Privacy Policy

Information We Collect From You

We may collect two types of information from you: Non-Personally Identifiable Information (“Non-PII”) and Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”).

What is Non-PII?

Non-Personally Identifiable Information does not individually identify you. Rather, it is anonymous technical information about users' visits to the Site and certain other internet properties, used to evaluate and enhance the Site's services and to offer you products and services which may be relevant to you. Your Non-PII may be utilized individually or aggregated with other users' Non-PII. Non-PII collected from you may include, without limitation: the IP address assigned to your computer or other device and other general location information; the type of internet browser and operating system your computer or other device is using; your time of visit to, and how long your visits lasts on, the Site; anonymous, demographic data about you, such as the potential age range or household income range which you might fall under; unique device identifiers; and other transactional information related to your use of the Site and certain other internet properties through the use of “cookies”, “web beacons”, or other tracking technologies.

How is Non-PII Collected?

Non-PII is generally collected automatically by using the Site or other internet services, though you may control the collection of certain information, such as by setting your browser to block cookies or by opting out of certain interest-based advertising, as described more fully below.

Is Non-PII Reidentified?

Yes. If utilized in a non-aggregated way, Non-PII is associated with an individual but it is not generally linked to any PII such that the identity of that individual can be reasonably determined. However, the Site may, from time to time, utilize information collected from the Site, other web properties associated with the Site, or from third parties in order to link Non-PII with other Non-PII, or Non-PII with PII, in order to personally identify you.

What is PII?

By contrast, Personally Identifiable Information is information that does personally identify you. It includes, without limitation, your name, email address, physical address, phone number, and email address, or Non-PII that has been linked to such PII.

How is PII Collected?

In order to collect PII from you on the Site, you must submit the PII voluntarily. If you do not want us to collect such information, you should not submit it to the Site. However, doing so may restrict your ability to use the Site. Although we do not collect PII from you on the Site without your consent, we may otherwise lawfully obtain information from reputable third parties such as companies who provide publicly-available information or other Non-PII which is then linked to your PII.

How We Use Your Information

Do We Use Your Non-PII Internally?

Yes. As touched on above, we utilize Non-PII in a number of ways. Typically, it is used internally in an aggregated way to analyze and report on the ways in which the Site is used and how we can improve the user experience and improve the Site's performance and services. We may analyze an individual user's Non-PII for the same reasons.

Do We Share Your Non-PII With Third Parties?

Yes. We also share Non-PII and our findings regarding Non-PII analysis with our agents, affiliates, and parent companies, as well as with our trusted and reputable third party vendors who provide us with various services so that we may operate the Site and provide you with the Site's services (“Vendors”). We use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that information shared with our Vendors is subject to a confidentiality agreement between us and the Vendor, and that it is consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Our online advertising partners do not have access to or use your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number or other personally identifiable information from us, without your consent. They may, however, use persistent identifiers to anonymously track your Internet usage across other websites in their networks beyond these Sites. Such third parties may, with sufficient data from other sources, be able to personally identify you, unknown to us.

Do Third Parties Have Their Own Collection and Use Practices?

Yes. Certain Vendors provide data, analytics, and marketing services (such as Google Analytics, an ad server, or a third party marketing partner) and may employ their own technologies for collection of information on the Site. While a Vendor may not generally implement a collection technology without our consent, we do not control the Vendors' technologies, how they may be used, or the information they may collect, and we are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of the Vendors. Please visit the sites of those businesses to review their privacy policies.

Do You Use Cookies?

Yes. Non-PII may be stored on your computer in the form of a “cookie”. Cookies enable the Site to “personalize” itself for each user in order to make the Site operation more efficient and user friendly. For example, a cookie may reduce the time it takes for pages to load on your computer. Our Vendors may also use cookies or other tracking technologies as described above. We or our Vendors may, for example, use cookies to track the performance of advertising services provided by our Vendors.

What Information Do Cookies Collect?

A “session” cookie will store information about your activity on the Site until the browser is closed, at which point the session cookie may be deleted. A cookie may also store information about your activity on the Site beyond the closing of the browser, such as by storing your password or other information so that you don't have to re-enter it each time. Typically, our cookies will expire after 30 days of inactivity.

Do We Engage in Marketing, Interest-Based Advertising, and Retargeting?

Yes. We, our Vendors, or Partners may set a cookie on your device to provide you with interest-based or “targeting” advertising. Such tactics may include tracking your use of a web service over time and across different websites, in what is known as “retargeting” which is a type of interest-based advertising. Retargeting means that after visiting the Site, third parties may deliver ads to you on other websites based on your interest in, or activity on this Site. Conversely, you may be shown ads on this Site based on your interest in, or activity on, third parties' websites.

Our advertising partners do not have access to or use your PII from us, without your consent, except as otherwise provided herein. As discussed above, they may track your Internet usage across other websites and combine data from other sources to personally identify you, outside of our knowledge and control.

Do We Use Your PII Internally?

Yes. Without limiting other potential uses, we may, but are not required to use your PII in the following ways: communicate with you about your account or transactions with us and send you information about features and enhancements on or to the Site; communicate with you about changes to this Privacy Policy; send you newsletters, offers and promotions for our products and services, third party products and services, or special events by email, text, or another medium, either by us or by our vendors; administer contests, giveaways, promotions, and polls; and detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be illegal.

Do We Share Your PII With Third Parties?

Yes. We may use your PII for any lawful purpose. For example, We may need to share your PII with our Vendors who provide services to us so that we can operate the Site and provide the Site's services. Such Vendors may not utilize your PII for any other purpose, and their use of your PII is subject to their confidentiality agreement with Us.

We may also share, sell, rent, or license your PII to other third parties, such as advertisers and marketers, for the purpose of providing their products and services to you (“Partners”). If You subsequently decide that you no longer want Partners to utilize Your PII, You will have to communicate Your request directly with Partners, as We do not have control over their policies or business practices.

May We Assign Your Information to Another Company?

Yes. In the event of a corporate change in control resulting from, for example, a sale to, or merger with, another entity, or in the event of a sale of assets or a bankruptcy, we may transfer any of your information to the new party in control or the party acquiring assets. Under such circumstances we would, to the extent possible, require the acquiring party to follow the practices described in this Privacy Policy, as it may be amended from time to time. Nevertheless, we cannot promise that an acquiring company or the merged company will have the same privacy practices or treat your information the same as described in this Privacy Policy.

Are There Other Circumstances Under Which We Might Share Your Information?

Yes. There are other circumstances under which we might share your information, generally when there is a legal issue or when attempting to resolve a dispute. We may disclose any of your information to third parties: when we reasonably believe we are obligated to do so by law; to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual prohibited activities, including without limitation, fraud, situations involving potential threats to the Site or the physical safety of any person or the public, or violations of applicable law; to protect our and third party rights; and to communicate with service providers who may assist us in responding to your inquiries, requests, or disputes.

Your Choices and Control Over the Collection and Use of Your Information

We believe you should have choices about the collection, use, and sharing of your information. Although you cannot opt-out of all data collection, you can limit the collection, use, and sharing of some of your information.

How Can You Limit the Collection and Use of Your PII?

As stated above, if you do not wish for us or third parties to collect your PII, you should not submit PII into the Site. The very nature of some of the services the Site offers requires your PII. Therefore, if you do not submit PII you may not be able to use the associated services. You may also email support@homeupgradesguide.com to request access or changes to your PII; however, you will not be permitted to examine the PII of any other person or entity and may be required to provide us with PII to verify your identity prior to accessing any records containing information about you. We may not accommodate a request to change or delete PII information if we believe doing so would violate any law or legal requirement, or cause the information to be incorrect.

Opting Out of Email Marketing Communications

You may opt-out of receiving email marketing communications from us by sending an email to support@homeupgradesguide.com or by following the opt-out link in the emails you receive. Upon your opt-out, please allow up to 10 business days for the opt-out to go into effect. Please note that you may not be able to opt-out of transactional communications which are required as a part of your account but which are not meant to offer you products or services. Also note that our Vendors or Partners may send you email marketing communications or advertising offers through other mediums. Your opt-out request to us may not affect whether third parties continue to market to you. In those scenarios, please contact those companies directly.

How Can You Limit the Collection and Use of Your Non-PII?

There are several ways you may limit the collection and use of your Non-PII. First, you may modify your browser's cookie settings. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but, if you prefer, you can usually modify your browser setting to disable or reject cookies. If you delete your cookies or if you set your web browser to decline cookies, some features of the Site may not work or may not work as designed.

Browser "Do Not Track" Functionality

Your browser or device may include "Do Not Track" functionality. Because a "Do Not Track" compliance protocol has not yet been finalized, our information collection and disclosure practices, and the choices that we provide to customers, will continue to operate as described in this Privacy Policy, whether or not a Do Not Track signal is received.

Opting Out of Interest-Based Advertising

As described above, we, our Vendors, or our Partners may engage in what is known as interest-based or targeted advertising. You may opt out of the collection of your information for purposes of interest-based advertising. For more information about interest-based ads, please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/. To opt out of your web browsing information being used in this manner, please visit http://optout.aboutads.info.

Note that opting-out of interest-based ads does not mean that you will no longer receive advertising, nor will it prevent the receipt of interest-based advertising from third parties that do not participate in these programs. It will, however, exclude you from interest-based advertising conducted through participating networks, as provided by their policies and choice mechanisms.

Governing Law and Notice to Non-U.S. Users

The Site is published in the United States. We use commercially reasonable efforts to protect the PII of all users of the Site. However, the Site is located in and targeted to United States citizens and our policies are directed at compliance with those laws. If you are uncertain whether this Privacy Policy conflicts with the applicable local privacy laws where you are located, you should not submit your information to the Site.

If you are located outside the United States, you should be aware that information about you will be transferred to the United States. If you are located in a country outside the United States and voluntarily submit information to us, either by using the Site or entering your PII, you thereby consent to the use of such information as provided in this Privacy Policy and to the transfer of that information to, and/or storage of that information in, the United States.

How Your Information Is Retained and Secured

We take commercially reasonable security measures to protect your PII, including the use of physical, technical, and administrative controls. Please understand, however, that while we try our best to safeguard your PII once we receive it, no computer system, network, or transmission of data over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

You need to protect the privacy of your own information. You must take precautions to protect the security of any information that you may transmit over any computer networks by using encryption, secure networks and websites, and other techniques to prevent unauthorized persons from intercepting or receiving any of your information. You are responsible for the security of your information when using unencrypted, open access or otherwise unsecured networks.

The time period for which we keep information varies according to the purpose for which it is used for. In some cases, there are legal requirements to keep data for a minimum period. Unless there is a specific legal requirement for us to keep the information, we will retain it for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the data was collected or for which it is to be further processed.

Third Party Sites

The Site may be linked to or from other websites, or may contain links to and advertisements for sites operated by third parties whose policies regarding the handling of your information may differ from ours. While we endeavor to associate only with reputable third parties, we cannot control every site that will link to us or the information handling practices of other parties. This Privacy Policy does not address the privacy policy or terms of use of any third-party. Please directly review the policies and agreements of other companies for their information collection and use practices.

Information Relating to Children

The Site is not intended for or directed at children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect PII from children under 13 years of age. If you are under 13 years of age, do not use this Site or provide your PII to us. If we discover that a child under the age of 13 has provided us with PII, or that we have inadvertently collected such information, we will promptly delete it. If you believe that we have been provided with the PII of a child under the age of 13, please notify us immediately at support@homeupgradesguide.com

Your California Privacy Rights

Under California law, residents of California may request certain information about our disclosure of PII during the prior calendar year to third parties for marketing purposes. To request this information, please contact us at support@homeupgradesguide.com

Privacy Notice for California Residents

This Privacy Notice for California Residents supplements the information contained in our privacy policy above and applies solely to all visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California (“consumers” or “you”). We adopt this notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this notice.

Categories of Personal Information We Collect

Personal information does not include:

• Publicly available information from government records.
• De-identified or aggregated consumer information.
• Information excluded from the CCPA's scope, such as health or medical information covered by HIPAA, clinical trial data, or personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws.

We obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:

• Directly from you (e.g., via telephone, text message, email, website form submission, etc.).
• Publicly accessible sources (e.g., property records, public directories, etc.).
• Third parties (e.g., marketing vendors and social media, digital advertising, and data aggregation businesses).
• Indirectly from you (e.g., via cookies, digital trackers, analytics, and IT and security systems).

Use of Personal Information

We may use, or disclose the personal information we collect for one or more of the following business purposes:

• To fulfill the reason you provided the information (e.g., to match you with a service provider, provide support, respond to an inquiry, etc.).
• To market products and services to you (including by third parties with whom we may share your personal information).
• To personalize your website experience and to deliver content and product and service offerings relevant to your interests.
• For other marketing purposes.
• To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our website, products and services, databases and other technology assets, and business.
• To evaluate or conduct a merger, restructuring, sale, or other corporate transaction.
• To investigate and prevent fraud and abuse of our website, products, and services.
• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
• For other business purposes.

Sharing Personal Information

We may disclose your personal information to a third party for a business purpose or sell your personal information, subject to your right to opt-out of those sales. We may disclose personal information to the following categories of third parties:

• Persons or companies that offer products or services on our websites (Providers).
• Marketing vendors and social media, digital advertising, and data aggregation companies (Marketers).
• Auditors, attorneys, consultants, professional service providers, etc. (Professional Services).
• Other parties with a legal interest (including private parties and government or regulatory entities) (Legal Parties).
• Other service providers we use to help provide our products or services (Service Providers).

Your Rights and Choices

The CCPA provides consumers (California residents) with specific rights regarding their personal information. This section describes your CCPA rights and explains how to exercise those rights.

Access to Specific Information and Data Portability Rights

You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will disclose to you:

• The categories of personal information we collected about you.
• The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.
• Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that personal information.
• The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.
• The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you.
• If we sold or disclosed your personal information for a business purpose, two separate lists disclosing sales and disclosures for a business purpose.

Deletion Request Rights

You have the right to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.

Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights

To exercise the access, data portability, and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by sending us an email to support@homeupgradesguide.com. Only you, or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information.

Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not deny you goods or services, charge you different prices or rates, provide you a different level or quality of goods or services, or suggest that you may receive a different price or rate or a different level or quality of goods or services.

Changes to Our Privacy Notice

We reserve the right to amend this privacy notice at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this privacy notice, we will post the updated notice on the Website and update the notice's effective date. Your continued use of our Website following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or comments about this notice, the ways in which we collect and use your information described herein, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under California law, please do not hesitate to contact us:

• By emailing – support@homeupgradesguide.com