Privacy
Last revised: April 14, 2011
Meehan Capital Equity Research (ÒMCERÓ) shares your concern about the protection of your personal information online. This is our policy regarding the privacy of information we collect on our web sites. We have recently revised our policy. Please take some time to review the new version below.
This Privacy Policy includes examples of the types of personal information we collect and the kinds of companies with whom we share such information. These examples are illustrative and should not be considered a complete inventory of our information collection, use and sharing practices. We will comply with applicable state laws that may restrict the types of information we may disclose about you or require us to provide you with additional notices
Information Gathered and Tracked by MCER
MCER gathers generic data about users via web tracking information, which is automatically collected about all visitors to our sites.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
MCER collects personal information in several places on our web sites, which are set forth generally below. We will always provide a secure area of our sites for you to enter your information if needed, but if you prefer, you may provide the required information over the telephone or via email.
Blogs and Chats
We may provide blogs and/or chats that may feature commentary throughout the trading day. This feature allows subscribers to respond to other's commentary or post. Only subscribers of our service may use the blogs and chats. We urge and encourage participants posting comments on the blogs to include their full name in any comment and to disclose any positions held in securities they discuss in any comment. We also host chat events for discussion of various topics. Please note that information you submit to the blogs or during a chat will be available for any user of that service to read, and is no longer private.
Surveys/Polls
At certain times, you may be asked to participate in surveys, which are generally aimed at obtaining general information, for example, your investment experience or your reactions to a particular article. Because information obtained in these surveys is connected with individual subscribers and is used internally to better market our services, participation is voluntary. In addition, some columnists will on occasion take polls of their readers. Such polls are solely for the editorial use of the individual columnists, and participation is voluntary.
Contests and Sweepstakes
We sometimes offer contests or sweepstakes in which certain personal information is required for registration, for purposes of verifying the entrants' identities and notifying the winners. If the contest or sweepstakes is being administered by a third party, this information will be disclosed to that third party. However, entrants may select contest names distinct from their User Names, and the information is not connected with their User Names.
TRACKING INFORMATION
Tracking data consists of both individual and aggregated tracking information and is automatically gathered using "cookies." A cookie is a small data file containing information, such as a user's login name, that is written to the user's hard drive by a web server and used to track the pages visited.
Tracking by MCER
We use cookies in several ways to track user behavior. First, the information we gather on an individual basis is used for internal purposes only, such as accessing a member's account information. We also use tracking information on an aggregate basis, to track the readership of stories and usage of our products, to analyze traffic patterns on our sites, and to provide anonymous reporting of usage for internal and external clients. In all cases, cookies used by MCER are encoded and contain a unique digital signature to prevent tampering. They do not contain user passwords. We also employ technology that is commonly referred to as "action tags" (also known as "web beacons" or "one pixel .gif files") to measure the effectiveness of our advertisements.
You can control your browser's settings regarding cookies by selecting "Internet Options" or "Preferences" in the menu bar of your browser. This will allow you to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, have your browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or disable cookies altogether. However, because cookies allow you to easily navigate our web sites without having to constantly log in using your User Name and Password, we recommend that you leave them turned on.
Advertisers' Tracking Information
MCER advertisers include financial services companies (such as brokerage firms, banks, and mortgage companies) and non-financial services companies (such as computer manufacturers, software companies, automobile makers, retail stores, etc.). MCER's advertisers and advertising vendors display targeted advertisements. Although MCER does not provide any personal information to the advertiser or advertising vendor, by interacting with or clicking on an ad you consent to the possibility that the advertiser will assume you meet the targeting criteria used.
In addition to cookies placed by MCER or its agents, as described above, advertisers and advertising vendors that serve ads onto our web sites may use their own cookies or other tracking technologies. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies or practices of any such advertisers and vendors.
Google Advertising
The DoubleClick DART cookie is used by Google in the ads served on publisher websites displaying AdSense for content ads. When users visit an AdSense publisherÕs website and either view or click on an ad, a cookie may be dropped on that end userÕs browser. The data gathered from these cookies will be used to help AdSense publishers better serve and manage the ads on their site(s) and across the web. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
USE OF THE INFORMATION
MCER uses personal information obtained from its users as stated in this Privacy Policy, and to enhance users' experiences on our sites.
Disclosures Permitted by Law
MCER does not disclose personal information about you described above to with other people or nonaffiliated companies, except to provide you with products or services, when we have your permission, or under the following circumstances:
* We provide the information on a confidential basis to nonaffiliated companies we engage as contractors or agents to perform services for us, such as maintaining software, sending direct mail or administering a sweepstakes or contest. Information will be shared with such contractors only to the extent reasonably necessary for them to perform services on our behalf, and pursuant to confidentiality obligations;
* In response to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process, from law enforcement agencies or state and federal regulators;
* If we sell or otherwise transfer substantially all of our assets related to any web site that we own or operate and any product or service that we offer. In that event, we will require such third party to honor our current Privacy Policy, until the third party provides a notice of changes to the Privacy Policy and permits you to exercise any rights you may have under applicable law to limit disclosures of information about you.
Disclosures for Joint Marketing and Servicing
MCER may disclose all the information we collect as described above to other companies such as direct marketers to perform marketing services on our behalf, or to financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and securities broker-dealers, with whom we have joint marketing agreements.
Other Uses
* If you're a registered member of www.meehancapital.com, we use your email address to send you free email newsletters containing selected stories, market information, advertisements and links to our sites.
* We may from time to time send you special offers and advertisements for products or services offered by third parties. We will not disclose any of your personal information to such third parties when we do this.
CORRECTING AND UPDATING THE INFORMATION
MCER offers the ability to correct or update online the information we collected during registration by visiting the member profile page. You may also contact our customer service department by email at admin@meehancapital.com between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. EST. Please allow 5 business days for email requests to be activated in our system.
SECURITY
MCER limits access to personal information about you to those employees whom we determine need access to that information to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your personal information. However, no security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our servers, nor can we guarantee that information that users supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet.
FORMER CUSTOMERS
MCER discloses personal information about former customers only in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
YOUR INDEPENDENT RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER COMPANIES
Please note that this Privacy Policy will not apply to your independent relationships with other companies that from time to time may offer you products and services on MCER's sites. Those companies' privacy policies will govern how they collect, use and disclose personal information that you provide to them. Questions or comments regarding this policy should be directed to our Managing Director, Trey Meehan via the Contact Us page. MCER reserves the right to modify this policy at any time.