The Investor, Inc. Privacy Statement
The privacy portion of our Web site is divided into two parts. The first part contains The Investor, Inc.’s privacy notice complying with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and federal regulations governing the privacy of financial information applicable to individual consumers.
The second part contains a description of our Internet privacy practices applicable to all Internet users.
Privacy Notice
Your privacy is important to us
At The Investor, Inc., we are committed to providing you with the finest financial products and services backed by consistently top-quality service. And while information about you is fundamental to our ability to do this, we fully recognize the importance of keeping personal and account information secure.
To offer you the widest range of products and services, The Investor, Inc. may share information about you both within The Investor, Inc. and outside of The Investor, Inc. with other companies. This allows us to offer you products and services that may interest you and best meet your needs, whether they are available directly from The Investor, Inc. or through our relationships with other companies.
We want you to understand our information safeguards, what information we collect, what information we share, and the benefits you receive when we share information about you.
This notice describes the privacy practices of The Investor, Inc. and all The Investor, Inc. affiliates, for financial products and services governed by the laws of the United States of America.
This notice explains The Investor, Inc.’s information collection and sharing practices and lets you choose whether or not The Investor, Inc. may share certain information about you, either within The Investor, Inc. or outside of The Investor, Inc. with other companies.
Our Security Procedures
The Investor, Inc. understands the importance of protecting and securing information and using it appropriately. Access to information about you is restricted to the people of The Investor, Inc. who require it to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards for the security of information.
When The Investor, Inc. shares information about you with companies outside of The Investor, Inc., we require them to impose safeguards, use it only for a permitted purpose, and to return it to us or destroy it once that purpose is served. We limit the amount of information shared to what is appropriate to offer a product or service efficiently.
The Investor, Inc. requires any company receiving information from The Investor, Inc. to sign a Confidentiality Agreement containing these requirements and obligating that company to protect the information as we would.
Information We Collect
The Investor, Inc. collects and uses nonpublic personal information about you to conduct our business and to consistently deliver the top-quality Customer service you expect from us. Sources of this information include the following:
- Information we receive from you on applications and other forms or through your correspondence or communication with us including through the mail, by telephone, or over the Internet;
- Information we receive from third parties, such as consumer reporting agencies, to verify statements you’ve made to us, or regarding your employment, credit, or other relationships; and
- Information about your transactions with The Investor, Inc. and with other companies outside of The Investor, Inc..
Information We Share Within The Investor, Inc.
We may share all of the information we collect about you with financial service companies within The Investor, Inc. to offer additional products or services that may interest you and best meet your needs. We believe this is convenient for you and may save you both time and money. To do so, we share identification information (such as name and address), transaction and experience information (such as purchases and payments), credit eligibility information (such as credit reports and applications), and other information. The decision to purchase any such products or services is yours alone. You may tell us not to share credit eligibility information about you within The Investor, Inc., but please understand this does not prohibit us from offering you additional products and services or from sharing transaction and experience, identification, and other information within The Investor, Inc..
Information We Share With Others
From time to time, we may allow companies outside of The Investor, Inc. to offer you their products and services that may interest you. These products and services may be offered by financial service providers (such as banks, loan brokers, account aggregators, insurance agents, insurance companies, mortgage bankers, and securities broker-dealers), by nonfinancial companies (such as retailers, direct marketers, communications companies, Internet service providers, manufacturers, service companies, travel agents, cruise lines, car rental agencies, hotels, airlines, publishers, and organizations endorsing The Investor, Inc. financial products or services), and others (such as nonprofit organizations). Subject to applicable law, we may share all the information we collect with these companies outside of The Investor, Inc., unless you tell us not to.
Additionally, we may share all the information we collect with companies that perform marketing or other services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with which we have joint marketing agreements. We are also permitted by law to share information about you with other companies in certain circumstances. For instance, we may share all of the information we collect with companies assisting us in servicing your account, with companies that endorse our products and services through affinity agreements, with government entities in response to subpoenas or regulatory requirements, and with consumer reporting agencies. If you tell us not to share information with companies outside of The Investor, Inc. that wish to offer you their products and services, as described above, please understand that we will continue to share information in these additional circumstances.
Important Information About Your Choice
We’re dedicated to serving your needs - and to respecting your choices related to privacy. You may tell us not to share credit eligibility information within The Investor, Inc., and you may tell us not to share information with companies outside of The Investor, Inc. that wish to offer you their products and services as described above. If you wish to opt out of such information sharing, please use the secure registration update forms as directed from our home page. We will ask you to verify your identity and the specific accounts to which the opt out applies, so please have all your account, membership, or reference numbers and your Social Security number or Taxpayer Identification number available when you call.
The Investor, Inc. applies opt outs at the account level, not by individual Customer. When any person listed with others on an account opts out (for example, a co-applicant, joint account holder, or authorized user), we will list the entire account as having opted out. The Investor, Inc. will continue to adhere to its disclosed privacy practices for an account even if it becomes inactive or is closed.
An opt out from information sharing on an account as described above, either within The Investor, Inc. and/or with companies outside of The Investor, Inc., remains effective unless revoked in writing. Federal regulations require us to provide this notice on an annual basis, whether or not an account has previously opted out from either type of information sharing. Please remember when you receive our subsequent notices that an account previously opted out from either or both types of information sharing (and not revoked in writing) does not need to be opted out again.
This notice updates and replaces any previous notices from The Investor, Inc. about the privacy, security, and protection of information. For additional information regarding The Investor, Inc.’s privacy practices concerning the Internet, and to view the most recent version of this privacy notice, please go to www.theinvestor.com and click on “Privacy Statement.” You may have other privacy protections under state laws. We may amend this privacy notice at any time, and we will inform you of changes as required by law.
This Privacy Notice was last updated November 6, 2001. Please check back periodically for updates and changes.
Internet Privacy Practices
Web Site Privacy
The The Investor, Inc. Web servers automatically recognize and record the domain name from which you access the Internet and the names of the pages you visit while at an The Investor, Inc. Web site. The The Investor, Inc. Web servers do not automatically extract or store your electronic mail address (See E-Mail Addresses below). The information automatically recognized and recorded is not personally identifiable and is used to improve the content of The Investor, Inc. Web sites and make them more useful.
E-mail Addresses
If you supply us with your e-mail address, we may let you know by e-mail about other products and services that may be of interest to you. Each e-mail message we send offering products or services provides you the opportunity to tell us that you do not wish to receive such messages from us in the future. However, The Investor, Inc. reserves the right to communicate with you through e-mail about your account.
Internet Security
The Investor, Inc. uses encryption technology to protect certain information sent over the Internet. SSL is an encryption technology known as “Secure Sockets Layer”. SSL encrypts transmissions between two parties and verifies the Web site server you are communicating with. An “s” after the “http” in a Web site’s address indicates that you are attached to a secure server using SSL technology. Additionally, if your browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0, Netscape Navigator 4.0, or a higher version of either, a picture of a lock or a key should appear in the lower right hand corner of the browser’s window.
Use of Cookies
Some of The Investor, Inc.'s Web sites may use a feature of your Internet browser called a cookie. Cookies are files placed within your browser on your computer’s hard drive by a Web site server. The Investor, Inc. Web sites may use cookies to facilitate your Internet sessions, to maintain security and to improve our Web sites. For example, The Investor, Inc. uses cookies to verify your identity, remember your personal settings such as your offer preferences, and to monitor your use of The Investor, Inc. Web sites to improve our services. If you choose not to enable cookies on your browser, you will not be able to use some of the services offered on The Investor, Inc.’s Web sites.
Advertising Services
The Investor, Inc. uses third party companies to serve ads on our Web site and other Web sites. These companies help The Investor, Inc. execute, optimize, and measure the effectiveness of our online banner advertising programs. These companies use cookies and non-personally identifiable information (for example, information that does not include name, address, e-mail address or telephone number) about your visit to this and other Web sites to measure advertising effectiveness and to provide ads about goods and services that may interest you. If you wish to opt out of such information sharing, please use the secure registration update forms as directed from our home page.
The Investor, Inc.’s banner advertisements and online applications may contain small graphics with tags in them. These tags are not personally identifiable and work in conjunction with these cookies. These tags allow us to measure the effectiveness and response rates of our advertising.
Children
The Investor, Inc. Web sites do not knowingly collect or use personal information from children under age 13 without obtaining verifiable parental consent. If a child whom we know to be under age 13 sends personal information to one of The Investor, Inc.'s Web sites, we will use that information only in accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
To Further Protect Your Privacy
While exploring the services offered through The Investor, Inc.’s Web sites, please be aware that other online retailers, partners, third party Internet sites, and third party services accessible through The Investor, Inc.’s Web sites, have separate privacy and data collection policies and practices, which are independent of and may be different from The Investor, Inc.’s policies and practices. The Investor, Inc. is not responsible or liable for these independent policies and practices and it is your responsibility to review them and decide whether or not they satisfactorily protect your rights.
These Internet Privacy Practices were last updated November 6, 2001 and update and replace any previous Internet Privacy Practices from The Investor, Inc.. We may amend these Internet Privacy Practices at any time, and when such a change is made we will post a revised version on this, The Investor, Inc. Web site. Changes will be effective when they are posted. It is your responsibility to review these Internet Privacy Practices from time to time to be aware of any such changes. Your continued use of this The Investor, Inc. Web site indicates your agreement to any such changes.