Archived Privacy Policy

1. What information does Homestead gather and track?
2. How does Homestead use my information?
3. Does Homestead share member account information?
4. How private is my account information?
5. How secure is my account information?
6. How do I opt out of receiving messages from Homestead?
7. How do I update or deactivate my account information?
8. What are cookies and how does Homestead use them?
9. How does Homestead notify members of changes to the Privacy Policy?
10. Homestead and Children.
11. CEO Blog.

1. What information does Homestead gather and track? In general, we collect information about you in the following ways:

   Registration
   When you register for any of the Homestead Services (as Services are defined in the Terms Of Service) we ask you how you heard about Homestead. The more information you provide (and the more accurate it is), the better we are able to customize and provide our services to suit your needs and preferences. When you register for one of the Homestead Services, we may ask that you give us non-personal information such as the purpose for which you will be using a web site as well as the name of the person who may have referred you. We also ask that you give us personal information such as your name, email address, zip code, country, gender and birth date. When you register for a subscription-based service, we ask that you provide us with additional information, such as your mailing address, credit card number and credit card expiration date. Finally, when you register for a Homestead account, in addition to the above information, we may also ask that you provide us with a variety of information about your business, which may include (among other things) your company name, billing address, your role in your company, number of years of company's existence, and phone number.

   Usage Tracking/Hardware/Software/Cookies
   While you are on any of our web sites, we automatically track information related to your use of the Homestead Services. This information may include (among other things) files viewed by the user, type of site(s) built, domain name and a user's path through our web sites. There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by Homestead when you are using Homestead's downloadable software. This information can include information such as: your browser type, type of operating system, type of Java virtual machine, Internet connection speed, access times and identification of any software program which has previously caused technical problems with the Homestead product(s). Homestead does not link the information that it collects in cookies to any personally identifiable information that you may submit, while on our site.This information will be matched with your personal information. In addition, when you connect to any of our web sites, we will detect your IP address and store a cookie on your computer. An explanation of cookies can be found in #8.

   Technical Support/Information
   When, as a Homestead Member, you request technical support or information for Homestead Services, we ask you for your personal information and other information necessary to answer your question or resolve your problem.

   Promotions or Contests
   When you enter a contest or promotion sponsored by Homestead and/or our partners, we ask for your contact information so that our partners or we can administer the contest or promotion, and notify winners.

   E-Commerce Programs
   When you sign up for any of our e-commerce programs that are available on some Homestead Services, we ask for your first/last name, mailing address, and email address, as well as your phone number. We need this information in order to administer the program.

   Surveys/Questionnaires
   We occasionally ask Homestead Members or visitors to fill out optional surveys and/or questionnaires. These surveys/questionnaires may ask for demographic information and other information about computer use.

   Other Information You Give Us
   When you visit the Homestead web site, we may collect any information that you enter on any of our web sites or give us in any other way in order to contact you about Homestead Services. Additionally, if you want to learn more about our products or services, we may request that you fill out a form in which we ask for information such as your first/last name, mailing address, email address, as well as your phone number. We only use this information to contact you in order to provide you with information about Homestead products and services, answer any questions that you may have, and/or help you sign up for the Homestead Service of your choice.

2. How does Homestead use my information? Homestead uses your information on an aggregated basis to do such things as operate our web sites and enhance our web sites. We statistically analyze site usage, including the behavior of our Members, to improve the content, layout, and services of the Homestead web sites, as well as to enhance our marketing and promotional efforts

   We share aggregate information about our Members with third parties, such as advertisers or partners, for marketing and promotional purposes. However, except as otherwise contemplated in this Privacy Policy, we do not disclose any personally identifiable information about you to any third party without your permission or as otherwise required by law.

   We use the information we collect to better understand your needs. Additionally for the Homestead subscription Services we use the information we collect to process payments, confirm renewal charges or payments to your account, administer your account and the like.

   Finally, we may use the information we collect to occasionally notify you about important functionality changes to the web site, new Homestead Services, and special offers (including promotion of our product or third party products) we think you'll find valuable. Except for communications sent to you regarding material company announcements or policy changes, if you would rather not receive this information you can indicate your preference. You may choose not to receive messages from us by following the opt-out instructions listed in #6.

   The following describes some of the ways your information may be used:

   • Your contact information from the sign-up form is used to send you information about our company and products. We also use this information to contact you when necessary. Except as otherwise contemplated in this Privacy Policy, you may choose not to receive messages from us by following the opt-out instructions listed in #6.

   • Your unique IP address is used when we need to diagnose technical problems with our site. We use cookies to correctly deliver account information to you. To find out more about cookies, please see #8.

   • Any information collected regarding your hardware or software is used for the operation of the Services, to maintain the quality of the services, to improve our products or services or to provide general statistics regarding use of the Homestead Services.

   • Any information you provide to us through a form, email, or telephone requesting customer support, or information, is used for that specific situation only or to administer our service to you.

   • We will occasionally offer sweepstakes or contests on our web site. To participate, you will likely be asked to provide some personal information, such as email address. This information may be shared with sponsors if the sweepstake/contest is co-sponsored by Homestead and a business partner.

   • We also partner with other companies that can help us provide enhanced services to our members. Any information you provide through a registration form for any Service, is used to administer the Service(s).

   • Any information you submit in a survey or questionnaire is used to help us better understand and serve our Members. This research is compiled and analyzed on an aggregated basis; we may share this aggregated data with advertisers or business partners.

   • The contents of email correspondence to us may be used for promotional purposes, such as customer testimonials.

   • Any information that you enter on any of our web sites and/or any contact information that you provide to Homestead may be used to send you email messages and direct mailings which supply detailed information about Homestead and/or the applicable Homestead Service. We may also use your telephone number to call you in order to discuss the Homestead Services and assist you in signing up if you choose to become a Member.

    

3. Does Homestead share member account information? As a general rule, except as otherwise contemplated in this Privacy Policy, Homestead will not disclose any of your personal information without your permission, except under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it. Any information provided by you for the purpose of registering a domain name will become part of the public WHOIS database and you will not be able to opt-out of this directory.

   Business Partners: In addition to disclosing personal information to agents who provide services to you on Homestead's behalf, Homestead may disclose your personal information to business partners, but this is specifically described to you prior to data collection or prior to transferring the data. Our business partners have separate privacy and data collection practices. Homestead has no responsibility or liability for these independent policies. For more information regarding the partner or service and their privacy policies, return to that partner's home page and click on their Privacy Policy link.

   Agent: We employ other companies and individuals who are subject to confidentiality obligations, to perform functions on our behalf. Examples include, but are not limited to, web site design services, sending postal mail and email, registering a respective domain name, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, providing customer service, and collecting and processing payments for the Homestead subscription service. They have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes.

   Promotions, Sweepstakes/Contests: Some Homestead promotions, sweepstakes/contests may require that you provide additional information, such as your mailing address, social security number or credit card number. Such information may be shared with a third party if such third party is sponsoring the "event" or if the information is necessary in order to administer the service or process your transaction.

   Some Homestead promotions and sweepstakes/contests may also offer opportunities to request additional information from sponsors and/or may require that you share some basic information in order to participate. By requesting more information or by participating, you give Homestead permission to transfer your personal information to the sponsor or partner so they can fulfill your request.

   Legally Compelled Disclosure and Other: Homestead may disclose or access account information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights. Homestead may also disclose 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 the Terms Of Service. We can disclose any personal information about you to law enforcement or other government officials as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate, in connection with a violation of the Terms Of Service, an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringements, or other activity that is illegal or may expose us to legal liability.

4. How private is my account information? Homestead makes every effort to ensure the confidentiality of all information you provide about yourself. As a general rule, except as otherwise contemplated in the Privacy Policy, Homestead will not disclose any of your personal information without your permission, except under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it. If personally identifiable data about you will be shared, we will tell you, whenever possible, before we collect or transfer the data.

   As a Homestead Member, you have exclusive access to your account information when you log in to http://www.homestead.com. Our Member Support staff also has access to your account information, which is viewed for reasons such as when technical support is requested or maintenance is required. In addition, any partner you request to provide services to your account may have access to your account information.

   Homestead makes chat rooms, guest books, discussion boards, and other means of online communication and collaboration available to its members. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information. You should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information in a public forum such as a chat room, guest book, discussion board, or when you invite others to join your Homestead site or mailing list, or vice versa.

5. How secure is my account information? Homestead uses industry standard efforts to safeguard the confidentiality of your personally identifiable information, such as firewalls and Secure Socket Layers. We make every effort to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control. In addition, we always use a secure connection when collecting personal financial information from you. However, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

   Your Homestead account is password-protected so in addition to those partners or agents who may provide you services, only you and those you designate can access it and view the member information relevant to your account. Ultimately, you are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and any account information. Remember to log out of your Homestead account and close your browser window when you are done. This ensures that others cannot access your personal information if your computer is accessible to others.

6. How do I opt out of receiving messages from Homestead? Except as otherwise contemplated in this Privacy Policy, as a paying Homestead Member, if you do not want to receive messages from Homestead about new features or products, tips on product use, and promotions, you can indicate your preference by clicking the respective box of your choice. You can opt-out of receiving such information by logging into your account and visiting the "Update Profile" section within the "Manage Account" page. If you would ever like to start receiving messages, you can always update your profile accordingly.

   If you are using Homestead's free trial service for thirty (30) days and wish to opt-out of receiving promotional messages, you must call our service line at 800-710-1998. A Homestead representative will ask you for your email address at which point you may request to decline the promotional messages.

   Since it is necessary for us to contact you regarding certain matters, you may not opt-out of receiving messages relating to material company announcements or policy changes, or administrative matters relating to your account, like billing, collections, customer support or the like.

   If you have been contacted by Homestead as a result of information you entered on any of our web sites or if you provided your personal information to Homestead for the purposes of receiving more information about a Homestead Service before choosing to sign up as a Member, and you no longer want to be contacted by Homestead, you can click on the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of any email you receive and Homestead will remove you from the list of those who will be contacted with more information about the Homestead service.

7. How do I update or deactivate my account? As a paying Homestead Member, you can control and update your contact information for Homestead Services by logging into your account and visiting the "Update Profile" section within the "Manage Account" page. If you wish to deactivate your Homestead Service, please contact customer support by logging into your account and accessing the customer support phone number within the "Managing My Account" section of Homestead's Help Topics.

   Free trial users, may access and update their personal information by calling 800-710-1998. Please provide the customer support representative your email address and identify the information that you wish to access and update. For free trial users who may wish to terminate the account, please call the service number above.

8. What are cookies and how does Homestead use them? Cookies are small pieces of information stored on your hard drive, not on our site. The use of cookies is an industry standard, generally used by most major Web sites to improve their services. Homestead uses cookies because they allow us to store your password without your having to constantly re-enter it. Cookies can also help us track your behavior on our site so that we can tailor our marketing message to better match your needs and interests. Finally, by tracking behavior on our site, cookies allow us to better understand how members use our site, which in turn helps us focus our resources on features that are most popular with our members. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, but some parts of our site may not work properly if you do so.

   Note: Homestead may place advertisings on our web sites, and in some cases on our Member web sites, that originates from outside advertisers and/or advertising agencies, and may use the services of third party companies to display such advertising. For more information regarding the advertiser and/or advertising agencies and their privacy policies, return to that advertiser's home page and click on their Privacy Policy link. In some cases, if you click on or view these ads, the advertiser may assign you a cookie. Homestead does not control these cookies.

9. How does Homestead notify members of changes to the Privacy Policy? This policy is periodically reviewed by Homestead and may be subject to change. Therefore, please check this Privacy Policy periodically and you may refer to the date posted at the top of this page to determine when this policy was last updated. Use of the Homestead websites or Service(s) constitutes consent to any policies then in effect.

   If we are going to use your personally identifiable information in a manner different from that as provided in our Privacy Policy at the time of collection we will notify you via email. You will have a choice as to whether or not we use your information in this different manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect Member information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our web site(s) notifying Members of the change. In some cases where we post the notice we will also email Members who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.

10. Homestead and Children. Homestead is not intended for use by children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Please do not use Homestead if you are under the age of 13.

11. CEO Blog. Homestead allows its members to get more involved with the site by offering a blog. Please note that by submitting a blog to this portion of the website, you are authorizing us to post your story on our website. If you include any personally identifiable information in this blog such as your name or hometown, this information may be posted on the website as well.

Homestead Technologies, Inc. is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build user's trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy statement covers the site www.homestead.com. Because this Web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact our privacy team at privacy@hs-support.homestead-inc.com. If you do not receive acknowledgement of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily address, you should contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with us to resolve your concerns.

The TRUSTe program covers only information that is collected through this Web site, and does not cover information that may be collected through software downloaded from this site.