PRIVACY STATEMENT
As a Pathway Com-Tel customer, you have a right to know what we do with your personal information that we have. We consider our treatment of such information to be a part of the trust you place in us by using our Internet, TV and Phone Services (“Services”). This Customer Privacy Notice (“Notice”) applies to customers of our Services. Use of the words “customer,” “you” or “your” refers to any subscriber of a Service. We have updated this Notice, and will continue to update it, to better answer questions you may have, but our basic privacy policy will remain the same. We collect and keep only the personal information of our customers that is needed to provide our services, treat it as private, use it only for what we offer you, do not sell it to others, work to keep it secure, and destroy it when no longer needed.
In accordance with Section 631 of the Cable Act, we provide you with this separate, written Notice when you first become a customer and at least annually thereafter. This Notice includes information required by the Cable Act, including: (1) the kind of information Pathway Com-Tel collects, (2) how Pathway Com-Tel uses personally identifiable information, (3) to whom Pathway Com-Tel may disclose personally identifiable information; (4) how long Pathway Com-Tel keeps personally identifiable information; (5) how you can inspect records pertaining to your personally identifiable information; and (6) your legal rights. We also regularly update our privacy policy and post the most up-to-date policy on our websites. You can find additional and updated information at any time by visiting our website at www.usapathway.com. We encourage you to review our policies by visiting our website periodically for the latest information and updates. You can learn more about your privacy rights by visiting the websites of the Federal Trade Commission,www.ftc.gov, and the Federal Communications Commission,www.fcc.gov.
In providing services to you, we obtain certain “personally identifiable information”; that is information that identifies you individually or can be reasonably used to identify you individually. Personally identifiable information may include one or more of the following: name, service address, billing address, telephone numbers, social security number, driver’s license number, user IDs, email addresses, and credit card information. Personally identifiable information does not include de-identified, anonymous, or aggregate data that does not identify you individually. For example, information regarding your age would only be considered personally identifiable if it was combined with your name or other information that could identify you individually.
It is important to understand the difference between personally identifiable information and information that is not personally identifiable in order to understand protections granted to Cable, Internet and Phone subscribers under the Communications Act of 1934. The Communications Act allows us to collect personally identifiable information only:
- If you consent, in advance, in writing or electronically;
- In order to provide our services to you; or
- To detect unauthorized reception.
Subject to certain exceptions, we may not disclose personally identifiable information about you, except as necessary to render the Services to you or other services we provide to you in related business activities or with your consent. Prior to complying with a demand by a third party for information about you, we may notify you and you may have the right to oppose the disclosure in court. There are exceptions to this, such as disclosures to law enforcement agencies required by law. We explain below how we respond to requests from law enforcement agencies for disclosure of personally identifiable information.
INFORMATION WE COLLECT
When you subscribe to our Services and interact with us as a customer, we collect both personally identifiable information and information that is not personally identifiable. We collect this information as part of our provision of the Services and keep business records that may include personally identifiable information. The collected information includes information that you may give us when you sign up for a Service or which is provided to us during the course of your relationship with us as a customer. This information includes, but is not limited to: name, service address, billing address, telephone numbers, social security number, driver’s license number, user IDs, email addresses, names of spouses or relatives, birth dates, credit card, debit card or bank account information. Additionally, we also maintain customer information concerning credit, billing and payments, security deposits, purchases made over the cable system, maintenance and repair, equipment and services provided, and other service-related functions. In providing our Services, we may also collect information about your video equipment, the number and location of television sets in your home that are connected to our cable system, computer hardware and software, modems, routers, associated electronic addresses, settings, and other preferences to aid in billing, maintenance, and customer support.
Internet Services – Like most Internet service providers, we automatically collect certain general information concerning your use, such as the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses assigned (an identifier assigned to your computer while online), MAC addresses (individual equipment identifiers) of equipment that is used, bandwidth used, system and connection performance, browsers used, dates and times of access, and Internet resource requests, including requests to access web pages. Some of this information may identify those subscribers who have downloaded certain materials or accessed certain websites. This type of information is generally retained for about six months. We do not store online messages sent or received unless left in your Pathway Com-Tel Internet account file. Since we cannot control Web sites or Internet services operated by third parties, we recommend that you review the terms of service and privacy policies of those Web sites and services.
TV Services – We collect certain information in providing you with our cable television and other services. The law prohibits us from using the cable system to collect personal information for unrelated purposes without your consent.
Unless you are notified and agree, we will not collect user information concerning most video program viewing, except as needed to bill you. In providing some specific cable TV services, such as pay-per-view, Video On Demand, and interactive cable services, we do maintain limited usage information for billing, programming and related purposes. Aggregate information that does not identify you may be collected and used for programming, advertising, and similar purposes. In some cases, non-personal aggregate information may be collected by the cable system in order to determine which programs are most popular, how many people are watching the show, and which cable features are used most often. This aggregate information may be provided to third party audience measurement firms who may combine it with other demographic information to conduct more comprehensive audience analysis.
Pathway Com-Tel may also use such information to distribute relevant programming and advertising to customers, without disclosing personally identifiable information about customers, to programmers or advertisers. When we provide digital video recorder services, we may also receive detailed information concerning your use and operation of the recorder for the uses described below in “Use and Sharing”.
Phone Services – In some areas we provide telephone services by “Voice over Internet Protocol” (VOIP). We do not listen to or record your calls. We do, however, monitor certain calls to our staff for quality purposes. In providing telephone services, we do receive usage information, including numbers called and received and duration of calls. We retain this information for up to two years, as required by some authorities, and we treat all such information as private.
Generally, we collect only the personal information needed to provide the Services we offer with the quality you desire and deserve. It is also our policy to keep that information secure and to retain it only as long as needed for our business purposes or as the law may require. We take reasonable precautions to identify you or your authorized representative when we receive an inquiry on your account as permitted by law. We also take reasonable steps to protect personally identifiable information from unauthorized access.
We sometimes collect personal information for special reasons, such as in surveys or registering at our Web sites. In these instances, you will be notified before it is collected, told how it will be used, and may elect not to participate.
USE AND SHARING
Use Policy – We consider personally identifiable information confidential and use it only for the business purpose of providing our Internet, TV and Phone services for such things as sales, installation, operations, administration, advertising, marketing, support, network management, maintenance, customer care, communications with you, billing and collection, and for accounting and tax purposes. We may also use such information to monitor for, detect, and protect against both fraud and unauthorized use of our services.
We use aggregate information about our customers and their usage for a variety of purposes. Such aggregate information does not identify individual customers. We may share aggregate information with third parties, such as audience measurement firms who may combine it with other demographic information to conduct audience analysis for our own internal business purposes. Pathway Com-Tel may associate personally identifiable information with aggregate information or with information from others to better offer product and service preferences to you.
Sharing Policy – It is our policy not to disclose any personally identifiable information about you to others outside Pathway Com-Tel and our affiliates, agents, vendors, business partners and others who assist us with providing services to you, and other related business functions, without your prior consent. We do not sell or provide your personal information to parties unrelated to the services we provide without your permission. As a further measure, if in the future we sell mailing lists, you can affirmatively opt out of such sharing by writing to the return address on your billing statement.. You can also notify us in either way if you prefer not to receive certain types of marketing contacts from us. Pathway Com-Tel sometimes uses affiliates, vendors, or partners in providing our services and may provide personally identifiable information for such purposes. We require that outside parties maintain at least the same level of confidentiality that we maintain. In addition, any use by the vendor may not exceed that needed to provide its service. We do not share personally identifiable information with other third parties without your consent. If you become a customer of a third party provider of any services directly, you should review its privacy policy, as it may differ from ours.
Special Exceptions – We reserve the right to disclose personally identifiable information if we have a good faith belief that it is necessary to: (1) comply with the law or legal process served on us; (2) protect and defend our rights or property or those of others; (3) respond to fraud, abuse, or unauthorized reception; (4) enforce our Website Visitors’ Agreement and Terms of Use, our Acceptable Use Policy, or related standards; or (5) act in an emergency to protect your safety or that of another. We may also share or transfer personally identifiable information along with your account as a part of any sale or transfer all or a portion of our business operations, merger or combination with another organization. In such a case, you will be notified of any changes in policy.
Retention Policy – Pathway Com-Tel may retain personal customer information in its regular business records as long as you are a customer or until no longer needed for business, tax, or legal purposes. Once these purposes no longer apply, we destroy, de-identify or anonymize the information according to our internal polices and protections. Our security measures for this information are discussed below.
Phone and Internet Services – Federal and some state regulations limit our use and sharing of certain information concerning a customer’s telephone and Internet services relating to the quantity, technical configuration, type, destination, location, nature of telecommunications or Internet, or telephone toll service you receive, and the amount of your use of telephone or Internet service. This information is known as “Customer Proprietary Network Information” or “CPNI” and includes information on how you use our telephone and Internet services, such as your call patterns, service features, price plans, spending profiles, destinations, and related information. In offering our spectrum of local and long distance telephone and Internet services, we do use your telephone or Internet service information to offer you new telephone or Internet services and pricing plans. If you do not want us to use your CPNI for this purpose, you may contact us at the number or address listed on the cover of this notice or on your regular bill. On the other hand, if you would like us to offer you information on video services or would like to learn about our bundled offers, please contact us in any of the same ways. Consenting to allow us to use your CPNI will help us offer you the best and most up-to-date services. Your consent will remain in effect until you notify us that you want to revoke or change your permission. Your choice will not affect the services you now receive. We do not disclose this information to unrelated parties, except as required by law.
Directory Listings – We offer our telephone customers the ability to designate their listings as non-published within print or directory assistance services. Because of the complexity of this process and the involvement of other entities in publishing, errors may occur from time-to-time. These and certain other telephone services are offered subject to tariff or contractual terms that limit our liability in the event of such errors.
Internet Services – We do not read your email messages, instant messages, online chats, “voice-over-internet” calls, or the content of other online communications that reside on or pass through our service. We may however, retain and provide such communications if we are legally required to do so. Incoming and outgoing email messages are generally scanned automatically to identify and filter out likely spam or harmful messages and for viruses, spyware, and related problems that could harm your equipment, the network, or other users.
TV Services – We provide aggregate information concerning pay-per-view, entertainment on demand and interactive services to programmers, advertisers and certain other third parties. Digital video recorder service information is not shared with programmers or third parties, except on an aggregate basis. If you use an interactive service to participate in or to order a product or service, you will be asked for your permission to provide contact information to the appropriate party. When we offer new services to you, like DVR and interactive features, we will also inform you about information we may need and how it may be used.
Enforcement of Your Rights – Federal law (including 47 U.S.C. §§ 222 and 551) limits the information a cable, phone and broadband provider may collect, maintain, use and share. You may enforce your rights concerning our collection, maintenance, use and sharing of your CPNI or PII. Among your remedies is the right to seek damages and reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees.
INTERNET SECURITY
Taking Proper Precautions – Maintaining the security of your personal computer is an important part of protecting your own privacy and of helping us protect our network and customers’ service. You should follow our Acceptable Use Policy which is available at www.usapathwayl.com. We recommend that you use and update regularly your antivirus software, firewall, and your operating system to prevent unauthorized access by others and harm from various forms of viruses. You should regularly back up your computer to preserve your files, including email or other messages you want to keep.
Persons with questionable intent may use the Internet or email to pose as someone you trust or do business with. You should always be sure who you are dealing with before clicking on an internet link or giving personal information. To avoid all these and other forms of attacks, we encourage you to visit our website at www.usapathway.com or the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) at www.ftc.gov for regular updates and tips on protecting yourself. Pathway Com-Tel may take protective action related to your service or contact you directly with information from time-to-time to help with this effort. While we take reasonable steps to protect your services, we highly recommend that you regularly change your login password, using hard-to-guess combinations of numbers and letters. Once communications enter the Internet, it is possible for them to be accessed by third parties over whom we have no control. Moreover, since we cannot control websites or services operated by third parties, you should review their terms of service and privacy policies.
Spam – Pathway Com-Tel tries to prevent and to block spam, and we encourage your help by preventing unauthorized access to your computer. We suggest that you remain up-to-date on ways to avoid and combat spam by watching for advice and tips on our website. We may use email to send transactional or relationship messages related to your service. If you prefer, you may opt-out of other marketing messages we may send by notifying us in response to any you may receive.
Cookies – A third party ad server that places ads on our websites may use “cookies” to collect anonymous information about your visit to our website and to manage information concerning your preferences. A “cookie” is a computer code added to a file on your computer as a record of its visit. It does not collect or provide your name or any other personal information about you. It can, however, be read by the website that placed it to note information about your visit, such as your type of web browser, operating system, and Internet Protocol (“IP”) address. It can also be used to recognize you when you log in as a registered user or as a repeat visitor returning to our website. This allows us to tailor our site by remembering you and any options you select. You can control what cookies are accepted by your computer through the settings on your web browser or by deleting them from your files. Doing so, however, may limit the personalization available to you and your access to sections of our websites.
Third-Party Cookies and Web Beacons – These forms of computer code are sometimes placed by advertisers or others with connection to a webpage and may be read by the ad’s provider. They may use a form of code called a “web beacon” or “clear GIF.” These are usually contained in a transparent image on a page or in an image on an email message and serve as a way to gather information about your visit, such as your IP Address and information or statistics about your visit. As with cookies, you can use your browser settings to control web beacons. We may share non-personal information obtained from cookies and web beacons with vendors, advertisers and others.
LAW ENFORCEMENT AND LEGAL REQUESTS
Information Disclosure – We regularly receive legal requests from governmental entities and law enforcement personnel for customer information. We also receive discovery requests in civil litigation. In all such cases, we cooperate by providing such information as the law requires. Federal law generally allows non-governmental entities to obtain information about you only with a court order and notice to you the subscriber. Federal law provides generally that governmental entities must obtain a court order for disclosure of personally identifiable information and can do so only upon a showing of clear and convincing evidence that you are reasonably suspected of engaging in criminal activity, and the information sought would be material to the case. The law also generally affords cable subscribers an opportunity to appear and contest the disclosure of personally identifiable information to a government entity pursuant to a court order.
SECURITY OF INFORMATION
We are aware of the many recently publicized instances of customer information security breaches and continue to work on new ways to protect your personally identifiable information. For our most sensitive databases, we use encrypted formats within controlled and secure environments that have access restricted to only our most trusted employees. Nevertheless, although we endeavor to ensure the integrity and security of our network and computer systems, we cannot guarantee that our security measures will prevent all instances of possible unauthorized access.
CHILDREN’S PRIVACY
The websites provided by Pathway Com-Tel are not directed at, or intended for use by, children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly allow anyone under 18 to provide any personal information on our websites. Children should always get permission from a parent or guardian before sending personal information over the Internet. If you believe your child may have provided us with personal information, you can contact us at the return address on this notice or found on your monthly bill, and we will delete the information. You can find more information about protecting children’s privacy by contacting the FTC or viewing its website at www.ftc.gov.
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
As a provider of an electronic communications service, we are required by law to report any evidence we may become aware of relating to violations of laws concerning child pornography.
CUSTOMER ACCESS TO INFORMATION
You may check the accuracy of personal information in your account by contacting a Customer Care representative. We also make a more complete review of your personally identifiable information available to you within a reasonable time following a request. You may examine the information upon prior request and at your own cost during business hours at the Pathway Com-Tel office listed on the return address of this notice or noted on your billing statement, and you may advise us of any errors you would like us to correct.
YOUR ENFORCEMENT RIGHTS
You can enforce your legal privacy rights concerning our collection, use, and sharing of your personally identifiable information. Among your remedies is the right to seek damages and reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees under 47 U.S.C. 551.
OTHER TERMS AND CHANGES IN POLICY
Other terms and conditions affect our service offerings, including certain TV service contracts, our Authorized Use Policy for Internet service, tariffs and the Terms of Use for our websites. Changes in our service offerings, the law, and policy may cause us to make changes to this and other policies from time to time. Any changes will be posted at www.usapathway.com.
ANNUAL DO-NOT-CALL REGISTRY NOTICE
In an effort to reduce the number of unwanted telemarketing calls, the FCC has provided telephone subscribers the opportunity to register their residential telephone numbers, including wireless numbers, for inclusion in the national Do Not Call (DNC) registry administered by the FTC. You may register, or revoke registration of, your number without charge by calling the FTC’s toll-free number, 1-888-382-1222 or TTY 1-866-290-4236, from the telephone number you are registering or revoking, or via online by visiting the FTC’s website located at www.donotcall.gov.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Changes in Service or Prices – As an Pathway Com-Tel customer, you will generally receive notice of changes in services or prices at least 30 days in advance or as in compliance with applicable laws. The notice may be provided on your monthly bill, as a bill insert, as a newspaper legal notice or information channel notice, or in a separate mailing.
Theft of Cable Service – An unauthorized cable hook-up is a severe and expensive problem. It is also a crime punishable by fines and/or imprisonment. Cable theft increases the cost of our business as well as the costs of legitimate, paying Pathway Com-Tel customers.
Miscellaneous Fees – A fee is added to any bill amount unpaid after the due date. If your payment is made with a check that is not supported by sufficient funds, you may be charged a fee for handling.
Delinquent Accounts – If your service is disconnected for non-payment, we require full payment of the balance, a deposit, a reconnect fee, and a minimum of one month’s service before reconnecting service.
Disconnect Policy – A request to disconnect cable service can occur at any time. Billing for service will stop on the day you request the service to be discontinued. Equipment provided to you by your local cable office must be returned upon disconnecting or appropriate charges will be assessed.
Signal Blocking Devices – If you can see images or hear sound from scrambled premium or adult channels that you do not subscribe to, you may ask to have these channels blocked.
TV EQUIPMENT COMPATIBILITY
Cable Set-top boxes – Some models of TVs and VCRs – especially older TV sets that are not “cable ready” – may not receive all of the channels offered when connected directly to the cable system. If your TV or VCR is not able to receive all of the channels desired, you can obtain a set-top box from Pathway Com-Tel at a nominal charge. If you plan to purchase cable services that we scramble or encrypt, such as premium, pay-per-view, or digital services, you should make sure that any set-top box or navigation device you purchase from a retail outlet is capable of working with separate security cards that we must provide in order for your equipment to access such programming devices. Upon request, we will provide you with the technical parameters that are needed for any such device to operate with our security cards and cable system. Also, you should know that it is illegal to sell receivers with descrambling units and similar “black box” descramblers, or to use such devices to access our services without authorization from Pathway Com-Tel. The use of such descramblers is theft of service. If you receive service through a set-top box, you may not be able to use special features and functions of your TV and VCR. These may include features that allow you to: view a program on one channel while simultaneously recording a program on another channel; record two or more consecutive programs that appear on different channels; and use advanced picture generation and display features such as “Picture-in-Picture” and channel review. Pathway Com-Tel may be able to resolve these issues through an additional set-top box or other equipment that is available for lease upon request.
CableCARDsTM- Certain new TVs and consumer products that can receive our cable services are sold with a CableCARDTMslot or interface, which allows them to be operated without the need for a separate set-top box. Currently, CableCARDTMenabled equipment does not allow you to access or use any of our interactive or two-way services that we offer. For more information, you may contact us.
Remote Controls – Pathway Com-Tel includes a remote control unit with set-top boxes. Some TV, VCR and DVD remote controls are also capable of controlling the basic features of your set-top box.
Universal” remote control units that are compatible with the basic features of set-top boxes may also be obtained from other sources, such as consumer appliance and electronics outlets or over the Internet. These universal remote controls may not be compatible with certain set-top features or services available Pathway Com-Tel in certain markets. If you have specific questions concerning remote control compatibility, we encourage you to contact Customer Care at the number listed on this notice or on your monthly bill.
TV Picture Quality – If you experience problems with the quality of TV signals you receive, you should call us at the number listed on this notice or on your monthly cable bill. A Customer Care representative can often resolve your problem over the phone. If this cannot be done, we will set up an appointment for a technician to come to your home. If, in your opinion, the service technician fails to correct the reception problem, you should call us again and we will review the actions taken. Should we continue to be unable to resolve the problem to your satisfaction, we will explain the reasons we cannot solve the problem. If you feel Pathway Com-Tel has not properly resolved your issue, you have the right to contact the applicable franchise authority at the address and telephone number listed on your monthly cable bill.