Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy was last updated on 12/31/2019
Privacy Policy
Thank you for visiting the website located at www.freephonetracer.com, for downloading the FreePhoneTracer App, or for visiting another FreePhoneTracer website or downloading another FreePhoneTracer or affiliated mobile application that links to and utilizes this Privacy Policy (all platforms collectively referred to as the "Site"). The Site is a web-based property of FreePhoneTracer LLC. ("FreePhoneTracer," "we," "our," or "us") that enables end-user visitors to the Site ("Visitors") to conduct searches of our databases of publicly available sources of information about individuals. This Privacy Policy describes the ways in which FreePhoneTracer collects, uses, and discloses information about you when you access the Site. By accessing, viewing, downloading, or otherwise using the Site, you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as set forth in this Privacy Policy, now and as amended or modified by us.
FreePhoneTracer also provides a quick and easy process to allow individuals to remove their information from our People Search results, whether or not they are a user of the Site. If you would like to opt out of our People Search results, click here. For more information about our opt-out process, please see our Opt-Out FAQ.
Information Collected by FreePhoneTracer
FreePhoneTracer is a database of publicly available sources of information aggregated for your convenience. Through FreePhoneTracer, Visitors can access certain materials posted to or made available through the Site as compiled, distributed, and displayed by FreePhoneTracer and other third-party content providers ("Third-Party Providers") including, but not limited to, third-party websites or services that provide information about individuals (each, a "Search Subject") that can be searched for and accessed through the Site ("FreePhoneTracer Checks").
FreePhoneTracer gathers three types of information: information that you submit to us, information that is collected automatically about your usage of the Site, and information about Search Subjects.
Information You Submit to FreePhoneTracer
We collect information that you provide when you use the Site, including, but not limited to, when you submit an online application to become a FreePhoneTracer member ("Member"), which enables you to utilize a host of services made available to Members by and through the Site ("Member Services"); when you submit a request to opt out of FreePhoneTracer’s People Search results; when you conduct a FreePhoneTracer Check; or when you contact us with a question, comment, or request. This can include, but is not limited to, your: (a) e-mail address; (b) full name; (c) company name; (d) date of birth; (e) password; (f) mailing address; (g) credit card information; and (h) information associated with a Search Subject (such as a name, age, or address) that you use to conduct a FreePhoneTracer Check.
Information Collected Automatically About Your Usage of the Site
As is true of most web sites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you. We do this to improve services we offer you, to improve marketing, analytics, or site functionality.
When you visit the Site, we or our third-party service providers may use a "Cookie" – a small, text-only file that we save to your hard drive – or similar technologies to automatically collect and store non-personally-identifiable information about your usage of the Site such as your IP address, your browser type, the links and items you click on, ad impressions on your web browser, and the web pages you visit. Cookies enhance your experience at the Site, and are in many instances necessary for the provision of Member Services. For example, we use Cookies to store your password so you don’t have to enter it more than once, and to recognize you if you return to the Site using the same web browser.
If you do not want the Site to collect this information through Cookies, you may set your web browser to reject Cookies from the Site, or to inform you when a Cookie has been sent to your computer and provide you with the opportunity to refuse that Cookie. Each web browser is different, so please check your browser’s "Help" menu to learn how to change your Cookie preferences. Please be advised that where you disable or reject Cookies, you may not be able to use the Member Services or experience the full functionality of the Site.
Technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags, and scripts are used by FreePhoneTracer and our partners (such as marketing partners, data partners, analytics, financial, testing, optimization, and others), affiliates, or analytics or service providers (such as data providers, customer support, marketing, analytics, business development, affiliate, and other). These technologies are used in analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking users’ movements around the site, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis.
When you download and use the FreePhoneTracer Background Check App, we also may collect your mobile device’s unique identification number. We will not collect any precise geolocation information from you or your mobile device unless you expressly consent to such collection.
Third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our site or to display advertising based upon your Web browsing activity use programs that incorporate local stored objects ("LSOs") such as HTML 5 or Flash to collect and store information on your computer. Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5 LSOs. To manage Flash LSOs please click here.
Behavioral Targeting / Re-Targeting
We utilize third party ad networks, such as Google, to either display advertising on our Web site or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our ad network partners may use cookies and Web beacons to collect non-personal information about your activities on this and other Web sites to provide you targeted advertising based upon your interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may opt-out by clicking here. You may also visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ to learn about interest based advertising and how to opt-out from online behavioral ads served by some or all participating companies. Please note this does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads.
Information About Search Subjects
In connection with providing the FreePhoneTracer Checks, we collect information about Search Subjects from our third-party data providers.
Use of Information Collected by FreePhoneTracer
We use the information that we collect from you for a number of purposes, including:
- to provide you with products, services, or information you request, such as FreePhoneTracer Checks and other Member Services;
- to process, or in connection with, any payments or transactions that you authorize;
- to verify that any credit card you submit is valid and active by charging, and thereafter immediately crediting, a small sum to the card upon registration;
- to send you service-related communications to verify and manage your Member account, about the Site, about the services you request, or containing required notices (where you have indicated a preference, we will only communicate with you via the medium you select, such as by e-mail or telephone);
- to process your requests to opt out of FreePhoneTracer’s People Search results and, if you choose to do so, to create and manage your FreePhoneTracer Opt-Out account;
- to respond to your inquiries;
- to deliver marketing communications or promotional materials that may be of interest to you, subject to other terms of this Privacy Policy;
- to generate and analyze statistics about your use of the Site (e.g., to determine the demographics of our Visitors);
- for internal business purposes (e.g., to analyze and manage our business, to allow us to better tailor the Site to our Visitors’ needs);
- to customize your experience on the Site; and
- to detect and protect against fraud, infringement, or other violations of our Terms of Service.
We also may aggregate, anonymize, or merge any of the information we collect through the Site or elsewhere for these purposes, except as expressly stated otherwise in this Privacy Policy. This may include linking your Member account information with information collect through Cookies for purposes such as identifying what areas of the Site are most relevant to you and allowing us to better tailor the Site and our communications to your interests.
When you submit a request to opt out of FreePhoneTracer’s People Search results, we require that you provide an email address. FreePhoneTracer only uses this email address to (i) send you an email to verify your request to opt out, (ii) communicate with you about questions you may ask concerning your opt-out status, and (iii) if you choose, to create a FreePhoneTracer Opt-Out account to review the record(s) you have opted out on an ongoing basis. We will not sell the email address that you provide as part of the opt-out process, or use it for any other purpose, without your prior consent.
FreePhoneTracer uses data about Search Subjects to provide responses to FreePhoneTracer Checks performed through the Site.
Sharing of Information Collected by the Site
We may share the information we collect from you with third parties for the following purposes:
- with affiliates and service providers who work on our behalf including, but not limited to: credit card processing companies to process your payments for goods and services and to verify that your credit card account is valid and active; data partners to process data on our behalf (e.g., by removing duplicate information from user lists, by analyzing data); and marketing partners who may market our products to you on our behalf and provide analysis of such marketing efforts. These affiliates and service providers will have access to your information as needed to perform their functions on our behalf but we do not permit them to use your information for other purposes. In addition, apart from the circumstances described above, we will not share your credit card information with any third parties without your prior informed consent, although notwithstanding the foregoing, we reserve the right to share with third parties the fact that we have credit card information about you on file;
- in connection with providing the FreePhoneTracer Checks, with certain third-party companies (such as data partners) for the sole and exclusive purpose of verifying information applicable to the particular Search Subject. These third-party companies shall be subject to an obligation of confidentiality regarding such information, and shall not themselves store, save, or transfer such information other than as necessary to perform the applicable verification services. We will not share the information of the Search Subjects for any other purpose;
- to any acquiring entity in connection with any sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, reorganization, or liquidation of FreePhoneTracer;
- to respond to a subpoena, court order, or legal process served on us or otherwise to comply with the law;
- when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect the rights of FreePhoneTracer, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, joint ventures, or third-party service providers, and each of their respective members, officers, directors, employees, agents, shareholders, co-branders, content licensors, suppliers, contractors, attorneys, and other partners, such as to enforce or apply this Privacy Policy, the Terms and Conditions, and other applicable FreePhoneTracer agreements and policies; and
- to protect the rights, property, or safety of you or others (e.g., by exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection purposes, by providing information to law enforcement where we believe the Site is being or has been used to commit unlawful acts).
We do not share precise geolocation information (such as collected from your mobile device) with third parties unless you expressly consent to such sharing (except where in response to a valid subpoena or the like).
In addition, we may share aggregate reports comprised of the demographic, usage, and/or other characteristics of our Visitors as a group, which will never identify you personally, with third parties.
Correcting, Updating, or Removing Member Information
If the information you submit to us changes, or if you no longer desire our services, you may correct, update, or request deletion of this information by making the change on your member information page or by contacting us at the contact information listed below.
Data Retention
We will retain the information that we have collected about you until you have requested deletion of the information. If you wish to cancel your Member account or FreePhoneTracer Opt-Out account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you with services, please contact us at [email protected]. However, we may retain some or all of your information after you request deletion or cancelation, as necessary, to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
FreePhoneTracer may amend or modify this Privacy Policy, in whole or in part, from time to time in its sole discretion, effective immediately upon prominently posting a link to those changes on our Site's homepage or directly communicating them to you. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you here, at the e-mail address associated with your Member or FreePhoneTracer Opt-Out account, or by means of a notice on our home page prior to the change becoming effective. Your continued use of or access to the Site or any Member Services after any posted amendment or modification to this Privacy Policy or receipt of a Privacy Policy change notification e-mail constitutes an affirmative acknowledgment and acceptance by you of the amended or modified Privacy Policy.
Security
We endeavor to keep all information that we collect from or about you protected both online and off-line. Unfortunately, no data security system or transmission over the Internet is guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information that you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.
Marketing Opt-out
Where you receive marketing e-mails sent by us or one of our third-party advertisers, you may unsubscribe from receiving such marketing e-mails at any time by following the instructions contained at the end of the e-mail. We may maintain separate e-mail lists for different purposes, so you may need to unsubscribe from multiple lists. However, even where you unsubscribe from all of our and our third-party advertisers’ lists, you may receive marketing e-mails in the future if you opt in to a different e-mail marketing program, although you can always unsubscribe from such programs as well by following the instructions contained at the end of any e-mail you receive.
You also may, at any time, notify FreePhoneTracer that you do not wish to have FreePhoneTracer disclose your information to third parties for the purposes of sending you marketing offers and promotions by visiting www.bv-email.com.
Information sent on behalf of third-party advertisers is prepared several days in advance, so you may continue to receive e-mail from us or our third-party advertisers for up to ten (10) days after submitting an unsubscribe request as detailed above.
Links
The Site contains links to other websites on the Internet that are owned and operated by third parties. In some instances, these websites are co-branded and the third parties are entitled to use FreePhoneTracer’s name and logo on their websites. Please be aware that FreePhoneTracer is not responsible for the data practices of such websites, which shall be subject to those websites’ privacy policies. We encourage you to be aware when you leave the Site and to read the privacy policy of each and every website that you link to from the Site. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by the Site.
Blog
Our Site offers publicly accessible blogs. You should be aware that any information you provide in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them. In order to post comments within the blog area of our Site you must be a member of our service provider’s site. Our service provider will then allow us to view the comments before they are posted. To request removal of your personal information from our blog, contact us at [email protected]. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.
Social Media Widgets
Our Web site includes Social Media Widgets, such as the Share this button or interactive mini-programs that run on our site. These Features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the Feature to function properly. Social Media Features and Widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Site. Your interactions with these Features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
Children's Privacy
FreePhoneTracer is very sensitive to the issue of children's privacy. The Site, as well as its products and services, are not developed for or directed at children. Visitors under eighteen (18) years of age are not eligible to use the Site and we do not knowingly solicit or collect personal information from any Visitor that we actually know is under the age of eighteen (18). FreePhoneTracer encourages parents and guardians to spend time online with their children and to participate and monitor the interactive activities of their children. If you believe that your child has provided FreePhoneTracer with any personal information without your consent, please e-mail us at [email protected].
Contacting the Site
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the data practices of the Site, or your dealings with the Site, please feel free to contact us at 1-888-579-5910, at [email protected], or at:
FreePhoneTracer
MSC -- 211005
P.O. Box 105168
Atlanta, GA 30348-5168
All communications with us or our authorized agents may be monitored or recorded.
Notice for California Residents
In addition to the above, the following, intended solely for California residents, concerns our handling of certain personally identifiable and/or personal information as required by the California Online Privacy Protection Act and the California Consumer Privacy Act (collectively, "CCPA"). If you are a California resident, you may have additional rights where some of your "Public" and "Personal" information is concerned. If applicable, you may have the right to request that we disclose to you categories and specific pieces of Public information we may have obtained from public data sources and Personal information we may have collected directly from you, if any, and delete such, where required. Please note that we never sell Personal information obtained from you under any circumstances.
Categories of personal information we obtain, collect and/or disclose for business purposes:
Various methods for submitting requests are referenced above, as well as the specific types of Public information we obtain from publicly available data sources and/or Personal information we collect directly from our users. Per CCPA, in response to verified requests for disclosure, we will provide those "categories" of information we obtain or collect. The categories we have obtained or directly collected are: identifiers (such as name, address, email address); general geolocation information (e.g., your city and state); and/or other information that identifies or can be reasonably associated with you. We may disclose these categories of information about you or your use of the Site for business purposes (as defined by applicable law) or as required by applicable law.
How categories of Personal information could be used:
We and our service providers may use the categories of Personal information we collect from and about you consistent with the various aforedescribed business purposes and/or as required by law. Please see the relevant sections above for more information.
Sale of Public information:
CCPA sets forth certain obligations for businesses that “sell” personal information. We do not sell Personal information obtained from our site's visitors or subscribers, such as a name or email address provided when subscribing to our Site (unless such information happens to also be publicly available "Public" information that was NOT obtained from such visitors or subscribers but was instead obtained from publicly available data sources independent of anything visitors or subscribers may have provided us). As permitted by law and CCPA regulatory guidance, we may need to share certain limited information about your activity, for example through cookies (see above), with third parties in certain instances--you can control these cookies through browser settings--but this limited sharing would not constitute a sale of Personal information.
Non-discrimination for exercising your rights:
In addition to including information as to how you can exercise your rights under CCPA, please note that we will never discriminate against you for exercising your CCPA or any other rights. We will not deny you any access or service, charge you a different price, whether via a discount or other benefit, or impose fees or penalties, provide a different level of service, or the like (though CCPA permits such practices in some scenarios). CCPA permits companies to offer certain incentives that might result in different prices, rates or quality levels, but any CCPA-permitted financial incentive should reasonably relate to your information’s value and contain written terms that describe the program’s material aspects and participation in any such financial incentive program requires your prior opt-in consent, which you may revoke at any time. We do not engage in any such practices.
Authorized Agents:
You may authorize another person to submit a request on your behalf. Please note that before completing any requests, and in addition to our identification verification process, we are required to verify that your agent has been properly authorized to request information on your behalf and this may take additional time to fulfill your request.
Upon receipt of a verifiable request, CCPA provides some California residents with such additional rights as follows:
Right to Know.
You may have the right to know and see the categories of data we have obtained, collected or shared about you over the past 12 months (or if we have not done so), including:- the categories of Personal information we collected about you, or disclosed about you for a business purpose;
- the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected;
- the business or commercial purpose for collecting, obtaining or selling your personal information;
- the categories of third parties with whom we have shared your personal information; and
- the specific items of Personal information we have collected or Public information we have obtained about you.
To begin your Right-to-Know request, please email us at [email protected] or contact us via the phone number or postal address listed above. We will respond within 10 days of receipt with instructions for continuing your Right-to-know request, including any additional information needed concerning yourself so that we may search for applicable Personal information collected or Public information obtained that pertains to You. The information you provide must sufficiently match the information in our database to permit us to verify your request. An authorized agent may also make a request on your behalf.
We will endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five days of receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.
Right to Delete.
You may have the right to request that we delete information we have obtained regarding, or collected directly from, you (and ask our service providers to do the same). However, we cannot delete Personal information that we are under a legal obligation to maintain and there are a number of other exceptions that include, but are not limited to, when the information is necessary for us or a third party to do any of the following:- complete and process your transaction;
- provide you with a product or service;
- perform a contract between us and you;
- protect your security and prosecute those responsible for breaching it;
- fix our system in the case of a bug;
- protect your or other users’ free speech rights;
- comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et seq.);
- engage in public/peer-reviewed research in the public interest, adhering to all applicable ethics and privacy laws;
- comply with a legal obligation; or
- make other internal and lawful uses of information compatible with the context in which you provided it.
To begin your Right-to-Delete request, please email us at [email protected] or contact us via the phone number or postal address listed above.
Right to ask us not to sell (also known as the right to opt-out).
As explained above, we do not sell Personal information obtained from our site's visitors or subscribers, such as a name or email address provided when subscribing to our Site (unless such information happens to also be publicly available "Public" information that was NOT obtained from such visitors or subscribers but was instead obtained from publicly available data sources independent of anything visitors or subscribers may have provided us). As for the Public information obtained from publicly available data sources, for many years now, we have accommodated requests to opt-out/not to sell/share such information, which can be done in various locations on the Site. For your convenience, you may also email us at [email protected] or contact us via the phone number or postal address listed above to request that we not sell and opt-out your Public information. While we will not sell such Public information that has been opted-out, we reserve the right to disclose Public information to third parties, without notice to you, if required to do so by law, or if we have a good faith belief that disclosure is necessary to (i) act in an emergency to protect someone’s safety; (ii) comply with legal process served on us; or (iii) protect and defend our rights or property. We also reserve the right to transfer Public information to any successor-in-interest to our business.
In summary:
At no cost, you may request information each year regarding any disclosure of your Public or Personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year. You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of the rights listed above. To request access to or deletion of your information, or to exercise any other data rights under California law, please contact us using one of the methods set forth above.