you at the request of other registered users who wish to discuss your submission with you.  The decision of whether you wish to respond to another user will lie solely with you.  Should you elect to respond to another user, your response will be transmitted outside of this website; accordingly, this Privacy Notice will not apply to your response.   If you respond to another user, that user may be able to identify you and you hereby agree to assume all risks associated therewith.

Information of Others

You may choose to provide us with another person’s e-mail address so that person may be invited to create an account on this website.  By providing us with another person’s e-mail address, you represent to us that you have obtained the consent of the person concerned as regards such disclosure to us of their personal information. All invitees are provided with the option not to receive further invitations. We may disclose such information if required to do so in order to comply with legal process, as described above.

You Can Opt Out of Receiving Further Marketing from Cortera at Any Time

We will send you information about our various products and services, or other products and services we feel may be of interest to you. Only Cortera (or agents or contractors working on behalf of Cortera and under confidentiality agreements) will send you these direct mailings. At any time, you can easily opt out of receiving further marketing from Cortera by emailing us at privacy@cortera.com.

Our Commitment to Data Security

Your account is password protected. We use industry standard measures to protect the personal information that is stored in our database. We limit the access to your personal information to those employees and contractors who need access to perform their job function, such as our customer service personnel. Although we take appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, we cannot assure you that your personal information will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Notice.

You hereby acknowledge that Cortera is not responsible for any intercepted information sent via the internet, and you hereby release us from any and all claims arising out of or related to the use of intercepted information in any unauthorized manner.

Changes to Privacy Notice

We may modify this Privacy Notice at any time, and we will post any new versions on this page. If we make any material changes in the way we use your personal information, we will notify you by sending an e-mail to the last e-mail address you provided to us and/or by prominently posting notice of the changes on our website. Any such changes will be effective upon the earlier of thirty (30) calendar days following our dispatch of an e-mail notice to you or thirty (30) calendar days following our posting of notice of the changes on our website. These changes will be effective immediately for new users of this website. Please note that at all times you are responsible for updating your personal information to provide us with your most current e-mail address. In the event that the last e-mail you have provided us is not valid, or for any reason is not capable of delivering to you the notice described above, our dispatch of the e-mail containing such notice will nonetheless constitute effective notice of the changes described in the notice. In any event, changes to this Privacy Notice may affect our use of personal information that you provided us prior to our notification to you of the changes. If you do not wish to permit changes in our use of your personal information, you must notify us prior to the effective date of the changes that you wish to deactivate your account with us. Continued use of this website following notice of such changes shall indicate your acknowledgement of such changes and agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions of such changes.

How You Can Access or Correct Your Information

You can request a copy of the personally-identifiable information that Cortera has collected about you via the website by emailing us at privacy@cortera.com. You can also request to have factual inaccuracies in this information corrected by emailing us at privacy@cortera.com.

EU Safe Harbor

Cortera is committed to providing protection for personal data from Europe as required by the Safe Harbor Principles.  Cortera participates in the Safe Harbor framework developed jointly by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the European Commission.

Cortera self-certifies its compliance with the Safe Harbor framework.  Cortera participates in the Better Business Bureau’s EU Safe Harbor Dispute Resolution Program, which will accept complaints that Cortera is not complying with its privacy notice from EU citizens who have first tried to resolve the complaint directly with Cortera.

How to Contact Us

If you would like to contact us for any reason regarding our online information practices, please email us at privacy@cortera.com.

Last updated: September 10, 2009