Privacy Policy

BEAR Technologies is dedicated to establishing a trusting relationship with its users, based on respect for personal identity and information, by promoting the use of fair information practices. Because BEAR Technologies wants to demonstrate its commitment to our users' privacy, we are disclosing:

What personally identifiable information BEAR Technologies collects.
How BEAR Technologies uses the information.
With whom BEAR Technologies may share user information.
Your choices about collection, use and distribution of the information.
The safeguarding procedures are in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under BEAR Technologies control.
How users can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

If users have questions or concerns regarding this statement, they should contact BEAR Technologies Customer Support by email at privacy@beartech.com

Information Collection and Use

Information Collection

BEAR Technologies is the sole owner of the information collected on its web properties, including https://www.bear.tech, https://www.beartech.net and https://www.beartech.com. BEAR Technologies collects information from its users at several different points on our Websites.

Consent

User knowledge and consent are required before we may collect, use or disclose personal information, except in exceptional such as an investigation by police or other situations permitted by law. We accept any of the following as your consent for BEAR Technologies existing use and future collection, use and disclosure of your personal information for the identified purposes:

Your receipt of this Privacy Policy, unless you advise BEAR Technologies, either orally or in writing, that you do not agree with the terms stated in this Policy, and that you wish to opt out of all or portions of it;
Your unrestricted provision of information to BEAR Technologies upon registration or to Bear Technologies Service representatives; or
Your expressed written or oral consent as obtained through the registration process.

Registration

In order to use BEAR Technologies services at any level, a user must first complete the registration form. During registration a user is required to give contact information (such as name and email address). We use this information to contact the user about services on our site for which the user has expressed interest. It is optional customer to provide demographic information (such as income level and gender), but encouraged so we can provide a more personalized experience on our sites.

Order

When a user purchases a paying service, we request information from the user on our order form. A user must provide contact information (such as name, email, and billing address) and financial information (such as credit card number, expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill customer's orders. If we have trouble processing an order, the information is used to contact the user.

Information Use

BEAR Technologies acts as a passive conduit for the distribution and receipt of its user's fax, voice and e-mail communications and therefore will not monitor, edit, or disclose the contents of a user's private communications unless Bear Technologies in good faith believes that such action is necessary to: (1) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on BEAR Technologies; (2) protect and defend the rights or property of BEAR Technologies; or (3) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of its users or the public. Users should also be aware (and hereby agree) that certain technical processing of and access to fax, voice and email messages and their content may be required to: (a) route the messages; (b) conform to connecting networks' technical requirements; (c) prevent or minimize disruptions to Bear Technologies services; or (d) conform to other similar requirements.

Cookies

At the present time, BEAR Technologies does not utilize cookies on any of its websites but reserves the right to do so in the future. In the event that BEAR Technologies begins utilizing cookies we will update this policy to indicate so.

Log Files

Like most Web sites, our servers use log files to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Communications from the Site

Welcome and Updates

We send all new customers a welcoming email to introduce their new services. Established users will occasionally receive emails containing information about us, updates on new service features, service usage tips, and member satisfaction questions. Bear Technologies users may opt-out of such notices. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections.

Invoices and Account Statements

We send all customers regular emails summarizing usage and credit card charges. These emails are a part of the Bear Technologies service, and users cannot opt-out of receiving them, though they can deactivate their account. Information identifying the credit card is not included in these communications.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and regarding issues relating to their accounts. We reply via email or phone, in accordance with the users wishes.

Spam and Junk Faxes

BEAR Technologies does not share your phone or fax numbers or email address externally. While we cannot be responsible for external communications received through BEAR Technologies services, if we are given notice that a BEAR Technologies Service is being used for spam or junk faxes, then we will deactivate that client.

Sharing

Legal Disclaimer

Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Website. For example, Bear Technologies may disclose personal information to law enforcement, other government officials, or third parties in response to criminal or civil subpoenas.

Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable)

We may share aggregated demographic information with our partners. This is not linked to any personally identifiable information.

Third Party Intermediaries

We use an outside credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Business Transitions

In the event BEAR Technologies goes through a business transition, such as a merger, or acquisition by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users' personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. Users will be notified prior to a change of ownership or control of their personal information. If as a result of the business transition, the users' personally identifiable information will be used in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection they will be given a choice not to have their information used in this different manner, as described in the notification of changes section, below.

Choice/Opt-out

BEAR Technologies users who do not wish to receive our promotional communications may opt-out from receiving these communications by clicking the opt-out link included at the bottom of every promotional message.

BEAR Technologies users may not opt-out of receiving invoices and usage information, service announcements, and customer service communications, although they can deactivate their account.

Links

BEAR Technologies Web sites contain links to other sites. Please be aware that BEAR Technologies is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our sites and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by BEAR Technologies Web sites. Bear Technologies has advertising and affiliate relationships with dozens of third party sites that drive interested parties to our sites. Information that is collected on these sites does not fall within the auspices of this policy.

Surveys

Periodically, our site requests information from users via surveys. Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name and address), and demographic information (such as zip code). Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of BEAR Technologies services. Users' personally identifiable information is not shared with third parties unless we give prior notice and a choice to opt-out. Though we may use an intermediary to conduct these surveys, they may not use customers' personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.

Referral Programs

Periodically, BEAR Technologies offers referral services, asking a user to inform a friend about our service. We collect the name and email address of the friend, and will automatically send an email invitation to the friend. BEAR Technologies stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this email and tracking success of the programs.

Safeguards

BEAR Technologies takes every precaution to protect its user's information. When users submit sensitive information via BEAR Technologies Web sites, their information is protected both online and off-line.

When our registration/order forms ask users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - SSL. While on a secure page, such as our paid order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when users are just 'surfing'.

While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also employ security measures to protect user-information off-line. All of our users' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerks or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Finally, the servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment.

Supplementation of Information

In order for BEAR Technologies to properly fulfill its obligations to users it is necessary for us to supplement the information we receive with information from 3rd party sources. BEAR Technologies verifies the billing address on all credit card transactions and may obtain credit reports for some corporate customers. The information obtained from these third party sources is maintained in a manner consistent with Bear Technologies Privacy Policy.

Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information

If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code, phone, email or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate users' personally identifiable information by contacting BEAR Technologies Customer Service.

Notification of Changes

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes in this privacy statement, and other places we deem appropriate, so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

If, however, we are going to use users' personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users via email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. However, if users have opted out of all communication with the site, or deleted/deactivated their account, then they will not be contacted, nor will their personal information be used in this new manner. In addition, if we make any material changes in our privacy practices that do not affect user information already stored in our database, we will post a prominent notice on our Website notifying users of the change. In some cases where we post a notice we will also email users, who have opted to receive communications from us, notifying them of the changes in our privacy practices.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please email privacy@bear.tech