The privacy and security of your confidential information is very important to ShareBuilder
Corporation and ShareBuilder Securities Corporation (collectively referred to as "we", "us"
or "ShareBuilder"). This privacy policy describes what information we collect, how we use that
information in providing our products and services to you and how you may opt out of
receiving product updates and other information from us. If you have questions about
this privacy policy, please use the Customer Care link on the web site to send us an email.
When we refer to "Contact Information" we mean your name, address, telephone number,
employment status, fax number and e-mail address. "Personal Nonpublic Information" refers
to personally identifiable information about you and transactions in your account, including
your social security number, account numbers, and information about your assets, accounts,
transactions and tax status.
What information does ShareBuilder collect?
In order to provide financial services to you, we will ask you to provide Contact
Information and Personal Nonpublic Information. We will collect Personal Nonpublic
Information about you from applications or other forms, your transactions with us,
correspondence between you and ShareBuilder and, in some cases, consumer reporting
agencies, demographic marketing companies and third parties with whom we jointly market
financial products or services.. We collect information about usage of our web sites
(for instance the number of visitors that click on advertisements and links displayed upon
our site), and reserve the right in the future to link such usage information to Contact
Information or Personal Nonpublic Information for each customer or visitor to our web sites
in order to better understand which information or services are of more value to our
customers.
At times, we conduct online surveys to better understand the needs, profiles and
experiences of our customers and visitors to our web site. Participation in such surveys
is strictly voluntary.
How does ShareBuilder use this information?
We may use your Contact Information and Personal Nonpublic Information to service your
accounts with us, to communicate with you about your accounts, to obtain your views on the
quality of our services, and to bring to your attention new products and services that we are
offering or that are offered by a third party with whom we jointly market financial products
or services. We may also use Contact Information from time to time to offer to you other
promotional opportunities. If you do not wish to receive communications about new products
and services, you may "opt out" by updating your Personal Profile as described below.
Will ShareBuilder share my information with others?
ShareBuilder does not, in conducting its business, sell information about its customers and
we will only share your information under very limited circumstances - always under strict
controls against further disclosure. We may share your Contact Information and Personal
Nonpublic Information with (i) third parties with whom we have an agreement to jointly
market financial services or products, such as our co-brand credit card, and (ii) third
parties that perform services for us or you, for example, with outside vendors who assist
us in sending communications, shareholder reports and proxy materials to you, vendors who
provide marketing services on our behalf, securities transfer agents who effect
transactions in securities on your behalf, and trust companies that assist us in providing
products to you such as our Individual Retirement Accounts. We require these vendors to
keep your information confidential and we prohibit them from using your information for
their own purposes.
We also may share Contact Information and Personal Nonpublic Information with certain banks
and credit unions whose web sites link to "co-branded" versions of our ShareBuilder product,
identified with that bank's or credit union's name, logo and other graphics. If you open your
ShareBuilder Account through one of these co-branded ShareBuilder web sites, most likely
hosted by your own bank or credit union, except where prohibited by law, we may share your
Contact Information and your Personal Nonpublic Information with that bank or credit union
in order to protect you from fraud, to monitor and enhance the success of our co-branded
ShareBuilder program with that bank or credit union and to provide you with new product
features. Additionally, if you open a ShareBuilder Account by linking to us from a
company's investor relations website, except where prohibited by law, we may share your
name and e-mail address with that company. In all cases, our agreements with third parties
require them to keep your information confidential and prohibit them from using your
information for other purposes.
In addition to the above, we may disclose Contact Information and Personal Nonpublic
Information to unaffiliated third parties when, in our good faith judgment, one of the
following circumstances exists:
- Where necessary for security purposes, to protect against fraud or unauthorized
transactions, to resolve customer disputes or inquiries, or to respond to requests from
persons who are acting in a fiduciary or representative capacity for you, or who hold a
legal or beneficial interest in your account;
- To perform necessary credit checks or collect or report on debts owed to us; or
- As permitted by applicable law, including in response to legal process or to our
regulators.
Finally, in the event ShareBuilder or substantially all of its assets are acquired,
customer information will of course be one of the transferred assets.
If you close your account with us, we will retain information about you and your account
in an "inactive" status. We will not use Contact Information or Personal Nonpublic
Information about inactive customers for any purpose other than as required in order to
carry out our responsibilities with respect to the inactive account.
How does ShareBuilder use cookies?
"Cookies" are elements of data that a website can send to your browser and store on your
computer. Our cookies do not collect or contain personal information about you or compromise
the confidentiality of your personal information.
Our system automatically gathers information about the areas you visit on our sites and
about the links you may select from within our site to other areas of the Internet or
elsewhere online. We use such information in the aggregate to understand how our users as
a group use the services and resources provided on our sites. This way we know which areas
of our sites are favorites of our users, which areas need improvement, and what technologies
are being used so that we may continually improve our sites. We may link such usage
information to Contact Information or Personal Nonpublic Information
in order to securely verify your identity, to personalize aspects of
your experience on our web sites and to better understand which
information or services are of greater value to our customers.
We may share aggregated statistical information with our partners, suppliers and other third
parties, but we will not share any individual names, personal navigational or other personal
information.
We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads on our behalf. These companies may
employ cookies and action tags (also known as single pixel gifs or web beacons) to measure
advertising effectiveness. Any information that these third parties collect via cookies and
action tags is completely anonymous. If you would like more information about this practice
and your choices,
click here.
You can choose whether to accept cookies by changing the settings of your browser. You can
reset your browser to refuse all cookies, or allow your browser to show you when a cookie is
being sent. You can also erase cookies already stored on your computer. If you choose not to
accept these cookies or if you erase them, your experience at our site and other web sites may
be diminished and some features may not work as intended. For more information on working with
cookies, you should consult the User Manual, FAQ or Help function of your specific browser and
operating system software.
While you are browsing our web sites, you might be directed to web sites operated by third
parties. These other web sites may send their own cookies to you and collect data or solicit
personal information. We do not control and are not responsible for what third parties do on
their separate web sites, or how they handle information about you.
ShareBuilder also uses the services of Coremetrics to provide
additional tracking and analysis of Web site browsing and usage of
our Web sites in order to better understand how our customers and
other Web site visitors use our Web sites and the services we offer.
Although ShareBuilder does not allow Coremetrics to capture or
transmit any transactional information, banking information, credit
card information or other personal financial information, the data
collected does include your email address and a unique customer
identifier that ShareBuilder (not Coremetrics) can use to associate
the data collected with individual customers. We use this data in
order to continually improve our Web site and the services we offer,
and also to help us deliver the most relevant products and services
to our customers. If you wish to opt out of the collection of such
data through Coremetrics, see "What are my opt out rights?" below.
What are my opt out rights?
You may choose to not receive information about new products and services from ShareBuilder,
as well as other information that we provide for the educational benefit of our customers.
To do so, simply click on Account Profile on the web site and amend your Email Preferences
to check the box stating that you do not wish to receive such information. Even if you
choose to "opt out", you will continue to receive notifications concerning transaction
activity in your account, account statements, tax information and other matters relevant to
your brokerage account or required by law. Your opt out election will remain in effect until
you amend your Email Preferences by checking the box stating "Yes, please keep me up to date."
In the case of joint accounts, your election to opt in or out covers all persons listed on
the account.
If you would like to deactivate our ability to analyze your
browsing behavior through the use of Coremetrics' web analytics
services or wish to find out more about Coremetrics, including its
privacy policy,
click here.
Maintenance of accurate information.
We strive to insure that the personal information we maintain about you is accurate, current,
and complete. We will respond to your requests to correct inaccurate information in a timely
manner. If you ever find that your personal or account information is incomplete, inaccurate
or not current, you should update your Account Profile by clicking on that link on the web
site or, if appropriate, by contacting Customer Care through the Customer Care link on the
web site.
Security.
ShareBuilder takes the security of information very seriously and has established security
standards and procedures to prevent unauthorized access to customer information. We use
industry standard means such as physical, electronic and procedural safeguards, including
data encryption and secure socket layer technology. We update and test our technology
regularly to maintain and improve the protection of our customers' information. We restrict
access to personal information to employees and service providers for legitimate business
purposes to assist in providing services to you. Employees who violate our privacy policy
are subject to disciplinary action.
PortfolioBuilder Tool.
If you would like to use the PortfolioBuilder tool but do not have a ShareBuilder
account, you will be asked to provide your first and last name and email address,
as well as your household income range, net worth and tax rate. The information
about your income, assets and tax rate will not be stored by us beyond the actual
browser session in which you use the PortfolioBuilder tool. We will not collect
any other Personal Nonpublic Information, as defined above, unless you decide to
open an account with ShareBuilder. We will not give, sell or rent your personal
information to any third party, unless you have authorized us to or we are legally
required to do so. If you opt-in to receive mailings from ShareBuilder, we will
use your name and email address to communicate with you from time to time via email
for such purposes as bringing to your attention new products and services and offering
to you special promotional opportunities. Each email you receive will contain clear
instructions for opting out of future communications. If you open a ShareBuilder
Account, your opt-in/opt-out election for Account holder communications can be
located and modified by clicking on the "Account Profile" link on the ShareBuilder
Web site. Unless you use a different email address when opening a ShareBuilder
Account, your opt-in/opt-out selection will replace your opt-in/opt-out selection
with respect to the PortfolioBuilder tool. If you have used a different email
address when using the PortfolioBuilder tool, opting out of those communications
will require use of the opt-out link included with each such email.