Privacy Policy - Ballast Realty Group - Your Boston Residential Real Estate Resource

Your Consent
Components of Our ballastrealty.com Website
The Relationship Between This Policy and Applicable Broker Guidelines
The Types of Information You May Provide
The Uses of the Information Your Provide
Disclosures to Third Parties
Anonymous, Aggregate Information
Any Information Linked With Your Personal Information is Protected as "Personal Information"
The Relationship Between Information You Provide At Our Site, And Information From Offline Sources
Changing or Removing Information; Opting Out
Security
Notice of Security Incident
Notification of Changes
Relationship to Terms of Use and Other Contracts
Participation by Children and Teens; Advisory
Definitions
Contact Us
Effective Date

Welcome to ballastrealty.com, the website for Ballast Realty Group ("Ballast"). We are committed to maintaining the privacy of information that you might share with us while visiting our site and interacting with us online. This privacy policy and agreement (the "Privacy Policy" or "Policy") covers how we collect, use, and treat personal information that you may provide through the ballastrealty.com website (the "Website" or the "Site") or while participating in exchanges via password-protected areas of the Site.
The terms “you” and “your” refer to any visitor to the Website, including (i) casual visitors to our Site, who wish to learn more about our services ("Site Visitors"), and (ii) clients and others who register to access password-protected areas of our Site, use our Transaction Tracker, and enjoy other features of these areas of our Site ("Registered Users "). The terms “we” and “us” refer to Ballast Realty Group, and the term "ballastrealty.com" refers to our Website. For your convenience, Section 16 provides a full set of definitions used in this Privacy Policy.

1. Your Consent
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully; when you consent to this Policy's terms, it creates legal obligations on you and on Ballast. We ask you to show your consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy in different ways, depending on your relationship to the Site. The procedures for consenting to this Policy are (a) less formal if you are a casual Site Visitor, and (b) more formal if you are seeking to become a Registered User.
1.1. Consent by Site Visitors. By accessing and using our Website as a Site Visitor, you are acknowledging that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and agree to be legally bound by it. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy, please refrain from using our Site.
1.2. Consent by Registered Users. If you sign-up as a Registered User via our Website, you will be prompted to click an "I Accept" button linked to this Policy during the registration process. Clicking "I accept" further confirms your agreement to be bound by this Privacy Policy.
1.3. Connection to Our Website Terms. Clicking the "I accept" button will also confirm your agreement to comply our Website Terms, including our "Code of Conduct," as further specified during the registration process.

2. Components Of Our ballastrealty.com Website
Our Website is divided into two, broad areas and feature-sets: (i) those areas and features that are accessible to all Users (the "General Site"); and (ii) those areas and features that are password-protected, and that are designed to be available only to our Registered Users (the "Password-Protected Areas"), as further described below:
2.1. Our General Site. Our General Site is designed to provide Users with a range of information concerning (i) the services we offer; (ii) our experience; (iii) the geographic and market areas that we serve; (iv) employment opportunities; and (v) other materials concerning our company. On our General Site, for example, Users can request newsletters, real estate listings, and other updates concerning the real estate market. Our General Site is also designed to provide a gateway to our Password Protected Areas, and to facilitate our clients' communications with other service providers, such as attorneys and mortgage lenders.
2.2. Our Password-Protected Areas. Our Password-Protected Areas are designed to provide a range of features, tailored to the particular Registered User. For example, in a litigation matter, we may set up a Password-Protected Area to provide a convenient method to share with our client developments; scheduling events (such as inspections, offer expiration dates, closing dates, and other deadlines) and other information.

3. The Relationship Between This Policy And Applicable Broker Guidelines
We have taken efforts to harmonize this Privacy Policy with standards set by the Massachusetts Board of Ethics for Real Estate Agents & Brokers and REALTOR Guidelines (collectively, "Broker Guidelines"). If a circumstance arises where an applicable Guideline conflicts with this Privacy Policy, then the Guideline will govern our relationship, and not the conflicting portion of this Privacy Policy.

4. The Types Of Information You May Provide
Information you may provide while visiting our Site or while participating as an Registered User falls into two broad categories: (i) Personal Information; and (ii) anonymous, aggregate information. We use the term “Personal Information” to mean any information you provide to us over the Site that could reasonably be used to identify you, including your name, address, e-mail address, birth date, telephone number or any combination of such information that could be used to identify you.
We use the term "Transaction Information" to refer to information you may provide in connection with your authorized use of a Password-Protected Area, including the Ballast Transaction Tracker. The term "Personal Information" includes Transaction Information.
“Anonymous Information” is information that does not identify you, and may include statistical information concerning, for example, the pages on our Site that users visit most frequently.

5. Our Uses Of The Information You Provide
We use Information you provide to us via the Website only as provided in this Policy. We use the Personal Information you provide via the Website for purposes of providing you with the services you request, as permitted by our Website. Although under certain circumstances we share your Personal Information with third parties, we either do so in restricted contexts, or we allow you to choose whether we share the information, as set out in Section 6 (Disclosures to Third Parties).
Specifically, we collect, or receive, information from Site Visitors and Registered Users at different points on our Website, and use this information as follows:
5.1. Property Addresses. To view addresses for real estate listings, we require, at the request of our licensor, that a User provide his or her email address. We use this email address to inform our licensor of visitors, and for various tracking and other purposes. We also may use email addresses as outlined in Section 5.3 (Email Addresses)
5.2. Registration Information. In order to become a Registered User on our Site, we require that you complete a registration form. This form asks for contact information, which includes such items as (i) name; (ii) mailing address; and (iii) email address. We use this information to provide our Registered Users with access to our Ballast Transaction Tracker, and for other related purposes. We also use the information to provide a password, and in part to authenticate the User as part of the process of providing access to an Password-Protected Area.
5.3. Email Addresses. We use your e-mail address to send newsletters, notifications, announcements concerning Ballast or market developments, and other information relating to our Site and our services. In addition, we may use your email address to invite you to presentations, or other functions we believe may be of interest to you. You will have the ability to opt out of receiving these materials, as provided in Section 10 (Changing or Removing Information; Opting Out).
5.4. Informational Notices and Bulletins. Periodically, we may choose to send news, bulletins, or other information to Users, and will use Personal Information to send such communications. If we choose to undertake such communications, you will have the ability to opt out of receiving these communications as provided in Section 10 (Changing or Removing Information; Opting Out).
5.5. Surveys. Periodically, we may initiate surveys at ballastrealty.com, and we may request Personal Information from you in connection with such surveys. You are free to choose whether you participate in this type of survey. The information we request may include contact information (such as name and email address). Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving, and services we provide. We will notify you of relevant details in connection with asking for you participation in such surveys.
5.6. Transaction Information. Where you provide us with Transaction Information, we use that Information for purposes of fulfilling the services provided for in the associated Password-Protected Area, and we do not share this Information with third parties, except as provided in Section 6.1 (Transaction Closing).

6. Disclosures To Third Parties
As an exception to the policies set out in Section 5 (Our Uses of the Information You Provide), you agree that we may disclose Personal Information to third parties, without your further consent, in the following circumstances:
6.1. Transaction Closing. Upon the successful closing of a transaction, and in accordance with applicable Broker Guidelines, we will disclose information concerning the transaction, including information concerning sales price, listing price, and related information generally made available in the industry concerning similar transactions.
6.2. Site Vendors and Licensors. We may employ other companies to perform functions on our behalf, such as maintaining the Website, providing services related to the Site, collecting information, responding to and sending electronic mail, or other functions necessary to our business. In addition, we have engaged certain licensors and data providers in order to offer real estate listing information, and other information on our Site. In order to obtain these services, we may need to share your Personal Information with these companies (collectively, "Site Vendors"). We will provide Site Vendors with only that information necessary to obtain their services with respect to our Website. Upon reasonable request, we will take reasonable steps to identify for you those of our Site Vendors (if any) who provide a level of protection to Personal Information obtained via our Site that is materially less than that set out in this Policy.
6.3. Questions of Harm; Legal. We may reveal your Personal Information on a case-by-case basis in order to alleviate a threat of harm to you, or by you.
6.4. Exchanges with Third Parties. The real estate field is dynamic, and many segments of this industry are driven by personal contacts. There are situations, therefore, where our clients and associates appreciate our sharing their Contact Information with others. Sharing this information also may benefit us, either monetarily or through enhancing our stature. Accordingly, we expect there will be occasions where, in our view, it is beneficial to share your Contact Information with third parties. We recognize that you may have a different view of the benefits of this sharing, and therefore agree that, before sharing such Contact Information, we will first notify you, and give you a reasonable period of time (not less than five (5) days) to opt-out of the Contact Information we provide.

7. Anonymous, Aggregate InformationWe use Anonymous Information to analyze the effectiveness of our Site, and for other similar purposes. In addition, from time to time, we may undertake or commission statistical and other summary analyses of the general behavior and characteristics of Users of the Site, and may share Anonymous Information with third parties for this purpose. Rest assured, though, that Anonymous Information provided to third parties will not allow anyone to identify you, or determine anything personal about you. We may collect Anonymous Information through features of the software that supports our Site, through cookies, and through other means described below.
7.1. IP Addresses; Logs. We may automatically receive and record information in our server logs from your browser, including your IP address (the Internet address of your PC), your computer's name, the type and version of your web browser, referrer addresses, where the computer is routing from, and other generally-accepted log information. We may also record page views (hit counts) and other general statistical and tracking information, which will be aggregated with that of other users in order to understand how our Website is being used, and for security and monitoring purposes.
7.2. Cookies. A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier, which is sent to your browser from a website's computers and stored on your computer's hard drive. Cookies can be used to provide you with a tailored user experience and to make it easier for you to use a website upon a future visit. We may include cookies on our Website and use them to recognize you when you return to our Website. You may set your browser so that it does not accept cookies. Cookies must be enabled on your web browser, however, if you wish to access certain personalized features of our Services.
7.3. Tags. We may use so-called "pixel tags," which are small graphic images (also know as "web beacons", "single-pixel GIFS", or "Web bugs"), to tell us what parts of our website have been visited, to measure the effectiveness of searches customers perform on our Site, and for other purposes. Pixel tags also enable us to send email messages in a format Users can read, and they inform us whether emails have been opened, to help ensure that our messages are of interest to our Registered Users and others. None of this data includes Personal Information, and you can "opt-out" of receiving these types of emails from us by following the directions provided in Section 10 (Changing or Removing Information; Opting Out). If any Personal Information is collected using such tools, it will be subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
7.4. Click-Throughs. We may send email messages which use a “click-through URL” linked to content on our Website. When you click one of these URLs, you pass through our web server before arriving at the destination web page. We track this click-through data to help determine Users' interest in particular topics and measure the effectiveness of our customer communications. If you prefer not to be tracked simply do not click text or graphic links in the email, or notify us in accordance with Section 10 (Changing or Removing Information; Opting Out).

8. Any Information Linked With Your Personal Information Is Protected As “Personal Information”
To enable us to better understand the characteristics of our Users and to provide information tailored to your needs, we may link (a) the Personal Information you have provided; with (b) Anonymous Information. If we combine or link any Anonymous Information or other information with your Personal Information, the resulting combination will be treated and protected as Personal Information under this Privacy Policy.

9. The Relationship Between Information You Provide At Our Site, And Information From Offline Sources
This Privacy Policy applies to information that you provide through using our Website. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information you provide to Ballast, or Ballast receives, through other means.

10. Changing or Removing Information; Opting Out
10.1. Discretionary Account Information. To allow appropriate control over Personal Information, you can access your account (after supplying your user name and password) to change your password, or to correct your email address for errors.
10.2. Opt-Out. If we send to you bulletins, updates, or other communications, we will provide you with the ability to decline -- or “opt-out of” – receiving such communications. Instructions for opting-out will be provided either (a) with each such communication, or (b) in a prominent location on our Website. Please understand that you will not be allowed to "opt–out" of formal notices concerning operation of this Website, and legal and other related notices concerning your relationship to the Site. 10.3. Deleting Information Provided Via This Website. If you have provided us with Personal Information in connection with your use of this Site, upon your request, we will remove this Personal Information from our Website databases. Please understand, however, that it may be impossible to remove this information completely, due to backups and records of deletions. In addition, please understand that, if you request deletion of your information, you will be unable to utilize associated features of the Website and any associated Services. You may not remove de-identified, anonymous, or aggregate data from our databases.
10.4. Limitations on Deleting Information. Please keep in mind that this Privacy Policy applies only to information provided through this Website, and does not apply to "Non-Website Information," which is information Ballast obtains or is provided via other channels, such as public databases. Therefore, if we remove information from our Website databases in accordance with Section 10.3 (Deleting Information Provided Via This Website), this will not remove Non-Website Information from our databases. We will retain this Non-Website Information in our databases, including Personal Information that may relate to our users, where applicable law permits us to retain the Information. If you have questions concerning Non-Website Information, you may contact us as provided in Section 16 (Contact Us).

11. Security
We have put in place security systems designed to prevent unauthorized access to or disclosure of Personal Information you may provide to us, and we take all reasonable steps to secure and safeguard this Information. Our site's Password-Protected Areas require Users to give us unique identifiers such as their user id and password. Employees of Ballast (and employees of our Site Vendors) are required to acknowledge that they understand and will abide by our policies with respect to the confidentiality of Personal Information.
Our security systems are therefore structured to deter and prevent hackers and others from accessing information you provide to us. We also use software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Please understand, though, that this Section should not be viewed as giving business, legal, or other advice, or warranting as fail-proof, the security of information provided by or submitted to our Site. Due to the nature of Internet communications and evolving technologies, we cannot provide, and disclaim, assurance that the information you provide us will remain free from loss, misuse, or alteration by third parties who, despite our efforts, obtain unauthorized access.

12. Notice of Security Incident
If we detect, despite the safeguards set out above, an intrusion or other unauthorized access to or use of Personal Information (an "Intrusion"), we will (i) notify effected users of the Intrusion if the information at issue is sensitive, as determined by law, (ii) deliver this notice by the means we deem most efficient under the circumstances (such as, for example, first class mail or email); (iii) use contact information for each effected user that is current in our files; and (iv) use commercially reasonable efforts to accomplish these steps and effect this notice in a timely manner. To the extent applicable law requires steps in addition to those specified above, we will under all circumstances comply with applicable law.

13. Notification of Changes
From time to time, we may change our Privacy Policy. If we make any changes regarding disclosure of Personal Information to third parties, upon your next login we will inform you of the modified policy. We will post notice of the new Policy from the privacy link on our Website. With respect to Site Visitors, your use of our Site following any such change constitutes your agreement to follow and be bound by the Privacy Policy, as changed. With respect to Registered Users, no such changes will take effect unless and until you have provided us with your consent to such changes, in accordance with Section 1 (Your Consent), above.

14. Relationship to Terms of Use and Other Contracts
This Privacy Policy must be read in conjunction with our Terms of Use, and the provisions of our Terms of Use are incorporated herein. To the extent the Terms of Use conflict with the terms of this Privacy Policy, the terms of this Privacy Policy will control.

15. Participation by Children and Teens; Advisory
Our Website is not directed at children, and we will not accept or request Personal Information from individuals we know to be under 13. In accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"), if we learn that a child under 13 has provided Personal Information, we will either (i) delete this information from our databases, in accordance with our deletion procedures, set out in Section 10, or (ii) obtain verifiable parental consent, in accordance with COPPA.

16. Definitions
16.1. “Anonymous Information” has the meaning provide in Section 4 (The Types of Information You May Provide).
16.2. "Broker Guidelines " has the meaning provided in Section 3 (The Relationship Between This Policy And Broker Guidelines).
16.3. "Contact Information" means information (that is generally publicly available) that would allow a person to contact a User, consisting of the User's name, mailing address, email address, and/or phone number.
16.4. "Non-Website Information" has the meaning provided in Section 9 (The Relationship between Information You Provide At Our Site, And Information From Other Sources).
16.5. "Password-Protected Area" means that area or those areas of the Site where, in order to obtain access, a user must provide a password. Unless otherwise indicated, Password-Protected Areas consist of our Password-Protected Areas.
16.6. "Personal Information" means a natural person's name, mailing address, email address, telephone number, cell phone number, and other information by which that person can be identified. Personal Information includes Transaction Information that a Registered User submits over a Password-Protected Area.
16.7. "Privacy Policy" means the Website privacy policy, located at ______________
16.8. "Registered User" means an Ballast client, or other user for whom Ballast has created, and granted access to, an Password-Protected Area.
16.9. "Site Visitor" means a casual visitor to the Website, who does not seek to become an Registered User, or does not qualify as an Registered User.
16.10. "Terms of Use" or "Terms" means the Website terms of use, located at _______________.
16.11. "Transaction Information" has the meaning provided in Section 4 (The Types of Information You May Provide").
16.12. "User" means a Site Visitor or Registered User.
16.13. “You” and “you” refer to any User of the Website.

17. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Site, or your dealings with this Website, please contact us at:
Attention:
Phone:
Address:

18. Effective Date
The effective date of this Privacy Policy is October 5, 2007.