PRIVACY POLICY

At MYPROS, Inc. and mypros.com (collectively, “mypros.com”), we are dedicated to maintaining and protecting your privacy. We know that you care how your information is stored, used and shared. We appreciate your trust that we will store, use and share your information carefully and sensibly. What follows is our Privacy Policy (the “Policy”). By visiting mypros.com and using our website (the “Site”) and services offered on our Site, you are accepting the practices described in this Policy.

If you feel that MYPROS.COM is not or has not abided by our posted Policy, please contact us at customercare@mypros.com.

            Any capitalized term that is not defined in this Policy uses the same definition given to such capitalized term in our Terms of Use.

1.      COLLECTION OF INFORMATION

1.1.            Purpose. When you create a mypros.com account, you create a password-protected, personal account. With this account, you can store your personal information, post Reviews about contractors listed on our Site, post questions and answers on our Q&A (question and answer) Page, read questions and answers on our Q&A Page and contribute to the Ratings of the contractors and repair services providers that are registered with the Site. You can also use our services. To create an account, you will need to provide your name and e-mail address. You will also need to create a password. Good passwords contain letters and numbers and are not obvious. You can change your password at any time by logging into your personal mypros.com account and clicking on the “change password” button. If you have forgotten your password, simply navigate to the “My Accounts” page, enter in your email address and submit your request by clicking the button. Your password will then be emailed to you shortly. If you need further assistance, please contact our Customer Support Department at customercare@mypros.com.

1.2.            Types. We gather information from our Site’s Users which allows us to personalize and continually improve the total experience at mypros.com. Here are the types of information we gather.

1.2.1.      User Supplied Information. In addition to your name, e-mail address and password and other information that you provide upon registering for our Site, we will also receive and store any other information you enter on our Site or give us in any other way.  Examples of information that we may collect include: contractors, items, articles and posts searched for; mailing address; searching patterns; any reviews or posts submitted to the Site; credit card information supplied, if any; and any communications sent or provided to our Customer Support Department. This list only provides examples and is not exclusive.

We may provide you the ability to share certain information on our Site with others (for example, a post on our Q&A (question and answer) page or a helpful article regarding a home-improvement project).  If we provide that functionality, you will have to enter the e-mail address of the person to whom you wish to send that information.  We will send an invitation to that person, so they can view the information you wanted to send to them.  If that person chooses to view the information you sent them on our Site, that person will need to agree to this Policy and our Terms of Use.  We may add that person’s e-mail address to our mailing list.

1.2.2.      Right to Refrain From Giving Information. You have right to refrain from giving us certain information. However, if you do, you might not be able to take full advantage of all of our Site’s features. We use the information that you provide us to enhance the services we provide, such as responding to your requests, customizing future browsing and searching experiences, and improving our services, our Site and our communications with you.

1.2.3.      Uploaded Content. Our Site is designed so that you can interact with it and other Users.  For example, you may be able to comment on an article, a post on our Q&A Page or an entry on our Blog.  Any such content you input or upload to the Site will be publicly accessible. As provided in our Terms of Use, by uploading on inputting any content on the Site, you assign all your rights in that content to mypros.com.

1.2.4.      Cookies. When you access our Site, information is received and stored by us.  The most significant information is stored in the form of cookies, or small storage files, which transmit your electronic identity to our Site or other websites you visit.  Like most websites, we use cookies to be able to identify you when you return to our Site. We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us.

1.2.5.      E-mail Communications: We often communicate with our Registered Members via e-mail. By way of example, we may use e-mail to inform you that new content has been uploaded; to make special offers available to you; or to describe new features, services or other promotions. To help us make our e-mails more useful and interesting, we often receive a confirmation when you open an e-mail from mypros.com, if your computer supports such capabilities. As explained above, by using our Site, and each and every time you visit the Site, you agree to this Privacy Policy and you also expressly consent to receive any and all e-mail communications from us, whether such e-mails are considered “commercial” e-mails or “transactional or relationship” e-mails, as those terms are used in the federal government’s CAN-SPAM Act, 15 U.S.C. § 7701, et seq. You agree that this Privacy Policy is a clear and conspicuous request for such express consent and that by agreeing to this Privacy Policy, you hereby grant such consent.  Moreover, by agreeing to this Privacy Policy, you have requested that we correspond with you via e-mail, regardless of the type or name such messages may or may not be given under Federal law or the laws of any other jurisdiction. We may also send you information on carefully screened third parties whose products or services may be of interest to you and you hereby consent to the same. If you do not want to receive such e-mail or other mail from us, please contact us via the form on the Contact Us page. 

We also use e-mail to provide service announcements concerning important information about your Registered Member account and our services. Service announcements contain important, often vital, information. Members cannot unsubscribe to service announcements.

1.2.6.      Specific Examples of E-mail Communications.

1.2.6.1.                        Communications from Contractors.  As explained above, and in our Terms of Use, as a Registered Member of our Site, you can post Reviews about contractors that you have used which are listed on our Site.  By agreeing to our Terms of Use, you consent to having the contractor that you Review contact you.  We offer this as a service, so that, for example, if you are unhappy with a contractor that you used, and who is listed on our Site, you can tell others about your experience.  Also, we offer this as a service to the contractors who are listed on our Site, so that they can try to “make it right” if you are unhappy.  If a contractor whom you Review chooses to contact you, we only allow them to do so through our Site.  That is, such a contractor can only send you a message by using the forms on our Site, and in doing so, we do not provide them direct access to your email address (meaning that we do not provide them the ability to see your email address on our Site), but their message to you will be sent to your email address.  Of course, such a contractor may contact you “outside of” our Site, using whatever contact information you have provided them directly.  Obviously, we have no control over any contact (or, for that matter, conduct) that transpires outside of our Site.

1.2.6.2.                        Third-Party Providers.  Over time, we may have certain agreements in place with various third parties that offer products and/or services.  Such Third Party Providers are not otherwise affiliated with mypros.com and, as such, we do not offer any representations or warranties with regards to the products or services they may offer.  If you so chose, you may elect to be contacted by a Third Party Provider regarding their product or service offerings, but such Third Party Providers will only get your contact information from us if you expressly agree to allow us to release it to them.  If you end up doing business with a Third Party Provider, we may be paid a referral fee or commission by such Third Party Provider.  In fact, we may be paid a referral fee or a commission even if you do not do any business with them.

1.2.7.      Surveys and Contests. Occasionally, we may request additional information from you via surveys or contests. Your participation in these surveys and contests is voluntary. If you choose to participate, we may collect the information you provide in your response, together with the information described above in the foregoing sections. This information is only used to improve our services and our Site.  Additionally, our surveys or contests may ask if you would like to be contacted by certain Third Party Providers.  If you express an interest in having such contact, we may pass your contact information along to such Third Party Providers.

1.2.8.      Information from Other Sources: From time to time, we receive information about you from other sources and add it to your account information.

1.2.9.      Storage Location. We store the information you provide us on servers that are kept in a secure location. These servers are physically protected and are also protected with software designed to prevent unauthorized access. Our employees, agents and partners are given access to the information stored on these servers on a need-to-know basis.

1.3.            More about Cookies

1.3.1.      Description. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser and to provide enhanced features such as accelerated browsing, customized and personalized suggestions, personalized greetings and storage of items in your account in between visits.

1.3.2.      User Choices. Most web browsers have the ability to accept cookies, reject cookies, or to prompt the User before accepting them. The “help” portion of the toolbar of your browser will tell you how to select the option that suits you best. However, disabling the acceptance of cookies will prevent you from taking full advantage of some of the best and most advanced features that our Site has to offer. We recommend that you accept cookies; in other words, leave them “turned on.”

1.3.3.      Other Technologies. We may use other technologies, i.e. clear .gifs, pixel tags, and/or scanning navigational data to collect anonymous information about you. We do this so that we may provide better services to you and our Site’s other Users.  Examples of this anonymous information may include the web site you visited before visiting mypros.com and various IP addresses or the areas of our Site that you clicked on most frequently. We might also use information collected from our Site, together with information you provide to us, so that we may personally customize our service for you. For example, we might recommend certain posts, comments, suggestions or articles on our Site, based on the information we collect.

1.3.4.      Our Support. Even though we make great efforts to offer great services, sometimes we need the help of our other vendors and service providers.  These vendors and service providers may also use Cookies or other technologies to help us with our design and marketing efforts. Examples include ad servers, outbound e-mail vendors, affiliate vendors, search engine advertising agencies and web analytics tools. We take great care in selecting our vendors and service providers and we may even carefully instruct them not to collect personally identifiable information or to share anonymous information with anyone other than mypros.com. We may send you information regarding our vendors and service providers.  For more information regarding “opting out” of third-party service Cookies, please visit www.networkadvertising.org or other related sites.

In order to provide you with the services and information you request, we will share personal information with our carefully screened vendors and service providers. Other examples of our vendors and service providers include credit card authorization companies, merchant account companies, merchandise manufacturers and distributors, and shippers.  Our vendors and service providers do not store, retain or access the information you have provided to us except to deliver our services to you.

We might also share very general information about our Users as a group with vendors, sponsors and other third parties. For example, we might provide a geographic or age group break-down of our Users, or a compilation of your Reviews or the Ratings.

1.3.5.      Affirmative Consent to Receive E-mails. As explained above, by agreeing to this Policy, you expressly consent to receive e-mail messages from us. By creating an account, you are responding to mypros.com’s clear and conspicuous request for your consent to receive e-mail messages from us.

2.                  SHARING OF INFORMATION

2.1.            General. The information that we collect about our Users is critical to our Site and our business. We respect and value this information, and do not want to jeopardize the flow of information between our Users and the Site. Therefore, we are not in the business of selling your personally identifiable information to other sites or businesses.  As explained above, there are circumstances where we do share some User information. Examples of such circumstances are outlined in this Policy.

2.1.1.      More About Our Vendors and Service Providers.  We use our vendors and service providers because of the size and complexity of our operations. Simply put, we need to employ other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf.  Our vendors and service providers are often used to assist with fulfilling requests, sending e-mail, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance, providing search results and links (including paid listings and links), processing credit card payments, and providing customer service. Our vendors and service providers have access to only the personal information needed to perform their functions, and may not use it for other purposes.

2.1.2.      Business Transfers. To improve our Site, we may acquire goods, services and maybe even other entities, particularly as we continue to develop our business. We might sell or buy subsidiaries or business units. In such transactions, customer information generally is one of the transferred business assets but remains subject to the promises made in any pre-existing policy or privacy notice, including this Policy, (unless, of course, the customer consents otherwise). In the unlikely event that mypros.com sells substantially all of its assets, customer information will be one of the transferred assets.  Additionally, we may transfer or share your User data, including your personally identifiable information, with our affiliates.

2.1.3.      Protection of Mypros.com and Others. It is sometimes necessary to release account and other personal information when we believe it is appropriate to comply with the law; enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of mypros.com, our Users, or others. This includes exchanging information with legal authorities and governmental agencies, and other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction. Under no circumstances, however, does this include selling, renting, sharing, or otherwise disclosing personally identifiable information from Users for commercial purposes in violation of the commitments set forth in this Policy.

2.1.4.      With Your Consent. Other than as set out above, you will receive a notice when information about you might go to third parties, and you will have an opportunity to choose not to share the information.

2.1.5.      Sale of Non-Personally Identifiable Information.  As explained in our Terms of Use, as a Registered Member, you may post a Review for contractors listed on our Site which you have used.  Over time, we may accumulate many Reviews, or other comments, data or other information we collect.  We may also use that information, together with other information, to generate Ratings.  We may compile different types of such information, including Reviews and/or Ratings, or portions thereof, and sell that information to third parties.  However, in doing so, the information we sell will be “anonymous,” that is, for example, if one of your Reviews or comments is included in the complied information we sell, we will not include your name with it or any other personally identifiable information.

3.                  INFORMATION SECURITY

3.1.            Software Used. We use sophisticated software and hardware to protect the information you provide to us. This software and hardware is designed to protect your information while it is transmitted over the Internet and while saved on our servers.

3.2.            Signing Off. To prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information, it is important that you to monitor those who have access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off when finished using a shared computer.

4.                  USER ACCESS TO INFORMATION

When you access your account, there is a variety of information that you will see. This is designed to allow you to update any changed information and view the information that you entered previously. This information is sensitive. However, in order to have the best experience at our Site, it is necessary to both protect this information and keep it current. Examples of the type of information that can be accessed by signing into your account are on our Site.

5.                  USER CHOICES WITH REGARD TO ACCESS OF INFORMATION

5.1.            General. You always have the right to refrain from providing any information. However, by not giving us certain information, it may have an impact on your use of our Site.

5.2.            Prior Information. You can add or update certain information on your account. When you update information, we may keep a copy of the prior version for our records, for a limited time.

5.3.            User Communication. If you do not want to receive e-mail or other mail from us, please contact us via the form on the Contact Us page or follow the steps outlined in our e-mail messages, which you will receive once you become a mypros.com Registered Member, that explain how you can un-subscribe to our e-mail list. Please know that you cannot waive the applicability of the Terms of Use and other legal notices, such as this Policy, and if you elect not to receive our emails, the Terms of Use and this Policy will still govern your use of our Site, and it is your responsibility to frequently review those policies for changes.

5.4.            Cookie Choices. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. However, affecting the acceptance of cookies means that you may not be able to use important features of our Site.

5.5.            Anonymous browsing. A large number of products may be accessed without the use of cookies, or anonymously. Please browse our Site to see what items that may be accessed anonymously. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission provides useful information about online privacy on its website.

6.                  CHILDREN

We do not offer our services to or for children. If you are under 18, please do not register with us or use our Site without the involvement of a parent or guardian. We do not knowingly collect children’s information.

7.                  TERMS OF USE, NOTICES, AND REVISIONS

7.1.            Acceptance of Terms of Use. By visiting mypros.com, you accept that any dispute over privacy is subject to this Policy, our Terms of Use and any other terms or conditions posted on our Site, including, without limitation, our limitations on damages, releases, waivers, warranty disclaimers, indemnification provisions, and the application of California law.  If you have any concern about privacy at mypros.com, please provide us a thorough description of your concern to customercare@ mypros.com, and we will try to resolve it.

7.2.            Applicability. Unless stated otherwise, our current Policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account. We stand behind the promises we make, and have no plans to materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of User information collected in the past without the consent of affected Users.

7.3.            Changes and Notification. We might revise this Policy at any time and have every right to do so pursuant to this section of the Policy. If it is revised, the revised version will be posted on this Site and we will change the “Last Updated” date at the bottom of this page accordingly.  As stated, it is your responsibility to review this Policy frequently, and we request that you do so.

8.                  INFORMATION YOU GAVE US

8.1.            General. Information is collected from you when, for example, you: log-on, search, browse, post a Review or any other comment on the Site, participate in a contest or questionnaire, or communicate with customer service.

8.2.            Examples. By way of additional example, information may be collected when a User comes to our Site, searches for certain information or for a contractor, updates his or her information in his or her account settings, calls or e-mails customer service, reads a post or Review, participates in a discussion or chat, completes a questionnaire or a contest entry form, provides employer information when opening a contractor account, shares information with his or her acquaintances or mypros.com acquaintances, or when such User employs other notification services.

8.3.            Information that could be supplied. As a result of any of the above actions, it is possible that you will supply us with your name, address, and phone numbers; credit card information; names and e-mail addresses of friends and other people; content of Reviews and e-mails to us; personal descriptions; and financial information.

9.                  AUTOMATIC INFORMATION

9.1.            General. As discussed earlier, our systems collect information that is sent over the Internet without your control.

9.2.            Examples. Some examples of the information we collect and analyze include the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet; login; e-mail addresses; passwords; computer and connection information such as browser type and version, operating system, and platform; browsing history, which we sometimes aggregate with similar information from other Users to create features such as lists of popular information and searches and search suggestions; the full Uniform Resource Locator (URL) clickstream to, through, and from our Site, including date and time; cookie number; information you read, view, comment on or search for and the phone number you use to call our Customer Service Department.

9.3.            Software Used. During some visits we may use certain software tools to measure and collect session information, including page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and “mouse-overs”), and methods used to browse away from the page.

10.              INFORMATION FROM OTHER SOURCES

10.1.        General. Occasionally, we supplement the information that we receive that has been outlined above with information from other sources and companies. Examples of information we receive from other sources include updated delivery and address information from our carriers or other third parties, which we use to correct our records and deliver your next communication more easily; account information, purchase or redemption information, and page-view information from our Partners; search term and search result information from some searches conducted through web search features; search results and links, including paid listings (such as Sponsored Links from Google or sponsored search results on our Site); and credit history information from credit bureaus, which we use to help prevent and detect fraud and to offer certain credit or financial services to some Users.

11.              INFORMATION YOU CAN ACCESS

11.1.                    General. Information collection and processing is designed to better assist you in using our Site.

11.2.                    Examples. Some of the information that we collect and process can be accessed by you. Examples of information you can access easily at mypros.com include up-to-date information regarding recent Reviews; personally identifiable information which includes name, e-mail, password and billing/shipping addresses.

12.              TRANSFERABILITY

At some point, we might merge with another company or we might be acquired by another company. If so, such other company will use your personal information in accordance with this Policy, and, as an acquiring company or merging company, they have the right to do so according to this section of this Policy. Also, if we cease to exist or to operate, this Policy and your personal information may and can be transferred to another company that offers similar or related products or services.

Last updated: September 25, 2008.