The Cherokee Web Site Privacy Policy

Before using this Web site, please read our Privacy Policy below.

By using this Web site you agree to the terms of the Privacy Policy stated below. Cherokee Group, Inc. ("Cherokee") and its affiliates and subsidiaries reserve the right to review and revise the Privacy Policy from time to time without prior notice and, by using this site subsequent to any revision of the Privacy Policy, you agree to be bound by such changes. If you find the Privacy Policy to be unacceptable, you must immediately terminate your use of this Web site.

Cherokee maintains this “generic” web site at www.Cherokee.to, which is primarily a marker or “pointer” on the Internet. Virtually every Evaluation or Project involving Cherokee has one or more web or FTP sites specific to that Evaluation or Project. Further, most Cherokee Clients are provided a Web Portal for easy communication, collaboration, and access to their information.

These “Special Purpose Web Sites” (a.k.a. “SPWS”), require, at a minimum, use of a User ID, Password, and cookies being enabled. In most instances you must also have 128 bit encryption and a Digital Certificate installed on the computer being used to access the SPWS.

Except as provided in this Privacy Policy, the Cherokee Website does not disclose individually identifiable information about its visitors to any third party without that visitor's consent. This may not apply to a Cherokee SPWS.

Privacy Philosophy

The information provided in this Privacy Policy covers your interactions on the different areas of the Cherokee Web site referenced. As a company, Cherokee believes strongly in protecting online privacy, and it is Cherokee's goal to allow our visitors to provide as much or as little information as they feel comfortable.

Information Gathered

Cherokee gathers information about our visitors that allows us to offer the relevant online content in a manner that provides personal privacy protection as well.

Occasionally we ask you to provide us certain personal information such as your name, email address, or your association with a particular Evaluation, Project, Vendor or Client. You never have to answer these questions, although not answering them will limit the information that we can provide you. This may not apply to a Cherokee SPWS, where you must disclose your identity and right to know before we make available any Project or Evaluation-specific information.

None of the Cherokee web sites are intended for children. However, for the record, in order to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"), Cherokee does not knowingly collect any information from children under 13.

In order to provide you with a personalized experience and also monitor the traffic patterns on our site, Cherokee uses a feature of your browser called a "cookie" to track content preferences and traffic patterns. This browser feature is valuable to you because it alleviates the need to re-register for services each time you visit our site and because it allows us to better understand traffic patterns throughout our Web site.

You may choose not to accept cookies by changing the preferences on your browser. However, your experience will be less personalized and, in addition, certain services may not be available for your use (See below, "Use of the Information"). This does not apply to a Cherokee SPWS.

Although you may visit our generic web site (www.Cherokee.to) anonymously, you may elect to provide us with information you want Cherokee to remember. We hope that you will want to provide information about yourself because it will make our Web site more useful to those with whom we work.

Use of the Information

We analyze what our customers like and don't like about Cherokee's web sites, and how you navigate the site, so that we can design better more intuitive interfaces and content. We use information about what you are searching for to help focus on the content that is most valuable to you.

We develop summary reports. An example of a summary report might be "3,213 people clicked on “Giving Back” last month, and of those people, 61% were non-profits seeking help acquiring or using Information Technology. Our Vendors use this information to determine how and whether to donate their products after an Evaluation is complete.

Information Distribution

On some of our Special Purpose Web Sites, our Clients may collect information about site visitors by way of cookies when you view content or click on certain links. You should contact these Clients directly if you have any questions about their use of this information. We never ask for or collect credit card information to verify the identity of web site visitors, only Digital Certificates and sometimes URL ping-backs.

If at any time you are uncertain about whether or not your personal information will be provided to Cherokee or our Clients, please feel free to contact Cherokee’s web master by clicking here.

Disclosure of Personal Information

Cherokee may disclose personal information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Cherokee; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Cherokee, the site or our Clients, and (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Cherokee, our employees, partners, Clients, Vendors, or the public. Cherokee may also disclose personal information with the user's consent, whether by opt-in, opt-out or other form of consent.

Some Cherokee services allow for information provided by users to be immediately posted in a public forum. Examples include message boards (see below), White Pages, Yellow Pages and other services. Users providing information to such services should be familiar with the service and its public nature, and realize that the privacy of such information cannot be protected.

Unsolicited Contact

Cherokee does not endorse the sending of unsolicited email to its users without such user's consent and will use commercially reasonable efforts to enforce this action. Cherokee may send administrative emails to confirm user registrations or to update users concerning new services or opportunities with Cherokee. Some of these emails may contain information about our Clients or Vendors.

Message Board Disclaimer

Information that you disclose about yourself in a public message board or other public forum will immediately become available to anyone who has access to those public areas. We cannot protect the privacy of information disclosed in these forums. While utilizing these areas, please restrict your disclosure of personal information to any information that you are willing to have available to the public.

Notification of Changes

Cherokee reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If Cherokee changes this Privacy Policy with respect to the disclosure of your personally identifiable information, we will post a notice of such change on this Web site or contact users by email or other communication to obtain consent. We welcome any questions or comments you have; please send them to our Web Master by clicking here.

Security

Cherokee takes the security of information very seriously. Information collected by Cherokee is stored in secure operating environments. Thank you for visiting the generic Cherokee web site, and for your interest in working with Cherokee Group.