Our Commitment to Privacy
This Privacy Policy describes the types of information that we collect, how that information may be used, with whom it may be shared, and your choices about such uses and disclosures. We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy carefully when using our Site. This Privacy Policy is intended to comply with data and privacy laws applicable to us and the operation of the Site.
Our Privacy Policy was developed as an extension of our commitment to combine the highest quality products and services with the highest level of integrity in dealing with our Site users, investors, contractors, and service providers. This statement will be continuously assessed against new technologies, business practices and our customers’ needs.
Keep in mind that no transmission of data over the Internet is guaranteed to be completely secure. It may be possible for third parties not under our control to intercept or access transmissions or private communications unlawfully. If you choose to visit the Site, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy, including but not limited to limitations of damages and application of the law of the State of Texas.
Our Privacy Policy has been adopted with the recognition that Internet technologies are rapidly evolving, and that underlying business models are still not established. Accordingly, these policies are subject to change at any time, and we reserve the right at any time and without notice to change this Privacy Policy simply by posting such changes on the Site. Any such change will be effective immediately upon posting. Your continued access and use of the Site after the effective date of any modification to the Privacy Policy will be deemed to be your agreement to the changed terms. You agree to review the Privacy Policy each time you use the Site so that you are aware of such modifications.
To assist you with reading through our Privacy Policy, we have provided answers to general questions on our privacy practices:
What Information Do We Collect?
When you visit the Site, you may provide us with one of three types of information: (1) Personal Information, which means personal information that you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual or corporate basis; (2) De-Identified Information, which means collected online information in which all personal and individually identifiable elements have been removed; and (3) Aggregate Information, which refers to general web site use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse the Site.
(1) Personal Information That You Choose To Provide
Account Information
In order to access and use certain investor features of the Site via an investor portal, you must first set up an investor account. You must voluntarily submit certain personal information about yourself or your employer or business if you are opening an account on behalf of your employer or your own company.
Email Information
In addition, for the purpose of providing the general information from us and our service providers, if you choose to correspond further with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone.
Mobile Device Information
We also collect Personal Information from your computer, tablet, mobile phone or other device that you are using to access our Services. This can include the IP address, the browser, geolocation and your language settings.
Individual Data Set Information
You may submit individual data sets containing Personal Information related to your real estate investments, contractors, or customers into the Site.
In general, Personal Information may include name, home address, email address, IP address, device identifier, social media account username or ID, phone number, SMS text messaging account name or number, personal preferences, and other user account-related information.
Personal Information is collected online when users voluntarily submit non-public personal information on the Site by requesting information, receiving electronic notices or other similar communications. Only your IP address would be collected automatically when you access the Site for purposes of enhancing the Site browsing via cookies and/or auditing.
We will retain any personal information submitted by you for fulfillment of the intended purposes for which such is collected. We will establish minimum and maximum retention periods based upon the type of information collected (i.e., sensitivity), the intended purposes and as otherwise may be legally required. We will retain your Personal Information for as long as you use the Site and until you request to delete your data.
However, Personal Information shall not include any personal information posted or sent by or to you on your public page or in any public forum (such as a comment box or a review) on the Site or linked from the Site (such as a Facebook page). Participation in these public forums requires the public release and dissemination of such information, and thus StoryBuilt cannot commit to treating such information confidentially in the same manner that other personal information will be treated under this Privacy Policy. Participation in these features of the Site is voluntary and thus your consent to certain terms is required before participation is allowed. Participation in these features of the Site is voluntary; we are not responsible and shall not be held liable for any personally identifiable information posted by you in any of our public forums.
(2) De-Identified Information
De-Identified Information is used in a collective manner for analyses and statistics in order to improve the Site. De-Identified Information does not personally identify a specific user. This includes any statistical analysis derived from the efficiency and performance of the Site or any resultant data for the real estate investments made available through the Site.
We may use De-Identified Information to improve the efficiency, performance, and offerings of the Site. We also may sell or share such De-Identified Information with others.
(3) Aggregate Information Based On Web Site Usage
Aggregate Information is non-personally identifiable or anonymous information about you, such as pages most frequently accessed by you, time spent on a page or area of the Site, the number of visits to the Site by you, types of browser used by you, cookie preferences or search terms entered by you. Aggregate Information is used in a collective manner, and no single person can be identified by that compiled information (for example, the number of people who logged into the Site in a particular day). Aggregate Information does not personally identify a specific user.
When you visit the Site, we automatically collect Aggregate Information about your visit. We can tell the type of computer, browser, and web service that you are using. We also know the date, time, and pages that you visit. Collecting this information helps us design the Site to enhance your experience while on our site.
We also may use Aggregate Information for internal purposes, such as tracking demographic data and providing targeted content to make the Site more useful to our members. The gathering of this Aggregate Information may be accomplished by the use of cookies or web beacons by us. In particular, we will collect an IP Address from all visitors to the Site. An IP Address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet.
We may share Aggregate Information with third parties to enhance your experience on our Site and otherwise in fulfillment of obligations. We use IP addresses to help diagnose problems with our server, administer our Site, analyze trends, track users’ movement on the Site, gather broad demographic information for aggregate use in order for us to improve the Site, and deliver customized, personalized content and data analytics reporting. IP addresses, however, are not linked to Personal Information. We also may use an unique assigned number located with the Site’s URL to determine the web site from which you navigated to get to the Site. While this number may not be apparent to you, it does not contain your Personal Information.
Similar to other commercial web sites, our Site utilizes a standard technology called “cookies” and web server logs or beacons to collect information about how the Site is used. Information gathered through cookies and web server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at the Site, and the web sites visited by you prior to and after the Site. This information is collected on an aggregate basis. None of this information is associated with you as an individual.
How Do We Use Personal Information Provided By You To Us?
Generally, we use personal information for purposes of administering our business activities, providing customer service and making available other products and services to our customers and prospective customers. Occasionally, we may also use the information that we collect to notify you about important changes to the Site and new services and special offers that we think that you will find valuable. The lists are used to send you product and service offers developed and managed under our traditional corporate standards designed to safeguard the security and privacy of our customers’ personal information.
How Does StoryBuilt Use Social Media?
We use social media in different ways and for different purposes. We use it partly to facilitate the use of certain features of the Site, but also to promote our services and mission and to advertise, improve and facilitate the real estate projects and other product and service offerings on the Site.
Integration of Social Media Plugins
We also have integrated social media plugins into our platform. This means that when you click on one of the buttons (such as Facebook’s “Like” button) certain information is shared with these social media providers.
What are Cookies and Web Beacon (or Pixel)?
Cookies are a feature of web browser software that allows web servers to recognize the computer used to access a web site. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored by a user’s web browser on the user’s hard drive. Cookies can remember what information a user accesses on one web page to simplify subsequent interactions with that web site by the same user or to use the information to streamline the user’s transactions on related web pages. This makes it easier for a user to move from web page to web page and to complete commercial transactions over the Internet. Cookies should make your online experience easier and more personalized.
A web beacon (or pixel) is an object that is embedded in a web page or email and is usually invisible to the user but allows checking to see if the user has viewed the page or email.
How Do We Use Information That We Collect From Cookies Or Web Beacons?
We use web site browser software tools such as cookies and web server logs to gather information about our web site users’ browsing activities, in order to constantly improve the Site and better serve our customers. This information assists us to design and arrange our pages in the most user-friendly manner and to continually improve the Site to better meet the needs of our customers and prospective customers.
Cookies help us collect important business and technical statistics. The information in the cookies lets us trace the paths followed by users to the Site as they move from one page to another. Web server logs allow us to count how many people visit the Site and evaluate the Site’s visitor capacity. We do not use these technologies to capture your individual email address or any personally identifying information about you.
Your browser is probably set to accept cookies or web beacons. However, if you would prefer not to receive cookies or web beacons, you can alter the configuration of your browser to refuse cookies or web beacons. If you choose to have your browser refuse cookies or web beacons, it is possible that some areas of the Site will not function properly when you view them. Without cookies, the Site would “forget” items that may be stored when you go to a different page. The session information used by the Site is deleted when your browser is closed. However, some portions of the Site may require account login and passwords in order to access those areas. Cookies enable our server to know that you are an account user; therefore, our system requires that you accept the cookies from those portions of the Site. Other sites linked to the Site also may send cookies; however we do not control such activities.
The Site also may use other technologies to track the specific pages viewed by visitors on this web site or to target specific content that might be of interest to you. These technologies help us to understand how visitors use the Site. However, you will have the option to opt out (or opt in if applicable law requires) of receiving such targeted content on those pages of the Site where this technology is used.
We also use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. Some browsers have a “do not track” feature that lets you tell websites that you do not want to have your online activities tracked. These features are not yet uniform, and our Site is not currently set up to respond to those signals for tracking on our Site.
Do We Share Personal Information Provided By Or Collected From You?
As a general policy, we do not share, sell or trade Personal information with third parties without your permission; however, we may provide Personal Information to third parties directly involved in the operation, performance, support and/or maintenance of the Site and each service offered on the Site, including our web site service providers, technical consultant, network retailers and business partners. We also may use your information to personalize your experience and allow us to deliver the type of content and information found on the Site and to administer a coupon, promotion, survey, or other Site feature, to ask for ratings and reviews of products and services, and to correspond with you.
We also may share Personal Information with third parties in limited circumstances. For example, we may release Personal Information to third parties to perform services such as hosting the Site (and/or features available on the Site). Such third parties are obligated to maintain the confidentiality of Personal Information and are not authorized to use Personal Information for any purpose other than providing those services or otherwise enhancing your experience on the Site. Aggregate Information may at times be shared with our business partners and other third parties.
From time to time, we may be required to provide Personal Information or Aggregate Information in response to a valid court order, subpoena, government investigation, or as otherwise required by law, or if we reasonably believe that you have committed unlawful acts or acts that may endanger the health or safety of another user or the general public. We also reserve the right to report to law enforcement agencies any activities that we, in good faith, believe to be unlawful. We may release certain personal information when we believe that such release is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property, and safety of others and ourselves.
We also reserve the right to share, assign or transfer your Personal Information to any of our affiliates or any successor in interest to our organization by merger, reorganization, or operation of law.
Sharing Information With Affiliates and Service Providers
From time to time you may notice offers from outside companies advertised on the Site. We take measures to select product or service providers that are responsible and afford privacy protections to their customers. However, we cannot make any representations about the practices and policies of these companies. We also may share information with our affiliates.
Sharing Information With Strategic Partners
We may enter into strategic marketing alliances or partnerships with third parties who may be given access to your personal information including your name, address, telephone number and email for the purpose of providing you with information regarding products and services that might be of interest to you. We are committed to proper Internet practices and full compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (15 U.S.C. Section 77-1 et al).
Notice of New Services And Changes
Occasionally, we also may use the personal information that we collect from you in order to notify you about important changes to the Site and new projects and related products and services and special offers that we think that you will find valuable. As our customer, you will be given the opportunity to notify us of your request not to receive these offers by clicking on a response box when you receive such an offer or by sending us an email request at info@storybuilt.com.
How Do We Secure Information Transmissions?
We maintain commercially reasonable safeguards to ensure the security, integrity and privacy of the Personal Information provided by you. Such security safeguards are intended to be appropriate to the sensitivity of the Personal Information collected. When you send confidential and/or personal information to us on the Site, a secure server software encrypts all information that you input before it is stored in our network servers. The information also is scrambled en route and decoded once it reaches the Site. These security measures work to make sure that such personal information is not accessible by third parties.
Other email that you may send to us may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures will be in place prior to your transmission of that information. For that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as social security or account numbers to us through an unsecured email.
How Do We Protect Your Information?
Information Security
We utilize encryption and security software to safeguard the confidentiality of Personal Information collected on our Site from unauthorized access or disclosure and accidental loss, alteration or destruction. We physically secure the areas where we hold hard copies of the information that we collect online. We regularly back up the information that we collect online to insure against loss. We use technical controls to secure the information that we collect online as appropriate, including but not limited to: hash technology, encryption, firewalls, and password protections. We disclose the minimum amount of Personal Information as necessary for the particular purpose in compliance with applicable law.
Evaluation of Information Protection Practices
Periodically, our operations and business practices are reviewed for compliance with corporate policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality, and quality of our information. We periodically test our security procedures to ensure personnel and technical compliance.
Employee Access, Training and Expectations
Our corporate values, ethical standards, policies, and practices are committed to the protection of customer information. In general, our business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized person, processes, and transaction. We employ internal access controls to ensure that the only people who see your information are those with a need to do so to perform their official duties. We train relevant personnel on our privacy and security measures.
Although we make good faith efforts to store the Personal Information, we collect in a secure operating environment that is not accessible to unauthorized users, we cannot guarantee 100% complete security.
How Can You Access and Correct Your Information?
We want your account (including without limitation, your Personal Information, and preferences) to be accurate and complete. To update, change or correct your Personal Information, you may email us at info@storybuilt.com.
By providing information using the Site, you warrant to us that your Personal Information is reliable for its intended uses, accurate, complete and correct, and that you will promptly notify use if such Personal Information is no longer current or correct.
Additionally, you may request to review the Personal Information collected about you by sending an e-mail to our Privacy Manager at the contact address below. If you send your request by email, we will send such Personal Information (or a summary thereof) for review to the email address on file for the account name in our database only. If at any time you wish to change, correct or update your Personal Information, or have it removed from our database, you also may submit a change request to our Privacy Manager by sending an email to our contact address below. Please note that it may take five business days to process your requests.
What About Other Web Sites Linked to Our Web Site?
We are not responsible for the information practices employed by websites or social media providers or accounts linked to or from our Site nor the information or content contained or collected therein. Often links to other websites are provided solely as pointers to information on topics that may be useful to the users of the Site.
Please remember that when you use a link to go from the Site to another website or social media account, our StoryBuilt Privacy Policy is no longer in effect. Your browsing and interaction on any other website, including websites that have a link on the Site, is subject to that website’s own rules and policies. Please read over those rules and policies before proceeding to provide your Personal Information.
How Does StoryBuilt Comply with Applicable Privacy Laws In Collecting Personal Information?
Personal Information may be processed by StoryBuilt in the state where it was collected as well as other states in the United States of America where laws regarding processing of Personal Information may be less stringent. However, the Site is managed and operated by StoryBuilt in the State of Texas, United States of America. Please note that any Personal Information gathered online from the Site or submitted by you to StoryBuilt will be treated as being transmitted, stored and Processed in the State of Texas, United States of America. By submitting your Personal Information to StoryBuilt, you expressly consent to the collection, transmittal, storage and processing of your Personal Information according to this Privacy Policy.
How Does StoryBuilt Treat Personal Information Of Children?
In accordance with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, we do not knowingly request or solicit personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent. In the event that we receive actual knowledge that we have collected such Personal Information without the requisite and verifiable parental consent, we will delete that information from our database as quickly as is reasonably practical.
How Can I Review Or Correct My Personal Information?
Rectification of Inaccurate or Incomplete Information
You have the right to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information concerning you.
Data Access and Portability
In some jurisdictions, applicable law may entitle you to request copies of your personal information held by us. You may also be entitled to request copies of personal information that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and/or request us to transmit this information to another service provider (where technically feasible).
Data Retention and Erasure
We generally retain your Personal Information for as long as is necessary for the performance of the Site between you and us and to comply with our legal obligations. If you no longer want us to use your Personal Information to provide the Site to you, you can request that we erase your Personal Information. Please note that if you request the erasure of your Personal Information: (i) we may retain some of your Personal Information as necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud detection and prevention, and our compliance with legal obligations; (ii) information you have shared with others (e.g., reviews, forum postings) may continue to be publicly visible on the Site, even after your user account is cancelled; however, attribution of such information to you will be removed, and additionally, some copies of your information (e.g., log records) may remain in our Site database, but are disassociated from personal identifiers; and (iii) since we maintain the Site to protect from accidental or malicious loss and destruction, residual copies of your Personal Information may not be removed from our backup systems for a limited period of time.
Withdrawing Consent and Restriction of Processing
Where you have provided your consent to the Processing of your Personal Information by StoryBuilt, you may withdraw your consent at any time by sending a communication to us specifying which consent you are withdrawing. Please note that the withdrawal of your consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing activities based on such consent before its withdrawal. Additionally, in some jurisdictions, applicable law may give you the right to limit the ways in which we use your Personal Information, in particular where (i) you contest the accuracy of your Person Information; (ii) the processing is unlawful and you oppose the erasure of your Personal Information; (iii) we no longer need your Personal Information for the purposes of the processing, but you require the information for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims; or (iv) you have objected to the processing of your Personal Information and pending the verification whether the legitimate grounds of StoryBuilt override your own.
Objection to Processing
In some jurisdictions, applicable law may entitle you to require StoryBuilt not to process your Personal Information for certain specific purposes (including profiling) where such processing is based on legitimate interest. If you object to such processing, we will no longer process your Personal Information for these purposes unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for such processing or such processing is required for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
Do I have choices regarding how my Personal Information is used (opt-in & opt-out)?
We provide our customers with an easy means to provide (opt-in) and withdrawal (opt-out) consent to our use of Personal Information (such as unsubscribe notices on email offers). You can opt-in to receiving emails and other materials from us and/or our affiliates or third parties. In particular, with respect to any Personal Information that is sensitive in nature, we will require you to “opt-in” to having such Personal Information used or shared by us. You also may request to opt-out of future mailings by emailing info@storybuilt.com.
Does StoryBuilt use my email addresses for newsletters or mailings?
The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have emails stopped from being sent to them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.
We collect your email address in order to process requests and to send information and updates pertaining to requests and transact our business, and to provide you with additional information related to our products and/or services and other newsletters for which you sign up.
To be in accordance with the CAN-SPAM, we agree to(i) not use false or misleading subjects or email addresses, (ii) identify the message as an advertisement in some reasonable way, (iii) include the physical address of our business or site headquarters, (iv) monitor third-party email marketing services for compliance, if one is used, (v) honor opt-out/unsubscribe requests quickly, and (vi) allow users to unsubscribe by using the link at the bottom of each email.
If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can email us at info@storybuilt.com or otherwise follow the instructions at the bottom of each email. You also can send a written request to the attention of our Privacy Manager at the mailing address shown below. We will promptly remove you from all of our correspondence.
Keep in mind that the Site may allow others to use individual email addresses for their own personal or businesses purposes, and StoryBuilt cannot control or monitor their usage of email address via the Site. While we contractually require that such users comply with all laws (including the CAN-SPAM Act), we cannot control their actions and thus we cannot be responsible for their compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act. If you prefer not to receive mailings from any companies with whom we may share our customer list, please send us an email at info@storybuilt.com.
Where can I get more information about the Privacy Policy?
We have designated our Privacy Manager who can be contacted at our contact address listed at the end of this Privacy Policy. Our Privacy Manager is accountable for our online compliance with this Privacy Policy. If you have questions about our Privacy Policy or if you have a complaint concerning our compliance with this Privacy Policy, you can e-mail our Privacy Manager at info@storybuilt.com. Please provide a description of your claims or questions in sufficient detail so as to permit our Privacy Manager to investigate your claims or questions fully and contact you. Our Privacy Manager will response to your requests within a reasonable time and at minimal or no costs to you. If a complaint is found to be justified, we will take appropriate measures, including if necessary, amending this Privacy Policy and our practices, as may be required under applicable law.
Our Privacy Manager is accountable for our compliance with this Privacy Policy and applicable federal and state privacy laws. If you have any challenge concerning our compliance with this Privacy Policy, or if you have any questions about our purposes for the collection and retention of your Personal Information, then please contact our Privacy Manager at the Contact Address and provide a description of your concerns sufficient in detail to permit the Privacy Manager to investigate your concerns and contact you. It is our intent to make available to you through the Privacy Manager specific information about this Privacy Policy and our management of such information as may be required by applicable law.
We use a self-assessment approach to ensure compliance with this Privacy Policy and periodically verify that this Privacy Policy is accurate, comprehensive for the information intended to be covered, prominently displayed, completely implemented and accessible and in conformity with applicable laws. We encourage you to raise any concerns using the contact information provided below. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us.