Last Revised:  April 27, 2018

OptionStack, Inc. (“OptionStack”, “we” or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy. We have prepared this Privacy Policy to describe to you our practices regarding the Personal Information (as defined below) we collect from users of our websites, located at optionstack.com / optionstack.net, (“Site”) and related Services (as defined in the Terms of Use).

If you simply browse the Site, you are referred to in this Privacy Policy as a “Visitor”. If you have registered with the Site and receive Services, you are referred to in this Privacy Policy as a “Member”.

1. User Consent

By submitting Personal Information through our Site or Services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and you expressly consent to the collection, use and disclosure of the Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

2. A Note to Users Outside of the United States.

If you are a non U.S. user of the Site or Services, by visiting the Site and/or providing us with information, you acknowledge and agree that your Personal Information may be processed for the purposes identified in the Privacy Policy. In addition, your Personal Information may be processed in the country in which it was collected and in other countries, including the United States, where laws regarding processing of Personal Information may be less stringent than the laws in your country. By providing your information, you consent to such transfer.

3. Children

Our Services and Site are not directed to children and children are not eligible to use our Services. Protecting the privacy of children is very important to us. We do not collect or maintain Personal Information from people we actually know are under 13 years of age, and no part of our Site or Services is designed to attract people under 13 years of age. If we later learn that a user is under 13 years of age, we will take steps to remove that user’s Personal Information from our databases and to prevent the user from utilizing the Site and the Services.

4. Types of Information We Collect.

So that we are clear about the terminology we are using, when we refer to “Personal Information” we mean information that allows someone to identify or contact you, including, for example, your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, as well as any other non-public information about you that is associated with or linked to any of the foregoing information. When we refer to “Anonymous Information” we mean information that is not associated with or linked to your Personal Information. Anonymous Information does not enable identification of or contact with individual persons.

Visitors and Members

  • If you provide us feedback or contact us via e-mail, we will collect your name and e-mail address, as well as any other content included in the e-mail, in order to send you a reply.
  • When you participate in one of our surveys, we may collect additional information.
  • We may also collect Personal Information on the Site or through the Services when we make clear that are we are collecting it and you voluntarily provide it, for example when you submit an application for employment.

Members Only

  • We may collect Personal Information from you, such as your first and last name, physical mailing address, phone, e-mail address, age, credit card number, ethnicity, gender, marital status, education level, interests, hobbies and password when you create an account on the Site (“Account”).
  • In order to receive certain Services, you may provide a credit card number or other payment card information. OptionStack uses Stripe, Inc. to process orders for such services that are made through the Site. Therefore, such information will also be governed by Stripe, Inc.’s privacy policy, which can be viewed at https://stripe.com/us/privacy.
  • In order to provide our Services, you may also provide us with Content (as defined in the Terms of Use).  We retain information on your behalf, such as files and messages that you store using your Account and/or when you create a profile (your “Profile”).

Information Collected via Technology

  • To make our Site and Services more useful to you, our servers (which may be hosted by a third party service provider) collect information from you, including your browser type, operating system, Internet Protocol (IP) address (a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet, which may vary from session to session), and domain name.
  • We also use cookies and URL information to gather information regarding the date and time of your visit, the website URL you were visiting immediately before you came to our Site and the website URL you visit as you leave our Site and the information for which you searched and which you viewed. “Cookies” are small pieces of information that a website sends to your computer’s web browser while you are viewing a website. We may use both session Cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent Cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them) to provide you with a more personal and interactive experience on our Site. Persistent Cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions; please note that certain aspects of the Site or Services may not be available if the Persistent Cookies are removed.
  • We may use third party service providers to help us analyze certain online activities. For example, these service providers may help us analyze visitor activity on the Site. We may permit these service providers to use cookies and other technologies to perform these services for us.
  • If you are logged into the Site or Services, the information collected via technology as described in this Section may be associated with your Personal Information and will, accordingly, be treated as Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
  • We collect and store performance data generated by your algorithms when you use the platform to backtest, paper trade, and live trade.
  • We may generate additional performance data from your algorithms for the purposes of (a) verifying that software platform changes do not change or break your algorithm and/or (b) analyzing standardized performance results.

5. Our Relationship with Social Networking Sites

We have created and may offer you interfaces that allow you to connect with social networking websites such as Facebook (“SN Site”) through our Site. We will work with the SN Site’s application protocol interface (better known as their developer API) in a way that allows you to authorize us to access your account on that SN Site on your behalf. In order to provide this authorization, you will not provide us with your user name or password to the SN Site, but you will need to log-in to that SN Site directly through our Site. Once authorized by you, the SN Site will provide us a token that allows the SN Site to recognize us when we ask, on your behalf, for access to your account information or to post information. You will be able to revoke our access to any SN Site at any time by amending the appropriate settings from within your account settings on the applicable SN Site, though such revocation may limit the Services we are able to provide you.

6. Use of Personal Information

Your Personal Information. In general, Personal Information you submit to us regarding you or your company is used either to respond to requests that you make, or to aid us in serving you better. We use such Personal Information in the following ways:

  • to publish such Personal Information to Visitors and other Members of the Site and Services, but only when you make such Personal Information available in public areas of the Site and Services
  • to facilitate communication with other Members of the Site and Services that you designate to receive your Personal Information when you communicate with them through the Site and Services
  • to facilitate the creation of and secure your Account on our network;
  • to identify you as a user in our system;
  • to provide improved administration of our Site and Services;
  • to provide the Services you request;
  • to improve the quality of experience when you interact with our Site and Services;
  • to send you a welcome e-mail to verify ownership of the e-mail address provided when your Account was created;
  • to send you administrative e-mail notifications, such as security or support and maintenance advisories;
  • to respond to your inquiries related to employment opportunities or other requests;
  • to make telephone calls to you, from time to time, as a part of secondary fraud protection or to solicit your feedback;
  • to suggest contacting (or friending) other Members of the Site that you may know;
  • to send newsletters, surveys, offers, and other promotional materials related to our Services and for other marketing purposes;
  • to contact you regarding opportunities to compensate you for your algorithm’s performance;
  • to share anonymized and/or aggregated algorithm performance statistics with third parties, for example potential investors or for marketing purposes;
  • if you have opted in, to share with other organizations to help them contact you for marketing purposes;
  • to share with our affiliates as permitted by applicable law; and to market products, services and events to you that we believe may be of interest, both on and off the Site.

Creation of Anonymous Information. We may create Anonymous Information records from Personal Information by excluding information (such as the name) that makes the information personally identifiable to the data subject. We use this Anonymous Information to analyze request and usage patterns so that we may enhance the content of our Services and improve Site navigation. OptionStack reserves the right to use Anonymous Information for any purpose and disclose Anonymous Information to third parties at its sole discretion.

7. Disclosure of Your Personal Information.

We disclose your Personal Information as described below and as described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy.

  • Visitors and Members of the Site.  As noted above in the How We Use Your Personal Information Section, we publish your Personal Information on the Site and Services on public areas of the Site and Services and facilitate communication with other Members of the Site as you direct us through the Services.
  • Profile.  Members have the opportunity to create a Profile on the Site and Services. Basic Profiles are available to all Visitors. Advanced profile features may permit the ability to make your advanced Profile available to all Visitors, to only Members or keep your Profile so it is not displayed to Visitors or Members.
  • Third Party Service Providers.  We may share your Personal Information with third party service providers to: provide you with the Services that we offer you through our Site; conduct quality assurance testing; facilitate creation of Accounts; process any payments; provide technical support; and/or provide other services to the OptionStack. These third party service providers are required not to use your Personal Information other than to provide the services requested by OptionStack. We may disclose certain Personal Information to third parties to whom you ask us to send Personal Information, including to other Members or Visitors with whom you are collaborating.
  • Third Party Brokers.  In addition, some of our Services may enable you to use third party APIs to make securities trades. If you choose to do this, we will provide information to such APIs in accordance with your elections. You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for your use of those websites and that it is your responsibility to review the terms of use and privacy policy of the third party provider of such APIs. We will not be responsible or liable for: (i) the availability or accuracy of such APIs; (ii) the content, products or services on or availability of such APIs; or (iii) your use of any such APIs.
  • Affiliates and Acquisitions.  We may share some or all of your Personal Information with our subsidiaries, joint ventures, or other companies under a common control (“Affiliates”), in which case we will require our Affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy. If another company acquires our company, business, or our assets (including in connection with a bankruptcy proceeding), that company will possess the Personal Information collected by us and will assume the rights and obligations regarding the Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy. We may share some or all of your Personal Information in connection with or during negotiation of any merger, financing, acquisition or dissolution, transaction or proceeding involving sale, transfer, divestiture, or disclosure of all or a portion of our business or assets.
  • Other Disclosures.  Regardless of any choices you make regarding your Personal Information (as described below), OptionStack may disclose Personal Information if it believes in good faith that such disclosure is necessary (i) in connection with any legal investigation; (ii) to comply with relevant laws or to respond to subpoenas or warrants served on OptionStack; (iii) to protect or defend the rights or property of OptionStack or users of the Services; and/or (iv) to investigate or assist in preventing any violation or potential violation of the law, this Privacy Policy, or Terms of Use.

8. Third Party Websites.

When you click on a link to any other website or location, you will leave our Site and go to another site and another entity may collect Personal Information or Anonymous Information from you. We have no control over, do not review, and cannot be responsible for, these outside websites or their content. Please be aware that the terms of this Privacy Policy do not apply to these outside websites or content, or to any collection of information after you click on links to such outside websites.

9. Control of Your Personal Information

  • Choice. We will periodically send you free newsletters and e-mails that directly promote the use of our Site or Services. When you receive newsletters or promotional communications from us, you may indicate a preference to stop receiving further communications from us and you will have the opportunity to “opt-out” by following the unsubscribe instructions: (i) provided in the e-mail you receive, (ii) on the Site or (iii) by contacting us directly (please see contact information below). Even if you opt-out of receiving marketing related email messages, we will continue to send you Service related communications, including notices related to your Account or any updates to our Terms of Use or Privacy Policy.
  • Changes to Personal Information.  You may change any of the Personal Information in your Account that you provide to us by editing your profile within your Account or by sending an e-mail to us at the e-mail address set forth below. If you wish to change the Personal Information we have received through an SN Site, you must change such Personal Information on the SN Site. After a short period of time, changes in your Personal Information made on the SN Site will appear on the Site and the Services. You may request deletion of your Personal Information by us, but please note that we may be required to keep this information and not delete it (or to keep this information for a certain time, in which case we will comply with your deletion request only after we have fulfilled such requirements). When we delete any information, it will be deleted from the active database, but may remain in our archives. We may retain your information for fraud investigation or similar purposes.
  • Termination.  If you choose to close your Account, your profile and other public Personal Information will be removed from the site. Some public activity, such as sharing of algorithms, will not be removed automatically and will only be removed at the discretion of OptionStack, as covered in the Terms of Use (Proprietary Rights and other sections).

10. Security of Your Personal Information.

OptionStack is committed to protecting the security of your Personal Information. We use a variety of industry-standard security technologies and procedures to help protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while OptionStack uses reasonable efforts to protect your Personal Information, OptionStack cannot guarantee its absolute security. We also require you to enter a password to access your Account information. Please do not disclose your Account password to unauthorized people.

11. Response to “Do Not Track” Signals

Some Internet browsers include the ability to transmit “Do Not Track” signals. Since uniform standards for “Do Not Track” signals have not yet been adopted, OptionStack does not process or respond to “Do Not Track” signals.

12. Contact Information.

OptionStack welcomes your comments or questions regarding this Privacy Policy. Please e-mail us at privacy@optionstack.com

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy is subject to occasional revision, and if we make any substantive changes in the way we use your Personal Information, we will notify you by sending you an e-mail to the last e-mail address you provided to us and/or by prominently posting notice of the changes on our Site. Further, if the changes are material, we will give you the opportunity to affirmatively consent to such changes. Any other changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective upon the earlier of thirty (30) calendar days following our dispatch of an e-mail notice to you or thirty (30) calendar days following our posting of notice of the changes on our Site. These changes will be effective immediately for new users of our Service. Please note that at all times you are responsible for updating your Personal Information to provide us with your most current e-mail address. In the event that the last e-mail address that you have provided us is not valid, or for any reason is not capable of delivering to you the notice described above, our dispatch of the e-mail containing such notice will nonetheless constitute effective notice of the changes described in the notice. In any event, changes to this Privacy Policy may affect our use of Personal Information that you provided us prior to our notification to you of the changes. Unless affirmative consent is requested, if you do not wish to permit changes in our use of your Personal Information, you must notify us prior to the effective date of the changes that you wish to deactivate your Account with us or that you desire a specific opt-out of disclosed uses in this Privacy Policy. Some opt-out requests may require OptionStack to deactivate your Account in its sole discretion. Continued use of our Site or Service, following notice of such changes shall indicate your acknowledgment of such changes and agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions of such changes.