Privacy Policy
Your Privacy Rights
Last Updated: May 17, 2015
2012 Consumer Privacy Disclosure
This website is owned and operated by LendingTree, Inc. subsidiary, division or line of business. For a list of LendingTree, Inc. subsidiaries, divisions, lines of business and websites (collectively, "LendingTree Businesses") please see "LendingTree Businesses" below. We want you to understand what information we gather about you, how we use it and the safeguards we have in place to protect it. This Privacy Policy applies to information collected through this website and otherwise. By using this website and our services, MyLendingTree Account, or through an advertisement or linking from a third party site, you consent to this Policy, including your consent to our use and disclosure of information about you as required under current Federal, State, and/or local law, as well as in the manner described below in this Policy.
Any disputes arising from use of this site and/or LendingTree services, is subject to this Privacy Policy as well as the website’s Terms of Use and all of its dispute resolution provisions, including arbitration, limitation on damages and choice of law.
This website is a general audience site and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. For more information about the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), view the FTC website at www.ftc.gov.
- Information We Collect. We collect personally identifiable information that can identify you such as your name, address, telephone number, mobile number, e-mail address and Social Security Number ("Personally Identifiable Information" or "PII"). We also collect information such as demographic data and data about your online activity on our website that does not identify you ("Non-Personally Identifiable Information" or "Non-PII"). PII and Non-PII are known together as "Information". We may also collect and store Information that you provide to us about other people (such as co-borrowers), including their name, address, telephone number, mobile devices, email addressand Social Security Number.
b. Other Sources. We may obtain Information about you from third parties such as: credit reports, information about your home and demographic information. We do not pull a hard inquiry relating to your credit bureau report rather a soft inquiry is performed in order to assist in complying with federal, state and local laws relating to Anti-Money Laundering and Identity theft. None of the information obtained is shared with any matched service provider relating to your inquiry, rather the information may only be accessed by and disclosed to LendingTree employees with a legitimate business need to know in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Information such as Social Security Number (SSN), date of birth (DOB), address and phone number may be verified by third parties to assist in the prevention of identity theft, consumer identification and verification. LendingTree takes your privacy seriously and performs these checks using best practices according to industry standards and does not alter or change the information you provide in your inquiry form.
- Deliver the products and services you requested;
- Manage your customer relationship and provide you with customer support;
- Research and analyze your use of, or interest in, our products, services and content and the products, services and content offered by others;
- Communicate with you via e-mail, telephone, postal mail and/or mobile devices about products or services that may be of interest to you;
- Develop and display content and services tailored to your interests on our website and other websites;
- Develop and deliver targeted advertisements;
- Measure the overall effectiveness of our online advertising, content, programming and other activities;
- Verify your eligibility and deliver prizes in connection with promotions, contests and sweepstakes;
- Manage our business; and
- Perform functions as described to you at the time of collection.
4. With Whom do we Share Your Information
BE AWARE that the Lenders with whom you are matched may retain or use your Information whether or not you use their services and you should contact these Lenders directly concerning their privacy and information sharing practices which may differ from LendingTree.
d. Referrals for your Non-Mortgage Business. When you express interest in other products, services, promotions that we offer (by, for example, completing an inquiry for such services), we will share your request or expression of interest with the businesses with which we partner to offer you those products, services and promotions, and, as applicable, with their affiliates and third party finder or marketing companies (collectively, "Business Providers"). When you choose to participate in a particular offer or program, you authorize us to provide PII to those Business Providers. Be aware the Business Providers with whom we share your Information may retain or use your Information whether or not you use their services and you should contact these parties directly concerning their privacy and information sharing practices which may differ from ours.
e. Services Providers. We may share your personal information with our authorized service providers that perform certain services on our behalf including, but not limited toservice providers that perform services on our behalf in connection with your request for a loan or the funding, sale and/or servicing of your loan. These third parties include, without limitation credit bureaus, title companies, flood or other insurance companies, appraisal companies, escrow companies, closing agents, marketing and customer services firms, credit card, or entities that provide business analysis or website support. These third parties may have access to PII needed to perform their functions.
5. Other Situations. We also may disclose your information at our sole discretion:
- 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 we reasonably believe is 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 actual or suspected illegal activity or other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, our employees or others; 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.
- In connection with state and/or federal licensing requirements wherein reporting of information regarding your inquiry to the closing of your loan. You authorize LendingTree to obtain any and all necessary information required from the "Lender" or "Provider" you choose to report back any and all required information relating to the disposition of your request. For example, if the loan closed, if you withdrew the request, if you were not approved. In addition, under current reporting requirements the lender may provide to LendingTree the loan you selected, the terms of the same, fees, rate, APR etc. in order to comply with current laws and regulations.
7. Considerations. For certain products and services available through LendingTree's Website, we will not share your email address or phone number with the Business Provider or Lender with whom you are matched. Where this feature is available for a product or service, it will be noted on the web page for that product or service. Nevertheless these Business Providers and Lender will still receive other PII about you and they may retain or use your PII whether or not you use their services and you should contact these Providers or Lenders directly concerning their privacy and information sharing practices, which may differ from ours.
8. Non-Personally Identifiable Information. We may share Non-PII with third parties in our discretion.
9. Third Party Links and Policies. Our website contains links to other websites owned and operated by third parties. These third parties and their servers may be located in the United States or in other countries. We do not control, and are not responsible for, the privacy and security practices of these third parties. We recommend that you review the privacy and security policies of these third parties to determine how they handle Information they may collect about you
10. Special Notice to California Residents. If you are a resident of California, in addition to the rights set forth in this Privacy Policy:
You have the right to control whether we share some of your personal information. Please read the following information carefully before you make your choices below.
We are required by the California Financial Information Privacy Act to provide this notice to you annually. We will also send you an additional notice each year that tells you about your privacy rights under federal law.
This Privacy Notice applies to LendingTree, Inc., LendingTree, LLC and its subsidiaries
YOUR RIGHTS
You have the following rights to restrict the sharing of personal and financial information with our affiliates (companies we own or control) and outside companies that we do business with. Nothing in this form prohibits the sharing of information necessary for us to follow the law, as permitted by law, or to give you the best service on your accounts with us. This includes sending you information about some other products or services.
YOUR CHOICES
Restrict Information Sharing With Companies We Own or Control (Affiliates): Unless you say "No," we may share personal and financial information about you with our affiliated companies or subsidiaries.
[ ] NO, please do not share personal and financial information with your affiliated companies or subsidiaries.
Restrict Information Sharing With Other Companies We Do Business With To Provide Financial Products And Services: Unless you say "No," we may share personal and financial information about you with outside companies we contract with to provide financial products and services.
[ ] NO, please do not share personal and financial information with outside companies you contract with to provide financial products and services.
TIME SENSITIVE REPLY
You may make your privacy choice(s) at any time. Your choice(s) will remain unless you state otherwise. However, if we do not hear from you we may share some of your information with affiliated companies and other companies with whom we have contracts to provide products and services.
To exercise your choices do one of the following:
- Please note that in order for us to process your request, the address you provide below must be a California address you've given to us in relation to your account.
Last name (please print):________________________________
First name:___________________________________________
Street address:_______________________________________
City:___________________State:____________ZIP:_________
Mailing Address (if different than the street address):
City:__________________State:_____________ZIP:_________
Signature:_______________________________Date:_________
12. Updating and Accessing Your Information. The appropriate method(s) for accessing your Information, if any, will depend on which sites or services you have used. Depending on the respective service, you may have the ability to view or edit some of your information online. If you have submitted a loan request with us, you can update your personal information by contacting our Customer Care Department at customercare@lendingtree.com. Our address is 11115 Rushmore Drive, Charlotte, NC 28277.
13. Choices about Collection and Use of Your Information.
b. Federal and state regulations require that we store completed loan requests 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.
14. How we Protect your PII. We take industry standard security measures (including physical, electronic and procedural measures) to help safeguard your PII from unauthorized access and disclosure. In addition to the restrictions outlined above, we require employees to comply with information security safeguards, we use encryption in the transmission of your PII between your system and ours, and we use firewalls to help prevent unauthorized persons from gaining access to your PII.
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 PII, searches or other communications will always remain secure. Users should also take care with how they handle and disclose their PII. Please refer to the Federal Trade Commission’s website for information about how to protect yourself against identity theft.
15. Changes to this Privacy Policy. We may update or modify this Privacy Policy to reflect changes to how we will collect, use and/or share Information. Our Privacy Policy will reflect the date it was last updated. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes before implementing them or by sending you electronic notification of the changes. Please check this Privacy Policy each time you use our websites to ensure you are aware of any changes in our practices. Your continued use of our websites will signify your acceptance of the changes to the Privacy Policy.
16. 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. 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.
17. No Rights of Third Parties. This Privacy Policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties or require disclosure of any PII relating to users of our websites.
18. How to Contact Us. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our information-handling practices, or if you would like to request information about our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes, please contact us by e-mail or postal mail as follows:
Compliance Officer
LendingTree, LLC
11115 Rushmore Drive
Charlotte, North Carolina 28277 19. LendingTree Businesses. For purposes of this Agreement, "You" or "Your" means the person(s) using the Websites, and/or the goods, facilities or services of LendingTree, LLC (“Site” and/or “Services”) and its companies offered through alternative methods, including persons that allow others to provide information about themselves to LendingTree, LLC (as defined below), the banks, lenders, financial institutions, providers, real estate companies, and brokers on LendingTree's network ("Lenders"), Providers (as defined in section 5), auto dealers (as defined in section xx), partners (as defined in section xx), or real estate companies (as defined in section 6). "LendingTree", "us" or "we" means, but is not limited to the following entities:
· LendingTree, Inc.
· LendingTree, LLC
· LT Real Estate, Inc.
· LendingTree, LLC d/b/a LT Technologies (NJ, NY, RI, TX, WA)
· Robin Acquisition Corp.
· RealEstate.com, Inc.
· Tree.com BU Holding, Inc.
· Tree Home Services, Inc.
· DegreeTree, Inc.
· and their divisions /service groups (including, but not limited to, LendingTree Partners.com, Get Smart®, GetSmart.com, InsuranceTree®, HealthTree, LendingTree Autos, HomePros, LendingTree Student Loans, MyLendingTree Free Credit Score and Dream Home Companion.
LendingTree may change, remove or add a Business in our discretion without notice to you.