Franklin Advisors is committed to protecting your privacy and developing technology that gives you the most powerful and safe online experience. This Statement of Privacy applies to the Franklin Advisors site and governs data collection and usage. By using the Franklin Advisors site, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

Collection of your Personal Information

Franklin Advisors collects personally identifiable information, such as your email address, name, home or work address or telephone number. Franklin Advisors also collects anonymous demographic information, which is not unique to you, such as your ZIP code, age, gender, preferences, interests and favorites.

There is also information about your computer hardware and software that is automatically collected by Franklin Advisors. This information can include: your IP address, browser type, domain names, access times and referring website addresses. This information is used by Franklin Advisors for the operation of the service, to maintain quality of the service, and to provide general statistics regarding use of the Franklin Advisors site.

Please keep in mind that if you directly disclose personally identifiable information or personally sensitive data through Franklin Advisors public message boards, this information may be collected and used by others. Note: Franklin Advisors does not read any of your private online communications.

Franklin Advisors encourages you to review the privacy statements of Web sites you choose to link to from Franklin Advisors so that you can understand how those Web sites collect, use and share your information. Franklin Advisors is not responsible for the privacy statements or other content on Web sites outside of the Franklin Advisors and Franklin Advisors family of Web sites.

Use of your Personal Information

Franklin Advisors collects and uses your personal information to operate the Franklin Advisors Web site and deliver the services you have requested. Franklin Advisors also uses your personally identifiable information to inform you of other products or services available from Franklin Advisors and its affiliates. Franklin Advisors may also contact you via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services that may be offered.

Franklin Advisors does not sell, rent or lease its customer lists to third parties. Franklin Advisors may, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about a particular offering that may be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to the third party. In addition, Franklin Advisors may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis, send you email or postal mail, provide customer support, or arrange for deliveries. All such third parties are prohibited from using your personal information except to provide these services to Franklin Advisors, and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.

Franklin Advisors does not use or disclose sensitive personal information, such as race, religion, or political affiliations, without your explicit consent.

Franklin Advisors keeps track of the Web sites and pages our customers visit within Franklin Advisors, in order to determine what Franklin Advisors services are the most popular. This data is used to deliver customized content and advertising within Franklin Advisors to customers whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area.

Franklin Advisors Web sites will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Franklin Advisors or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of Franklin Advisors; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of Franklin Advisors, or the public.

Use of Cookies

The Franklin Advisors Web site use "cookies" to help you personalize your online experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. The purpose of a cookie is to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page. For example, if you personalize Franklin Advisors pages, or register with Franklin Advisors site or services, a cookie helps Franklin Advisors to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, shipping addresses, and so on. When you return to the same Franklin Advisors Web site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the Franklin Advisors features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of the Franklin Advisors services or Web sites you visit.

Security of your Personal Information

Franklin Advisors secures your personal information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. Franklin Advisors secures the personally identifiable information you provide on computer servers in a controlled, secure environment, protected from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. When personal information (such as a credit card number) is transmitted to other Web sites, it is protected through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

Changes to this Statement

Franklin Advisors will occasionally update this Statement of Privacy to reflect company and customer feedback. Franklin Advisors encourages you to periodically review this Statement to be informed of how Franklin Advisors is protecting your information.