LocalTop Privacy Policy  

Effective August 16, 2009 

Your right to privacy is very important. We recognize that when you choose to provide us with your information, you trust us to act in a responsible manner. We believe this information should only be used to help us provide you with our service. That's why we have put a privacy policy in place to protect your personal information.  

When you use the Localtop service to submit a service request, you will be asked to provide your personal contact information.   

We will not provide this information to 3^rd parties for marketing purposes.   

Our policy for uses of your information is described below.   
 

Privacy Policy 

BackWeb Technologies, Inc. d/b/a LocalTop (“LocalTop” or “We”) provides this Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information we receive from users of www.localtop.com (this “Site”).  This Privacy Policy applies only to information that you provide to us through this Site.  This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time.  We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on the Site.  You are advised to consult this policy regularly for any changes.  Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our LocalTop Terms of Service at http://www.localtop.com/terms-of-service.html.  

As used in this policy, the terms “using” and “processing” information include using cookies on a computer, subjecting the information to statistical or other analysis and using or handling information in any way, including, but not limited to collecting, storing, evaluating, modifying, deleting, using, combining, disclosing and transferring information within our organization or among our affiliates within the United States or internationally.   

Information Collection and Use 

Our primary goals in collecting information are to provide and improve our Site, services, features and content, to administer your use of the Site (together, the “Service”) and to enable users to enjoy and easily navigate the Site.   

Personally Identifiable Information.   

• When you register with us through the Site or use the Site and submit a Service Request to contact the businesses listed on the Site (“Service Providers”), we will ask you for personally identifiable information.  This refers to information about you that can be used to contact or identify you (“Personal Information”).  Personal Information includes, but is not limited to, your name, phone number, email address and home and business postal addresses.  We use your Personal Information mainly to provide the Service and administer your inquiries.  For example, we use your name and phone number to connect you with the Service Providers you request and use your name, phone number and email to follow up with you for satisfaction surveys related to the Service Request.

 

• We also collect the other information that you provide in your use of the Site or registration to the Site, such as the types of services and service areas for which you search and individual preferences (“Non-Identifying Information”).  Also, after you submit a Service Request, we will survey you by telephone, email or other electronic message to understand the quality of your experience with our Site and the Service Providers, including the services received and the price paid (“Your User Comments”).  If, during the survey, you give us your permission, we will publish Your User Comments (at our discretion) and attribute these comments to you in a non-identifiable way, such as the first initial of your first name and your city.  Your User Comments and their Non-Identifying Information attribution are considered Non-Identifying Information. 

 

• We use your Personal Information (in some cases, in conjunction with your Non-Identifying Information) mainly to provide the Service, complete your transactions, and administer your inquiries.  

 

• Certain Non-Identifying Information would be considered a part of your Personal Information if it were combined with other identifiers (for example, combining your Service Request history with your phone number or address) in a way that enables you to be identified.  But the same pieces of information are considered Non-Identifying Information when they are taken alone or combined only with other non-identifying information (for example, your viewing preferences).  We may combine your Personal Information with Non-Identifying Information and aggregate it with information collected from other LocalTop Users (defined below) to attempt to provide you with a better experience, to improve the quality and value of the Service and to analyze and understand how our Site and Service are used.  We may also use the combined information without aggregating it to serve you specifically, for instance to deliver a product to you according to your preferences or restrictions.

 

• We also use your Personal Information to contact you with LocalTop newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you.  If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive such communications from us, please follow the unsubscribe instructions provided in any of the communications or update your “user preferences” information. (See “Changing or Deleting Information,” below.) 

 
 

Log Data.  When you visit or use the Site (a “LocalTop User”), our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website (“Log Data”).  This Log Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type or the webpage you were visiting before you came to our Site, pages of our Site that you visit, the time spent on those pages, information you search for on our Site, access times and dates, and other statistics.  We use this information to monitor and analyze use of the Site and the Service and for the Site’s technical administration, to increase our Site’s functionality and user-friendliness, and to better tailor it to our visitors’ needs.  For example, some of this information is collected so that when you visit the Site again, it will recognize you and serve advertisements and other information appropriate to your interests.  We also use this information to verify that visitors to the Site meet the criteria required to process their requests.  We do not treat Log Data as Personal Information or use it in association with other Personal Information, though we may aggregate, analyze and evaluate such information for the same purposes as stated above regarding other Non-Identifying Information.  

Cookies 

Like many websites, we use “cookies” to collect information.  A cookie is a small data file that we transfer to your computer’s hard disk for record-keeping purposes.  We use cookies for two purposes.  First, we utilize persistent cookies to save your search preferences and Personal Information and registration ID and login password for future use of the Site.  Second, we utilize session ID cookies to enable certain features of the Site, to better understand how you interact with the Site and to monitor aggregate usage by LocalTop Users and web traffic routing on the Site.  Unlike persistent cookies, session cookies are deleted from your computer when you leave or log off from the Site and Service and then close your browser.  Third party advertisers on the Site may also place or read cookies on your browser.  You can instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit.  If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions of the Site or all functionality of the Service.   
 

Phishing

Identity theft and the practice currently known as “phishing” are of great concern to LocalTop.  Safeguarding information to help protect you from identity theft is a top priority.  We do not and will not, at any time, request your credit card information, your account ID, login password, or national identification numbers in a non-secure or unsolicited e-mail or telephone communication.  For more information about phishing, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website. 

Information Sharing and Disclosure  

Personal Information. We will share or send a copy of the name, email and phone number you provide to us when making a Service Request to the Service Provider(s) you requested so that the Service Provider(s) can follow up with you directly on the Service Request.  Your Personal Information will not be sent to any Service Provider that was not among those you requested. 

Aggregate Information and Non-Identifying Information. We may share aggregated information that does not include Personal Information and we may otherwise disclose Non-Identifying Information and Log Data with third parties for industry analysis, demographic profiling and other purposes. Any aggregated information shared in these contexts will not contain your Personal Information.  

We display Your User Comments and their Non-Identifying Information attribution on the Site.  We will also make Your User Comments and their Non-Identifying Information attribution available to third party web sites that have content sharing, marketing or other business relationships with Localtop.  We will never combine Your User Comments or Non-Identifying Information attributions with your Personal Information for display on Site or third party sites or share such combined data with any third parties for marketing purposes.  

We will not share Your User Comments directly with Service Providers unless we get your permission first.   

Third Party Companies and Contractors.  We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service, to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Site-related services (e.g., without limitation, maintenance services, database management, web analytics and improvement of the Site’s features) or to assist us in analyzing how our Site and Service are used.  These third parties have access to your Personal Information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.  

Compliance with Laws and Law Enforcement.  LocalTop cooperates with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law.  We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not limited to subpoenas), to protect the property and rights of LocalTop or a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, any illegal, unethical or legally actionable activity.  

Business Transfers.  LocalTop may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of its assets, including your Personal Information, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy.  LocalTop will notify you before transferring your information to a new entity as part of a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of some or all of its assets if the new entity's processing of your information will materially differ from that set forth in this Privacy Policy.   
 

Changing or Deleting Your Information 

All LocalTop Users may review, update, correct or delete their Personal Information by contacting us.  If you would like us to delete your record in our system, please contact us and we will attempt to accommodate your request if we do not have any legal obligation to retain the record.  See below for privacy contact information.       
 

Security

LocalTop is very concerned with safeguarding your information.  We employ administrative, physical and electronic measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access.  

We will make any legally required disclosures of any  breach of the security, confidentiality, or integrity of your unencrypted electronically stored “personal data” (as defined in applicable state statutes on security breach notification) to you via email or conspicuous posting on this Site in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, insofar as consistent with (i) the legitimate needs of law enforcement or (ii) any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system.

International Transfer 

Your information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction.  If you are located outside the United States and choose to provide information to us, LocalTop transfers Personal Information to the United States and processes it there.  Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer. 
 

Links to Other Sites

Our Site contains links to other websites.  If you choose to visit an advertiser by “clicking on” a banner ad or other type of advertisement, or click on another third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s website.  The fact that we link to a website or present a banner ad or other type of advertisement is not an endorsement, authorization or representation of our affiliation with that third party, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices.  We do not exercise control over third party websites.  These other websites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you.  Other sites follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of the personal information you submit to them.  We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit. 

Our Policy Toward Children

This Site is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13.   If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with Personal Information without their consent, he or she should contact us at privacy@localtop.com.  If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with Personal Information, we will delete such information from our files.   
 

Contacting Us  

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@localtop.com or at: Privacy Officer, Localtop, c/o BackWeb Technologies Inc., 2077 Gateway Place, Suite 500, San Jose, CA 95110.