Except where a source is cited, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .
The United States does not have a comprehensive “top down” privacy law that applies to all types of data, users, and services. Instead, there are various “sector specific” laws that apply to specific types of information.
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For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) applies to services that are designed for health care providers and related entities. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) applies to any service that processes or stores electronic communications. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) applies to websites and services that are “directed to children.” Similarly, other sector specific privacy laws cover services that handle financial records, consumer credit information, government records, motor vehicle records, or student education records.
Various states also have specific laws constraining the collection, use, or sharing of certain types of information. For example, California law prohibits publicly posting or displaying social security numbers or embedding them on a card and, swiping drivers’ licenses or recording driver’s license information with limited exceptions such as age verification or fraud control.
For the most part, consumers do not have to take specific actions to exercise the rights granted to them by law. However, two important actions consumers can take are, i) filing complaints with appropriate authorities when their rights are violated and, ii) petitioning law makers to pass Bills to enact new laws and update outdated regulations.
Privacy Regulations
Welcome, and thank you for your interest in PrivacySteward.org, Inc., a not-for-profit organization (“PrivacySteward.org” or “We” or “Us”), which operates the web site located at http://privacysteward.org (the “Website”). The following Terms of Service are a legal contract between you (“You”) and PrivacySteward.org regarding your use of the Website. Visitors and users of the Website are referred to individually as “User” and collectively as “Users”.
The PrivacySteward.org website is a voluntary best effort by its founder to provide a useful online privacy resource for families.
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS OF SERVICE CAREFULLY. BY REGISTERING FOR, ACCESSING, BROWSING, OR USING THE WEBSITE, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS, INCLUDING THE PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG PRIVACY NOTICE AND ANY ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES (AS DEFINED BELOW) (COLLECTIVELY, THE “TERMS”).
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by PrivacySteward.org and while we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, expressed or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related media contained on the website for any purposes. You acknowledge that such information and materials may contain inaccuracies or errors and we expressly exclude liability for such inaccuracies or errors to the fullest extent permitted by law. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
Please be advised that the content found on PrivacySteward.org has not necessarily been reviewed by people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate or reliable information. That is not to say that you will not find valuable and accurate information at PrivacySteward.org; much of the time you will. However, PrivacySteward.org cannot guarantee the validity of the information found here.
If you need specific advice (for example, medical, legal, financial or risk management) please seek a professional who is licensed or knowledgeable in that area.
Although we work hard to ensure information on our website remains accurate, it is quite possible that a companies privacy programs, certification status or available choices may have been updated on their websites but not on ours. As a result content on our website may become stale or obsolete or no longer be accurate. We therefore recommend using our website as a source of information and reference as it was intended to be and to always cross check with the institutions website.
PrivacySteward.org also provides hypertext links to many external web pages (“external links”). These external links are to a company’s contact or privacy policy pages, content that is relevant for consumers such as, file a complaint, obtain a consumer report, etc., or to product or services pages, privacy news, articles, reports and other content we deem to be current and relevant for our users.
However, by providing external links, PrivacySteward.org neither guarantees, approves, nor endorses the information or products available on these web pages. More so, we may remove external links from time to time, without notice, temporarily or permanently, if we believe the information is no longer relevant or accurate or if we receive a request to do so by the web page owners.
Some of content that appears on the website was obtained from public domain sources, primarily US Government Databases, Websites and Reports or from various profit and not-for-profit content provider for use with proper attribution with the objective of making PrivacySteward.org website a more useful resource for consumers.
PrivacySteward.org is not peer reviewed. While users may submit requests, corrections or engage in casual peer review, they have no legal duty to do so and thus all information read here is without any implied warranty of fitness for any purpose or use whatsoever.
None of the contributors, sponsors, administrators or anyone else connected with PrivacySteward.org in any way whatsoever can be responsible for the appearance of any inaccurate or libelous information or for your use of the information contained in or linked from these web pages.
PrivacySteward.org reserves the right, at our discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of the Terms at any time. Please check the Terms and any Guidelines periodically for changes. Your continued use of the Website after the posting of changes constitutes your binding acceptance of such changes. For any material changes to the Terms, PrivacySteward.org will make reasonable effort to provide notice to you of such amended Terms, such as by an email notification to the address associated with your account or by posting a notice on the Website, and such amended terms will be effective against You on the earlier of (i) your actual notice of such changes and (ii) thirty days after PrivacySteward.org makes reasonable attempt to provide you such notice. Disputes arising under these Terms will be resolved in accordance with the version of the Terms in place at the time the dispute arose.
Please make sure that you understand that the information provided here is being provided freely, and that no kind of agreement or contract is created between you and the owners or users of this site, the owners of the servers upon which it is housed, the individual PrivacySteward.org contributors, any project administrators, or anyone else who is in any way connected with this project subject to your claims against them directly.
You are being granted a limited license to copy textual material from this website, except where otherwise noted, in which case you are subject to terms of the content provider.
Moreover, the limited license only applies to textual material and not to any images, videos, music, software or hardware, which, in all cases is the property of PrivacySteward.org.
Furthermore, the limited license granted to you does not create or imply any contractual or extra contractual liability on the part of PrivacySteward.org or any of its agents, members, organizers or other users.
There is no agreement or understanding between you and PrivacySteward.org regarding your use or modification of this information beyond the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA) and the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL); neither is anyone at PrivacySteward.org responsible should someone change, edit, modify or remove any information that you may provide or post on PrivacySteward.org.
Any of the trademarks, service marks, collective marks, design rights or similar rights that are mentioned, used or cited on PrivacySteward.org are the property of their respective owners. Unless otherwise stated PrivacySteward.org is neither endorsed by nor affiliated with any of the holders of any such rights and as such PrivacySteward.org cannot grant any rights to use any otherwise protected materials. Your use of any such or similar incorporeal property is at your own risk.
It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. Upon receipt of a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) compliant notice, PrivacySteward.org, Inc., will expeditiously remove or disable access to the content that is the subject of the notice.
If you are a copyright owner or an authorized agent thereof, and you wish to file a notice of infringement with us, then you may submit a notice by providing PrivacySteward.org Inc.’s Designated Copyright Agent with the following information in writing (please consult your legal counsel or See 17 U.S.C. Section 512(c)(3) to confirm these requirements):
Please note that under Section 512(f) of the DMCA, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be subject to liability. If you are unsure whether the material available online infringes your copyright, we suggest that you contact an attorney before sending us a notice.
PrivacySteward.org Inc. designated agent can be reached at the following address for sending written notifications and counter-notifications of claimed infringement:
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless PrivacySteward.org, its affiliated companies, contractors, employees, agents and its third-party suppliers, licensors, and partners from any claims, losses, damages, liabilities, and expenses (including legal fees and expenses), arising out of any use or misuse of the Website, any violation of the Terms, or any breach of the representations, warranties, and covenants made herein by You.
No Warranties. THE WEBSITE, AND ALL DATA, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, WEBSITE MATERIALS, CONTENT, USER CONTENT, REFERENCE SITES, SERVICES, OR APPLICATIONS MADE AVAILABLE IN CONJUNCTION WITH OR THROUGH THE WEBSITE, ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS,” “AS AVAILABLE,” AND “WITH ALL FAULTS” BASIS. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE PURSUANT TO APPLICABLE LAW, PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG, AND ITS AFFILIATES AND LICENSORS, DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS, WHETHER STATUTORY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG OR THROUGH THE WEBSITE WILL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED HEREIN.
Content. PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG, AND ITS SUPPLIERS, LICENSORS, AND AFFILIATES, DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE WEBSITE OR ANY DATA, USER CONTENT, FUNCTIONS, OR ANY OTHER INFORMATION OFFERED ON OR THROUGH THE WEBSITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, OR FREE OF ERRORS, VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS, AND DO NOT WARRANT THAT ANY OF THE FOREGOING WILL BE CORRECTED.
Harm to Your Computer. YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOUR USE, ACCESS, DOWNLOAD, OR OTHERWISE OBTAINING OF CONTENT, WEBSITE MATERIALS, SOFTWARE, OR DATA THROUGH THE WEBSITE (INCLUDING THROUGH ANY API’S) IS AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK, AND THAT YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR PROPERTY (INCLUDING YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM) OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS THEREFROM.
Limitations by Applicable Law. SOME STATES OR OTHER JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER RIGHTS THAT VARY FROM STATE TO STATE AND JURISDICTION TO JURISDICTION.
Limitation of Liability. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, NEGLIGENCE, WILL PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG OR ITS AFFILIATES, CONTRACTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, OR THIRD-PARTY PARTNERS, LICENSORS, OR SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, RELIANCE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES ARISING FROM ANY UNSUCCESSFUL COURT ACTION OR LEGAL DISPUTE, LOST BUSINESS, LOST REVENUES OR PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA, OR ANY OTHER PECUNIARY OR NON-PECUNIARY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY NATURE WHATSOEVER) ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE TERMS OR YOUR USE OF (OR INABILITY TO USE) THE WEBSITE OR ANY REFERENCE SITES, OR ANY OTHER INTERACTIONS WITH PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG, EVEN IF PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG OR A PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. APPLICABLE LAW MAY NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY OR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IN SUCH CASES, PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG’S LIABILITY WILL BE LIMITED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.
Limitation of Damages. IN NO EVENT WILL PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG’S OR ITS AFFILIATES’, CONTRACTORS’, EMPLOYEES’, AGENTS’, OR THIRD-PARTY PARTNERS’, LICENSORS’, OR SUPPLIERS’ TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL DAMAGES, LOSSES, AND CAUSES OF ACTION ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE TERMS OR YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE OR YOUR INTERACTION WITH OTHER WEBSITE USERS (WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), WARRANTY, OR OTHERWISE), EXCEED THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU, IF ANY, FOR ACCESSING THE WEBSITE DURING THE TWELVE MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE DATE OF THE CLAIM OR ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS, WHICHEVER IS GREATER.
Basis of the Bargain. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG HAS OFFERED THE WEBSITE AND ENTERED INTO THE TERMS IN RELIANCE UPON THE DISCLAIMERS AND THE LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY SET FORTH HEREIN, THAT THE DISCLAIMERS AND THE LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY SET FORTH HEREIN REFLECT A REASONABLE AND FAIR ALLOCATION OF RISK BETWEEN YOU AND PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG, AND THAT THE DISCLAIMERS AND THE LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY SET FORTH HEREIN FORM AN ESSENTIAL BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN YOU AND PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG. PRIVACYSTEWARD.ORG WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO PROVIDE THE WEBSITE TO YOU ON AN ECONOMICALLY REASONABLE BASIS WITHOUT THESE LIMITATIONS.
Severability. If any provision of the Terms or any Guidelines is held to be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision will be limited or eliminated from the Terms to the minimum extent necessary and will not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
Assignment. The Terms and related Guidelines, and any rights and licenses granted hereunder, may not be transferred or assigned by You without PrivacySteward.org’s prior written consent, but may be assigned by PrivacySteward.org without consent or any restriction. Any assignment attempted to be made in violation of the Terms shall be null and void.
Survival. Upon termination of the Terms, any provision which, by its nature or express terms should survive, will survive such termination or expiration, including, but not limited to, Sections 5 through 13.
Headings. The heading references herein are for convenience purposes only, do not constitute a part of the Terms, and will not be deemed to limit or affect any of the provisions hereof.
Entire Agreement. The Terms, the Privacy Notice and Guidelines constitute the entire agreement between You and PrivacySteward.org relating to the subject matter herein and will not be modified except in writing, signed by both parties, or by a change to the Terms, Privacy Notice or Guidelines made by PrivacySteward.org as set forth in Section 5 above.
Disclosures. The Website is hosted in the United States, and the services provided hereunder are offered by PrivacySteward.org, Inc., Voorhees Post Office, P.O. Box 194, Voorhees, NJ 08043; admin@PrivacySteward.org.
Thank you for visiting the PrivacySteward.org website and reviewing our Privacy Notice. Our website and privacy policy is designed with your Privacy in mind.
Email Address and Name
We collect your email address and name only when you ask a question on our website or subscribe to our notifications. This is only to respond to your question or to include you in our notification
service when you make such a request (by filling out our online subscription form). Email is not a secure medium. Personal information sent via the Internet can be intercepted and you may wish
to reconsider the advisability of sending messages that contain personal information.
IP Address
We do not collect your full IP address (such as 212.32.55.91) but instead anonymize it first (to 212.32.0.0) to confirm to our goal to protect users privacy. We collect this information only
for understanding usage patterns, website performance and tracking issues that are relevant for improving our service.
Do Not Track Mechanism
We honor Do Not Track when you set your web browser to "I do not want to be tracked" (i.e. DoNotTrack is enabled) in which case we will not track your visit.
Cookies and Beacons
We do not use cookies, beacons or any other tracking technologies to identify you on our website. We only use session cookies to improve your user experience and these cookies expire when you close your browser.
We do not allow advertising companies to collect data through our service for ad targeting.
Advertising Policy
We do not allow advertising companies to collect data through our service for ad targeting and we do not market or sell any products on our website.
Links to Other Sites
We provide links to third party websites to improve your experience on our website but not for the purpose of offering third party products or services.
Third party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We take no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about our sites.
Compliance to Laws
In accordance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA), we agree to notify users of any privacy policy changes on our Privacy Policy Page.
In accordance with the Fair Information Practices Act, we agree to notify our subscribers immediately in the event of a data breach on our website.
In accordance with the CANSPAM Act, we agree to the following:
If at any time you would like to Unsubscribe from receiving future emails from notifications@privacysteward.org, you can follow the Unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email.
Changes and updates to this Privacy Notice
PrivacySteward.org may modify or revise this Privacy Notice from time to time. PrivacySteward.org will notify Users of any change to our Privacy Notice by posting the revised Privacy Notice with an updated date of revision on our Website,
along with a short notice of the revision posted on the Website homepage. We will not change how we use any Personal Information in any material way without also providing notice of the change via email, through this website, or through
other means, and obtaining consent to any new uses.
Data Security
If we learn of a data security incident that compromises or appears to compromise your Personal Information, then we will attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. We may also post a notice
on the Website if a data security incident occurs.
PrivacySteward.org uses certain physical, managerial, and technical safeguards designed to preserve the integrity and security of your Personal Information and other information we maintain in connection with the Website. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of any or all of the information you transmit to PrivacySteward.org, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission of information, PrivacySteward.org makes commercially reasonable efforts to ensure the security of our systems. However, please note that this is not a guarantee that such information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.
Contacting Us
If there are any questions regarding this privacy policy you may contact us by email at admin@privacysteward.org or by writing to us at,
PrivacySteward.org
To find Privacy Actions by Category, type the first few letters of keywords like credit, report, health, complaint, opt out, unlist, ads, verify, offer, petition, etc. OR just "Select a Category" from the list.
Alternately, you can find a Privacy Action by typing keywords in the "Search By Keyword" box.
To find an Institution by Category, type the first few letters of keywords like retail, bank, credit, marketing, insurance, telecom, government, online, etc. OR just "Select a Category" from the list.
Alternately, you can find an Institition by typing the first few letters of the institution name in the "Search by Institution Name" box.
To find a relevant Regulation or Bill pending regulation in Congress simply, "Select One or More Privacy Concerns" from the list.
You can also narrow down the list by typing the first few letters of a keyword, e.g. child, social, health, financial, etc.
To find a relevant Privacy Program simply, "Select One or More Privacy Concerns" from the list.
You can also narrow down the list by typing the first few letters of a keyword, e.g. child, social, health, financial, etc.