Last Updated: September 24, 2019

This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use and share information when you use our Services. The terms “we,” “us,” or “our” means CollegeFinance.com any other sites we own, our corporate entity, College Finance Company, LLC. This website (the “Site”), our applications (the “Apps”) and all other websites, applications, widgets, products, e-mail notifications and other mediums through which you have accessed this Agreement (via desktop, mobile or other application) are collectively referred to as the “Services”. Services also include co-branded or white labeled versions of any of our websites, Apps, and other products. By accessing or using our Services, you consent to the collection, transfer, manipulation, storage, disclosure and other uses of Your Information (collectively, “Use of Your Information”) as described in this Privacy Policy.

For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Your Information” means information about you, which may be of a confidential nature and may include personal information. This Privacy Policy applies to our Use of Your Information as a result of you using our Services, and does not apply to the following:

  • Information collected through mediums other than our Services;
  • Information collected by any person or entity other than us, even if related to our Services (such as a third-party website, application, widget or lead form); or
  • Information collected through our Services where a separate privacy policy applies (e.g. a sweepstakes entry that may have its own rules and privacy policy).

In addition to this Privacy Policy, our Services are also governed by our Terms of Use and any other documents referred to in this Privacy Policy and in our Terms of Use. These documents describe information that we collect from you or that you provide on or to the Services and how Your Information may be used and disclosed by us. These documents also describe choices available to you regarding our Use of Your Information and how you can access and update Your Information. Please read this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use carefully.

Information We Collect and Receive About You

We may collect or receive several types of information about you. This information is collected as described below.

Information You Provide

The following are situations in which you may provide Your Information to us:

  • When you fill out forms, fields or profile information through our Services;
  • When you sign up for any newsletters or other materials through our Services;
  • When you communicate with us or request information about us or our Services, whether via email or other means;
  • When you provide information to us through a third-party application, service or website;
  • When you participate in any of our marketing initiatives, including, contests, sweepstakes, events, or promotions;
  • When you participate in forums or provide feedback, comments, or user generated content or submissions.
  • When you create an account to access or use our Services; and
  • When you otherwise use our Services.

Information Third Parties Provide

We may collect information about you from sources other than you, such as from social media websites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or others), blogs, other users and our business partners.

General Use and Preference Information

We may collect, receive and store information regarding your general use of our Services (such as details of how and when you used our Services, interactions with our Services, log in information, resources that you access, your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, your browser type, and your device type), as well as your preferences.

In general, personal information you submit to us is used to provide the Services, to respond to requests that you make, and to aid us in serving you better. For example, we use your personal information to provide you with access to certain areas and features of the Services; communicate with you about your account, your use of the Services and any changes to our policies; personalize content, advertisements, and offers as a part of the Services; improve the Services; provide you with marketing materials and promotions of interest; and for other internal business purposes. We reserve the right to freely collect, use and disclose information collected automatically via technology.

Device Information

When you use our Services through your computer, mobile phone or other device, we may collect information regarding and related to your device, such as hardware models and IDs, device type, operating system version, the request type, the content of your request and basic usage information about your use of our Services, such as date and time and store them in log files. In addition, we may collect information regarding application-level events and associate that with your account to provide customer service. We may also collect and store information locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web storage and application data caches.

Location Information

If you enable the collection of location information on your device, then we may collect information about your actual location, such as your mobile device’s GPS coordinates. We may also use other technologies to determine your location (such as through the location of nearby Wi-Fi access points or cell towers), or obtain your location information from third parties. If you do not want your device to provide us with location-tracking information, you can disable the GPS or other location-tracking functions on your device, if you device gives you that option.

Phone Numbers

We may collect your phone number in several ways. For example, we may collect your phone number: (i) if you submit your phone number to us through our Services; (ii) if you submit your phone number to sign up for or facilitate the creation of a personalized account associated with our Services; (iii) by capturing your phone number if you call us; or (iv) if a third party provides your phone number to us.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information

We may collect demographic information about you such as gender, zip code, and birth date, and information regarding your preferences and usage. This type of information is not, by itself, personally identifiable information. However, if we link such information with personally identifiable information in a manner that identifies a particular individual, then we will treat all such information as personally identifiable information for purposes of this Privacy Policy.

Log Files, Cookies and Anonymous Identifiers

Like most web sites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you. We do this to improve services and products we offer you, to improve marketing, analytics, or site functionality, and to document your consent to receiving products, services or communications from us or our partners. If we link such information with personally identifiable information in a manner that identifies a particular individual, then we will treat all such information as personally identifiable information for purposes of this Privacy Policy.

Technologies such as cookies, web beacons, tags and scripts are used by us and our partners, affiliates, advertisers, analytics teams, or service providers. These technologies are used in analyzing activities, administering the site, tracking users’ movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis.

We use cookies to help us know that you are logged on, provide you with features based on your preferences, understand when you are interacting with our Services and products, and compile other information regarding use of our Services and Products. Third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our site or to display advertising based upon your Web browsing activity use cookies to collect and store information. You can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you disable the use of cookies, you may still use our site, but your ability to use some features or areas of our site may be limited. Third parties with whom we partner who provide certain features on our websites, such as videos, may place Flash cookies on your device. They may use Flash cookies to track your web browsing activity and to display personalized advertising. Flash cookies are different from other cookies because of the amount of, type of, and way in which data is stored. Cookie management tools provided by your browser usually will not remove Flash cookies. To learn more about Flash cookies, who has placed Flash cookies on your device, and how to manage privacy and storage settings for Flash cookies click here. We do not control the privacy practices of the third parties who place or track Flash cookies and this privacy policy does not cover their practices. You should visit the privacy policies of companies who place Flash cookies to understand their practices.

We use Local Storage Objects (LSOs) such as HTML5 to store content information and preferences. Third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our site or to display advertising based upon your Web browsing activity use LSOs such as HTML5 to collect and store information.

How We Use Your Information

We may make Use of Your Information for various lawful business purposes. Among others, these purposes may include using Your Information to:

  • Engage in customer support. For example, we might confirm and complete transactions requested by you, verify information you provide to us and provide you with administrative notices.
  • Fulfill a request initiated by you. For example, if you submit a query for a list of content or products relevant to you, we may use Your Information to provide you with the information you’ve requested.
  • Contact you and provide you with information. For example, we might provide or contact you through email, postal or other communications with Service updates, account related confirmations or verifications, promotional materials, surveys, offers, quotes, personalized information and other information from us or our business partners.
  • Analyze, improve and manage our Services and operations. For example, we might obtain feedback regarding our Services, understand and anticipate your needs and preferences, better understand your use of our Services, customize and tailor Service content and advertising, improve our marketing and promotional efforts, engage in statistical analysis and provide feedback to our vendors, advertisers and other third parties.
  • Resolve problems and disputes, and engage in other legal and security matters. For example, we may use Your Information to comply with, monitor compliance with and enforce this Privacy Policy, our Terms of Use and any other applicable agreements and policies, meet other legal and regulatory requirements, and to protect the security and integrity of our Services.
  • Create ad targeting Profiles (“Profiles”) based on your interactions with our Services. Profiles will not include personal information you provide to us, such as your name or email address. Profiles are associated with a persistent user identifier and may include information such as spending habits, shopping intent, demographic information and other information inferred from your online characteristics and behavior. We may share these Profiles with advertisers, advertising networks and other third parties for their and our own marketing purposes.

How We May Disclose Your Information

General Disclosure of Your Information

We will share Your Information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy.

We may disclose Your Information:

  • To third parties when you engage in certain activities through our Services that are sponsored by them, such as purchasing products or services offered by a third party, electing to receive information or communications from a third party, or electing to participate in contests, sweepstakes, or other programs sponsored, in whole or in part, by a third party. When we disclose Your Information to these third parties, we may be compensated, and Your Information will become subject to the information use and sharing practices of the third party, and the third party will not be restricted by this Privacy Policy with respect to its use and further sharing of Your Information;
  • To third parties that are interested in contacting you or providing offers to you that may be related to our Services or about products or services you may find of interest; If you do not want us to share your personal information with these companies, contact us at legal@CollegeFinance.com.
  • On an anonymous, aggregated, basis to third parties for purposes that include research, analysis, retail marketing, and relevant advertising;
  • To any person who, in our reasonable judgment, is authorized to receive Your Information as your agent, including as a result of your business dealings with that person (for example, your attorney);
  • To our third-party vendors so that they may provide support for our internal and business operations, including for the handling of data processing, data verification, data storage, surveys, research, internal marketing, delivery of promotional, marketing and transaction materials, and our Services’ maintenance and security. These companies are authorized to Use Your Information only as necessary to provide these services to us and are contractually obligated to keep Your Information confidential;
  • As required by law such as to comply with a subpoena, bankruptcy proceedings, or similar legal process or ordered by a court, regulatory, or administrative agency;
  • As we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, if we believe that you are violating any applicable law, rule or regulation, or are otherwise interfering with another’s rights or property, including, without limitation, our rights or property;
  • If requested by authorities in the event of any act of terrorism or instance of local, regional or national emergency;
  • To enforce our Terms of Use, this Privacy Policy, and any other applicable agreements and policies;
  • To enforce or protect our rights;
  • In connection with a Business Transfer, as defined below (see Business Transfers below); and
  • To our affiliated companies (i.e. , companies under common control or management with us).

If you do not want Your Information shared as described above, then you should not provide us with Your Information.

Aggregation and De-Personalization

We may take Your Information and de-identify it either by combining it with information about other individuals (aggregating Your Information with information about other individuals), or by removing characteristics (such as your name) that make the information personally identifiable to you (de-identifying Your Information). We reserve the right to share, loan, rent, sell, or otherwise disclose such information to third parties at any time, for any lawful purpose, without notice or compensation to you.

Share with Friends

We may provide you with an opportunity to invite your friends, family and others (“Friends”) to visit our site and use the Services.  If you elect to use this referral feature, we will automatically send to your Friend, to the email address you provided, one or more emails or other communications, on your behalf, inviting them to visit or CollegeFinace.co and our Services. Any such emails to Friends may display your email address. You warrant and represent that you have your Friend’s consent to provide us with their information for this purpose, and that you will not give us referral information for any person not permitted to use CollegeFinance.com and its Services, including, without limitation a child under the age of 13, a person whose account has previously been suspended or deactivated, or a person residing or located in a territory where use of CollegeFinance.com and its Services are not authorized.

Sweepstakes

If you are submitting information to us pursuant to a sweepstakes entry, we reserve the right to share, loan, rent, sell or otherwise disclose the information that you submit with third parties at any time, for any lawful purpose without notice or compensation to you. Participation in these sweepstakes is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose Your Information. Please refer to the Official Rules and privacy policy for each individual sweepstakes for our specific policies regarding information sharing and disclosure pursuant to that sweepstakes entry.

Circumvention of Security Measures

No method of transmission or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Additionally, by way of example (without limiting the foregoing), we may be forced to disclose Your Information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances, or third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. Therefore, notwithstanding anything to the contrary within this Privacy Policy, our Terms of Use or any other applicable agreement or policy, you use our Services at your own risk and we do not promise or guarantee, and you should not expect, that Your Information will always remain private. In the event that an unauthorized third party compromises our security measures, we will not be responsible for any damages directly or indirectly caused by an unauthorized third party’s ability to view, use or disseminate Your information.

Business Transfers

We specifically and expressly reserve the right to disclose, lease, sell, assign or transfer Your Information collected through our Services, and any of our databases, together with any personal information contained in such databases, to third parties in connection with a Business Transfer. A “Business Transfer” means a share or asset sale, acquisition, merger, consolidation, reorganization, spin-off, bankruptcy or other corporate change involving us and/or our affiliates, even if the Business Transfer is only being contemplated and regardless of whether the Business Transfer relates to a part or a whole of our business. Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to interfere with our ability to transfer all or part of our business, equity, and/or assets (including our Services) to an affiliate or independent third party at any time, for any lawful purpose, without compensation to you.

User Generated Content

We offer publicly accessible blogs and other interactive media through our Services. To request removal of Your Information from our blog or community forum, contact us at legal@CollegeFinance.com. In some cases, we may not be able to remove Your Information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why.

Some comment areas are managed by a third party application that may require you to register to post a comment. We do not have access or control of the information posted to the blog. You will need to contact or login into the third party application if you want the personal information that was posted to the comments section removed. To learn how the third party application uses your information, please review their privacy policy. You are responsible for any content, including personal information, that you contribute to be published or displayed (“posted”) on our Services, or that you transmit to other users of our Services (collectively, “User Generated Content”). Your User Generated Content is posted on and transmitted to other users of our Services at your own risk. We cannot control the actions of other users of our Services with whom you may choose to share your User Generated Content. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures of our Services. As a result, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Generated Content will not be viewed by unauthorized persons. You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal, copies of your User Generated Content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by other Service users. Proper access and use of information provided through our Services, including User Generated Content, is governed by our Terms of Use.

Network Advertising

From time to time, we may participate in or use advertising networks, such as third-party advertising servers, advertising agencies, technology vendors and research firms. We may use these third-party advertising networks for marketing, advertising and promotional purposes, as well as to serve advertisements to you. Advertising networks often gather data about consumers who view advertisements to make inferences about a consumer’s interests and preferences, which enables their algorithms to deliver advertisements directly targeted to the consumer’s specific interests. This practice is often referred to as “online behavioral advertising.” For example, a third-party advertising network might collect the type of Internet browser you use, the type of computer operating system you use, the domain name of a website you visit, whether or not you visit specific pages of a website, the location of your Internet service provider’s presence, the date and time of a visit to a website and other interactions between you and a website. Please see the “Online Behavioral Advertising” subsection of Your Choices For How We Use and Collect Your Information below to read about how you can prevent certain third-party advertising networks from collecting information about you.

Your Choices For How We Use and Disclose Your Information

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the use of personal information you provide to us. Below are some mechanisms that provide you with control over certain information:

  • Cookies. If you do not wish us to collect cookies, you may set your browser to refuse cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you do so, please note that some parts of our Services may then be inaccessible or may not function properly.
  • Email Offers from Us. If you do not wish to receive email offers or newsletters from us, you can opt out of receiving email information from us (other than emails related to the completion of your registration, correction of user data, change of password and other similar communications essential to any of your transactions through our Services) by using the unsubscribe process at the bottom of the email.
  • Accessing and Correcting Personal Information. If your personal information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct, update, amend, delete/remove by sending us an email at legal@CollegeFinance.comm. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe. We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. In addition, if the portion of our Services allows you to create an account with us, then you can review and update Your Information by logging into that portion of our Services, visiting your account profile page and making changes.
  • Online Behavioral Advertising. Certain third-party advertising networks that deliver behavioral advertising are members of the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”). You can prevent DAA member companies from collecting preference data about you by clicking here and following the DAA’s directions. Note that if you opt out through the DAA, you will still receive advertising. In addition, if you opt out through the DAA and later delete your cookies, use a different browser or buy a new computer, you will need to renew your choice to opt out.

Information You Disclose to Third Parties

You may be presented with an opportunity to receive information and/or marketing offers from third parties in connection with our Services. All information you disclose to such third parties will be subject to the privacy policy and practices of such third parties. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of such third parties and, therefore, you should review the privacy policies and practices of such third parties carefully prior to disclosing information to them. If you later decide that you no longer want to receive communications from a third party, you will need to contact that third party directly. If those third parties share your information with us, then we will treat that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Children’s Information

CollegeFinance.com is not directed at or promoted for use by children under the age of thirteen (13). We do not knowingly collect or solicit any information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register as users. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at legal@CollegeFinance.com.

Links to Third-Party Websites

Our Services, as well as the email messages sent with respect to our Services, may contain links or access to websites operated by third parties that are beyond our control. Links or access to third parties from our Services are not an endorsement by us of such third parties, or their websites, applications, products, services, or practices. We are not responsible for the privacy policy, terms and conditions, practices or the content of such third parties. These third-parties may send their own cookies to you and independently collect data. If you visit or access a third-party website, application or other property that is linked or accessed from our Services, we encourage you to read any privacy policies and terms and conditions of that third party before providing any personal information. If you have a question about the terms and conditions, privacy policy, practices or contents of a third party, please contact the third party directly.

Third Party Widgets and Plug-ins

Our Services include social media features, such as “Like,” and “Share” buttons, and links to our various social media pages and widgets. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly through our Services. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.

Operation of our Services in the United States

Our Services are operated in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, please be aware that any information you provide to us will be transferred to the United States. By using our Services or providing us with Your Information, you consent to this transfer.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to update, amend and/or change this Privacy Policy at any time at our sole discretion. Amendments will take effect immediately upon us posting the updated Privacy Policy on our Services. You are encouraged to revisit this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to review any changes that have been made. The date on which this Privacy Policy was last updated will be noted immediately above this Privacy Policy. Your continued access and use of our Services following the posting of any such changes shall automatically be deemed your acceptance of all changes. If we make any material changes to how we use information we have collected from you, we will disclose this by means of a notice on this site prior to the change becoming effective.

Contacting Us

If you have questions or concerns about our privacy practices or wish to make a request regarding Your Information, please contact us at legal@CollegeFinance.com.

SPECIAL NOTIFICATION FOR CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS — YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS

Individuals who are residents of California and have provided their personal information to us may request information regarding our disclosures, if any, of their personal information to third parties for direct marketing purposes. Such requests must be submitted to us at legal@CollegeFinance.com or in writing at:

inspHIRE IO Corp.
228 Park Avenue South
#54085
New York, NY 10003
legal@getcandidly.com

California privacy rights requests must include the phrase “Request for California Privacy Information” on the subject line and in the body of the message and must include the email address or mailing address, as applicable, for us to send our reply. This request may be made no more than once per calendar year. We reserve the right not to respond to requests submitted other than to the address specified above.