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Your Privacy Rights
American Financing Corp, respects the privacy of our consumer
users and has developed this Privacy Policy to demonstrate
its commitment to protecting your privacy. As an individual
who is a user of our websites (including, but not limited
to, AmericanFinancing.net, AmericanFinancingCorp.com), or
otherwise as a user of the services provided by AmericanFinancing.net,
or its divisions and subsidiaries (including, but not limited
to, American Financing Corp;(collectively, "American
Financing"), this Privacy Policy is intended to describe
for you:
the information we collect about you; how that information
may be used; with whom it may be shared; how you may access
the information you provide us; and your choices about such
uses and disclosures.
We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy carefully when
using our websites or services or transacting business with
us. By using our websites, you are accepting the practices
described in this Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions about our privacy practices, please
refer to the end of this Privacy Policy for information on
how to contact us.
AmericanFinancing.net also engages in real estate and real
estate brokerage activities through several other divisions
or subsidiaries (including and maintains several real estate-related
websites.
In General. We may collect personal information that can identify
you such as your name and e-mail address, as well as other
information that does not identify you. When you provide personal
information through our websites, the information may be sent
to American Financing servers located in the United States
and other countries around the world.
Information You Provide. We may collect and store any personal
information you enter on our websites or provide to us in
some other manner. This includes identifying information (such
as your name, home or mailing address, e-mail address, and
telephone number), information about your home or prospective
home, your financial information (such as your income, assets,
or debts), your Social Security number, personal information
(such as your gender and age), and, if you lock-in a loan
through Home Loan Center or American Financing Loans, information
about your lock-fee payment method (valid credit card number,
type, expiration date or other financial information). Information
from Other Sources. We may also periodically obtain both personal
and non-personal information about you from business partners,
contractors and other third parties. Examples of information
that we may receive include credit reports, information about
your home and additional demographic information. However,
American Financing does not pull a credit bureau report on
loan customers without permission. Information about Others.
We may also collect and store personal information that you
provide to us about other people (such as co-borrowers), including
their name, address, phone number, Social Security number,
financial information or other personal information.
We and these companies automatically collect information from
your browser when you visit our websites. This information
includes your IP address, your browser type and language,
access times, the content of any undeleted cookies that your
browser previously accepted from us or them (see "Cookies"
below) and the referring website address. Cookies. When you
visit our websites, we may assign your computer one or more
cookies, to facilitate access to our websites, to personalize
your online experience, and to record information about your
visit to our websites. Through the use of a cookie, we and
these companies also may automatically collect information
about your online activity on websites, such as the web pages
you visit, the links or advertisements you click, or the other
actions you conduct while on websites. The cookies do not
store any personally identifiable information about you. Most
browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually
modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you choose
to decline cookies, please note that you may not be able to
sign in or use some of the interactive features offered on
our websites.
Other Technologies. We may use standard Internet technology,
such as web Woopra and other similar technologies, to track
your use on our websites. We also may include web beacons
in promotional e-mail messages or newsletters to determine
whether messages have been opened and acted upon. The information
we obtain in this manner enables us to customize the services
we offer our websites' visitors to deliver targeted advertisements
and to measure the overall effectiveness of our online advertising,
content, programming or other activities. Information Collected
by Third Parties. We may allow third-parties, including our
authorized service providers, advertising companies, and ad
networks, to display advertisements and other materials on
our websites, and to deploy technology for our benefit, for
example, to load web pages quicker. We and these companies
may use tracking technologies, such as cookies, to collect
information about users who view or interact with these advertisements
and/or connect to our websites. Our websites do not provide
any personal information to these third parties. This information
allows us and these companies to deliver and gauge, among
other things, the effectiveness of targeted advertisements.
Some of these third-party advertising companies may be advertising
networks that are members of the Network Advertising Initiative,
which offers a single location to opt out of ad targeting
from member companies. In general. We may use information
that we collect about you to: deliver the products and services
that you have requested; manage your customer relationship
and provide you with customer support; perform research and
analysis about your use of, or interest in, our products,
services, or content, or products, services or content offered
by others; communicate with you by e-mail, postal mail, telephone
and/or mobile devices about products or services that may
be of interest to you either from us, other AmericanFinancing.net
companies or other third parties; develop and display content
and advertising tailored to your interests on our websites
and other websites; verify your eligibility and deliver prizes
in connection with promotions, contests and sweepstakes; enforce
our terms and conditions; manage our business and perform
functions as otherwise described to you at the time of collection.
Financial Information. We may use financial information to
match you with lenders or to provide lenders' conditional
loan offers to you, to verify your identity, to protect against
or identify possible fraudulent transactions, or otherwise
as needed to manage our business, and, if you request a loan
through American Financing to determine your eligibility for
a loan and to charge you for any lock or processing fees.
Job Applicants. If your personal information is submitted
through our websites when applying for a position with us,
the information will be used solely in connection with considering
and acting upon your application. We may retain your personal
information for a period of time, but only for the purpose
of considering your application for current or future available
positions or as required by law. This information may be shared
with the other AmericanFinancing.net companies for the purpose
of evaluating your qualifications for the particular position
or other available positions, as well as with third-party
service providers retained by us to collect, maintain and
analyze candidate submissions for job postings.
We want you to understand when and with whom we may share
personal or other information we have collected about you
or your activities on our websites or while using our services.
Personal Information. We do not share your personal information
with others except as indicated below or when we inform you
and give you an opportunity to opt out of having your personal
information shared. We may share all types of personal information
with: Authorized Service Providers. We may share your personal
information with our authorized service providers that perform
certain services on our behalf in connection with your request
for a loan. These service providers may include credit bureaus,
title companies, flood or other insurance providers, appraisal
companies, escrow companies, closing agents, other financial
institutions, marketing and customer services firms, credit
card payment processors, as well as companies that support
contests, sweepstakes, surveys, or other features offered
through our websites, or that provide business analysis or
website support. These service providers may have access to
personal information needed to perform their functions but
are not permitted to share or use such information for any
other purpose.
Business Partners. When you express interest in products,
services or promotions offered through our websites or our
services, we may share your expression of interest with the
businesses with which we partner to offer you those products,
services, promotions, contests and/or sweepstakes, and, as
applicable, their affiliates and third-party finder or marketing
companies. When you elect to engage in a particular offer
or program, you authorize us to provide your e-mail address
and other information to those businesses.
Other Lenders or Investors. If you submit a completed American
Financing or GetSmart Loan Request Form ("LRF"),
we may share your personal information with lenders on the
American Financing network with whom you are or may be matched,
or if you are matched with American Financing Loans, third
party investors to whom we intend to transfer your loan after
closing. If you finish the second page of the American Financing
LRF (by hitting the "Accept and Continue" button
on page 2) but leave portions of the LRF incomplete, we may
share your personal information with lenders on the American
Financing network or with American Financing Loans, who may
help you complete your loan request or possibly extend conditional
loan offers to you. However, no credit check will be performed
by American Financing unless you authorize us to do so by
submitting a completed LRF. The lenders with whom you are
matched (i.e., the lenders with whom American Financing shares
your information) will be disclosed to you, and American Financing
will not share information with other lenders not disclosed
to you. Because the lenders on the American Financing network
with whom you are matched may retain or use your personal
information whether or not you qualify for, or obtain, a loan
from them, you should contact these lenders directly concerning
their privacy and information sharing practices.
Other AmericanFinancing.net Businesses. We may share information
we collect, including personal information, with other AmericanFinancing.net
companies (some of which are nonfinancial companies). Sharing
information with the AmericanFinancing.net companies enables
us to provide you with information about a variety of products
and services that might interest you. All AmericanFinancing.net
companies comply with this Privacy Policy. The AmericanFinancing.net
companies also will comply with applicable privacy and security
laws and, at a minimum, in any commercial e-mail they send
to you, will give you the opportunity to choose not to receive
such e-mail messages from that company in the future. However,
in no circumstance will American Financing share with other
AmericanFinancing.net companies any personally identifiable
information that you provide to us if that information bears
on your creditworthiness.
Special Notice to California Residents. American Financing
will not share any personal information about you with other
AmericanFinancing.net companies to the extent prohibited by
applicable California law or to the extent your prior consent
to share is required by applicable California law.
Special Notice to Vermont Residents. American Financing will
not share any personal information about you with other AmericanFinancing.net
companies to the extent prohibited by applicable Vermont law
or to the extent your prior consent to share is required by
applicable Vermont law.
Other Situations. We also may disclose your information: In
response to a subpoena or similar investigative demand, a
court order or a request for cooperation from a law enforcement
or other government agency; to establish or exercise our legal
rights; to defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required
by law. In such cases, we may raise or waive any legal objection
or right available to us. When we believe disclosure is appropriate
in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent or take
other action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud or
other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights, property
or safety of our company, our users, our employees or others;
to comply with applicable law or cooperate with law enforcement;
or to enforce our websites' terms and conditions or other
agreements or policies. In connection with a substantial corporate
transaction, such as the sale of our business, a divestiture,
merger, consolidation, asset sale or in the unlikely event
of bankruptcy. Any third parties to whom we may disclose personal
information may have their own privacy policies that describe
how they use and disclose personal information. Those policies
will govern use, handling and disclosure of your personal
information once we have shared it with those third parties
as described in this Privacy Policy. If you want to learn
more about their privacy practices, we encourage you to visit
the websites of those third parties. These entities or their
servers may be located either inside or outside the United
States.
Aggregated and Non-Personal Information. We may share aggregated
information (i.e., information about you and other customers
collectively, but not specifically identifiable to you) and
other non-personal information we collect under any of the
above circumstances. We may also share it with third parties
and AmericanFinancing.net companies to develop and deliver
targeted advertising on our websites and on websites of third
parties. We may combine non-personal information we collect
with additional non-personal information collected from other
sources. We also may share aggregated information with third
parties, including advisors, advertisers and investors, for
the purpose of conducting general business analysis. For example,
we may tell our advertisers the number of visitors to our
websites and the most popular features or services accessed.
This information does not contain any personal information
and may be used to develop website content and services that
we hope you and other users will find of interest and to target
content and advertising.
Third Party Websites. There are a number of places on our
websites where you may click on a link to access other websites
that do not operate under this Privacy Policy. For example,
if you click on an advertisement or a search result on our
websites, you may be taken to a website that we do not control.
These third-party websites may independently solicit and collect
information, including personal information, from you and,
in some instances, provide us with information about your
activities on those websites.
YOUR CHOICES ABOUT COLLECTION AND USE OF YOUR INFORMATION
You can choose not to provide us with certain information,
but that may result in you being unable to use certain features
of our websites because such information may be required in
order for you to obtain products or services from us. Federal
and state regulations require that we store completed loan
LRFs for various periods of time. In order to comply with
these requirements, we may be unable to delete your information
from our database until the expiration of the applicable period.
HOW WE PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We take appropriate security measures (including physical,
electronic and procedural measures) to help safeguard your
personal information from unauthorized access and disclosure.
For example, only authorized employees and authorized third-party
service providers are permitted to access personal information,
and they may do so only for permitted business functions.
We use encryption in the transmission of your sensitive personal
information between your system and ours, and we use firewalls
to help prevent unauthorized persons from gaining access to
your personal information. We want you to feel confident using
our websites to transact business. However, no system can
be completely secure. Therefore, although we take steps to
secure your information, we do not promise, and you should
not expect, that your personal information, searches or other
communications will always remain secure. Users should also
take care with how they handle and disclose their personal
information. Please refer to the Federal Trade Commission’s
website for information about how to protect yourself against
identity theft.
Photo's
Our photo's are copyrighted. You may not copy or reproduce
any material on our website. Testimonal Images are copyrighted
by third party vendors and are representations from real testimonals.
Children’s
Privacy
Our websites are general audience sites, and we do not knowingly
collect personal information from children under the age of
13. Visiting our Websites From Outside the United States This
Privacy Policy is intended to cover collection of information
on our websites from residents of the United States. If you
are visiting our websites from outside the United States,
please be aware that your information may be transferred to,
stored and processed in the United States where our servers
are located and our central database is operated. The data
protection and other laws of the United States and other countries
might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. Please
be assured that we seek to take reasonable steps to ensure
that your privacy is protected. By using our services, you
understand that your information may be transferred to our
facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as
described in this privacy policy.
No Rights of Third Parties
This Privacy Policy does not create rights enforceable by
third parties or require disclosure of any personal information
relating to users of our websites. Changes to this Privacy
Policy We will occasionally update this Privacy Policy to
reflect changes in our practices and services. When we post
changes to this Privacy Policy. We recommend that you check
our websites from time to time to inform yourself of any changes
in this Privacy Policy or any of our other policies.
Privacy
Rights, Personal Information, Children’s Privacy |