| Advantus Corporation |
| PRIVACY POLICY |
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We at Advantus Corporation, (referred to as "Advantus,"
"we," "us," or "our") recognize the importance of protecting the privacy of
certain information ("Information") collected about our customers and prospective
customers (referred to as "Customers," "you" or "your"). This privacy statement
discloses what information we gather, how we use it, and how to correct or change
it. At Advantus it is our intention to give you an understanding about how we collect
your Information and the use we make of it in the course of our business.
To that end, Advantus gathers two types of information about Customers: data that
Customers provide through optional, voluntary registration on our sites; and
data Advantus gathers through aggregated tracking, mainly by tallying page views
throughout our sites. Such information enables us to tailor our content to fit
Customers' needs better and to help our advertisers understand our audience.
Because Advantus derives its revenue mainly from advertising and e-commerce, providing
such aggregated data is essential to keeping our service free to Customers.
However, be assured that Advantus will not disclose personal Information to third
parties without your consent, except as may be noted in this Privacy Policy
or disclosed to you when the Information is submitted. |
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| How does Advantus collect Information? |
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| Optional registration |
| We collect information by specifically requesting it from
you. Generally this occurs when you register at a site or request information
or a service. Usually, the Advantus sites and Advantus's service partners use your information
to operate the sites and to deliver services. Advantus sites also use your information
to inform you about other products or services available from Advantus and its affiliates.
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| Usage tracking |
| Use of Internet Protocol ("IP") Addresses: |
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An IP address is a unique number that is automatically
assigned to your computer whenever you're surfing the Internet so that your
computer can be identified by the main computers, known as "Web servers," that
"serve up" Web pages.
Advantus and/or its affiliates collect IP addresses for the purposes of system administration,
to report aggregated information to our advertisers, and to audit the use of
our site. When Customers request pages from Advantus's and/or its affiliates' sites,
our servers log the Customers' IP addresses. We do not normally link IP addresses
to anything personally identifiable, which means that a Customer's session will
be logged, but the Customer will remain anonymous to us. We can and will use
IP addresses to identify a Customer when we feel it is necessary to enforce
compliance with our site terms of use or terms of service or to protect our
service, site, customers or others. |
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| Use Of Cookies |
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What are cookies? Cookies are small pieces of information
that a Web site sends to yours computer for record-keeping purposes, which information
is stored in a file on your computer. Cookies make Web surfing easier for you
by saving your preferences so that we can use the saved information to facilitate
your use of our Web site when you return to the site. Cookies do not tell us
your individual identity unless you have chosen to provide it to us. We never
save passwords or credit card information in cookies. The use of cookies is
an industry standard, and as such, you'll find that most major Web sites use
them.
By showing how and when Customers use a site, cookies help us see which areas
are popular and which are not. Many improvements and updates to the site are
based on such data as total number of visitors and pages viewed. This information
is most easily tracked with cookies. We use the information from cookies to
provide services better tailored to our Customers' needs.
Most cookies expire after a defined period of time, or you can delete your cookie
file at any time. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You
can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being
sent. However, note that some parts of Advantus and/or its affiliates' services
will not function properly or may be considerably slower if you refuse cookies.
For example, without cookies, you will not be able to set personalized preferences,
and/or may have difficulty completing marketing transactions.
Advantus and/or its affiliates have two primary uses for its cookies. First, we
use them to specify a Customer's preferences. For example, Customers can specify
keywords across several categories or markets so you don't have to tell us repeatedly
about certain features in the home you are seeking. Second, we use cookies to
track Customers' Web site usage trends and patterns. This helps us understand
our Customers' needs better and improve areas of Advantus's and/or its affiliates
services that our Customers find valuable. While both of these activities depend
on the use of cookies, you have the option of disabling the cookies via your
browser preferences.
You may occasionally get cookies from our advertisers. Advantus and/or its affiliates
do not control these cookies. The use of advertising cookies sent by third-party
servers is standard in the Internet industry |
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| With whom does Advantus share my Information? |
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As a general rule Advantus will not disclose any specific personal
information that you submit to us about you ("Personal Information") in a manner
that connects you with the Personal Information, except when we have your permission
or under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the
law requires it or under the circumstances described below. The following describes
some of the ways that your Personal Information may be disclosed.
Business Partners & Sponsors: Advantus may disclose some or all of your Personal
Information to business partners or sponsors, but this use will be specifically
described to you prior to data collection or prior to transferring the data.
Many promotions offer opportunities to request additional information from sponsors.
By requesting more information, you give Advantus permission to transfer your Personal
Information to the sponsor so they can fulfill your request. In many instances,
only your e-mail address will be shared. If more Personal Information will be
shared with the sponsor, you will be notified prior to the transfer.
Third Party & Aggregate Data: From time to time, you may be offered the opportunity
to receive materials or special offers from third parties. If you opt to receive
information from these third parties, Advantus will (with your permission) share
your name and e-mail address with such third parties. Under confidentiality
agreements, Advantus may match Personal Information with third party data. Also,
Advantus may keep track of what portions of the Web site Customers are visiting
and other Customer statistics, and aggregate this information to help us create
a better experience for users of our Web site. This is all done without knowing
your name or other Personal Information in order to describe our viewers and
services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other third parties, and
for other lawful purposes.
Other: Advantus may also disclose account Information in special cases when we have
reason to believe that disclosing this Information is necessary to identify,
contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating
Advantus's terms of use or terms of service, or may be causing injury to or interference (either
intentionally or unintentionally) with any of Advantus's rights or property, other
Advantus Customers, or anyone else. Advantus may disclose or access account Information
when we believe in good faith that the law requires it and for administrative
and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service, and improve
our products and services. |
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| How can you control the usage of Information?
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| In case you change your mind or some Personal Information
changes (such as your zip code or e-mail address), we will try to provide a
way to correct, update or remove the Personal Information that you give us.
We also give you the opportunity to control the communications we direct to
you. We offer Customers the opportunity to "opt out" of having Personal Information
shared with parties outside of Advantus and/or its affiliated companies. If a Customer
wishes to update Personal Information or objects to any usage provided herein
for any reason, he/she may e-mail the requested change to: info@advantus.com |
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| What happens when you link to a third party site? |
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You should be aware that when you are on Advantus's and/or
its affiliates' sites you could hyperlink or be directed to other sites that
are beyond our control and/or outside our service. For example, if you "click"
on a banner advertisement or a advantus.com search result, the "click" may transfer
you off the advantus.com site. These other sites may include sites of advertisers,
sponsors and partners that may use Advantus's and/or its affiliates' logo as part
of a co-branding agreement. These other sites may send their own cookies to
Customers, collect data, or solicit Information.
Advantus and its affiliates do not control such sites, and, therefore, are not responsible
for their contents or the hyperlinks or advertising they choose to place on
such sites. Advantus's and/or its affiliates' inclusion of hyperlinks to these sites
do not imply any endorsement of the material on such sites or any association
with their operators. Advantus's policy does not extend to anything that is inherent
in the operation of the Internet, which is beyond Advantus's and its affiliates'
control.
Please keep in mind that whenever you give out information online (for example,
via message boards or chat) that information can be collected and used by people
you don't know. While Advantus and its affiliates strive to protect their Customers'
information and privacy, we cannot guarantee the security of any information
you disclose online, and you disclose such information at your own risk.
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| Is my Information secure from others using the Advantus site? |
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The importance of security of all information associated
with our Customers is an important concern to us. We exercise care in providing
secure transmission of your information from your computer to our servers. Unfortunately,
no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.
As a result, while we strive to protect your information, Advantus and its affiliates
can't ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or
from our online products or services, and you do so at your own risk. Once we
receive your transmission, Advantus uses industry standard efforts to safeguard
the confidentiality of your information, such as firewalls and Secure Socket
Layers. However, "perfect security" does not exist on the Internet.
All orders on our site are encrypted using 128 bit Secure Socket Layer Technology (SSL).
SSL is an extremely complex form of cryptography that makes it virtually impossible for a
third party to decrypt any personal information you provide. Your personal and credit card
information is securely protected when transmitted online. You can use any search engine to
learn about SSL and how it works. You can start learning by visiting http://webopedia.com/TERM/S/SSL.html.
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| YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS |
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| By using this site, you signify your agreement to Advantus 's Privacy Policy.
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS POLICY, PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS SITE. Your continued use of Advantus's
and/or its affiliates' sites following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you
accept those changes. |
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