Carson|Stoga's privacy policy covers the collection and use of personal information that may be collected by Carson|Stoga anytime you interact with us, such as when you visit our web site, when you utilize Carson|Stoga services, or when you call our sales or support associates. Please take a moment to read the following to learn more about our information practices, including what type of information is gathered, how the information is used and for what purposes, to whom we disclose the information, and how we safeguard your personal information. Your privacy is a priority at Carson|Stoga, and we go to great lengths to protect it.

Why we collect personal information

Why do we collect your personal information? Because it helps us deliver a superior level of customer service. It enables us to give you convenient access to our services and focus on categories of greatest interest to you. In addition, your personal information helps us keep you posted on the latest announcements, special events, and activities that you might like to hear about.

When we disclose your information

Carson|Stoga takes your privacy very seriously. Be assured that Carson|Stoga does not sell or rent your contact information to other marketers. There are also times when it may be advantageous for Carson|Stoga to make certain personal information about you available to companies that Carson|Stoga has a strategic relationship with or that perform work for Carson|Stoga to provide services to you on our behalf. These companies may help us process information, deliver services, manage and enhance customer data, provide customer service, assess your interest in our services, or conduct customer research or satisfaction surveys. These companies are also obligated to protect your personal information in accordance with Carson|Stoga's policies. Without such information being made available, it might be difficult for you to purchase services, receive customer service, provide us feedback to improve our services, or access certain services, offers, and content on the Carson|Stoga web site.

At times we may be required by law or litigation to disclose your personal information. We may also disclose information about you if we determine that for national security, law enforcement, or other issues of public importance, disclosure is necessary.

How we protect your information

Carson|Stoga takes precautions -- including administrative, technical, and physical measures -- to safeguard your personal information against loss, theft, and misuse, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.

The Carson|Stoga web site may use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption on certain web pages where personal information is required. In instances such as this, you must use an SSL-enabled browser such as Safari, Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later, or Internet Explorer. Doing so protects the confidentiality of your personal information while it's transmitted over the Internet.

Integrity of your personal information

Carson|Stoga has safeguards in place to keep your personal information accurate, complete, and up to date for the purposes for which it is used. Naturally, you always have the right to correct the personal information you have provided.

Cookies and other technologies

As is standard practice on many corporate web sites, Carson|Stoga's web site may use "cookies" and other technologies to help us understand which parts of our web sites are the most popular, where our visitors are going, and how much time they spend there. We may use cookies and other technologies to study traffic patterns on our web site, to make it even more rewarding as well as to study the effectiveness of our customer communications. And we may use cookies to customize your experience and provide greater convenience each time you interact with us.

If, however, you prefer not to enable cookies, we suggest that you consult with your local IT technician, support staff or other person with expertise, to have them disable cookies in your Internet browser. Please note that certain features of the Carson|Stoga web site may not be available once cookies are disabled.

As is true of most web sites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data.

We use this information, which does not identify individual users, to analyze trends, to administer the site, to track users' movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. Carson|Stoga will not use the information collected to market directly to that person.

In some of our e-mail messages we use a "click-through URL" linked to content on the Carson|Stoga web site. When a customer clicks one of these URLs, they pass through our web server before arriving at the destination web page. We track this click-through data to help us determine interest in particular topics and measure the effectiveness of our customer communications. If you prefer not to be tracked simply avoid clicking text or graphic links in the e-mail.

In addition we may use pixel tags -- tiny graphic images -- to tell us what parts of our web site customers have visited or to measure the effectiveness of searches customers perform on our site.

Pixel tags also enable us to send e-mail messages in a format customers can read. And they tell us whether e-mails have been opened to assure that we're only sending messages that are of interest to our customers.

Our companywide commitment to your privacy

As we said, Carson|Stoga takes protecting your privacy very seriously. To make sure your personal information is secure, we communicate these guidelines to Carson|Stoga associates and strictly enforce privacy safeguards within the company. In addition, Carson|Stoga supports industry initiatives to preserve privacy rights on the Internet and in all aspects of electronic commerce. And we do not knowingly solicit personal information from minors or send them requests for personal information.

Carson|Stoga's web site may have links to the sites of other companies. Carson|Stoga is not responsible for their privacy practices. We encourage you to learn about the privacy policies of those companies.

Privacy questions

If you do not want Carson|Stoga to keep you up to date with Carson|Stoga news and the latest information on services and products, click here to send an e-mail request and update your personal contact information and preferences. Naturally, if you notify us that you do not want us to use your information for a particular purpose, we will not do so.

Carson|Stoga may update its privacy policy from time to time. When we change the policy in a material way a notice will be posted on our web site along with the updated privacy policy.