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Communicating and sharing information is easier today than ever, thanks to the Internet. Through KnowledgePlex.org, the Fannie Mae Foundation is helping to facilitate professional interaction, community growth, and knowledge and information exchange within the Affordable Housing and Community Development field. With the greater ease of interaction that the Internet provides, understanding your privacy rights is of the utmost importance.

KnowledgePlex® is committed to protecting your privacy. To enhance your experience on our website and to gather some information about the users of this site, we occasionally ask for information about you.

This privacy statement discloses the privacy practices for KnowledgePlex® which is currently owned by the Fannie Mae Foundation.

Because this website wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it is taking steps to comply with accepted privacy standards. This website agrees to notify you of:

Information that we collect that could help locate or personally identify you or a third party
The organization collecting the information
How the information is used
With whom the information may be shared
What choices are available to you regarding collection, use, and distribution of the information
The kind of security procedures that are in place to protect against loss, misuse, or alteration of information under Fannie Mae Foundation control
How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information. If you feel that this company is not abiding by its posted Privacy Policy or if you have any questions regarding privacy not covered in this policy, please contact us at info@knowledgeplex.org..

Privacy Issues

Information Collection and Use

Fannie Mae Foundation is currently the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We will not sell, share, or rent this information to others in ways different from what is disclosed in this statement. We do reserve the right to release information you have submitted where such release is required by law.

Fannie Mae Foundation collects information from our users at several different points on KnowledgePlex.org. The personal information you submit at registration is used to serve up personalized content such as e-mail alerts, housing news, community topics, and more. It is also used to monitor the behavior of users in order to modify the site to suit your needs.

Registration

Although KnowledgePlex® can be used by both registered and non-registered users, the advantages of using KnowledgePlex® as a registered user are significant. Registered users can enjoy personalization options, personalized content, robust advanced searches, community membership, and more. To become a registered user, KnowledgePlex® requests the submission of information that personally identifies you. This information, submitted at registration, helps KnowledgePlex® to provide personalized content and monitor the behavior of users in order to modify the site appropriately.

In order to use certain features of this website, a user must first complete the registration form. During registration a user is required to give personalized contact information (such as user name and email address). This information is used to contact the user about the services on the site for which they have expressed interest. Additional personal information (name, occupation, organization, and address) may be required for participation in and use of other specific features of the site (e.g., communities, chats, etc.). It is optional for the user to provide demographic information and unique identifiers, but, encouraged, so we can provide a more personalized experience on our site.

KnowledgePlex® Management

The collection of data on KnowledgePlex®, including personal information, is managed by the Fannie Mae Foundation.

To learn more about the Fannie Mae Foundation, visit FannieMaeFoundation.org

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's harddrive containing information about the user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site. Once the user closes their browser, the cookie simply terminates. For instance, by setting a cookie on our site, the user would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If a user rejects the cookie, they may still use our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will be limited in some areas of our site. Cookies can also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site.

Some of our partners may use cookies. However, we have no access to or control over these cookies.

For more information on cookies, follow the links below:

For Netscape
For Internet Explorer

Log Files

We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track users' movements, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Sharing

We will share aggregated demographic information with our partners. This is not linked to any personal information that can identify any individual person.

We may work with other organizations to provide specific services. When the user signs up for these specific services, we will share names or other contact information that is necessary for the third party to provide these services. These organizations, however, are not allowed to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services.

Information supplied to KnowledgePlex® during chats or on message boards is available to all KnowledgePlex® users; therefore, discretion should be used in posting commentary or information. In addition, documents that are posted in communities are available to all KnoweldgePlex users.

Links

This website contains links to other websites. Please be aware that www.knowledgeplex.org and the Fannie Mae Foundation do not review and are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this website.

Newsletter

If a user wishes to subscribe to our newsletters or e-mail updates, we ask for contact information, such as name and email address.

E-mailing Content

Users often email content from KnowledgePlex® to a friend or peer. To do this we need to know your name and e-mail address and the recipient's e-mail address. None of this information is retained after the e-mail is sent.

Discussion Forums

If you participate in any of the discussion forums on KnowledgePlex®, you must be a registered user who has provided personally identifiable information.

User Feedback and Surveys

From time to time KnowledgePlex® 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. Information requested may include contact information (such as name and address), and demographic information (such as zip code, age level). Contact information will be used to notify survey participants. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the users' satisfaction with the site.

Security

This website takes commercially reasonable precautions, consistent with prevailing industry standards, to protect our users' information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected, to the best of our ability, both online and off-line.

We do everything in our power to protect user information off-line. All of our users' information is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Every quarter, as well as any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our users' information is protected. Finally, the servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure environment, behind a locked cage.

If you have any questions about the security or privacy at our website, you can send an email to privacy@knowledgplex.org.

Supplemental of Information

In order for this website to properly fulfill our obligation to our users, we may obtain supplemental information from third parties.

In order for this website to enhance its ability to tailor the site to an individual user's preference, we may combine information about the habits of users with similar information from our partners to create a personalized user profile.

Special Offers

We send all new registered users a welcoming e-mail to verify password and username. Registered users will occasionally receive information on products, special services, and newsletters. Out of respect for the privacy of our users, we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see our choice and opt-out below.

Site and Service Updates

We also send the user site and service-announcement updates. Registered users are not able to un-subscribe from service announcements, which contain important information about the service. We communicate with the user to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account via email or phone.

Correction/Updating Personal Information

If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your Zip code), or if a user no longer desires our service, we will endeavor to provide a way to correct, update, or remove that user's personal data provided to us. This can usually be done at the member information page or by e-mailing Customer Support.

KnowledgePlex® allows you to access, edit, or delete your registration profile at any time in the Account Services area of KnowledgePlex®.

Choice/Opt-out

Our users are given the opportunity to 'opt-out' of having their information used for purposes not directly related to our site, at the point where we ask for the information.

Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter or promotional materials from our partners may opt-out of receiving these communications by e-mailing us at info@knowledgeplex.org.

Users of our site are always notified when their information is being collected by any outside parties. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with services that require an outside party or not.

Notification of Changes

If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will post those changes on our Homepage so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an e-mail. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the Privacy Policy under which the information was collected.