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We are firmly committed to protecting our shareholders' personal and financial information online. The following guidelines are designed to help you understand how we gather, use and protect that personal and financial information.
Information Collection, Use and Disclosure
When Information Is Collected and Not Collected
Our Use of Cookies
How We Handle E-Mail
Protecting Online Applications
Security
What You Can Do to Increase Security
Hyperlinks
You Can Count On Our Commitment to Your Privacy
Information Collection, Use and Disclosure
We may provide the following online services for your account -- account opening, account inquiry, or account trading - that would permit you to log on to the secure account information areas of the Web site.
We do not collect any personal information about you if you do not log on to the secure account information areas of the Web site. When you do log on to these areas, we collect your password and user identification number. We also give you the option to provide us with an additional telephone number and e-mail address. This information helps us to assist you.
Whenever we ask for personal information on our Web site, we use Secure Socket Layer (SSL technology) for transferring data. This technology encrypts, or scrambles, your account information so it is virtually impossible for anyone other than us to read it.
We do not give out your personal information unless we are authorized or permitted to do so. We do not sell your personal information to any third parties.
When Information is Collected and Not Collected
Some areas of our Web site require you to give information, such as your password and user identification number, before you can perform certain tasks (for example, review your accounts or correspond with us). In these cases, the information we request is necessary for us to interact with you. If you choose not to interact with us, you may browse our web site anonymously, and we will not collect personal information such as your e-mail address. In order to evaluate the usefulness of our site, we also gather and analyze data regarding usage of the site, such as domain name, number of hits, pages visited and length of user session.
Our Use of Cookies
What is a cookie? A cookie is a small piece of information placed on your computer by the Web site you are visiting. It allows the Web site to "remember" or "recognize" your computer during subsequent visits. Although different Web sites use cookies for different purposes, one important function is to allow a site to personalize your experience. For example, a cookie can be used to designate start pages within a site, or to indicate an area of interest to you on a Web site.
Web sites may use two types of cookies.
- Temporary - cookies that are stored on your computer only during your browsing session, and are automatically deleted from your computer when you close your browser.
- Permanent - Cookies that are stored on your computer and are not deleted when you close your browser. Permanent cookies retain your preferences for a particular Web site, allowing those preferences to remain for future browsing sessions.
We use permanent cookies on all secure pages to identify the user on subsequent sessions; we do this to enable us to customize the Web site's graphics to reflect your Fund's logo and look. We do not collect any information from your computer with this type of cookie, and it does not leave any retrievable information on your hard drive.
If you elect not to accept cookies from our system, you will not have access to the secured sections that contain information such as account balances, account applications and account transactions.
How we Handle E-Mail
We preserve the content of your e-mail, your e-mail address and our response so that we can more efficiently handle any follow-up questions you may have and to meet legal and regulatory requirements. It is important to understand that regular non-encrypted Internet e-mail is not secure. Some Fund-related Internet e-mail addresses are provided, but these are for information inquiries of a non-sensitive and non-confidential nature.
We strongly urge you not to send confidential information such as social security or account numbers to us via a non-secure e-mail address.
For secure online transmissions of information to us, you should use the "contact us" selection on the section of this site that permits online trading and account balance inquiry. Inquiries sent through the sections of this site that permit online trading and account balance inquiry are secure and use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. (Secure e-mail is not available on the account opening section of this site.) Because our e-mail response back to you would not be secure, we will not include confidential account information in an e-mail response. You may also contact us by phone, fax or U.S. mail.
Protecting online applications
When you complete an online account application, you give us the personal information that is necessary for us to process your application. To ensure that your application remains confidential, we have this information sent to us in a "secure session" established with SSL. As an additional precaution, after you have submitted your account application online, we recommend that you end your browser session before leaving your computer.
By connecting to the online account creation section of our site, your browser may not indicate that you have an SSL connection. This is normal because of the way our site has been designed. You can look at the properties of the page you are viewing (normally file/properties) and review information about encryption of the specific page. We also require that browsers use SSL encryption on all pages that capture and send sensitive information.
Security
We work hard to ensure that our systems are secure and that they meet industry standards. We employ the appropriate firewalls, encryption technology, user authentication systems (e.g., passwords) and access control mechanisms to control access to systems and data. The following are key aspects and procedures of our security program:
- You will be required to change your temporary password for a permanent one when you logon for the first time. Keep a record of your permanent password in a safe place.
- All transactions (including account inquiry, account trading and establishing an account) are secured by Secure Socket Layers (SSL) and encryption. SSL, which is used to establish a secure connection between your PC and our server, transmits information in an encrypted and scrambled format.
- Because our security software is enhanced with RSA Public Key encryption, we can provide you with the highest security level available, with up to 128-bit encryption.
- Encryption is achieved through an electronic scrambling technology that uses a "key" to code and then decode the data. Encryption acts like the cable converter box you may have on your television set. It scrambles data with a secret code so that no one can make sense of it while it is being transmitted. When the data reaches its destination, the same software unscrambles the data.
- Our advanced security system lets you access your mutual fund accounts without having to buy special software. For maximum security for your transactions, access online trading from the most current public, non-beta release of Netscape Navigator [http://www.netscape.com/download] or Microsoft Internet Explorer [http://www.Microsoft.com/ie] browser.
- An additional security feature protects your account from unauthorized use by automatically suspending use after five unsuccessful logon attempts.
- For added security you should exit the secure area by closing your browser.
What You Can Do to Increase Security
- For maximum security for your transactions, access online trading from the most current public, non-beta release of Netscape Navigator [http://www.netscape.com/download] or Microsoft Internet Explorer [http://www.Microsoft.com/ie] browser.
- We discourage using beta- or pre-released versions of Web browsers because of potential security lapses.
- Keep your password in a secure place.
- Change your password frequently, which you can do from this site.
- If you leave your Internet access equipment unattended while signed on, your account is at risk. Remember to exit online transactions before leaving your Internet access equipment.
- Take all possible precautions to keep your Internet access equipment clean and free from viruses that could be used to capture password keystrokes or affect your hard drive.
- Stay informed about your account and make sure your records match ours. View and reconcile transactions in a timely manner. Be aware of the activity in your account and contact us immediately to report any discrepancies.
- Do not access your account from public Internet terminals. These terminals may keep unencrypted copies of your data on their local hard drive.
Hyperlinks
This Web site contains hyperlinks that enable you to visit other sites. Other sites may have hyperlinks to this site. You should be aware that Web sites linking to and from this site may have different privacy practices than ours. It is assumed that visitors to our site will read the privacy statements of this and other Web sites they visit. However, our privacy statement applies solely to information contained on this Web site. Because we cannot control information on other Internet sites, we are not responsible for the content of sites linked this Web site nor for the privacy policies given on those sites.
You Can Count On Our Commitment to Your Privacy
You can count on us to keep you informed about the procedures and the technology we use to protect your privacy and limit the sharing of information you provide to us, whether in a mailed application, over the phone or through the Internet.
This is our policy as of January 2002. This privacy policy applies to individuals, and we reserve the right to change any or all of the principles, along with related provisions, at any time.
Investments in smaller companies generally carry greater risk than is customarily associated with larger companies for various reasons such as narrower product lines, limited financial resources, and less depth in management. Distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC. Privacy Policy and Terms of Use