Privacy Policy

This confirms that Palo Alto Software is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. This privacy statement discloses the privacy practices for paloalto.com, bplans.com, mplans.com, secureplan.com, and all other web sites owned and opperated by Palo Alto Software, Inc. TRUSTe is an independent, non profit organization whose mission is to build users' trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. Because this website wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe. By displaying the TRUSTe trustmark, this website has agreed to notify you of:

1. What personally identifiable information of yours or a third party is collected through the website.
2. The organization collecting the information.
3. How the information is used.
4. With whom the information may be shared.
5. What choices are available to you regarding collection, use and distribution of the information.
6. The kind of security procedures that are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under Palo Alto Software control.
7. How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact the site coordinator by sending an email to . If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact TRUSTe http://www.truste.org/watchdog.html. TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with the website to resolve your concerns.

Palo Alto Software, Inc. collects personal information about our users only during the secure order process and the registration for our business planning newsletter, or if you request other information sent to you. We collect name, email address, shipping address, credit card company, credit card number, expiration date, and credit card billing address. This is all kept confidential. For membership access areas, we require that you accept a cookie. This is only for functionality reasons, and your personal information is never shared with anyone else. These cookies are also only collected by our sites, there are no third party cookies that are placed on your computer. These cookies help keep track of your login information to speed up the login process, and in certain cases we store your preferences to help tailor our site content to your interests. In the case that you choose not to accept cookies or if your browser automatically does not accept cookies, the only part of our site that will not work for you is the membership registration process. Without cookies enabled, it is not possible to register for our planning tools.

Palo Alto Software, Inc. respects your right to privacy. We have a strict policy of not selling our customers' email addresses and are completely anti-Spam. Our online store is completely secure and VeriSign has authenticated us as a secure site.

Palo Alto Software, Inc. works with a number of third party web sites through affiliate agreements and web site cobrands. If you access our site through a co-branded site that features both the Palo Alto Software logo and third party web site you are on a co-branded page. Palo Alto Software hosts these co-branded sites, and at that time you are subject to our privacy policy. No personally identifiable customer information is ever shared with these third party sites that you came from to access our co-branded sites. We have 30 co-branded sites, including partnerships with Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal, and Intuit. What you've done on their sites prior to accessing the co-branded site falls under their privacy policy, which we encourage you to review. Once you reach the co-branded site that includes our logo, you are now within our privacy guidelines.

The "Send Page to A Friend" feature collects your email address only temporarily, to send your email correctly.

Palo Alto Software uses clear gif images on our site. These images are small clear images that can't actually be seen on the site, thus making them invisible. These images are used for three purposes:
1. We use the images for spacing and page layout on the page. This helps the page be more readable and attractive.
2. We use the images to help with our stats provider to track users movements throughout the site. This tracking is not personally identifiable, so each user's data is anonymous. We use this information to improve our site for our visitors by changing navigation and site structure to let users more easily find what they're looking for.
3. We use the image in HTML e-mails to alert us that a user has opened the e-mail. This is used as a tracking method only, and again, it is not personally identifiable so users remain anonymous. If you are subscribed to our e-mails and wish to opt-out, send an e-mail to with the word REMOVE in the message or subject.

Palo Alto Software will not disclose to any third party any information or data submitted by Users of this web site, without the User's prior permission, unless Palo Alto Software has a good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to legal requirements or comply with legal process; or (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Palo Alto Software.

Palo Alto Software, Inc. has a Live Chat option available on our web sites which allow you to talk one on one with a Palo Alto Software customer service representative. In order to initiate a chat, you must provide your name and e-mail address which will be available to our representative for the duration of the live chat. Once the chat has been completed, we no longer have access to your name or e-mail address.

You will be notified of any significant privacy statement updates or if we change the way we collect or use Personally Identifiable Information through email, then wait for your consent. We have measures in place to protect your personably identifiable information. Our employees are made aware of these measures when they start working at Palo Alto Software, Inc. Any time there is a change in security measures, all employees are notified of the change. We are using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption for your credit card transactions, and we are authorized by Verisign. We do share your credit card information with a third party only for verification purposes. All customer information available to internal employees is only accessible on our internal company network.

The data we collect is used in the aggregate to give us demographic information about the entire Palo Alto Software, Inc. audience in order to improve our products and services. The information you provide -- name, address, etc. -- allows us to keep you informed about upgrades, products and services of Palo Alto Software, Inc., its affiliates and other third parties that we believe may be of interest to you. If you are a registered user of one of our products, we will only send information regarding your product or any assistance you require. We do not send our business planning newsletter automatically: you will only receive it if you specifically register for it. We only share aggregate information (i.e. number of users, referral URLs, etc.) --not individual data-- with our advertisers to help them better understand our services and to monitor the reach of their advertising.

We communicate with our users only if you buy a product, sign up for our planning newsletter, or sign up for our free membership to use one of our planning tools. In each case, you will receive our bi-weekly planning newsletter. If you buy a product, you will receive a confirmation e-mail, and have the choice if you'd like to receive further product offer e-mails. If you sign up for our free membership, you will receive a login information e-mail, and future product offer e-mails.

Users have the opportunity to opt-out from receiving these e-mails by directly replying to the e-mail stating that they wish to opt-out, or by e-mailing or calling 1-800-229-7526 and letting us know that you wish to opt-out of our e-mails.

Palo Alto Software, Inc. uses reasonable precautions to keep the personal information disclosed to us secure. However, we are not responsible for any breach of security or for any actions of any third parties which receive the information. In the event of unauthorized use of your credit card, Palo Alto Software will cover your liability up to $50 provided that the unauthorized use of your credit card resulted through no fault of your own from purchases made at Palo Alto Software while using the secure server. Please note: This guarantee only applies to purchases made using our secure server. You must notify your credit card provider of any unauthorized use. Most banks either cover all the charges that result from the unauthorized use or may limit your liability to just $50.

Palo Alto Software, Inc. also links to a wide variety of other sites. We are not responsible for their privacy policies or how they treat information about their users, however, we do encourage that you review their privacy policies. We do not provide these sites with your information.

If you would like to modify, update or delete information that is collected through ordering, or registration please contact or call 1-800-229-7526.

Legal Disclaimer: We may disclose personal information when required by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary in order to conform to the edicts of the law or comply with a legal process served on our Web site.

If you have questions, we can be reached by e-mail at or direct them to the Palo Alto Software, Inc. site coordinator at .