McAfee SiteAdvisor Privacy Policy
The really big picture:
- Your privacy is protected when you use the McAfee SiteAdvisor Web site (www.siteadvisor.com, the "Web Site") and when you use McAfee SiteAdvisor software. We won't sell or rent your personal information to outside parties. We won't share your personal information with outside parties except to comply with a legal order or to allow our suppliers to fulfill your request to purchase our software. It's that simple.
Additional privacy information regarding use of SiteAdvisor's software
- If you install McAfee's SiteAdvisor software on your computer, it checks our master database in order to display our safety ratings about the sites you search for or visit. For SiteAdvisor Plus users, we also check the links you use and encounter in e-mail or instant messaging programs. In order to perform these checks, our software must query our servers about these sites or links, because our database of safety ratings is far too large and too frequently changing for us to send it to you in advance when you download our software. But we collect the minimum information necessary to serve you, and your requests to us are anonymous. (Think of this as asking a tour guide in a new city you're visiting about how safe it would be to walk down "5th Street". You have to name the street to get an answer.)
- We never store information about where specific users go online or about what specific users do online. We do keep master anonymous logs of which sites our users visit so we can prioritize those sites for retesting. But these logs contain no information about which users visited which sites -- no personally identifying information, and not even users' IP addresses. (Continuing our tour guide analogy, it's as if the tour guide immediately and permanently forgot who asked about 5th Street, but did make a mental note to check the safety of that street at some point in the future.)
- Our software periodically sends us a unique, anonymous number so that we know that our software is working properly for you. This helps us know how many people are using SiteAdvisor and helps us plan the resources necessary to continue to provide you the great SiteAdvisor service. (Sticking with the tour guide analogy, this allows the tour guide to know how many people are enjoying the tour, how big of a bus we need to accommodate the tour, and how much food to prepare for lunch!)
- Additional details are available in the "End User License Agreement" of our software.
Information we collect and how we use it
- McAfee's SiteAdvisor product collects personally identifiable information such as name, e-mail, and your organization/company when you register as a user of our products, sign up for one of our newsletters, or register online with us to leave feedback about our products or our Web site ratings. We don't share this information with any outside parties, except that we may disclose this information to selected outside vendors to help process and fulfill any orders you may place with us. These companies are prohibited from using your personally identifiable information for any purpose other than for fulfilling the service you requested on our behalf.
- If you optionally choose to register with us and leave feedback about a Web site, we'll show your "nickname" (if you provide one) together with your feedback comments.
- From time to time we may offer users the opportunity to participate in optional product improvement programs, contests or other promotional programs at the explicit agreement of each user. We will explain how information is collected and used in each of these optional programs as they are announced.
- In addition, we may disclose personally-identifiable and information: (i) to third parties when we have reason to believe that disclosing the information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) our rights or property, other members or users of the Web Site, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities; and (ii) to third parties when we believe in good faith that the law requires it.
Additional information we collect from users with our software installed
- To fulfill requests for paid versions of our software, we will collect additional information from you such as mailing address, phone number and credit card information. We may disclose this information to selected outside vendors to help process and fulfill your orders.
- In order for us to help protect you online and provide ratings for the sites you visit while you're using our software, we automatically receive anonymous information about where you're currently searching, browsing or transacting online, or about the links you send and receive in e-mail or instant messages. We use this information to be able to show you safety ratings and recommendations for these sites and links. This information is not associated with any personally identifiable information. If you remove our software, this information will no longer be sent to us, and you will no longer see our site ratings and recommendations.
- We never store information about where specific users go online or about what specific users do online. We do keep master anonymous logs of which sites our users visit so we can prioritize those sites for retesting. But these logs contain no information about which users visited which sites -- no personally identifying information, and not even users' IP addresses.
Cookies
- We use cookies to recognize you when you register with us, so that you don't have to keep signing in to leave feedback as a registered user.
- It is not necessary to accept cookies to use the Web Site. If you disable cookies, you'll need to sign in each time you want to leave feedback as a registered user.
- We also use cookies to help determine how users of our software were originally referred to us.
- We do not let other companies place cookies on your computer when you access resources on our Web Site.
Your ability to edit your information on file with us and discontinue use of our product
- Users who subscribe to our optional newsletters can unsubscribe by using the unsubscribe link which is included in every newsletter.
- You can uninstall our software at any time, which will stop your Web browsing activity from being checked against our central database and will in turn disable site, search, and link safety ratings.
- We reserve the right to send you infrequent communications relating to our services, such as critical service announcements, product availability notifications, and administrative messages, as long as you are a subscriber to one of our newsletters or have our software installed.
Confidentiality and security
- Access to private and confidential data on our systems is limited to only those employees with a specific need to retrieve this information.
- We have physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards in place to protect personal information about you once we receive it on our systems.
- Though we make every effort to preserve your privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law or if we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process.
- The Web Site provides links to and information relating to various other Web sites. McAfee, its affiliates or subsidiaries assume no responsibility for the information practices of such sites. Our ratings or reviews of other sites do not imply affiliation or endorsement of those other sites.
Children
The Web Site is not directed at individuals under thirteen years of age, and we do not intend to collect any personally-identifiable information from such individuals.
Your acceptance of these terms
By using the Web Site, you signify your assent to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Web Site. Your continued use of the Web Site following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept those changes.
Changes to this privacy policy
We may update this policy at any time by simply posting such addition or modification on the Web Site. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner materially different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an e-mail or via a prominent notice on our site.
Questions and suggestions
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us by sending us an email, by calling 408-346-3230, by contacting Customer Support, or by sending a letter to Privacy Program Office, McAfee, Inc. 3965 Freedom Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054.
Effective Date: November 14, 2006