The Marketing Advocate Inc. Statement of Privacy and Audience Policy
Marketing Advocate Privacy and Audience Policy:
Information Collection
Marketing Advocate Inc. is the sole owner of the information collected on www.marketingadvocate.com. Marketing Advocate Inc. collects information from our users at several different points on our Web site.
Registration
Marketing Advocate registration forms request certain contact and profile information (e.g. user name, e-mail address, profession, etc). Some of the requested information is required in order to get access to Marketing Advocate resources; other information is optional. The required information is clearly marked as such on the registration pages. It is optional for the user to provide demographic, and unique identifiers (such as, username and password), but encouraged so we can provide a more personalized experience on our site
Marketing Advocate only obtains personal identifying information from subscribers if the subscriber supplies it voluntarily. Periodically, Marketing Advocate will include a short reader poll in an email, so that we can further tailor our content to reader preferences. In addition, Marketing Advocate tracks the open-rates of our HTML e-mails and certain click behavior from those e-mails to help us identify which portions of our newsletters are most popular with our readers.
Information Use
Marketing Advocate uses this information in several ways:
• To provide relevant, personalized, targeted news and information via e-mail
• To help target advertising messages included in our e-mail newsletters so that we are able to continue provide our service to you at no cost
• To enable our customer service professionals to respond to your feedback
Profile
We store information that we collect to create a profile of our users. A profile is stored information that we keep on individual users that detail their viewing preferences. Consequently, collected information is tied to the users personally identifiable information to provide offers and improve the content of the site for the user. This profile is used to tailor a user's visit to our Web site and to direct pertinent marketing promotions to them.
Newsletter
If a user wishes to subscribe to our newsletter (E-Letter), we ask for contact information such as name and email address. Out of respect for our users privacy we provide a way to opt-out of these communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections.
Service Announcements
On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature. [Users may opt-out of these communications. Please see our Choice and Opt-out section.]
Customer Service
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account we reply via email, phone or mail, in accordance with the users wishes.
Marketing Advocate Inc. Privacy and Audience Policy
Last Updated: July 2009
Marketing Advocate Inc. does not rent, sell, or share personal information about you with other people or nonaffiliated companies. We only send trusted advisor marketing best practice related features, (e.g., eletters, whitepapers, and other resources) to our list of business professionals. In addition, Marketing Advocate will not swap or rent your email address to third parties. This way your privacy will be preserved. Your email address is secure in the Marketing Advocate database. Here are some more details on how safe your info is with us, we take our Privacy Policy very seriously:
Your email address
We only collect and hold your email address in order to send you newsletters and other resource materials that you have voluntarily requested or have subscribed to. You can unsubscribe at any time for any reason, and still enjoy the benefits of our resources on the marketingadvocate.com website. If you ever have a problem with your subscription, feel free to contact us, the URL is found at here.
Marketing Advocate does not rent email lists (ever), nor will we share your name with "marketing partners" unless you pro-actively check a box on our site personally requesting that your name be added to a partner's list. These boxes are never pre-checked - you actively have to volunteer to be on any lists.
Your friend's email address
You may notice throughout this site and within our newsletters, we offer you the chance to send a friend an article, resource or a note telling them about the site. Feel free to take advantage of these opportunities because your friend is also covered by Marketing Advocate’s Privacy and Audience policy.
We will only use your friend's email address in order to send the message you asked us to send. Then they will never ever hear from us again … unless they voluntarily subscribe to our services.
Marketing Advocate Adheres to the U.S. Advertising and Marketing Trade Groups Standards for Legitimate E-mail Marketing Practices
The American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), and the Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) have released a set of nine guidelines that call on marketers to institute certain practices that will defend and enhance the viability of legitimate e-mail marketing.
Marketing Advocate recognizes the importance of these groundbreaking guidelines, and follows the lead of these "Anti-Spam Pioneers".
The nine self-regulatory guidelines are as follows:
1. The subject line of an e-mail must be honest and not misleading or deceptive.
2. A valid return e-mail address and the physical address of the sender should be clearly identified. Marketers are encouraged to use their company or brand names in their domain address and prominently throughout the message.
3. An e-mail should clearly identify the sender and the subject matter at the beginning of the e-mail.
4. All commercial e-mail (except for billing purposes) must provide consumers with a clear and conspicuous electronic option to be removed from lists for future e-mail messages from the sender. The removal process must be easy to find and easy to use.
5. If a company sending commercial e-mail has multiple distinct brands or affiliates, notice and opt-out should be provided based on the likely perspective of the average consumer. Each separate brand or affiliate, as the consumer is likely to perceive it, must offer notice and a process for removal from marketing lists in all commercial e-mails (except for billing purposes).
6. Marketers should not acquire e-mail addresses surreptitiously through automated mechanisms (such as robots or spiders) without the consumer / customer’s informed consent. This includes a prohibition on dictionary attacks or other mechanisms for fabricating e-mail addresses without providing notice and choice to the consumer.
7. "Remove" means "Remove." The electronic remove feature must be reliable, functional, and prompt.
8. E-mail lists must not be sold or provided to unrelated third parties unless the owner of the list has provided notice and the ability to be removed from such transfer to each e-mail address on the list. A related third party include other brands/subsidiaries within the same parent company as well as outside affinity partners as a reasonable consumer is likely to perceive them.
9. A commercial e-mail should contain the sender’s privacy policy, either within the body of the e-mail or via a link.
Legal Disclaimer
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding.
Business Transitions
In the event Marketing Advocate Inc. goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users' personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. Users will be notified via [prominent notice on our Web site for 30 days] prior to a change of ownership or control of their personal information. If as a result of the business transition, the users' personally identifiable information will be used in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection they will be given choice consistent with our notification of changes section.
Choice/Opt-out
Our users are given the opportunity to 'opt-out' of having their information used for purposes not directly related to our site at the point where we ask for information. For example, our order form has an 'opt-out' mechanism so users who buy a product from us, but don't want any marketing material, can keep their email address off of our lists.
Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications may opt-out of receiving these communications by replying to unsubscribe in the subject line in the email or email us at info@marketingadvocate.com We also offer an opt-out mechanism on the registration form or the user may contact us at, Marketing Advocate Inc, 1600 Falmouth Road, Suite 17, Centerville, MA 02632-2933, 508-775-9064 or e-mail at info@marketingadvocate.com to opt-out.
Users of our site are always notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether or not they should proceed with services that require an outside party.
Links
Our site contains links to other sites outside. These other sites may send cookies to users, collect data, or solicit individual information. These sites or services also have separate data and privacy practices.
Marketing Advocate Inc and any affiliated websites will disclaim any responsibility or liability for their policies or actions. In general, when we link to other sites, we do not pass your personal information to those sites. In addition, Marketing Advocate offers services in conjunction with partner companies. In order to provide these co-branded services to you, we may share your personal information with our partner company. If you do not want your data to be shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer by not using that particular service.
Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information
If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code, phone, email or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate users' personally identifiable information. This can usually be done at the contact us page or by emailing our Customer Support at info@marketingadvocate.com. [Or, contact us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed below].
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.
If, however, we are going to use users' personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users via this privacy policy. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if users have opted out of all communication with the site, or deleted/deactivated their account, then they will not be contacted, nor will their personal information be used in this new manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice in this privacy policy. In some cases where we post a notice we will also email users, who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.
Contact Information
If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at:
Marketing Advocate Inc. / Web Administrator
1600 Falmouth Road, Suite 17
Centerville, MA 02632-2933
(508) 775-9064
info@marketingadvocate.com
Web site URL www.marketingadvocate.com