NOTICE
Privacy Policy
This privacy policy concerns nonpublic personal information about current and
former accountholders.
OUR COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY
We understand the importance of maintaining the privacy of your personal and
financial information. By entrusting us with your information, we would like to
assure you of our commitment to keeping it private. We have taken measurable
steps to protect the confidentiality, security and integrity of your
information.
This notice will help you understand our overall privacy policy and the type of
information that we collect, use and protect, which will also be provided to you
on an annual basis and within your account opening documents.
PRIVATE
POLICY SUMMARY
Stock USA Investments collect personal and financial information to open your
account, to process your transactions, to administer your account, to verify
your identity, employment, creditworthiness, and to carry out your request for
other products and services. The following categories are examples of personal
nonpublic information that will be requested from you: (1) name, (2) date of
birth, (3) trading history, (4) total assets, (5) social security number, (6)
cash balance, (7) margin information, and (8) positions. We have implemented
procedures to protect your nonpublic personal and financial information.
We do not disclose your nonpublic information to nonaffiliated third parties
unless to facilitate your written requests or instructions, or it is permitted
or otherwise required by law. Examples of "permitted by law" include our
clearing firms: Penson Financial Services, Inc. (which clears and settles your
securities transactions) and Penson GHGO,. (which clears and settles your
futures transactions); and credit bureaus (e.g. Experian, Equifax, and Trans
Union). "Required by law" examples include court orders and regulatory
investigations.
We do not sell your personal information to third-party marketers or any other
entity for any purpose.
Our commitment to privacy protection extends to both current and former
customers, except as permitted or required by law.
RESOURCES
Our employees or representatives may collect nonpublic personal information
about you from various sources including:
YOUR NONPUBLIC PERSONAL
INFORMATION
The type of nonpublic personal information collected varies according to the
products or services provided and may include, the following categories: (1)
name, (2) current and prior resident addresses, (3) phone number, (4) e-mail
address, (5) social security number, (6) securities or futures trading history,
(7) date of birth, (8) banking relationships, (9) interest in opening an
account, (10) investment experience, (11) total assets, (12) cash balances, (13)
margin information, (14) trading positions, (15) account balances, (16) income,
(17) excess margin, (18) margin loan records, and (19) deposit and withdrawal
history.
Information collected is used to process your transactions, update your account
records, to inform you of other services that may be of interest, and to ensure
compliance with appropriate regulations.
SECURITY
We limit access to only those employees or representatives that need to know the
information in order to assist in carrying out your request for products or
services. We have policies and procedures that give direction to our employees,
and representatives acting on our behalf, regarding how to protect and use
nonpublic personal information. Further, we maintain physical, electronic, and
procedural safeguards that comply with federal and state regulations to guard
your information.
NONAFFILIATED
THIRD PARTIES
We do not share nonpublic personal information about you with nonaffiliated
third parties, unless otherwise permitted or required by law, which does not aid
in the carrying out of your request or instructions. These nonaffiliated third
parties include government/regulatory organizations, such as the Internal
Revenue Service (IRS), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity
Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD),
National Futures Associations (NFA) and to parties under court order or subpoena
that request this information. Disclosures for which you have provided your
consent or you have directed us to make are permitted.
We require all entities with which we share your nonpublic personal information
agree to keep your information confidential. We also prohibit them from using or
disclosing your information except for the limited purpose and to the persons
for whom disclosure was intended, or as otherwise permitted by law.
Our privacy policy applies, to the extent required by law, to employees and
representatives that act on the firm's behalf. Additionally, we regularly review
privacy policies of third parties for administrative services and joint
marketing agreements to ensure compliance with appropriate federal and state
regulations.
OPT OUT OF
DISCLOSURE
The law allows you to "opt out" of our sharing nonpublic personal information
about you in certain circumstances with affiliated and nonaffiliated companies;
that is, you may direct us to not make such disclosures. We do not currently
share information about you with any affiliate or third party that triggers this
opt-out right. Therefore, there is no need for you to opt out. If in the future
we desire to disclose your information in a way that is inconsistent with this
policy, we will notify you in advance and provide you with the opportunity to
opt out of such disclosure.
USE OF COOKIES TECHNOLOGY
A cookie is a small piece of information that's sent to your browser (along with
an HTML page) by our server. When you return, some stored information is sent
back to our web server along with your request. A cookie is uniquely yours and
can only be read by the server that gave it to you. It cannot read any other
part of your files, nor can it be used to send viruses. We will use cookies on
our website to authenticate valid accounts and grant access to the secure
customer area. The use of cookies is the simplest, most secure, and most widely
accepted form of authentication. Security will not be compromised. Using a
cookie helps ensure that only you have access to your account. Authentication
information is valid only for a single session and changes each time you begin a
new session. We only require cookies on our secure website, so they will be
transmitted using encryption. Your privacy is of the highest priority. We have
worked hard to earn your trust and we will continue to do so. No other company
or website can access the cookies. Furthermore, we will use your personal
information only to service your account and to improve the quality of our
service. We do not sell your personal information to third parties.
PRIVACY
POLICY AMENDMENTS
We reserve the right to change our privacy policies and related procedures at
any time, in accordance with applicable federal and state laws. In the event
that we change our privacy policy, you will be sent an updated copy of the
policy by mail or e-mail. Should our policy change regarding the sharing of such
nonpublic information, you will receive a copy of the updated notification prior
to the sharing of such nonpublic information and you will also be provided with
an opportunity to opt out of the information sharing arrangement by mail or
e-mail.
If you have questions regarding our privacy policy, or to update your account
information, please call the Customer Service Department at 1(800) 874-3039.
THIS PRIVACY
NOTICE IS PROVIDED TO YOU FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. YOU DO NOT NEED TO
CALL OR TAKE ANY ACTION IN RESPONSE TO THIS NOTICE. WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU READ
AND RETAIN THIS NOTICE FOR YOUR PERSONAL RECORDS.