To protect your privacy, shop.microsoft.com (the "Site") follows five principles in accordance with worldwide practices for customer privacy and data protection and in conjunction with Microsoft's overall privacy policies (see Information About Privacy on microsoft.com for more information).

PRINCIPLE 1 - NOTICE
We will explicitly ask you when we need information that personally identifies you or allows us to contact you. This information is requested to complete your shopping at the Site.

We use your personal information for four purposes:

• For Billing - to insure proper billing when ordering features, services, and products from shop.microsoft.com
• For Shipping - to insure your purchases are delivered to your desired location.
• For sharing with all vendors providing the products and services you have purchased through the Site.
• And periodically, with your consent, for sharing with other Microsoft groups and non-Microsoft companies not directly involved in your purchase.

Additionally, the Site itself, the service providers for it, and all vendors providing products or services through the Site will use your personal information for the sole purpose of fulfilling your order and/or enforcing or investigating contracts and claims regarding your transactions.

PRINCIPLE 2 - CONSENT
If you choose not to provide personal information, you can still use the shop.microsoft.com web site. The Site offers a complete catalog of Microsoft software, hardware, and books, showing product descriptions and benefits. These are always available to you. But you will not be able to purchase any of these products until you provide the required personal information.

In addition to the full range of Microsoft products, the Site occasionally offers other product and program offerings that enhance our customers' computing skills, knowledge, or product use. These offering are from shop.microsoft.com or other non-Microsoft companies. The Site automatically excludes you from these offerings unless you specifically ask to be included. Please see the Contact Preferences section in the Checkout process.

PRINCIPLE 3 - ACCESS
You may review and change your personal information at any time by contacting one of our Customer Service representatives at 1-888-218-5617. Through the Customer Service representative you can:

• Edit any of the personal information you have already given us.
• Tell us whether or not you want shop.microsoft.com, other Microsoft groups, or 3rd parties to send you marketing information.

PRINCIPLE 4 - SECURITY
shop.microsoft.com strictly protects the security of your personal information and honors your choices for its intended use. We carefully protect your data from loss, misuse, unauthorized access or disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

shop.microsoft.com secures your personally identifiable information on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. In order to complete your online orders, personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to our fulfillment partner through the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encrypted protection. The Site may store and disclose personal information as allowed or required by applicable law, including, but not limited to, making disclosures that are necessary or advisable to: (a) conform to legal or regulatory requirements or comply with legal process; and (b) protect the rights, safety or property of Microsoft, the Site (including service providers and vendors), the users of the Site, or the public.

PRINCIPLE 5 - ENFORCEMENT
If for some reason you believe shop.microsoft.com has not adhered to these principles, please contact one of our Customer Service representatives at 1-888-218-5617, and we will determine the problem and correct it promptly.

NOTICE TO PARENTS
Parents or guardians: we want to help you guard your children's privacy. We encourage you to talk to your children about safe and responsible use of their personal information while using the Internet. You can find a wealth of privacy, security, and safety information at the microsoft.com Internet Safety site.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT PRIVACY

Q: What is a cookie, and how does a cookie affect my privacy?
A: A Cookie is a very small text file placed on your hard drive by a Web site domain - in our case, shop.microsoft.com. It is essentially your identification card, and cannot be executed as code or deliver viruses. It is uniquely yours and can only be read by the domain that gave it to you. Its purpose is to tell the domain that you returned to that Web site.

Q: How does a cookie help me?
A: It saves you time. If you register for products or services, a cookie helps Microsoft remember who you are. Of course, if you never register or leave personal information with shop.microsoft.com, then the domain only knows that someone with your cookie has returned to the Web site. You are in charge of deciding whether we know anything about you.

Q: How can I quit entering Personal Information, and what happens to the information I've already typed in?
A: If you begin entering your personal information, then decide you don't want to finish it, just leave the Checkout page without completing your purchase. None of the information entered on the Checkout page will be saved.