Our Commitment to Privacy
Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy we provide this notice
explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the
way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy to find, we
make it available on our homepage and at every point where personally identifiable
information may be requested. Our privacy policy is designed to inform you of the types
of information we collect, how we use that information, and the circumstances under
which we will share it with nonaffiliated third parties.
Information Collection and Use
Michigan Family Forum is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We
will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways differently than we have
disclosed in this statement. Michigan Family Forum collects information from our users at
several different points on our website.
Examples of the types of nonpublic personal information collected at these pages are:
Additionally, we collect nonpublic personal information about you from the following
sources (in addition to our website):
Categories of Nonaffiliated Third Parties to Whom we May Disclose Nonpublic Personal
Information Nonaffiliated third parties are those companies not under direct or indirect
ownership or control with Michigan Family Forum.
We only disclose personal information about you to the following types of nonaffiliated
third parties: Financial services providers, such as companies engaged in banking, credit
cards, and consumer finance.
We may also share the information we collect, as described above, with other
nonaffiliated third parties such as third parties who may assist us in preparing monthly
statements, and credit reporting agencies to whom we report information about your
transactions with us.
Please be advised that any opt out rights described below will not apply with the sharing
of information necessary for us to process applications, such as with consumer reporting
agencies, or to perform services that you request.
By way of further example:
Registration
In order to use this website, a user must first complete the registration form. During
registration a user is required to give their full contact information. This information is
used to evaluate the application and contact the user about the services on our site for
which they have expressed interest. In order for this website to properly fulfill its
obligation to our customers, it is necessary for us to supplement the information we
receive with information from 3rd party sources. For example, to determine if our
customers qualify for our service as an ISO, we use the name, driver’s license, and social
security number to request a credit report for use in evaluating the creditworthiness of the
applicant.
Order
We request information from consumers making purchases from our registered
merchants within our shopping cart and order processing interfaces. Here a user must
provide contact information (like name and shipping address), financial information (like
credit card number, expiration date), and identity information (like social security
number or Federal Tax ID). This information is used to fill customer’s orders, for billing
purposes, and to verify the identity of the consumer to protect against fraud. If we have
trouble processing an order, this contact information is used to get in touch with the user.
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s hard drive containing information about
the user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information
while on our site. Once the user closes their browser, the cookie simply terminates
Log Files
We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement, and
gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to
personally identifiable information.
Sharing
We partner with other parties to provide specific services. When the user signs up for
these services, we will share names, or other contact information that is necessary for the
third party to provide these services. These parties are not allowed to use use nonpublic
personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.
We do not otherwise disclose nonpublic information to anyone, except as permitted by
law.
Links
This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we, Michigan Family Forum,
are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users
to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every
web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies
solely to information collected by this Web site. Operators may be subject to the FTC’s
privacy regulations and if so, (i) the FTC’s regulations contain sample disclosures that
operators may consider; and (ii) operators may be required to send annual notices in
addition to initial disclosures to their customers.
Security
This website takes precautions to protect our users’ information. When users submit
sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and off-
line. When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as
credit card number, social security number, and/or Federal Tax ID), that information is
encrypted and is protected with SSL encryption software. While on a secure page, such
as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape
Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or
open, when you are just ‘surfing’. While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive
information online, we also protect user-information off-line. All of our users’
information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our
offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for
example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to
personally identifiable information. Our employees must use password-protected screen-
savers when they leave their desk. When they return, they must re-enter their password to
re-gain access to your information. Furthermore, ALL employees are kept up-to-date on
our security and privacy practices. Every quarter, as well as any time new policies are
added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on
privacy, and what they can do to ensure our customers’ information is protected. Finally,
the servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure
environment, behind a locked door or cage.
If you have any questions about the security at our website, you can send an email to: info@michiganfamily.org
Site and Service Updates
We also send the user site and service announcement updates. We may close your
account and/or refuse additional services if Members un-subscribe from service
announcements, which contain important information about the service. We
communicate with the user to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating
to their account via email, fax, or phone.
Correction/Updating Personal Information:
If a user’s nonpublic personally identifiable information changes (such as your zip
code), or if a user no longer desires our service, we will endeavor to provide a way to
correct, update or remove that user’s personal data provided to us. This can usually be
done by calling our headquarters at 517-374+1171 or by emailing our Customer Support
Department at info@michiganfamily.org for more instructions.
Opt-out requirements:
As provided in this policy, we only provide your nonpublic personal information to a
nonaffiliated third party in conjunction with the services that you have requested that
we provide to you. All nonaffiliated third parties to whom we disclose your nonpublic
personal information are contractually prohibited by us to disclose or use the information
other than to carry out the transactions that you have requested. Accordingly, there is
nothing for a user to opt out of with respect to how we currently use their non-public
personal information.
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on our Homepage
so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and
under circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at any point we decide to use personally
identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected,
we will notify users by way of an email or US mailing so as to enable users to “opt-
out” if we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in
accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.