WildBlue Communications� Subscriber Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy covers the web site www.hccwb.net
applies to all customers of WildBlue�s Satellite Speed Internet service (the
�Service�). We encourage you to read the entire Policy and check this page
periodically for any changes or updates. By using the Service, you expressly
consent to the terms of this Policy, as it may be changed from time to time.
WildBlue is committed to maintaining your privacy and believes that, as a
subscriber to the Service, you are entitled to know WildBlue's information
practices. This includes the limitations which WildBlue observes in the
collection and disclosure of personally identifiable subscriber information,
the type of personally identifiable information we collect, how we use
subscriber information, under what conditions we may disclose this information,
the period during which we maintain it and the rights of subscribers concerning
this information and its disclosure.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this Policy, you should contact
WildBlue at the contact information near the end of this Policy.
Information
Collection
WildBlue/HCC collects information from you at several different points on the
Service. Some of this information is personally identifiable information, but
much of it is not. Personally identifiable information is information that
identifies a particular person. When you establish an account for the Service
we collect information such as your name, address, telephone number, e-mail
address, as well as information used for billing, and payment information, and
other information we may need to establish and service an account. During the
initial provisioning of the Service, and any subsequent changes or updates to
that provisioning, WildBlue/HCC collects technical information about your
computer hardware and software, satellite modem and/or other service-related
devices, and customization settings and preferences.
WildBlue/HCC also collects personally identifiable information about you when you
communicate with us for, among other things, support, maintenance, and billing,
send us e-mails, respond to our surveys or e-mails, engage in chat sessions
with us, register for information, or participate in promotions or contests. In
addition, WildBlue may combine personally identifiable information, which we
collect as part of our regular business records, with personally identifiable
information obtained from third parties for the purpose of creating an enhanced
personal database to use in marketing and other activities related to the
Service and our other services.
Information
Use and Disclosure
WildBlue/HCC considers the personally identifiable information contained in our
business records to be confidential. Applicable law authorizes WildBlue and/or
HCC to disclose personally identifiable information concerning any subscriber
if the disclosure is:
In
addition, WildBlue/HCC may use and disclose personally identifiable information
collected from you your use of the Service as provided for by applicable law in
order to:
WildBlue/HCC
may also use and disclose personally identifiable information as provided for
by applicable law in order to perform, for example:
In
connection with the activities listed above, WildBlue sometimes discloses
personally identifiable information about you to our affiliates or to others
who work for us. WildBlue sometimes also discloses personally identifiable
information about you to our employees for WildBlue's internal business
purposes, as well as to outside auditors, professional advisors and service
providers, potential business transition partners, and regulators. Typically, WildBlue
makes these disclosures when the disclosure is necessary to render, or conduct
a legitimate business activity related to the Service or other services we
provide to you. WildBlue may be required by law or legal process to disclose
certain personally identifiable information about you to lawyers and parties in
connection with litigation and to law enforcement personnel. WildBlue may also
disclose certain personally identifiable information about you to third parties
such as, for example, charities, marketing organizations, or other businesses,
in connection with disclosures made for "mailing list" or other
purposes as described below in this Policy.
Legal
Disclaimer
We make every reasonable effort to protect subscriber privacy as described in
this Policy. Nevertheless, we may be required by law to disclose personally
identifiable information about a subscriber without his or her consent and
without notice in order to comply with a valid legal process such as a
subpoena, court order, or search warrant. We may also use or disclose
personally identifiable information about you without your consent to protect
our customers, employees, or property, in emergency situations, to enforce our
rights in court or elsewhere, or directly with you, and for violations of the
Service's terms of service and policies (including our Customer Agreement,
Acceptable Use Policy and Fair Access Policy).
Transmission of Information
WildBlue transmits personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable
information about you over the Service when you send and receive e-mail, chat,
send instant messages, transfer and share files, make files accessible, visit
Web sites, or otherwise use the Service and its features. Our transmission of
this information is necessary to render the Service.
WildBlue uses third parties to deliver some features and functions of the
Service, including customer and technical support, e-mail, instant messaging,
and web hosting, and those third parties collect or transmit personally
identifiable and non-personally identifiable information about you. These third
parties are not permitted to use your personally identifiable information
except for the purpose of providing their services. We will not read your
outgoing or incoming e-mail, private chat, or instant messages, but we (or our
third party providers) do store e-mail messages on computer systems for a
period of time. We could be required to disclose these messages and
communications along with other personally identifiable information about you
to comply with law or to protect our Service as described in the Legal
Disclaimer section of this Policy.
WildBlue also monitors the performance of our Service and your Service
connection in order to manage, maintain, and improve the Service and your
connection to it. WildBlue (or our third party providers) use tools to help
prevent and block "spam" e-mails, viruses, spyware, and other harmful
or unwanted communications and programs on the Service. These tools may
automatically scan your e-mails, instant messages, file attachments, and other
files and communications in order to help us protect you and the Service
against these harmful or unwanted communications and programs. These tools do
not collect or disclose personally identifiable information about you.
Service Providers
WildBlue contracts with third parties to provide specific services and features
for the Service. For example, our newsgroups are provided by a third party.
When you use these particular services, generally you provide your name and
specific Service-related information directly to the third party service
provider. If you become a customer of these third parties directly, then you
will be subject to their terms of service and privacy policies. You should
carefully read their terms and policies to understand how they may use
personally identifiable information about you.
Aggregate Information
WildBlue or our contractors may from time to time share aggregate
(non-personally identifiable) information such as the number of Service
subscribers who match certain statistical profiles (for example, the number of
subscribers in various parts of the country) with our advertisers, content
providers, or other third parties with whom we have a relationship. Except as
otherwise specified in this Policy, we will not provide our advertisers,
content providers, or these other third parties with personally identifiable
information about you unless we have received your consent first. Likewise,
WildBlue will not share personally identifiable information about where you go
on the Service or on the Web unless we have received your consent first. WildBlue
also uses aggregate information to better understand how the Service is being
used, to improve it, and for network management, bandwidth usage, maintenance,
performance measurement, and security.
Third Party Advertisers
WildBlue may use a third-party ad serving company to serve certain
advertisements to you when you visit our Web site. Our third-party ad serving
company may use anonymous information related to your visit to the Service's
Web site to better provide advertisements to you about goods and services that
may be of interest to you. Our third-party ad serving company does not have
access to your name, address, e-mail address or telephone number unless you or
others provide that information to it directly, or you consent to us providing
that information to it. In the course of serving advertisements to our Web
site, our third-party ad serving company may place or recognize a unique
"cookie" or equivalent technology through your browser.
Business Transitions
If WildBlue enters into a merger, acquisition, or sale transaction of all or a
portion of its assets, subscribers' personally identifiable information will,
in most instances, be one of the items transferred as part of the transaction.
If, as a result of the business transition this Policy will be changed, you
should refer to the Notification of Changes to this Policy section. Aggregate
information may also be transferred in connection with a business transition.
Preferences
WildBlue stores information that you provide to personalize your settings on
the Service so that you don't have to change these settings each time you use
the Service. We do not share your preferences with third parties except for
service providers or other third parties who may provide certain components of
the Service.
Cookies
Cookies are small files stored on a computer's hard drive to simplify and
improve a user's Web experience. A Web site may store information in a cookie
about your computer configuration so that it can more efficiently provide
information to you the next time you visit the site. Or, your browser program
might save a cookie with a reference key linking to your username and password
on a remote server so that a Web site's server will automatically recognize you
the next time you access the site.
WildBlue uses cookies to remember your username and password, if you choose to
store them, from the home page of the Service at www.hccwb.net, as well as to
remember some of your personalization preferences. WildBlue also uses cookies
to determine when your current session on the Service's Web site should be
logged out after a period of no activity, as well as for efficient management
of the servers providing our Web site including when you access the Personal
Web Space services. In addition, WildBlue uses cookies to determine whether you
are accessing the website at www.hccwb.net or features of the Service from our
Service or another Internet service provider. We do this in order to
authenticate access to certain features of the Service, and to enable certain
communications between Service subscribers. Aside from this reference by the
cookie, WildBlue does not store your name or other personal information in
cookies.
Some of our business relationships are with vendors who may use cookies (for
example, search engines) or in connection with their own advertisers and other
business partners. However, we have no access to or control over these third
party cookies. For more information about how these vendors and their business
partners use cookies, and how you may be able to "opt-out" of those
cookies, read the privacy policy that applies to each vendor's Web site. This
Policy covers the use of cookies by WildBlue under the www.hccwb.net domain; it
does not cover the use of cookies by any other party or Web site unless stated
otherwise.
Log Files and Web Site and E-mail
Management
Like many Web sites, the Service's Web site servers generate log files. These
logs record aggregate (non-personally identifiable) information about site
usage such as Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser types, Internet service
providers, referring/exit pages, pages accessed, platform types, date/time
stamps, times of use, and page views, for example. This information is necessary
to analyze trends, administer the Service's Web site, balance web traffic,
evaluate users' electronic browsing in the aggregate, and gather broad
demographic information for aggregate use.
Communications
from WildBlue
Special Offers and Updates
WildBlue send all new subscribers to the Service a welcome e-mail and sometimes
other information. Subscribers who would like to receive information from us
about products, services, and special offers, promotions, and features may do
so. See the Choice and Contact Preferences section of this Policy to learn how
to opt in or opt out of receiving these types of promotional communications.
Service Announcements
WildBlue/HCC sends subscribers Service-related announcements from time to time.
For example, we may send you an e-mail announcement about a pricing change, a
change in operating policies, or new features of the Service. You may not
opt-out of these Service-related communications, though you can deactivate your
Service account if you wish. If you fail to check your Service account and
primary e-mail address for Service-related announcements, you may miss
important information about the Service, including legal notices, for example.
Customer Service
WildBlue/HCC communicates with you to provide requested services and support
for questions and issues relating to your Service account. We will reply to
your requests for customer service by e-mail, phone, discussion forum, or
through any other reasonable means.
Choice
and Contact Preferences
Any e-mail relating to special offers or promotions will contain a link or
instructions allowing you to opt out of receiving similar promotional e-mails
in the future by following the opt-out instructions in the e-mail or visiting
the Contact Preferences section of My Account on the www.hccwb.net Web site.
Links
The Service's Web site contains links to other sites. Some of these other sites
may be co-branded with WildBlue and may look like Service features, but
WildBlue is not responsible for the privacy practices of these other sites. We
encourage you to be aware when you leave our Web site and to read the privacy
policies of every Web site that collects personally identifiable information
about you, whether the site is co-branded with WildBlue or not.
Security
WildBlue takes the security of our subscribers' personally identifiable
information seriously. We follow industry-standard practices to take such
actions as are necessary to prevent unauthorized access to personally
identifiable information by a person other than the subscriber or us. However,
we cannot guarantee that these practices will prevent every unauthorized
attempt to access, use, or disclose personally identifiable information.
Correcting
and Accessing Information
If your personally identifiable information changes, if you wish to confirm the
accuracy of your personally identifiable information, or if you no longer want
to subscribe to the Service, we provide a way to correct that information and a
way to deactivate a Service account. You can correct some personally identifiable
information through the My Account link at www.hccwb.net. You may also contact Hood
Canal Communications by telephone at the contact information listed below to
correct information or deactivate your Service account. In addition, you may
examine and copy any personally identifiable information we collect and
maintain relating to you at your local WildBlue office upon reasonable notice
and during regular business hours. If you wish to inspect those records, please
contact us by telephone at 1-866-WILDBLUE, giving us a reasonable period of
time to locate and, if necessary, prepare the information for review, and to
arrange an appointment during regular business hours. We will correct our
records if you make a reasonable showing that any of the personally
identifiable information we have collected about you is inaccurate. You will
only be permitted to examine records that contain information about you and no
one else. WildBlue/HCC reserves the right to charge you for the cost of
photocopying any documents that you request.
Enforcement
You, as a subscriber to the Service, may enforce the limitations imposed on
WildBlue by applicable federal law with respect to the collection and
disclosure of personally identifiable information about you. You may do so through
a civil action under federal law, in addition to other rights and remedies that
may be available to you under federal or other applicable laws.
Retention
of Information
WildBlue/HCC maintains personally identifiable information about you in our regular
business records while you are a subscriber to the Service. We also maintain
this information for a period of time after you are no longer a subscriber if
the information is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or to
satisfy legal requirements. These purposes typically include business, legal,
or tax purposes. If there are no pending requests, orders, or court orders for
access to this personally identifiable information and the information is no
longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, we will destroy
the information within a reasonable time period or within a required timeframe
established under applicable law, whichever is shorter.
Notification
of Changes to this Policy
If WildBlue changes this Policy (which we may do at any time), we will post
those changes on the homepage of the Service Web site, or in other places we
deem appropriate, so our subscribers are aware of what information we collect,
how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will
use information in accordance with the Privacy Policy under which the
information was collected. Your decision to continue receiving the Service
after we make any changes to this Policy shall be deemed to be your express
consent to the changes in the revised Policy.
Contact
Information
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this Policy, or wish to
contact us about your personal information, please contact us at [email protected].
Special
Note about Children
The Service is not directed to children under the age of 13, and WildBlue does
not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the
age of 18 on the Service unless expressly specified on the appropriate pages of
the Service website. On those pages, WildBlue or its service providers will
provide a special notice or other information describing any additional privacy
protections that may apply. Children should always get permission from a parent
or legal guardian before sending any information about themselves (such as
their names, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers) over the Internet, to us
or to anyone else.
WildBlue
Corporate
WildBlue Communications, Inc. ����������������������������� WildBlue Customer Care
Greenwood Corporate Plaza, Bldg. 1������������������� WildBlue
Communications, Inc
5970 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Suite 300�������������� P.O.
Box 4427
Greenwood Village, CO 80111������������������������������ Englewood,
CO 80155
Sales & Support: 1-866-WildBlue (945-3258) (toll free)
360-898-2481�
www.hctc.com