This privacy policy establishes the terms and conditions of our collection, use, and distribution of information about you and other third parties that The Value Companion, LLC, (hereafter “The Value Companion”, “we”, “our”, or “us”) obtains. This policy applies to data we obtain when you use the site, or that you provide for us when you contact us in other ways.
PLEASE READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY CAREFULLY. IT DESCRIBES YOUR RIGHTS, RESPONSIBILITIES, AND LIABILITIES. BY ACCESSING THE SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE VALUE COMPANION, YOU ARE AGREEING TO THE TERMS OF SERVICE, AND PROVIDING YOUR CONSENT THE TERMS CONTAINED HEREIN.
Our approach to data collection is to collect enough data to be able to perform our services well, and to be able to improve the services we offer. However, we do not collect data that is not required to fulfill the service we offer.
Our goal is to help you gather good financial data about publicly traded companies. Our goal is not to profit by selling your information to others, and we don’t want to put your data at unnecessary risk.
In order to provide you service, we need to collect some information about you. So we have established this privacy policy.
1 Information We Collect
We will use the word “collect” (or “collected”) to denote information that we have obtained and stored in any way. That storage could be in our database, our email system, or on physical paper.
Information You Supply
We collect the information you supply to us. Specifically, we collect your name and your email address. Additionally, when you use our service, you will be able to set financial thresholds that various stocks must meet in order for you to be notified. This allows you to focus on those companies that meet standards you are more comfortable with. We collect that information.
If you supply information by contacting any of the departments at The Value Companion, through email, or through the website, we will also collect the information that you supply us.
Necessary Account Information
We generate and store some information about your account when you sign up for The Value Companion. These are items that allow us to track your subscription. Specifically, we collect the expiration date of your subscription, and the cost of the service when you signed up.
Information Our Payment Provider Supplies
We have chosen to subscribe to a third-party payment service. This aligns with our philosophy of minimizing the data we collect about you. The payment service we currently use is Stripe. When you sign up, they may collect your payment information (such as your credit card information), but we will not.
Stripe does make available some essential information about you which is covered by your agreement with them regarding data sharing. We encourage you to review your agreement with them about what personally identifiable information they are allowed to share about you.
Site Usage
In order to improve The Value Companion’s website, we collect aggregated statistics, but not individualized statistics, about the usage of our site. This anonymized information about the usage of our site is often called “data analytics”. We embrace the collection and use of data analytics so that we can continually improve our site. Data analytics does not provide us any personally identifiable information about your use of the site.
2 How We Use Your Data
Core Service
We use the information we collect in order to notify you about the stocks that meet the conditions you setup. This notification is one of the primary benefits of subscribing to The Value Companion.
Account maintenance
We also use your information to notify you about significant account events such as annual subscription renewal or expiration.
Policy Updates
As outlined in the Terms of Service, we reserve the right to revise the policies governing the use of The Value Companion, including this privacy policy. Therefore, we reserve the right to contact you in order to notify you of changes to our policies.
Please be aware, that regardless of whether we contact you and explicitly inform you of changes to our terms of service or not, YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE SERVICE CONSTITUTES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THE POSTED TERMS.
Marketing Communication
We may communicate improvements to our service, and other information considered “Marketing Communication” to our customers. You have the right to decline to receive all marketing communications from us.
3 How We May Share Your Data
Data Supplier
We pay for the right to access and redistribute the financial data that we use on The Value Companion. We agree not to share any personally identifiable information about our subscribers to the supplier(s) of this information. We do reserve the right to inform the supplier of the number of subscribers to our service as necessary to comply with their fee structures.
Unrelated Third-Parties
We agree not to intentionally share personally identifiable information about our subscribers to third-parties who are not related to the functionality of The Value Companion.
Site Operation
We host the website for The Value Companion on third party web servers. We do not intentionally provide any data about you to that third-party, but we do store our databases on their servers.
Government Mandate
If we are compelled by a court, or by other governmental officials, to share personally identifiable information with any third party, including courts, or government agencies, we reserve the right to comply with lawful orders. Company Sale
In the event that our company is purchased, we reserve the right to provide all the data we have collected, including personally identifiable information, to the purchasing organization.
4 Cookies
A cookie is a small file containing information stored on your computing device. You have the right to decline all cookies from The Value Companion. This can be done in either your browser settings, or by indicating your preference when you are asked if you will accept cookies when you visit the site. Please be aware that if you decline to accept cookies, some of the fundamental services of The Value Companion may not function as intended.
5 Your Responsibilities
There are some basic responsibilities that you must agree with in order to become a subscriber. You warrant that all the information you provide is true and correct.
If you provide information about third-parties, you warrant that you have a right to do so, and that those parties agree to the terms laid out in this privacy policy. FURTHERMORE, YOU AGREE NOT TO PROVIDE ANY INFORMATION TO THE VALUE COMPANION ABOUT MINORS.
YOU ALSO AGREE TO FULLY AND COMPLETELY INDEMNIFY THE VALUE COMPANION FOR ANY CLAIMS, HARM, OR DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM YOUR PROVISION OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION TO THE VALUE COMPANION.
6 Data Security
Unfortunately, there is no way to guarantee absolute security of the data that we obtain from unwanted intrusion, loss, or theft. This is what drives our philosophy of collecting minimal amounts of data about our customers. While we intend to make reasonable efforts to safeguard the data we obtain, we hereby notify you that, and you agree that:
WE SHALL NOT BE FINANCIALLY LIABLE, OR OTHERWISE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SECURITY OF THE DATA WE OBTAIN ABOUT YOU BY ANY AND ALL MANNERS, OR THE LOSS THEREOF.
YOU ARE ASSUMING THE RISK OF THE LOSS OF THIS DATA BY PROVIDING IT TO US, AND BY USING THE SERVICES OFFERED, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW.
THIS SHALL BE THE CASE EVEN IF WE NEGLECT TO TAKE PRECAUTIONS THAT YOU, OR OTHERS, DEEM REASONABLE.
7 Your Data Privacy Rights
Multiple states in the United States have enacted various privacy laws. We choose to offer the required privacy rights specified by these states to all subscribers, not just to residents of the states which have enacted them. We have listed these rights in the sections below.
You have the right to know:
The reason we collect the price of your original subscription is that we reserve the right to leave the price that subscribers pay unchanged, even if prices rise for new customers rises. THIS IS NOT A GUARANTEE THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO DO THIS. But it is our goal to reward loyal customers by not raising their rates even if we have to raise prices for new subscribers.
We do not sell any of your personal information to any third-parties.
Delete
You have the right to request that we delete the personally identifiable information that we have collected about you. Since we only collect personal information necessary to maintain your account, it may be necessary for you to cancel your subscription before you make this request. After canceling your subscription, please send an email from the email account you signed up with to support@thevaluecompanion.com stating that you wish for us to delete your personal information.
Correct
You have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information that we have collected. You may change the information associated with your account by emailing support@thevaluecompanion.com.
Opt-Out of Selling
Several states require that customers be given the right to opt-out of the selling of your information to third-parties. Our policy is not to sell subscribers’ information to third-parties, and therefore this will not have any effect on the use of your personal information. But you still retain the right to opt-out. To exercise this right, please send an email from the account associated with your account to support@thevaluecompanion.com clearly stating that you would like to exercise your right to opt-out of selling your personal information.
Opt out of Sharing
You have the right to opt-out of the sharing of your information with third-parties.
Our policy is not to share information with third-parties. Therefore this will not have any effect on the use of your personal information. But you still retain the right to opt-out. To exercise this right, please send an email from the account associated with your account to support@thevaluecompanion.com clearly stating that you would like to exercise your right to opt-out of sharing your personal information.
Opt out of Targeted Advertising
You have the right to opt-out of having your personal information used for targeted advertising purposes.
Our policy is not to use your personal information for the purposes of targeted advertising. Therefore this will not have any effect on the use of your personal information. But you still retain the right to opt-out.
To exercise this right, please send an email from the account associated with your account to support@thevaluecompanion.com clearly stating that you would like to exercise your right to opt-out of having your personal information used for targeted advertising purposes.
Furtherance of Legal Decisions
The right to opt out of use of personal information for profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant events.
Our policy is not to use your personal information for the purposes of the furtherance of legal decisions. Therefore this will not have any effect on the use of your personal information. But you still retain the right to opt-out.
To exercise this right, please send an email from the account associated with your account to support@thevaluecompanion.com clearly stating that you would like to exercise your right to opt-out of having your personal information used for the purposes of the furtherance of legal decisions.
Nondiscrimination
You have the right not to be subject to discrimination for asserting your rights. By policy, all subscribers have this right.
How to submit a privacy request
As previously noted, to exercise any of these rights, please send an email from the account associated with your account to support@thevaluecompanion.com clearly stating which rights you would like to exercise.
Have questions about our services or the platform? Please reach out to us and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. You can also email us directly at support@thevaluecompanion.com. If you're reporting a potential issue with data or a bug, please add as much information about the issue as possible.