Privacy Statement

U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT believes that customer privacy is a serious matter. In this Privacy Statement the terms “we,” “our,” and “us” refer to U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT. We strive to keep our customers informed about the ways we use their personal information and the steps we take to protect it. We can better serve you if you understand our Privacy Statement. Please take a moment to read further; this Privacy Statement and Notice to Consumers describes how we handle your personal information.

U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT has adopted this Privacy Statement and Notice to Consumers with respect to information gathered by us on our web pages and in the course of our ordinary business operations. This Privacy Statement and Notice to Consumers applies to all visitors to our website and any other web pages which we may host. It applies to any information given to us by consumers who communicate with us about our products or services. It also applies to any information given to us by customers (customers) who obtain or use any of our products or services. This web site and our products and services are intended for use by persons residing in the United States.

1. Summary

The information we collect falls into three main categories. The first type is non-personally identifiable information. It is primarily concerned with how your web browser interacts with our web pages, and it is typically gathered when you browse a web site on the Internet. We collect this non personal type of information for the primary purpose of improving the access and functionality of our web sites.

The second type of information we gather is personal contact information, such as your name, address or email address. We gather and use this information to contact people who make inquiries about the types of products or services we provide and to open customer files and accounts for those who obtain or use any of the products and services we offer. This information may be shared for the purposes of marketing to third party companies.

The final category is non public personal information. This is confidential customer information that we collect and use to provide products and services to our customers. It is kept in a secure database.

All of the information we collect is given to us with the consent of the person who provides the information.

We use your personal information to provide you with service, and to communicate with you regarding the activities in your file. In addition, we use your personal information to keep you up to date on service announcements, customer updates about our services, special offers, and other information we think you would like to hear about. From time to time, we may also use your personal information to contact you about participating in opinion surveys. These help us measure customer satisfaction and improve our service further.

U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT may send unsolicited email through third party companies.

If you inquire about the types of products or services we provide, one of our employees or representatives will contact you. Thereafter, we may occasionally contact you about a product or service that we think might interest you. We may also share or sell your contact information with companies that have products or services we think might interest you. You may contact us to opt out of such contact. We will honor any such request we receive from you, and we require the companies that work with us to maintain policies and notices that are similar to this one. We do not disclose specific financial information, such as account numbers or balances, to anyone for marketing purposes. Specific financial information is only used to provide products or services you request from us.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Statement and Notice to Consumer, you should first contact U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT.

2. Who Collects Information We Use

The information we use is primarily collected by U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT. Often, we do so in cooperation with others who provide services to us. We may have advertising agreements with joint marketing affiliates. Any company that provides information services for us must sign a written agreement, and that document will prohibit the use or disclosure of information for any purpose beyond the subject matter of the written agreement.

Most often, we begin to collect personal contact information when you make an inquiry on the internet about the kind of services we offer. This inquiry is sometimes made directly to us, and sometimes it is made to companies that have agreements with us. If you made your original inquiry about the kinds of services we offer to a web page hosted by someone other than U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT, then the privacy statement of that company will control how they use your information. This statement controls the use of information by U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT. We urge you to review the privacy statement of any web site that you give personal information.

3. Types of Information We Collect

All information is collected by consent. If you choose to browse our web sites, you do not have to accept cookies in order to view the publicly accessible portions of our websites.

Because of the way that World Wide Web (internet) communication standards work, when you arrive at or leave a U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT web site, we automatically receive the Web address of the site that you came from or are going to. We also collect information on which pages of our Web site you visit while you are on a U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT web site, the type of browser you use and the times you access our Web site. We use this information only to try to understand our customers’ preferences better and to manage the load on our servers, so as to improve our service and your experience with U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT.

Our Use of “Cookies”

Like many web sites, the U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT web site uses “cookie” technology. Use of cookies is optional for visitors browsing our website; however, you may lose access to some of its features if your browser is not set to accept cookies. When you first connect to our site, a cookie identifies your browser with a unique, random number. Cookies help us understand which parts of our web sites are the most popular and help us make it user friendly. We use cookies to study traffic patterns on our site so we can improve your browsing.

Customers must accept cookies in order to log in to the private, customer service portions of our website. We send a “session cookie” to your computer when you log in to your U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT customer account by entering your user name and password. These cookies allow us to recognize you if you visit multiple pages in our site during the same session, so that you don’t need to re-enter your password multiple times. Once you log out or close your browser, these session cookies expire and no longer have any effect.

We also use longer-lasting cookies to display your e-mail address on our sign-in form, so that you don’t have to retype the e-mail address each time when you log in to your U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT account. Our cookie files are encoded so that your e-mail address and other information can only be interpreted by U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT. We may, however, share cookie information with certain merchants with whom we have an official co-marketing relationship.

In some of our email to you, we use a “click-through URL.” When you click one of these URLs, your browser passes through our web server before arriving at the web site that is your destination. We track the click-through to help us determine your interest in particular topics and measure the effectiveness of our customer communications.

We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads on our behalf. These companies may employ cookies and action tags (also known as single pixel gifs or web beacons) to measure advertising effectiveness. Any information that these third parties collect via cookies and action tags is completely anonymous.

Required Information

When you request information about the products or services we offer, you will be asked to provide your personal contact information—usually this means name, address, phone number, and e-mail address. You may also be asked for some specific personal information that relates to the product or service you want to know more about. This information is used to contact you and respond to your request. In some cases when we do not believe that we can assist you, we may share your information with companies that may be better able to assist you. U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT web pages containing forms that you can use to request information about our products or services will also contain a link to this Privacy Page and Notice to Consumers.

In response to your request for information we may contact you by phone, email or written document to discuss your request, to learn more about your interest in our products or services, and to give you more information. We may receive Personally Identifiable Information from you during this process. Again, any personal information we collect, except for contact information, is considered confidential and will be used solely for the purpose of providing the products or services you request from us.

If it is relevant to the products or services you request from us, you may be asked to provide personal health information that is protected by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) or the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). For example, you may have a financial hardship that is due to a verifiable medical condition. This information may assist us to explain why you cannot pay the full balance of your consumer debt. We do not disclose health information unless you become a customer. Health information is only disclosed if we believe it is necessary to provide the products or services you have requested from us.

If you choose to become a customer or to purchase products or services from U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT, then you will be asked to give us any information we believe is necessary or useful to complete the work or transaction you ask us to perform. We may receive information from you by telephone or facsimile, by exchange of written documents, and through the use of web based programs that provide you with secure access to a customer account log in. We may also receive information from third parties who have information related to the products or services we are providing to you.

Customer Service Correspondence

If you send us correspondence, including e-mails and faxes, we may retain such information in your customer file. Information you give us over the telephone may be noted for your file. We may also keep copies of any correspondence sent from U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT to you. We retain these records in order to provide the products and services you have requested and to measure and improve our customer service. We may, over time, delete these records as permitted by law. Phone calls to U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT may be recorded or monitored for customer satisfaction programs.

Questionnaires, Surveys and Profile Data

From time to time we offer optional questionnaires and surveys to our customers for such purposes as learning more about customer’s interests and needs and collecting demographic information. The use of the information collected will be explained in detail in the survey itself. If we collect personally identifiable information from you in these questionnaires and surveys, you will be given notice of how the information will be used prior to your participation in the survey or questionnaire.

Notification of Changes

This statement may be revised over time to reflect changes in U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT products or services, and as we incorporate suggestions from our customers. If we wish to use or disclose your personally identifiable information in a manner that is materially different from what was stated in our privacy statement at the time we collected the information, then you will have a choice as to whether or not we use or disclose your information in this new manner.

We will post the amended Privacy Statement on our Web site so that you can always review what information we gather, how we might use that information, and whether we will disclose it to anyone. Please check the U.S. Debt Settlement Web site at www.usdebtsettlement.com at any time for the most current version of our Privacy Statement.

Pages on the U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT Web site include links to third party Web sites. These sites are governed by their own privacy statements, and U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT is not responsible for their operations, including but not limited to their information practices. Users submitting information to or through these third party Web sites should review the privacy statement of these sites before providing them with personally identifiable information.

Children (under the age of 18) are not eligible to use our products or services, and we do not knowingly contact them or respond to requests for information from them.

4. How We Use Your Information

We collect, store and process your personal information on servers located in the United States. We use the information we collect about you in order to:

5. How and When Your Information is Shared or Disclosed

Disclosure for Fulfillment Purposes

If you become a U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT customer, we will share or disclose limited portions of your personally identifiable information with third parties as part of our overall efforts to fulfill our obligations to you. We do not disclose confidential customer information except as we believe necessary to fulfill our commitments and provide the services you request from us. Most of these disclosures involve communications during the negotiating process. They may also include venders, such as mail services or data processing services. Our agreements with venders prohibit the use or disclosure of your information for any purpose outside of their written agreements with us.

Disclosure to Third Parties For Other Purposes

Other than for Fulfillment Purposes, U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT will not share any of your personally identifiable information with third parties except in the limited circumstances described below, or with your express permission.

We share information with companies that help us process your transactions and provide you with the products or services you requested from us.

These third parties are prohibited by law or by contract from using the information for secondary purposes beyond the purposes for which the information is shared.

Our Contacts with U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT Customers

We communicate with our customers on a regular basis via e-mail, telephone, facsimile and U. S. Mail to provide requested services, resolve customer complaints, and to investigate suspicious transactions. We use your e-mail address to confirm your enrollment and provide you with various types of correspondence, to confirm various activities involved in settlement, to send information about important changes to our products or services, and to send notices and other disclosures required by law. Generally, users cannot opt out of these communications, because they are part of the products or services we provide. However, these communications will be primarily informational in nature rather than promotional.

U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT does not tolerate spam. Commercial electronic mail messages sent by U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT have opt-out features and otherwise comply with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. We send CEMM only to people who have expressed an interest in our services.

Making Your Privacy Choices

Our customers have options to control whether or not we use their information to offer them additional products or services by logging in to the private portion of our web site and making elections about how we handle their information. Customers and consumers who have made inquiries about products or services we offer may also contact us at our website or by U.S. Mail and tell us that they no longer seek information from us about our products or services, and they may instruct us not to contact them with additional offers by telephone, email or mail. You may exercise any of the following options and tell us:

You can email support@usdebtsettlement.com to submit your privacy choices. Otherwise you can mail your choices to us at this address:

U.S. Debt Settlement, LLC
Attn: Privacy Statement
21550 Oxnard Street, 3rd Floor
Woodland Hills, CA 91367

Please allow four to six weeks for your request to take effect. (Note to Joint Account holders: Your choices will apply to the joint account.)

You do not need to contact us unless you want to make a choice listed in this “Making Your Privacy Choices” section. If you are already a customer, you do not need to contact us unless you want to change a choice you have previously given us. We will follow your directions for all your consumer accounts covered by our Privacy Statement.

Internet Address Information

We use IP addresses, browser types and access times to analyze trends, administer the site, improve site performance and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.

Your Use of Information and Our Services

Consumers have access to us via the Internet, telephone, email, facsimile and U.S. Mail for the purpose of learning about our products or services and, if they choose, to purchase those products or services. Our products or services may only be obtained pursuant to written agreements that provide the terms and conditions for them. To better serve our customers, we provide each of them with individual access to a private portion of our web site. This private access permits them to review portions of their file and gives them a handy way to contact us and to update us with any new information that is useful to us.

6. Information Security

U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT safeguards the security of the data you send us with physical, electronic, and managerial procedures. We provide access to your personally identifiable information to those employees who need to know that information in order to provide the products or services you request from us. We test our security systems regularly.

We urge you to take every precaution to protect your personal data when you are on the Internet. Change your passwords often, use a combination of letters and numbers, and make sure you use a secure browser.

The private use of the telephone and U.S. Mail is protected by federal law. The use of web based programs is protected by technology such as Secured Socket Layer (SSL) programming that encrypts the information being transferred. As a U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT customer you will have a user name and password to access restricted areas of our web site. The security of your U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT account also relies on your protection of your U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT password. Do not share your U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT password with anyone. Do not write it and leave it where others can read it. U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT will never ask you to send your password or other sensitive information to us in an e-mail, though we may ask you to enter this type of information on the U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT website.

Any e-mail or other communication requesting your password, or asking you to provide sensitive account information via email or by linking to a website with a URL that does not begin with http://www.usdebtsettlement.com should be treated as unauthorized and suspicious, and it should be reported to U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT immediately. If you do share your U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT password with a third party for any reason, the third party will have access to your account and your personal information. You are responsible for actions taken using your password. If you believe someone else has obtained access to your password, please change it immediately by logging in to your account at www.usdebtsettlement.com.com and changing your Personal Profile settings, and also contact us right away as described in Section 8 below.

7. Accessing and Changing Your Information

Customers can find the personal contact information they provide to us and make changes to that information by logging in to their accounts on the U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT Web site and changing your preferences in the Profile page. If a customer closes or terminates a U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT account, we will mark the account in our database as “Closed,” but we will continue to store portions of the account information in our database. However, if you close your account, your personally identifiable information will not be used by us for any further purposes, nor sold or shared with third parties, except as necessary to prevent fraud and assist law enforcement, or as required by law.

8. Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this privacy statement or U.S. DEBT SETTLEMENT information practices, you can contact us using this email address, or you can call 888.831.0888 Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00 am and 6:00 pm Pacific Standard Time or write us at:

U.S. Debt Settlement, LLC
Attn: Privacy Statement
21550 Oxnard Street, 3rd Floor
Woodland Hills, CA 91367

May 25, 2006