Online Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting this John Hancock website. We hope that you will find here tools and information to help you reach your financial goals. As you visit these pages, we want you to be aware of our commitment to protecting the privacy of the information supplied by our visitors on this site.

With that in mind, we have established this Privacy Policy to describe how we may be collecting and using information provided through visits to this website and to those websites maintained by affiliates of John Hancock that may link to this Online Privacy Policy. If you are or should you become a customer of John Hancock, the information we maintain in connection with that customer relationship is protected under the terms of our Customer Information Privacy Policy.

Most of the tools and applications available on this website do not require you to provide any personal information. Examples of personal information include name, address, e-mail address, phone number, account number, and other information that may identify you. To take advantage of certain features, however, personal information about you may be requested to:

• Help transact your business
• Register you for a website service
• Respond to your inquiry
• Conduct a survey

Also, certain features of our website are secured, and require identifying information and use passwords to access customer accounts or other secured information.

In all cases, your decision to provide us with personal information is voluntary, and such information will only be used to help transact your business or respond to your questions.

John Hancock and its affiliated companies do not disclose any personal information obtained from our site visitors without their consent to any unaffiliated third party for purposes unrelated to servicing their requests, unless required to do so by law or other regulatory authority. Information provided in a request for service or information is forwarded to the John Hancock affiliate or business that will respond to the request. Your requests for brochures or other information may be forwarded for processing to an independent mail fulfillment firm.

Many visitors to our site wish to remain apprised of new products and services and opportunities. In that case, you may request to receive e-mail messages from us by so indicating and providing your e-mail address on the forms provided.

Like most websites, ours may automatically collect information about your computer hardware and software which may include your browser type, operating system, access times and Internet Protocol (IP) address. We use this data in aggregated form only (not in any form that personally identifies you) to track use of our tools and features for internal programming and demographic and other research purposes. In addition, we may maintain records of access by our registered users to the secured features of our website.

Cookies are used for a number of administrative purposes, including filtering the content we present you to help make navigating the site easier (for example, to filter content based on your state). The cookies themselves do not contain sensitive data, and sensitive data cannot be accessed without entering a user name and password.

We employ technologies intended to safeguard the transmission of your personal information through this site although no website guarantees 100% security. A "secure connection" is established using Secure Socket Layer protocol (SSL) whenever you send or receive personal data. This encryption scrambles your personal information as it travels over the Internet from your browser to our secure Web server. This protocol is supported in the newest versions of Firefox, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and America Online, the most popular Web browsers. This John Hancock website prohibits personal information to be transmitted unless a secure connection can be established. You may set your browser preferences to alert you every time you submit a non-encrypted form.

Please note that unless indicated, general e-mail sent to John Hancock is NOT secure. You will always have the option of submitting information by phone, fax or regular mail.

This Online Privacy Policy was last revised in November 2004. We recommend that visitors to this site revisit this page on occasion to learn of new privacy practices and changes to our policy.

It is our sincerest hope that all who participate here will do so with confidence, and come away from the experience with valuable insights and a renewed commitment to achieving the financial stability they and their loved ones deserve.

Security

At John Hancock, information security is of vital importance. We are strongly committed to protecting our customers' personal information.

What we do

John Hancock's Internet services are designed with security technologies to protect data for both John Hancock and for you, our customer. We use Secure Socket Layer protocol (SSL) with 128-bit encryption to protect personal information sent or received through this site. If your browser supports this, you will see https:// in the address bar indicating the pages are secure instead of http:// which is used for unsecured web pages. This protocol is supported in the latest versions of the most popular web browsers, such as Firefox, Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and America Online.

To learn more about your web browser security, go to your web browser's homepage.

To provide additional protection, we employ a timeout feature on selected areas of our website. This feature automatically logs you out of your account after an extended period of time. Re-establishing and authenticating your credentials for your online session can help reduce the possibility of unauthorized access to your accounts with us.

What we don't do

We never send you messages asking you to provide us with personal or account information via email.

What you should do

Security is everyone's responsibility and we encourage you to take steps to protect your personal information.

• Always verify the website name that is the "Address" (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) bar at the top of the browser, for example www.johnhancock.com, www.jhfunds.com, etc.
• Keep your passwords and PINs (Personal Identification Numbers) safe. Do not tell anyone your password or PIN.
• Change your passwords on a regular basis and follow the Guidelines for Good Passwords when you are setting your password:
  • use 6-digit passwords. Avoid birthday dates, numeric sequences or any other combinations that can be easily guessed
  • change your passwords frequently
  • use different passwords for every system you access
• Always log off to end your secure session.
• Consider using a personal firewall to prevent hackers from accessing your personal computer, especially if you are using DSL or a cable modem to access the Internet.
• Install virus protection software and scan all downloaded software, as well as all diskettes, before use. Also, delete emails with attachments from unknown sources.
• Be aware of possible scams, such as "phishing" emails. You may have experienced or read about recent incidents of unsolicited email messages purporting to be from genuine companies that deceive recipients into revealing personal information. These "phishing" emails send you to websites that look like a legitimate company's website that ask for your personal and financial information. At no time does John Hancock request personal or financial information by sending out unsolicited emails. You should never send personal identification numbers or other personal confidential information by email as it is not a secure method of contact.

What a phishing email looks like

Phishing starts when unsolicited emails are sent out asking customers to click on a link or attachment to update or change personal information, apply for additional products, or avoid having accounts suspended or closed or to claim prizes. After clicking on an attachment or link from the unsolicited email, the user is taken to a fake site that requests confidential personal information, which could include bank card numbers, user IDs, passwords, personal identification number (PIN), credit card numbers, social security numbers (SSN), account numbers or other personal information.

How can you identify these scams?

There are some common elements that these type of scams use that will help you identify them:

• They are designed to look and feel like the legitimate website
• They are most commonly sent out through unsolicited emails, containing links or attachments
• The web address will often have the @ symbol or a numeric address (eg.123.456.1.2). The address may also include the word, phrase or text 'jhancock' to make it appear authentic.

How you can help protect yourself

It is important to know that there are ways you can help protect yourself from email fraud and websites that request your personal or financial information. If you receive an email pretending to be from John Hancock that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply or click on the link in the email. To verify that the email is legitimate, contact us immediately.

What you should not do

• use words from dictionaries, names of friends or relatives, calendar dates or common phrases
• use combinations of your name and initials
• tell anyone your password
• write passwords on easily accessible places such as your desk calendar or under your keyboard
  
• Use software that "memorizes" passwords. Though convenient, somebody else might be able to use them if you leave your computer unattended.
• Leave your computer with a secure session running. We will automatically log you out of a secure session that is left idle.
• Send confidential or personal information through email, as it is NOT a secure method of contact.
• Use a computer in a public place (for example in a library or an Internet café) to conduct financial transactions.
• Please keep in mind that email messages are not encrypted and therefore, subject to being intercepted and read by third parties.

Other ways to protect yourself:

• Review your financial statements regularly for unauthorized or suspicious transactions.
• Never send personal and/or financial information via unsecured email.
• Do not trust email headers as they can be easily forged.
• Always enter your John Hancock website address using your bookmarks or any of our published URLs.