Updated: December 7, 2018
This policy applies to information processed on Neustar's online properties and in the course of providing the products and services described below. This policy describes how we collect, use, share and secure your information, and your choices regarding use, access and correction of your information. We know privacy policies can be confusing and technical. To make this as easy as possible to read and understand, we have embedded links throughout the policy. Please click on the links to learn what the defined terms mean and to see additional information about Neustar's use and disclosure of that information in that context.
Neustar is committed to the responsible use of information to help businesses make better decisions, secure their operations, and deliver personalized content while respecting personal privacy. To accomplish this goal, we adhere to Privacy by Design principles, taking personal privacy into consideration throughout the process of designing, building, and delivering information products and services.
Neustar may collect, use, and disclose information that identifies or relates to a specific individual and other information described below in the course of operating our websites and providing our products and services to business customers. This information may or may not be linked to an identifiable individual, as described in this Privacy Statement.
Neustar may collect, use, and disclose various types of information, including:
Neustar collects this information from a wide variety of sources, both on and offline, such as:
On our websites, we collect PII only if you choose to give it to us, for example by inquiring about or registering for our services, subscribing to RSS feeds or blog posts, or electing to "follow" Neustar or our brands on social media sites. Please keep in mind that any comments or other information you post on our blogs may be read, collected, and used by other blog readers.
Neustar uses first-party and third-party Cookies to enhance your experience on our websites. When you first visit one of our websites with a new device or browser, we advise you about the use of Cookies on that site. You may choose to continue with Neustar website Cookies or turn them off. If you choose to continue with Cookies, we won't remind you for one year - but if you change your mind at any point please click here. Certain website features may not work properly if you elect to turn Cookies off. For example, some of our websites featuring shopping carts require Cookies to work properly.
Our websites may include social media features such as the Facebook "Like" button. These features, which are either hosted by a third party or directly on our site, may collect Internet Log Data and, in order to function properly, may set Cookies. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company that provides them, and not this policy.
When you visit our website, we use PII that you provide, Pseudonymous IDs (e.g., from Cookies), and Log Data to respond to your requests, process transactions you initiate, improve our website, and deliver personalized content to you. We may disclose this information to third parties to help us in these activities, for example, to a service provider that sends email communications to you on our behalf.
We provide a variety of services to online and offline advertisers and their agents through our marketing services offerings, including our Customer Intelligence, Customer Experience and Customer Analytics services. Customers may combine some or all features of our products and services described below.
Neustar's Customer Intelligence service uses PII collected from a wide variety of public and private sources. Our business customers use this information to identify or verify the identity of existing customers and prospective customers who contact them (for example through their customer service center, online forms, or lead generation channels) to provide better customer service, communicate more effectively, use their marketing resources more efficiently, and comply with various laws and regulations. Customers also use these services to correct, update, and enhance their CRM Data and, in combination with our predictive market segmentation tools described below, to offer products and services you may be interested in.
Neustar Audiences: ElementOne and AdAdvisor. Neustar Audiences enable advertisers to understand their CRM Data and to apply those insights to reach and communicate with their existing customers and large groups of similar households and individuals in the on and offline environments. To do this, we collect consumer survey data, reliably-sourced household/neighborhood-level demographic data, and other licensed lifestyle and purchasing data from third party providers, which we aggregate across US households and use to make predictions about the preferences and interests of large groups of similar consumers based on pre-defined market segments, identified by a numeric Segment Code. In addition, we enable our advertisers to reach and communicate with specific users who may be interested in their products and services based on pseudonymized Attribute Data derived from reputable sources.
We use this information to help advertisers deliver more relevant online content. We may share Pseudonymous IDs with our affiliates and service providers to support advertising customers. In order to enable our customers to use their information across the Internet advertising ecosystem, we "sync" Cookies with various ad platforms and tech providers. You can learn more about this process by reviewing our explanation of Cookie Sync Partners.
Neustar's Customer Experience services connect data and media across channels (online, offline, television, etc.) to enable marketers to analyze the effectiveness of their advertising activities and determine where to invest in order to generate sales more efficiently.
Neustar's MarketShare services compile and analyze aggregated sales data, aggregated online Event Data, information about offline marketing activities, along with other economic modeling data and aggregate ad response data from a variety of platforms (on and offline) in order to measure ad campaign effectiveness and attribute conversion events to marketing campaigns. This enables advertisers to understand their customer's path to conversion and facilitate smarter marketing spend decisions. For customers using our Onboarding services, we may also collect Hashed eMail Addresses and/or city/metro area/provincial level geolocation data from data partners.
Neustar's TCPA Compliance service helps businesses mitigate regulatory risk and improve operational efficiencies by verifying the linkages between a consumer's name, phone number, valid consent, and other offline attributes. This helps our customers comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by confirming that the number they are calling belongs to the consumer who provided consent to be contacted at that number.
Neustar uses data from a variety of sources, including offline data, customer provided data including PII, third-party licensed data, and Cross Device Linking data, or other digital identifiers (e.g., IP Addresses, and Cookies, Mobile Advertising IDs or MAIDs, and Statistical Identifiers to help businesses verify their registered customers, prevent fraud and achieve operational efficiency.
Neustar helps our customers achieve inbound and outbound operational efficiency and prevent fraud by matching, enhancing, correcting, or corroborating their CRM Data. Neustar provides phone attribute information (e.g., whether the phone has been ported, disconnected, or changed recently) to help our customers defend against potential fraud, account takeover, and spoofing. Information from Cross-Device Linking can also be used in connection with our IP Information and IP Reputation services to flag potentially fraudulent account opening activities.
Neustar SiteProtect services collect and process network traffic information containing both source and destination IP Addresses, Referrer URL, and other Internet Log Data to help our customers identify and respond to cyber-attacks and other malicious online traffic, including distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Neustar will analyze the attack vector information containing the source and destination IP Addresses, attack duration, and traffic volume to enhance Neustar's ability to detect and mitigate malicious activity on the Internet more broadly. Based on this analysis, Neustar may share information about malicious activities, blocked hostnames or IP Addresses, source and target geolocation data, and target industry or vertical information with third parties such as internet security research groups and service providers to prevent, detect, and mitigate against malicious online behavior.
We collect IP Addresses and other geolocation-related information using proprietary, patented technologies to map routable IP Addresses worldwide. By augmenting our data with insights derived from select global partners, we provide city-level data down to postal codes. Our IP Intelligence services also use IP Address information to help our customers detect potentially fraudulent transactions (i.e., by flagging suspicious IP Addresses or log-ins from unlikely locations), and comply with geographic sales and content delivery regulations.
Building on Neustar's suite of Digital Defense Services, we collect IP Addresses and analyze trends and patterns associated with them. By augmenting our data with insights derived from select global partners, we provide risk scores that allow our customers to determine whether an IP Address is a real human user (vs. a bot) or whether malicious activities have been associated with the IP Address in the past. Our customers may use this information to detect, prevent, and respond to fraud and other risks.
Neustar collects Internet Log Data and geolocation data along with website performance metrics such as, total load time, page rendering time, and any JavaScript errors to provide a variety of Web Performance Tools that enable our customers to monitor their site's performance and load time, to identify and address technical problems quickly, and to understand and improve their users' online experience.
Neustar provides a variety of Domain Name System (DNS) services, including both authoritative and recursive DNS servers and a suite of related services to facilitate the global flow of Internet traffic. In providing these services, Neustar collects and processes DNS queries, which includes both source and destination IP Address information, time and date stamps, and other technical information. We use this information to provide connectivity and routing services to our customers, to identify and mitigate malicious and fraudulent activity, and to enhance our Digital Defense, Digital Performance, and Fraud, Risk, and Compliance products and services.
When you register a domain name, your registrar collects certain information, including your PII, the IP Address of the servers on which your domain name is hosted, and other information about the registrant and the domain name registration. As the Registry Operator for .BIZ and .US, and as the registry service provider for other top-level domains, Neustar collects this information from registrars. We use this data to provide registry services, to enforce our policies and our customers' policies, and to prevent, detect, and respond to malicious behavior and/or misuse of our services. We also make this information available online, in accordance with applicable law and/or policy or contractual requirements imposed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and/or our registry customers. For example, WHOIS information for .US is publicly available in accordance with United States government policy. Neustar makes PII contained in the WHOIS database for the .biz domain available upon request to third parties with a legitimate and proportionate interest in using the data for non-marketing purposes such as consumer protection, crime detection, intellectual property protection, etc. Availability of WHOIS data for other domains that we support (either country-code or generic top-level domains) is determined by our customers in accordance with their regulatory and/or contractual requirements.
Neustar uses WHOIS Data and other information collected in the course of providing registry services to: comply with contractual requirements, ICANN policy requirements, law and regulation; investigate and respond to complaints of abusive conduct; and enforce registry policies related to, without limitation, WHOIS accuracy, the use of proxy and/or privacy registration services, limitations on registration, and prohibitions against the use of domain names to distribute malware, operate botnets, or engage in phishing, piracy, intellectual property infringement, fraudulent or deceptive practices, counterfeiting or other activity that is contrary to applicable law. Neustar may from time to time collect and aggregate demographic data or statistical analysis and other research but does not disclose PII in that process.
Neustar prohibits use of WHOIS Data (1) except in compliance with applicable law; (2) to allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations via direct mail, electronic mail, or by telephone; (3) in contravention of any applicable data and privacy protection laws; or (4) to enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that interact with domain name registry systems.
Neustar provides a variety of services to communications services providers to ensure that calls are properly routed across telecommunications service provider networks.
Neustar maintains and operates the global phone number resolution directory service, Pathfinder on behalf of the GSMA for SMS routing and delivery. Customers of Pathfinder are restricted to use this service only for the purposes of rating, routing, and routing administration. For this service Neustar collects the phone number (queried by our customer), IP Address of the customer submitting the query and our response to the customer's query. Neustar's Pathfinder response consists of the carrier of record for the queried phone number and any number port history information. Our use and disclosure of this information is limited by contract.
We provide services to help communications companies manage their domestic US phone numbering inventory, manage and fulfill customer number porting orders, and to comply with regulatory requirements. For these services we collect telephone numbers, IP Addresses, and carrier information. Our use and disclosure of this information is limited by contract and regulated by law.
In addition to providing traditional directory services, Neustar helps our customers reach their customers and prospects with branded caller identification and business listing services.
Neustar maintains business listing information for our small business and franchise customers so they can be found by their customers and prospects. For Neustar's Localeze service, we collect business name, address, phone, email, website and service type information and publish this information through various media channels.
Neustar does not use or disclose PII or Pseudonymous IDs other than as described above, except:
We may use Cookies, Mobile Advertising IDs or MAIDs, Statistical IDs, Web Beacons, Pixel Tags, JavaScript, HTML5 Local Storage, or similar technologies, along with other information described in this policy to enhance and personalize your experience on our sites and to manage and enable preferences, transactions and related uses of Neustar services and information. These technologies do not identify you to us unless you have voluntarily identified yourself on our websites. If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive a warning message with each cookie. You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser, but some of the features on our site may not work if you do. Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5 local storage. To learn more about these technologies, click here: to http://www.aboutads.info/ and http://youradchoices.com/.
Third parties with whom we partner may use Cookies, Web Beacons, Pixel Tags, JavaScript, HTML5 Local Storage, Flash LSOs, Statistical IDs, Pseudonymous IDs, or similar technologies to help us understand how visitors interact with our website or to deliver content, such as videos, or to personalize ads you see online based on your visits to our website. We do not have access to or control of these third-party technologies. The information gathered by these technologies is not tied to PII submitted on our website. You can use your browser settings to manage Cookies. Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5 Local Storage. To manage Flash LSOs, please click here.
We use Cookies, Web Beacons, Pixel Tags, Mobile Advertising IDs, Statistical IDs, and similar technologies in order to collect the information necessary to provide Neustar services described above. Our Cookies contain Pseudonymous IDs and other information that does not allow you to be identified without additional data. The contents of our Cookies are encrypted and can't be read without the encryption key. You can remove persistent Cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browser's "help" file, or you may opt-out as described below.
Our Pseudonymous IDs, including Cookies do not tell our business customers who you are or where you live. Businesses use the information in Cookies to tailor online advertising based on the likelihood that someone will share certain interests or propensities with members of an aggregated group. We also use and disclose information about Cookies, in combination with Log Data and third-party information, including Attribute Data, to measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns. Finally, our Cookies can be used to help a business verify a user when they access the site using a different device or browser and for other fraud prevention, detection, and mitigation purposes.
We use Mobile Advertising IDs or MAIDs, also known as "IDFA" (Apple/iOS) or "IFA" (Google/Android), in connection with Neustar's Marketing Solutions and Fraud, Risk & Compliance Solutions offerings. We obtain Mobile Advertising IDs or MAIDs from Match Partners who have user consent to share this information. We share Segment Codes associated with Mobile Advertising IDs or MAIDs with our customers who have access to these identifiers with the consent of their users. This enables our clients to provide a more tailored user experience as well as relevant content and offers in the mobile environment. We also use Mobile Advertising IDs or MAIDs to identify and prevent fraudulent transactions and to help our customer verify a known user who accesses their site using an unknown device or browser. You can find more information about how Mobile Advertising IDs or MAIDs are used and how to opt out of mobile advertising in our Transparency and Choice; Opt-Out & Access section below.
We may use Web Beacons to collect performance metrics when you visit our customer's web sites. The web beacons capture your IP Address to determine your geolocation at the city/region/country level and is discarded once geolocation is determined. Understanding the geolocation and associated website performance helps our customers manage their websites for optimal performance.
Neustar does not create Segment Codes or other audiences based on Sensitive Personal Information and we do not use Cookies, Mobile Advertising IDs or MAIDs, Statistical IDs, or other technologies to enable ad targeting based on that kind of information. For added protection, our contracts with our partners do not allow the use of our data to determine credit worthiness or eligibility for insurance, employment, housing, etc.
We do not create audience segments based on the precise real-time geographic-location of an individual derived through location-based services (e.g., GPS-enabled devices) without opt-in consent.
Neustar creates certain audience segments based on our predictions about the likelihood that households assigned to a particular Segment Code or audience are more or less likely to use certain kinds of over-the-counter medications (e.g., cold or flu medications) or more or less likely to consume certain alcoholic beverages. These segments do not include or reflect individual or even household level behavior; rather, they are predictions based on survey responses from volunteer participants, which is then modeled to apply to broader groups of people who we think are more or less likely to have similar preferences. Advertisers who use these segments must comply with government regulation as well as industry best practices that apply to the delivery of such advertising. More information about this topic and a list of the audiences we offer is available here: Advertising Audiences.
Neustar may collect credit card information when provided by our customers in payment for some of our services. This information is securely collected and transmitted by our vendor in accordance with Payment Card Industry standards and used and disclosed only for the purposes of receiving payment for our services.
We retain information collected through our websites for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. We also retain and use this information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
We comply with opt-out requests by placing an "opt-out cookie" on your computer or device. Consequently, if you clear your Cookies on that computer or device, we will not be able to read our "opt-out cookie" and may resume collecting information from that computer or device for purposes of retargeting. Similarly, an opt-out request will not be effective on other browsers, computers, or devices you may use if you have not opted out while using that browser, computer, or device.
Please note Cookies are browser and device specific, so you must opt out on all of the browsers (e.g. Chrome, Safari) and devices (e.g. laptop, smartphones) you use.
We work with a variety of Match Partners and Coverage Partners who may provide Hashed eMail Addresses for use in connection with several of our services. You can opt-out of our use of your Hashed Email Addresses in connection with Neustar services by clicking on the Neustar Choice Portal link in the Privacy Choices page on our website. We will retain your email address on an internal "block" list to prevent its further use in connection with Neustar services.
Please note, if you use several email addresses you must opt out for each one.
Please note that opting out of Neustar's processing of your data does not mean you will block online advertising altogether or see fewer ads. It simply means that the ads that you see will not be personalized for you. Ads may be served because they relate to the website you are visiting or to your current search, or they may just be randomly placed.
Your choice to use any of our opt-out tools will not affect ads placed by any other organization.
Neustar is a member of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI"), the Digital Advertising Alliance ("DAA"), and the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA) and adheres to each organization's Codes and Principles. You can also learn more about online advertising in general on the NAI website, which provides background information on participating companies and permits you to opt-out of receiving tailored online advertising from some or all of its members. For information about the DAA Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising and to learn more about the Ad Choices icon, visit http://www.aboutads.info/ and http://youradchoices.com/. You may learn more about our participation in the EDAA's program and online behavioral advertising at www.youronlinechoices.eu.
Neustar and its subsidiaries, (i.e., Administrative Services, LLC, Aggregate Knowledge, LLC., Data Solutions Services, LLC, MarketShare Holdings, Inc., Neustar Information Services, Inc., Neustar, Inc., Registry Services, LLC, and Security Services, LLC, collectively "Neustar") participate in and have certified their compliance with the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. We are committed to subjecting all personal data received from European Union (EU) member countries and Switzerland, in reliance on the Privacy Shield Framework, to the Framework's applicable Principles. To learn more about the Privacy Shield Frameworks, visit the U.S. Department of Commerce's Privacy Shield Framework website. Information about Neustar's Privacy Shield certification is available on the Privacy Shield List.
Neustar is responsible for the processing of personal data it receives, under the Privacy Shield Framework, and subsequently transfers to a third party acting as an agent on its behalf. We comply with the Privacy Shield Principles for all onward transfers of personal data from the EU and Switzerland, including the onward transfer liability provisions.
With respect to personal data received or transferred pursuant to the Privacy Shield Framework, Neustar is subject to the regulatory enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.
In compliance with the Privacy Shield Principles, Neustar commits to resolve complaints about our collection or use of your personal information. EU and Swiss individuals with inquiries or complaints regarding our Privacy Shield policy should first contact Neustar at:
Neustar Privacy
21275 Ridgetop Circle
Sterling, VA 20166
Email: Privacy@team.neustar
If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily or timely, please contact our U.S.-based third party dispute resolution provider (free of charge) at https://feedback-form.truste.com/watchdog/request.
Under certain conditions, more fully described on the Privacy Shield website here, you may be entitled to invoke binding arbitration when other dispute resolution procedures have been exhausted.
European residents may also opt-out of our use of Cookies for online advertising at: www.youronlinechoices.eu
Neustar has implemented policies that include reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect PII against unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.
Neustar does not knowingly collect information from children under 13, and we do not create marketing segments or knowingly enable advertising targeted to children under 18.
This Policy may change from time to time, in which case we will revise the "Updated" date. We will post any privacy policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant (also known as material changes), we will provide more prominent notice on this site prior to the changes becoming effective and indicate at the top of the policy when it was most recently updated. Changes we determine to be material to this policy will become effective 30 days after posting.
Pursuant to Section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code, residents of California who have an established business relationship with Neustar may request certain information with respect to the PII we share with third parties for those third parties' direct marketing purposes. To exercise your rights, email us at privacy@team.neustar.
Neustar honors confirmation, access, correction, objection, and erasure rights of Data Subjects under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). If you are resident in the European Economic Area (EEA), please access the Neustar Choice Portal link in the Privacy Choices page on our website using an IP Address in the EEA to access our GDPR Data Subject access portal. If you are an EEA resident but unable to access the portal from an IP Address in Europe, please contact us at privacy@team.neustar to initiate a manual process.
Neustar Privacy
21275 Ridgetop Circle
Sterling, VA 20166
privacy@team.neustar
J. Beckwith Burr
Neustar, Inc.
21275 Ridgetop Circle
Sterling, VA 20166
privacy@team.neustar
Neustar (UK) Limited/MarketShare Partners EMEA Ltd.
Attn: DPO
21 Palmer Street
London
SW1H 0AD
privacy@team.neustar
