Alliance is committed to providing privacy protection in today’s ever evolving world. The goal of
this Policy is to assure customers that Alliance is serious about privacy. If you have any
questions about our policy, contact us here or call (605) 594–3411.
This Policy applies to the use of “individual customer information,” meaning, information about
specific customers. Generally, information that does not reveal a customer’s identity is not
considered to be individual customer information. As a specific example, “aggregated
information,” such as the number of individuals that access a website on a particular day, does
not raise a privacy concern and is not covered under this policy.
Information Collection and Use: Alliance obtains and uses individual customer information for
business purposes only. We obtain information about our customers that helps to provide them
with Alliance services. This information may also be used to protect customers, employees and
property against fraud, theft or abuse; to conduct industry or consumer surveys; and to
maintain good customer relations.
Customers have many opportunities to control how we use their individual information to
introduce them to new products and services. For example, Alliance will not call customers who
have expressed to us a preference not to be called for marketing purposes. Customers can also
have their names removed from direct mail lists that we use. The same will be true for email if
Alliance decides to use email to send new product information to its customers.
However, we do use individual customer information internally for our own general marketing
and planning purposes. Unless we have your consent, such information is combined into
aggregations that do not include individual customer identities. Under certain circumstances,
we are required by law to disclose the aggregated information to other companies, but in such
cases customer identities are not included.
Disclosure of Individual Customer Information: Alliance allows customers to control how and if
Alliance discloses individual information about them to other persons or entities, except as
required by law or to protect the safety of customers, employees or property. For example, if
Alliance is served with valid legal process for customer identification, we may be required to
release this information. In addition, under certain circumstances, we share customer
information with other carriers and with law enforcement to prevent and investigate fraud and
other unlawful use of communications services.
Subject to legal and safety exceptions, Alliance will share individual customer information
collected by it only with persons or entities outside the company when the customer has
consented to such action, or when we have advised the customer of the opportunity to “opt–
out” (to choose not to have the information disclosed). We are required to provide directory
publishers with listings information – name, address and phone number – for purposes of
publishing and delivering directories. Persons can ask to not be published in directories and/or
directory assistance. However, if Alliance enters into a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a
portion of its assets, a customer’s personally identifiable information will, in most instances, be
transferred as a part of the transaction. In addition, we may, where permitted by law, provide
information to credit bureaus, or provide information and/or sell receivables to collection
agencies, to obtain payment for Alliance billed products and services.
Information Management and Security: All Alliance employees are responsible for
safeguarding individual customer communications and information. Alliance requires Alliance
personnel to be aware of and protect the privacy of all forms of customer communications –
whether they are voice, data or image transmissions – as well as individual customer records.
Alliance makes clear that employees who fail to follow this Privacy and Customer Security Policy
will face disciplinary action, which can include dismissal. All employees are trained regarding
their responsibilities to safeguard customer privacy.
Alliance strives to ensure that information we have about our customers is accurate, secure and
confidential, and to ensure that our employees comply with our privacy policy. We will not
tamper with, intrude upon or disclose the existence or contents of any communication or
transmission, except as required by law or the proper management of our network. Access to
databases containing customer information is limited to employees who need it as part of their
job performance – and such employees follow strict guidelines when handling such
information. Alliance uses safeguards to increase data accuracy and to identify and
authenticate the sources of customer information. We use locks and physical security
measures, sign–on and password control procedures, internal auditing techniques and other
types of security as appropriate for the information stored to protect against unauthorized use
of terminals and entry into our data systems.
Alliance requires that records be safeguarded from loss, theft, unauthorized disclosure, and
accidental destruction. In addition, sensitive, confidential, or proprietary records must be
protected and maintained in a secure environment. It is our policy to destroy records
containing sensitive, confidential, or proprietary information in a secure manner. Hard copy
confidential, proprietary, or sensitive documents must be made unreadable before disposition
or recycling, and electronic media must be destroyed using methods that prevent access to
information stored in that type of media. Just as employees would report stolen property,
employees must report missing records and suspicious incidents involving records.
We encourage our employees to be proactive in implementing and enforcing the Alliance
Privacy and Customer Security Policy. If employees become aware of practices that raise
privacy concerns, they are encouraged to report them to their supervisors as soon as
reasonably possible.
Compliance with Laws and Public Policy Participation: Alliance complies with all applicable
privacy laws and regulations. Customer and policymaker perceptions of privacy have changed
over time and will continue to do so. Changes in technology can also alter what is appropriate
in protecting privacy. Laws may change accordingly. We will regularly examine – and update, if
necessary – the Alliance Privacy and Customer Security Policy.
THIRD–PARTY VENDORS PROVIDING SERVICES
THROUGH ALLIANCE NETWORK
Certain services and applications available from Alliance require the use of proprietary
applications and software developed and licensed through third–party vendors. In some cases
these vendors are able to obtain individual customer information through the customer’s use of
the third–party applications and software.
If a third–party service or application available from Alliance collects such individual customer
information, Alliance will attempt to notify its customer of the potential for the third–party to
collect individual information at the time the customer requests access to the service or
application in question. Additionally, Alliance will utilize its best efforts to enter into an
agreement with such third–party obligating the third–party to maintain such customer
information only on an aggregate basis and in a manner in which individual customer identities
are not ascertainable.
The provisions of this section regarding third–party vendors applies only to services or
applications obtained from Alliance. The provisions do not apply to applications, equipment,
or services available on the Internet generally or from vendors and service providers other
than Alliance.
Network Transparency Statement
Customer Agreements, Policies & Service Disclosures
Alliance strives to provide consumers with accessible, easy–to–understand information about
the services we provide, so they can make informed decisions about which services best meet
their needs. Consistent with that goal, we have designed this page to act as a place where
consumers and others can come to access and review the relevant policies, agreements, and
other information about these services.
Additionally, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) requires that Alliance and other
providers of broadband Internet access services disclose certain information regarding those
Internet services. We believe that all of the information required for disclosure under the FCC’s
rules is found in the various policies and documents listed and linked on this page. To assist you
in finding the information you’re looking for, we highlighted a few pieces of information that
the FCC specifically calls for in the Overview section below.
Overview of Network Practices
The bullets below provide a general overview of Alliance’s network practices.
Congestion Management
Alliance manages its network with one goal: to deliver the best possible broadband Internet
experience to all of its customers. To further this effort, Alliance uses reasonable network
management practices that are consistent with industry standards. Alliance uses various tools
and techniques to manage its network, deliver its service, and ensure compliance with its
policies, customer agreements, and applicable rules and regulations. These tools and
techniques can and do change frequently. Alliance uses PRTG for uplink monitoring for
congestion, Calix Consumer Connect to monitor usage and for troubleshooting, SDN Connection
to verify uplink capacity, and other tools for monitoring Wi–Fi and ONT health, packet loss and
network failures.
Application–Specific Behavior
Alliance provides its customers with full access to all the lawful content, services, and
applications that the Internet has to offer. Alliance does not block or rate–control specific
protocols or protocol ports (except to prevent spam, malicious attacks, and identity theft), does
not modify protocol fields in ways not prescribed by protocol standards, and does not
otherwise inhibit or favor certain applications or classes of applications.
Security
Alliance employs a number of practices to help prevent unwanted communications, such as
spam, and protect the security of Alliance’s customers and network. Additionally, Alliance uses
DDOS protection offered through SDN Communications for all inbound and outbound Internet
traffic.
Service Description
Alliance has always prided itself on providing state–of–the–art broadband services at the highest
possible speeds. Alliance’s service is one of the fastest, most reliable broadband services in the
United States. It consistently delivers at or above the “provisioned” speed for the particular
service tier. Alliance also provides a “speed test” page at http://www.speedtest.net, so you can
test your connection for yourself.
Other Services on Our Network
Alliance currently provides cable services, voice services, and certain enterprise business
services, to its customers over the same physical network used to deliver broadband Internet
access service to residential and small and medium business customers. Our cable, voice, and
enterprise business services, are not provided over the Internet but are provisioned with
separate service capacity and delivered over separate service flows using Class of Service, and
the voice and business services (but not the video) services are marked for prioritization (to
ensure that calls, e.g., 911 calls, go through even in times of congestion), following by business
data, video and customer data.
Blocking
Alliance does not block or prevent end user access to any lawful content, applications, service,
or non–harmful devices.
Affiliated Prioritization
Alliance does not employ any practices or techniques to prioritize Internet traffic to benefit its
affiliates.
Paid Prioritization
Alliance does not accept monetary or non–monetary consideration to prioritize the traffic of a
particular party over that of another.
Price
Please visit https://www.alliancecom.net/internet/ to view Alliance’s monthly price packages
for Internet service, including usage based fees, and fees for early termination or additional
network services.
Privacy Policies
Please visit https://www.alliancecom.net/notices/ to view Alliance’s policies regarding
customer privacy.
Complaints
Please visit https://www.alliancecom.net/notices/ to view Alliance’s policies and procedures for
registering and resolving customer complaints.