SECURITY411

Brokerage World Wide Web Policy

Posted by PRO Thu, 30 Nov 2006 13:46:00 GMT

• the creation or transmission (other than for properly supervised and lawful research purposes) of any offensive, obscene or indecent images, data or other material, or any data capable of being resolved into obscene or indecent images or material. Internet users are prohibited from transmitting or downloading material that is obscene, pornographic, threatening, or racially or sexually harassing.
• the creation or transmission of material which is designed or likely to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;
• the creation or transmission of defamatory material;
• the transmission of material that infringes on copyright;
• other illegal acts.

Term

Definition

Instant Messaging (IM)

IM is a tool like e-mail that allows a form of text-based communication from one person or persons to another.  It operates on a real-time basis, meaning that as long as the required parties are connected to an IM server, each party is able to see the connection status of the other and communicate with them almost instantly.  Like a phone conversation, IM allows users to “chat” back and forth in real-time.

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Brokerage Website Terms of Use

Posted by PRO Thu, 30 Nov 2006 02:20:00 GMT

THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED BY THE PINELLAS REALTOR® ORGANIZATION AS A SAMPLE TOOL AND IS NOT INTENDED TO BE AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE, OR A SUBSTITUTE FOR SPECIFIC LEGAL ADVICE OR OPINIONS. THE USER OF THIS SAMPLE DOCUMENT SHOULD NOT ACT OR REFRAIN FROM ACTING, OR USE THIS DOCUMENT WITHOUT CONSULTING LEGAL COUNSEL. THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD BE MODIFIED TO ADDRESS THE SPECIFIC LEGAL AND BUSINESS NEEDS OF THE USER AND THEIR WEBSITE.

VISITORS’ TERMS OF USE

ABC Realty, Inc (“ABC”)

Terms of Use (“Agreement”)

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS RELATING TO YOUR ACCESS AND USE OF WWW.ABC.COM (“Site”) CAREFULLY.

1. Acceptance of Terms of Use.
By using this Site, you agree to be bound to these Terms of Use. ABC , its subsidiaries, members, business affiliates and suppliers (“we” “us” or “our”) make the information and services provided on this Site available to you, conditioned on your acceptance without modification of these terms, conditions and notices. We reserve the right to modify them at any time. You should check these Terms of Use periodically for changes. By using this Site after we post any changes to these Terms of Use you agree to accept those changes, whether or not you have reviewed them. If you choose not to accept these Terms of Use at any time, please do not use this Site.

2. Scope of Terms of Use.
These Terms of Use apply to your use of this Site owned and operated by ABC. These Terms of Use do not apply to your use of unaffiliated web sites to which our Site merely links.

3. Links.
These Terms of Use apply only to our Site and not to the web sites of any other companies, organizations or individuals including those to which our Site may link. We are not responsible for the availability of any other web site to which our Site links. We do not take responsibility for the contents, advertising, products or other materials made available through other any web site nor do we endorse the web sites. Under no circumstances will we be held responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any loss or damage that is caused or alleged to have been caused to you in connection with your use or reliance on any content, goods or services available on any other web site. Please direct your concerns to that web site’s webmaster or appropriate contact.

4. Proprietary Rights and Restrictions on Use:
Unless otherwise noted, all right, title and interest in all information including, but not limited to, screens, texts, user names, passwords, Web pages, or other materials (collectively “Content”) appearing in and on this Site are the exclusive property of ABC. All Content on this Site, including, but not limited to images, illustrations, audio clips, and video clips, is protected by copyrights, trademarks or service marks and other intellectual property rights which are owned and controlled by ABC or by third party Content providers, (collectively "Providers") that have licensed their Content or the right to market their products and/or services to ABC. Content on this Site or content controlled by the Providers is provided solely for your personal, non-commercial use. Such Content shall not be framed, copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted, distributed, scraped, spidered and/or exploited in any way, including by e-mail or other electronic means for commercial use without proper license agreements with ABC. Such use of the Content is considered theft by ABC and will be prosecuted. You agree to comply with any additional use restrictions which may be announced by ABC at any time regarding specific information provided through this Site.

5. Copyright Ownership.
All Content, information, products, services, and software contained on or used in this Site is copyrighted, and all right, title and interest in this Site created by ABC and in the ownership of the copyright therein, shall at all times remain vested in ABC, unless otherwise noted. ABC shall have the right to license such compilations or portions thereof and any Content contained therein to any entity pursuant to the terms agreed upon by the ABC Board of Directors.

6. Personal Use Limitation.
You may access the ABC Site and the information provided here, including the ability to bookmark properties listed for sale, but only for personal, non-commercial use. You may not modify, publish, copy, display, transmit, reproduce, license, create derivative works from, adapt, transfer, sell or in any manner commercially exploit any and/or all information and Content obtained from this Site. This prohibition includes, but is not limited to, the practice of “screen scraping” which we consider theft of our proprietary information and those who deal with our Content in this manner may be subject to prosecution. By using this Site you warrant to ABC that you will not use this Site for any unlawful purpose or any prohibited use pursuant to these Terms of Use. Your violation of any of these prohibitions automatically terminates your right to use this Site and you are on notice that we intend to pursue our legal remedies for any violation.

7. Liability Disclaimer.
You use this Site at your own risk. Your use of the Content provided here is also used at your own risk. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, NEGLIGENCE, WILL WE OR ANY OF OUR MEMBERS, AFFILIATES, SUBSCRIBERS, OR SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL OR CIRCUMSTANTIAL DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM THE USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THIS SITE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, RELIANCE BY YOU ON ANY INFORMATION OR CONTENT OBTAINED THROUGH USE OF THIS SITE OR THAT RESULT FROM MISTAKES, OMISSIONS, DELETIONS OR DELAYS IN TRANSMISSION OF SUCH INFORMATION OR CONTENT, INTERRUPTIONS IN TELECOMMUNICATION OR INTERNET CONNECTION TO THIS SITE, VIRUSES OR FAILURES OF PERFORMANCE, WHETHER CAUSED IN WHOLE OR PART BY NEGLIGENCE, ACTS OF GOD, TELECOMMUNICATION OR INTERNET FAILURE, THEFT OR DESTRUCTION OF, OR UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO THIS SITE OR RELATED INFORMATION, RECORDS OR PROGRAMS.

8. Warranty Disclaimer.
You expressly understand and agree that this Site and the information and Content available through this Site is provided on an “as is” “as available” basis. ABC does not warrant that this Site will be uninterrupted or error-free, and ABC makes no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness, authenticity, or reliability of any information or Content available through the Site. ABC expressly disclaims any and all warranties of any kind with respect to the Site and the information or Content available through the Site, including but not limited to any implied warranties of expectation of privacy, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This Site and the information or Content available through this Site are always subject to change.

9. No Personal Advice.
The information and Content contained in or made available by this Site does not and is not intended to convey any form of personal advice to you regarding the sale or purchase of real property or of any other matter. The information here cannot replace or substitute for the professional advice of a licensed Realtor® or real estate professional to answer any questions and help you understand and use the information available through this Site.

10. Changes to the Site.
ABC may make changes or improvements to the Content, information, services, products or other materials on this Site at any time without notice.

11. Privacy Policy.
We are committed to protecting your privacy and security and have explained in detail what we do. We urge you to read our Privacy Policy.

12. Jurisdictional Issues.
We operate and control our Site from our offices in Houston, Texas in the United States of America. We do not represent that materials on this Site are appropriate or available for use in other locations. Persons who access this Site from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable.

13. Miscellaneous.
These Terms of Use will be governed by laws of the State of Florida without regard to principles of conflicts of laws. You agree that any action at law or in equity that arises out of or relates to these Terms of Use will be subject to binding arbitration in accordance with the American Arbitration Association and will be arbitrated in Pinellas County, Florida.

If any of these Terms of Use are found to be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, that provision will be considered severed from the remaining provisions and will not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions.

This is the entire Agreement between you and us relating to the subject matter it contains.

Any failure by ABC or ABC to assert any rights it may have under this agreement does not constitute a waiver of our right to assert the same or any other right at any other time or against any other person or entity.

This Agreement may be modified only by our posting of changes to these Terms of Use. Any inquiries regarding these terms and conditions of use should be directed to privacy@ABC.com.

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Brokerage Website Privacy Policy

Posted by PRO Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:49:00 GMT

THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED BY THE PINELLAS REALTOR® ORGANIZATION AS A SAMPLE TOOL AND IS NOT INTENDED TO BE AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE, OR A SUBSTITUTE FOR SPECIFIC LEGAL ADVICE OR OPINIONS. THE USER OF THIS SAMPLE DOCUMENT SHOULD NOT ACT OR REFRAIN FROM ACTING, OR USE THIS DOCUMENT WITHOUT CONSULTING LEGAL COUNSEL. THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD BE MODIFIED TO ADDRESS THE SPECIFIC LEGAL AND BUSINESS NEEDS OF THE USER AND THEIR WEBSITE.


VISITORS’ PRIVACY POLICY

Effective On: 10/1/06

We at the ABC Realty ® (hereafter referred to as "ABC") and Pinellas REALTOR® Organization, Inc. (hereafter referred to as "PRO") are committed to the protection and security of the information provided by the visitors to ABC.com. Your privacy and trust are important to us and we want to honor that trust by advising you of what we do to manage your information. This document was written just for that purpose.

ABC Realty ® is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to enable individuals and organizations to establish trusting relationships based on respect for personal identity and information by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy policy covers the site www.ABC.com. Because this Web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to our users’ privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.

Our site was created to provide our visitors with information about Houston REALTOR® members, affiliates and service providers together with general information about Houston and its environs. Most importantly, one of our missions with this site is to afford our REALTOR® members with the opportunity to connect with you, the homeselling, homebuying public that enjoy an online investigative method of research and might not otherwise have an opportunity to find a REALTOR®.

WHAT INFORMATION WE COLLECT:
Generally speaking, our Web site is informational. We do not collect any personally identifiable information from the visitors to this site unless they voluntarily provide it, for example, by registering for MyHomeFinder. If a visitor signs up for MyHomeFinder, we collect your email address and your first name and last name which is optional , so that we can provide you the service. Disclosure of your email address, and any other volunteered information, to a listing organization is entirely optional and is a service available for visitors who wish to receive information from a listing firm. We have given the visitor the opportunity to "opt out" of email contact from a REALTOR®.

If you are a first time visitor to ABC.com and wish to register for MyHomeFinder, you make this "Opt Out" decision when you register for MyHomeFinder. If you are already registered for MyHomeFinder, you make the choice where you enter your login and password. You may change your decision on the Account Settings page or edit your Saved Searches or Bookmarked properties.

We collect credit card billing information, credit card number and expiration during online financial transactions. By giving ABC this financial information you are authorizing ABC to give that information to the merchant, bank and credit card company in order to confirm and fulfill your order or payment. We may use your billing information to contact you when necessary to fulfill your order.

As is the case when you visit most Web sites, to administer our site, your visit triggers the automatic logging of certain anonymous information about your computer system such as the type of browser you use, the server name and your IP (Internet Protocol) address. When a web browser or email application requests a web page or email from another computer on the Internet, it automatically gives that computer the address where it should send the information. This is called the computer’s "IP address." This "address" does not contain any personally identifiable information.

HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION:
We will not sell, rent, or exchange any data collected through the ABC.com Web site by way of MyHomeFinder except as provided in this Privacy Policy. If you have chosen to receive information on bookmarked properties from listing organizations, ABC and/or PRO will provide your email address, as well as any "optional" information you provide on MyHomeFinder, to its member listing organizations in order for them to provide you with property details probably not otherwise available. Also, ABC and/or PRO may, occasionally, use your email address to contact you for updated information, surveys or promotions. If you wish not to receive updates, surveys and/or promotions from ABC and/or PRO pertaining to our services you may contact us by e-mail at: privacy@ABC.com and we will be pleased honor your request. If you wish not to receive further emails from listing organizations after registering for MyHomeFinder, you must personally contact that listing organization and convey that information to them.

ABC and/or PRO may disclose, transfer, sell or assign information obtained through this Web site, or otherwise in its possession, to third parties as a result of a sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, reorganization or liquidation of ABC and/or PRO. You will be notified via email or prominent notice on our Web site for 30 days of any such change in ownership or control of your personal information.

ABC and/or PRO may also make information available to law enforcement personnel and agencies when requested to do so or as required by law.

YOU HAVE CHOICES:
ABC and PRO offer you the opportunity to correct, update and amend information in MyHomeFinder at any time. Simply access your Account Settings page and change or update the information there. If you have any concerns, please feel free to notify us by e-mail or phone and we will make every effort to correct, update or amend your information. You may contact us by e-mail at privacy@ABC.com, or by phone at 727 (insert phone number here), and we will help you in any way possible.

COOKIE TECHNOLOGY:
Cookie technology is employed on the ABC.com Web site. The purpose of the use of cookies is to better serve our visitors. Cookies do not contain any personal information of the person visiting our website. In case you did not know, "Cookies" are small text files sent by Web servers to be stored on the hard drive of Web site visitors. These files often contain personalization settings or unique identifiers to allow for successful log in to the password-protected part of our Web site, to keep track of your information and help us understand the movements of visitors within and between Web sites. Our advertisers and information links may use their own cookies, so please refer to their Privacy Statements or Policies.

DATA SECURITY:
We also want you, our visitors, to know that we take the security of your information very seriously. We use industry accepted tools and procedures that protect the files in our data system. However, due to the open communication nature of the Internet we cannot guarantee that communication between you and us and us and you will be free from unauthorized access by third parties nor can we be responsible for information stolen from our servers by information harvesting software which may have the ability to scrape data.

BUSINESS & PRIVACY ISSUES WITH LINKS TO OTHER SITES:
Neither ABC nor PRO are responsible for the availability of or the business and privacy practices of other Web sites which are linked to, or which are linked from, or connected to ABC.com. We provide these links to our visitors for information and service. We do not take responsibility for the contents, advertising, products or other materials made available through any other Web site nor for their data collection practices. We refer you to their Privacy Statements and Policies to learn how they collect and use information about you.

Occasionally, when linking to another site you may still see our site’s logo or frame. This is to provide you with a seamless experience when visiting our Web site. In these cases you are no longer on ABC.com and are now on a different Web site whose information collection practices may differ from ours. The privacy policy of the site you are on will govern how information that is collected from you is used. On these pages you will see our site address in the location bar of your browser and we will take steps to notify you when you leave our site and go to a third party Web site.

PRIVACY POLICY CHANGES:
ABC and PRO reserve the right to change or amend its Visitors’ Privacy Policy to address new issues of privacy and information security and to reflect changes to our Web site or business practices. Any new changes and/or amendments will be noted on our Home Page and will always be posted in this section of the ABC Web site.

QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR PRIVACY AND INFORMATION SECURITY PRACTICES:
Your visit to this site is subject to both this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use Statement, including limitations on damages, arbitration and application of the law of the State of Florida.

If you have any questions about our privacy or security practices or procedures, please feel free to contact us at: privacy@ABC.com, or ABC Realty ®, (insert address here), or by phone at 727 (insert phone number here) .

If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry is not satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact TRUSTe through the TRUSTe Watchdog Dispute Resolution Process at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php . TRUSTe will serve as a liaison with the Web site to resolve users concerns.

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Acceptable Use Policy

Posted by PRO Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:34:00 GMT

THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED BY THE PINELLAS REALTOR® ORGANIZATION AS A SAMPLE TOOL FOR ITS MEMBER BROKERAGES AND IS NOT INTENDED TO BE AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE, OR A SUBSTITUTE FOR SPECIFIC LEGAL ADVICE OR OPINIONS. THE USER OF THIS SAMPLE DOCUMENT SHOULD NOT ACT OR REFRAIN FROM ACTING, OR USE THIS DOCUMENT WITHOUT CONSULTING LEGAL COUNSEL. THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD BE MODIFIED TO ADDRESS THE SPECIFIC LEGAL NEEDS OF THE USER.

Acceptable Use Policy

1.0 Overview
ABC REALTY’s intentions for publishing an Acceptable Use Policy are not to impose restrictions that are contrary to ABC REALTY’S established culture of openness, trust and integrity. ABC REALTY is committed to protecting ABC REALTY employees, partners and the company from illegal or damaging actions by individuals, either knowingly or unknowingly.

Internet/Intranet/Extranet-related systems, including but not limited to computer equipment, software, operating systems, storage media, network accounts providing electronic mail, WWW browsing, and FTP, are the property of ABC REALTY. These systems are to be used for business purposes in serving the interests of the company, and of our clients and customers in the course of normal operations.

Effective security is a team effort involving the participation and support of every ABC REALTY employee and affiliate who deals with information and/or information systems. It is the responsibility of every computer user to know these guidelines, and to conduct their activities accordingly.

2.0 Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to outline the acceptable use of computer equipment at ABC REALTY. These rules are in place to protect the employee and ABC REALTY. Inappropriate use exposes ABC REALTY to risks including virus attacks, compromise of network systems and services, and legal issues.

3.0 Scope
This policy applies to employees, contractors, consultants, temporaries, and other workers at ABC REALTY, including all personnel affiliated with third parties. This policy applies to all equipment that is owned or leased by ABC REALTY.

4.0 Policy
4.1 General Use and Ownership
While ABC REALTY network administration desires to provide a reasonable level of privacy, users should be aware that the data they create on the corporate systems remains the property of ABC REALTY. Because of the need to protect the ABC REALTY network, management cannot guarantee the confidentiality of information stored on any network device belonging to ABC REALTY.

Employees are responsible for exercising good judgment regarding the reasonableness of personal use. If there is any uncertainty, employees should consult their supervisor or manager.

For security and network maintenance purposes, authorized individuals within ABC REALTY may monitor equipment, systems and network traffic at any time.

ABC REALTY reserves the right to audit networks and systems on a periodic basis to ensure compliance with this policy.

4.2 Security and Proprietary Information
The user interface for information contained on ABC REALTY systems should be classified as either confidential or not confidential, as defined by corporate confidentiality guidelines, details of which can be found in the Employee Policies and Procedures Handbook. Examples of confidential information include but are not limited to: company private, corporate strategies, competitor sensitive, trade secrets, specifications, customer/member/subscriber lists, and research data. Employees should take all necessary steps to prevent unauthorized access to this information.

Keep passwords secure and do not share accounts. Authorized users are responsible for the security of their passwords and accounts. System level passwords should be changed quarterly, user level passwords should be changed at least every six months.

All PCs, laptops and workstations should be secured with a password-protected screensaver with the automatic activation feature set at 10 minutes or less, or by logging-off (control-alt-delete for Windows 2000 users, windows-L for Windows XP users) when the computer will be unattended.

Because information contained on portable computers is especially vulnerable, special care should be exercised, such as keeping laptops and other portable equipment cabled when not attended.

Postings by employees from a ABC REALTY email address to newsgroups should contain a disclaimer stating that the opinions expressed are strictly their own and not necessarily those of ABC REALTY, unless posting is in the course of business duties.

All hosts used by the employee that are connected to the ABC REALTY Internet/Intranet/Extranet, whether owned by the employee or ABC REALTY, shall be continually executing approved virus-scanning software with a current virus database. Unless overridden by departmental or group policy.

Employees must use extreme caution when opening e-mail attachments received from unknown senders, which may contain viruses, e-mail bombs, or Trojan horse code.

4.3. Unacceptable Use
The following activities are, in general, prohibited. Employees may be exempted from these restrictions during the course of their legitimate job responsibilities (e.g., systems administration staff may have a need to disable the network access of a host if that host is disrupting production services).

Under no circumstances is an employee of ABC REALTY authorized to engage in any activity that is illegal under local, state, federal or international law while utilizing ABC REALTY-owned resources.

The lists below are by no means exhaustive, but attempt to provide a framework for activities which fall into the category of unacceptable use.

System and Network Activities

The following activities are strictly prohibited, with no exceptions:

• Violations of the rights of any person or company protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual property, or similar laws or regulations, including, but not limited to, the installation or distribution of "pirated" or other software products that are not appropriately licensed for use by ABC REALTY.
• Unauthorized copying of copyrighted material including, but not limited to, digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books or other copyrighted sources, copyrighted music, and the installation of any copyrighted software for which ABC REALTY or the end user does not have an active license is strictly prohibited.
• Exporting software, technical information, encryption software or technology, in violation of international or regional export control laws, is illegal. The appropriate management should be consulted prior to export of any material that is in question.
• Introduction of malicious programs into the network or server (e.g., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, e-mail bombs, etc.).
• Revealing your account password to others or allowing use of your account by others. This includes family and other household members when work is being done at home.
• Using an ABC REALTY computing asset to actively engage in procuring or transmitting material that is in violation of sexual harassment or hostile workplace laws in the user’s local jurisdiction.
• Making fraudulent offers of products, items, or services originating from any ABC REALTY account.
• Making statements about warranty, expressly or implied, unless it is a part of normal job duties.
• Effecting security breaches or disruptions of network communication. Security breaches include, but are not limited to, accessing data of which the employee is not an intended recipient or logging into a server or account that the employee is not expressly authorized to access, unless these duties are within the scope of regular duties. For purposes of this section, "disruption" includes, but is not limited to, network sniffing, pinged floods, packet spoofing, denial of service, and forged routing information for malicious purposes.
• Port scanning or security scanning is expressly prohibited unless prior notification to ABC REALTY management is made.
• Executing any form of network monitoring which will intercept data not intended for the employee’s host, unless this activity is a part of the employee’s normal job/duty.
• Circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network or account.
• Interfering with or denying service to any user other than the employee’s host (for example, denial of service attack). 
• Using any program/script/command, or sending messages of any kind, with the intent to interfere with, or disable, a user’s terminal session, via any means, locally or via the Internet/Intranet/Extranet.
• Providing information about, or lists of, ABC REALTY employees or members to parties outside ABC REALTY.

Email and Communications Activities

• Sending unsolicited email messages, including the sending of "junk mail" or other advertising material to individuals who did not specifically request such material (email spam).
• Any form harassment via email, telephone or paging, whether through language, frequency, or size of messages.
• Unauthorized use, or forging, of email header information.
• Solicitation of email for any other email address, other than that of the poster’s account, with the intent to harass or to collect replies.
• Creating or forwarding "chain letters", "Ponzi" or other "pyramid" schemes of any type.
• Use of unsolicited email originating from within ABC REALTY’ networks of other Internet/Intranet/Extranet service providers on behalf of, or to advertise, any service hosted by ABC REALTY or connected via ABC REALTY’ network.
• Posting the same or similar non-business-related messages to large numbers of Usenet newsgroups (newsgroup spam).

5.0 Enforcement
Any employee found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.

6.0 Definitions

Term	Definition
Spam	Unauthorized and/or unsolicited electronic mass mailings.

7.0 Revision History

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Email Policy

Posted by PRO Thu, 30 Nov 2006 00:56:00 GMT

THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED BY THE PINELLAS REALTOR ORGANIZATION® AS A SAMPLE TOOL FOR ITS MEMBER BROKERAGES AND IS NOT INTENDED TO BE AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE, OR A SUBSTITUTE FOR SPECIFIC LEGAL ADVICE OR OPINIONS.  THE USER OF THIS SAMPLE DOCUMENT SHOULD NOT ACT OR REFRAIN FROM ACTING, OR USE THIS DOCUMENT WITHOUT CONSULTING LEGAL COUNSEL.  THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD BE MODIFIED TO ADDRESS THE SPECIFIC LEGAL NEEDS OF THE USER.

Email Policy

1.0 Purpose
To prevent tarnishing the public image of ABC REALTY and to prevent email use from causing a security breach.
           
2.0 Scope
This policy covers appropriate use of any email sent from an ABC REALTY email address and applies to all employees, vendors, and agents operating on behalf of ABC REALTY.
            
3.0 Policy
3.1 Prohibited Use. The ABC REALTY email system shall not to be used for the creation or distribution of any disruptive or offensive messages, including offensive comments about race, gender, hair color, disabilities, age, sexual orientation, pornography, religious beliefs and practice, political beliefs, or national origin. Employees who receive any emails with this content from any ABC REALTY employee should report the matter to their supervisor immediately.

The following is also prohibited:

• Sending unsolicited email messages, including the sending of "junk mail" or other advertising material to individuals who did not specifically request such material (email spam).
• Creating or forwarding "chain letters", "Ponzi" or other "pyramid" schemes of any type.
• Unauthorized use, or forging, of email header information.
• Posting the same or similar non-business-related messages to large numbers of Usenet newsgroups (newsgroup spam).
• Including passwords or other sensitive information into email messages.
• Providing your email password to anyone, or allowing another person to use your email account.

EVER open any files or macros attached to an email from an unknown, suspicious or untrustworthy source. Delete these attachments immediately, then "double delete" them by emptying your Trash. If you receive, but are not expecting, an attachment from a known source you should verify that the attachment was sent from that source via email or telephone before opening the attachment. Delete spam, chain, and other junk email without forwarding.

ABC REALTY employees and contractors with remote access privileges to ABC REALTY’s corporate network must not use non-ABC REALTY email accounts (i.e., Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL), or other external resources to conduct ABC REALTY business, thereby ensuring that official business is never confused with personal business.

Employees should not post to newsgroups using an ABC REALTY email address or including information that identifies the company – unless that activity is required for job activities and has been approved by a manager. Postings by employees from a ABC REALTY email address to newsgroups should contain a disclaimer stating that the opinions expressed are strictly their own and not necessarily those of ABC REALTY, unless posting is in the course of business duties.

If sensitive information must be sent using email, such information should always be sent using organizationally approved encryption tools. The decryption key must never be sent via email.

3.2 Personal Use.
Using a reasonable amount of ABC REALTY resources for personal emails is acceptable, but non-work related email shall be saved in a separate folder from work related email.  Sending chain letters or joke emails from an ABC REALTY email account is prohibited.  Virus or other malware warnings and mass mailings from ABC REALTY shall be approved by ABC REALTY management before sending. These restrictions also apply to the forwarding of mail received by an ABC REALTY employee.

3.3 Monitoring
ABC REALTY employees shall have no expectation of privacy in anything they store, send or receive on the company’s email system. ABC REALTY may monitor messages without prior notice. ABC REALTY is not obliged to monitor email messages.

4.0 Enforcement
Any employee found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.

5.0 Definitions

Term	Definition
Email	The electronic transmission of information through a mail protocol such as SMTP or IMAP. Typical email clients include Eudora and Microsoft Outlook.
Forwarded email	Email resent from an internal network to an outside point.
Chain email or letter	Email sent to successive people.  Typically the body of the note has direction to send out multiple copies of the note and promises good luck or money if the direction is followed.
Sensitive information	Information is considered sensitive if it can be damaging to ABC REALTY or its customers’ reputation or market standing.
Virus warning	Email containing warnings about virus or malware. The overwhelming majority of these emails turn out to be a hoax and contain bogus information usually intent only on frightening or misleading users.
Unauthorized Disclosure	The intentional or unintentional revealing of restricted information to people, both inside and outside ABC REALTY, who do not have a need to know that information.

6.0 Revision History

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