Privacy Policy
This statement was last revised on December 15, 2005.
Software Support Group , Inc. and its subsidiaries (also referred to in this document as "SSG " or "SSG Consulting") provides this Privacy Statement to make you aware of our privacy practices and the choices you can make about how your personal information is collected and used, both on-line and off-line. To make this notice easy to access, there is a link to this page on every SSG web page.
Customers are SSG’s most valuable asset. We recognize that building a long-term business relationship with you depends a great deal on trust. This trust begins with our commitment to respecting as well as protecting your privacy. An integral part of this commitment is SSG’s policy . Our privacy practices are also self-certified as part of the U.S. Commerce Department's Safe Harbor Program
We've structured our web site so that you can visit us without identifying yourself or revealing any personal information. Throughout this Privacy Statement, personal information refers to any information that is unique to an individual, such as name, address, e-mail address, phone number, etc. If you do share your personal information with us, you can be assured that it will only be used to support your relationship with SSG.
SSG’s privacy statement covers 9 main areas: Notice, Choice, Access & Accuracy, Onward Transfer, Security, and Oversight/Enforcement, Tailoring Email Communications and Web Experiences, How SSG Uses Cookies and Additional Information. These areas are described in detail below. Please keep in mind that our privacy practices may vary as required by local laws and policies.
Comments or questions about our privacy practices can be sent to: privacyadvocate@ssgconsulting.com
1. Notice
What information we collect
During the course of your relationship with us, we may collect personal information to enable you to order products or services, download software updates, make requests, and register for customized communications programs. We may collect such personal information as your name, contact and billing information, transaction and credit card information. To tailor our subsequent communications to you and improve our products and services, we may ask you to provide information regarding your personal or professional interests, demographics, experience with our products and contact preferences. Personal information may be required to determine access eligibility for certain restricted parts of our site. Data collected on-line may be combined with information provided off-line.
How we use the information
SSG uses your personal information to better understand your needs and provide you with better service. Specifically, we use your personal information to help you complete a transaction, to communicate back to you, provide updates on service and benefits, and to personalize our web sites and communications with you. Credit card numbers are used only for payment processing and are not retained for other purposes. From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research or to provide you with marketing information we think would be of particular interest. We will always give you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving such contact. If you would like to read more about how to opt-out, please follow the directions given below in the "Choice" section of this document. In addition, we will also follow local requirements where applicable.
Whom we share the information with
SSG does not sell, rent, or lease your personal information to others. Unless we have your permission or are required by law, we only share your personal information with other SSG entities or business partners who are acting on our behalf for the uses described above. Such SSG entities and business partners are governed by our privacy policies with respect to the use of this data and are bound by the appropriate confidentiality agreements.
2. Choice
SSG will not use or share your personal information in ways unrelated to the ones described above without first notifying you and offering a choice. We will also provide you the opportunity to let us know if you wish to opt-out at any time of certain or all contact from SSG, and we will do everything we can to honor such requests. This choice may be offered at the bottom of our on-line or off-line communications to you as well as on many of our web registration pages. If you have any difficulty exercising your choices, please send your request to privacyadvocate@ssgconsulting.com
Your permission will always be secured first, should we ever decide to share your personal information with third parties that are not acting on our behalf and governed by our privacy policy.
3. Onward Transfer
Subject to your permission or as permitted by law, the personal information that you provide to us may be transferred within SSG across state or country borders. This may be done to consolidate data storage or to simplify the management of customer information.
4. Access and Accuracy
SSG strives to keep your personal information accurate. We will provide you with access to your personal information, including making every effort to provide you with online access to your registration data so that you may review, update or correct your information at the SSG site where it was submitted. To protect your privacy and security, we will also take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you access or enabling you to make corrections. To access your personal information, return to the web page where you originally entered it and follow the instructions on that web page. If you cannot access your information on the web page, please telephone the nearest SSG for assistance, or send your request to privacyadvocate@ssgconsulting.com
5. Security
SSG is committed to ensuring the security of your personal information. To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of personal information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure it.
6. Oversight/Enforcement
SSG privacy practices are self-certified as part of the U.S. Commerce Department's Safe Harbor Program. For more information please go to Safe Harbor Program website. In addition, SSG has an internal Customer Privacy Program. Its charter is to ensure appropriate privacy processes are in place in order to meet the practices outlined above.
7. Tailoring E-Mail Communications and Web Experiences
On occasion SSG may employ technologies that enable us to review which recipients have opened our e-mail communications and which links they have accessed in the message. This helps us to tailor our communications in our attempts to send you the most relevant information, as local laws and your preferences and permissions allow. As a registered user, we may also monitor your web browsing session while you are logged-in to SSGconsulting.com. In this way we will try to improve our web site through personalization to better meet your needs. Any such monitoring is done in accordance with local laws.
8. How SSG Uses Cookies
A cookie is a piece of information either stored temporarily in your browser's memory space (session cookie) or placed on your computer's hard drive (stored cookie). Many stored cookies also have a predetermined expiration date after which they disappear from your hard drive or they can be removed explicitly through functionality built into most web browsers. You may set your web browser (e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) to notify you of cookie placement requests, ask for permission to accept them, or decline cookies completely.
Adjusting Browser Cookie Settings
For information on how to adjust your browser regarding cookies, please visit:
Microsoft Internet Explorer: http://www.microsoft.com/info/cookies.htm
Netscape Navigator: http://wp.netscape.com/legal_notices/cookies.html
Session Cookies
On occasion SSG may also use session cookies to help us analyze web traffic or to improve your web navigation experience. A unique ID is assigned to help us identify you each time you return to our web site during the current browsing session. Session cookies are destroyed when you terminate your browsing session by shutting down your browser. Session cookies allow a web application to respond to you as an individual, but without the need to identify you explicitly.
One of the major concerns about stored cookies is the fear that they contain personal information and information identifying you that could be accessed by other web sites. SSG only stores a randomly chosen unique ID number and a context, both of which are meaningless to others, but help us identify you.
By gathering and remembering information about your preferences, the web application can:
Cookies help us provide a better web experience by letting us monitor what's working and what isn't through site traffic analysis. SSG wants to be sure you understand that accepting a cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any personal information about you, other than the data you chose to share with us. This practice is strictly enforced. While acknowledging the concerns that some visitors have about cookie usage, we believe that the benefit our webpage visitors gain from the use of cookies is worthwhile.
9. Additional Information
Links to Third Party Web Sites
Links to third party web sites are provided solely as a convenience to you. If you use these links, you will leave the SSG site. SSG has not reviewed all of these third party sites; does not control and is not responsible for any of these sites, their content or their privacy policies. Thus, we do not endorse or make any representations about them, or any information, software or other products or materials found there, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you decide to access any of the third party sites linked to this site, you do so entirely at your own risk.
Changes to the Privacy Statement
All material changes to our Privacy Policy and practices will be posted on this page. The revision date shown at the top of the page will be updated accordingly.
Contact Information
Please e-mail questions or comments about our privacy practices to privacyadvocate@ssgconsulting.com
