Privacy Policy – FICO
Effective December 13, 2009
This Privacy Policy sets forth the privacy and security policies and practices of FICO. At FICO
we are committed to providing you with financial products and services to meet your needs.
Our commitment includes protecting personally identifiable information we
obtain about you when you register to use one of our Web sites or become our customer by
obtaining a product from us to be used primarily for personal, family or household purposes
("Personal Information"). We want to earn your trust by providing strict safeguards to
protect this information.
This Privacy Policy applies to current customers, former customers, and applicants for our
products, and describes how we collect, use and disclose Personal Information. Should any
material changes to this Privacy Policy be necessary, you will be notified: if your account
with us is an Internet account, we will post an updated Privacy Policy on the Web site where
you access your account. Changes will take effect 30 days after we post an updated Privacy Policy.
Your continued use of our Web site following the posting of an updated Policy will mean you
accept those changes.
Collecting Personal Information
What You Tell Us; Third Party Sources. We collect Personal Information from
applications, questionnaires, and other forms you submit to us, such as your name, contact
information (address, email, and telephone number), income, job title, Social Security Number,
company's name and location (country, state and zip code), and industry sector. We collect
information from your transactions and interactions with us, such as your professional interests.
We collect personally identifiable information from our business clients, such as contact
information (as defined above) account information, and Social Security Numbers. This information
is handled in accordance with the contractual duties that govern the business relationships
between FICO and our business clients, and it is protected in accordance with such
contractual duties and also by the terms of the Personal Data Security and Confidentiality
section of this Privacy Policy (below).
We may collect Personal Information from credit bureaus if it is necessary for the delivery
of the services we provide you, and we may access public sources of information, such as
census data and real estate records, and private sources of information such as market
research data. Note: this Web site may be hosted by a third party service provider
on servers located in the United States. If you are located in a non-US jurisdiction, you
may be sending your Personal Information to the United States or another jurisdiction
that does not have laws that provide an equivalent level of data protection to the laws
in your home country.
When you visit this Web site we may collect and store, either directly or through the use
of a third party tracking system, the IP address of the computer making the request
(this may not be the IP address of your personal computer, but the IP address assigned to your
internet connection by your Internet service provider or company network); the URL that
is being requested; the date and time of the request; the browser type and operating system
used to make the request; and the referring URL. We also may collect aggregate search terms
from search engine referrals to determine what information visitors are searching for when
they find our Web Sites.
Cookies. A "cookie" is a small piece of information sent by a Web server and
stored by the user's Web browser so the information can later be read back from that browser.
Cookies enable the browser to identify itself to the server, and allow the server to maintain
an active "session" with an individual user. Cookies help the browser remember some specific
information about you, such as your origination information and your product and service
preferences. We use cookies to store these identifiers, which allow us to authenticate you when
you visit the Web site. These identifiers also allow us to personalize and facilitate delivery
of our products and services to you. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by this Web
site but does not cover the use of cookies by our third-party tracking service.
Using Personal Information
Web-Based Tools. Personal Information collected from you is often necessary for the
performance of the services and functionalities offered on the Web site. Information gathered
from Web-based tools may be used to (i) administer and improve our Web Sites and your user
experience, by gathering statistical information about how our Web site is used, and diagnosing
any technical problems which may occur with our servers; and (ii) identify individual users who
have registered for certain products, and track their online activities, including their
registration, submissions, and information requests, in accordance with applicable law. Your
Web browser may be set to accept cookies automatically, but can be changed to decline them.
The Help section of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to set your browser to prevent
accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to
disable cookies altogether. Please note that if you decline to accept cookies, the functionality
of myFICO and Free FICO Score Web sites will be very limited: you will not be able to log into
your account or purchase products.
Email This (tell-a-friend): if you choose to use our referral service to tell a friend
about any of our Web Sites or any of our Products, we will ask you for your friend's name and
email address. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to
visit the site. We do not store this information or disclose or use it for any other purpose.
Send Offers. We use Personal Information to register you with the Web site and provide
you with requested information or services. We may also from time to time use your contact
information to send you information about FICO and marketing materials via telephone,
automated email messages, and direct mail. These email messages may contain web beacons and
other features that tell us you received and were able to open the message. At any time you
may opt out of receiving further email communications from us by clicking the unsubscribe
link in the footer of all FICO email messages. This Web site contains links to other
Web sites: FICO is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of other
Web sites.
Use By Third Parties. If you submit Personal Information to us as part of a
request to be contacted by a lender or lenders, we will supply your personal information to the
lender(s), and one or more lender(s) will use the information you have provided to contact you
regarding the specific product which you have requested. We do not have control over the use of
your personal information once we provide it to the lenders, and we are not responsible for their
privacy practices. Your rights with respect to their treatment of your information will be governed
by their own policies.
Disclosing Personal Information
FICO may disclose Personal Information to third parties as required or permitted
by law, under the following circumstances:
- To companies in our corporate group as necessary or appropriate to provide the product or
service you requested, to contact you in connection with product or service offerings, or for
other legitimate business purposes;
- To companies and individuals with whom we contract to perform business functions and
services on our behalf, e.g., hosting our web servers, analyzing data, providing legal,
accounting and marketing services, and providing other support services;
- To financial service providers such as credit bureaus, insurance companies who help us
market our products, including business partners in joint marketing agreements (CA residents:
we will not disclose information about you to other financial service providers in joint
marketing agreements, other than as required by law, unless you authorize us to do so),
provided such parties maintain the security and confidentiality of the Personal Information,
and process the data in accordance with our instructions;
- To government agencies, advisors, and other third parties in order to comply
with applicable laws, law (e.g., in response to subpoenas or government investigations), to
assert or defend legal claims, and in order to investigate or respond to actual or suspected
illegal activities, fraud, and threats of physical harm, or to protect the rights or property
of FICO or its affiliated companies,
- To carefully selected business partners (e.g., so they can alert you to valuable products
and services;
- To non-financial service providers, such as retailers, online and offline advertisers,
non-profit organizations, and third parties when you direct us to share information
about you: and
- If FICO is in negotiations to be acquired by or merged with another company, or
if the business of the Free FICO score or myFICO® divisions of FICO is acquired
by another company, to the acquiring company.
Personal Data Security and Confidentiality
We have up-to-date physical safeguards, such as secure areas in buildings; electronic
safeguards, such as passwords, internal and external firewalls, and encryption; and
procedural safeguards, such as customer authentication procedures to prevent ID theft.
Information you provide to us when you register for and order our products is transmitted
to us through a secure sockets layer (SSL) transmission. We restrict access to information
about you to only those employees who need to know that information to provide products or
services to you. We carefully select and monitor outside service providers, such as mail
vendors, who have access to customer information, and we require them to keep it safe and
secure. We do not allow them to use or share the information for any purpose other than the
job they are hired to do. We train our employees on these security procedures, and we conduct
regular audits to check on compliance with the procedures. Of course, you must do your part
to ensure the security of your information. For example, you must guard your logon ID and
password and not permit unauthorized use of your account. No security measures can provide
absolute protection of data, but we will strive to provide a superior level of protection
for your information.
InfoVault and EZ Error Correct. Information you enter
in the InfoVault feature of the Suze Orman FICO® Kit and information you include in a dispute
letter in EZ Error Correct is treated differently from other information we may collect from
you. The InfoVault is intended for you to store private information, including personally
identifiable data regarding your accounts, contact information, social security number,
medical records, and other sensitive information that you decide to store there. That
information will be available to you on our site as long as your Suze Orman FICO®
Kit is active.
The information you put into an EZ Error Correct dispute letter will be stored for 90 days
on our servers to allow you to come back and make changes to and reprint the letter. All of
that information is kept separate from any other information covered by this Privacy Policy.
Information stored in the InfoVault and put into EZ Error Correct dispute letters is your
personal information and, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Privacy Policy,
FICO will not use this information in any way or intentionally disclose it to any
third party without your consent or as required by law. However, we recommend
that you be extremely careful about the information you decide to store in the InfoVault
and include in an EZ Error Correct dispute letter. No amount of security can provide
absolute protection. For example, if you were to allow your logon information to fall into
the wrong hands, someone might be able to access your information in the InfoVault or the
dispute letter.
FICO® Forums. If you choose to use the forum on
this Web site, you should be aware that any personally identifiable information you submit
there can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums, and could be used to
send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable
information you choose to submit in these forums.
Your Opt-Out Choices
You have the ability to opt out of certain types of information sharing and communications.
You may tell us not to:
-
Disclose information about you outside our corporate group of companies, except we may disclose
information as required or permitted by law. Required disclosures are made, for example, to
outside auditors and banking regulators. Permitted disclosures are made, for example, to
vendors assisting us in opening, maintaining or servicing your account. (CA, ND, and VT
Residents: We will not disclose information about you outside our corporate group of
companies, other than as required or permitted by law, unless you authorize us to do so.)
You may opt out of our disclosing this information by emailing SharingOptOut@FICO.com.
-
Disclose credit data (i.e., financial data we get from credit bureaus or from you that helps
us determine your eligibility for credit) about you within our corporate group of companies;
we do not disclose credit data outside our corporate group of companies. (VT Residents: We
will not disclose credit information about you within our corporate group of companies, other
than as required or permitted by law, unless you authorize us to do so.) You may opt out of
our disclosing this information by emailing SharingOptOut@FICO.com.
- Solicit you by mail, telephone or e-mail for products and services that are not directly
related to your account and that are outside our regular communications with you (such as your
monthly statement, customer service e-mails or when you call our customer service center). If
you tell us not to solicit you, we will not disclose information about you within our corporate
group of companies for that purpose. You may opt out of receiving these communications and
information when you create your myFICO® and/or free FICO score account by following the
instruction for opting out of the communication programs. You may also opt out at any
time by logging into your account at www.myFICO.com
and/or www.FreeFICOScore.com, clicking
on "Contact Preferences", and editing your preferences to opt out of the communication programs.
If you receive an email from us you may opt out of further email communications by following
the opt-out link contained in the email. (NV residents: you may also contact the Attorney
General at 100 N Carson St. Carson City, NV 89701-4717 or by telephone at 775-684-1100.)
You may exercise your right to opt out of communications and information sharing when you
create your myFICO® or Free FICO Scores account by following the instruction for opting
out of the myFICO® privileges program. You may also exercise your right to opt out any time
by logging into your account at www.myFICO.com,
clicking on "Contact Preferences", and editing your preferences to opt out of the myFICO®
Privileges Program. If you receive an email from us you may exercise your right to opt out of
further email communications by following the opt-out link contained in the email.
Please note that your decision to opt out will not apply to certain disclosures that are
required for us to deliver the Products you have ordered or that are specifically permitted
or required by law. For example, the Products cannot operate unless we transmit data to
companies that help us provide the Products, such as by providing us with credit reports
or processing credit card charges. Your general opt-out instructions also will not apply
to specific disclosures or communications to which you consent.
Other Privacy Information
Information Collected From Business Clients. This Privacy Policy generally does
not apply to personally identifiable information collected, used and disclosed pursuant to
contractual agreements between FICO and its business clients. However, the Personal
Data Security and Confidentiality section of this Privacy Policy (above) is applicable to
all personally identifiable information held at FICO. Subject to contractual
restrictions, FICO may use such personally identifiable information to send
business clients or other businesses information about FICO or other marketing
opportunities via telephone, automated email messages, and direct mail. Email messages
may contain web beacons and other features that tell us the message was received and opened.
At any time the recipient may opt out of receiving further email communications from us by
clicking the unsubscribe link that appears in all FICO email messages. Any business
may also opt out of receiving any marketing solicitation from us, including email, direct
mail, and phone solicitations, by calling us at 1.888.FICO.EDM (888-342-6336) at any time
Monday through Friday. We will not use such personally identifiable information to solicit
individuals or businesses without prior consent in those countries that require opt-in consent.
Why We Collect and Share Information. By knowing more about our customers, we and our
business partners can provide specialized products and services that may be of interest to
you and your family. We can help protect you from identity theft and fraud by verifying your
identity when you open an account with us and when you make transactions. Also, by using
"cookies" when you visit our Web sites, we learn about which parts of these sites
consumers find most useful.
Privacy and Security Tips to Protect Your Account
- Protect your information. Never give your Social Security number or personal credit
information over the phone or the Internet unless you initiate the communication. Keep
your personal identification number (PIN) and password in a safe place. Try to memorize
your PIN and password and do not write them down with your account information.
- Destroy or securely store your account records. Tear or shred receipts, bank statements
and unused credit card offers. Keep billing statements and other account-related documents
in a safe place.
- Regularly review your credit report. Keeping your credit report error free is important.
Order a copy of your credit report and report any mistakes to the credit bureau and the
creditor reporting the information. All consumers have the right to request one free
report per year. See www.ftc.gov for more information.
The three national credit bureaus are:
Equifax – www.equifax.com, 1-800-685-1111
Experian – www.experian.com, 1-888-397-3742
TransUnion – www.transunion.com, 1-800-916-8800
- Check your billing statements.
Review your statements thoroughly. Contact all your creditors immediately if
you notice incorrect transactions.
- If you lose your credit card or suspect that you have been a victim of identity
theft, immediately notify your creditors, local law enforcement and the credit bureau
agencies listed above. If you think your identity has been stolen, you may want to visit http://www.ftc.gov/idtheft, sponsored by
the Federal Trade Commission.
Personal Data Access and Correction. FICO will provide you access to Personal
Information about you so you can correct or delete the Personal Information in accordance with
applicable law. You may have additional rights in non-U.S. countries, such as objecting to and
blocking the processing of your Personal Information. For security reasons, FICO will
take steps to authenticate your identity before providing you with access to Personal
Information.
Revisions to the Policy. If we change this Policy we will post the changes here and on
the home page at www.fairisaac.com
with 30 days notice before the revised Policy becomes effective. In countries outside the
United States, we will also take other steps as required by law, such as obtaining your
consent or providing you with the opportunity to delete your Personal Information.
Children's Privacy. The Web Sites and the Products are intended for use
only by adults. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information
from children.
Contacting Us. If you have questions about this Privacy
Policy or about our information practices, you can contact our customer care
team at https://www.MortgageReliefOnline.com/contact_us.aspx
or 1-800-319-4433, or send correspondence to:
Customer Care Team
200 Smith Ranch Road
San Rafael, CA 94903