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Security Statement

SECURITY STATEMENT, PRIVACY POLICY, & “COOKIES”
(May 21, 2003)

ADDED 8:29 AM 05/21/2003: The ELLIE MAE Companies, ELLIE MAE, Genesis 2000 and Contour Software Inc., hereinafter referred to as ELLIE MAE.

ELLIE MAE is committed to honoring the privacy of visitors to our corporate and affiliate Web sites. Our Web site describes our information practices and lets users give informed consent before participating in programs and services. This page provides answers to the following questions:

How Do We Protect Your Account?

  1. 128-bit High Encryption Browsers. We require you to use a secure browser to access account information and perform transactions. This helps to ensure that the information you access is secure and confidential.
  2. Encrypted Data. After you have entered your information, the encrypted data is transported between our systems and our alliance systems. Ensuring the security of your financial transactions is never a finite process for us. We use professional security experts to manage and monitor 24-hours a day, 7-days a week to help ensure that your information is secure.

 

What is SSL and How Does it Protect Me?

SSL protocol provides secure communications on the Internet. Essentially, SSL does three things:

  1. SSL creates a secure communication channel by encrypting communication between the user and the server.
  2. SSL authenticates that the server to which you are connected is indeed correct. You can be assured that you are actually communicating with us, and not a third party trying to intercept the transaction.
  3. SSL conducts a cryptographic word count to ensure data integrity between the server and the user. The word count (or checksum) provides a count of the number of bytes in a document and ensures the exact number of bytes is transmitted and received. With SSL, even this check sum is encrypted so it cannot be modified. If a message is not received in its entirety, it is rejected and another copy of the message is sent automatically.

 

What information does ELLIE MAE ask for and how is it used?

We make every effort to protect our partners, affiliates, and individual consumers, but we do not control the privacy policies or business practices of third-party Web sites. When our business partners and affiliates register for services provided by ELLIE MAE, they are asked to provide certain information such as their name, business address, contact information, and company description. We only ask for this information so that our account managers and Web site coordinators can maintain quick, effective communication and constantly personalize our business services to your requirements. Your registration, contact information, and any passwords you may be issued are also required for your secure movement and transaction processing throughout our Web sites.

However, certain third-party Web sites to which we provide links or which are hosted by ELLIE MAE for public use have different or additional terms of use, (including different privacy policies), which you should read, so that you fully understand particular uses of personal information by third parties who are partnered or affiliated with ELLIE MAE. Because ELLIE MAE does not control activity on any third party Web sites, even when hosted by ELLIE MAE, ELLIE MAE makes no representation concerning the use and/or disclosure of any information provided to such third party Web sites.

 

Do I get to choose what information I disclose?

Yes, our business partners and affiliates can always choose whether or not to disclose personal or business information through ELLIE MAE. Certain information is of course required for registration and to establish and securely manage your ELLIE MAE account, but other requested information may be optional. Specific questions about what information is currently required should be addressed to the account manager and Web site coordinator who establish your account.

 

Who has access to the information that I provide to Ellie Mae?

We use basic information which we collect to make your business relationship with ELLIE MAE more productive and tailored to your individual preferences. We require specific additional information when you subscribe to some customized services, and we store that information in secure databases. We share some aggregate statistical data with companies from which we obtain analytical and marketing services or partnerships. These companies do not have access to our secure database, and we never provide these companies with access to any consumers’ financial, personal, or loan-transaction information which we store on behalf of our business partners and affiliates. From time to time, we may be asked to disclose such information to third parties as part of a legal proceeding (i.e. subpoenas and criminal investigations); in such cases, ELLIE MAE will disclose personally identifiable information as required by law.

 

What if I need to change the personal or business information I previously disclosed?

All changes in our partners’ and affiliates’ contact or business information should be sent immediately to the account manager and Web site coordinator who manage your account. Private consumers who use the mortgage services of our partners and broker affiliates should contact them directly by e-mail or by phone to update personal and loan-account information.

 

Who can I contact if I have any questions regarding my privacy?

If you have specific questions about ELLIE MAE, you can contact us directly through our e-mail “info” address provided below. For more general information, we recommend the Web site published by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which includes news and commentary about privacy protection on the Worldwide Web; or go directly to their FTC Search page, enter the words “Internet privacy” (without quotes) in the text field, and hit the Search button. 

 

What is a “cookie” and how does it work?

We occasionally use software “cookies” (tiny data files sent to and stored by the client computer’s web-browser software) to let you use our services more efficiently, and to let us keep track of statistical traffic information that helps us improve our Web site. One extremely valuable service provided by cookies is that they can save many preferences which you have established for navigation, searching, and shopping in your favorite Web sites. After your computer has requested and received a cookie from an Internet server, the cookie simply allows you to visit Web site pages repeatedly without having to reintroduce yourself each time you return. No other user’s computer on the Worldwide Web will have that same cookie, and only the Web site which issued that cookie can later retrieve it. A Web site can transmit one or (rarely) more cookies to the user’s browser software, and each may have a very different purpose. Cookies from our server contain only information which a user volunteers, or which guarantees the secure transmission of their data across the Internet, or which can automatically disconnect a user’s “log-in” session after a period of inactivity (in case you go to lunch but forget to “log off”).

Some ELLIE MAE Web site services may not function correctly if the user’s browser software cannot accept cookies. Recent versions of Web browsers can be customized so that a cookie is always accepted — but only after the user is advised and consents.

Cookie Choices in Your NETSCAPE Browser:
Beginning with version 4.0, Netscape Navigator gives users the power to control cookies. In version 4.0 and higher, you can activate your “Cookie Alert” by pulling down the Edit menu and selecting Preferences. Click Advanced Settings at the bottom of the dialog box, and choose from the following:

  • Accept all cookies.
  • Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server.
  • Disable cookies.

Another option is for Navigator to warn you before accepting a cookie. Every time there is an incoming cookie, a dialog box will ask if you want to accept it.
Cookie Choices in Your MICROSOFT Browser:
Beginning with version 4.0, Microsoft Internet Explorer gives users the power to control cookies. To enable cookies within Internet Explorer 4.0 and higher, select View | Internet Options and go to the Advanced tab. Scroll down to the Security section and select “Always accept cookies”. If the user wants to see each cookie that the browser receives, they should select “Prompt before accepting cookies” in the Advanced tab and a Security Alert dialog will appear before a cookie is accepted.

CAVEAT WEB-SURFER:
Before choosing to have your Web browser warn you of all incoming cookies, keep in mind that some web pages may have more than 100 cookies and you will be notified about each one separately.

 

What does Ellie Mae do with the non-public personal information it receives regarding its business partners’ , affiliates’ or mortgage broker clients’ customers?

Ellie Mae provides a wide range of services to its business partners, affiliates and mortgage broker clients. In connection with these services, Ellie Mae often receives non-public personal information about the customers of its business partners, affiliates and mortgage broker clients. Except as permitted by law, Ellie Mae does not share, disclose or otherwise use non-public personal information that it receives from its business partners or mortgage broker clients about its business partners’ or mortgage broker clients’ customers. Federal privacy regulations limit the manner in which Ellie Mae may re-use or re-disclose this information, and Ellie Mae complies with these regulations.

Questions specifically regarding this ELLIE MAE statement of privacy policy should be directed to [email protected]

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