Last modified May 16, 2012
ERA Franchise Systems LLC ("ERA") operates the web site at https://www.era.com ("Site"). We respect the privacy of each user of the Site (referred to as "you"), whether you are just beginning your real estate search or have previously visited our Site. This Privacy Statement gives you specific information about how we protect your privacy, how we treat your Personal Information, and how we use aggregated information.
BY REGISTERING FOR OR USING THE SITE, YOU SIGNIFY YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT, YOU CANNOT USE THE SITE. We reserve the right to modify this statement at any time by posting a notice on the Site's home page. (If we consider it appropriate, we may also provide additional notice of significant changes.) Your use of the Site after the date of the last modification listed at the beginning of this Privacy Statement indicates to us that you agree to the changes.
Scope of this Privacy Statement
This Privacy Statement applies to your use of this Site only. We do not own, operate or control the web sites of our Franchisees or sales associates. Accordingly, this Statement does not apply to a Franchisee's or sales associate's web site or to a Franchisee's or sales associate's collection, use, storage and disclosure of your Personal Information.
The Site contains links to third-party web sites, including a mortgage company, our independent Franchisees, our advertisers, or banner advertising. When you click on those links, you will go to a third-party site where you will be subject to that site's privacy statement and we encourage you to read that policy statement. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of those other web sites and we expressly disclaim any liability for their actions, including actions relating to the use and disclosure of Personal Information by those third parties.
1. What is Personal Information?
Personal Information is information collected online by ERA that identifies the person to whom such information pertains, including without limitation: name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
2. Collection and Use of Your Information
2(a). Personal Information
We collect your Personal Information on the Site in order to enhance the services we offer you. We collect Personal Information from you only when you voluntarily submit it in order to obtain certain services or information. The instances where you may provide ERA with Personal Information, and how ERA uses it, are as follows:
Registration for Personalized Services
If you wish to use ERA's personalized services, you will be asked to create and account in ERA.com. The process of creating this account necessitates that you provide Personal Information about yourself. This information is only used in connection with your ERA.com account.
Requests for Periodic Industry Updates
If you request Periodic Industry Updates, we collect Personal Information, which is submitted directly to our web hosting services vendor's system to create automatic e-mails to people who choose to subscribe. The information we collect is not used in any other way and is not retained once you end your subscription to Periodic Industry Updates.
Requests to Find or List a Property and to Find a Sales Associate
If you submit a request through this Site to find or list a property or to find a sales associate (including a relocation specialist), you will be asked to provide Personal Information and we refer this information to Franchisees or sales associates to respond to your request. For example, if you ask that we list your property or if you ask to see more listings in a given area, you will be directed to a Franchisee in that area.
Contacting Us
If you contact us, we collect Personal Information, which is retained or referred to the proper individual depending on the nature of your inquiry. If you are looking for a property or a sales associate, it is referred to a Franchisee or sales associate; if your inquiry or complaint requires a response from us, it is referred to the appropriate department for research and a response; if you are looking for information about franchising opportunities, it is referred to our Franchise Sales Operations team. The information we collect is not used in any other way.
Refer a Listing to a Friend
If you choose to send a listing to a friend, you will be asked to provide the friend's name and email address in order to personalize the email and to send the email. We do not store this information, and the information is used only to send the one-time referral email.
Employment Inquiry
If you are seeking employment, you will be asked to provide Personal Information about yourself. We refer this information to Franchisees in the geographic area in which you live. If you have sought employment at our company headquarters, the information is forwarded to our Corporate Human Resources Department.
2(b). Non-Personal Information
Even if you do not send us any Personal Information, we collect information about how you use our site ("Non-Personal Information"). This information cannot be used to identify you personally and is explained in more detail below.
What is Non-Personal Information?
Like many sites, we obtain Non-Personal Information, such as: IP (internet protocol) addresses, browser types, the name of a user's ISP (internet service provider), information about where a user comes from before arriving at our Site, what pages a user visits, the order of those pages, and the amount of time spent on each. A vendor performs this service for us by sending a cookie to gather this information, compile it, and report to us.
Use of Non-Personal Information
We use Non-Personal Information to customize the advertising and content you see, improve our services, conduct research, and provide anonymous aggregated reporting for internal audits and third-parties.
Cookies
A cookie is a small data file, often including an anonymous unique identifier, that is sent from a web site's computer and stored on your computer's hard drive. Use of cookies is common on the Internet. A web site can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser's preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser permits a web site to access only the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites. You can configure your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is sent. (Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences.) You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or indicate when a cookie is being sent. But if you refuse cookies, some parts of the Site will not function properly and may not provide services or information you have requested. For example, without cookies, we will not be able to provide you with searches that you have asked us to save.
2(c). Use of Information With Respect to Third Parties
We reserve the right to share your Personal Information with our affiliated companies and marketing partners, as permitted by law, in order to fulfill our commitment of providing you with full service real estate brokerage services.
We do share your Personal Information under the following circumstances:
- Third party vendors we engage to provide services on our behalf, such as hosting, web-site development, and support, have access to Personal Information, but they have agreed not to disclose the Personal Information or to use it for any purpose other than providing the requested services.
- There may arise special circumstances where it is necessary for us to disclose and use Personal Information and Non-Personal Information, such as: to enforce this Privacy Statement or any other part of our Terms & Conditions; to protect our property or rights; to protect the safety of anyone; to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding possible illegal or improper activities; to carry out a merger or consolidation with another entity, a sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, or any similar transaction; or for other reasons we determine in good faith are necessary, appropriate, or required by law, such as when we respond to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal or administrative process, or in coordination with law enforcement.
3. Advertising Networks
We send to your web browser some of the advertisements you see when you use our network of web sites. However, we also allow other companies, called third-party ad servers or ad networks, to serve advertisements within our web pages. Because your web browser must request these advertising banners from the ad network web site, these companies can send their own cookies to your cookie file, just as if you had requested a web page from the web site. Please note that if an advertiser asks us to show an advertisement to a certain audience (for example, men ages 18-34) or audience segment (for example, men ages 18-24 who have viewed sports content) and you respond to that ad, the advertiser or ad-server may conclude that you fit the description of the audience they are trying to reach. As always, remember we authorize our third-party ad servers to employ anonymous cookies only for ad delivery and anonymous targeting. Our third-party ad servers do not collect, nor do we give them access, to any Personal Information about you.
Opting Out of Third-Party Ad Servers
If you want to prevent a third-party ad server from sending and reading cookies on your computer, currently you must visit each ad network's web site individually and opt out (if they offer this capability). Currently, we have relationships with the following third-party ad networks (click to visit their Web sites and review their privacy statements):
24/7 Real Media, Inc. https://www.247realmedia.com/privacy.html
4. Location of Servers and Transfer of Information to the United States
The Site is hosted by servers in the United States, and, as such, the Site is governed by United States law. If you are located outside of the United States, your Personal Information will be transferred to the United States. By submitting your Personal Information, you consent to its transfer to the United States and to its storage, processing, and use there in accordance with this Privacy Statement and United States law.
5. Security
Our hosting service maintains its systems in accordance with reasonable industry standards to reasonably secure the information of its customers against unauthorized access, accidental or intentional manipulation, and loss. However, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and you use the Site at your own risk.
6. Children
This Site is not directed to children under the age of 13 ("Children"), and we do not knowingly collect any information, including Personal Information, from Children.
7. Correction/Updating Personal Information
If your Personal Information changes or if you no longer wish to use the Site, you may correct or update your Personal Information or unsubscribe from any industry updates you have requested by modifying or deleting your profile on the Site, writing to customer service at ERA, Attn: Interactive Marketing, 1 Campus Drive, Parsippany, NJ 07054 or by using the "Contact ERA.com" feature in Contact ERA.
8. California Privacy Rights
Under California law, California residents have the right to request in writing from businesses with whom they have an established business relationship (1) a list of categories of personal information, such as name, address, e-mail address, and the type of services provided to the customer, that a business has disclosed to third parties, including affiliates that are separate legal entities, during the immediately preceding calendar year for the third parties' direct marketing purposes and (2) the names and addresses of all such third parties.
To request the above information please submit a Consumer Information Disclosure Inquiry Form. To request the above information please contact us by writing to ERA at ERA, Attn: Interactive Marketing, 1 Campus Drive, Parsippany, NJ 07054 or by using the "Contact ERA.com" feature in Contact ERA.
We will respond to such requests within 30 days of receipt. Please note that we are only required to respond to each customer once per calendar year.