Internet privacy statement
Effective Date: 07/01/08
Information we collect about you online
We want you to get the most out of your visits to our website. From offering special promotions to new users, to providing Ameriprise Financial clients with secure online account access and management options, we strive to make the most of every unique user visit to our website. To provide our users with these and other online tools, we will, from time to time, request that you provide us with your personal information, such as your name, address, email address and telephone number. We may also receive your contact information via a third-party website if you request information about financial products and services on another website.
- Website users: We will ask you for certain contact information when you register for online services and products.
- Ameriprise Financial clients: We will ask you for certain personal information if you want to access your Ameriprise Financial accounts online or request online services and products so we can provide you with secure online account access or the requested services or products. In some instances, we will need to supplement the information you provided with certain personal information about you obtained from third parties to process your online transaction, such as a credit check when applying for a brokerage margin account.
We will maintain information about your account, online account activity, online services and products requested and your usage of our website to help us administer your online account needs and to continually improve your online experience by providing you with customized, relevant information and offers.
TO PARENTS OF CHILDREN UNDER 13: We do not knowingly solicit data online from or market online to children under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 13 and believe that personal information may have been collected about your child, please read “How we use the information we collect” below and “Your opt-out choices.”
How we use the information we collect
Whether you are a new website user or an Ameriprise Financial client, we use personal information collected on our website to handle the transactions you initiate. In some instances, we will share your contact information with carefully selected service providers to assist us in processing your online transactions or to deliver the services, products, and marketing you request online. For example, in order to mail you the financial guide you request online, we will supply your contact information to a third party vendor who will process and mail the guide, and other materials you request on the behalf of Ameriprise Financial.
We will also share your personal information with carefully selected non-affiliated companies who provide transactional services or send offers on behalf of Ameriprise Financial. For example, Ameriprise Financial may offer frequent flyer miles to prospective clients upon meeting with an advisor for a complimentary consultation. Consumers who accept the offer and meet with an advisor will have their information shared with the airline company only for purposes of ensuring that the consumers receive the miles in their frequent flyer accounts.
In an effort to ensure that you get the most out of your visits to our website, we may use your personal information in combination with other information we have about you as an Ameriprise Financial client and information provided to us by third parties to present you with customized and relevant information and offers. For example, we may send offers pertinent to your home ownership that may help you protect your assets.
To better meet your overall financial needs, we may also share your information with our affiliates that we believe can offer complementary services or products to our clients or that we believe may be of particular interest to Ameriprise Financial clients.
Tracking activity on our website
In order to make your visit to our website as productive as possible, we track activity on our website. However, we want you to know that the tracking technology we use does not identify any personal information about you. It cannot retrieve data from your hard drive, pass on computer viruses, or capture any personal information about you, such as your name, address, phone number, or email address. We only know who you are if you tell us. You may, however, be asked to provide personal information such as name, address, phone number or email address to us when you register for online services or products.
- Cookies: One way we track activity is by using cookies. A "cookie" is an electronic file that holds small strings of text. When you visit our website, we send a cookie to your browser so that we can recognize it when you or another user of your computer return to our website. We want to recognize your browser so we can make the best use of your time when visiting our website. For example, when you visit our website, we present an introductory page to all new users. The fact that you have already visited the introductory page is recorded in a cookie so you won't see the introductory page again. For your security, if you are registered for online services and/or have an account with Ameriprise Financial, we can not give you access to your account information on our website unless your browser is set to accept cookies from us.
- Advertising: When you visit our website by clicking on certain banner
ads or special offers on our partners' website, we track this information to improve navigation
and deliver relevant information when you arrive at our website. We also do this because
we want to determine if our ads and special offers are appealing to our users.
In the course of serving our ads to you, a unique third-party cookie may be placed or recognized on your browser. In addition, we use web beacons, provided by our third-party ad server, to help manage and optimize our online advertising. These web beacons enable us to learn which ads we place on third-party sites bring users to our website. They do not capture or convey any personal or sensitive information about you. We also place web tags on certain pages of our website. These tags enable selected companies with which we have strategic alliances to determine if you initiate action on a joint offer. This allows the other company to avoid serving you ads for the same offer on subsequent visits to their website. - Browser settings: You can adjust many browser preferences so that you are alerted when a cookie is placed in your browser, or adjust preferences to decline cookies altogether. Recognize that cookies enable you to visit our website without reviewing introductory information. In addition to allowing us to recognize you, cookies also enable us to securely provide our registered users with account information.
How we use your email address
We recognize that email can be the preferred mode of communication for some of our website users. If you provide us with your email address when registering for an online service or product or when accessing your account online, we will use it to contact you about online services and products for which you have registered or about your account.
We may use your email address to send you the following types of email messages:
- Service notifications related to your accounts(s)
- Regularly scheduled email newsletters related to Ameriprise Financial
- Products or services you are enrolled in
- Requests for names and contact information of individuals you think could benefit from our products or services
- Optional email communications which you have signed up for (e.g., newsletters on a selected financial topic)
- Occasional updates about our products and services as well as Ameriprise Financial marketing offers
- Valuable offers from non-affiliated companies that we send you on their behalf
Also, once you have requested information from us, we may communicate with you via email regarding your request to provide additional information related to your initial information request. For example, we may send you materials to help you prepare for an upcoming meeting with an Ameriprise financial advisor. However, we will never ask you to send personal information such as account or Social Security numbers by non-secure email.
To make our email offers more relevant to you, we may use information you provided in your initial transaction with us, in surveys, from information we have about you as an Ameriprise Financial client and information available from external sources such as Census Bureau data.
You can opt out of receiving marketing email from Ameriprise Financial at any time
Keep in mind that you may continue to receive newsletters pertaining to Ameriprise Financial products and services that you are enrolled in automatically when you register for those products or services. In those cases, you must reply to and decline the newsletters individually.
Email communications sent to you by Ameriprise Financial or its service providers may contain web beacons. The web beacons allow Ameriprise Financial to know which email are opened and acted upon so we can provide more relevant content or offers in the future.
We do not share your email address with non-affiliated companies for them to market their products or services directly to you. However, we may partner with selected non-affiliated companies to offer certain products or services we believe may be of interest to you.
You may receive email offers from other companies for Ameriprise Financial products and services
if you registered to receive offers on their website, or if you receive ongoing email newsletters
from the other companies that include third-
party ads. If you have recently opted out of receiving email offers from Ameriprise Financial,
we will process and honor your request as soon as administratively possible. In certain circumstances,
you may receive email offers for Ameriprise Financial products and services from other companies
during the time period when we are processing your opt-out request.
To opt-out of receiving offers or email newsletters from other companies, follow the instructions provided by those companies.
Ads that link to our website
Ameriprise Financial may use third parties to place banner ads on other websites and will perform tracking and reporting activities through use of ad servers. We do not provide ad servers with your personal information and ad servers do not collect your personal information.
Ad servers are subject to their own privacy policies. If you would like more information about the privacy policies of these ad servers, including information on how to opt-out of their tracking methods, please visit the Network Advertising Initiative website.
Websites that we link to
Internet sites that you link to from the Ameriprise Financial site or an Ameriprise Financial email may contain privacy provisions that differ from the provisions of our Privacy Statement. To ensure your privacy is protected, we recommend that you review the privacy statements of other Internet sites your visit.