The Packer Online Privacy Policy

The Packer and Red Book Credit Services ("RBCS") are produced by Vance Publishing Corporation (collectively, "The Packer/RBCS"). The Packer/RBCS is committed to safeguarding your privacy online. Please read the following policy to understand how your personal information will be treated as you make full use of our many offerings. By accessing, browsing, or using the Packer/RBCS web site, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, do not use this web site. The Packer/RBCS may, from time to time, revise this Privacy Policy. You should therefore periodically visit this page to determine the then current Privacy Policy to which you are bound.

The Packer/RBCS collects information in several ways from our web site. Some personal information is gathered when you register. During registration, The Packer/RBCS asks for your name, street address, telephone number, company and email address. The more information you volunteer (and the more accurate it is), the better we are able to customize your experience. Once you register you are no longer anonymous to The Packer/RBCS and you are able to take full advantage of The Packer/RBCS 's many offerings. In addition to registration we may ask you for personal information at other times, including (but not limited to) when you enter a sweepstakes, contest or promotion sponsored by The Packer/RBCS and/or our many partners; when you make a purchase from The Packer/RBCS Archive; when you post a Classified ad; when you submit a listing for a web site; and when you report a problem with one of our sites or services. If you contact The Packer/RBCS we may keep a record of that correspondence. The Packer/RBCS also occasionally asks users to complete surveys that we use for research purposes.

The Packer/RBCS 's primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you, the user, with a customized experience on our site. This includes personalization services, interactive communications, online shopping and many other types of services, some of which are completely free to you. By knowing a little about you, The Packer/RBCS is able to deliver more relevant advertisements and content, and hence better service, to you.

When you are on The Packer/RBCS site and are asked for personal information, you are sharing that information with The Packer/RBCS alone, unless it is specifically stated otherwise. If data is being collected and/or maintained by any company other than The Packer/RBCS, you will be notified prior to the time of the data collection or transfer. If you do not want your data to be shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer by not using that particular service.

Keeping your personal financial information private is vitally important to us. The Packer/RBCS will never rent or sell your personal credit card information. There are several places on The Packer/RBCS site where you can transmit credit card information in order to complete a purchase transaction or for verification purposes. Any time we ask for a credit card number we transmit that credit card number in an encrypted format. We use industry-standard, SSL (secure socket layer) encryption.

As part of offering and providing customizable and personalized services, The Packer/RBCS uses cookies to store and sometimes track information about you. A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. By modifying your browser preferences, you may choose to accept all cookies, be notified when a cookie is set, or reject all cookies. If you choose to reject all cookies you will be unable to access certain areas or use certain services available at this web site. All areas on The Packer/RBCS web site where you are prompted to log-in or that are customizable require that you accept cookies. Generally, we use cookies to:

(1) Remind us of who you are and to access your user information (stored on our computers) in order to deliver to you a better and more personalized service. This cookie is set when you register or log on to The Packer/RBCS web site.

(2) Estimate our audience size, track usage by a registered user versus by an unregistered user, and to help evaluate advertisements based on user interests and behavior.

(3) Track your progress and number of entries in some of our promotions, sweepstakes and contests.

(4) Measure certain traffic patterns, which areas of The Packer/RBCS web site you have visited, and your visiting patterns in the aggregate. We use this research to understand how our users' habits are similar or different from one another so that we can make each new experience on The Packer/RBCS a better one. We may use this information to better personalize the content, banners, and promotions that you and other users will see on our sites.

Some of our advertisers and/or partners may use cookies on our web site. We have neither access to nor control over those cookies.

The Packer/RBCS also collects IP addresses for system administration and to determine aggregate information from our advertisers and/or partners.

Promotions that run on The Packer/RBCS may be sponsored by companies other than The Packer/RBCS or may be cosponsored by The Packer/RBCS and another company. Some or all data collected during a promotion may be shared with the sponsor. If data will be shared, you will be notified prior to the time of data collection or transfer. You can decide not to participate in the promotion if you don't want your data to be shared.

Please be aware that The Packer/RBCS partners, advertisers, and web sites that have links on our site may collect personally identifiable information about you. The information practices of those partners, advertisers, and web sites linked to The Packer/RBCS are not covered by this privacy policy.

As a general rule, The Packer/RBCS will not disclose any of your personally identifiable information except when we have your permission or under special circumstances, such as in response to (a) requests from local, state or federal law enforcement officials; (b) any judicial, administrative or similar proceeding or order, such as a subpoena; or (c) if required by law or under the circumstances described below. The following describes some of the ways that your information may be disclosed.

The Packer/RBCS may disclose your personal information to business partners or sponsors, but this is specifically described to you prior to data collection or prior to transferring the data. Details of shared use can be found in specific sweepstakes and promotions rules. Some or all data collected during a promotion may be shared with a sponsor. If personally identifying data about you will be shared, we will tell you before we collect or transfer the data.

Many promotions offer opportunities to request additional information from sponsors. By requesting more information, you give The Packer/RBCS permission to transfer your personal information to the sponsor so they can fulfill your request. In many instances, only your email address will be shared. If more information will be shared with the sponsor, you will be notified prior to the transfer.

From time to time, you may be offered the opportunity to receive materials or special offers from third parties. If you opt-in to receive information from these third parties, The Packer/RBCS will (with your permission) share your name and email address with them.

The Packer/RBCS discloses aggregated user statistics in order to describe our services to current and prospective partners, advertisers, and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes. The Packer/RBCS may also disclose personal information in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating or may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) The Packer/RBCS 's rights or property, other The Packer/RBCS users, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities. The Packer/RBCS will disclose or access account information in response to (a) requests from local, state or federal law enforcement officials; (b) any judicial, administrative or similar proceeding or order, such as a subpoena; or (c) if required by law.

The Packer/RBCS may disclose or access account information for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service, and improve our products and services. The Packer/RBCS may, from time to time, send you email regarding our products and services. In addition, if you indicated upon registration that you are interested in receiving offers or information from The Packer/RBCS and/or our partners, we may occasionally send you direct mail about products and services that we feel may be of interest to you. Only The Packer/RBCS (or agents working on behalf of The Packer/RBCS and under confidentiality agreements) will send you these direct mailings and only if you indicated that you do not object to these offers. If you do not want to receive such mailings, simply tell us when you give us your personal information.

The Packer/RBCS does research on our users' demographics, interests, and behavior based on the information provided to us upon registration, during a promotion, from our server log files or from surveys. We do this to better understand and serve our users. This research is compiled and analyzed on an aggregated basis. The Packer/RBCS may share this aggregated data with advertisers or business partners.

The Packer/RBCS is committed to protecting the privacy of children online. We do not collect any personal information from children under the age of 13 without their parent or legal guardian's consent, and we will not share this information with any third parties unless required by law or judicial process or to protect the safety of the child or the security or integrity of this web site. Parents or legal guardians will be given the opportunity to review any personal information collected from their children. At a parent or legal guardian's request, we will delete the child's personal information and prevent any further collection or use of such information. Finally, any information we collect for sweepstakes, contest or promotion will be limited to what is reasonably necessary for participation.

Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online - for example on message boards, through email, or in chat areas - that information can be collected and used by others. In short, if you post personal information online that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return.

Ultimately, you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and/or any account information. Please be careful and responsible whenever you are online.

If you have a question that was not addressed in the above disclaimer or privacy policy you may contact us at:

The Packer/RBCS
10901 W.84th Terrace
Lenexa, KS 66214
(913) 438-8700
e-mail: online@thepacker.com