Last Modified February 1, 2001

Our Commitment to Privacy

Your privacy is important to us.  To better protect your privacy we are providing this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used.

How We Collect and Use Information

First, we passively collect information that is automatically sent to us by your web browser.  This information typically includes your domain name (the site after the @ in your e-mail address).  It may also contain your user name (the name before the @ in your e-mail address).  The amount of information sent depends on the settings you have on your web browser.  Please refer to your browser if you want to learn what information it sends.  We do not actively seek to identify any individual visitor by this passive collection, with the exception of investigating security breaches or cooperating with authorities pursuant to a legal matter.

We use the information we automatically receive from your web browser to see which pages you visit within our site, which site you visited before coming to ours, and where you go after you leave.  We use this and other non-identifying and aggregate information to better design our Site.

Second, if you enter into a transaction on our Site, we will collect information needed to complete the transaction, including your name and product selections.  We use the information you provide about yourself when placing an order only to complete that order.  We do not share this information with outside parties (those not affiliated with Hercules) except to the extent necessary to complete that order.  We do not save any credit or other payment information longer than is necessary to comply with the law and auditing requirements.

Hercules may use any of the information gathered at www.herc.comand related sites (other than credit information) for any legal purpose.  For example, we may use this information for direct marketing (but only by Hercules or one of its affiliates).  We may analyze it for historical, statistical, or scientific purposes, or we may store it for your convenience should you return to these pages in the future.  In the course of any of these activities, we may transmit it to another country and/or share it with third parties (but we will not share it with third parties for the direct marketing purposes of anyone except Hercules and its affiliates).  We may also use it to investigate security breaches or cooperate with authorities pursuant to a legal matter.

If you e-mail us, you are voluntarily releasing information to us.  We use return e-mail addresses to answer the e-mail we receive.  Such addresses are not used for any other purpose and are not shared with non-Hercules parties.  In addition, we may have collected similar information from you in the past.  By entering this Site you are consenting to the terms of our information privacy policy and to our continued use of previously collected information.

For your convenience, this page may contain certain hyperlinks to other Hercules pages as well as to other web sites.  We can make no promises or guarantees regarding data collection on the hyperlinked pages and sites that are not owned by Hercules.  We therefore recommend that you read the privacy policy/statement for each site you visit.

Our Commitment to Data Security

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place commercially reasonable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

How to Contact Us

Should you have other questions or concerns about these Privacy Policies, or should you wish to request access to the information Hercules has collected about you at this web site, please contact us at ventures@herc.com.