Privacy Policy
We take our ethical responsibilities and your privacy seriously. We have a strong commitment to
providing excellent service to all our clients and visitors of this website, including
respecting
your concerns about privacy. This Privacy Policy describes the collection, use, disclosure, and
protection of your personal information maintained by our Company. If you use this site, you
agree
to the terms and conditions of the Privacy Policy in effect at the time of your use. We hope
that
this disclosure will help increase your confidence in our website and enhance your experience on
the
Internet. Therefore, in compliance with industry standards and applicable regulations, we abide
by
the following privacy policy.
INFORMATION WE COLLECT
The Company collects both personal and non-personal information from you in order to support the
below activities:
- Use of our website;
- Request for quotes, services, support, downloads, trials, whitepapers or information;
- Placement of orders for products or services;
- Registering for events or webinars;
- Subscribing to newsletters, Company programs, promotional emails or other materials;
- Applying for a job, including submitting your resume/CV or creating a candidate profile;
or
- Contacting us via phone or online
Most commonly, personal information including your first and last name, email address, home
address
and telephone number is collected to support these activities. Specifically,
- When you visit our website, we may collect information including the pages you view, the
links
and advertisements you click, search terms you enter, and other actions you take in
connection
with our website and services. We may also collect certain information from the browser you
used
to come to our website, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and
language,
access times, the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the website that referred you to our
website
and to which URL you browse away from our site if you click on a link on our site.
- Placement of orders for products or services may involve the collection of personal
information
including bank account details, Social Security number (SSN), and total debt amount.
- Applying for a job may involve the collection of personal information including educational
background, employment experience and job interest.
When submitting any information to us for these activities, the forms that you choose to complete
will indicate whether the information requested is mandatory or voluntary.
In order to offer you a more consistent and personalized experience in your interactions with the
Company, information collected through one source may be combined with information we obtain
through
other sources. This may include information that allows us to identify you across multiple
devices
through which you access our websites. We may also supplement the information we collect with
information obtained from other parties, including our business partners and other third
parties.
Some Company services may be co-branded and offered in conjunction with another company. If you
register for or use such services, both the Company and the other company may receive
information
collected in conjunction with the co-branded services and may use the information according to
each
company’s privacy statement and other agreements with you.
How We Use Personal Information
The Company may use the Personal Information we collect to:
- Deliver the services and support to carry out the transactions you have requested;
- Send communications to you such as your transaction status including service confirmations,
information about particular Company programs in which you have chosen to participate,
information about products and services available from the Company and promotional offers
and
surveys;
- Facilitate communications from the Company business partners;
- Customize, analyze and improve our products, services (including the content and
advertisements
on our website), technologies, communications and relationship with you;
- Enforce our conditions of sale, website terms and/or separate contracts (if applicable) with
you;
- Prevent fraud and other prohibited or illegal activities;
- Protect the security or integrity of our website(s), our business(es), or our products or
services; or
- Otherwise, as disclosed to you at the point of collection.
The Company collects and subsequently stores all personal data within the United States.
Disclosing Personal Information
We may share your Personal Information with service providers to carry out transactions you
request,
or to make our business more responsive to your needs, which includes third parties providing
you
with information about the Company, and the Company’s branded products and services. These
communications may include requests relating to the Company and the Company-branded products or
services or offers. We will only share your Personal Information with third parties who agree to
protect your Personal Information and use it solely for the purposes set forth by the
Company.
In addition, the Company may share your Personal Information with participants in our sales and
marketing chain, including but not limited to retailers, resellers, distributors, integrators,
order
fulfillers and some sales agents (“Channel Partners”), for the limited purposes of selling,
marketing or providing support for the Company’s products and services.
We may also disclose your Personal Information in connection with law enforcement, fraud
prevention
or other legal action; as required by law or regulation; if the Company (or a part of the
Company)
is sold or merges with another company; or if the Company reasonably believes it is necessary to
protect the Company, its clients or the public.
Except as described above, we will not disclose your Personal Information to third parties solely
for
their own marketing purposes without your consent.
DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES
We may disclose a consumer’s personally identifiable information in order to effect or carry out
any
transaction that you have requested of us or as necessary to complete our contractual
obligations
with you. We prohibit the sale or transfer of personal information to non-affiliated entities
for
their use without giving you the opportunity to opt-out (See Opt-Out below). We may share your
personally identifiable information with affiliated companies that are directly or indirectly
controlled by, or under common control of CreditAssociates. We may send personally identifiable
information about you to non-affiliated companies that are not directly or indirectly controlled
by,
or under common control of, CreditAssociates. The personal information collected on this site
and by
third parties will be used to operate the site and to provide the services or products or carry
out
the transactions you have requested or authorized. We may change or broaden the use of your
personal
information at any time. We may use your personal information to provide promotional offers to
individuals by means of email advertising, telephone marketing, direct mail marketing, banner
advertising, and other possible uses.
CreditAssociates, LLC Service Providers
We may use other third parties to provide certain clerical and information processing and
shipping
services on our site. When you sign up for our services, we will share only as much information
as
is necessary for the provision of those services.
These third parties are prohibited from
using
your personally identifiable information for any other purpose.
UNSUBSCRIBE FROM COMMUNICATIONS
We provide you the opportunity to ‘unsubscribe’ your personally identifiable information used for
certain purposes, when we ask for this information. For example, if you purchase a
product/service
but do not wish to receive any additional marketing material from us, you can indicate your
preference to a client service representative.
If you no longer wish to receive promotional
communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each
communication or by emailing or calling us per the information contained on our contact page.
You
may also go to: www.mail-opt-out.org.
If you do not wish to have your personal information
collected by any third party that is not our agent/service provider, please contact our client
service department to actively opt-out of having your personal information shared. This opt-out
provision is limited to any use of your personal information other than the management of your
CreditAssociates account. This election has no bearing on your account status with
CreditAssociates.
Any change in your account status must be made in accordance with the provisions contained in
your
enrollment documents. To opt-out, email our client service department with “opt-out” and your
client
ID number in the subject line of your message.
SELL OR SHARE MY PERSONAL INFORMATION
The Company does not share personal information about its clients with third parties; however, if
you
elect to not employ our services, we may share certain information with carefully selected third
party service providers such as your name, phone number, email address and physical address.
Under
California’s CCPA law, persons residing in California can request we not share their personal
information with any third parties. By clicking on this link, we will
not share your personal information with third-party service providers. We do not advertise or
target our business to consumers who are under the age of 18. If personal information is
collected
and is discovered to be about an individual under the age of 18, we will immediately take steps
to
remove this information and cease selling any information about that person.
SECURING THE TRANSMISSION AND STORAGE OF INFORMATION
The security of your personal information is extremely important to us. We employ generally
accepted
industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission
and
once we receive it.
Our site uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) security technology to encrypt
information you provide to us through the site when entering sensitive information (such as
credit
card number and/or social security number) on our registration or order forms. This ensures that
your information is encrypted as it travels over the Internet. SSL is an industry-standard
protocol
for encryption over the internet.
After information reaches CreditAssociates, it is stored
on a
secure server that resides behind firewalls designed to block unauthorized access from outside
of
CreditAssociates. You can help to maintain the security of your online transactions by not
sharing
your personal information or password with anyone. Remember, no method of transmission over the
Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure (example: any information you provide
us
by email is not encrypted). Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to
protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If you have
any
questions about the security on our website, please feel free to email us.
To support the function of our website and to provide you with a personalized experience while
visiting our site, we place small data files called “cookies” on your device.
A cookie is a piece of text that is placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit our
website. Depending on the settings you have selected, your browser adds the text to your device
as a
small file. Our website uses cookies to enable you to sign into our services and to help
personalize
your online experience. These technologies and the information collected about you may also be
used
to track your activity across multiple devices. We use cookies to store your preferences and
other
information on your computer in order to save you time by eliminating the need to enter the same
information repeatedly. Personal data including your IP address, X, and Y are collected by these
cookies.
Cookies allow you to take advantage of some of the Company’s essential features. Many browsers
are
set to accept cookies by default. You have the ability to accept or decline
cookies
as you prefer. The “Help” portion of your web browser, most likely found on the toolbar,
typically
tells you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify
you
when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. If you choose to decline
cookies, you may not be able to sign in or use other interactive features of our website and
services that depend on cookies.
Additionally, our site employs “clear gifs” which are tiny graphics with a unique identifier,
similar
in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users and help us
better
manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. For example, we use clear
gifs
in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by recipients. This allows
us
to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing
campaigns. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, clear gifs
are
embedded invisibly on Web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this
sentence.
As is true of most websites, the information we automatically gather from cookies and clear gifs
is
then stored in a “log file.” We use this information to analyze trends, administer the site,
track
users’ movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a
whole, such as age, gender and income.
We do not link this automatically collected data to personally identifiable information.
LINKS TO OTHER SITES
This website may contain links to other sites such as our affiliates as well as third parties
which
are not owned or controlled by us. Please be aware that this privacy policy only addresses our
company’s use and disclosure of your information collected on this site.
While we try to
link
only to sites that share our standards and respect for privacy, we are not responsible for the
privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our site and
to
read the applicable privacy policies and terms of conditions of each and every Web site that
collects personally identifiable information.
This privacy statement applies only to
information
collected by this Service.
CO-BRANDED SITES
We may be co-branded with “partners and affiliates”. These business to business relationships are
helpful to us and to you as they afford all concerned with greater product and service
opportunities.
We always provide opt-out opportunities regarding the sharing of your
information
with such partners and affiliates. Please note the sites linked to our site are governed by
their
own privacy policies which may or may not reach the standards set by our company.
CLIENT SERVICE
If you send us correspondence, including emails, voice mails, forms, chat sessions and faxes, we
may
retain such information in your client file. Information you give us over the telephone may be
noted
for your file. We may also keep copies of any correspondence sent to you. We retain these
records in
order to provide the products and services you have requested and to measure and improve our
client
service. We may, over time, delete these records as permitted by law. Phone calls may be
recorded or
monitored for client satisfaction or training purposes.
Based upon the personally identifiable information you provide, we may communicate with you to
provide the services you request, and to manage your account. We may communicate via email or
telephone, in accordance with your wishes.
LEGAL DISCLAIMERS
We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information, as required, to comply
with the law, applicable regulations, governmental and quasi-governmental requests, judicial
proceedings, court orders or subpoenas, to enforce our Legal Notices or other agreements, or to
protect our rights, property or safety or the rights, property or safety of our users or others
(e.g., to a consumer reporting agency for fraud protection etc.).
SUPPLEMENTATION OF INFORMATION
In order to provide certain services to you, we may on occasion supplement the personal
information
you submitted to us with information from third party sources.
BUSINESS TRANSITIONS
In the event our company goes through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition by
another
company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your personally identifiable information
will
likely be among the assets transferred. You will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice
on
our Web site for 30 days of any such change in ownership or control of your personal
information.
RIGHT TO ANTI-DISCRIMINATION
The Company does not and will not discriminate against any customer or client that exercises
their
rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act. Those rights include requests to access
personal
information, to delete information, and to opt out of the sale of personal information.
The statutory language specifies that discrimination includes, but is not limited to:
(a) denying goods or services to consumers;
(b) charging different prices or rates for goods or services, including through the use of
discounts,
benefits, or other penalties;
(c) providing a different level or quality of goods or services; and
(d) suggesting that a consumer will receive a different price or quality of goods or services if
the
consumer exercises rights under the law.
The CCPA provides certain exceptions to the general prohibition on discrimination. Businesses may
charge consumers different prices or offer different levels of service if the difference is
“reasonably related to the value provided to the consumer by the consumer’s data.” The CCPA also
permits businesses to offer financial incentives—including payments to consumers as compensation
for
the collection, sale, or deletion of personal information—if the programs are not “unjust,
unreasonable, coercive, or usurious in nature,” and if businesses notify consumers of these
financial incentives, obtain opt in consent prior to enrolling a consumer in a financial
incentive
program, and provide consumers with the opportunity to revoke consent for such programs at any
time.
The Challenge of Calculating the Value of the Data to the Consumer
Prohibited discrimination under the CCPA includes offering different prices, qualities of goods,
or
levels of service. But businesses are permitted to offer different prices or levels of service,
if
the difference is “reasonably related to the value provided to the consumer by the consumer’s
data.”
The Practical Impacts on Businesses’ Data Sharing Relationships
In light of the broad definition of “sale,” consumers’ right to opt out of the sale of their
personal
information could disrupt many existing data sharing relationships. Businesses or affiliates
exchanging data about their mutual customers, even as part of a broader relationship, could
potentially be viewed as engaging in a “sale” if it could be viewed as in exchange for “other
valuable consideration.” Such “sale” transfers would therefore be subject to consumer opt out.
And
this broadly framed right to opt out of the sale of personal information, combined with the
anti-discrimination provision, has the potential to significantly impact data-supported business
models.
NEW REQUIREMENTS ON CHILDREN’S AND TEEN’S DATA
The CCPA prohibits businesses from selling data of consumers that they have actual knowledge are
under the age of 16, unless they have
received opt-in consent
(i.e., affirmative authorization) for such sale from: (1) for consumers under the age of 13, the
consumer’s parent or guardian; or (2) for consumers aged 13-16, the consent of the consumer. A
business that willfully disregards the consumer’s age is deemed to have actual knowledge of the
consumer’s age. Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.120. The Company does not advertise or target its business
to
consumers that are under the age of 16. If personal information is collected and is discovered
to be
about an individual under the age of 16, the Company will delete the information.
ACCESS TO PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION
If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our products or
services, you may correct, update, delete or deactivate same by emailing our Client Support by
contacting us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed below.
REQUEST TO KNOW
You have the right to request that the Company disclose certain information to you about our
collection and use of personal information over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm
your
verifiable consumer request, we will disclose to you:
- The collection of personal information we collected about you;
2. The categories of
sources
for the personal information we collected about you;
3. Our business or commercial
purpose
for collecting or selling that personal information;
4. The categories of third parties
with
whom we share that personal information;
5. The specific pieces of personal information
we
collected about you; and
6. If we sold or disclosed your personal information for a
business
purpose, and, if so, the following information:
- Sales, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient
purchased; and
b. Disclosures for a business purpose, identifying the personal
information
categories that each category of recipient obtained.
If you have any further questions regarding this matter, please call 1-800-983-6693
or
email info@creditassociates.com.
SUMMATION OF CONSUMER RIGHTS
The Company adheres to the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) by offering the following
rights
to our consumers. The right to know what personal
information we collect, maintain, disclose, or sell about you. The right to
delete the personal information we maintain about you.
The right to opt-out of the sale of your personal
information. The right to non-discrimination for
exercising these rights. The ability to use
a designated authorized
representative to exercise your rights on your behalf.
The Company also provides the ability for you
to unsubscribe from marketing communications you may
receive via phone, email, or postal mail.
CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT
We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time. We will not jeopardize your
privacy. The provisions contained in this privacy statement supersede all previous notices or
policies regarding our privacy practices with respect to this site. Any and all changes will be
made
here, to this privacy statement.
We encourage you to check our site frequently to see the
current privacy statement to be informed of how we are committed to protecting your information
and
providing you with improved content on our website in order to enhance your online experience.
Upon
any material changes to the policy statement, we will post those changes to this privacy
statement,
the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we
collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
This policy was last reviewed in January 2020.
CONTACT US
If you have any questions, comments, complaints or suggestions regarding our privacy policy or
our
website, please contact us at:
CreditAssociates, LLC
info@creditassociates.com
Terms of Service
CreditAssociates may provide the “User” with access to its website content, resources, tools for
communication, public forums, commerce platforms, and other services (the “Service”).
CreditAssociates provides its Service to the User, subject to the following Terms.
CreditAssociates
is not responsible for providing you access facilities or equipment (in any form) to its
Service.
You, the “User” or “You”, also agree that the Service may include advertisements, analytics and
sponsorships and that such things are necessary for CreditAssociates to provide the Service. You
also agree that CreditAssociates makes no representation or warranty about the suitability,
reliability, availability, timeliness, accuracy of the information, products, services and
related
graphics contained within the Service for any purpose. The Service is provided “as is” without
warranty of any kind. CreditAssociates hereby disclaims all warranties and conditions with
regard to
the Service.
THE SERVICE IS SUBJECT TO ANY APPLICABLE RETAINER AGREEMENTS AND DISCLAIMERS.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS OF SERVICE
The Service is provided to User under the terms and conditions and any amendments thereto and any
operating rules or policies that may be published from time to time by CreditAssociates as part
of
its Terms of Service and related disclosures which are cumulatively included herein by
reference.
The CreditAssociates Terms of Service comprise the entire agreement between the User and
CreditAssociates and supersedes any prior agreements pertaining to the subject matter contained
herein. BY CLICKING THE “SUBMIT” BUTTON, YOU ARE AGREEING TO BE BOUND BY THE CreditAssociates
Terms
of Service, Legal Disclaimer and applicable terms of the Retainer Agreement.
MODIFICATION OF THESE TERMS OF USE
CreditAssociates reserves the right to change any of the terms, conditions, and notices under
which
the Services are offered. You are responsible for regularly reviewing these terms and
conditions,
including changes/modifications, if any, incorporated by us from time to time. Your continued
use of
the Service constitutes your agreement to all such terms, conditions, and notices.
MODIFICATION TO THE SERVICE
CreditAssociates reserves the right to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the
Service
(or any part of the Service) with or without notice to the User at any time and from time to
time.
The User agrees that CreditAssociates shall not be liable to the User or any third party for any
modification or discontinuance of the Service.
USER CONDUCT
The Service may include e-mail services, message boards, chat areas, newsgroups, forums,
communities
and/or other message or communication facilities designed to enable you to communicate with
others
(collectively, “Tools for Communication”). You agree to use the Tools for Communication only to
post, send and receive messages and material that are proper and, when applicable, related to
the
particular tool for Communication. You also hereby agree that you shall not make use of the
Service
for any commercial purpose, including reselling and/or co branding/private labeling. As a
condition
of your use of the Service, you agree to provide: (a) true, accurate, current and complete
information about yourself; (b) maintain and promptly update your information to keep it
accurate,
current and complete. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or
incomplete, CreditAssociates has the right to terminate the User account and refuse any and all
current or future use of the Service; and (c) CreditAssociates has the right to use / disclose
the
aggregate information to third parties in connection with marketing of services, subject to the
privacy policy. You also hereby grant CreditAssociates the right to use your information to
provide
advertising and other service offers. This could also be used to customize the content you see,
to
fulfill your requests for certain products and services and to contact/inform you through e-mail
or
otherwise about special offers or new products.
USAGE OBLIGATIONS
As a condition of your use of the Service, you will not use the Service for any illegal purposes.
You
will be solely responsible for the contents of transmissions made by you through the Service.
You
agree not to use the Service to: (a) Obstruct or hinder the use and enjoyment of the Service by
other Users; (b) Violate any applicable local, state, national, and international laws and
regulations; (c) Impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent
your
affiliation with a person or entity; (d) Interfere with or disrupt the Service or servers or
networks connected to the Service, or defy any requirements, regulations or guidelines of
networks
connected to the Service; (e) Transmit or otherwise make available any material in connection
with
surveys, chain letters, junk e-mail, spamming, contests, pyramid schemes, or any duplicative or
unsolicited messages (commercial or otherwise); (f) Upload, post, e-mail, transmit or otherwise
make
available any content that is unlawful, damaging, intimidating, hostile, offensive, harassing,
defamatory, improper, obscene, vulgar, invasive of another’s privacy, or transmit anything that
is
ethnically or otherwise objectionable; (g) Upload, post, e-mail, transmit or otherwise make
available any content protected by any patent, trademark, copyright or other intellectual
proprietary laws unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all necessary
consents to do the same; (h) Upload files that contain viruses, worms, corrupted files or any
other
similar software or programs designed to disrupt, damage or limit the operation of any computer
or
telecommunications equipment or property of another; (i) “Stalk” or otherwise harass other
users;
collect or store personal data about other user;. (j) Advertise, promote or offer to sell or buy
any
goods or services for any business purpose unless the Service specifically allows such messages
or
transactions; (k) Reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit for any commercial
purposes,
any portion, use or access of the Service; (l) Violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair
Debt
Collection Practices Act or any other law; or (m) Conduct any activity that would aid or assist
terrorism or related activity or would endanger U.S. military personnel.
CreditAssociates
has no
obligation to observe and monitor the Service. However, CreditAssociates reserves the right to
review materials posted and to remove any materials. CreditAssociates also reserves the right to
terminate your access to any or all of the Services, at any time, without notice, for any reason
whatsoever.
CreditAssociates reserves the right subject to attorney-client privilege to the
extent applicable and to the extent the same is not waived through these provisions, at all
times to
divulge any information as it considers necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation,
legal
process or governmental request, or to edit, refuse to post or to remove any information or
materials, in whole or in part. These would be more applicable to the publicly accessible areas
of
the Service that are intended to be available to the general public. For example, publicly
accessible areas of the Service would include message boards and chat rooms that are open to
both
registered users and visitors.
In view of the global nature of the World Wide Web, the User
understands and agrees that technical processing of tools of communication is (and may be)
required
to send and receive messages, to correspond/conform to the technical requirements of connecting
networks, to correspond/conform to the limitations of the Service, or to correspond/conform to
other, similar technical requirements.
DISCLAIMER
Registration information and certain other information about you are subject to our Disclaimer.
For
more information, see our Legal Disclaimer.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
You expressly understand and agree that to the extent permitted by law, CreditAssociates shall
not be
liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages,
including
but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses
(even if CreditAssociates has been advised of the possibility of such damages), resulting from:
(i)
the use or the inability to use the Service; (ii) the cost of procurement of substitute goods
and
services resulting from any goods, data, information or services purchased or obtained or
messages
received or transactions entered into through or from the Service; (iii) unauthorized access to
or
alteration of your transmissions or data; (iv) statements or conduct of any third party on the
Service; (v) the provision of debt settlement or negotiation Services; or (vi) any other matter
relating to the Service.