At the Homestore.com™ family of web sites, user privacy is of utmost concern.  We are committed to your privacy and security, and to providing you the best possible user experience.  This policy may be updated by us from time to time, so please check here frequently.

What do we mean by privacy?  The Homestore.com™ family of sites - including, Homestore.com™, REALTOR.com™, HomeBuilder.com™, SpringStreet.com™, Remodel.com™ and CommercialSource.com™ - is committed to your privacy and security and wants to provide you with the best possible experience.  We will never disclose your personally identifiable information to any third party without your consent, except in limited circumstances to our business partners with whom we have established agreements that protect your privacy.

Here's how we collect and use information from you in our efforts to provide the highest quality user experience:

IP Address - Your IP or "Internet Protocol" address and other site usage data is used to gather broad demographic information.  This data helps us serve you by allowing us to understand how visitors use our web sites.

Cookies - Our sites use a technology called "cookies," small files stored by your browser to help keep track of your user profile.  Our cookies do not collect personally identifiable information, nor do we share them with anyone.  We use cookies to remember your personal profile for your convenience, to deliver content specific to your needs and interests, and to ensure you don't see the same ad repeatedly.  We also use cookies to track user trends and improve areas of our sites that our users find valuable.

Ads - We sometimes use outside companies to display advertising on our web sites.  These ads may place cookies on your computer, which are referenced by our ad companies.  We do not have access to this information.

Registration - Some of our sites include registration forms that require users to give us contact information (like your name), unique identifiers (such as your email address), and demographic information (like your Zip code or age).  Customer contact information is shared among the Homestore.com™ family of web sites so that, when possible, you can enjoy member benefits without having to register more than once.

We use customer contact information from registration forms to send you information related to our products and services if you consent to receiving such mailings.  Your contact information may also be used to contact you when necessary for administrative purposes related to your account.  We use your email as a unique identifier in our record system, to verify communications from you, and to send you newsletters and promotion offerings that you ask to receive or to tell you about changes to the Homestore.com™ family of web sites.

Demographic information and site usage data is also collected on our sites. We use this data to tailor your experience, allowing us to provide content related to your preferences and information on products or services we think you may be interested in.

Email Services - If you take advantage of any email notification features on our sites, you will receive email updates as described in the service. The Homestore.com™ family of sites provides users the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from us and our partners. Users can remove their personal information from the database of a particular site by sending a request by email to the contact for the particular site listed below or for SpringStreet, by typing "unsubscribe" in a response to the email received.

Personal Tools - Certain products on our sites, like the REALTOR.COM™ Personal Planner, allow you to store your personal information for future use.  We do not share this information with third parties.

Order Forms - Our sites use forms for you to request information, products and services.  We collect financial information to bill you for the products and services you indicate.  (See "Your Security" below for more on how we safeguard your financial information and social security information.)  We collect social security information to provide credit check, loan application and similar services.  We collect contact information, unique identifiers and demographic information for the purposes described in "Registration" above.  See "Disclosure" for more information on when we provide your information to third party business partners.

Contests and Surveys - Online, we may also survey visitors for contact information, unique identifiers and demographic information.  You are never required to answer these questions.  The information you submit may be used for analyzing overall site demographics, user preferences and tastes, and similar "getting to know our customers" purposes.  We may disclose this data to third parties in an aggregated form (such as summary reports for our advertisers) but never with user data or identification assigned to the information provided.

When you enter a contest, we will require that you submit a limited amount of personally identifiable data such as contact information.  We may also ask you questions related to your preferences and age or background.  We will designate which questions are required to be answered in order to enter the contest.  The information you submit may be used to analyze site demographics and user preferences, and for similar "getting to know our customer" purposes.  We may share this data with third parties in aggregate form only (as in summary reports to advertisers), and never in the form of personally identifiable information.

Your Security - Homestore.com™, Inc., and its affiliates have taken the following important measures to protect against loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information.  First, we store no financial information or social security information on our sites.  Although you may have to enter your credit card number or social security number twice, we think the benefits of security are worth it.  When we do transmit your data, we use only Secure Servers using current encryption technology to encode your data safely.

The personal data we do store on our system is protected by firewall and password. Our network firewall is a combination of hardware and software designed to keep unauthorized users from accessing our network.  The password you select, along with your unique email address, prevents others from accessing your information.  We suggest that you do not disclose your password to anyone.

Third Party Service Providers - Some of the services available through our family of sites, such as "Change My Address," are provided by third parties that have their own privacy policies that may be different than ours.  You should review the privacy policy of third parties before providing your personal information to them.

Outside Links - While on a Homestore.com™ family web site, you may be led to other web sites.  Be aware that other sites may collect data and personal information and operate according to their own privacy practices.  Please remember that, once outside of our family of sites, any information you submit is outside of our control.

Disclosure - To provide you the best products and services, we team with business partners.  When you indicate that you want to receive a product or service, or contact a person or organization, we share the data needed for you to receive what you have indicated.  Occasionally, we hire consultants that may need access to our member database to perform their services for us.  We take great care to require that these business partners agree by contract not to use any member information that they may receive access to.

Homestore.com™ may contract with outside companies to administer our mailing lists or provide retail services.  Your personal information may be shared with an outside company for the sole purpose of administering the products, services and programs you have selected.

Choice/Opt-out - The Homestore.com™ family of web sites provides you the opportunity to opt out of receiving communications from our partners and us.  To remove your personal information from one of our web sites, email a request to the site at the address listed in "Contacting Us."  To remove your name from an email service, simply reply to the email and type "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.

Correct or Update - You can change or update your personal information for a particular tool, such as the REALTOR.COM™ Personal Planner or the Registration profile of SpringStreet.com™, by going to the "Edit Profile" or "Member Profile" section of the site and following instructions to update your information.

Contacting Us - If at any time you feel that the Homestore.com™ family of web sites has not adhered to this policy, email us at and we'll do our best to determine any problem and quickly respond. If you have questions or concerns about our privacy policy, please contact us at .