Storm Exchange Privacy Policy
At Storm Exchange (“Storm”), we are committed to privacy and confidentiality of user information. But, we also recognize that privacy must be balanced with practicality in order to provide a positive user experience in connection with the information, products and services offered by Storm, its subsidiaries, its affiliated companies, and each of their respective suppliers (collectively, Storm’s “offering”).
This Privacy Policy applies to all of Storm’s offerings. The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to help you understand:
1. The types of information collected from you by Storm.
2. How collected information is used by Storm.
3. What security procedures are in place to help protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of collected information under Storm’s control.
4. How you may access and update collected information.
5. Other provisions that apply to your use of the Storm offerings.
If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, you should first contact Storm at privacy@stormexchange.com. Alternatively, you may contact us at:
Privacy Matters at Storm
303 Park Avenue S
Suite 1272
New York, NY 10010
Telephone: 415.670.9323
Fax: 917.591.6241
1. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION
Information may be collected from you at several different points during your use of Storm’s offerings, e.g., during your visit to this website.
Information You Provide Voluntarily. In order to use resources available in connection with Storm’s offerings, you must complete our member registration process. During registration, you will be required to provide certain categories of information, such as your name, address, e-mail address, a password, and telephone number. You recognize that you are providing this information voluntarily, as you are not obligated in any way to use any of Storm’s offerings. Storm Exchange, Inc. will not disclose any personally identifiable information about you to any third party for marketing purposes.
Passive Collection of Information. In addition to the information which you actively provide to Storm by methods such as completing a registration form, Storm collects information about how you interact with our offerings. Storm collects passive information for purposes such as testing and improving a user's experience with Storm’s offerings and the compilation of broad, aggregate, demographic data and related usage information for internal purposes and for disclosure to third parties such as advertisers and content partners.
One method we use to collect information is through cookies (a small file containing a string of characters). When you visit this website, we send one or more cookies to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. We use cookies to improve the quality of our offerings by storing user preferences and tracking user trends, such as how people search. 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. However, some of our features and services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled.
The types of passive information collected in connection with your use of Storm’s offerings include, without limitation, your Internet Protocol address, your browser type, and the web pages you visit on our website and how long you visit or use any of our solution pages. Passive information does not identify you to Storm by name, and Storm does not link your Internet Protocol address to your personal information which can identify you.
User communications. When you send email or other communication to Storm, we may retain those communications in order to process your inquiries, respond to your requests and improve our offerings.
Links. Storm may present links in a format that enables us to keep track of whether these links have been followed. We use this information to improve the quality of our customized content and advertising.
Collection of Information from Children. Storm abides by federal law and the guidelines set up by the Federal Trade Commission regarding youth privacy (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act). As such, Storm will not knowingly collect any personal information from or allow the registration of young people under the age of 13.
2. USE OF INFORMATION
The information which you supply to Storm enables us to provide our offerings to users, perform research and analysis in order to maintain, protect and improve our offerings, ensure the technical functioning of our offerings, and develop new information, products and services. In addition, Storm uses your information in order to customize our offerings to your preferences and interests, and enhance your overall experience in connection with your use of our offerings.
With respect to your use of our website, Storm tries to recognize you using various methods, including having you log in with your e-mail address and a password. Once Storm recognizes you, pages, advertisements and other content may be customized for you so that you can see what interests you the most.
In addition, as described above, Storm utilizes passive information to learn more about how you interact with our offerings. This passive information collected in connection with your visit or other use of our offerings may be combined with other information for purposes such as testing and improving your experience in connection with our offerings and the compilation of broad, aggregate, demographic data and related usage information for internal purposes and for disclosure to third parties such as advertisers and content partners. This aggregate, passive, demographic data does not contain any personal information which can identify any individual user.
We process personal information on our secure servers located in Vienna, Virginia, USA. We may process personal information to provide our own offerings. In some cases, we may process personal information on behalf of and according to the instructions of a third party, such as other solution providers to whom you have knowingly subscribed.
We reserve the right, and you acknowledge that we have the right, to use internally or through our contractors and suppliers under terms of confidentiality any information that you provide us in any legally permissible manner.
Contacting You by E-Mail. Storm may use your contact information periodically in order to send you e-mail regarding updates at the Storm website, such as new Storm offerings which may be of interest to you. The frequency of these messages may vary depending upon your profile. In addition, we may send you free informational newsletters or notices relating to topics which may be of special interest to you. Finally, if you specifically provide Storm with permission at the time of your registration, you may also receive commercial e-mails. Out of respect for the privacy of our users, we present the option for users to opt-out of receiving newsletters and/or e-mails regarding Storm offerings whenever such messages are sent by Storm, as described below. E-mail messages from third parties are not governed by the opt-out provisions of this Privacy Policy, but all such third parties are strongly encouraged by Storm to include opt-out procedures in their messages to users.
3. SHARING OF INFORMATION
Storm will not knowingly sell, share, rent or otherwise transfer your information other than in accordance with the terms set forth in this Privacy Policy. During the registration process, and at certain points thereafter in connection with specific offers, Storm may ask you whether information about you may be sent to third parties who may have products, services and opportunities which you might find useful. Storm understands the importance of confidentiality. Therefore, Storm does not share any information that can be tied to you without your permission. If you give Storm permission to allow third parties to contact you, your personal information (such as your contact information) may be shared with our subsidiaries, affiliated companies or other trusted businesses or persons for the purpose of processing personal information on our behalf. Regardless of your decision regarding whether Storm may share your personal information, Storm may share broad, aggregate, demographic data and related usage information with our business partners. This broad, aggregate, demographic data does not contain any personal information which can identify any individual user.
Third Party Service Providers. From time to time, Storm may decide that it is more efficient or desirable to use third parties to perform specific services, such as sending newsletters to Storm's users. If we use a third party to provide specific services (such as sending newsletters to our users on our behalf), then information (such as contact information) may be shared with that party to the extent necessary for the third party to provide these services. These third party service providers are only allowed to use personally identifiable information for the purpose of providing the specific services requested by Storm. The third party services covered by this paragraph do not include links to third party websites found on our website, which are governed by a more specific provision (Links to Other Websites) below.
Disclosure to Law Enforcement and Similar Disclosures. While Storm strives to protect the personal information of our users, Storm will release personal information if it has a good faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of such personal information obtained through its offering is reasonably necessary to (i) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request, (ii) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, or (iii) protect against imminent harm to the rights, property or safety of Storm, its users or the public as required or permitted by law.
4. SECURITY
Storm has security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse and/or unauthorized alteration of the personal information under our control. You are the only user authorized to update your profile, unless you provide your password information to another party.
Storm helps protect personally identifiable information by utilizing both online and offline security methods, including without limitation firewalls, passwords and restricted physical access to the places where your information is stored. Our staff is trained to comply with our security procedures, and our security procedures are regularly reviewed and revised, if necessary. We restrict access to personal information to Storm employees, contractors and agents who need to know such information in order to operate, develop or improve our offerings.
Even with all of the above security measures in place, we cannot guarantee that your personal information under our control will not be lost, misused and/or altered, and we disclaim any such guarantee to the maximum extent permissible by law. If you have any questions about security issues with respect to any of our offerings, please contact us via the contact information set forth above and we will attempt to answer your questions.
5. HOW YOU CAN UPDATE YOUR INFORMATION
You can update your personal information by clicking on the Change Account Information link on the Storm websites, or by following the instructions included in any e-mail message you receive from Storm. We ask individual users to identify themselves and the information requested to be accessed, corrected or removed before processing such requests, and we may decline to process requests that are unreasonably repetitive or systematic, require disproportionate technical effort, jeopardize the privacy of others, would be impractical, or for which access to information is not otherwise required. Users who are experiencing problems with updating their information should contact us via the contact information set forth above and we will try to resolve your problems.
6. OTHER PROVISIONS
Acceptance of Terms/Changes to Privacy Policy. Your use of any Storm offerings (including without limitation this website) indicates your acceptance of the terms of the Privacy Policy. Storm reserves the right to update or amend this Privacy Policy at any time and will post any amendments to this Privacy Policy on this page, and the Privacy Policy will be deemed updated or amended as of the date of such posting.
Disclaimer. Storm provides information on many topics. Some of this information is created by Storm, and some of it is created by third parties. While our website strives to provide accurate expert advice, commentary and other information, Storm does not make any warranty regarding the accuracy, completeness, reliability or use of any information provided on this website. Storm will not be responsible for any indirect, special, incidental, punitive, or other consequential damages attributable to your use of our offerings.
Other. In the event that Storm sells, assigns or transfers some or all of its business to a successor in interest or acquirer, Storm may sell, assign or transfer all of the information collected, as described in this Privacy Policy, regardless of opt-out status, to such successor in interest or acquirer without prior notice to, or consent by, you. We will provide notice before your personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
Links to Other Websites. This website contains links to other websites. Please be aware that Storm does not exercise control over the information, products, services or policies of third parties accessible through links on our website. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our website and to read the respective privacy policies of each and every third party website. This Privacy Policy applies solely to the information collected through this website by Storm.