As the host of a community dedicated to the sharing of resources and information, we at Rate It Green value your trust and consider the protection of your privacy a top priority. We want you to feel secure so that you may freely participate in the activities and services we offer. We are disclosing our privacy policies so that you may understand how and why we collect the information we do. We encourage you to contact us if you should have any questions or concerns.

The Privacy Policy detailed below is a part of Rate It Green's User Agreement. Please understand that by using the Rate It Green web site, you are agreeing to be bound by the terms and conditions of the User Agreement, including this Privacy Policy.

Rate It Green's Privacy Policy:

Rate It Green appreciates members' willingness to give their personal information in order to help form a community and help grow the market for green products and services. We commit to take all reasonable steps to protect member's personal information.

Rate It Green also treats confidential company information in the same manner as personal information. Confidential company information is any information that identifies an individual employee or contains facts about a company that are not publicly available and may be sensitive in nature.

At Rate It Green, we DO NOT sell or rent our members' information to third parties. We may aggregate personal information from all of our user_id and provide that information to other parties, including partner companies and advertisers for research or marketing purposes. However, when we do so, this information will not be in a form that will allow any third party to identify you personally. If and when we hire third parties to assist us with data management, we will require in writing that these organizations honor the same privacy commitment that we make to you.

This Privacy Policy explains the following:

• What information we collect in connection with your use of the Rate It Green web site
• How we use information we collect in connection with your use of the Rate It Green web site
• What safeguards we have in place to protect your personal information
• Your ability to edit and manage your account information and preferences
• Other information you should know about your privacy
• Contacting us should you have comments, questions, or concerns about your privacy

WHAT INFORMATION DOES RATE IT GREEN COLLECT WHEN YOU USE OUR SITE?

Registration and Registration Renewal Forms

We strongly encourage all Rate It Green user_id to register with us and to renew key pieces of information with us on a regular basis. As an online community, we are committed to growing the green building market through shared resources and information. Information about the community of individuals and companies that form the market for green building products is an important resource we can leverage to help grow the marketplace. The more user_id share about their characteristics and participation in that market, the more robust our community can be and the more we can conduct quality research. Your registration also permits Rate It Green to personalize your use of our services in many ways to enhance your experience. You are also required to register with Rate It Green to add content to our site and participate in many of our communities.

When you register with us, we will collect various "personally identifiable information" about you. You will know precisely what personally identifiable information we collect, because you will fill out a registration form. Much of this information will be required for registration. Some information will not be required, but we encourage you to fill out this information if you are comfortable doing so. If you wish to register but do not wish to provide certain information, then you may contact us directly.

Surveys

In line with our mission of growing the green building market, Rate It Green will periodically ask for specific information from our user_id through surveys. Your participation in these surveys is entirely optional but is strongly encouraged. Again, the information you provide to us through these surveys will be immediately apparent to you as you complete the survey. Again, we believe that the information provided in these surveys ultimately helps make the Rate It Green community more robust and additionally helps grow the green market. If a survey is sponsored by a partner organization, we will provide this information.

Through Technology

Session Data: Whether or not you register with us or participate in surveys, like most web sites, Rate It Green will automatically log generic information about your computer's connection to the Internet. Data we log will include things such as IP address, operating system and type of browser software being used and the activities conducted by the user while on our site. An IP address is a number that lets computers attached to the Internet, such as our web servers, know where to send data back to the user, such as the pages of the site the user wishes to view. We collect session data because it helps us analyze such things as what items visitors are likely to click on most, the way visitors are clicking through the site, how many visitors are surfing to various pages on the site, how long visitors to the site are staying and how often they are visiting. It also helps us diagnose problems with our servers and lets us better administer our systems.

Cookies: "Cookies" are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer's hard drive (and not on our site or on the internet). First and foremost, you can rest assured that NO personal information about you is gathered or stored in the cookies placed by the Rate It Green site, and as a result, none can be passed on to any third parties. You should know that cookies are only read by the server that placed them, and are unable to do such things as run programs on your computer or harvest personal information. The use of cookies is common on the Internet, as they are quite useful. Cookies allow user_id who have already registered on Rate It Green to speed up their future activities on the site. They also help measure aggregate (total) usage and traffic to Rate It Green and to specific areas within it. The information provided aids us in producing content that best meets our user_id' preferences. Cookies are also potentially helpful in monitoring the frequency and placements of the advertising we host in order to help support this site. They may help us display advertisements that we think will be of particular interest to you. You may configure your browser to reject cookies, but this may interfere with some functionality of the Rate It Green site as well as of other sites you may visit on the internet Certain pages of the Rate It Green site also may contain electronic images (called a "single-pixel GIF" or "web beacon") that allow a web site to count user_id who have visited that page.

Other

We may receive data about you in other ways not specifically described in this document. For example, you may contact us for user support. In this case, we will receive your email address and will make use of it in responding to you. Or, we may get a third party compliment or complaint about your participation on the Rate It Green site. In these and in other instances, we will honor all privacy commitments we have made elsewhere.

HOW DOES RATE IT GREEN USE INFORMATION COLLECTED THROUGH YOUR USE OF THE RATE IT GREEN WEB SITE?

Rate It Green uses the information we collect about the use of our site for the purpose of fulfilling our mission of growing the green building market through shared information and resources. One of the major values of the service we provide lies in leveraging the information we collect about the green building market from our user_id. We will therefore share information about our user_id that we collect with various parties and for various purposes. However, all information about our user_id will always be aggregated and no personally identifiable information will ever be shared (except in the limited circumstances outlined below). Some of the ways in which we may use aggregated information about our user_id includes:

• We may use aggregate data ourselves, to permit us to build higher quality, more useful online services.
• We may produce private or public research reports and other information about the green marketplace. These reports would not include any personally identifiable information.
• We may provide aggregate data to third parties, such as our advertisers, or companies interested in targeting the green building market with products.
• We may share aggregate data to inform third parties as to the number of people who have seen and clicked on links to their web sites from within the Rate It Green site.
• Again, we will never sell or rent any personal information to any third party. We may, however, use your personal information for certain limited purposes that will help both of us. We may use your personal information in the following ways:
• Automatic log on. If you are registered, it will be more convenient for you to use all features of our site, because we make use of the personal information you have provided us to permit you to automatically log on to the Rate It Green site each time you visit, without having to enter a user name and password every time.
• Contacting you. We may also use your personal information - specifically, your email address -- to periodically contact you with news or important information from Rate It Green or to request your feedback on our site or your participation in a Rate It Green survey. We may also email you additional materials, but only if you specifically request them. These might include opt-in newsletters and other materials that you proactively request from Rate It Green. We may also provide you various information from our partners and sponsors if you request that we do so.
• Providing Advertising. We may also use certain information that you provide in order to present you with advertising that you may find interesting. This benefits both of us. It benefits us because advertising helps pay the bills, and we can charge our advertisers more if they know that their ads will be seen by somebody more likely to find it useful. It benefits you because you see advertising that may actually be interesting to you, rather than annoying.

Other Use and Disclosure

You should also be aware that as Rate It Green is an on-line community, through your participation in certain aspects of the site, you will be displaying certain information about yourself. The input and content you provide in our forums, ratings, and other public areas will be displayed (except in some circumstances where you may be able to change a setting) along with your user name and your usertag if you have created one. If other Rate It Green members choose to, they can receive email notifications of your publications or publish their own comments to your reviews. Other members will not have access to your personal information unless you provide this information yourself or unless you specifically give consent for this information to be shared. As described in our User Agreement, we may republish your content as long as we do not reveal personally identifiable information. We may choose to publish all of parts of product ratings or forum entries for reasons which may include: developing aggregate ratings, promoting particularly successful community members, and improving or generally promoting the Rate It Green site.

WHAT STEPS DOES RATE IT GREEN TAKE TO PROTECT YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION?

Rate It Green will do everything we reasonably can to protect the confidentiality and security of your personal information. For example, we will:

• Limit access to personal information about you to employees who we believe reasonably need to come into contact with that information. We will also ensure that all employees are thoroughly trained according to this policy and as to the importance of protected privacy as a community value.
• Use various technical (as well as administrative and physical safeguards) to protect against loss, unauthorized access, destruction, misuse, modification and improper disclosure of your information.
• We will also require that any third party vendors who provide services to Rate It Green honor our privacy commitments to you. However, please be aware that no computer system or information can ever be fully protected against every possible hazard. In addition, when you submit personal information to Rate It Green over the Internet, the information may travel over many systems that are not under our control.

YOUR ABILITY TO EDIT YOUR ACCOUNT INFORMATION AND PREFERENCES

Note that you can edit and manage your account information and preferences in the following ways:

• Update Account Information - You can review and update the information you have provided through the registration process by viewing your Member Profile. You will be able to make changes to your account information by filling out an Account Update E-form (available upon launch) or by filling out a contact form, emailing us, or by talking with a customer support professional if you prefer.
• Change Marketing Preferences - Through your Member Profile, you will also be able to view and adjust your marketing preferences at any time. New categories of marketing communications may be added to the Marketing Preferences page from time to time. user_id who visit this page can opt out of receiving future communications from these new categories or they can unsubscribe by following the instructions they will receive with all messages.
• Cancel Registration - You may cancel your Rate It Green registration at any time. You can do this by checking the appropriate box (this functionality will be available soon) or by filling out a contact form, emailing us, or by talking on the phone with a customer support professional if you prefer. Please note that we reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to the Rate It Green community, such as service announcements, administrative messages and a Rate It Green quarterly or annual Newsletter (to be established), that are considered part of your Rate It Green account, without offering you the opportunity to opt-out of receiving them. Depending on frequency and user preferences, we may change this policy regarding the Newsletter. It is our goal to operate Rate It Green successfully while respecting the communications wishes of all members.

Note also that we try to implement changes to our databases as quickly as possible. However, not all databases may be updated immediately, and some old data may remain in our archives and records. We will also retain in our files information you have requested to delete in some circumstances, such as to resolve disputes or enforce our User Agreement. Also, you should be aware that due to certain technical and legal constraints, some information about you that you have requested be removed may remain stored in "back up" systems.

WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY?

While Rate It Green will do everything we can to protect your privacy and personal information, there are a few things that are beyond our immediate control and that you must be aware of (in addition to the technological limitations and risks noted above):

Links to Other Sites

One of the benefits Rate It Green provides its user_id is that we are a resource to other information about green products on the World Wide Web and elsewhere. Please note that when you click on an external link from within the Rate It Green Site, you will be entering a third party's web site. Rate It Green cannot take responsibility for the privacy practices of third party sites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of all such sites as their policies may be materially different from this privacy policy.

Required Disclosures

In certain very limited circumstances, Rate It Green may determine that it is simply necessary to disclose certain personal information about our user_id. These include:

• In connection with a legal matter, we may receive a subpoena, court orders, or legal process requiring disclosure of certain information, or we may determine that it is necessary to disclose certain information to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims;
• It may be necessary for us to share information in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our terms of use, or as otherwise required by law.
• If Rate It Green were to be acquired by or merged with another company, we would transfer certain information about our user_id, after notifying them. This would also apply in the unlikely event of a bankruptcy filing.
• If you give your consent to have your information shared in a particular circumstance.

Using a Site Email or Similar Feature

You should know that, if you choose to send an email through our site (for example, through a "tell a friend" or similar feature), your email will include your email address and any personal message you choose to send. Although we do not retain, in any easily-retrievable way, the addresses that you might be emailing, these emails are not considered private communications. Also, you may not use these tools to send spam or content that violates the User Agreement.

Note on "Phishing"

Identity theft is of great concern to us at Rate It Green. You should be aware of a practice known as "phishing" by which people may try to solicit personal information through the use of emails that look like they are from companies with which you do business. When we need to request information, Rate It Green will always direct you through our main site (www.rateitgreen.com). Should you have a concern about an email, feel free to write us directly to ask if the email in question is from Rate It Green. You may also always visit Rate It Green directly to perform the same action rather than responding to an email if you prefer. For more information about phishing and protecting your identity, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/phishingalrt.htm.

Changes to this Policy

We expect our business to evolve and change over time. This privacy policy may also change as we see the need for updates. We reserve the right, at any time and without notice, to add to, change, update or modify this privacy policy simply by posting such change, update or modification on the Web site. Any such change, update or modification will be effective immediately upon posting on the Web site. You should check our Web site frequently to see the most recent version of this privacy policy.

CONTACTING US

If you have questions or suggestions about this Privacy Policy, please complete a feedback form or you can contact us at:

Rate It Green
Customer Service - Privacy Team
Privacy@rateitgreen.com