Privacy Policy
Watkins Home Loans (WHL) maintains this Web Site in order to provide
you with information about our services, representatives and property
listings.
Your Privacy is Important to Us
At Watkins Home Loans, your privacy is our chief concern. We understand that
you entrust us with your private information to help us meet your needs.
In exchange for your trust, you expect and deserve our commitment to treat
your information with respect. Rest assured that we protect your privacy.
Under no circumstances will Watkins Home Loans sell or share any personal
information about you to or with any person or organization except: as authorized
by you, to participating lenders, real estate professionals or other parties
involved in your transaction, or as may be required by law or court order.
The Privacy Policy below describes the standards we adhere to in handling
information about you and your real estate services or loan request.
We only collect personally identifiable information from you over
this Web Site by specifically requesting it when it is required
to facilitate a correspondence that you initiate. We will use this
information only as needed to process your request and provide
you information, or as otherwise required by law. Except as required
by law, we will not share any of your personally identifiable information
with any non-affiliated third party other than as necessary to
carry out your request.
When you Communicate with WHL
When you send a communication inquiring about a property or services, WHL will
need to know your name, e-mail address, the area in which you are looking
to purchase or sell property and certain other information. These communications
may be directed to an Agent or Loan Officer. Over the course of time, you
may develop a relationship with such persons. They may send you information
or marketing materials on WHL properties or services.
When you send a communication inquiring about WHL products or
services, your information will be utilized only by WHL internal
staff and our affiliates to respond to your request. We will not
share any of your personally identifiable information with any
non-affiliated third party other than as necessary to carry out
your request.
Types of Information Gathered
WHL gathers two types of information about you: 1) data that you provide through
optional, voluntary registration on our Web Site, and 2) data that WHL gathers
through aggregated tracking, mainly by tallying web pages that are viewed
by users throughout our Web Site.
Optional Registration
We collect information by specifically requesting it from you. Generally this
occurs when you register at the Web Site or request information or a service.
We use your information to operate the Web Site and to deliver services.
WHL also uses your information to inform you about other products and/or
services available from WHL and WHL-affiliates.
Tracking Use of Internet Protocol ("IP")
Addresses:
An IP address is a unique number that is automatically assigned to your computer
whenever you are surfing the Internet so that your computer can be identified
by the main computers, known as "web servers," that "serve up" web
pages. This allows us to identify and gather general information and data about
you, such as the web pages you view.
WHL collects IP addresses for the purposes of: helping us diagnose
problems with our main computers, for system administration, and
to audit the use of our Web Site. When users request web pages
from our Web Site, our web servers log the user's IP address. We
do not link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable, which
means that a user's session will be logged, but the user will remain
anonymous to us.
Use Of Cookies
What are cookies? Cookies are small pieces of information that a Web Site sends
to your computer for record-keeping purposes, which information is stored
in a file on your computer's hard drive. Cookies make web surfing easier
for you by saving your preferences so that we can use the saved information
to facilitate your use of our Web Site when you return to the Web Site. Cookies
do not tell us your individual identity unless you have chosen to provide
it to us. We never save passwords or credit card information in cookies.
The use of cookies is an industry standard, and as such, you will find that
most major Web Sites use them.
By showing how and when users use the Web Site, cookies help us
see which areas of the Web Site are popular and which are not.
Many improvements and updates to the Web Site are based on such
data as total number of visitors and pages viewed. This information
is most easily tracked with cookies.
Most cookies expire after a defined period of time, or you can
delete your cookie file at any time. Most Web browsers are initially
set up to accept cookies. You can reset your web browser to refuse
cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, note
that some parts of WHL services will not function properly or may
be considerably slower if you refuse cookies. For example, without
cookies, you will not be able to set personalized preferences,
and/or may have difficulty completing transactions.
WHL and/or WHL-affiliates have two (2) primary uses for cookies.
First, we use them to specify a user's preferences. Second, we
use cookies to track Web Site usage trends and patterns. This helps
us understand our users' needs better and improve areas of our
Web Site. While both of these activities depend on the use of cookies,
you have the option of disabling (refusing) the cookies via your
web browser preferences.
Your Consent
By using our Web Site, you signify your agreement to this Privacy Policy and
the collection and use of information as described herein.
Notice
We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time by posting revisions
on our Web Site. This Privacy Policy is not intended to, and does not create
any contractual or other legal rights in or on behalf of any party.
How to Contact Us
If you have any comments, questions or concerns about your privacy and security
on this Web Site, please contact us at helpdesk@watkinsrealtygroup.com.
(Last revised April, 2008)
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