You are being presented this Privacy Policy because you are visiting a website (the “Website”) that is either (a) owned and operated by Software Advice, Inc. (“Software Advice”) or (b) includes content, including but not limited to registration and other forms, owned by Software Advice or drawn from a website owned and operated by Software Advice.. Software Advice is committed to protecting the privacy of our visitors’ personally identifiable information. The following privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains our online information practices, use of the information you provide us and the choices you can make about the way your information is used by Software Advice. By using the Website and providing personally identifiable information about yourself, you do hereby consent to (1) our Terms of Use, (2) our collection, use, and sharing of data as described in this Privacy Policy; (3) the notice, choice, access, and security we are providing, as described above; and (4) the methods we have described to notify you of changes to this Privacy Policy.
SO THAT WE MAY ASSIST YOU WITH YOUR SOFTWARE LICENSING/PURCHASE INQUIRY, PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT SOFTWARE ADVICE WILL FURNISH THE INFORMATION YOU SUBMIT ON THE WEBSITE TO OUR PARTICIPATING SOFTWARE VENDORS SO THAT THEY MAY CONTACT YOU ABOUT THEIR PRODUCTS, SERVICES, OFFERS, AND PROMOTIONS. WHEN YOU DOWNLOAD ARTICLES OF INTEREST WRITTEN (IN WHOLE OR IN PART) BY ONE OF OUR GUEST AUTHORS (AN “ADVISOR”), SOFTWARE ADVICE WILL FURNISH THE INFORMATION YOU SUBMIT ON THE WEBSITE TO SUCH ADVISOR SO THAT HE/SHE MAY CONTACT YOU ABOUT THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE ARTICLE.
Software Advice may gather information about you from the Website and from other sources, such as information you provide to our affiliated companies, including affiliated websites (which may be owned and/or operated by persons having no ownership relationship with Software Advice) or may be an entity directly or indirectly controlling, controlled by or under common control with Software Advice (“Affiliates”).
As a general rule, you will not be required to provide personally identifiable information as a condition to your browsing the Website. When such information is gathered, we will gather a limited scope of information from you that is necessary to facilitate the requests submitted by you, to improve this Website and your experience with the Website, and to make future visits to the Website easier and more personalized for you.
WHAT INFORMATION IS COLLECTED AND HOW COLLECTED INFORMATION IS USED
Users of the Website may browse without being obligated to submit any personal information; however, we may collect certain personally identifiable information from you in certain areas of the Website for certain purposes. These purposes include:
- providing information to us, to owners/operators of affiliate Websites, and/or to the vendor(s) of the software product(s) which you express an interest in purchasing or licensing so that we can contact you and help initiate contact and establish communication between you and such vendor(s) or Affiliates;
- providing information to an Advisor whose article you have specifically requested to download;
- conducting other transactions offered by Software Advice that you may request;
- servicing your account with us and responding to your questions;
- providing Software Advice’s newsletter to you via e-mail;
- assisting us in providing better products and services (for example, we may contact you to assist us in evaluating the performance of our staff, to assess the quality of product and service received and to help us improve the Website and our facilities and services); and,
- compiling and aggregating statistics and analyses about users’ use of the Website, products and services, which statistics are used to enable us to provide better service and products to you and others in the future.
Information we may collect:
- names
- physical addresses
- telephone numbers
- e-mail addresses
- information regarding your business (e.g., business name, revenue thresholds, etc.)
- information regarding your business needs and software requirements
- all other personally identifiable information you affirmatively provide to us.
Failing to provide information that is required to complete certain transactions will not prevent you from browsing the Website, but it may prevent you from being able to complete certain transactions and/or prevent us from contacting you in order to put you in contact with the appropriate software vendor(s).
The general categories of information we gather include:
Personal User Information
We may also require that you supply your name, physical address, telephone number, e-mail address or other personally identifiable information in order to facilitate certain transactions. We may also require additional personal information to provide specific services to you.
Anonymous User Information
Certain non-personal, anonymous information may be automatically provided to our Web servers by your computer. Additionally, certain other information (such as cookies, described below) may be transmitted by our Web server to your computer. That information does not contain any personally identifiable information. Specific types of anonymous information are described below:
IP Addresses
For each visitor to the Website, whenever possible, our Web server automatically recognizes the visitor’s domain name or IP address. An IP address is a number assigned to your computer when you connect to the Internet. As part of the protocol of the Internet, Web servers can identify your computer by its IP address. In addition, Web servers may be able to identify the type of browser you are using or even the type of computer.
We collect IP addresses and related information for the purposes of system administration, to assess the traffic to the Website and to maintain and improve the Website. Although it is not our practice to link IP addresses to your personally identifiable information, we reserve the right to use IP addresses to identify a user when we feel it is necessary to protect the compelling interest of our business, the Website, users of the Website or others or to comply with laws, court orders, or law enforcement requests.
Use of Cookies
Cookies are short strings of text sent from a Web server to a Web browser when the browser accesses a website. In simplest terms, when the browser requests a page from the Web server that originally sent it the cookie, the browser sends a copy of the cookie back to that Web server. A cookie typically contains, among other things, the name of the cookie, a unique identification number, and an expiration date and domain name information. Cookies are used for personalization, tracking and other purposes. Cookies may be “session-only” or “persistent.” Persistent cookies last for more than one visit and are typically used to allow a visitor to the Website to personalize their experience.
We may use cookies to analyze the traffic on the Website (such as total visitors and pages viewed), to personalize features or save you the trouble of retyping your name or other information, and to make improvements to the Website based on the data we collect. We do not save passwords or other sensitive information in cookies. The use of cookies has become a standard in the Internet industry, especially at websites that provide any kind of personalized service.
Cookies may also be placed by third parties prior to or during your visit to the Website. Our Affiliates and business partners may use these cookies in connection with pixel tracking (discussed below) or otherwise. We do not control these cookies. The use of cookies by content providers and advertisers has become standard practice in the Internet industry.
Pixel Tracking
Software Advice may employ a common technique usually referred to as “pixel tracking” to measure the effectiveness of marketing and advertisements, as well as compile aggregate usage statistics. Pixel tracking, which may be used in connection with advertisements on other sites, on the Website or in e-mail messages, involves the use of pixel tags (also known as “clear gifs,” “Web beacons” or “1-by-1 gifs”) that are not visible to the user of the site and consist of a few lines of computer coding. For example, if you visit the Website from an advertisement on another site, the pixel tag will reference the cookie you received when you clicked on the advertisement. The pixel tag also may register this activity with a business partner to allow us to count the number of times or when an advertisement is accessed. This data is collected for use in our marketing and research. Personally identifiable information about you is not collected by pixel tracking, nor is any tracking information generated from the pixel tag allowed to be used for any other purpose other than to report Website activity to us.
Third Party Advertising
We use third-‐party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.
Other Information
We may also request other personally identifiable information from you, or you may affirmatively provide us with such information. As a general matter, we try to limit the information we gather to the minimum information we need to perform the applicable services and to improve your experience on the Website. If you send an e-mail to the Website or otherwise affirmatively provide us with information beyond what we request, we will treat such information as having your consent to collect, retain and use such information for purposes reasonably associated with the purpose for which you provided the information. For example, we may retain a copy of the e-mail and any personally identifiable information you may have supplied in the e-mail with respect to a user service question to help us evaluate our service, train our employees and provide better service to our users.
If you use a bulletin board or blog on the Website, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you submit there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information that you choose to submit in these forums.
WHO IS COLLECTING THIS INFORMATION
We collect the user information described above by means of your use of the Website and the features of the Website. For example, information is collected in connection with online transactions, with the registration of users, and with the provision of information and/or services.
Data collected online may also be combined or merged with information you provide to us by means other than the Website as part of the standard business operations of Software Advice and its Affiliates; provided, however, this Privacy Policy applies only to data collected on-line. If the same information about you is gathered from the Website and also from other sources with different privacy policies, Software Advice may elect, in its sole discretion, to treat such information in accordance with the privacy policy that least restricts our use and disclosure of such information.
When you use the Website, you may be linked or directed to other third party sites outside the Website that are beyond our control. For example, you might click on a hyperlink that will take you off the Website. Third party Websites may have a privacy policy different from our Privacy Policy. You should review the applicable privacy policies of all other Websites before providing personally identifiable information in connection with such sites. We are not responsible for any actions or privacy policies of such third parties. In addition, third parties who assist us with pixel tracking may collect a limited amount of information to help us measure the effectiveness of ads, usually by placing cookies on your hard drive.
WITH WHOM MAY THE INFORMATION BE SHARED
PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT SOFTWARE ADVICE MAY PROVIDE CERTAIN INFORMATION YOU SUBMIT ON THE WEBSITE TO THIRD PARTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, YOUR NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER AND E-MAIL ADDRESS SO THAT THEY MAY CONTACT YOU ABOUT THEIR OWN OR OTHERS’ PRODUCTS, SERVICES, OFFERS AND PROMOTIONS.
Additionally, you may authorize us to share your e-mail address with our Affiliates business partners, and third parties, including vendors whose products are profiled on the Website. If you opt-in and/or receive an e-mail opt-in confirmation, our Affiliates and business partners and third parties may contact you via e-mail, U.S. post, and/or telephone with a variety of special promotions, offers, or other information that may be of interest to you.
Software Advice may share personally identifiable information with its Affiliates and business partners necessary to complete transactions as part of its standard business operations and to assist us in offering products or services to you.
First, we may disclose user 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 causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) our rights or property, users of the Website, or anyone else who could be harmed by such activities. Second, we may disclose user information when we believe in good faith that such disclosure is required by applicable law.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER
We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on the Website.
TESTIMONIALS
We post customer testimonials on the Website which may contain personally identifiable information such as the customer’s name. If you want to remove your personal information that is being displayed on the Website under public pages please send your request to [email protected].
CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
Software Advice does not solicit personal information from children. We abide by the United States Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and will not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under age 13. We recommend that parents actively participate in their children’s use of the Internet.
CHOICES YOU CAN MAKE ABOUT YOUR INFORMATION
We will give you an opportunity to opt-out of the gathering of your personally identifiable information, specific uses of your personally identifiable information, and any marketing promotions in accordance with the procedures set out in the section below, “Correcting and Changing Your Information.” In addition, you may opt-out of receiving any further e-mail from Software Advice by clicking on the “unsubscribe” button in any Software Advice e-mail. By adjusting the settings in your browser, you can refuse to accept cookies or give yourself the opportunity to accept or reject cookies, or receive notice of cookies. Software programs are available that block cookies. Refusing cookies may impinge or block altogether your user experience on the Website by eliminating personalization or other features.
CORRECTING OR CHANGING YOUR INFORMATION
If you wish to amend, correct, update, delete or opt-out of any information to which you have previously opted-in or wish to review information we have collected about you, please contact Software Advice via e-mail at [email protected], and we will attend to your request and make any necessary revisions.
This provision applies only to personally identifiable information collected via the Website and not to: (i) information that is furnished to or otherwise acquired by us by other means, as set forth in this Privacy Policy, including but not limited to, information provided over the telephone; (ii) non-personally identifiable information that may be gathered by cookies or from IP addresses or (iii) aggregate information. We reserve the right not to allow access to your information if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is prohibited by law or if the rights of another individual might be violated.
SECURITY PROCEDURES
We are concerned with the security of your personally identifiable information and try to provide secure transmission of your information from your PC to our servers. For certain transactions on certain pages of the Websites, we may use Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to secure the transfer of information. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be absolutely secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information transmitted over the Internet.
If you have a user name and password for any of the features on the Website, you have the responsibility of keeping your password secret. You should not reveal your password to anyone. We will not ask you in an unsolicited telephone call or e-mail for your password. In addition, you should take reasonable precautions when using a computer that is not your own or in a public setting.
CHANGES IN THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement and the home page so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you by e-mail or by means of a prominent notice on our home page.
CONTACTING Software Advice
If you have any specific questions regarding any issues about privacy on the Website, please contact Software Advice at 200 Academy Drive, Suite 120, Austin, TX 78704 or via e-mail [email protected], and we will attend to your request and make any necessary revisions.
APPLICABLE LAW
Our collection and use of information shall be governed by laws of the United States.
Updated: July 2012.