Thank you for your interest in this website located at www.appletree.com (the "Website") that is owned, operated and controlled by AppleTree.com, Inc. (collectively "AppleTree.com," "we," "our", or "us"). The terms "you", "your", and "yours" refer to anyone accessing, viewing, browsing, visiting or using the Website.
Your personal privacy is important to us. This Privacy Policy, effective March 23, 2010, explains our information practices. Please read carefully to understand when do we collect your information, what type of information do we collect, how we collect, how we use, with whom do we share and what steps do we take to protect your information. By visiting the Website, you consent to the collection and use of your information as outlined in the Privacy Policy.
WHEN DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION?
We may collect information about you anytime you interact with AppleTree.com such as when you (i) access, browse or use the Website, (ii) order or use AppleTree.com services offered through the Website, (iii) communicate with us either by e-mail, over the telephone or in any other manner including when you call our sales or support teams, (iv) elect to participate in any of our product promotions, and (v) request information about our services.
WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
Information we collect is generally of two types - personally identifiable information and non-personally identifiable information. Personally identifiable information comprises any information that can help us identify or locate an individual, including, without limitation, an individual's name, address, e-mail address, telephone number and credit card number. Non-personally identifiable information comprises information that does not by itself identify an individual. This information generally includes anonymous information about an individual's use of the Website that includes, among other things, information concerning date and time of visit, the pages of the Website visited, path through the Website, IP address, the type of browser and operating system used.
HOW DO WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION? AND WHY?
General
We do not collect personally identifiable information, except when you specifically and knowingly disclose such information. This information is generally collected when you register to establish a user account, purchase services, fill out surveys, enter promotional events, correspond with us or discuss a service issue on the phone with an associate. If you disclose your personal information, we will only store and use such information that we need to meet your requests and our legitimate business objectives. We primarily use your personal information to provide you an improved and customized online experience and service. We may also use the information we collect from you for the purpose of providing you with technical support, customer service, and account maintenance. You may log into your account through the Website at any time to change or update your personal information.
Service Subscriptions
To opt into certain services offered through the Website, we may require you to register and provide us with your first and last name, home or other physical address, including your street name and address and name of your city or town, your telephone number, your e-mail address or other personal contact information. You may choose not to provide your personal contact information at the point of collection; however, you will not be able to use these services through the Website.
Personal Contact Information
We use your contact information to complete and support your use of the services offered through the Website, to facilitate and improve your use of the Website, to communicate with you, and to comply with any requirements of law. We also use this information to respond to any questions you might have and to provide you with information about specials offered through the Website. This information may be disclosed to our staff and to third parties involved in the completion of your transaction, the delivery of your order or the support of your use of the Website.
Credit Card Information
When you opt into certain services on the Website that require payment of fee, you are required to provide us your credit card information including the credit card number, card security code (also called CVV) and the expiration date. We transmit your entire credit card information to the appropriate credit card company in an encrypted format during order processing for payment processing.
Public Forums
We provide public forums on the Website. These forums are provided as a service to our users to help them exchange ideas, tips, information and techniques related to the Website and the services offered through the Website. You have to register to use these public forums as part of which you may be required to provide us your name and e-mail address. We may use this information to contact you in relation to your use of the forums. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these forums becomes public information. You should exercise utmost caution when deciding to disclose personal information in any such forum.
Online Surveys
In order to improve the Website and our services, we may use your personal information to send information about online surveys about our Website and services. These surveys help us to know more about your experience with the Website and our services. Your responses to these surveys are treated as confidential information. If you do not wish to participate in a survey, you may simply decline when asked. You may also choose to opt-out of participating in any future surveys. If you do so, we will not send you any survey requests in the future.
Updates and Promotional E-mails
We regularly send updates and promotional e-mails as a service to our existing users. Only if you elect to receive these e-mails, will we use your personal information to send you newsletters and e-mails periodically listing current specials, promotions and deals. This option is provided during your account registration. If you have elected to receive these e-mails and wish to discontinue receiving in the future, please follow the opt-out instructions provided on the e-mails or log into your account on the Website and follow the instructions to make the appropriate changes.
Correspondence
If you contact us by telephone, e-mail or letter to provide feedback, comments or inputs or for any other reason, we may keep a record of that correspondence and collect your personal information to process your enquiries, respond to your requests and improve our services.
HOW DO WE COLLECT YOUR NON-PERSONAL INFORMATION? AND WHY?
General
We will automatically collect certain non-personally identifiable information each time you visit the Website. For this purpose, we may use cookies, clear gifs, frames, server log analysis and other technology. We collect anonymous information about our users so that we can understand how people are using the Website and improve the overall quality of our users' online experience.
Cookies
The Website may contain "cookies." Cookies are bits of electronic information generated by web servers and stored on your hard drive when you visit practically any website on the Internet. Cookies are often used to differentiate users, store user preferences and track user trends in general. We may use cookies to improve the quality of the Website and to better understand how users interact with the Website. We do not use cookies to retrieve individual personally identifying information about you from your computer unless you knowingly and willingly provide such information. You can adjust your web browser security settings to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you disable the use of cookies in your web browser, some features of the Website we offer may not function properly.
Log Files
Log files record internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser types, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the Website, track a user's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. You do not have to register with us before we can collect this anonymous information.
Navigational Data
As you browse the Website, we may gather navigational data that shows what pages are visited and how long various features are used. This information will not reveal your identity or be linked to you personally. We use this information to complete, support and analyze users' actions on the Website; to facilitate and improve use of the Website; to comply with any requirements of law; to serve, or have a third party serve specialized or relevant advertising content and/or recommendations to you on the Website; and for our internal purposes. We may from time to time supply the owners or operators of third party sites from which it is possible to link to the Website with information relating to the number of users linking to the Website from their sites. You cannot be identified from this information.
IP Addresses and System Specifications
When you access the Website, our servers may record your IP address. We may use IP addresses for system administration and troubleshooting, ensuring user compliance with our terms of service, investigating security breaches and compiling anonymous non-personal information such as how many users visited the Website. Additionally, when you log into your account, your system specifications such as operating system, system configuration, etc. may be collected by us for the purposes of analyzing and optimizing your experience and customer service.
HOW DO WE SHARE THE INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT?
General
Personal information which we collect for a particular purpose will only be saved and used for that purpose, unless you have agreed to allow us to use it for some other purpose, as described in this Privacy Policy. We sometimes share non-personal information with third parties about our user base, but that information does not include any personally identifiable information. Except as set forth in this Privacy Policy, we do not trade, share, rent, sell or give away information concerning you to third parties.
Our Financial Service Providers
We may disclose your personally identifiable information to our financial service providers with regard to your actions on the Website. For instance, we will disclose your credit card information to our financial service providers and banks for processing. These third party service providers will have access to personal information needed to perform their functions but may not use it for other purposes.
Enforcement
We may disclose your personally identifiable information or otherwise use such information to communicate with you if required or permitted to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to: (i) conform to legal requirements or comply with legal process or any governmental request; (ii) protect and defend the rights or property of AppleTree.com and its users and licensors; (iii) enforce our applicable service agreements; or (iv) protect the personal safety or interests of AppleTree.com's employees and consultants, other users of the Website, or members of the public in urgent circumstances. We may also disclose any of your personal information to law enforcement or other appropriate third parties in connection with criminal investigations, investigation of fraud, infringement of intellectual property rights, or other suspected illegal activities, or as otherwise may be required by applicable law, or, as we deem necessary in our sole discretion, in order to protect the legitimate legal and business interests of AppleTree.com.
Aggregated General Information
We may share aggregated general information about the Website with our corporate partners, investors, advertisers or others. Aggregate general information includes without limitation the number of users of the Website, any revenue including payments by the users, usage statistics and user feedback. Aggregated general information does not include any personally identifying information that could be used to contact or identify you.
Change of Control
In the event that another company acquires all or substantially all of the assets related to the Website, or if we experience some other change of control event such as merger, insolvency, bankruptcy or receivership, we reserve the right to include any or all user-related information among the assets transferred to the acquiring company. We cannot guarantee that any entity receiving such information in connection with any of these transactions will comply with all the terms of this policy.
EXTERNAL LINKS AND ADVERTISEMENTS
The Website may contain third-party advertisements and links to other websites. These other sites and advertisements maintain their own policies regarding cookies and the collection and use of personal information. We assume no responsibility or liability for the actions of such third parties with respect to their collection or use of your information. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of every website that you visit through a link on the Website.
CHILDREN'S PRIVACY
The Website complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and all other applicable laws and regulations protecting children's privacy on the Internet. The Website is not directed to children under the age of 18 and we do not allow persons under 13 years of age to create user accounts. Therefore, except as may be required by law, the Website does not knowingly collect, maintain, or disclose any personal information from children under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 18, please do not: (i) access or use the Website, (ii) create or attempt to create an account on the Website, (iii) sign up for any subscription service, or (iv) buy anything through the Website.
INFORMATION FOR PARENTS/GUARDIANS
As a parent or guardian you can request AppleTree.com to remove personal information of your child that was submitted without your consent or by misrepresenting his or her age. At your request, we will take reasonable steps to remove such information from our database. All such requests should include the same user name, password, and e-mail address that your child submitted and should be sent to privacy@appletree.com.
SECURITY
We take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to, or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of, users' information. We restrict access to your personally identifying information to employees who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our products, services and the Website. Our servers are protected by firewalls and are physically located in secure data facilities to further increase security. We use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology for mutual authentication, data encryption and data integrity. While no computer is 100% safe from outside attacks, we believe that the steps we have taken to protect your personal information drastically reduce the likelihood security problems to a level appropriate to the type of information involved. If you have any questions regarding which measures and techniques we use, feel free to contact us.
INTEGRITY
During the online account registration process you can review, change or remove the information you have submitted. We aim to keep our information about you as accurate as possible and encourage you to promptly update your information if it changes. You may, at any time, access your information to update, modify or delete any inaccuracies by accessing your account through the Website. You may also request us to remove your account information from our databases and we will try to remove as much information as possible. However, as we generally keep information related to past transactions for our records, we will not be able to completely remove your information.
CHANGES TO PRIVACY POLICY
We may change our policy at any time by posting a new version of it on the Website. We encourage you to check the Website regularly for information about revisions to this Privacy Policy. In the event that we change our Privacy Policy, such changes will affect all of the information we collect after any such change. If you object to the change to our Privacy Policy, then you must contact us in writing regarding your objection.
QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS
If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, you may contact us at privacy@appletree.com.
Special Note About Google Advertising
Any advertisements served by Google, Inc., and affiliated companies may be controlled using cookies. These cookies allow Google to display ads based on your visits to this site and other sites that use Google advertising services. Learn how to opt out of Google's cookie usage. As mentioned above, any tracking done by Google through cookies and other mechanisms is subject to Google's own privacy policies.
About Google advertising: What is the DoubleClick DART cookie? The DoubleClick DART cookie is used by Google in the ads served on publisher websites displaying AdSense for content ads. When users visit an AdSense publisher's website and either view or click on an ad, a cookie may be dropped on that end user's browser. The data gathered from these cookies will be used to help AdSense publishers better serve and manage the ads on their site(s) and across the web. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
