In Eastern Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont
Copyright and Trademark Notice
The contents of all material available on this Internet site are copyrighted by Better Business Bureau, Inc. or the Council of Better Business Bureaus unless otherwise indicated. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of an original work prepared by a U.S. or state government officer or employee as part of that person's official duties. All rights are reserved by Better Business Bureau, Inc. & the Council of Better Business Bureaus, and content may not be reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, published, or transferred in any form or by any means, except with the prior written permission of Better Business Bureau, Inc., or as indicated below.
Members of Better Business Bureau, Inc. may download pages or other content for their own use, consistent with the mission and purpose of Better Business Bureau, Inc. (as codified in its governing documents) on a single computer. However, no part of such contentmay be otherwise or subsequently reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, published, or transferred, in any form or by any means, except with the prior written permission of, and with express attribution to Better Business Bureau, Inc. Copyright infringement is a violation of federal law subject to criminal and civil penalties. BBB or CBBB and BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU or COUNCIL OF BETTER BUSINESS BUREAUS are (registered) service marks of the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
The technical information contained herein is provided to Better Business Bureau, Inc. by Better Business Bureau, Inc. members and nonmembers. While the Better Business Bureau, Inc. makes every effort topresent accurate and reliable information on this Internet site, Better Business Bureau, Inc.does not endorse, approve, or certify such information, nor does it guarantee the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, timeliness, or correct sequencing of such information. Use of such information is voluntary, and reliance on it should only be undertaken after an independent review of its accuracy, completeness, efficacy, and timeliness. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the Better Business Bureau, Inc.
Better Business Bureau, Inc. (including its employees and agents) assumes no responsibility for consequences resulting from the use of the information herein, (or from use of the information obtained at linked Internet addresses,) or in any respect for the content of such information, including (but not limited to) errors or omissions, the accuracy or reasonableness of factual or scientific assumptions, studies or conclusions, the defamatory nature of statements, ownership of copyright or other intellectual property rights, and the violation of property, privacy, or personal rights of others. Better Business Bureau, Inc. is not responsible for, and expressly disclaims all liability for, damages of any kind arising out of use, reference to, or reliance on such information. No guarantees or warranties, including (but not limited to) any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use or purpose, are made by Better Business Bureau, Inc. with respect to such information.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is committed to maintaining your confidence and trust, and accordingly maintains the following privacy policy to protect your personal information.
BBB’s Commitment to Security
The BBB encrypts billing information wherever the BBB requests it online. Personal information is accessible only by staff and volunteers designated to handle complaints or requests. All BBB agents and contractors with access to personal information are also bound to adhere to this policy as part of their contract with BBB.
Personal Information that BBB May Collect
The BBB collects the following types of personal information: names, postal and e-mail addresses, phone and facsimile numbers, billing information, and complaint and inquiry information. The BBB may also collect business information from sole proprietorships that apply for membership or program participation, some of which might constitute personal information, as well as personal information from individuals acting solely in their business capacity.
The BBB does not collect or maintain information from those actually known to be under the age of 13, and no part of our site is structured to attract anyone under the age of 13.
How BBB May Use Personal Information Collected Online
Unless you consent, the BBB will use your personal information for the purpose for which it was submitted such as to reply to inquiries, handle your complaints and process billing and business requests related to program participation, and we will use such information to provide operational notices, and in program recordkeeping and to conduct research on industry marketplace practices. Our research may lead to the publication of aggregate demographic data but will not result in the reporting or publication of any personal information provided to us. At certain points where personal information is collected on our site, there may be a box where you may indicate you would like to be on a list to receive information about other BBB programs and services. At any time you can add or remove your name from our mailing list by contacting us at ksanders@bobsbbb.org.
How Your Information May Be Shared
In order to process complaints against businesses, the BBB will transfer complaints received to the company complained about. It is also possible that a complaint, request or inquiry will be more appropriately handled by another BBB, in which case the request or inquiry will be transferred to the proper BBB. By completing a complaint form or sending us a request or inquiry, you are allowing us to forward your information to the proper business and also to the proper BBB, if necessary. The BBB may also share your personal information with the CBBB for CBBB to research industry marketplace practices. Just as in any research we may do, CBBB research will not result in the reporting or publication of any personal information. The BBB never sells or rents personal information.
We will also release personal information under the following circumstances:
Help Us Keep Your Personal Information Accurate
If your personal information changes or you would like to review the personal information we may have on file, please email us with the new information or your review request at ksanders@bosbbb.org. Let us also know the department or BBB program that led to your submission of personal information so we may efficiently locate your information.
Computer Tracking and Cookies
Our web site is not set up to track, collect or distribute personal information not entered by its visitors. Our site logs do generate certain kinds of non-identifying site usage data, such as the number of hits and visits to our site. This information is used for internal purposes by technical support staff to provide better services to the public and may also be provided to others, but again, the statistics contain no personal information and cannot be used to gather such information.
A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. The BBB uses non-identifying cookies to provide easier site navigation and access to forms. You can still use the BBB site if your browser is set to reject cookies. Our cookies do not generate personal data, do not read personal data from your machine and are never tied to anything that could be used to identify you.
Problems
If you have a complaint about the BBB’s compliance with this privacy policy, you may contact us at ksanders@bosbbb.org. If we are unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you may elect to proceed with the Privacy Policy Review Service by completing the complaint form.
At certain places on this Better Business Bureau, Inc. Internet site, live 'links' to other Internet addresses can be accessed. Such external Internet addresses contain information created, published, maintained, or otherwise posted by institutions or organizations independent of Better Business Bureau, Inc. Better Business Bureau, Inc. does not endorse, approve, certify, or control these external Internet addresses and does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, timeliness, or correct sequencing of information located at such addresses. Use of any information obtained from such addresses is voluntary, and reliance on it should only be undertaken after an independent review of its accuracy, completeness, efficacy, and timeliness. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by Better Business Bureau, Inc.
Details of the Translation Process
The BBB website is translated through "machine translation" which means that it is translated dynamically (on-the-fly) through a third party service Systran (http://w4.systranlinks.com/).
Benefits:
This method allows for translation of the entire website which would otherwise
be impossible due to limited resources. It does not, however, allow for the
translation of PDF files. Updates to content are processed when posted rather
than delayed awaiting a human translation. Translations are handled uniformly --
rather than allowing for human interpretation -- one translator's choice may not
be the same as another's. Many different dialects exist and a perfect
translation is almost impossible -- this allows us to begin at the same point
and improve as we can. We do have the ability to create supplemental
dictionaries -- such as proper names, job titles. These dictionaries are
applied in addition to the ones used by the translation site. The software can
also be told when a word or phrase should NOT be translated -- leaving it as
English if that is the most appropriate solution.
Issues:
Machine translation is not perfect and may create some poor translations (which
can be corrected). We are limited in what we can affect on the entire site -- we
can enter individual words or phrases -- but not entire paragraphs or pages. We
can decide to translate an entire page and simply have the software ignore a
page as well if necessary -- but this would require human translation and
review.
The Better Business Bureau, Inc. is committed to our core values of excellence, integrity, teamwork, trust and respect. Each of these values reflects in our approach to diversity. We recognize that differences, including the visible dimensions of diversity such as ethnicity, gender, age, disability and national origin, as well as influences such as religion, sexual orientation and social economic factors, enrich and add value to our workplace.
As a Bureau we must strive to: