Privacy - the noble groups houston texas

Introduction
The Noble Groups respects your privacy. We make use of any personal information that you provide to us for the purpose of serving you better. We have created this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to demonstrate our firm commitment to online privacy. This “Notice of Privacy Policy” discloses the information gathering and dissemination practices for The Noble Groups’ websites which include The Noble Groups.com and BIZCOMPLETE™ and our password-protected Internet service platforms--which are available primarily to us, our clients, our employees and their families. This Privacy Policy applies to all information that you provide to The Noble Groups and that The Noble Groups maintains electronically, whether you provide the information through The Noble Groups.com, BIZCOMPLETE™ or ANY New Client Web site (collectively referred to as “The Noble Groups’ websites”) or through other means. Additionally, this Privacy Policy applies to any personal information obtained from your use (and, if applicable, your family’s use) of The Noble Groups’ websites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any information that you may provide to third parties; for example, other sites linked to The Noble Groups’ websites. You should contact such third parties directly to determine their respective privacy policies. As used herein, the terms “The Noble Groups,” “we,” “our” and “its” when referring to The Noble Groups, Inc. and its related companies are used only for convenience and are not intended to be an accurate description of ownership, operation or corporate/legal relationships.

What information does The Noble Groups collect?
If you are an employee or client of The Noble Groups, we collect and maintain a variety of personal information about you and, if applicable, your company and employees. This information may be collected through any of OUR WEB SITES or through paper forms submitted by you. For employees, the information we maintain includes, among other things:

We may make some or all of this information available for your use on our web sites. For clients, examples of this information include:

Depending on the use that you make of The Noble Groups’ websites, we may also collect your Internet Protocol (IP) Address (which is the unique address of your computer), information about your interests and preferences, and, if you decide to send us your resume, information included in your resume. From time to time, we may conduct surveys or offer contests or other promotional events, and gather additional personal information from you in connection with those events. The Noble Groups may store and analyze log files from user sessions.

What is this information used for?
We use your personal information in the course of your business or client relationship with The Noble Groups. Among other things, we use this information to provide you with the services available via The Noble Groups. For example, we allow you to edit and update personal information online and allow you to download forms that have been pre-populated with your personal information. We also use your information for other things which may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Contacting You.
The Noble Groups uses your personally identifiable information to communicate with you in the course of your employment or client relationship. We may also contact you to tell you about products and services provided by The Noble Groups’ strategic alliances and other third-party organizations. While we must be able to contact you for matters relating to your business inquiry with us or your client relationship, if you do not wish to receive email communications from The Noble Groups offers or other third-party products and services, you may opt out of receiving such communications by following the procedure set forth in such e-mail. The Noble Groups will continue to contact you for matters relating to your business inquiry or your client relationship.
Use of IP Address.
IP addresses are numbers that are automatically assigned to your computer, and, if associated with other individually identifiable information, could be considered personal information. We use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer and improve The Noble Groups’ websites. Your IP address is also used to help identify you and to gather broad demographic information, some of which we aggregate and then share with our strategic alliances or potential strategic alliances companies. We also use your IP address to keep track of the information you have seen on our sites.
Use of Cookies.
Cookies are a standard technology used by commercial web services to store small pieces of information on your hard drive by sending a small string of text to your browser. They make your use of The Noble Groups’ websites more pleasing and efficient by “personalizing” your user interface, for example, or identifying which parts of a site you have previously visited. They also enable us to pre-populate, or automatically fill out, forms and schedules. They enable us to tailor the information you receive and to assist third party organizations with whom we have strategic alliances by identifying you as an The Noble Groups client, employee or The Noble Groups website user. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, unless you have configured yours not to accept them. In order for us to provide you with services, your browser must accept cookies, as they are essential for site administration and security. The Noble Groups does not use cookies either to collect individually identifiable information or to collect non-individually identifiable information using a cookie that is combined with a personal identifier.
Other General Information.
If you send us your resume, we use that information to assist you with job placement. The Noble Groups may also collect the name of the domain from which you access the Internet (e.g., aol.com); the date and time you access The Noble Groups’ websites; and the Internet address of any website from which you link directly to The Noble Groups’ websites; as well as collecting and storing other information in a user’s log file. A user’s log file tells The Noble Groups where a user comes from when entering an The Noble Groups website; which part of the The Noble Groups website the user visits as well as where the user goes when leaving the The Noble Groups website; and how much time the user spends in the The Noble Groups websites. In addition, The Noble Groups may collect e-mail addresses and other personal information from persons who are not current employees or clients of The Noble Groups.
Rewarding Use of The Noble Groups websites.
The Noble Groups may use information it collects in order to reward or provide incentives to businesses, employees, clients, companies or other The Noble Groups website users for visiting The Noble Groups websites; using services provided on the The Noble Groups websites; or for visiting the websites of The Noble Groups’ strategic alliances.

With whom is this information shared?
The Noble Groups shares personal information only as described below:

Other The Noble Groups Companies and Third-Party Contractors.
We may share your information among related companies of The Noble Groups, even if the related company is not a party to your client service or employment agreement. In addition, we may from time to time transfer our database of employee information to third-party contractors who analyze such information on behalf of The Noble Groups for the purpose of, among other things, targeting e-mails to employees regarding strategic alliance offers, or who mail marketing materials to employees regarding strategic alliance offers. Additionally, we may from time to time transfer our database of employee information to a third-party contractor who provides employment verification services on behalf of The Noble Groups. Such third-party contractors are contractually bound to hold all such information in confidence and do not share such information with any parties other than The Noble Groups.
Your Client Organization.
If you are a client, most of your personal information is also available on your individual client workspace online. However, The Noble Groups does not provide information regarding your physical and/or mental health to any third party for any purposes, unless compelled by a governmental or legal authority.
Governmental Authorities, Compliance with Law and Protection of The Noble Groups and Others.
We provide information to governmental authorities when required to do so by law (for example, if we do your payroll or government filings, we report information regarding your compensation and withholding to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and state taxing authorities). The Noble Groups will also provide personally identifiable information to third parties if compelled to do so by an appropriately empowered governmental or legal authority, or, as necessary, to protect The Noble Groups’ rights or the rights of third parties.
Benefit Plan Providers.
The Noble Groups will also provide personally identifiable information to its third-party benefit providers in conjunction with the administration of its benefit plans, if any.
Medical Emergencies.
If necessary to respond to an apparent medical emergency, The Noble Groups may disclose selected client information.
Strategic Alliances.
The Noble Groups has entered into marketing agreements, strategic alliances and other relationships with third-party organizations that may offer or provide products and services to you, sometimes under discounted or preferential terms. We sometimes agree to give these third parties (including potential parties to strategic alliances) aggregated, non-personally identifiable information about our clients, employees or visitors. If you initiate an inquiry with respect to a third party’s product or service by clicking on the icon or link relating to such product or service on The Noble Groups’ websites, we may furnish such third party with certain personal information regarding you for the purpose of, among other things, pre-populating forms or facilitating the exchange of information between you and the third party. If you do not wish to have any of your personal information furnished to such third-parties, do not access any of the third-party products and services included on The Noble Groups’ websites.
Business Transfers.
As The Noble Groups continues to develop its businesses, it may sell various aspects of its business. If The Noble Groups sells a portion of its business, it will transfer personal information associated with that business as part of such a sale. Also, in the unlikely event that The Noble Groups or substantially all of its assets are acquired, personal information regarding employees and clients will be one of the transferred assets.

What access do you have to information you provide?
If you are a client who has purchased the online webspace capabilities through The Noble Groups, you have access to much of your personal information through that web site, where you can view and update most of the personal information we maintain.

Security measures
The Noble Groups makes access to your personally identifiable information subject to certain security measures, including technological controls such as "firewalls", in accordance with industry standards. No data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so while The Noble Groups strives to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information that you transmit to The Noble Groups.

Disclaimer of responsibility for privacy policy and content at linked sites
The Noble Groups’ websites may provide you with links to other websites. We are not responsible for those sites and cannot control the use of information that you submit once you reach those sites, nor can we control the content of what is offered on those sites or on links from those sites. You should contact such third-party websites directly to determine their privacy policies.

Use of information from third parties
We may use information about you provided to us by third parties (such as credit reporting agencies or strategic alliances) in order to offer you their services and products, to improve our own services, or to evaluate your eligibility for our services.

This is not a children’s website
The Noble Groups does not knowingly solicit data from children, and we do not knowingly market to children.

Applicable only to U.S. residents
The Noble Groups’ websites are designed for and intended only for the use of client companies located in the United States and employees who are U.S. citizens or are residents of the United States If you are a client company that is located outside of the United States, you are not authorized to access The Noble Groups’ websites.

The Noble Groups employees and privacy
The Noble Groups trains all The Noble Groups employees about the importance of privacy. It is The Noble Groups’ policy to give access to your information only to those employees who require it to carry out the responsibilities of their jobs.

Changes in these policies and practices
The Noble Groups reserves the right to change its privacy policies and practices periodically, without providing individual notice, by updating this Privacy Policy notice. This Privacy Policy was last updated on May 11, 2006. You agree that it is your responsibility to monitor such updates and that your continued use of The Noble Groups’ websites after such revisions have been made constitutes your full acceptance of such revised terms and conditions.

More information
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please write to: