Privacy
Version 2.19 - Effective 15 December 2010
Verisign is committed to providing you with excellent service for all of our products and services. Because we respect your right to privacy, we have developed this Privacy Statement to inform you about our privacy practices for the entire verisigninc.com site and about special privacy practices related to our Safe Harbour Participation. This Privacy Statement is not applicable to any of our other privacy practices, including - but not limited to - data collected from other Verisign sites or offline. Verisign services may be hosted on partner sites on behalf of Verisign, and if this Verisign Privacy Statement is listed on that site, then it will also apply.
Verisign has been awarded TRUSTe's Privacy Seal, signifying that this privacy policy and practices have been reviewed by TRUSTe for compliance with TRUSTe's programme requirements, including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information. The TRUSTe programme does not cover information that may be collected through downloadable software. TRUSTe's mission, as an independent third party, is to accelerate online trust among consumers and organisations globally through its leading privacy trustmark and innovative trust solutions. If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or practices, please contact us. If you are not satisfied with our response you can also contact TRUSTe – in new window. In addition, if you have questions regarding this Privacy Statement, you can email us. Please specify "Privacy Statement" in the subject line of your email. You may also call us on 1-703-948-4490.
Verisign adheres to the EU Safe Harbour Privacy Principles with respect to certain personal data that it receives about European Union residents in the course of providing certain services. Information about Verisign's participation in Safe Harbour can be found in the section below entitled "Safe Harbour Participation."
Verisign has agreed to disclose its privacy practices and have them reviewed and audited for compliance by TRUSTe. Members of the TRUSTe Privacy Programme agree to adhere to TRUSTe's established privacy principles of disclosure, choice, access and security. Members of the TRUSTe Privacy Programme also agree to comply with ongoing TRUSTe oversight and its alternative dispute resolution process. In keeping with TRUSTe's Privacy Programme, this Privacy Statement will inform you of:
- What personal information our site gathers about you.
- How we use and with whom we share the personal information we gather.
- Your ability to opt out of future notifications.
- What security procedures we have in place to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, or alteration.
- How you can correct or update your personal information.
Overview
Privacy is of great concern to most users of the Internet and is a critical part of an enjoyable and satisfactory user experience. We at Verisign are acutely aware of and sensitive to the privacy concerns of our subscribers and other visitors to our web site. Whether you are a customer of our various products and services or a visitor to our site, we assure you that we will not collect personal information from you unless you provide it to us. You should be assured that we do not provide or sell personal information about our customers or site visitors to vendors who are not involved in the provision of Verisign's services.
This Privacy Statement applies to the verisigninc.com site. Many of our subsidiaries maintain their own privacy policies that may be viewed on their web sites. Please note that our site contains links to other sites. Verisign is not responsible for the privacy practices, privacy statements, or content regarding these other sites.
Privacy Policy Enforcement
Verisign supports TRUSTe's comprehensive assurance process. In order to ensure compliance with its Privacy Programme, TRUSTe monitors our site by conducting initial and periodic reviews and "seeding" (tracking unique identifiers in our site's database). TRUSTe also relies on online users to report violations of posted privacy statements or specific privacy concerns. If a TRUSTe participant is suspected of not conforming to the TRUSTe principles, TRUSTe will investigate the issue, which could result in penalties, additional audits, or revocation of the participant's right to use the TRUSTe trustmark. Extreme violations may even be escalated to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). These enforcement measures are intended to provide some trusted assurances that you can rely on in this Privacy Statement. For more information on the TRUSTe assurance process, see TRUSTe's web site. If you feel that we are violating this Privacy Statement, please contact us. Please specify "Privacy Statement" in the subject line of your email. You may also call us on 1-703-948-4490. If you feel that we do not provide you with an appropriate response, you may file a report with TRUSTe.
Personal Information
There are two ways in which you may explicitly and intentionally provide us with and consent to our collection of certain personal information:
- Email Request for Information or Registrations for Guides or Seminars. We use links throughout our site to provide you with the opportunity to contact us via email to ask questions, request information and materials, register or sign up for guides or seminars, or provide comments and suggestions. You may also be offered the opportunity to have one of our representatives contact you personally to provide additional information about our products or services. To do so, we may request additional personal information from you, such as your name and telephone number, to help us satisfy your request.
- Enrolment. If you choose to enrol for one of our products or services, we will request certain information from you. Depending on the type of product or service that you request, you may be asked to provide different personal information. For certain products and services, we may require your name, address, telephone number, email address, credit card number, bank account information, IP address, and/or Social Security number. Other products and services may require different or supplemental information from you in order to apply. For a detailed listing of the type of personal information requested for our various products, please refer to the enrolment page for the particular product or service.
Under no circumstances do we collect any personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, health, or sex life.
Statistical Information about Your Visit
When you visit our site, our computers may automatically collect statistics about your visit. This information does not identify you personally, but rather identifies information about a visit to our site. We may monitor statistics such as how many people visit our site, the user's IP address, which pages people visit, from which domains our visitors come and which browsers people use. We use these statistics about your visit for aggregation purposes only. These statistics are used to help us improve the performance of our web site.
Use of Cookies
We only use "cookies" as described in this Section. A cookie is a piece of information that our web site sends to your browser, which then stores this information on your system. If a cookie is used, our web site will be able to remember information about you and your preferences either until you exit your current browser window (if the cookie is temporary) or until you disable or delete the cookie. Many users prefer to use cookies in order to help them navigate a web site as seamlessly as possible. You should be aware that cookies contain no more information than you volunteer, and they are not able to "invade" your hard drive and return to the sender personal or other information from your computer.
The second situation in which we may use cookies is with respect to permanent cookies. This type of cookie remains on your system, although you can always delete or disable it through your browser preferences. There are two instances in which we use a permanent cookie. First, when you visit our web site and request documentation or a response from us. When you are filling out a form, you may be given the option of having our web site deliver a cookie to your local hard drive. You might choose to receive this type of cookie in order to save time in filling out forms and/or revisiting our web site. We only send this type of cookie to your browser when you have clicked on the box labelled "Please pre-fill these forms for me in the future" or "Please remember my profile information" when submitting information or communicating with us. The second instance where we use a permanent cookie is when we track traffic patterns on our site. Analysis of the collected information by our tracking technologies allows us to improve our web site and the user experience. In both instances of a persistent cookie, if you choose not to accept the cookie, you will still be able to use our web site. Even if you choose to receive this type of cookie, you can always set your browser to notify you when you receive any cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it in each situation in which one is sent.
Bulletin Boards, Chat Rooms, and Forums
We assure you that the personal information we gather from you is used by us only as explained below.
Sending You Responses and Updates
We generally respond to any email questions, requests for product or service information, and other inquiries that we receive. We may also retain this correspondence to improve our products, services and web site and for other disclosed purposes. Frequently we retain contact information so that we can send individuals updates or other important information about our services and products. Occasionally these updates or other important information may be sent out by third parties on our behalf. Please be assured that any third party who contacts you in this capacity has executed a confidentiality agreement with us that contains a provision ensuring the privacy and security of any transferred information and limits the third party's use of the shared information to sending updates or providing services on our behalf. Our subsidiary companies may also send you information about their services and products. In situations where you have supplied your information in connection with a question or request for information about a product or service offered by a Verisign business partner, we may also send the information you have supplied to the Verisign business partners that offer such products or services. Please be assured that these Verisign business partners have agreed to ensure the privacy and security of any transferred information and may only use the shared information to send you information about products or services about which you asked.
Facilitating the Support, Renewal, and Purchase of Our Products and Services
We may use the information you submit to contact you to discuss the support, renewal and purchase of our products and services. We may provide our subsidiary companies with your information so that they may send you information about their services and products. We may also provide the information you have submitted to us to a Verisign subsidiary, business partner, or independent reseller (either within or outside the United States) so that the subsidiary, business partner, or independent reseller can contact you and facilitate the support, renewal and purchase of Verisign products and services. You may receive a communication directly from one of our subsidiaries, business partners, or independent resellers. Please be assured that any subsidiary, business partner, or independent reseller who contacts you for one of these purposes has agreed to use the information we supply only in accordance with a confidentiality agreement. To find out the names and locations of the subsidiaries, business partners and/or independent resellers to whom we have provided your information, please contact us at the address given at the end of this Privacy Statement.
Disclosure by Law and Protection of Verisign and Others
If we are required by law to disclose certain information to local, state, federal, national, or international government or law enforcement authorities, we will do so (for example, we may disclose the identity of purchasers of certain software products to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Export Administration, as required under the terms of our export licences). We will also disclose information to third parties as necessary in order to comply with applicable laws and regulations. In addition, Verisign may share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities or suspected fraud, or enforce or apply Verisign's agreements.
WHOIS Server
In order to support security of the Internet, we are required to offer the WHOIS service with respect to the top-level domains (such as .com, .net, .tv, and .name) for which we are the registry. This service allows you or anyone else to determine the availability of domain names and the contact information for the registrar who registered a domain name on behalf of a registrant. In some instances, we are required to operate a "thick," or extensive, WHOIS service that typically contains the registrant’s name, contact person's name, address, telephone number, email address, and/or IP address as provided to us by the registrar for the domain name. Via the WHOIS service, this information may be disclosed to unaffiliated third parties in order to determine the registrant or the registrar in case of (i) technical problems that might occur when accessing its domain; (ii) assisting law enforcement authorities in investigations, crime prevention, and matters of national security; (iii) helping to counter the infringement of third-party legal rights; and (iv) preventing fraud. However, Verisign publishes only that data necessary for the purposes described above or when the registrant has agreed to the publication.
Business Transitions
Circumstances may arise where, whether for strategic or other business reasons, Verisign decides to sell, buy, merge, or otherwise reorganise businesses or business units in some countries. Such a transaction may involve the disclosure of personal information to prospective or actual purchasers, or the receipt of it from sellers. It is Verisign's practice to seek appropriate protection for information in these types of transactions.
Surveys
From time to time, we may request information from customers via surveys. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use of and satisfaction with this web site, and improving our customer service and product offerings.
Your ability to opt out of future notifications.
From time to time, we notify our subscribers of new products, announcements, upgrades and updates. If you would like to opt out of being notified, please contact us at the address given at the end of this Privacy Statement.
You can also change your preferences online. If you receive a marketing communication from our subsidiaries, business partners, or independent resellers, you should opt out with that entity directly. Please be aware that you may not opt out of receiving information regarding the security, initial use, expiration, product enhancement, or migration of our products or services.
Our Security Procedures
We consider the protection of all personal information we receive from our web site visitors and subscribers as critical to our corporate mission. Please be assured that we have security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of any personal information we receive from you. As with any transmission over the Internet, however, there is always some element of risk involved in sending personal information. In order to try to minimise this risk, we encrypt all information that you submit in ordering one of our products or services using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. Our security procedures are also subject to at least an annual SAS-70 Type II audit by an internationally recognised accounting firm.
How You Can Update or Correct Your Personal Information
If you would like to update or correct any personal information in our records, please contact us via email or at the address given at the end of this Privacy Statement.
Email this Page
If you use Verisign's "Email this page" feature to send a copy of that page to someone else, your email address will appear as the sender of the email. Neither your email address nor the recipient's email address will be used for any other purpose.
Changes to this Privacy Statement
If a material change is made to this Privacy Statement and/or the way we use our customers' personally identifiable information, then, with the prior written approval from TRUSTe, we will post prominent notice of the nature of such change on the first page of this Privacy Statement and also on our home page.
Our mailing address is:
VeriSign, Inc.
Attention: Customer Support
12061 Bluemont Way
Reston, VA 20190
EU Safe Harbour Participation
This Section of the Privacy Statement describes how VeriSign, Inc., ("Verisign") handles personal data of representatives of certain customers from the European Union. Specifically, Verisign adheres to the US-EU Safe Harbour Privacy Principles ("EU Safe Harbour") with respect to certain personally identifiable information that it receives from customers in the European Union ("EU Personal Data"). For further background about the EU Safe Harbour, please refer to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Web site.
Collection and Use of EU Personal Data
From its customers, Verisign may collect name, title, address, phone, fax, pager number, and other contact information for purposes of contacting customers as necessary or appropriate to provide or support its services. Where permitted by law, Verisign may also use this information to communicate regarding Verisign products or services, and disclose such data to subsidiaries, business partners and independent resellers of Verisign services for the same purposes.
With respect to any sharing of EU Personal Data for purposes of marketing Verisign products and services, Verisign obtains promises from its subsidiaries, business partners, and resellers that such entities will use and disclose the EU Personal Data for purposes of marketing Verisign products and services only. Individuals may opt out of further disclosures of their EU Personal Data from Verisign to subsidiaries, business partners and independent resellers, and further uses of their data by Verisign for marketing, by contacting Verisign. If you receive a marketing communication from our subsidiaries, business partners, or independent resellers, you should opt out with that entity directly.
To the extent that in providing its services, Verisign collects passwords, user names, and other data from customer networks (excluding the customer contact data discussed above), it does so for the exclusive purposes of monitoring the customers’ networks and systems and otherwise performing the services to customers or complying with its legal obligations. At all times with respect to this data, Verisign acts as a mere “data processor” on behalf of its customers.
Data Integrity and Access
Verisign makes reasonable efforts to keep EU Personal Data reliable for its intended use, accurate, current and complete. Verisign also provides customer contacts with the opportunity to access, review, and correct their own customer contact information, and otherwise provides customers access in accordance with the EU Safe Harbour. Individuals may contact Verisign as indicated below in order to review their EU Personal Data. However, customer contacts may first wish to contact their company’s representative (i.e., Verisign’s customer), as that might be the most efficient means of addressing their issues. Verisign will respond to the request within 30 days.
Other Disclosures
Verisign may also disclose EU Personal Data as necessary in connection with the sale or transfer of all or part of its business, provided that it will notify affected customers in accordance with the procedure for changing this Privacy Statement as noted above. In situations where Verisign discloses EU Personal Data to any third parties acting as “agents” on behalf of Verisign, Verisign will require the recipient to protect the data in accordance with the relevant principles in the EU Safe Harbour, or otherwise take steps to ensure that the EU Personal Data is appropriately protected. Verisign may also disclose EU Personal Data where required or permitted by law, where Verisign believes that such disclosures are appropriate in connection with a law enforcement request, as required in connection with its obligation as an operator of a top level domain registry to provide WHOIS service or otherwise permitted by the EU Safe Harbour, or in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities or suspected fraud, or enforce or apply Verisign’s agreements.
Questions
If you have any questions about this EU Safe Harbour Privacy Statement, or if you would like to request access to EU Personal Data that Verisign may maintain about you, please contact us as follows:
Legal Department
VeriSign Inc.
12061 Bluemont Way
Reston, VA 20190
Email: valuesandcompliance@verisign.com
Telephone: 1-703-948-4490 (specify Safe Harbour)
Any questions regarding Verisign's EU Safe Harbour Participation should first be directed to the Verisign contact above. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you may then contact TRUSTe for further information.