The staff of the Technical Innovation Center, recognizes the sensitive nature of your intellectual property and personal or business financial information, as well as your current position. We want to protect your privacy at all times. To this end, we want you to understand the information we will collect about you and how we use this information. Accordingly, we have prepared this document which explains the Technical Innovation Center's privacy policy relative to our client accounts. This policy is applicable to all accounts serviced by the Technical Innovation Center and applies to all consumers who are customers or former customers.

What Kinds Of Information

We collect information about your firm so that we may adequately serve your needs. It is important to have enough information about your business or venture idea to provide you with guidance and counsel. With respect to intellectual property we do not necessarily need to know HOW your idea works - we only need enough information to classify the industry and market space in which your idea is expected to compete. Therefore, when you contact us for assistance or apply for our incubation program we must collect information from you. The type of information requested varies based on the service you have requested and may include information such as your name, address. social security number, income, expenses. assets and employment history. We will also require a business plan. Intellectual property does not need to be included in such a plan, and we advise clients against incorporating any and all legally unprotected information, scientific data, or any other technical data related to the intellectual property into the client's business plan. We do not collect this information for general consulting services. Any and all intellectual property information derived as a byproduct from business consulting services will be treated as if the information are "Trade Secrets". However, if it is learned that such information has been disclosed to any third party for any reason, the client may not invoke a claim of "Trade Secret" protection regarding that information against the College or any Hagerstown Community College administrator, staff, or faculty member. Whether the information is a "Trade Secret" or not, such information will never be disclosed unless we receive written authorization from you to do so, or we are ordered to do so by any court of law with jurisdiction in the United States of America.

If we need to know about your credit history we will have you sign a credit release form prior to contacting any reporting agency, All information about you is considered private. In this policy, we refer to this information as "private information."

How We Use This Information

We will not disclose your private information, as described above, to any organization, affiliated or non-affiliated, unless this disclosure:

1. is necessary to effect, administer, or enforce a transaction, service, or inquiry you have initiated.
   
2. is necessary to perform marketing services on your behalf, so that you may better understand existing needs within the market and to determine how we can help you meet those needs;
   
3. is necessary to perform joint marketing services for services that might be offered jointly with another institution, that we would offer to you directly; and
   
4. is necessary to facilitate or consummate our business transactions with third parties which does not include the selling of information for the purpose of further solicitation.

In these limited cases where information is shared with other companies that perform services on your behalf or for joint marketing purposes, the information provided is limited to the information they need to perform their function. These companies are also required to maintain the security and confidentiality of the information provided and use it only to perform the specified service on our behalf.

As we stated in our pledge to you, we do not share information with outside companies for the purpose of selling their products and services. Since we do not share information with third parties, beyond what we have disclosed above, it follows that we do not offer you an opportunity to opt out of this sharing.

Keeping Your Information Private

We take steps to safeguard customer information. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your customer information against unauthorized access. We also take appropriate corrective action when needed to enforce employee compliance with our procedures with respect to the privacy of client information. We may also ask you for personal information in order to verify your identity when you request assistance from us.

As previously mentioned, if we work with other companies who provide services on your behalf or in the case of jointly offered products, we will maintain contracts with our partners which will require them to comply with our Privacy Policy and to keep this information secure and confidential.

Privacy Online

When you visit one of our web sites, we may collect and store information about your visit on an anonymous, aggregate basis. This information may include information such as the time and length of your visit, and the pages you looked at on our site. No confidential information is collected from you online, unless you have provided it to us. We use this information only to measure site activity and to develop ideas for improving our sites.

We strongly urge you to use 128-bit encryption. Your level of encryption can be found for Internet Explorer by clicking www.microsoft.com or in Netscape Communicator or Navigator by clicking www.netscape.com If you are using a browser other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Netscape's Communicator or Navigator please check directly with your browser's software publisher.

Although we take all possible precautions to safeguard your information, you should never send confidential information via e-mail. The e-mails you send us are not secure. Customers always have the option of mailing or calling us to provide any information they wish to keep confidential.

Cookies

Cookies are pieces of data assigned by our web server and stored on your computer's hard drive for later retrieval. This helps us recognize you the next time you visit our site We will not use cookies to record information that will enable anyone to contact you via telephone, e-mail, or regular mail.

You can set your browser to reject cookies or to reject cookies when you are just browsing and accept cookies when you want to conduct online transactions. For instructions on how to accept or reject cookies you may go to Netscape Communicator or Navigator: at www.netscape.com and click on 'Browser Central,' or, Internet Explorer : at www.microsoft.com Go to the help menu, and click "online support." If you are using a browser other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Netscape's Communicator or Navigator, please check directly with your browser's software publisher. We may use a third party tracking service to track information about your visit to our site for market research.

We may also use clear gif's. Clear gif's. are used to tag the pages you visit on our site to help us improve the design and content of our site. All of this information is considered confidential and is only available for our use.

Privacy Resources

As a service to our clients we offer ways in which you can reduce the amount of advertising you receive from other companies. Individuals can write to the following agencies:

1. For advertising received through the mail:

   Mail Preference Service
   c/o Direct Marketing Association P.O. Box 9008
   Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008

2. For advertising received via the telephone:

   Telephone Preference Service
   c/o Direct Marketing Association
   P.O. Box 9014 Farmingdale, NY 11735-9014

Please be sure to include complete information about each name, (first, middle and last name including; Jr., Sr., III), and the address and telephone number you would like excluded from these lists. Also include old addresses and telephone numbers, if individuals have relocated within the last year. The same is true for name changes and the addresses and telephone numbers associated with each name.

Individuals can also have their name taken off pre-approved credit solicitations, by calling 888-50PTOUT (888-567 -8688) or writing to the following credit reporting agencies. Be sure to include name, (first, middle, and last name including; Jr., Sr., III), current address, (previous address if moved in the last six months), and Social Security number.

Experian
Consumers Opt-out P.O. Box 919 701
Experian Parkway Allen. TX 75103

Options Equifax, Inc.
P.O. Box 749123
1150 Lake Hearn Dr Atlanta, GA 30374-0123

Trans Union Corporation
Name Removal Option
P.O. Box 97328 Jackson, MS 39288-7328

If you have questions about this privacy policy notice please write to:

Director
Technical Innovation Center
11400 Robinwood Drive
Hagerstown, MD 21742