Privacy Policy

AllBusiness.com, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), is a leading online resource for businesses.  The Company operates one of the Web's premier business sites, providing practical information and services for business professionals and growing businesses.  The site includes how-to articles and videos, business forms, contracts and agreements, expert advice, blogs, business news, directory listings, business guides and more.  In addition to its flagship Web site, the Company's content can be accessed by its content syndication program, RSS feeds and e-mail newsletters.

Our Privacy Policy is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect and use the personal information you provide to us on AllBusiness.com and to assist you in making informed decisions when using our Web site, products and services.  AllBusiness is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program.  TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build users’ trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices.  We are committed to your privacy and we have agreed to disclose our information management practices to TRUSTe so they may review them for adequacy and compliance.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this notice, you should first contact Customer Service.  If you do not receive acknowledgement of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php.  TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with us to resolve your concerns.

What Information Do We Collect?

When you visit our Web site, you may provide us with two types of information: personal information that you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis; and Web site use information that is collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our Web site.

1.     Personal Information You Choose to Provide

Registration & Purchase Information

You will provide us information about yourself, your firm or company, and your practices when you register to be a member of AllBusiness, register for certain services, register for e-mail newsletters and alerts, or purchase items through our site.  This data collection can include such personally identifiable information as name, company name, address, phone number, e-mail address and credit card information.  You may also provide additional comments on how you see AllBusiness servicing your needs and interests.

Business Directory

We display a business directory provided by Business.com, a separate company.  If at any time you wish to be added or removed from the directory, you should contact Business.com directly.

E-mail Information

If you choose to correspond with us through e-mail, we may retain the content of your e-mail messages together with your e-mail address and our responses.

2.     Web site Use Information

Similar to other commercial Web sites, our Web site utilizes a standard technology called "cookies" (see "What Are Cookies?" explanation below) and Web server logs (“log files”) to collect information about how our Web site is used.  Information gathered through cookies and Web server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent on our Web site, and the Web sites visited just before and just after our Web site.  We, our advertisers and ad serving companies may also use small pieces of code called "web beacons" or "clear GIF’s" to determine which advertisements and promotions users have seen and how users responded to them.  Personally identifiable information is not stored in these cookies, web beacons or clear GIF’s.  We use a third-party tracking service that uses cookies and log files to track non-personally identifiable information about visitors to our site in the aggregate, for usage and volume purposes, to help us better understand the needs of our visitors.

How Do We Use the Information You Provide to Us?

Broadly speaking, we use personal information for purposes of administering and expanding our business activities, providing customer service, and making available other products and services to our customers and prospective customers.  We occasionally also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our Web site, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable.  We may retain your personal information for administrative, reporting and analytic purposes.  We will not share or sell your information unless you affirmatively opt in to such information sharing.  You have the opportunity to opt in or opt out of these specific types of communications in our Member Center.  You have the opportunity to opt out any time you receive an e-mail from us by using the link provided at the bottom of the e-mail communication.  You may also notify us at any time if you do not wish to receive these offers by contacting us.

Communications from Our Site & Opt-out Options

If you register with our Web site or purchase any products from the site, you can expect to receive a welcome e-mail and/or an order confirmation e-mail.  If you have registered with our Web site, you will receive any of the communications (newsletters, updates, product information, alerts) that you have opted in to receive.  From time to time, we may need to send critical service updates from the Web site.  You may not opt out of receiving these critical service updates.  If you wish to change your preferences for receiving communications from our Web site, please visit our Member Center to change your preferences or contact us.

Blogs

If you use our blogs, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you submit may be read, collected or used by other users in this forum.  We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in the blogs.  Violation of our Terms of Use Agreement may result in removal of your post and/or termination of your membership.

What Are Cookies?

A cookie is a very small text document that often includes an anonymous unique identifier.  When you visit a Web site, that site's computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies.  Each Web site can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser's preferences allow it.  In order to protect your privacy, your browser only permits a Web site to access the cookies it has already sent to you and not the cookies sent to you by other sites.  Some of our business partners (e.g. advertisers) use cookies that originate from their Web sites.  We have no access to, or control over, these cookies.  For more information, see “Third Party Advertisers.”

How Do We Use the Information We Collect from Cookies?

As you shop on our Web site, the site uses its cookies to differentiate you from other shoppers so that your shopping cart is only available to you.  In some cases, we also use cookies to prevent you from seeing unnecessary advertisements or from having to log in more times than is necessary during the same session.  Cookies, in conjunction with our Web server's log files, allow us to calculate the aggregate number of people visiting our Web site and to assess which parts of the site are most popular.  This helps us gather feedback in order to constantly improve our Web site and better serve our customers.  Cookies do not allow us to gather any personal information about you and we do not store any personal information that you provided to us in your cookies.

Sharing Information with Third Parties

We enter into alliances, partnerships and other business arrangements with third parties who will be given access to personal information (including, but not limited to, your e-mail address) for the purpose of providing you information regarding products and services that we think will be of interest to you and that you have opted in to receive.  We will not share or sell your information unless you affirmatively opt in to such information sharing.  If you opt out of receiving such communications in our Membership Center, we will honor your opt-out.

Service Providers

We use third parties to perform credit card processing and e-mail services on our Web site.  When you purchase a product from us, our credit card processing vendor will facilitate the transaction.  An e-mail service provider will provide our e-mail services.  We will share billing and e-mail information, as necessary, with the third party to provide that service.

These third parties are prohibited from using your personally identifiable information for any other purpose, including their own marketing purposes.

Business Transitions

As we develop our business, we may buy or sell assets or business offerings.  Customer, e-mail and visitor information is generally one of the transferred business assets in these types of transactions.  We may also transfer such information in the course of corporate divestitures, mergers or any dissolution.  You will be notified via e-mail of any such change in ownership or control of your personal information.

Third Party Advertisers

The ads appearing on this Web site are delivered to users by DoubleClick, our advertising partner.  We share aggregate Web site usage information about users with potential advertisers for the purpose of targeting our Internet advertisements on this site.

DoubleClick uses cookies and clear GIF’s on this Web site, which allow it to recognize a user's cookie when a user visits the site.  The information that DoubleClick collects and shares through this technology is not personally identifiable.

For more information about our third-party advertisers or to learn more about the choices available to you regarding this anonymous information, please click here.

Email-A-Friend

If you choose to use the Email-A-Friend referral service to tell a friend about information you’ve found on our Web site by forwarding an article, we will ask you for your friend’s name, e-mail address and any comment you wish to make to your friend.  We will automatically send your friend a one-time e-mail by forwarding the article to your friend.  We do not store this information and it is used for the sole purpose of sending this one-time e-mail.  We will not use your friend’s e-mail for marketing purposes and/or share it with any other party.

Notice of New Services and Changes

Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our Web site, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable.  You have the opportunity to opt in for these notifications at registration and you have the opportunity to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers by contacting us at a later date.

How Do We Secure Information Transmissions?

The security of your personal information is important to us.  When you enter sensitive information, such as credit card data, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer (SSL) 128-bit encryption technology.  Pages with forms that collect sensitive information on our Web site will utilize this technology and will have URL’s that start with HTTPS instead of HTTP.  To learn more about SSL, click here.

We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it.  However, no method of transmission over the Internet and no method of electronic storage is 100% secure.  Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

E-mail is not recognized as a secure medium of communication.  For this reason, we request that you do not send private or sensitive information to us by e-mail.  If you have any questions about security on our Web site, please contact us.

How Can You Access and Correct Your Information?

You can view and update your registration information online on our Member Center page.  You may also request access to all of your personally identifiable information that we collect and maintain in our database by contacting us.

Certain Disclosures

We may disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or subpoena, or if we believe that such action is necessary to (a) conform to the law or comply with legal process served on us or our Affiliated Parties (as defined in our Terms of Use Agreement); (b) protect and defend our rights and property, our site, the users of our site and/or our Affiliated Parties; or (c) act under circumstances to protect the safety of users of our site, ourselves or third parties.

What About Other Web sites Linked to Our Web site?

We are not responsible for the practices employed by Web sites linked to or from our Web site, nor are we responsible for the information or content contained therein.  Links to other Web sites are provided solely as pointers to information on topics that may be useful to the users of our Web site.

Please remember that, when you use a link to go from our Web site to another Web site, our Privacy Policy is no longer in effect.  Your activities and interaction on any other Web site, including Web sites that have a link on our Web site, is subject to that Web site's own rules and policies.  Please review those privacy rules and policies before proceeding.

Your Consent

By using our Web site, you consent to our collection, use and retention of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.  If we make material changes to our privacy practices, we will post those changes on our Web site to keep you informed of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it.