Privacy Policy hero, credit Dwell Development

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 5/21/18

Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (“MBAKS”) values your privacy. MBAKS desires to ensure your experience with MBAKS and its subsidiaries and related companies (collectively “MBAKS”, “we,” “our,” or “us”); all our websites and all our related subdomains (the “Sites”); and all our products, software, blogs, forums, and channels (collectively with the Sites, the “Services”) are as satisfying and safe as possible. In that regard, we have established for the Sites and/or Services the following privacy policy to explain and describe what personal information MBAKS collects on our Sites and/or Services, how MBAKS uses it, and your options regarding information MBAKS may collect about you. By accepting this Privacy Policy, you expressly consent to the information handling practices described in this Policy.

This Privacy Policy is a part of and incorporated into MBAKS Terms of Use and End User License Agreements associated with its Sites and/or Services. In addition, by accepting this Privacy Policy you expressly represent: (a) that you are over the age of 18 and/or not considered a minor in the jurisdiction for which you reside; or (b) that you are a parent or guardian of a minor child and you have expressly consented to handling of the minor’s personal information as described in this Policy; or (c) that you are a school or a school district which has contracted with MBAKS to collect Personal Information of your students for the educational context authorized by your school or your school district. Your continued use of our Sites and/or Services or any other content, products, or other services covered by this Policy constitutes your acceptance and agreement to this Policy and any updates.

  1. Information We Collect

    In describing our collection, use, and sharing of information in this Policy, we refer to our collection and use of "Personal Information." Personal Information, as used in this Policy, is personally identifiable information, which is information that directly identifies an individual, such as first and last name, mailing address, email address, billing information, IP addresses, demographics, passwords or other online contact information, or telephone number. We collect Personal Information, as well as non-personally identifiable information, on MBAKS Sites and/or Services.

    We collect Personal Information in two ways. First, we collect information you provide to us in optional, voluntary submissions, such as in registration forms, user profiles, promotional signups, sweepstakes/contest entries, requests for customer service, software and mobile applications downloads, and membership data input. Second, some Personal Information may be collected automatically. This is described below in "Passive Data Collection."

    We may also obtain information, including Personal Information, from third-party sources. If we directly combine information from third parties with Personal Information that we have collected, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information and handle it in accordance with this Policy. In addition, please note that we may solicit third parties to collect Personal Information on our behalf; in such cases, we instruct those third parties to comply with this Policy and all applicable data protection laws.

    Passive Data Collection

    We may receive passively collected information through a variety of methods, including but not limited to:

    • Cookies

      What is a cookie? Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognizes that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognize a user’s device. You can find more information about cookies at allaboutcookies.org.

      Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving the user experience. They can also help to ensure that advertisements you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.

      • Performance Cookies

        MBAKS collects cookies on our Sites and/or Services to capture information about page visits (e.g. “performance cookies.”) This information is anonymous. MBAKS uses this information only internally—to deliver the most effective content to our visitors. Information from the cookie is used to gauge page popularity, analyze traffic patterns on our Sites and/or Services, and guide development of other improvements to our Sites and/or Services.

      • Targeting, Performance, and Functionality Cookies

        In our email programs, MBAKS employs some tracking methods (e.g. “targeting, performance, and functionality cookies”). We track “opens” via a tracking pixel in the email—meaning we track who opens our email messages and when you open our email messages. We track “clicks” via encoded URLs—meaning we track whether you click on the links contained in our email messages. This information is used internally only to help us deliver relevant messaging and is not shared with any third parties.

      • Functionality and Necessary Cookies

        MBAKS does not require that you accept cookies and/or you may withdraw your consent to our use of cookies at any time by adjusting your browser's privacy settings, however, some functionality on our Sites (e.g. “functionality cookies”), products, check-out process, and Services may be disabled if you decline to accept cookies (e.g. “necessary cookies”).

      • Opting Out of Cookies

        By using the Sites and Services, you consent to the placement of the cookies referenced above. You can, however, set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it. You may also change your cookie settings through preference options in our Sites and/or Services, where applicable. We will indicate upon selecting your preferences that we will use a cookie to remember your preferences.

    • Analytics Tools

      We use analytics tools and other third-party technologies, such as Google Analytics and DoubleClick cookies, to collect non-personal information in the form of various usage and user metrics when you use our online Sites and/or Services. These tools and technologies collect and analyze certain types of information, including cookies, IP addresses, device and software identifiers, referring and exit URLs, on-site behavior and usage information, feature-use metrics and statistics, usage and purchase history, MAC Address, mobile unique device ID, and other similar information.

      The third-party analytics companies who collect information on our Sites and/or Services and other online products and/or services may combine the information collected with other information they have independently collected from other websites and/or other online or mobile products and services relating to your activities across their network of websites, as well as online and/or mobile products and services. Many of these companies collect and use information under their own privacy policies.

      In addition to our use of technologies as described herein, we may permit certain third-party companies to help us tailor advertising that we think may be of interest to you based on your use of MBAKS Sites and/or Services and to otherwise collect and use data about your use of MBAKS Sites and/or Services. For more information about this practice, please see the "Third-Party Advertising Technologies" section below.

      You may opt out of the DoubleClick cookie by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page. You may opt out of Google Analytics by visiting the Google Analytics opt-out page.

      Google has additional information available about their Remarketing Privacy Guidelines and Restrictions.

      You may view a list of other third-party service providers who collect information, and/or opt out of such collection of information about you, by visiting networkadvertising.org/choices or aboutads.info/choices.

  2. How We Use Information

    Generally, we use Personal Information to establish and enhance our relationship with our users through four main categories: (1) Communication; (2) Optimization; (3) Advertising; and (4) Sharing Features. Below, we provide some specific examples of how we use the Personal Information and other information we collect.

    • Communication and Responding to Requests

      We use your information, including Personal Information, to provide you with customer support, process transactions, respond to user requests, send newsletters and updates, send special offers and advertisements, seek your opinions and feedback, and connect users to MBAKS Sites and/or Services and to products and services of our partners and licensees.

    • Optimization

      We use your information, including Personal Information, behavioral metrics, and other non-personally identifiable information to operate, provide, improve, and maintain our Sites and Services, to develop new products and services, to prevent abuse and fraud, to personalize and display advertisements and other content for you, and for other administrative and internal business purposes.

    • Advertising

      We use your information, including Personal Information, behavioral metrics, geo-location data, demographic data, and marketing preferences to personalize and display advertisements and other content for you.

    • Sharing Features

      We use your information, including Personal Information and any other information you submit directly or through passive means, to provide you with various ways to connect and share content (e.g., web content; user-generated videos, text, drawings; screen and lecture captures and quizzing features; and media, tools, services, and other products) with third parties. For example, we may provide you with the opportunity to email a link to certain content to another person. To use this feature, we may require you to provide certain Personal Information, including your email address and the email address of each person to whom you send the link.

      We also may allow you to share links to content with users of various third-party services (e.g., social networking, search, and sharing services). When sharing links using one of these third-party services, if you are not already logged in to the third party service, you will need to supply login credentials for it. If you are not a registered user of the third-party service, you will need to sign up for it. You are supplying the registration information or login credentials for the third-party service directly to that third party and not to us. By using any of these third-party services to share links to content, you permit us to access, use, and disclose any information relating to your account on each such third-party service (such as your user name and profile information) that is available to us through the third-party service, including through its application programming interface (API), pursuant to this Policy.

      More specifically, MBAKS Sites and/or Services may use interfaces with social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others. If you choose to "like" or share information from the MBAKS Sites and/or Services through these services, you should review the privacy policy of that service. If you are a member of a social media site, the interfaces may allow the social media site to connect your site visit to your personally identifiable information, resulting in the public display of the same.

    • Partners

      When you visit or use a part of any website, mobile application, or other consumer product that is co-branded or that is a part of a joint promotion involving MBAKS and one or more third parties (each a "Co-Branded Party"), you are providing and consenting to provide and are transmitting your Personal Information and other information provided to, collected, or obtained by MBAKS and any Co-Branded Parties involved, to MBAKS and each of the Co-Branded Parties without any other notice or further consent. Please note that we do not control any Co-Branded Parties' use or treatment of information you provide to them and you should consult each of their privacy policies or any separate Co-Branded privacy policy posted on or linked from the Co-Branded site to determine your rights with respect to their use and treatment of your information. You will need to communicate with us and each Co-Branded Party directly, as applicable, if you decide you no longer wish to receive communications or if you wish to change any information you have supplied.

    • Change of Ownership

      Information about our users, including Personal Information, may be disclosed as part of any bankruptcy, merger, sale, transfer of company assets, acquisition, or similar transaction. In the event of such a transaction in which your Personal Information would be transferred to a third party, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you. For example, we will post a notice of the transfer of Personal Information on our Sites and/or Services and, if we have your email address, we will send notice of the transfer of Personal Information to that email address.

    • Interactive Features

      If you use a forum, blog, channel, bulletin board, chat room, user commenting features, or other interactive sharing or social features that may be offered through any of our Sites and/or Services, you should be aware that any Personal Information you submit, display, or publish there is considered publicly available and can be read, collected, used, and disclosed by other users of those features, by us, and other third parties without restriction, except to the extent limited access features are available, if any. To request removal of your personal information from our blog, sharing service, or community forum, for example, contact us at the information provided in this Policy. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your Personal Information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.

  3. Third-Party Advertising Technologies

    This website uses the Google AdWords remarketing service to advertise on third-party websites (including Google) to previous visitors to our site. It could mean that we advertise to previous visitors who haven’t completed a task on our site, for example using the contact form to make an inquiry. This could be in the form of an advertisement on the Google search results page or a site in the Google Display Network. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to MBAKS Sites and/or Services.

    Of course, any data collected will be used in accordance with our own privacy policy and Google’s privacy policy.

    You can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google AdPreferences page and, if you want to, you can opt out of interest-based advertising entirely by cookie settings or permanently using a browser plugin.

    In addition to using cookies and related technologies as described above, we also may permit certain third-party companies to help us tailor advertising that we think may be of interest to users and to collect and use other data about user activities on our Sites and/or Services (e.g., to allow them to tailor ads on third-party services). These companies may deliver ads that might also place cookies and otherwise track user behavior. These companies may use information about user behavior in order to provide customized advertisements across various services and products. In the course of providing these services, products, or placing advertisements, these third-party companies may place or recognize a unique cookie on your computer and may record information to these cookies based upon your activities on any of our Sites and/or Services and on third-party websites. Each of these companies uses this cookie information according to their own privacy and security policies. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may opt-out as indicated in this Policy. Please note this does not opt you out of being delivered advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads.

  4. Your Choices

    • Submitting Personal Information

      If you do not want to submit Personal Information that is necessary to provide or use our Sites and/or Services or to fulfill your request, you will not be able to access and/or participate in certain MBAKS Sites and/or Services. For example, you will not be able to register for an account with us, participate in certain contests or promotions, or access and/or use certain MBAKS product features or online services. In addition, your refusal to submit Personal Information may limit our ability to respond to your customer support inquiry in a timely fashion.

    • Editing Personal Information

      You may, at any time, update, correct, or delete certain Personal Information that you have provided to us by updating your preferences on the Account Settings page or by contacting us at the mailing or email address set forth in this Policy.

    • Marketing Choices

      If you want to remove yourself from individual communications, including marketing promotions, advertisements, updates, and email newsletters, simply click the unsubscribe link in the communication or access your Account Settings page when logged in. You also acknowledge and agree that there may be instances where we may elect to notify you about administrative notices regarding your account with us, such as to inform you about changes to our terms, conditions, and policies, that your account may be expiring, or to provide you with other relevant administrative information about your account. Because this information is important to your interaction with us, you may not opt out of receiving these communications.

    • Account Deletion

      If you submit Personal Information, you may delete your account with us at anytime. If you delete your account, your Personal Information and any and all other account-related information including, but not limited to, user profile data, sharing data, any other data, and credits specifically associated with your account are also permanently deleted. If you choose to have an account with us in the future, you will have to sign up for a new account as none of the information you previously provided or saved within your account will have been saved.

  5. Security

    We take reasonable measures, including the implementation and maintenance of physical, electronic, and managerial procedures, in an effort to assure the security, integrity, and accuracy of all Personal Information that we collect. Our efforts include procedures designed to avoid unauthorized access, alteration, loss, misuse, disclosure, or destruction of Personal Information taking into account the risks involved in the processing and the nature of the Personal Information.

    If we learn of a security systems breach, we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps. By using the MBAKS Sites and/or Services covered by this Policy and providing Personal Information to us, you agree that we can communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues relating to your account information and usage.

  6. Data Integrity and Purpose Limitation

    We collect and use Personal Information in accordance with this Policy and only for the limited relevant purposes stated in this Policy and/or at the time we request such Personal Information from our users, or for such purposes to which a user may otherwise consent.

  7. Access to Personal Information

    You may view, correct, amend, or delete the Personal Information MBAKS stores about you where it is inaccurate or if you believe the Personal Information has been processed contrary to the terms of this Policy, except to the extent where the burden or expense of providing access would be disproportionate to the risks to your privacy in the case in question or where the rights of persons other than yours would be violated. Most of your Personal Information may be accessed and corrected by simply logging into your account and accessing your profile. If you wish to obtain a report of the Personal Information MBAKS has about you, please send us a written request at the address set forth in this Policy.

  8. Third-Party Login Functionality

    We may permit users with accounts on certain third-party services, including but not limited to, social networking, search, sharing, and other services delivered by third parties, to bypass the standard applicable registration process. If you connect through an authorized third-party service, you will be able to use your third-party login information to log in to your MBAKS account or access MBAKS content, Sites, and/or Services. We are not responsible for the sharing, posting, commenting, or other content and information gathering practices of any third-party services that may be triggered by using these third-party login services. Please review their terms of service and privacy policies carefully before using third-party login functionality to access any MBAKS Sites and/or Services.

    By using any third-party services to log in to your MBAKS account or access MBAKS Sites and/or Services, you permit us to access, store, and use all information related to your third-party account that may be accessible to us through the third-party service, including through its application programming interface (API), pursuant to this Policy.

  9. Third-Party Services and Links

    MBAKS content, including forums, contests, products, services, newsletters, and communications that we send to our users, may contain links to content provided by third parties. For example, our communications may contain links to third-party merchants from whom you may purchase products. To purchase products from these third-party merchants, you may be required to provide Personal Information, including your credit card or other payment information.

    MBAKS can be reached at the following address:

    Privacy Group
    c/o Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties
    335 116th Ave. SE
    Bellevue, WA 98004, USA
    mba@mbaks.com

  10. Changes and Updates to This Policy

    We may update this Policy from time to time. If we do, we will update th e"effective date" at the top of the Policy. If we make material changes to how we use Personal Information, we will attempt to notify you of the change and to give you the opportunity to exercise choice as to how your Personal Information is used. We will post the updated Policy on the affected Sites and/or Service address.

    We encourage you to review this Policy periodically to stay informed about our collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information. Your continued use of our Sites and/or Services or any other content, products, or other services covered by this Policy constitutes your agreement to this Policy and any updates.

    The Personal Information practices set out in this Privacy Policy apply to all MBAKS Sites, Services, and/or customers worldwide

  11. Enforcement

    MBAKS regularly reviews its compliance with this Privacy Policy. Please feel free to direct any questions or concerns regarding this Policy or MBAKS treatment of Personal Information by contacting us at:

    Privacy Group
    c/o Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties
    335 116th Ave. SE
    Bellevue, WA 98004, USA
    mba@mbaks.com

  12. No Error-Free Performance

    MBAKS does not guarantee error-free performance under this Privacy Policy. MBAKS will use reasonable efforts to comply with this Privacy Policy and will take prompt corrective action when MBAKS learns of any failure to comply with our Privacy Policy. MBAKS shall not be liable for any incidental, consequential, or punitive damages relating to this Privacy Policy.