Transaction Security Policy

When you subscribe to The Retired Investor, you provide us with a variety of sensitive information. This is how we handle it to ensure it remains secure:

1. When you subscribe to The Retired Investor, we collect information that enables you to access our site and for us to contact you. This includes your email address (which is also your user name), a password you choose, and the answer to a question that we will ask you if you forget your password (the correct answer to this questions triggers an email to the address you gave us that contains your password). We also collect information that enables us to process your credit card payment. This includes your credit card number and expiration date.

2. This information is encrypted when you send it from your browser to our server.

3. When your data arrives at our server, information related to your credit card charge is encrypted and retransmitted to the Cardservice International Inc. (CSI) the company that processes our credit card payments. We do not retain your credit card information on our server. Cardservice International has repeatedly been recognized as one of the best payment processors in the world (for more information, see their website at www.cardservice.com). To maintain an audit trail, your credit card information is retained in CSI's files. These files are encrypted, and protected by both information system firewalls and strong physical access controls.

4. We retain on our server your email address, your password, the answer to your "forgotten password" question, and the date your subscription expires. This data is stored in a database, to which access is strictly limited and controlled, both by password and by physical means. Electronic access to this file is further protected by multiple firewalls. When we back up our server files, the data on them is transferred in encrypted form to another encrypted disk. Access to this disk is also strictly limited and controlled, by both electronic and physical means.