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Privacy Policy

Updated 5/23/2019

What This Privacy Policy Covers

This policy covers how CostHelper treats personal information that CostHelper collects and receives. Personal information is information that is personally identifiable like users' names, addresses, or email addresses, and that is not otherwise publicly available.

What Information We Collect and Why

For visitors to the CostHelper website who do not post on any of our forums, choose to contact us, or sign up for our newsletter, we do not collect any private information (such as a real name or email address).

For visitors using our website, when a user requests a page or an image, in addition to transmitting the name of the requested page, the user's web browser transmits some basic technical information about the kind of computer they are using, including the operating system (like Mac or PC), the size of their display, the browser they are using (like Chrome or Safari), and their IP address. The IP address can provide some rough information of where a user is visiting from (to a city or region-level), and which ISP they use (like Comcast or Verizon).

Like many websites, CostHelper stores this general information to understand its users and provide a better user experience. By understanding the browser, operating system and screen display, CostHelper can focus on testing and improving the user experience for its most frequent visitors. And by having rough statistics on where its users come from, CostHelper can provide information best-suited for its users.

When visitors post on the website, users select a handle which is displayed with the post and displayed publicly, but handles do not have to have any similarity to their real name. Additionally, posters are asked to write about their purchase, which may include where, when and what was purchased, but this information is provided at the user's discretion in the post, to share information with other visitors. To verify the identity of the user, CostHelper also requests and stores the email address of the person posting, although this information is not posted publicly. Visitors can also choose to submit their email address to receive a newsletter. In either case, these email addresses are not displayed publicly and are not shared with any partners.

Third Parties

CostHelper currently serves ads using Google Adsense. CostHelper does not provide any additional information about its users to Google Adsense beyond what can be accessed from the page (like the information provided by web browsers).

Users may opt out of Google Adsense personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings. (Alternatively, users can opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting www.aboutads.info.)

CostHelper currently uses Google Analytics to learn about the users visiting the website. CostHelper does not provide additional information about its users to Google Analytics beyond what can be accessed from the page (like the information provided by the web browsers). Information on how Google Analytics and Adsense use data is available here:
https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites

At times, CostHelper partners with other advertisers. Sometimes, users will enter forms about their inquiry, and the information they provide would be transmitted to that partner. (For example, if users fill out a form looking for a gardener in the zip code 95008, the zip code 95008 they entered may be transmitted to that partner as part of the next page request). CostHelper provides no additional information to its advertising partners beyond what can be accessed from the page (like the information provided by web browsers).

CostHelper uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads when users visit the website. These companies may use visitors' information (not including the visitor's name, address, email address, or telephone number) about visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest. For more information about this practice and to know choices about not having this information used by these companies, visit https://www.networkadvertising.org/.

Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on CostHelper. Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to CostHelper's users based on their visit to the site and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

Cookies

CostHelper stores cookies on visitors' computers to keep track of visitors between different pages. CostHelper does so to understand how people use the site (going from page to page) and to pre-fill some information if it has been provided in the past. CostHelper does not provide any information from its own cookies to third parties.
Third party partners like Google Analytics also may set cookies on users computers, for the purposes of understanding how visitors use the website.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

CostHelper does not rent, sell, or share personal information about you with other people or nonaffiliated companies except under the following circumstances:
a) We respond to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims;
b) We transfer information about you if CostHelper is acquired by or merged with another company.

Confidentiality and Security

We limit access to personal information about you to employees who we believe reasonably need to come into contact with that information to provide products or services to you or in order to do their jobs.

By default, visits to the CostHelper website are conducted securely via HTTPS if the visitor's browser supports that protocol. If your browser supports HTTPS, this means that other parties (like your ISP or other people sharing your wifi) would only be able to tell that you are visiting the CostHelper website, but they would not be able to know which particular pages you are visiting or what information you are submitting to the website.

At the current time, we do not store visitors' private information besides their email address. If, in the future, we collect any other private information (like a user's real name or password), we will encrypt that information.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

CostHelper may update this policy. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by placing a notice on our site.

How to contact CostHelper

The data controller responsible for your data for the purposes of applicable European Union data protection law is:
CostHelper, Inc.
ATTN: Data Protection Officer
PO Box 111450
Campbell, CA 95011
Telephone: 1-408-844-4904
Email: [email protected]

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or our data collection practices, please contact us at the address or email listed above and specify your country of residence and question.