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The Internet is rapidly changing the way all of us research, interact, and conduct business with each other. While each of us begin to access larger & larger amounts of information (& services), in less time, these online activities continue to raise new issues & challenges. In speaking with our visitors and researching several of the most important privacy issues to date, we have formulated this privacy policy.

CREDIT EARTH COMMITMENT:

Credit Earth.com is committed to working with industry related non-profit organizations, public policy groups, & government institutions to understand and address the current & future challenges of online activities. Most importantly, we work to maintain a relationship with you, and our visitor's that is founded on trust. If we do not have your trust and are not serving you well, then we have no reason to continue. If there is an issue you would like us to address, please send us your feedback. Any information you can provide will be genuinely appreciated and will allow us to better serve you (in this arena or any of our consumer credit service sections).

Credit Earth wants to make your online experience educational, effective, and safe. Our data collection policies allow you to choose how much information you provide to us, and to control how we use that information. When you visit us, our goal is to allow you to learn a lot and have a great online experience, while allowing you complete control over your privacy. Credit Earth collects information primarily to make it easier and more rewarding for you to use our services. Depending on the section you are accessing, you could be asked at various times to provide information such as your name, email address, or information about what you like and do not like. If we ever provide items for purchase online, we may request your credit card number to conclude the transaction or your mailing address to ensure proper delivery. This information is requested only to provide our best value to you. Customers that visit us often are what make us successful - so we do everything we can to make Credit Earth your favorite and most useful online credit information resource. As a brief summary, we wanted to define two types of information that are typically collected online:

1. Anonymous Information refers to information that cannot be connected to a specific individual. For instance, we may know that 5,000 people visit this privacy policy today, but we do not necessarily know their names, where they live, or their date of birth. What we collect from transactions such as this is considered to be anonymous information. One example being your public transportation service, they know how many people have traveled this past year and may even know which mode of transportation was chosen (bus, train etc.) but they don't necessarily know who those people are.

2. Identifiable Information refers to information that tells us more specifically who you are, such as your name, phone number, or email address. In most cases we will only ask for this information to provide you with a more personalized service or an offering when it becomes available. Examples of the use of such information would be our "Earth Friendly News" which uses your email address to inform you of new offerings, or services you have requested information on. We hope that, like many of our customers, you will find it beneficial to provide Identifiable Information to Credit Earth so that we may provide more valuable free content and greater service to you. In conclusion, the amount of Identifiable Information that you choose to disclose to Credit Earth is completely up to you. The only way we know something about you personally is if you use our personalized "Earth Friendly News" service or take advantage of one of our "Earth Crazy" offers.

CREDIT EARTH ON SPAM:

In the online world, unsolicited email is referred to as "spam." Nearly all of us at one time or another will find spam in our inboxes. Unfortunately, there is no current solution to completely prevent the delivery of spam, although our Earth Friendly team is constantly working on solutions that help. Here are few ways your email address can become available to "spammers". You may have entered your email address off of the Credit Earth site where you signed up for a product or service. Or maybe you posted a message to a discussion board and included your email address - from which it can be automatically plucked by disreputable firms. Or, you might have done nothing at all. Unfortunately, some spammers send massive amounts of email to various Internet domains. These individuals target large lists of probable email names (like "John") and the resultant email address (like "john@aol.com"). While these activities aren't very inefficient, they are a way for spammers to get mail out to people who have not provided their names or addresses. Your best bet is simply to delete such email from your inbox if you find any. Unfortunately, all of us receive spam. We do not condone these activities and are active in pursuing solutions, including supporting the development of new laws and regulations to stem email spamming. Credit Earth.com & any CE site are not responsible for this unfortunate activity, and largely cannot stop it from occurring when it originates from domains off of our sites. We can and will, however, take action(s) against anyone who utilizes any of our email services as the launching pad for spam, whether those prospective spam recipients be our visitors or not. Sending spam from our domain is a serious breach of our Terms of Service that can be expected to lead to immediate action. Finally, Credit Earth does occasionally send outbound email communications to our visitors - and we hope you never think of it as spam. To ensure that this is the case, we have strong policies in place that allow you to control the delivery of this content, or to prevent it altogether if that is your preference. For information about the controls that we make available to you, please see the information below about unsubscribing from "Earth Friendly News".

WHAT INFORMATION MAY BE GATHERED:

In our effort to provide personalization and opportunities for prizes and services, we may at times ask you to submit information such as your name, email address, or to share your interests and hobbies with us. You never have to answer these questions, and you can decline this exchange of information on any site. When you surf the Internet, your Internet browser (such as Netscape Navigator™ or Microsoft Internet Explorer™) automatically transmits some information to Credit Earth every time you access content on one of our sites, whether accessing it from the Credit Earth cable Internet access service or through another Internet service provider. Examples of such information include the URL of the Web page you were just on (known as the "Refer"), the IP (or Internet Protocol) address of the computer you are using, or the browser version you are using to access our site. All of this information is collected by Credit Earth and is used to help improve our offerings to you. For instance, from this information we determined that few of our customers use older browser versions. Because of this we recently decided to enhance the quality of content available to all of our customers by using the advanced features of HTML that cannot be accessed from those older browser versions. All of the information that is automatically submitted to us by your browser is considered "Anonymous Information" as defined above.

CREDIT EARTH ON COOKIES:

There is a lot of confusion about cookies, how they are used, and what they can do. Cookies only contain information that the server computer "knew" in the first place, and can only be read by the serving domain that placed them. For instance, Yahoo!™ utilizes cookies, but Credit Earth's servers can't read their contents nor can Yahoo!'s servers read ours. Cookies are an essential part of how the Internet works today, and allow server computers to recognize your computer's browser when you return. If you have ever gone to a Web page that automatically provides personalized content without you having to "sign in," such as your own stock portfolio, this is almost certainly being accomplished with a cookie. Since cookies are only text files, they cannot "run" on your computer and have no ability to search your computer for other information, or transmit it to anyone. Cookies are part of the technology implemented by your Web browser. Please do not just take our word for it, read what the companies who wrote the browsers have to say.

For Netscape, please visit: http://home.netscape.com/security/basics/privacy.html#cookies

For Microsoft, please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/insider/internet/articles/security2.htm#cookies

To enable a few of the features available within the Credit Earth site, we may assign "cookies" to your Internet browser (such as Netscape Navigator™ or Microsoft Internet Explorer™). A cookie is a small text file that contains a unique identification number stored on your computer. Cookies by themselves cannot be used to find out the identity of any user. This unique identification number automatically identifies your browser - but not you - to our computers whenever you interact on one of our Internet domains. When you visit our site, a cookie in effect says to our server computers "Hello, I'm browser #105. Have I been here before ? Yes, because of this Is there anything you do just for me?" Every Web page that you access that includes advertising or content from Credit Earth will have the contents of your cookie reported in our server logs. But only when you agree to provide personal and Identifiable Information to us directly, such as through a mail sign up form, will we be able to know anything about you other than the random number that our server computers originally assign to your browser.

WHO IS COLLECTING THE INFORMATION:

The data you provide in any Internet domain of Credit Earth, including Credit Earth.com, is collected by Credit Earth.com. Because you are online, it is assumed that you are a user of an ISP or other access service/provider. Because of this you have a second, separate, relationship with the individual or company that is directly providing these services to you. This individual or company received the necessary information from you to create your account. It is very important to note that subsequent Identifiable Information regarding you or your online activities will not ever be made known to them, unless deemed vital by a court of law. The company(s) offering you internet services also have their own independent policies relating to the protections they employ to safeguard (& or distribute) your information. These policies should have been provided to you by your service provider(s) when your Internet service was installed, and apply to you thereafter, for as long as you remain their customer. These various policies are outside of Credit Earth.com's control and questions regarding them should be made directly to those firms.

HOW IT IS USED:

Our services have been designed to enable Credit Earth to provide personalized updates to those customers who wish to receive it. The majority of the services that are provided for free through Credit Earth.com are the result of partner revenues. Our ability to provide enhanced services and content to our visitors is dependent on our ability to provide venues for our partners that reach specific demographic segments of our visitors. As a matter of policy we provide no mechanism for an advertiser to reach you or any other specific customer unless you enable that contact. Instead, our advertising partners may have the need to reach visitors who share common demographic characteristics. For instance, if a certain aspect of one of our services is requested more by students than by visitors in their 30's then a partner may prefer to target their message to either just students or visitors in their 30's, depending on their offering. The better job Credit Earth does in providing a mechanism for partners to reach specific sub-segments of our visitors, the more revenue we can generate from joint branding and marketing, which ultimately are what allow you the consumer to access & view the wealth of free content that is available within the various sections of the Credit Earth.com site. Importantly, at no time is your Identifiable Information used to determine what marketing you receive nor do we use it to determine what type of advertising any other visitor to Credit Earth.com will receive. Below is a description of the uses of the information that we collect and how our visitors and partners benefit from these actions:

1. We pay attention to what our visitors do, which allows us to eliminate services you do not want or prefer to use.

2. We provide site specific content for some of our partners in the form of updates & advertisements, and more for our Members.

3. We provide links to card & report providers that support your specific requests for information through feedback & e-mail inquiries.

4. We develop summary - but not individual - reports for ourselves and some partners if requested. An example of a summary report might be "7,000 people clicked on link 'B' today, and of those people, 0% had previously clicked on it before." Our partners, who make it possible for you to use Credit Earth for free, are allowed use of this information to determine how effective their services are. We never tell our partners who it was that saw or clicked on their links, unless you have specifically told us it is acceptable to do so (ex. By clicking on a credit card link and filling out an application on a partners' site, you have requested their services and in doing so have agreed to provide them with the necessary information to open an account etc. with them and let them know who you are.).

5. If you take advantage of one of our great promotions or a contest, we may use the information you supplied to contact you. We'll probably also congratulate you !

6. Through our "Earth Friendly News", we will send outbound email communications on information we think you might find useful, including information about new products and services from our selected partners. It is our policy to never send messages to visitors who have asked us not to do so, either in a sign-up form or later through an unsubscribe process. In every email from any "Earth Friendly News" or update, we will remind you of your option to change your preferences regarding receipt of future email communications. If you would like to unsubscribe from our "Earth Friendly News" at any time, please just send us an e-mail, letting us know you would prefer not to receive any more updates.

7. Finally, if we believe that Credit Earth.com property or an individual's safety or security is at risk, we will disclose this information to proper court or law enforcement agencies.

INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION:

If you are providing personal and Identifiable Information within a CE site, it will only be used within CE domains unless you choose to allow third party data sharing (by opting in for such distribution through a sign-up process). Should you choose to provide your information to third parties, Credit Earth may share aspects of your information with our valued partners. Some of these transactions will include financial payment to Credit Earth for the information provided but are only undertaken with companies whose privacy practices are consistent with the principles established within this policy and with whom Credit Earth believes that a product that truly benefits our visitors can be promoted. All of our partners help contribute towards many of the free services available on the Credit Earth.com site. Although unlikely, Credit Earth.com may be required by law enforcement or judicial authorities to provide Identifiable Information to the appropriate governmental authorities. If requested law enforcement or judicial authorities, we will provide this information upon receipt of the appropriate documentation.

Other companies who have links on our site may collect information about you when you view or click on their link through the use of cookies (using the same techniques as described above). Due to the way the Internet technically operates, we cannot control this collection of information or the results of you sending and or receiving timely products or services for it. You should contact these companies or content providers directly if you have any questions about their use of the information they collect. Information that you provide while using services such as our Earth Board is available for all to see - discretion should be used in entering personal and identifiable information within such forums as it may be collected by third-parties - this is a leading source of unwanted email, for instance. The Credit Earth site does not associate its' Earth Board users with any other records of information required for "Earth Friendly News" etc.. And finally, Credit Earth.com does not control the information collection and distribution policies on Internet domains other than those internet domains that are part of CE itself. We do, however, encourage our co-branding partners to adopt privacy policies similar to this one.

WHAT CHOICES ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FOR THE COLLECTION/PROTECTION/DISTRIBUTION OF INFORMATION:

Credit Earth.com offers you the ability to control the email communications we make to you. It is our intention to give you as much control over our relationship as possible. First, as mentioned earlier, you have the final word on whether Credit Earth - or any Internet based company - knows who you are. It is your choice to share personal & identifiable information with Credit Earth and we encourage you to consider only sharing information with any site on the internet if you receive true value for the information transfer and if you respect the privacy practices of the firm. If you do choose to share personal & identifiable information with Credit Earth, you can control whether we contact you or share the information with third parties, either through declarations you make at the time you share information with us, or through updates to your information in the "Earth Friendly News" area. At times, the Credit Earth may enter into co-branding arrangements with other companies, and if so, an opt-in question may be present for contact from these firms as well. Their opt-out features are specific to each organization, but you should never receive email from these organizations unless you have indicated that it is acceptable. All email from Credit Earth.com, or from co-brand partners who gain your permission to send you commercial email, will include an opportunity to opt out of future communications. Credit Earth.com reserve the right to send a one-time confirmation email, and rare messages to its visitors to inform them of specific changes that may impact their ability to use a service they have previously utilized, regardless of email contact opt-in status. An example of a Earth Alert message would be notification of the impending closure of a site segment or information on a company they may have worked with that is believed to be important. Additionally, Credit Earth.com reserve the right to send its opt in visitors periodic postal mail and/or email regarding administrative topics, for example, changes in pricing or operating policies. And finally, we also reserve the right to contact you if compelled to do so or if there has been a violation of our Terms of Service. Credit Earth.com is retaining these rights because in limited cases we feel that we may need the right to contact you about matters which will be important to you. These rights do not allow us to contact you to market a new or existing service if you have asked us not to do so.

CURRENT SECURITY FEATURES IN PLACE TO PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION:

Credit Earth.com operates secure networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary, and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our visitors. Any other transaction that takes place off of our site, even if linked from our site, is not within our control. You the consumer are ultimately responsible for the security of your personal information and determining which sites are worthy of any of you personal information.

WHERE TO MAKE CORRECTIONS:

Credit Earth.com believes strongly in providing you with the ability to access and edit the personal information that you have provided to us. To update your contact information or remove your name, please visit our earth news ! section.