The Privacy Policy was last updated on 23/12/2008.

General

Hemscott.com is not just committed to providing you with independent and unbiased investment information; we're also committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy outlines the types of information we gather about you, how we use it, the means by which we keep it secure and the choices you have about the information you choose to share with us.

If you have any questions about the privacy practices of Hemscott.com or this Privacy Policy, please e-mail: support@morningstar.com.

What Information Do We Collect and How Do We Use It?

When you register on Hemscott.com you will be asked to complete a registration form. This registration form includes certain personal information, such as your name, postcode, e-mail address, and might include other demographic information like age, gender and personal income. On occasions, Hemscott.com may also collect additional personal information from subscribers in optional competitions or survey and feedback forms.

We may use your name and e-mail address to contact you about Hemscott.com and to send you information about other products/services we think might interest you. If you indicate that you are interested in receiving information about a particular third party's products/services, or you opt to receive certain products or services through Hemscott.com, we may provide your personal information to that third party for purposes of fulfilling your request(s). In either case, Hemscott.com normally limits access to your personal information to those third parties that have agreed to keep it confidential.

During the registration/subscription process (and at any time thereafter), you can decide whether or not you wish to receive this sort of information from Hemscott.com. Details on how to control the use of your information are found below (How to Control or Change Your Profile).

The demographic and personal profile information that we collect during the registration/subscription process, are used only in aggregate. Hemscott.com does not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone. Instead, we use this information to create content and functionality that best serves the needs and interests of our users and to improve the quality of the service we provide you.
For purposes of credit administration, verification and risk management, we may exchange information about you with reputable reference sources. We reserve the right to sell the database of our subscribers (including personal data relating to you) to a third party if we sell, assign or transfer assets of our company.
Please note that we may need to export personal data outside the European Economic Area, but where we will do this we will ensure that data subjects are offered similar data protection to the regime operating in the United Kingdom.

How Is Portfolio Information Used and Protected?

We recognize that your portfolio information is potentially very sensitive, and protecting the privacy of this information is a top priority for us. The contents of your portfolio are kept strictly confidential and are not shared with any third parties.

What About Internet Protocol (IP) Addresses and Cookies?

Hemscott.com logs IP addresses and browser types, but we do not link IP addresses to personally identifiable information. This means that, while a user's session is tracked, the identity of that user remains anonymous. We also use these IP addresses to analyse trends, administer the site and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.
Cookies are used for the same reasons. Cookies are small pieces of information stored on your computer's hard drive that allow us to monitor what sort of content on Hemscott.com you find most interesting. By better understanding how you and our other users are using Hemscott.com, we can develop tools and customize content to personalize and improve everyone's experience. We also use cookies to remember your user-id for you (so that you don't have to keep re-entering your user name each time you come back to the site). Your privacy and security are not compromised when you accept a cookie from Hemscott.com because we do not use cookies to collect personal information. Please note, however, that advertisers on our site may also serve you their own cookies when you click through to their sites. We do not control, nor do we have access to, any of the information that they may collect.

Third Party Advertising

The advertisements appearing on this website are delivered to you, on our behalf, by DoubleClick, our Web advertising partner. Information about your visit to this site, such as number of times you have viewed an advertisement (but not your name, address, or any other personal information), is used to serve ads to you on this site. For more information, see the DoubleClick privacy policy.

Third Party Cookies

In the course of serving advertisements to this site, our third-party advertiser may place or recognize an unique cookie on your browser, but it will not collect any personally identifiable information about you. For more information about DoubleClick, cookies, and how to "opt-out", see DoubleClick's opt-out instructions.
Of course, you can choose not to accept the cookie by adjusting your browser settings but, if you choose to do so, you may not be able to take full advantage of the certain customized content on Hemscott.com.

Links to Other Sites

To provide you with a more complete resource for investment information and services, Hemscott.com contains links to certain other sites. Please note that you may be required to register with a site that links to Hemscott.com in order to take advantage of that site's services.
We cannot be responsible for the privacy practices of these sites; you should refer to these sites' privacy policies for details.

Security

Hemscott.com takes precautions to protect its members' personal information. We use industry-standard on-line security measures, such as authentication, to protect your information. Please note, however, that no transmission over the Internet can be 100% secure.

Hemscott.com also works to protect user information offline. All of your information is housed in secure, access-restricted areas. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific function are granted access to personally identifiable information.
The information that you post on message boards is visible to the public. Please remember that, whenever you disclose personal information publicly, that information can be collected and used by others. If you post personal information online, that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return. If you do not want strangers to send you e-mail, do not post your e-mail address on a message board.

How to Control or Change Your Profile Information

You can edit any of the personal information you've provided by visiting the Personal Profile section of the Membership area. Because this information is protected, you will be required to enter your user name and password to make changes.

In the Personal Profile section, you can choose to receive e-mail newsletters and other communications about new features and improvements to Hemscott.com and Morningstar companies. We also include instructions on how to opt-out of receiving such e-mails each time we send you a message.

Alternatively, please update your Personal Profile by visiting the Personal Profile section of the Membership area and make certain the appropriate boxes are not checked.

Your acceptance of these terms

By using this site, you consent to the collection of this information by Hemscott.com and Hemscott.com's privacy policy.

Your rights

You have a legal right to a copy of all the personal information about you held by us. You also have a right to correct any errors in that information.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

From time to time we may make changes to this privacy policy statement to reflect any changes to our privacy practices in accordance with changes to legislation, best practice or website enhancements.

If you have any questions about Hemscott.com's privacy practices or this Privacy Policy, please e-mail us at support@morningstar.com.