This privacy statement discloses the privacy practices for The Trade Alliance barter software.

Information Collection and Use

The Trade Alliance is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement.

Registration
In order to use this website, a user must first complete the registration form. During registration a user is required to give their contact information (such as name and email address) and unique identifiers (such as social security number). This information is used to contact the user about the services on our site for which they have expressed interest. It is optional for the user to provide demographic information (such as income level and gender), but encouraged so we can provide a more personalized experience on our site.

Order
We request information from the user on orders. Here a user must provide contact information (like name and shipping address) and financial information (like credit card number, expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes. If we have trouble processing an order, this contact information is used to get in touch with the user.

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 linked to personally identifiable information.

Sharing
We will share aggregated demographic information with our partners. This is not linked to any personal information that can identify any individual person.

We use a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

We partner with another party 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 personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.

Links
This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that The Trade Alliance is 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.

Surveys & Contests
From time-to-time our site requests information from users via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Information requested may include contact information (such as name and shipping address), and demographic information (such as zip code, age level). Contact information will be used to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site.

Tell-A-Friend
If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for the friend’s name and email address. The Trade Alliance will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. The Trade Alliance stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email. The friend may contact The Trade Alliance  to request the removal of this information from their database.

Security
This website takes every precaution 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 and/or social security number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry. While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Firefox 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 do everything in our power to 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 cage.

Special Offers
We send all new members a welcoming email to verify password and user name. Established members will occasionally receive information on products, services, special deals, and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see our choice and opt-out below.

Site and Service Updates
We also send the user site and service announcement updates. Members are not able to 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 or phone.

Correction/Updating Personal Information:
If a user’s 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 at the member information page or by emailing our Customer Support [Some sites may also provide telephone or postal mail options for updating or correcting personal information].

Choice/Opt-out
Our users are given the opportunity to ‘opt-out’ of having their information used for purposes not directly related to our site at the point where we ask for the information. For example, our order form has an ‘opt-out’ mechanism so users who buy a product from us, but don’t want any marketing material, can keep their email address off of our lists.

Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter or promotional materials from our partners may opt-out of receiving these communications by replying to unsubscribe in the subject line in the email or email us. Some sites are able to offer opt-out mechanisms on member information pages and also supply a telephone or postal option as a way to opt-out.]

Users of our site are always notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with services that require an outside party, or not.

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 what 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. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.