document: title: privacy policy
text: Your Privacy is our Priority  
FIRSTRADE is committed to protecting our customers' personal and financial information. In the course of providing you with FIRSTRADE's brokerage services, we need to collect and maintain certain nonpublic personal information about you. This Privacy Policy answers some questions about what nonpublic personal information we collect, what we do with it, and how we protect it.

What types of nonpublic personal information about me does FIRSTRADE collect?  
When you apply for or maintain an account with FIRSTRADE, we collect the following types of information:

  * Information provided by you, such as your name, address, social security number, date of birth, employment information, and financial status.
  * Information about your transactions with us such as account balance and trading activity. 
  * In some cases we will collect information from consumer-reporting agencies.



What types of nonpublic personal information about me does FIRSTRADE disclose?  
FIRSTRADE discloses the nonpublic personal information about you described above, primarily to provide you with the financial services you seek from us. We do not disclose nonpublic personal information about former customers, except as required or permitted by law. FIRSTRADE does not sell your personal information.

What types of companies (other than those companies used to service transactions) does FIRSTRADE disclose my nonpublic personal information to?  
In some limited circumstances, FIRSTRADE may disclose nonpublic personal information about you to a non-financial services company, such as a retailer, with which we may have a marketing program. The information shared is limited to your name, contact information, and type of account opened. Account balance, trading activity, and credit information is never disclosed. If you exercise your right to not share this information (opt-out) with these non-financial services companies, your information will not be disclosed.

What are my rights to opt-out of disclosure and how can I exercise them?  
If you prefer that we do not disclose nonpublic personal information about you to the non-financial services companies described in the paragraph above, you may opt-out of those disclosures, that is, you may direct us not to make those disclosures (other than those disclosures required by law).

You may provide your name, address, email address, daytime phone, your account number and opt-out request to us by email at service@firstrade.com or by calling 1-888-FIRSTRADE.

To what other types of entities might FIRSTRADE disclose my nonpublic personal information?  
FIRSTRADE may disclose information we collect from you, such as your contact information, to service providers who perform marketing functions on our behalf. Specifically, your name, address and/or email address are sometimes provided to vendors who send email or regular mail on FIRSTRADE's behalf. 

We disclose information to nonaffiliated companies that work for us in providing financial services to you. For example, we provide information to nonaffiliated companies that prepare and mail statements and transaction confirmations. These companies acting on our behalf are required to keep your personal information confidential. 

Finally, FIRSTRADE discloses nonpublic personal information to nonaffiliated third parties as permitted or required by law. These parties include government/regulatory organizations such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Disclosures for which you have provided your consent are also permitted.

How does FIRSTRADE protect the confidentiality and security of my nonpublic personal information?  
We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your nonpublic personal information. We protect your account information by placing it on the secure portion of our website. Our servers have been enabled with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to prevent unauthorized parties from viewing your nonpublic personal information that you provide or access during a secure session. In addition, we employ VeriSign's digital certificate services to encrypt the information exchanged between you and Firstrade.com. 

Access to your nonpublic personal information is limited to those employees who need to know that information to provide products or services to you, such as customer service personnel.

You can take steps to maximize your security online and to protect your confidential information. NEVER share your Password with anyone, and change it periodically. You can change your Login and Trading Passwords at any time through the Administration section under the Account Manager tab. When using the FIRSTRADE website, you should always exit by using "Logout" which is located at the top of every web page or close your browser completely.

What should I know about "cookies"?  
"Cookies" are elements of data that a website can send to your browser and store on your computer. Cookies can note that your browser was used to visit certain sites, pages, or advertisements on a certain date. Cookies cannot be used to obtain data from your hard drive, get your e-mail address or steal sensitive or personal information about you. FIRSTRADE uses cookies to enhance navigation and functionality of our website, to securely verify your identity, and to personalize aspects of your experience on our website. We also use cookies to let us know how visitors are using our website, so that we can improve our website and your experience on it. You do have control over cookies. Most browsers can be set to notify you when a cookie is being placed on your computer. You can also set most browsers to refuse to accept cookies, although this may affect your Internet experience. You can also erase cookies that are already on your computer. For more information on working with cookies, you should consult the User Manual, FAQ, or Help function of your specific browser and operating system software.

For answers to other questions regarding FIRSTRADE's Privacy Policy, please email service@firstrade.com or call 1-888-FIRSTRADE.