Agent Aquarium Privacy Policy
Introduction
The mission of Agent Aquarium is to connect consumers with
real estate agents that will allow for the most successful transactions. We
work to fulfill this mission by providing consumers a means to compare real
estate agents based on production data, personality profiles, and value added
propositions. We offer real estate
agents an innovative way to find and connect with buyers and sellers.
Here are the main types of information available to Agent Aquarium subscribers:
Information about yourself that you share: This is the information that real estate
agents see about you. This includes your buyer or seller profile. However, your
contact information will never be displayed.
You have control over what you share, and you can update information at
any time.
Communication: We help you communicate with real estate
agents. You decide how much or how little you wish to communicate to
individuals or groups.
Private activity: We also provide tools that you can
use privately on Agent Aquarium. These actions and information are private and
we don't share or distribute them to others on the website.
Of course, maintaining your trust is our top concern, so we
adhere to the following principles to protect your privacy:
We do not rent, sell, or otherwise provide your
personally identifiable information to third parties for marketing purposes.
We do not share any information you have not
chosen to display on your Agent Aquarium profile to other parties, unless
compelled by law, or as necessary to enforce our User Agreement or protect the
rights, property, or personal safety of Agent Aquarium, its
Users, and the public.
All information that you provide will be
protected with industry standard protocols and technology.
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page. By continuing to use the Agent Aquarium service after notice of changes has been sent to you or published on the Agent Aquarium website, you are consenting to the changes.
Please read this policy and send us questions, concerns and
suggestions at info@agentaquarium.com.
What Agent Aquarium's Privacy Policy Covers
1.
Information collected by Agent Aquarium.
2.
How Agent Aquarium uses your information.
3.
Your information choices.
4.
Your obligations as a User.
5.
Important information regarding service
eligibility and US Department of Commerce Safe Harbor certification.
6.
Security.
7. How to contact us.
1. Personal Information Collected
By joining Agent Aquarium, you voluntarily and willingly
provide us certain information, including personally identifiable information,
which we collect in order to provide our services. If you have any hesitation
about providing information to us and/or having your information displayed on
the Agent Aquarium website or otherwise used in any manner permitted in this
Privacy Policy and the User Agreement, you should not become a member of Agent
Aquarium; and, if you are already a member, you should close your account. We collect your personal information in the
following ways:
Registration: In order to become a User, you must
provide us the following information to create an account: name, email address,
country, and password. Like other passwords, you should choose one that is
known only by you. You acknowledge that this information is personal to you,
and by creating an account on Agent Aquarium, you allow others, including Agent
Aquarium, to identify you.
Profile Information: Once you become a User, you may
provide additional information in the Profile section describing your specific
needs as a buyer or seller. Providing additional information about yourself
beyond what is minimally required at registration is entirely up to you, but
providing additional information enables you to derive more benefit from Agent
Aquarium and your professional network by helping you build and leverage your
professional network and facilitating your search for professional resources,
information, and new opportunities. Any information you provide at registration
or in the Profile section may be used by Agent Aquarium as described in the
User Agreement and this Privacy Policy, including for the purpose of serving
advertisements through the service. If you decide not to share certain
information, you may not receive the full benefit of being a Agent Aquarium User.
Customer Service: We may collect information through
the Agent Aquarium website or through our customer service website in order to,
among other things, accurately categorize and respond to customer inquiries and
investigate breaches of our terms.
Site Usage: We may collect information about the fact
that you use certain features and functionality of Agent Aquarium, interact
with third party Platform Applications, click on ads, or participate in
research initiatives like polling and surveys on Agent Aquarium.
Cookies: Like most websites, we use cookies and web
log files to track site usage and trends, to improve the quality of our
service, to customize your experience on Agent Aquarium, as well as to deliver
third-party advertising to Users both on and off the Agent Aquarium site. A
cookie is a tiny data file that resides on your computer, mobile phone, or
other device, and allows us to recognize you as a User when you return to the
Agent Aquarium website using the same computer and web browser. You can remove
or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases that may
impact your ability to use Agent Aquarium. One type of cookie, known as a
"persistent" cookie, is set once you've logged in to your Agent Aquarium
account. The next time you visit the Agent Aquarium website, the persistent
cookie will allow us to recognize you as an existing User so you will not need
to log in before using our website. In order to access or change any of your
private information (like a credit card number) or to send a message to another
User, however, you must log in securely again with your password even if your
computer contains your persistent cookie. Another type of cookie, called a
"session" cookie, is used to identify a particular visit to the Agent Aquarium
website. Session cookies expire after a short time or when you close your web
browser. In the course of serving
advertisements or optimizing our services to our Users, we may allow authorized
third parties to place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. Any
information provided to third parties through cookies will not be personally
identifiable but may provide general segment information (e.g., your industry
or geography, career field, or information about your professional or educational
background) for greater customization of your user experience. Most browsers
are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to
refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Agent Aquarium
does not store unencrypted personally identifiable information in the cookies.
Flash objects: The Adobe Flash Player is a web
application and tool that allows development of dynamic content. Agent Aquarium and advertisers or platform
applications on our website may employ locally stored objects, sometimes
referred to as "Flash cookies." Such
Flash cookies may be used in certain situations where we or our advertising
partners provide special content such as video on demand, video clips, or
animation. Flash and similar applications
use this technology to remember settings, preferences, and usage similar to
browser cookies, but Flash cookies are not managed through your web
browser. You can access your Flash
management tools from Adobe's website directly.
Advertising and Web Beacons: To support the services
we provide to our Users, as well as provide a more relevant and useful
experience for our Users, we serve our own ads and also allow third party
advertisements on the site. These advertisements are targeted and served to
Users, by both Agent Aquarium and other companies, called ad networks. Ad
networks include third party ad servers, ad agencies, ad technology vendors and
research firms.
Advertisements on Agent Aquarium may be targeted to Users
who fit a certain general profile category or may be based on anonymized information inferred from a User's profile in
addition to a User's use of the Agent Aquarium site. Agent Aquarium does not
provide personally identifiable information to any third party ad network. To increase the effectiveness of ad delivery,
we may include a file, called a web beacon, from an ad network within pages
served by Agent Aquarium. The web beacon allows the ad network to provide anonymized, aggregated auditing, research and reporting for
advertisers. Web beacons also enable the ad networks to serve ads to you when
you visit other websites. Because your web browser must request these
advertisements and web beacons from the ad network's servers, these companies
can view, edit or set their own cookies, just as if you had requested a web
page from their site.
Log files, IP addresses and information about your
computer and mobile device: Due to
the communications standards on the internet, when you visit the Agent Aquarium
website we automatically receive the URL of the site from which you came and
the site to which you are going when you leave Agent Aquarium. Agent Aquarium
also receives the internet protocol ("IP") address of your computer (or the
proxy server you use to access the World Wide Web), your computer operating
system and type of web browser you are using, email patterns, mobile device
operating system (if you are accessing Agent Aquarium using a mobile device),
as well as the name of your ISP or your mobile carrier. We use this information
to analyze overall trends to help improve the service. The linkage between your
IP address and your personally identifiable information is not shared with
third parties without your permission, except as described in Section 2.K
("Compliance with Legal Process"), below.
Rights to Access, Correct and Eliminate Information About You: You have a right to access, modify, correct
and eliminate the data you supplied to Agent Aquarium. If you update any of your
information, we may keep a copy of the information that you originally provided
to us in our archives for uses documented in this policy. You may request
deletion of your information at any time by contacting Agent Aquarium customer
service. We will respond to your request within 30 days.
2. Uses of personal information
By providing information to us for the purposes of creating
your User account or adding any additional details to your Agent Aquarium
profile, you are expressly and voluntarily accepting the terms and conditions
of this Privacy Policy and Agent Aquarium's User Agreement that allow Agent
Aquarium to process information about you. Supplying information to Agent
Aquarium, including any information deemed "sensitive" by applicable law, is entirely
voluntary on your part. You have the right to withdraw your consent to Agent
Aquarium's collection and processing of your information at any time, in
accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy and the User Agreement, by
changing your Settings, or by closing your account, but please note that your
withdrawal of consent will not be retroactive.
Agent Aquarium Communications: As described in the
User Agreement, we will communicate with you through email and notices posted
on the Agent Aquarium website, messages to your Agent Aquarium inbox, or
through other means available through the service, including mobile text
messages. We may send you a series of emails that help inform new Users about
the features of our services, and we will also send you service messages
relating to the functioning of our services. We may also send you messages with
promotional information directly or on behalf of our partners, unless you have
opted out of receiving promotional information.
You can change your e-mail and contact preferences at any
time by logging into your account and changing your settings related to your
email notification choices. If you wish, you can also opt-out of receiving
promotional emails by sending a request to Agent Aquarium customer service
through our customer service site.
Please be aware that you cannot opt-out of receiving service
messages from Agent Aquarium. Also, if we send communications to you via the
carrier service with which you have a mobile communications subscription or
otherwise have access, you understand you will pay any service fees associated
with your receipt of messages on your mobile device (including text messaging
charges).
User Communications: Communications that you initiate
through the Agent Aquarium website, like a request for an introduction, will
list your name as the initiator but will not include your personal email
address contact information. Your contact information will only be shared with
a real estate agent if you have indicated that you would like to establish
contact with that real estate agent.
Sharing Information with Third Parties:
Agent Aquarium takes the privacy of our
Users very seriously, and we do not sell, rent, or otherwise provide your
personally identifiable information to third parties for marketing purposes.
Further, we will only share your personally identifiable information with third
parties to carry out your instructions or to provide our services or
information unless compelled by law, or as necessary to enforce our User
Agreement or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Agent
Aquarium, its Users, and the public. For example, we use a credit card
processing company to bill Users for subscription fees. These third parties do
not retain, share, or store any personally identifiable information except to
provide these services, and they are bound by confidentiality agreements
limiting the use of your information.
We also offer a "public profile" feature that allows Users
to publish portions of their Agent Aquarium profile to the public internet.
This public profile is what search engines will display when someone searches
for your name. Users may opt-out of this feature by editing their account
settings; however, Agent Aquarium does not warrant how often third-party search
engines will update their caches, which may contain old public profile
information. We may provide aggregated
anonymous data about the usage of the Services to third parties for purposes
that we deem, in our sole discretion, to be appropriate, including to
prospective advertisers on Agent Aquarium.
Search: We
offer search services to help find information and learn more about real estate
agents. Agent Aquarium search also allows Users to search real estate and real
estate agents.
Testimonials and Advertisements Placed through Agent
Aquarium DirectAds Service: If you provide any
testimonials about the Agent Aquarium services, we may post those testimonials.
Testimonials may include your name and other personal information that you have
provided.
Compliance with Legal Process: It is possible that we
may need to disclose personal information, profile information and/or
information about your activities as a Agent Aquarium
User when required by subpoena or other legal process, or if Agent Aquarium has
a good faith belief that disclosure is necessary to (a) investigate, prevent or
take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities or to assist
government enforcement agencies; (b) to enforce the User Agreement, to
investigate and defend ourselves against any third party claims or allegations,
or to protect the security or integrity of our site; and/or (c) to exercise or
protect the rights, property or personal safety of Agent Aquarium, our Users,
employees, or others.
Disclosures to others in the event of sale or change of
ownership: If Agent Aquarium becomes involved in a merger, acquisition,
substantial change in the ownership of the company, or sells a substantial part
of its assets, we may transfer your information to the
new owner so that the services provided by Agent Aquarium may continue to
operate. Any third party to which Agent
Aquarium transfers or sells substantial ownership of the company to, or who
purchases a substantial part of the assets of Agent Aquarium will have the
right to continue to use the personal and other information that you provide to
us.
3. Your Information Choices
Accessing and Changing Your Account Information: You
can review the personal information you provided to us and make any desired
changes to the information you publish, or to the settings for your Agent
Aquarium account including your email and contact preferences, at any time by
logging in to your account on the Agent Aquarium website. Please be aware that
even after your request for a change is processed, Agent Aquarium may, for a
time, retain residual information about you in its backup and/or archival
copies of its database.
Closing Your Account: You can close
your account through the Agent Aquarium customer service site. If you
close your Agent Aquarium account, we will remove your name and other
personally identifiable information from our publicly viewable database. If you
close your account, we have no obligation to retain your information, and may
delete any or all of your account information without liability. However, we
may retain certain data contributed by you if Agent Aquarium believes it may be
necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business
purposes, such as analysis of aggregated, non-personally identifiable data,
account recovery, or if required by law. Agent Aquarium may also retain and use
your information if necessary to provide the Services to other Users. For
example, just as an email you may send to another person through an email
service provider resides in that person's inbox even after you delete it from
your sent files or close your account, emails you send on Agent Aquarium to
other Users, as well as your contributions to Agent Aquarium, may remain
visible to others after you have closed your account. Similarly, other
information you have shared with others, or that other Users have copied, may
also remain visible. Agent Aquarium disclaims any liability in relation to the
deletion or retention (subject to the terms herein) of information or any
obligation not to delete the information. Agent Aquarium does not control when
search engines update their cache, which may contain certain public profile
information that has since been removed from Agent Aquarium's publicly viewable
database.
Memorializing Accounts: If we learn that a User is deceased, we may
memorialize the User's account. In these cases we may restrict profile
access, remove messaging functionality, and close an account if we receive a
formal request from the User's next of kin or other proper legal request to do
so.
4. Your Obligations
As a User, you have certain obligations to other Users. Some
of these obligations are imposed by applicable law and regulations, and others
have become commonplace in user-friendly communities of like-minded members
such as Agent Aquarium:
You must, at all times, abide by the terms and
conditions of the then-current Privacy Policy and User Agreement. This includes
respecting all intellectual property rights that may belong to third parties
(such as trademarks or photographs).
You must not download or otherwise disseminate
any information that may be deemed to be injurious, violent, offensive, racist
or xenophobic, or which may otherwise violate the purpose and spirit of Agent
Aquarium and its community of Users.
You must not provide to Agent Aquarium and/or
other Users information that you believe might be injurious or detrimental to
your person or to your professional or social status.
You must keep your username and password
confidential and not share it with others.
Any violation of these guidelines may lead to
the restriction, suspension or termination of your account at the sole
discretion of Agent Aquarium.
5. Important Information
Children and Minors: Children are not eligible to use
our service and we ask that minors (under the age of 18) do not submit any
personal information to us or use the service.
Changes to this Privacy Policy: We may update this
Privacy Policy at any time, with or without advance notice. In the event there
are significant changes in the way we treat your personally identifiable
information, or in the Privacy Policy document itself, we will display a notice
on the Agent Aquarium website or send you an email, as provided for above.
Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information
that Agent Aquarium has about you and your account.
Using the Agent Aquarium Services after a notice of changes
has been sent to you or published on our site shall constitute consent to the
changed terms or practices.
6. Security
In order to help secure your personal information, access to
your data on Agent Aquarium is password-protected, and sensitive data (such as
credit card information) is protected by SSL encryption when it is exchanged
between your web browser and the Agent Aquarium website. To protect any data
you store on our servers, Agent Aquarium also regularly audits its system for
possible vulnerabilities and attacks, and we use a tier-one secured-access data
center. However, since the internet is not a 100% secure environment, we cannot
ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to Agent Aquarium.
There is no guarantee that information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered,
or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial
safeguards. It is your responsibility to protect the security of your login
information. Please note that emails, instant messaging, and similar means of
communication with other Users of Agent Aquarium are not encrypted, and we
strongly advise you not to communicate any confidential information through
these means.
7. How to contact us
If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, please email us at info@agentaquarium.com or or contact us at:
Agent Aquarium, Inc.
Attn: Privacy Policy Issues
13009 Stillforest St.
Austin, TX 78729
USA
