Privacy Policy
Last modified: October 12, 2021
Introduction
Rain Makers Media, Inc., d/b/a Consumer Opinion Guide (“Company” or “We”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy.
This policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the website https://www.consumeropinion.org (our “Website“) and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information.
This policy applies to information we collect:
- On this Website.
- In email, text, and other electronic messages between you and this Website.
It does not apply to information collected by:
- Us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by Company or any third party; or
- Any third party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on the Website.
Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Website. By accessing or using this Website, you agree to this privacy policy. This policy may change from time to time (see Changes to Our Privacy Policy). Your continued use of this Website after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.
Children Under the Age of 13
Our Website is not intended for children under 13 years of age. No one under age 13 may provide any information to or on the Website. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information on this Website or through any of its features, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at contact@consumeropinion.org.
California residents under 16 years of age may have additional rights regarding the collection and sale of their personal information. Please see Your California Privacy Rights for more information.
Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It
We collect several types of information from and about users of our Website, including information:
- By which you may be personally identified, such as name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, or any other identifier by which you may be contacted online or offline (“Personal Information“);
- That is about you but individually does not identify you, such as website cookies and tracking features; and/or
- About your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Website, and usage details.
We collect this information:
- Directly from you when you provide it to us.
- Automatically as you navigate through the site. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies.
- From various third-party entities.
Information You Provide to Us
The information we collect on or through our Website may include:
- Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Website. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Website, posting material, or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you enter a contest or promotion sponsored by us, and when you report a problem with our Website.
- Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us.
- Some features of our Website will require you to provide or submit certain Personal Information in order to be able to use it. Some of the features and/or services that require you to provide Personal Information are subject to your consent (e.g., creating a user profile, adding your review to one of the services or products that appear on our Website, newsletters which may become available from time to time, promotional material and forms), and some will be collected upon your consent to this Privacy Policy, as described below.
- Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.
- Your search queries on the Website.
You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “posted“) on public areas of the Website, or transmitted to other users of the Website or third parties (collectively, “User Contributions“), including reviews of various products and services. Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Although we limit access to certain pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Website with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.
Information We Collect Through Third-Party Forms and Services
Our Website lists, rates and compares various third-party businesses, brands, and commercial entities (collectively, “Partners”) and their respective products and/or services (collectively, “Products”). We may, from time to time, provide you with offers, services, and Products of Partners via an online form to be filled by you, upon your consent, and such information will be used to facilitate your connection and/or engagement with the relevant Partner (“Lead”). Additionally, if you want to receive more information about a Partner or a Product, or if you otherwise want to pursue a transaction with a Partner, and you click the relevant Partner icon or tab, you may be directed to a landing page or an online form that is owned and operated by the Partner (the “Landing Page”); similarly, you may also be directed to the Landing Page through other websites and online searches. In either case, however, you may be prompted to submit certain information on the Landing Page, including Personal Information such as your name, email address, and phone number (such information collectively, “Landing Page Info”). The Landing Page Info that you submit is collected directly by the Partner who provided it and will include its own privacy policy and data collection practices information. We advise you to refer to such privacy policies to better understand the purpose of the collection and use of the Personal Information you submit.
The Website may contain a blog forum, reviews, and articles displaying information about the Website, Partners, Products, and the relevant market vertical. Our Services may also offer you the opportunity to subscribe to newsletters and participate in surveys and other promotional activities (some of which may be administered by us, and some of which may be administered by third party services with which we engage). In each of the foregoing cases, your interaction (such as responding on the blog forum, subscribing to a newsletter, or participating in a survey) may require you to provide certain Personal Information such as your name and email address. In which case, your submission of information will also be provided directly to such third party and will be used according to this privacy policy as well as such third party’s own privacy policy, and for the purpose for which you provided the information.
Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies
As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns, including:
- Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
- Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.
We also may use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking).
The information we collect automatically may include personal information, or we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Website and to deliver better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:
- Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
- Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests.
- Speed up your searches.
- Recognize you when you return to our Website.
The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:
- Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser Cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.
- Web Beacons. Pages of our Website and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).
Third-Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
Some content or applications, including advertisements on the Website, are served by third parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Website. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) advertising or other targeted content.
We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly. For information about how you can opt out of receiving targeted advertising from many providers, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.
How We Use Your Information
We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:
- To present our Website and its contents to you.
- To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us.
- To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
- To provide you with notices about your account.
- To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.
- To notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide through it.
- To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Website.
- To count and track referrals and ads.
- To identify or authenticate your access and use of the Website.
- In any other way, we may describe when you provide the information.
- For any other purpose with your consent.
We may also use your information to contact you about our own and third-parties’ goods and services that may be of interest to you. For more information, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.
We may use the information we have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers’ target audiences. Even though we do not disclose your personal information for these purposes without your consent, if you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria.
Disclosure of Your Information
We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.
We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:
- To our subsidiaries and affiliates.
- To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business.
- To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Rain Makers Media Inc.’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by Rain Makers Media Inc. about our Website users is among the assets transferred.
- To third parties to market their products or services to you if you have not opted out of these disclosures. For more information, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.
- To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
- For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
- With your consent.
We may also disclose your personal information:
- To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
- To enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements.
- If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of Rain Makers Media Inc., our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information
We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:
- Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
- Disclosure of Your Information for Third-Party Advertising. If you do not want us to share your personal information with unaffiliated or non-agent third parties for promotional purposes, you can opt out by using this form.
- Promotional Offers from the Company. If you do not wish to have your email address used by Us to promote our own or third parties’ products or services, you can opt out by sending us an email stating your request to contact@consumeropinion.org. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may send us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions.
- Targeted Advertising. If you do not want us to use information that we collect or that you provide to us to deliver advertisements according to our advertisers’ target-audience preferences, users based in the European Union can visit www.youronlinechoices.eu and users based in the US can visit https://www.aboutads.info/choices for more information.
We do not control third parties’ collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can opt out of receiving targeted ads from members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI“) on the NAI’s website.
California residents may have additional personal information rights and choices. Please see Your California Privacy Rights for more information.
Nevada residents who wish to exercise their sale opt-out rights under Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 603A may submit a request to this designated address: [LINK TO FORM].
Your California Privacy Rights
This section applies solely to all visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California (“consumers” or “you”). We adopt this notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this notice.
Information We Collect
Our Website collects information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or device (“Personal Information“). We have collected the following categories of personal information from its consumers within the last twelve (12) months:
Category |
Examples |
Collected |
A. Identifiers. |
A real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, Social Security number, driver’s license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers. |
Yes |
B. Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)). |
A name, signature, Social Security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver’s license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information. Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other categories. |
Yes |
C. Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law. |
Age (40 years or older), race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, religion or creed, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, sex (including gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy or childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, veteran or military status, genetic information (including familial genetic information).
|
Yes |
D. Commercial information. |
Records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies. |
Yes |
E. Biometric information. |
Genetic, physiological, behavioral, and biological characteristics or activity patterns used to extract a template or other identifier or identifying information, such as fingerprints, faceprints, and voiceprints, iris or retina scans, keystroke, gait, or other physical patterns, and sleep, health, or exercise data. |
No |
F. Internet or other similar network activity. |
Browsing history, search history, information on a consumer’s interaction with a website, application, or advertisement. |
Yes |
G. Geolocation data. |
Physical location or movements. |
Yes |
H. Sensory data. |
Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information. |
No |
I. Professional or employment-related information. |
Current or past job history or performance evaluations. |
No |
J. Non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)). |
Education records directly related to a student are maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalfs, such as grades, transcripts, class lists, student schedules, student identification codes, student financial information, or student disciplinary records. |
No |
K. Inferences drawn from other personal information. |
Profile reflecting a person’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes. |
No |
We obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:
- Directly from you when you provide it to us;
- Automatically as you use the Websites. Automatically collected information may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies; and
- From third parties, such as our business partners.
Use of Personal Information
We may use, sell, or disclose the personal information we collect for one or more of the following business purposes:
- To fulfill or meet the reason you provided the information. For example, if you share your name and contact information to request a price quote or ask a question about products or services from one of our partners, we will provide the partner that personal information to respond to your inquiry.
- To provide, support, personalize, and develop our Website, products, and services.
- To create, maintain, customize, and secure your account with us.
- To process your requests.
- To provide you with support and to respond to your inquiries, including to investigate and address your concerns and monitor and improve our responses.
- To personalize your Website experience and to deliver content and product and service offerings relevant to your interests, including targeted offers and ads through our Website, third-party sites, and via email or text message (with your consent, where required by law).
- To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our Website, products and services, databases and other technology assets, and business.
- For testing, research, analysis, and product development, including to develop and improve our Website, products, and services.
- To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
- As described to you when collecting your personal information or as otherwise set forth in the CCPA.
- To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us about our Website users is among the assets transferred.
We will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.
Sharing Your Personal Information
We may disclose your personal information to a third party for a business purpose, or sell your personal information, subject to your right to opt-out of those sales.
We share your personal information with the following categories of third parties:
- Service providers.
- Data aggregators.
- Third parties who you have consented to.
Disclosures of Personal Information for a Business Purpose
In the preceding twelve (12) months, Company has disclosed the following categories of personal information for a business purpose:
- Category A: Identifiers
- Category C: Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law
- Category D: Commercial information
- Category F: Internet or other similar network activity
- Category G: Geolocation data
We disclose your personal information for a business purpose to the following categories of third parties:
- Service providers.
- Data aggregators.
Sales of Personal Information
In the preceding twelve (12) months, Company has sold the following categories of personal information:
- Category A: Identifiers
- Category B: California Customer Records personal information categories
- Category C: Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law
- Category D: Commercial information
We sell your personal information to the following categories of third parties:
- Business partners.
- Data aggregators.
Your Rights and Choices
The CCPA provides consumers (California residents) with specific rights regarding their personal information. This section describes your CCPA rights and explains how to exercise those rights.
Access to Specific Information and Data Portability Rights
Once we receive and confirm your verifiable request, we will disclose to you:
- The categories of personal information we collected about you.
- The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.
- Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that personal information.
- The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.
- The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you.
- If we sold or disclosed your personal information for a business purpose:
- sales, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient purchased; and
- disclosures for a business purpose, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient obtained.
Deletion Request Rights
You have the right to request that we delete from our records any of the personal information that we collect and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable request, we will delete your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.
Why We May Deny Your Request
We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) to:
- Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information.
- Provide you with notices about your account, including expiration and renewal notices.
- Carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.
- Fulfill any other purpose for which you provided it.
- Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
- Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
- Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights or exercise another right provided for by law.
- Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.).
- Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement if you previously provided informed consent.
- Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
- Comply with a legal obligation and any relevant laws, regulations, ordinances, rules, directives, or statutes.
- Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.
Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights
To exercise the access, data portability, and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by filling out this form or emailing your request to contact@consumeropinion.org.
What We May Need From You
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
Only you, or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.
You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must:
- Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative.
- Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.
We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you.
Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.
Response Timing and Format
We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 additional days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.
If you have an account with us, we will deliver our written response to that account. If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option.
Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request’s receipt. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.
Fees
We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.
Personal Information Sales Opt-Out and Opt-In Rights
If you are 16 years of age or older, you have the right to direct us to not sell your personal information at any time (the “right to opt-out”). We do not sell the personal information of consumers we actually know are less than 16 years of age, unless we receive affirmative authorization (the “right to opt-in”) from either the consumer who is between 13 and 16 years of age or the parent or guardian of a consumer less than 13 years of age. Consumers who opt-in to personal information sales may opt-out of future sales at any time.
To exercise the right to opt-out, you (or your authorized representative) may submit a request to us by visiting the following link.
Once you make an opt-out request, we will wait at least twelve (12) months before asking you to reauthorize personal information sales. However, you may change your mind and opt back into personal information sales at any time by emailing your request to contact@consumeropinion.org.
You do not need to create an account with us to exercise your opt-out rights. We will only use personal information provided in an opt-out request to review and comply with the request.
Non-Discrimination
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:
- Deny you goods or services;
- Charge you, or suggest you may be charged, for services;
- Impose penalties;
- Provide you a different level or quality of services.
California’s “Shine the Light” law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of our App that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to contact@consumeropinion.org.
Data Security
We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Website. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page with a notice that the privacy policy has been updated on the Website home page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you through a notice on the Website home page. The date the privacy policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Website and this privacy policy to check for any changes.
Contact Information
To ask questions or comment about this privacy policy and our privacy practices, contact us at: contact@consumeropinion.org.