Privacy Policy
Effective November 1, 2008
This Privacy Policy
sets forth the privacy and security policies and practices of Fair Isaac
Corporation. At Fair Isaac 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 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,
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 may collect 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 is 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 Fair Isaac 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 Fair Isaac email messages. This Web site contains links to
other Web sites: Fair Isaac 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
Fair Isaac 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 Fair Isaac 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 Fair Isaac 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 Fair Isaac 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, Fair Isaac 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@FairIsaac.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@FairIsaac.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 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 does not apply to personally identifiable information collected, used
and disclosed pursuant to contractual agreements between Fair Isaac 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 Fair Isaac. Subject to contractual
restrictions, Fair Isaac may use such personally identifiable information to
send business clients or other businesses information about Fair Isaac 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 Fair Isaac 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. Fair Isaac 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, Fair Isaac 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.myfico.com/help/contactus.aspx
or 1-800-319-4433, or send correspondence to:
Customer Care Team
200 Smith Ranch Road
San Rafael, CA 94903