Credentify™ Privacy Policy
Introduction
Credentify™ verifies credentials submitted to Credentify™ by coordinating with credentialing agencies and third parties that store credential information. Credentify™ also provides job board and application management services for employers. As a part of that service, we act as an intermediary between a prospective employer and job applicant. As a part of this relationship, we collect sensitive personally identifiable information on behalf of the prospective employer. We utilize this data to perform criminal background, credit and credential screening services on behalf of the employer. Background screening is performed by obtaining explicit permission from the applicant, as well as companies using our services. In order to utilize the full scope of Credentify™'s services, interested parties must register (signup) by filling out the applicable registration forms (Employer, Individual or Applicant signup) and agreeing to specific terms and conditions. By agreeing to obvious disclosures and all terms and conditions pertaining to this site, users consent by electronic signature to have background screening preformed.
Our privacy policy applies to all personally identifiable information, which includes sensitive personally identifiable information, collected, maintained, used or disseminated by Credentify™ in delivering information products and services through any Credentify™ company or line of business. The use of personal information gathered by a prospective employer through a Credentify™ system is subject to the Terms of Use agreement between Credentify™ and the prospective employer. Credentify™ takes no liability on behalf of the employer in the event of misuse of your sensitive personally identifiable information. Many of our products are already subject to important privacy protections provided by federal and state laws. For Credentify™, for our customers and for consumers we have adopted the following privacy policy. We strive to apply this policy globally to our products and services where appropriate and consistent with applicable law. For the purpose of this policy, sensitive personally identifiable information is defined as information that will never be broadcast to the public facing Internet, such as your social security number, driver's license number, credit card information, or other sensitive personally identifiable information. Personally identifiable information is defined as information that could be used to determine identity, but may be available on the public Internet, such as your name, stated record of credentials, photograph, and place of business.
Policy Principles
We collect, maintain, use and disseminate personally identifiable information in proper, appropriate and respectful ways, authorized by laws, regulations and policies, while balancing and considering individual and organizational interests. We promote the use of personally identifiable information to help make decisions in a manner that is fair, based on merit and that takes into account the individual privacy interests. We collect, maintain, use and disseminate personally identifiable information, when doing so benefits the consumer, improves public safety, reduces fraud, improves risk management, facilitates the delivery of goods or services, or improves the quality of our services and products.
Online Privacy: We protect the privacy of personally identifiable information obtained over the Internet and apply our privacy policy and evolving standards to the online environment. As part of our service, we request certain personally identifiable information from users on registration and sign up forms. Credentify™ mandates users of its Site to create user names and passwords. Contact information, such as; name, address, email address and phone number, are required for access to Credentify™'s' site. This information is used to contact you about the Credentify™ services in which you expressed interest: such as using our job board, or applying for a job. We will send you strictly service related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so; for instance, if our service is suspended for maintenance. Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications. No communication from us is promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive communications from us, you have the option of deactivating your account. We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law, and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Web site.
Registration: Where we collect Personal Information through online forms, we will notify you of which fields are mandatory for the particular service or functionality you are requesting (i.e., through the use of an asterisk (*) next to such mandatory field), and which fields are optional. If you choose to provide information that is optional, we may use and disclose such information for the purposes described below. As a general rule, Credentify™ does not collect any personally identifiable information from Non-Registered Users.
We require your social security number, driver's license, date of birth, tax ID, credit card information and other sensitive personally identifiable information in order to perform background checks. Our services include individual criminal background and credit history checks, as well as employment job boards and individual credential certifications. All sensitive information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL. While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open. After registration, you have the option to provide us with information pertaining to your background history; such as, previous employers, education background, certifications, training, military enlistment and publications. This information is not required, but we encourage you to supply us with this information so we can provide you with the full range of our services
Cookies: Our site may use cookies to enhance your experience while visiting our site. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. A Cookie is a piece of data stored on your hard drive containing non-personally identifiable information about you. Upon visiting the Site, we send a cookie and/or gif file ("Cookie") to assign an anonymous, unique identifier to the applicable User's Internet browser. Cookies generally assist users by performing certain functions such as saving passwords and personal preferences regarding the site. Cookies will not be linked to any Personally Identifiable information.
Your browser is probably set to accept cookies. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies, it is possible that some areas of our site will not function properly when you view them. The use of cookies by our affiliates, tracking utility companies, advertisers, and service providers are not covered by our privacy statement. We have do not have access or control over these cookies. Our affiliates, tracking utility company, advertisers, and service providers use session ID cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our site and use our shopping cart. This privacy statement covers the use of cookies by Credentify™ only and does not cover the use of cookies by any other enterprise. Service Providers and Supplementation of Information: Credentify™ assures that every third party source we use is reputable and reliable. We utilize verifiable firms to gather information so that our credential database is free of fraud. We collaborate with third parties (government, private database agency) to provide credential verification and background check services. When a user signs up for services, such as credential verification or submitting a resume, we share names and other personal information (SSN or Date of Birth) that is necessary for a third party to provide credential verification. These third parties do not have authority to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.
We use third parties to provide credit card processing, to bill you for goods and services, and we outsource our web hosting. When you sign up for, and purchase, a credential verification, background check or upgraded service, we will share your credit card information as necessary with the credit card processing company to bill your for account accordingly. Credentify™ does not share any personal information with our web host provider. Credentify™, LLC does not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others. All information submitted between Employers and Applicants/Individuals using the Credentify™ site will at no time be shared, or distributed, to any other Credentify™ user. Any, and All, information transacted between using parties will remain private. Credentify™ LLC reserves the right to provide aggregate statistics about our customers, sales, traffic patterns, and related site information to reputable third-party vendors, but these statistics will include no personally identifying information. All personally identifiable information, such as social security numbers and birth dates, will be held solely for the use of Credentify™.
Collection of Third Party Information: An individual has the option to invite a third party to use the Credentify™ site. A third party can be invited to the site by having their name and email address entered into the Credentify™ system; thus prompting an invitation email to be sent to the third party. This name and email address will be used for the sole purpose of inviting an individual to have their credentials verified. No other third party personally identifiable information will be collected. Consumer Point of Contact and Access: Consumers may review the information we maintain about them at any time. Most personal information can be updated and/or corrected online by logging onto your account and clicking "administration" (for employers) or "your profile" (for individuals). You may also contact Credentify™ at customerservice@Credentify™.com or 888-845-2989. Credentify™ requires a response to a request provided within 30 days of submitting the request.
Children's Privacy: Credentify™ is a product designed for individuals who are of an employable age. All clients and end users must be 18 years of age or older and have authority to legally sign documents. If you believe that your child has provided Credentify™ with any personally identifiable information, please e-mail customersupport@Credentify™.com to have this information removed.
Opt-Out: We allow consumers to opt-out of the dissemination of their personal information by leaving the Credentify™ service, however we do not allow users to withdraw applications submitted to client companies through the Credentify™ application management system, except where required by law. Employment application withdrawal must be managed by contacting the company you applied with directly. Registered Users who no longer wish to receive notification e-mails of any kind may opt-out of receiving these communications by contacting us at customersupport@Credentify™.com.
Data Security: We protect Personally Identifiable Information that we maintain or disseminate so it is not obtained by unauthorized individuals, or used in unauthorized ways. We authenticate all companies using our site, and verify that they have an appropriate and lawful purpose for obtaining information. Credentify™ believes that strong privacy and information security protections are vital for an effective and trusted data industry. All sensitive information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL. While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open.
While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line. All of our user's information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Our employees must use password-protected screen-savers when they leave their desk. When they return, they must re-enter their password to re-gain access to user information. The servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment, behind a firewall. We continue implementing and updating security safeguards, as appropriate. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personally identifiable information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. Identity Theft: We help consumers avoid identity theft and, when identity theft occurs, to mitigate any adverse consequences. It is important that consumers who may have had their sensitive personally identifiable information acquired by an unauthorized individual be notified. Where a state law requires notice, we comply with the law. In those states where identity theft notice laws do not exist, Credentify™ follows its interpretation of section 501(b) of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) as part of its information security breach response and notification policy (link).
Links: Our Web Sites may contain links to other sites. Please be aware that Credentify™ is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites, and this Web Site Privacy Statement does not apply to such sites. Because we cannot control the activities of third parties, we cannot accept responsibility for any use of your personally identifiable information by such third parties, and we cannot guarantee that they will adhere to the same privacy practices as www.Credentify™.com. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. Changes to this Privacy Policy: If we decide to change this Web Site Privacy Statement, we will post the revised policy at this location, or at another location that is accessible via a link from our homepage, so that users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at any point we decide to use Personally Identifiable Information in a manner that is substantially different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will seek to notify users by way of an email, and provide users with a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner.
Contact Information: If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at: Attention: Legal Department
2261 St. George Lane, Suite G
Chico, CA 95926
Phone Number: 888-845-2989
Fax Number: 800-541-3630
customerservice@Credentify™.com
TRUSTe Program: Credentify™ is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent organization whose mission is to build user's trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy statement covers the Web site www.Credentify™.com. Because Credentify™ wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe. If you have question or concerns regarding this privacy statement, you should first contact customer service at customerservice@Credentify™.com or 888-845-2989. If you do not receive acknowledgement of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php.
Creation Date: 2/1/08; Review Date: 8/3/08; Revision Date: 1/23/09
