Compass Communications Subscriber Privacy Notice


What This Privacy Notice Covers

          This Notice describes our practices with respect to your "personally identifiable information" and certain other information. Personally identifiable information is information that identifies you and that you have furnished to us or that we have collected in connection with your receipt of our services. Personally identifiable information does not include aggregate or anonymous data or any individual bits of data that do not identify you. This Notice applies to all of our residential and commercial subscription services, including video, voice, telecommunications, data and security (collectively and individually, "Compass Communications Cable Services"), whether provided individually or as part of a bundle of services.

          This Notice does not cover information that we may collect from our Internet portals and websites, each of which contains its own privacy notice, or any applications, web services or tools that you download or access from these portals and websites. You should also be aware that some of the content, applications and advertisements provided on these portals and websites may be provided by third parties. When you access these third parties' online content or services, your personally identifiable information may be transmitted to them. The policies described in this Notice do not apply to these third parties, which may have their own privacy policies.

          This Notice does not cover third party on-line services that you may purchase with our data services (e.g., the services of EarthLink and other on-line providers ( "OLPs")). These OLPs may have their own privacy policies.

          Our website always contains the most current version of this Notice. See http://www.CompassCCI.com/support/privacypolicy.html. We also provide you with a copy of our Notice upon initiation of service and annually thereafter. You may also obtain a copy of the current Notice by contacting your local Compass Communications office or requesting one through Office@CompassCCI.com.

          We may modify this Notice at any time. If we do, we will update it on this web site. If you continue to accept our services after a change, then you are deemed to have accepted the change.

          Six areas are covered by this Notice:

  • the nature of personally identifiable information and CPNI collected about you and the way such information is used;
  • the nature, frequency, and purpose of any disclosure that may be made of such information;
  • disclosure of such information to governmental entities and through legal process;
  • the period of time during which such information will be maintained;
  • the times and place you may have access to the information collected; and
  • your rights under the Communications Act.


1.       Collection and Use of Personally Identifiable Information and CPNI

          A. Personally Identifiable Information

          Under the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the "Communications Act"), we may collect personally identifiable information (described below) over a cable system without your consent if it is necessary to provide our services to you or to prevent unauthorized access to services or subscriber data and we may collect other information that you consent to our collecting and that we will use as you direct. Below is a description of the information that we may collect, using the system or otherwise, about our users in order to provide our services and to prevent unauthorized access to our services.

          Personally identifiable information: In order to provide any of our services to you, we may need to collect data about you, including your name; home, e-mail and work addresses; home, cellular and work telephone numbers; social security number; driver's license number; credit, credit card, debit card and bank information; billing and payment information; records of damage and security deposits; records of maintenance and repairs; the number of converters, cable modems or other cable equipment installed in your home or place of business (collectively, "COMPASS COMMUNICATIONS Equipment "); the number of television sets, telephones, computers and other equipment of yours that are connected to COMPASS COMMUNICATIONS Equipment or that receive the Compass Communications Cable Services (collectively, "Customer Equipment "); the location and configuration of Customer Equipment; the service options you have chosen; the programs, features and services you have utilized; identifying information associated with the COMPASS COMMUNICATIONS Equipment (e.g., a serial number and/or MAC address of each converter box installed); performance history associated with the COMPASS COMMUNICATIONS Equipment; whether you rent or own your home or place of business (as this may impact installation issues); subscriber correspondence; records of violations and alleged violations of our terms of service; customer research and satisfaction data; and information from third parties that is commercially available, such as age, income and other demographic information.

          We may remotely check the COMPASS COMMUNICATIONS Equipment and the Customer Equipment for purposes that include diagnostics and network security and maintain records of the results.

          Other information: Our system, in delivering video services, may automatically log information concerning the use and performance of your COMPASS COMMUNICATIONS Equipment, including programming choices requested, the date and time of these choices, and information, services and products ordered from us or our advertisers. This data may be used for purposes that include allowing us to deliver desired information, products and services to you. For example, if you request on demand programming, we will need to collect information about your equipment along with the particular title ordered so that the right content is delivered to the right converter box. If the video ordered has a charge, we will then need to personally identify this information by associating it with your billing account so that we bill the correct customer.

          Another example of information that we collect while delivering digital video services is data necessary to provide switched digital services. Many of our systems use switched digital technology so we can deliver additional channels and services. To do so, we need to collect your tuning choices along with information about your equipment to ensure that desired channels are delivered to you when you request them. While this information is temporarily associated with your equipment in order to provide these services, it will not be once the equipment identification is no longer needed for operations, troubleshooting and billing purposes. This anonymous information may be preserved and used as described in the next paragraph. We do not disclose to others for their marketing or advertising purposes any personally identifiable information that may be derived from this collection.

          Finally, in delivering a video service, we also track information about your use of COMPASS COMMUNICATIONS Equipment in a non-personally identifiable manner and we may combine this information with other non-personally identifiable information.    This aggregate or anonymous information may be used for research and to determine which programming and commercials are being watched, which may assist us in determining the networks that should be delivered via switched digital, in paying our providers for video on demand programming, in informing us, advertisers and programmers how many impressions were received and generally making programming and advertising more relevant to our customers. None of this data will be used to personally identify you.

          If you use a web-based email service, we do not collect any information regarding the emails that you send and receive. If you use email provided your OLP, our system may automatically collect and log email header information. We have access to personally identifiable information about you and your data account, including the name and address associated with a given IP address or, possibly, one or more e-mail accounts. We may also have information about how often and how long you use our service, including the amount of bandwidth used; technical information about your computer system, its software and modem; and your geographical location. We do not disclose to others for their marketing or advertising purposes any personally identifiable information that may be derived from this collection. Your OLP may have its own privacy policies.

          Our system, in delivering and routing Digital or Business Class Phone service calls, may automatically log information concerning telephone numbers you call, telephone numbers from which you receive calls, the duration of such calls, the service features and functions you use, the frequency of such use and other CPNI for the uses described below.

          The data that we collect from you, as described above, may be used, depending on the nature of the data, for various purposes such as the following: to make sure you receive the services you have requested; to make sure you are being billed properly for the services you receive; to send you pertinent information about our services; to maintain or improve the quality of the COMPASS COMMUNICATIONS Equipment and the COMPASS COMMUNICATIONS Cable Services; to answer questions from subscribers (e.g., for troubleshooting); to ensure compliance with relevant law and contractual provisions; to market COMPASS COMMUNICATIONS Cable Services and other products that you may be interested in; and for tax and accounting purposes.

 

          B. Customer Proprietary Network Information ( "CPNI ")

          We may, from time to time, use the CPNI generated in furnishing Phone Services to you to provide you with information about, and to market to you, communications-related products or services that are within the same category of service to which you already subscribe. For instance, we may use the CPNI generated in furnishing Digital Phone telephone service to you to provide you with information about, and to market to you, other telephone service offerings.

          We may, from time to time, use the CPNI generated in furnishing Phone services to you to provide you with information about, and to market to you, communications-related products or services that are outside of the category of service to which you already subscribe. For instance, we may use the CPNI generated in our furnishing Digital Phone service to you to provide you with information about, and to market to you, data services. You have the right to restrict our use of your CPNI for such purposes. If you wish to do so, please notify us in writing at our main local office, which will be noted in your cable bill. Please include your name, account number, telephone number and address on any written request.  If you do not notify us within 30 days of this notification that you wish to restrict our use of your CPNI, we will assume that you approve of our use of CPNI for this purpose.

          We will not use your CPNI to offer products or services to you without your permission that the FCC classifies as non-communications related (including video services) or that are offered by other companies or by joint ventures in which we participate. You may, for example, be asked during a telephone call with one of our customer service representatives for your permission to use your CPNI for the purpose of providing you with an offer. If you provide your permission orally, electronically or in writing, we will use or disclose the CPNI only for the duration of that telephone call in order to offer you additional services.

          Please note that if you opt out or otherwise deny or restrict our use of your CPNI, it will not affect our provision to you of any Compass Communications Cable Services. Any permission or denial of permission to use your CPNI remains valid until such time as your Phone Services are discontinued or we receive your notice withdrawing permission.


 

2.       Disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information and CPNI

 

          Under the Communications Act, we may only disclose personally identifiable information covered by the Act without your prior written or electronic consent if: (1) it is necessary to render, or conduct a legitimate business related to, the services that are provided to you; (2) such disclosure is required by law; or (3) for mailing lists, subject to the conditions described below. We may also disclose personally identifiable information and CPNI when you consent to the disclosure. Below is a description of our disclosure practices.

          In the course of providing Compass Communications Services to you, we may disclose your personally identifiable information to our employees, related legal entities, agents, vendors acting under our direction, including repair and installation subcontractors, sales representatives, accountants, billing and collection services, and consumer and market research firms, credit reporting agencies and authorized representatives of governmental bodies. We may also disclose such information to advertisers and vendors for purposes of carrying out transactions you request. Upon reasonable request, personally identifiable information may be disclosed to persons or entities with an equity interest in our related legal entities when they have a legal right to inspect our books and records. Also, if we enter into a merger, acquisition or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your personally identifiable information may be transferred as part of the transaction.

          In addition, if you receive our data service, information, including IP addresses, may be disclosed to third parties in the course of providing the service to you. Recipients of such information may include, in addition to those persons listed above, entities that provide content and/or services to us or your OLP.

          Unless you object, the Communications Act also permits us to disclose limited personally identifiable information to others, such as advertisers and direct mail companies, for non-cable-related purposes, such as direct marketing. Under the Communications Act, these disclosures are limited to the following "mailing list information ": your name, address and, except in California, the particular non-phone services to which you subscribe (e.g., HBO or other premium channels, or tiers of service). In addition, we may add to this mailing list information commercially-available information about you that is obtained from third parties, such as your age, income, and other demographic or marketing information. Mailing list information does not include the extent of your viewing or use of a particular service, including the extent of your use of Road Runner or your OLP service, the nature of any transaction you make over the cable system, or any information that constitutes CPNI. We may disclose or sell such mailing list information from time to time. If you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please notify us in writing at our main local office, which will be noted on your cable bill, or by sending an e-mail toOffice@CompassCCI.com. Please include your name and address on any such request.

          In addition, we may disclose, in connection with the provision of services to you and pursuant to the consent you granted in your Subscription Agreement, the personally identifiable information described in Section 1 in order to fulfill transactions that you request, to personalize your online experience, as required by law (including as described in Section 3 of this Notice), and as otherwise necessary in the ordinary course of business. The frequency of such disclosures varies according to business needs.

          If you are a Phone Services customer, we must disclose certain of your personally identifiable information and CPNI to 911 services and to you or your designee upon your express authorization. We will also disclose limited personal information to telephone companies so that your calls can be properly routed. When you dial a toll-free number, the party you are calling may identify your telephone number using a telephone network technology called Automatic Number Identification (ANI). FCC rules prohibit parties that receive calls on toll-free numbers from distributing these telephone numbers.

          Your name, address and/or phone number are provided to those you call in connection with Caller ID functions. You may dial *67 to prevent display of your Caller ID. Dialing *82 resumes its display.

          We will provide your name, phone number and address to directories and 411 services. If you subscribe to our Private Listing service, we will take reasonable precautions to ensure that your information is not provided, but we cannot guaranty that errors will not occur. If you would like more information on the Private Listing service, please contact your local Compass Communications office. 

 

3.       Disclosure of Information to Governmental Entities and Other Legal Process

 

          Federal law also requires us to disclose personally identifiable information to a governmental entity or other third parties pursuant to certain legal process. Generally, this process requires a court order and, if the order is sought by a governmental entity, you are afforded the opportunity to contest in court any claims made in support of the court order sought, and the governmental entity must offer clear and convincing evidence that the subject of the information is reasonably suspected of engaging in criminal activity and that the information sought would be material evidence in the case. However, there are exceptions to this general rule in areas including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which allows personally identifiable information to be obtained in some circumstances by governmental entities through a subpoena, warrant or court order; welfare laws, which allow state welfare agencies to obtain by administrative subpoena the names and addresses of individuals who owe or are owed welfare support; child pornography statutes, which impose an affirmative duty on us to disclose certain information upon knowledge; and counterintelligence laws, which require us to provide information based on National Security Letters. At times, laws like these or specific court orders may require that we not disclose to you the existence of demands for your personally identifiable information. We will honor these laws and orders. We will comply with legal process when we believe in our discretion that we are required to do so. We will also disclose any information in our possession to protect our rights, property and/or operations, or where circumstances suggest that individual or public safety is in peril.

 

4.       Time Period That We Retain Personally Identifiable Information

 

          We maintain personally identifiable information about subscribers for as long as it is necessary for business purposes. This period of time may last as long as you are a subscriber and, if necessary, for additional time so that we can comply with tax, accounting and other legal requirements. When information is no longer needed for these purposes, it is our policy to destroy or anonymize it.

 

5.       Access to Records

 

          Under the Communications Act, you have the right to inspect our records that contain personally identifiable information about you and to correct any errors in such information. If you wish to inspect these records, please notify us in writing and an appointment at our local business office will be arranged during our regular business hours. 


6.       Your Rights Under the Communications Act

 

          We are providing this Notice to you in accordance with the Communications Act.  The Communications Act provides you with a cause of action for damages, attorneys' fees and costs in federal District Court should you believe that any of the Communications Act's limitations on the collection, disclosure, and retention of personally identifiable information have been violated by us. Your Subscription Agreement contains your agreement that, to the extent permitted by law, any such claims will be decided in arbitration and attorneys' fees and punitive damages will not be available.

          

 

All services noted above may or may not be available to your local system. If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, please contact us at Office@CompassCCI.com.


January 2017