Franchise and Business Opportunities for Entrepreneurs

Franchise Gator, a Microsoft Corporation Subsidiary, Affiliated Web Sites Privacy Statement

(last updated: February 2008)

Franchise Gator, a Microsoft Corporation Subsidiary, is committed to protecting your privacy. This privacy statement applies to the data collected by Microsoft through the Franchise Gator affiliated Web Sites that link to this statement (the “Sites”); it does not apply to data collected through other online or offline Microsoft sites, products or services.

We will ask you when we need information that personally identifies you or allows us to contact you. The personal information we collect may include name, address, phone number and email address.

We may collect information about your visit, including the pages you view, the links you click and other actions taken in connection with the Sites. We also collect certain standard information that your browser sends to every website you visit, such as your IP address, browser type and language, access times and referring Web site addresses.

The personal information collected on the Sites will be used to operate the Sites and to provide the service(s) or carry out the transaction(s) you have requested or authorized.

In support of these uses, Microsoft may use personal information to provide you with more effective customer service, to improve the Sites and any related Microsoft products or services, and to make the Sites easier to use by eliminating the need for you to repeatedly enter the same information or by customizing the Sites to your particular preference or interests. We may use your personal information to provide you with important information about the product or service that you are using, including critical updates and notifications. Additionally, with your permission, we may send you information about other Microsoft products and services, and/or share information with Microsoft partners so they may send you information about their products and services.

Microsoft occasionally hires other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as Web site hosting, packaging, mailing and delivering prizes, answering customer questions about products and services, and sending information about our products, special offers, and other new services. We will only provide those companies the personal information they need to deliver the service. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information and are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

Some of our Sites may have sections with articles. The “share this” function in the articles section of the Sites allows a user to book mark a posting or to send it to themselves or a friend. When you use the “share this” feature to send a posting to a friend, we use your personal information and your friend’s email address, only to deliver the posting to your friend. The “share this” feature is hosted on our Sites, and both your personal information and your friend’s email address are not shared with any other company nor do we use this information for any other purpose.

Some Franchise Gator, a Microsoft Corporation Subsidiary, services may be co-branded and offered in conjunction with another company. If you register for or use such services, both Franchise Gator, a Microsoft Corporation Subsidiary, and the other company may receive information collected in conjunction with the co-branded services.

Microsoft may disclose personal information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Microsoft or the Sites; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Microsoft and our family of Web sites; or (c) act in urgent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Microsoft products or members of the public.

Personal information collected on the Sites may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Microsoft or its affiliates, subsidiaries or agents maintain facilities, and by using the Sites, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country. Microsoft abides by the safe harbor framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union.

Except as otherwise described in this statement, personal information you provide on the Sites will not be shared outside of Microsoft and its controlled subsidiaries and affiliates without your permission.

You can stop the delivery of future promotional email from Franchise Gator, a Microsoft Corporation Subsidiary, affiliated Sites by following the specific instructions to unsubscribe within the email you receive. You may also click here to unsubscribe from future promotional email from Franchise Gator, a Microsoft Corporation Subsidiary, affiliated Sites.

Please be aware that this privacy statement and any choices you make on the Sites will not necessarily apply to personal information you may have provided to Microsoft in the context of other, separately operated, Microsoft products or services.

You can review and edit the personal information you provided at this Site by sending an email to: privacyinfo@franchisegator.com or contacting us at the address down below and we will contact you within 30 days regarding your request.

Microsoft is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store the personal information you provide on computer servers with limited access that are located in controlled facilities. Additionally, when we transmit sensitive personal information (such as a credit card number) over the Internet, we protect it through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

We use cookies on the Sites to ensure the integrity of the registration process and to personalize the Sites. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard drive by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a Web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. For example, if you personalize a web page, or navigate within a site, a cookie helps the site to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of delivering relevant content, eases site navigation, and so on. When you return to the web site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the site's features that you customized.

Cookies may also be used to measure user traffic such as browsing patterns and user visits. This information helps us to provide a better user experience through the use of statistics and measurements of user satisfaction. Some of this information may be collected and compiled by third-party service providers who place cookies on our Sites to provide us with web analytics.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to use interactive features of this or other web sites that depend on cookies.

Microsoft Web pages may contain electronic images known as Web beacons - sometimes called single-pixel gifs - that may be used to assist in delivering cookies on our Sites and allow us to count users who have visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. We may include Web beacons in promotional e-mail messages or our newsletters in order to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon.

Microsoft may also employ Web beacons from third parties in order to help us compile aggregated statistics and determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns. We prohibit Web beacons on our Sites from being used by third parties to collect or access your personal information.

We may occasionally update this privacy statement. When we do, we will also revise the "last updated" date at the top of the privacy statement. For material changes to this privacy statement, we will notify you either by placing a prominent notice on the home page of our Sites or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to periodically review this privacy statement to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the service constitutes your agreement to this privacy statement and any updates.

Microsoft welcomes your comments regarding this privacy statement. If you have questions about this statement or believe that we have not adhered to it, please contact us by email at: privacyinfo@franchisegator.com or write to us at the address down below.

Franchise Gator, a Microsoft Corporation Subsidiary
821 Second Avenue
Suite 1800
Seattle, WA 98104