Home Media, LLC d/b/a Home Solutions (“HS”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) is glad that you have found us. We hope that your experience is a positive one. We operate a collection of digital assets designed to make the home service experience better for everyone. Through our Neighborhood Alerts program we provide a single service to keep you apprised of things going on in your local community that matter to you as a homeowner, from updates on home value and equity, to new real estate listings, to local crime information, to lost pet alerts, to localized information about when and how to save money on specific home improvement services. Overall, we think we make things easier and more efficient for everyone involved, but, in full disclosure, our business model relies on selling your customer information entered on our websites to businesses able to provide you with relevant products and services. In other words, we connect you with trusted partners, who contact you about the products or services you are searching for online. We try to make this clear where you enter your information online and in this Privacy Policy.
Some functions and services offered through the Websites have additional privacy disclosures that supplement this Privacy Policy. We urge you to read our entire Privacy Policy, and, where applicable, site-specific additional privacy disclosures, so that you will understand both our commitment to you and your privacy, and what rights you have related to that commitment. Please note that unless otherwise indicated, this Privacy Policy does not cover any information that may be collected elsewhere, including without limitation through any third-party website where we write content.
By visiting the Websites, you agree to our collection and use of personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use (the “Terms“). We encourage you to familiarize yourself with each of these policies as continued use of the Websites constitutes acceptance of the Privacy Policy and the Terms, to the extent that is permitted under applicable law.
Table of Contents
Information We Collect
Legal definitions of personal information can vary across different jurisdictions. We strive to comply with laws in all the jurisdictions where we operate, but for purposes of this Privacy Policy consider “personal information” to be any information that identifies you as an individual or is directly relatable to an identifiable individual. Not all information we collect is personal information under this definition. For example, information that has been de-identified or aggregated in a way that no longer allows identification of a particular person would not meet this definition.
In order to provide you with the products and services, we may collect, store, and process personal information from the categories shown in the table below. Our listing of these categories does not mean that all categories or the examples listed in each category are collected about everyone who uses the Websites. We are providing a full list here in the spirit of transparency.
| Categories of Personal Information |
| Category |
Examples |
| Identifiers |
Name; postal address; physical address; telephone number; email address; date of birth; and account access information |
| Demographic information |
Age; national origin; race; citizenship; or gender |
| Internet or other electronic network activity |
Browsing history; search history; session information; site navigation; referring source (including referring URLs); exit URL; browser type; browser identifier; IP address and other similar information collected via the use of cookies, web beacons, and other similar technologies about how you use the services |
| Audio, visual, or similar information |
Photos; videos or other recordings you choose to share with us |
| Geolocation data |
Physical location; including latitude or longitude; and movement data |
| Device information |
Information about your device and software characteristics; connection information; device brand and model; device operating system; device type; and device Identifier for Advertiser (IFA) |
| Commercial information |
Records of products or services purchased; obtained; or considered; or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies |
| Inferences drawn from other information |
Any profile created about you that reflects likely preferences; characteristics; psychological trends; predispositions; behavior; attitudes; intelligence; abilities; or aptitude |
How We Collect Your Information
Directly from you. We collect personal information directly from you when you provide it to us, for example, when you enter information about yourself into a “Get a Quote”, “Find a Local Company” or similarly titled form on the Websites; take a quiz; submit an inquiry or comment to us online; sign up to join a mailing list; or create an account to access Neighborhood Alerts.
Indirectly from you. We may automatically collect personal information from you when you visit the Websites through the use of tracking technologies or by other passive means. This “passively collected” information helps us to improve our offerings and allows us to ensure the services work as designed and in a way that meets your expectations. Some examples of the sources of this passively collected personal information include:
Viewing History and Preferences. When you browse the Websites, we may collect information about your use. For example, if you search an article database, we may collect information about that action and form inferences about what information our users find most helpful.
Log Information. We may automatically record information that your browser or mobile device sends whenever you access the services, and especially when you are logged into your account. These logs may include information such as, IP address, access times, the referring website, browser type, browser language, your computer operating system, your mobile device and mobile operating system, the name of your Internet service provider or your mobile carrier, and one or more cookies (discussed below) that may uniquely identify your browser.
Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies. When you visit or access the Websites, we may utilize cookies (small text files containing a string of characters sent to your computer) or similar tracking technologies, such as web beacons (also known as “tracking pixels”), embedded scripts, and various device recognition technologies, that uniquely identify you or your device to track your activity and hold certain information to improve your future visits. Cookies can be necessary for site navigation and performance, or used for targeted advertising. We use the following types of cookies:
Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of the Websites and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the Websites may not work properly or at all.
Analytical/performance cookies. These cookies allow us to recognize and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the Websites. This helps us to improve the way the Websites operate, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. They also help us to know which pages are the most and least popular, which drives the content we generate in future. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Functional cookies. These cookies are used to recognize you when you return to the Websites for increased functionality. This enables us to personalize content for you and remember your preferences. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to the Website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. They are generally set through our Websites by our advertising partners and may be used to track you across the Internet. We may use this information to make the Websites and the information displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with our business partners for this purpose. The information collected through these cookies may also be used by the companies who set them to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertisements on other sites. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Most web browsers accept cookies automatically but can be configured not to do so or to notify the user when a cookie is being sent. If you wish to disable cookies, refer to your browser help menu to learn how to disable cookies. Please note that if you disable all cookies, you may not be able to use some features of the Websites. You may find the information presented at the following website helpful in setting your device and browser specific settings:
https://allaboutcookies.org/how-to-clear-cookies.
From third parties. We may collect personal information about you from third parties for our business purposes. These third-party sources vary, but could include the following:
Our Brand Clients. We partner with brands to expand their digital channels and add incremental customers. In order to produce high quality content to meet our clients’ goals, they may provide us with personal information regarding their current customers for research and analysis. We do not use this information to contact you, but instead to understand what would appeal to our clients’ target customers.
Technical Service Providers. We work with a variety of third-party service providers to enhance the services and to make the Websites function the way you expect. These third-parties may include, for example, companies that provide website hosting, analytics, and maintenance services or companies that provide marketing and advertising solutions. For example, we use a company called
ActiveProspect and their TrustedForm service to gather your consent when we collect your information and to verify that the information we receive is related to a real person. Much of the information we gather from our service providers overlaps with the passively collected personal information described above. In working with our service providers, we may share personal information with them and receive personal information back from them so that we may improve the Websites. The third-party service providers we work with are authorized to use your information that we provide to them only to carry out the service they are providing for HS. We require that the third-party processors securely store any personal information we provide to them and maintain it so that it can be accessed when needed for future purposes. Where appropriate, we enter into binding contracts to protect the use of your personal information by third parties. As an example, we use Google Analytics to analyze how users interact with the Websites. Google Analytics has its own terms of use that we agree to and its own policy that describes how it collects and processes data, located
here. You can opt out of Google Analytics’ collection and use of data generated by your use of the Websites by installing the
Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. For more details please refer to Google Analytics’ article,
“Safeguarding your data.” Social Media Technologies and Similar Third-Party Services. Certain businesses in our portfolio maintain social media presences and/or allow you sign-in or link social media platforms to accounts you set up with us. We receive information from you when you interact with our pages, groups, accounts or posts on or throughout social media platforms. This includes aggregate data on our followers (e.g., age, gender and location), engagement data (e.g., “likes,” comments, shares, reposts and clicks), awareness data (e.g., number of impressions and reach) and individual users’ public profiles. However, the information gathered on those social media pages is generally governed by the terms and privacy policies of those social media companies. If you do not want us to have this information you can choose not to link social media platforms to our services or visit the social media pages for the businesses in our portfolio.
Third-party Use of Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies. Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Websites are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks. 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 Websites. 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, however, you may be able set device and browser specific settings to limit what you share. You may find the information available at the follow link helpful in doing so:
https://allaboutcookies.org/how-to-clear-cookies.
How We Use the Information Collected
We may use the information we collect from you on our Websites in the following ways:
- To fulfill or meet the reason you provided the information to us. For example, if you share your name and contact information to request a price quote or ask a question about our products or services, we and our trusted partners will use that personal information to respond to your inquiry. This may include contacting you by telephone call or text message and by means of an automatic telephone dialing system or pre-recorded or artificial voice message related to the product or service you have inquired about via an online form.
- To connect you with trusted partners able to provide you with the products and services that you are looking for online.
- To personalize and improve your experience on our Websites.
- To respond to comments and questions and provide customer service.
- To deliver messages and other content you request and to send information relevant to you, including quotes, confirmations, technical notices, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages.
- To send you information about new promotions, products, and services offered by us or our trusted partners. This may include targeted advertising campaigns.
- To provide you with information relevant to your local community through our Neighborhood Alerts program.
- To analyze the performance of promotional efforts.
- To help understand your needs, provide you with better service, and determine whether marketing offers from our trusted partners or other third parties would be of interest to you we may link or combine information you provide with other information we get offline and/or from our trusted partners or other third parties.
- To create de-identified or aggregated lists of information for any of the uses stated above.
- To diagnose problems with the Websites and to improve, upgrade or enhance the Websites and our services.
- To comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce agreements.
- To notify you regarding any concerns with the services, including, as required by law, in the event that personal information you provided to us is exposed to unauthorized third parties.
- To carry out other purposes that are disclosed to you and/or to which you consent.
How We Share Your Information
Our business is built around connecting consumers with businesses who can provide the products and services those consumers are looking for online. To do that we share the information you directly provide to us in the form of a “lead” for use by a business that can follow-up with you to provide a solution. We get paid by that business to generate the lead. In some instances, a lead may be sold to another network provider with a larger list of partners than we have a current relationship with. In each of these scenarios, the point of sharing your information is to find a company that can contact you about your needs. When you provide us information to be shared in this way, we get your consent at the time of collection.
You always have the right, however, to direct us not to sell your personal information at any time after collection (see the “Right to Opt-Out” section below). We will honor that request once it is received. However, we may not always be able to prevent a company from contacting you when they have purchased a lead from us before you chose to opt-out of the sale of your personal information. In those circumstances you may need to tell that company directly that you no longer wish to be contacted.
Some other ways in which we may share personal information include:
- In the broadest sense of the term, we may “share” personal information with other users when you comment or respond to a post on any blog on the Websites or utilize similar publicly viewable interaction features that are made available on the Websites. We think this is self-evident, but out of an abundance of caution and in light of very broad interpretations of what must be disclosed to you in certain privacy laws, we are disclosing this information to you. We generally do not remove such publicly available posts even upon request.
- We may share personal information with third parties that perform services on our behalf, for example, our technical service providers. By using the services, you consent to the processing and handling of your personal information by our service providers in the manner and for the purposes described here and in their respective privacy policies. We will not authorize these third parties to use your personal information except as necessary to provide services to us or for purposes authorized by us.
- Additionally, we may disclose your personal information (1) to comply with a law, regulation or other governmental request, for example, to comply with subpoenas, court orders, legal process or requests by law enforcement or governmental entities; (2) to investigate or defend against third-party claims against us; (3) where we believe the rights, property or safety of HS, its users or the public is at risk; (4) to detect, prevent or investigate fraud or other illegal activity or to enforce this policy; (5) to repair or resolve technical issues in the operation of the Websites; (6) if required by law, to respond to a request by you to disclose the information, including a request to allow access to your personal information by third parties designated by you; (7) with your knowledge and consent; (8) to address emergencies or acts of god; and (9) as an asset of the business in the event of a sale, merger or other business combination or transfer involving us or our affiliated entities.
How Do We Protect Your Information?
We take the security of your personal information seriously. We implement commercially reasonable technical, physical and administrative security measures to protect against the loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction of personal information collected through the Websites.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. We cannot and do not guarantee that your personal information will never be accessed by an unauthorized party or otherwise breached during transmission through the Internet. Additionally, any contact with us by email or by way of our Websites might not be secure. 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 Websites.
In the event that we believe any information that you provided to us has been exposed to unauthorized third parties, we will notify you as required by law or upon our own choice. In the event of such unauthorized exposure, we expressly reserve the right to provide notice to you electronically via any email address you have provided to us if permitted to do so by law. If you have reason to believe that your personal information, including any account you use to authenticate and login to the Websites, is no longer secure, please notify us immediately by contacting us via one of the methods listed below.
Consumer Rights Regarding Personal Information
Depending on where you live you may have certain privacy rights created by law. While laws vary between jurisdictions, we strive to provide the same basic level of privacy rights to everyone regardless of where you live. Thus, the rights described here may be used by anyone with whom we interact or about whom we collect personal information, subject to the legitimate business needs of customers on whose behalf your information was provided to us.
Right to Know. When you request that we provide you with the information we collect or disclose we will provide you with an individualized response about our collection and use of your personal information. Unless we are required to provide more information by an applicable law in your jurisdiction, that response will be limited to the following:
- Specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
- The categories of personal information we have collected (for reference see the table above for categories and examples of personal information that we may collect).
- The sources from which we have collected your personal information.
- Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling personal information.
- Whether we have sold your personal information for a business or commercial purpose.
- The categories of third parties to whom we have sold personal information, if any.
Right to Correct. You have the right to ask us to correct inaccuracies in the personal information we have collected, taking into account the nature of the personal information and the purposes of the processing.
Right to Request Deletion. When you request that we delete your personal information, we will delete personal information we maintain about you from our records as of the date of your request subject to certain limitations—primarily those created a legal or compliance need to retain certain information (for example, if you have requested to be placed on an internal Do Not Call List, we will maintain that record and the applicable telephone number, but we will remove other information we hold about you). We will also request that any service providers that we know maintain your data on our behalf also delete your personal information. In some cases, deletion may be accomplished through de-identification of the information.
Please note that certain information may be excepted from your deletion request. For example, we may keep information where necessary to detect and resolve issues related to system security and fraud detection.
Exercising Your Consumer Right to Know, Correct or Delete. To exercise the right to know, correct, or delete information described above complete our Privacy
form.
Right to Opt-Out of Targeted Advertising/ Do Not Sell or Share my Personal Information. As discussed above, when you provide us with information through the Websites for the purpose of being connected with one of our business partners, we will share that information with our business partner in the form of a lead that they pay us to receive. We may also use your personal information to facilitate the delivery of targeted ads, promotions, and offers to you, on behalf of ourselves and our trusted partners, either on or off the Websites. Some jurisdictions provide residents or, in some cases, their authorized agents, with the right to opt out of the “selling” or “sharing” of their personal information, or of “targeted advertising” based on their personal information. We apply those rights to everyone for consistency.
To submit a request to opt out of targeted advertising, or the sale or sharing of your personal information, you may click the
“Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link in the footers on our Websites or in our application settings. Please note that your opt-out choice may be applied only to the particular web property from which you submit the request. If you have visited multiple of our properties, you may need to submit a form for each. Also, if you clear your cookies on your browser or use another browser or device, you may need to opt out again.
Additionally, you may choose to enable online, where available, a universal tool that automatically communicates your opt-out preferences, such as the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”). We will process the GPC signal as a request to opt out. You may also use an authorized agent to submit a request to opt out on your behalf if you provide the authorized agent signed written permission to do so.
Verification of Rights Requests. We cannot respond to your rights requests if we cannot verify your identity or the authority of your agent to make the request and confirm that the personal information we maintain relates to you. When you make a request, we may verify your identity as required by law.
You must also describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it. If we have questions regarding your request you must make an effort to respond to our inquiries. If we do not understand your request we may not be able to comply.
Where possible, we will respond to a verified rights request within 45 days of receipt. If we require more time, we will inform you of the reason and the need for an extension. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable.
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. In certain cases we may contact your employer with this information.
Authorized Agents. You may designate an authorized agent to make requests on your behalf. We will require verification that you did in fact give that person your authorization. Unless the law requires otherwise, your authorized agent must provide contact details for you. We will contact you to confirm that you authorized the agent to act on your behalf. Once you confirm, we will promptly respond to the rights request. Please note, we will not share information about a business customer with anyone not clearly affiliated with that business.
Non-Discrimination. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of the rights listed in this section. Specifically, we will not:
Deny you products or services, except to the extent that not being able to share your information prevents us from being able to connect you with a business who could help provide the products or services you are seeking.
Provide you a different level or quality of services, except to the extent that not having personal information limits our ability to do so.
Charge or suggest that we will charge you different prices or rates for the services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.
Right to Appeal. If you have submitted a consumer request to us and we have denied your request or you feel we have failed to respond in a timely manner, you have the right to submit an appeal of our decision. You may submit your request for appeal by completing our Privacy
form.
Other Privacy Choices
In addition to the rights discussed above, there are various other ways you can choose to access, update, or limit the personal information you provide to us.
Neighborhood Alerts. We automatically enroll users who enter information on one of our Websites into the Neighborhood Alerts program. When you access Neighborhood Alerts for the first time, you will be presented with choices regarding your notification preferences in areas such as local real estate, pet alerts, home improvement services, crime updates, and others. You will have the option to toggle on or off notifications for these areas and options for which mediums you would like to be contacted through (e.g., email, telephone call, SMS text, etc.). If you wish to turn off all notifications you may do so at any time by visiting the Neighborhood Alerts page or by submitting a rights request via the options presented above.
Unsubscribe from Marketing Emails. If you have provided us with an email address, we or our business partners may email you information about relevant products and services. You may opt-out of receiving those communications by following the “unsubscribe” instructions that are included in those emails.
Mobile Application Users. You may choose to uninstall our applications from your mobile device and delete the associated data.
Do-Not-Track Disclosure. Do Not Track ("DNT") is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. Please note that we do not respond to or honor DNT signals or similar mechanisms transmitted by web browsers.
Retention of Personal Information
We will retain your personal information collected pursuant to this privacy policy for as long as we deem reasonably necessary or desirable for our business purposes, unless a different retention period is required by any applicable law, rule or regulation. We reserve the right to delete or destroy any information collected, including personal information, at any time.
Other Important Information
Eligible Users. Persons accessing the Websites should be consumers or potential consumers of the products and services being offered by us or our partners online.
Children’s Privacy. HS is committed to protecting the safety and privacy of young people using the Internet. The Websites are not directed at or intended for use by persons under 16 years old. If you are under the age of 16 you should not be visiting the Websites. We do not knowingly collect or retain personal information from persons under the age of 16. If you are under the age of 16 and are visiting the Websites please exit immediately and do not disclose or provide any information to us. If you are a parent or guardian who thinks your child has disclosed information to us, please complete our Privacy
form.
Users Outside the United States. Our Websites are not directed at or intended for users outside the U.S. Please be advised that if you are located in the European Union or another region with laws related to data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, your personal information voluntarily submitted through the Websites and transferred to the U.S. may not have the same level of data protection as that provided by your home country.
Links to Third Party Websites. Our Websites contain links to other websites, including links to third-party advertisements. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of other websites. If you submit personal information to any of those websites, your information is governed by their privacy statements. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our Websites and to read the privacy policies of other websites and online services.
Sweepstakes and Similar Promotions. When we sponsor promotions or sweepstakes, or third parties’ sponsor promotions or sweepstakes in conjunction with us, either the third party or we will post any additional relevant privacy information in the official rules and/or registration area for the promotion or sweepstakes. To the extent it conflicts with this Privacy Policy, that privacy information will govern that promotion or sweepstakes.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update or change our privacy practices and this policy from time to time. If we update the policy, we will publish the revised policy on this page or as otherwise required by law. The date at the top of this policy reflects the date of the most recent update. Your continued use of this Website after we make changes is deemed, to the fullest extent allowed by law, to indicate your acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.
How to Contact Us
If you have questions about this privacy policy, or you wish to correct, update, amend or inquire about deleting/removing personal information that you have provided to us, complete this
form.
You may also write to us at:
Home Solutions
1122 Oberlin Road
Raleigh, NC 27605
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