Harding Steel believes that privacy is important to the success and use of the Internet. This statement sets forth our Privacy Statement for HardingSteel.com. It describes the practices that we will follow with respect to the privacy of users on this site.

"Personally identifiable information" is information about you, such as name, address, e-mail address, user ID, credit card number, Social Security number, and so on, that Harding Steel may collect (i.e., with your permission, if you choose) when you are on the Harding Steel site and when you use Harding Steel services.

We do not collect personal information, including your e-mail address, unless we first ask you for it. We may request that you voluntarily supply us with information, including your e-mail address, street address, telephone number, or other information so that we may enhance your site visit (e.g., saving you time by displaying faster the particular topics in which you're interested, such as via site "personalization"), or (if you so permit) follow up with you after your site visit (e.g., contacting you regarding new or changes to our services). Whether or not you provide any information is entirely up to you.

If you have voluntarily provided information, you have consented to the collection and use of your personally identifiable information as described in this Privacy Statement. In some circumstances, Harding Steel may share information you voluntarily provide to us with trustworthy business partners. We do not sell or rent personal information collected through this site to anyone. Also, Harding Steel may provide aggregate (i.e., totaled, collective) statistics about visitors to our sites, such as volume, traffic patterns, and related site information to reputable third-party vendors, but these statistics will include no personally identifiable information. Harding Steel may also disclose information in special cases when we have a good faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to legal requirements or comply with legal process (e.g., we are subpoenaed through a court of law), (b) protect and defend our rights or property, (c) enforce the Web site Terms and Conditions of Use, or (d) act to protect the legitimate interests of our users or others.

We intend to exercise care to protect your personally identifiable information. This includes, among other things, using industry standard techniques such as firewalls, encryption, intrusion detection, and site monitoring as appropriate. Unfortunately, due to many technical facts (e.g., the open and global nature of the Internet, possible flaws in the design of some third party technology components, etc). No data transmission over the public Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personally identifiable information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or receive from us. This is especially true for information you transmit to us via e-mail and we have no way of protecting that information before it reaches us. Once we receive your transmission, we will strive to protect its security on our servers.

Internally, we will restrict access to your personally identifiable information to employees who need access to the information in order to do their jobs. These employees (and potentially consultants) are limited in number and are instructed regarding our privacy policies. We will review our security arrangements from time to time as we deem appropriate.

Harding Steel sites may contain links to other sites, including those of our business partners. While we seek to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the privacy practices employed by other sites.