A. Information Collected
1. Voluntary Registration
We collect personal information (which may include, but is not limited to, your name, email address, social security number, date of birth, credit card information, mailing address and/or telephone number) from you when you voluntarily register on the website or when you request information or a service (e.g., tax preparation services) on the website. Additional information may be collected during your subsequent use of the site, or when we communicate with you by telephone, email or other means. This personal information may include, but is not limited to, your employment and income information, bank account information, credit scores and credit history, and information from associated tax returns and IRS filings. To create an account on our website and manage that account, we will also collect a user name and password that you will then use to access your account and other information.
2. Surveys or Contests
From time to time, we may provide you with the opportunity to participate in contests or surveys on our websites. If you participate, we may ask you for certain personally identifiable information. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The information requested generally includes contact information (such as name and shipping address) and demographic information (such as zip code).
3. Passive Collection
As with most websites, we and our third party service providers may use a variety of technologies to collect certain information automatically. This information may include Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, the files viewed on our website (e.g., HTML pages, graphics, etc.), operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data to analyze trends in the aggregate and administer the website.
4. Tracking Technologies
Crearth and our partners use cookies or similar technologies to analyze trends, administer the Website, track users’ movements around the Website and gather demographic information about our user base as a whole (“Tracking Technologies”). These Tracking Technologies may set, change, alter or modify settings or configurations on your device. You can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level, but if you choose to disable cookies, you may limit your use of certain features or functions on our website or service.
Some of the tracking technologies include, but are not limited to, the following (and subsequent technology and methods developed):
Cookies: A cookie is a data file that is placed on a device when you use it to visit the website. A Flash cookie (or locally shared object) is a data file that is placed on a device through the Adobe Flash plug-in that you can embed or download to your device. HTML5 cookies can be set through HTML5 local storage. Unlike Flash cookies, HTML5 cookies do not require a plug-in. Regular cookies can generally be disabled or deleted through tools that are available as part of most commercial browsers, and in some, but not all, cases can be blocked in the future by selecting certain settings. Each browser you use will need to be configured separately and different browsers offer different features and options in this regard. In addition, these tools may not be effective with respect to Flash cookies or HTML5 cookies. For information on how to disable Flash cookies, please visit Adobe’s website at http://www.adobe.com. Please note that if you disable or delete cookies, Flash cookies or HTML5 cookies on your device, some parts of our website may not function properly, and that when you revisit our website, your ability to limit cookies is subject to your browser settings and limitations.
Web beacons. Small graphic images or other web programming code called web beacons (also known as “1×1 GIFs” or “clear GIFs”) may be embedded in pages and messages on our website. Web beacons may be invisible to you, but any electronic image or other web programming code embedded in a page or e-mail may act as a web beacon. Web beacons or similar technologies can be used for a number of purposes, including, but not limited to, counting website visitors, monitoring how users navigate the website, counting how many emails sent were actually opened, or counting how many particular articles or links were actually viewed.
Embed Scripts: An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the website, such as the links you click. The code is temporarily downloaded to your device from our web server or a third-party service provider, is active only while you are logged into the website, and is disabled or deleted thereafter.
Browser Fingerprinting: Browse Fingerprinting is the collection and analysis of information from your device, such as, but not limited to, your operating system, plug-ins, system fonts and other data, for identification purposes. ETag, or entity tag, is a caching feature in browsers. It is an opaque identifier assigned by a web server to a specific version of a resource found at a URL. If the content of the resource at that URL ever changes, a new and different ETag is assigned. Used in this way, ETags are a form of device identifier. ETag tracking can generate unique tracking values even when the consumer blocks HTTP, Flash and/or HTML5 cookies.
Recognition Technologies: Recognition Technologies involve the application of statistical probability to data sets collected about devices or users. When used, Recognition Technologies may attempt to recognize or make assumptions about users and devices based on available data sets. For example, a Recognition Technology could analyze the available data about multiple devices and assume that the user of multiple devices is the same user.
Dynamic number insertion. Dynamic number insertion (“DNI”) is a technology used in call tracking to assign attribution to incoming phone calls. Executed through embedded scripts, DNI allows a specific phone number to be dynamically displayed on a web page. This technology also allows tracking platforms to capture the phone number from which the caller is calling without any other identifier of a caller.
There may be other Tracking Technologies, now and hereafter designed and used by us in connection with the Website. In addition, third parties may use Tracking Technologies in connection with our Website, which may include collecting information about your online activities over time and across third party websites or online services. We may not control these Tracking Technologies and are not responsible for them. However, you consent to potentially encountering third party Tracking Technologies in connection with your use of our website and agree that our statements under this Privacy Policy do not apply to the Tracking Technologies or practices of such third parties.
Crearth will share your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy. We use the information collected on the Websites for the following:
To provide the products and services you request and to communicate with you regarding those requests.
Internal market analysis
To improve our products and services
To provide you with information about new products or special offers
To tailor the websites according to your interests
For promotional or marketing purposes
For purposes disclosed at the time you provide your information or as set forth in this Privacy Policy
We may provide your information to our service providers to provide services on our behalf to assist with our business activities, or in special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it. These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us.
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