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General Policy Statement

Last updated:
March 27, 2023

Underline (“Underline,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) provides ultra-fast fiber internet access and information network connectivity to residential and commercial subscribers. Subscribers may also be called Customers and may occasionally be referred to as “you” or “your”. This General Policy Statement is part of the Service Agreement between Customer and Underline, which also includes: a) the General Term and Conditions; and b) the Acceptable Use Policy.

By using any of Underline’s offered services and products or by accessing Underline’s website, Customer consents to honor and be bound by these principles and policies, including the manner in which we manage network services to residential and business customers.

Our Principles

  • We are committed to ensuring the vibrancy of our nation through building intelligent community infrastructure.
  • With an ethic of community partnership, we are committed to the principles of community development, resilient infrastructure solutions, reliable and affordable access to information and internet-powered services, and customer service.
  • We are committed to the principles of net neutrality in our role as the owner and operator of neutral, open access networks.
  • We believe that our network users are entitled to know what we do with their personal information.
  • We will never snoop on the websites you visit.
  • We will never harvest and sell identifiable data or even de-identified personal data.
  • We will only use data aggregations to direct and improve our own services and efforts, and will never serve non network-related ads.
  • We work to keep your information safe, consistent with leading industry certification standards and modern software and data security practices. We engage in network management practices that are designed to optimize the network and ensure our customers and partners have a secure experience.
  • In our allegiance to these principles, we require all service providers on our networks to sign a pledge —including commitments to net neutrality, transparency, and best practices in privacy and security.

FAQs

What information do we collect?

As an inherent part of managing a network, we may have access to the following types of information:

  • Contact Information such as name, email address, mailing address, phone number
  • Unique Identifiers such as user name and account number
  • Usage activity about how you interact with us, what content you viewed, and which areas of our site you visited
  • Information about your computer such as your IP address, browser type, referring/exit pages, and operating system.
  • Billing and Service address  
  • Account and billing information (Please note:  payment processing is handled by a third-party payment facilitator system such that this detailed information, other than balance amounts, is not stored on our system.)

Do we sell your personal information?

No. We will never snoop on the websites you visit, and we will never harvest and sell your identifiable or even de-identified personal data.

Do we share or sell aggregate information?

We will only use data aggregations to direct and improve our own services and efforts, and never to serve ads.

Do we support net neutrality?

Yes, we are committed to the principles of net neutrality in our role as the owner and operator of neutral, open access networks.

Do we require service providers on our network to be net neutral?

Yes. We require all service providers operating on our networks to sign a pledge—including commitments to net neutrality, transparency, privacy, and security.

Do we use cookies to track website visits and your preferences?

We use only require cookies to secure your account, save your preferences within our applications, and to identify broad usability issues.

In addition, please be aware that some components we use will require cookies, and we vet these components for adherence to privacy and security best practices. Generally, websites you visit may use cookies. You can control what cookies are accepted by your computer through the settings on your web browser, or by deleting them from your files. You can also control whether cross-site cookie functionality is enabled. As a security best practice, our applications will never require you to enable this functionality.

When Customer clicks on a link to a third-party website or service, such third party may also transmit cookies to Customer. This Privacy Policy does not cover the use of cookies or other such tracking technology used by any third parties, and Underline is not responsible for their privacy policies and practices.

Privacy Policies:

Use Policy

Certain personal information is confidential. We will only use it to direct and improve our own services and efforts, in areas such as installation, operations, administration, support, network management, maintenance, customer care, communications, billing and collection, and for accounting and tax purposes. We may also use such information in dealing with fraud and unauthorized use of our services.

Under the same terms of use, we may provide your information to our contracted vendors, partners or affiliates to provide, support, or improve our services. These service providers only have access to the information necessary to perform these limited functions on our behalf, and are required to protect and secure your information.

For example, Underline may use a payment processing company to receive and process Customer’s ACH or credit card transactions for Underline, or Underline may contract with third parties to assist Underline in optimizing Underline’s network.

We may use aggregate information about our customers and their usage for a variety of purposes, including, but not limited to: research insights, improved content, and enhanced service offerings and experience.

Such aggregate information does not identify individual customers. We may share such aggregate information with third parties, but will not share your identifiable information with third parties without your permission.

Legal Requirements

We may be forced to disclose personally identifiable information without your consent if we are required to do so by a court order. If we are served with a court order requiring disclosure, and are permitted to do so, we will inform you before releasing any information. While we cannot guarantee it, you may then have an opportunity to contest the order.

We may also disclose personally identifiable information without your consent when requested by law enforcement under certain circumstances.

In addition, we reserve the right to disclose your information if we have a good faith belief that it is necessary to respond to fraud, abuse, or unauthorized reception, or to act in an emergency to protect your safety or that of another.

We may also share or transfer your information along with your account as a part of any sale or transfer of all or a portion of our business operations, merger, or combination with another organization. In such a case, you will be notified of any such transfer.  

Retention Policy

Information associated with your account will be kept while you are a Customer. Even when Customer modifies, amends, or deletes personal information, Underline may maintain a copy of the unrevised information in Underline’s records for internal security reasons and record-keeping.

Once a Customer no longer has an active account, we may retain and use such information as necessary to comply with business practices, by law and/or to resolve disputes, enforce agreement or for tax reporting purposes.

We will not delete certain information such as historic email, billing and/or Service addresses that we use for security and verification purposes.

Security Policy

The security of your personal information is important to us. When you provide us with sensitive information, the transmission of that information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL). We also follow widely-accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it.

Our routers contain state-of-the-art firewalls that protect your home or business network from outside intrusion. We regularly issue firmware upgrades to protect against the latest threats.

Individuals with questionable intent may use the internet or email to pose as someone you trust or do business with. You should always be sure who you are dealing with before clicking on an internet link or giving away personal information. You can learn more about staying safe online here.

Maintaining the security of your personal computer is an important part of protecting your own privacy, and helping us protect our network and services for customers.

It is Customer’s responsibility to prevent unauthorized access to Customer’s account and personal information by selecting and protecting Customer’s password and/or other sign-on mechanism appropriately and limiting access to Customer’s computer, tablet or device and browser by signing off after Customer has finished accessing Customer’s account.

Customer is solely responsible for any use of Underline Services via Customer’s username and password.

We recommend that you regularly change your login password, using hard-to-guess combinations of numbers, letters and special characters. You should also regularly update your antivirus software, firewall, wireless network security, and operating system to prevent unauthorized access by others and harm from various forms of viruses. You should regularly back up your computer to preserve your files, including email or other messages you want to keep.

Once communications enter the internet, those communications can be accessed by third parties over whom we have no control. Moreover, since we cannot control web sites or services operated by third parties, you should review their terms of service and privacy policies. If possible, only access websites that use a valid SSL certificate which validates the publisher’s identity.

Although we endeavor to ensure the integrity and security of our network and computer systems, we cannot guarantee that our security measures will prevent unauthorized access via means beyond our control.

Our facilities are certified with leading industry certification standards such as SOC2, ISO 27001, and PCI-DSS. We employ modern software and data security practices such as 2-factor authentication and data network isolation. In addition, our data centers, operations facilities, and software systems are fully redundant to provide you the most reliable service possible. Underline provides network connectivity between your premises and the service providers (e.g.  ISP, telehealth, entertainment) you select. While we work closely with those service providers, we are not responsible for the quality of service they provide beyond securely forwarding their content or internet traffic through our infrastructure, to and from the network device at your premises.

Congestion Management

We monitor the connections on our network in the aggregate on a regular basis to determine the rate of utilization. If congestion emerges on the network, we may take measures to relieve it. We check for abnormal traffic flows, network security breaches, malware, and damage to the network.

If Underline determines, in our sole and reasonable discretion, that the manner in which a subscriber is using the service negatively impacts other subscribers or any Underline Network, we reserve the right to apply additional congestion management techniques.  For example, we reserve the right to block or limit access to any applications, ports, or protocols that we determine, in our sole and reasonable discretion, may expose any Underline Network to potential legal liability, harm any Underline Network or otherwise interfere with or impair the experience of other subscribers on Underline Networks.

If a breach is detected, or high-volume users are brought to light by complaint, we may provide notification to the customer via email or phone. If a violation of our policies has occurred and such violation is not remedied, we may suspend or terminate that customer’s service.

Device Attachment Rules

Generally, you do not need approval to connect a third-party device to an Underline Network. Underline does not limit the types of devices that can be connected to any Underline Network, provided they are used for lawful purposes and do not harm an Underline Network, violate our Service Agreement, or harm other users of the Underline Network. However, if we determine, in our sole and reasonable discretion, that the connection of a particular type of device to any Underline Network negatively impacts other users or the Underline Network, or may expose us to potential legal liability, we reserve the right to limit or restrict subscribers’ ability to connect such type of device to Underline Networks.  

Network Neutrality

We believe that every customer should enjoy the legal content and services of their choice, without limitations.  

No specific content or service providers will receive preferential treatment on our networks based on affiliation, the identity of the user, the identity of the provider, the content of the information, or the type of service being provided.

We, therefore:

  • do not block or discriminate against lawful content;
  • do not throttle, impair, or degrade lawful internet traffic;
  • do not prioritize internet traffic and have no plans to enter into paid prioritization deals to create fast lanes;
  • will not restrict the services marketplace to any lawful providers.

Changes to Policies

If we make any material changes, we will notify you by placing a notice on our website and/or sending an email (sent to the email address specified in your account), or with a notice on your account prior to the change. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy policies.

Those updated notices will govern Customer’s use of the Service, and Customer is still responsible for reading and understanding all notices posted on Underline’s website.

If you object to any of the changes to these Privacy Policies, you may stop using the services and delete your account.

Customer’s continued use of the Service or website after notice of any changes have been provided will indicate Customer’s acceptance of such changes.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding Underline’s General Policy Statement, please contact Underline at support@underline.com