Privacy Policy

Update on April 15, 2024

This Online Privacy Policy (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the “Notice”) applies to this SmartLoansFirst.com. The term SmartLoansFirst.com or “we” or “us” or “our” in this Notice refers to affiliates or subsidiaries of SmartLoansFirst.com that link to this Notice. This Notice describes how Sites may collect, use and share information from or about you, and explains how information may be collected and used for advertising purposes.

Agreement to this Policy: By using this Site you consent to this Online Privacy Policy, including your consent to our use and disclosure of information about you in the manner described herein.

We will use and share any information that we collect from or about you in accordance with SmartLoansFirst.com‘s Privacy Policy, which provides choices in the use and sharing of information. The terms and conditions of this Notice control, and by using the Site, you agree to the terms and conditions of this Notice.

Collecting and Using Information

When you subscribe to or visit SmartLoansFirst.com, you may be asked to disclose personally identifiable information. You may also choose to submit personally identifiable information to us when you send us an email. You acknowledge and agree that we may use and store any such information about you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. We may also process and store your personally identifiable information on a server located outside of your jurisdiction. By providing your Personally Identifiable Information to us, you consent to the transfer of your information across national boundaries. If you do not consent to such transfer as well as the processing and storage of your personally identifiable information outside your jurisdiction, you should not provide such information to us.

How We Use Personal Information

We may use Personal Information:

• • to respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests;
• • to inform you about important information regarding the Site, products or services for which you apply or in which you are enrolled, changes to terms, conditions, and policies and/or other administrative information;
• • to deliver marketing communications that we believe may be of interest to you, including, ads or offers tailored to you, including ads on other websites;
• • to personalize your experience on the Site;
• • to allow you to apply for products or services and evaluate your eligibility for such products or services;
• • to verify your identity and/or location (or the identity or location of your representative or agent) in order to allow access to your services, conduct online transactions and to maintain measures aimed at preventing fraud and protecting the security of your personal information;
• • for business purposes, including data analysis, audits, developing and improving products and services, enhancing the Site, identifying usage trends and determining the effectiveness of promotional campaigns;
• • for risk control, for fraud detection and prevention, to comply with laws and regulations, and to comply with other legal process and law enforcement requirements;
• • to allow you to utilize features within our Sites by granting us access to information from your device such as contact lists, or geo-location when you request certain services.

How Personal Information is Shared

When you submit personally identifiable information to us (which may include first name, last name, email address, zip code and contact phone number), we share this information with 3rd party service providers for the products that you were requesting assistance with and may also be used for cross-marketing purposes with affiliates for offers that we believe may be of benefit to you, based upon your initial request.

Security

To protect Personal Information from unauthorized access and use, we use security measures that comply with applicable federal and state laws. These measures may include device safeguards and secured files and buildings as well as oversight of our third party service providers to ensure information remains confidential and secure. While we follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us (both during and once we receive it), no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Provisions for California Residents

These Provisions for California Residents (“Provisions”) supplement, and do not limit in any way, the Privacy Policy set forth above. These Provisions apply solely to residents of the State of California (“CA Users”). We adopt these Provisions in compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) and other applicable California State privacy laws. Any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in these Provisions.

Information We Collect

We collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or device (“personal information”). In particular, we have collected the following categories of personal information from consumers within the last twelve (12) months:

Category	Examples	Collected
A. Identifiers.	A real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, Social Security number, driver’s license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers.	YES
B. Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)).	A name, signature, Social Security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver’s license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information. Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other categories.	YES
C. Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law.	Age (40 years or older), race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, religion or creed, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, sex (including gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy or childbirth and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, veteran or military status, genetic information (including familial genetic information).	NO
D. Commercial information.	Records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.	NO
E. Biometric information.	Genetic, physiological, behavioral, and biological characteristics, or activity patterns used to extract a template or other identifier or identifying information, such as, fingerprints, faceprints, and voiceprints, iris or retina scans, keystroke, gait, or other physical patterns, and sleep, health, or exercise data.	NO
F. Internet or other similar network activity.	Browsing history, search history, information on a consumer’s interaction with a website, application, or advertisement.	NO
G. Geolocation data.	Physical location or movements.	NO
H. Sensory data.	Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information.	NO
I. Professional or employment-related information.	Current or past job history or performance evaluations.	NO
J. Non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)).	Education records directly related to a student maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalf, such as grades, transcripts, class lists, student schedules, student identification codes, student financial information, or student disciplinary records.	NO
K. Inferences drawn from other personal information.	Profile reflecting a person’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.	NO

Personal information does not include:

• Publicly available information from government records.
• De-identified or aggregated consumer information.
• Information excluded from the CCPA’s scope, like:
  • health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) or clinical trial data;
  • personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994.

We obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:

• The following are examples. Insert your own sources here.
• Directly from our clients or their agents. For example, from documents that our clients provide to us related to the services for which they engage us.
• Indirectly from our clients or their agents. For example, through information we collect from our clients in the course of providing services to them.
• Directly and indirectly from activity on our website. For example, from submissions through our website portal or website usage details collected automatically.
• From third-parties that interact with us in connection with the services we perform.

Use of Personal Information

We may use or disclose the personal information we collect for one or more of the following business purposes:

• To fulfill or meet the reason for which the information is provided. For example, if you provide us with personal information in order for us to prepare a tax return, we will use that information to prepare the return and submit it to the applicable taxing authorities.
• To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us.
• To provide you with email alerts, event registrations and other notices concerning our products or services, or events or news, that may be of interest to you.
• To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collections.
• To improve our website and present its contents to you.
• For testing, research, analysis and product development.
• As necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property or safety of us, our clients or others.
• To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
• As described to you when collecting your personal information or as otherwise set forth in the CCPA.
• To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us is among the assets transferred.

We will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collect for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.

Sharing Personal Information

We may disclose your personal information to a third party for a business purpose. When we disclose personal information for a business purpose, we enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personal information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.

In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have disclosed the following categories of personal information for a business purpose:

Category A: Identifiers.
Category B: California Customer Records personal information categories.

We disclose your personal information for a business purpose to the following categories of third parties:

• Our affiliates.
• Service providers.
• Third parties to whom you or your agents authorize us to disclose your personal information in connection with products or services we provide to you.

In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have not sold any personal information.

Your Rights and Choices

The CCPA provides consumers (California residents) with specific rights regarding their personal information. This section describes your CCPA rights and explains how to exercise those rights.

Access to Specific Information and Data Portability Rights

You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will disclose to you:

• The categories of personal information we collected about you.
• The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.
• Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that personal information.
• The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.
• The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you (also called a data portability request).
• If we sold or disclosed your personal information for a business purpose, two separate lists disclosing:
  • sales, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient purchased; and
  • disclosures for a business purpose, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient obtained.

Deletion Request Rights

You have the right to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.

We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service providers to:

1. Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.
2. Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
3. Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
4. Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
5. Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 seq.).
6. Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.
7. Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
8. Comply with a legal obligation.
9. Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

Exercising Access, Data Portability, Deletion, and Opt-out Rights

To exercise the access, portability, deletion, or opt-out rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by either:

• Emailing: support@SmartLoansFirst.com

Only you or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.

You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must:

• Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person or an authorized representative of the person we collected personal information on.
• Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.

Response Timing and Format

We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. If you have an account with us, we will deliver our written response to that account. If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option. Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request’s receipt. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily usable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:

• Deny you goods or services.
• Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.
• Provide you a different level or quality of goods or services.
• Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

Changes to Our Privacy Notice

We reserve the right to amend this privacy notice at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this privacy notice, we will notify you by email or through a notice on our website homepage.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or comments about this notice, our Privacy Statement, the ways in which we collect and use your personal information, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under California law, please do not hesitate to contact us at:

support@smartloansfirst.com

Protecting children’s privacy online

The Site is not directed to individuals under the age of eighteen (18), and we request that these individuals do not provide Personal Information through the Site. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 18 without parental consent. Visit the Federal Trade Commission website for more information about the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).