Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for Residents of the United States

Updated: August 30, 2022

At ComparisonGenius Inc. (“ComparisonGenius”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) we are committed to maintaining the accuracy, confidentiality, and security of your personal information. This Privacy Policy (available here, and as amended from time to time) describes the personal information that ComparisonGenius collects from or about you when visit or use our comparisongenius.com website (“Website”) or purchase or use our services (“Services”), how we use and to whom we may disclose that information. This Privacy Policy applies to the data collected by us, or those working on our behalf, through the information you enter or from the data imported from authorized and approved sources. It does not apply to data collected through other websites, products, or services not approved by us.

Acknowledgement and Consent

By visiting our Website or purchasing our Services in any manner, you acknowledge that you accept the terms, practices, and policies described in this Privacy Policy (and as updated from time to time), and you hereby consent that we may collect, use, and share your information as described herein. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Website or our Services. Your use of the Website and our Services is at all times subject to our Terms of Use (available here and as updated from time to time (the “Terms”)), which is incorporated by reference herein. Any capitalized terms we use in this Privacy Policy without defining them have the definitions given to them in the Terms.

You consent to us and/or one or more of our service providers performing a credit check on you based on the information you have provided.

Privacy Policy Effective for USA

It is ComparisonGenius’s policy to comply with the privacy legislation within each country’s jurisdiction in which we operate. Sometimes the privacy legislation and/or an individual’s right to privacy are different from one country to another. This Privacy Policy covers only those activities that are subject to the provisions of the privacy laws of the United States, as applicable.

This Privacy Policy has a limited scope and application. Consequently, the rights and obligations contained in this Privacy Policy may not be available to all individuals or in all countries. If you are unsure if or how this Privacy Policy applies to you, please contact us for more information (see below for contact information).

Individuals under the Age of 18

We do not knowingly collect, solicit or maintain Personal Information from anyone under the age of 18 or knowingly allow such persons to register for our Services. If you are under 18, please do not send any Personal Information about yourself (such as your name, address, telephone number, or email address) to us. In the event that we learn that we have collected Personal Information from a child under age 18 without verification of parental consent, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to delete that information from our database. Please contact us if you have any concerns.

What Information Does This Privacy Policy Cover?

This Privacy Policy covers our treatment of personal information. “Personal Information” means any unencrypted or non-deidentified information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked with a particular person such as, but not limited to, your name, mailing address, email address, telephone number, etc. Please see additional information below on the particular information we may collect.

For California residents only, “Personal Information” shall have the definition as set forth in the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”). Please see the section below entitled “Notice to California Residents” for more information.

Personal Information does not include your Personal Information that has been deidentified, pseudonymized, anonymized, aggregated, and/or otherwise processed so as to be unidentifiable in such a way that the data can no longer be attributed to a specific individual (by reasonable means) without the use of additional information, and where such additional information is kept separate and under adequate security to prevent unauthorized re-identification of a specific individual such that one could not, using reasonable efforts, link such information back to a specific individual (collectively, all of the foregoing in this sentence being referred to as “De-Identified Personal Information”).

What Personal Information do we Collect?

We may collect and maintain different types of Personal Information in respect of the individuals with whom we interact. The types of Personal Information we collect includes the following:

CATEGORY EXAMPLES
Identifiers Real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, internet protocol (IP”) address, email address, or other similar identifiers
Personal information described in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civil Code §1798.80(e)) A name, or description, address, telephone number, or employment, employment history, or any other financial information.

Note: Personal information included in this category (1) does not include publicly available information that is lawfully made available to the general public from federal, state, or local government records, and (2) may overlap with other categories
Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law Age (40 years or older), veteran or military status
Internet or other electronic network activity information Browsing history, search history, information on a consumer’s interaction with a website, application, or advertisement
Geolocation data Physical location or movements
Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information Electronic recording of customer or prospective customer calls.
Inferences drawn from any other category of personal information Deriving information, data, assumptions, or conclusions from facts, evidence, or another source of information or data to create a profile reflecting a person’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes

Information You Provide Us

The Personal Information we collect through our Website, or from our business partners, affiliates, or service providers may be obtained as part of the following:

  • Information that you provide by filling in webforms on our Website. This includes information provided when creating an online account, purchasing our Products or Services, subscribing to our e-newsletters or other communications, requesting information from us, submitting or posting material (where permitted) on our forums, or interacting with customer support or service, report a problem with our Website or Services, or otherwise communicating with us.
  • Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us
  • Your responses to surveys that we or our service providers might ask you to complete for research purposes
  • Your search queries on the Website
  • When communicating with customer service/support
  • Through participation in loyalty/rewards programs
  • Third party websites and mobile applications (e.g., websites that share information with us or advertising partners regarding online activities)
  • Data suppliers (e.g., companies that provide demographics and other information regarding consumers)
  • On mobile applications (parent, subsidiary and affiliate brands)
  • Joint marketing partners
  • Online advertising companies
  • Social media companies
  • Other service providers
  • Responding to employment opportunities

In addition, we may collect your Personal Information in connection with the financial-related Services that you may seek from us, including for example, having us suggest the credit cards, loans, and other financial products that, based on (i) our experience and (ii) the information you provide to us, will most likely accept you.

We may also collect market-related information, which may include Personal Information, concerning market trends and activities impacting our business. This information may include contract terms, financial information, and other information for the purpose of market analysis and strategic planning. We may also collect information related to our media, investor, and public relations activities and information related to our interactions with financial and other analysts and advisors.

From time to time, we may utilize the services of third parties in our business and may also receive Personal Information collected by those third parties in the course of the performance of their services for us or otherwise. Where this is the case, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that such third parties have represented to us that they have the right to disclose your Personal Information to us.

Privacy and our Website

You can visit our Website without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself, including your e-mail address. Our web server may collect information related to your visit to our Website, including the IP address and domain used to access our Website, the type, and version of your browser, the website you came from to access our Website, the page you entered and exited at, any website page that is viewed by that IP address and what country your IP address indicates are from. We use this information to monitor our Website’s performance (such as number of visits, average time spent, page views) and for our business purposes such as working to continually improve our Website.

In addition, we collect the Personal Information that you submit to our Website, such as your name, address, and any other contact or other information that you choose to provide by:

  • using the “contact us” portion of this website; or
  • by corresponding with a representative of ComparisonGenius via e-mail using the hyperlinks created for that purpose.

Where you request information from us, we may use the e-mail address that you provide to send you information about offers on products and services that we believe may be of interest to you. If you have asked us to put you on an e-mail mailing list, provide you with certain information on a regular basis, or if we send you information about our offers on products and services by e-mail, you may ask us to remove you from the list at any time (using the unsubscribe instructions provided with each e-mail and on the site where you signed up).

Our Website and Cookies

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns, including:

  • Details of your visits to our Website, including, but not limited to, traffic data, geolocation data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
  • Information about your computer, mobile device, and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, browser type, clickstream patterns, the URL of the most recent website you visited before coming to our Website, the amount of time you spent on our Website, and the pages you viewed while on our Website.
  • Behavioral Tracking. We also may use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services, or associate Personal Information with other information collected in this manner. We do not allow personalized third-party behavioral tracking, though we may use De-Identified Personal Information to track users’ click or browsing patterns.
  • Keystrokes. We or our service providers may keep track of and/or collect the keystrokes and cursor movements of Website visitors before purchase of a Product or Service from our Website (and before we have any email address or other information about you (other than IP address) which would specifically identify you), but, this information is anonymous and, at the time of collection, we do not directly associate or attempt to associate this information with you as an identifiable individual. If you sign up to receive our emails (e.g., through the popup box that appears) we then do have the ability going forward to associate the keystroke and cursor information with the email address you provide. We use this information solely for the purpose of improving our Website to improve our customers’ user experience (e.g., improving navigation, readability, etc.).

The information we collect automatically is statistical data and may include Personal Information, and we may maintain it or associate it with Personal Information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Website and to deliver better and more personalized Products and Services, including, but not limited to, by enabling us to: estimate our audience/visitor size and usage patterns, store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize and improve our Website, speed up your searches, and/or, recognize you when you return to our Website.

Cookie Notice/Policy

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include cookies, local storage cookies, web beacons, pixel tracking, GIF, and/or IP address. Each of these is discussed below.

Cookies (or browser cookies)

A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer or mobile device. It may contain certain data, including, but not limited to: the name of the server that has placed it there, an identifier in the form of a unique number, and, an expiration date (some cookies only). Cookies are managed by the web browser on your computer or mobile device (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome).

Different types of cookies which have different purposes are used on our Website.

Essential Cookies

These cookies are essential to allow you to browse our Website and use its functions. Without them, services such as shopping baskets and electronic invoicing would not be able to work.

Performance Cookies

These cookies collect information on the use of our Website, such as which pages are consulted most often. This information enables us to optimize our Website and simplify browsing. Performance cookies also enable our affiliates and partners to find out whether you have accessed one of our Website pages from their site and whether your visit has led to the use or purchase of a Product or Service from our Website, including the references for the Product or Service purchased. These cookies do not collect any information which could be used to identify you. All the information collected is aggregated, and therefore anonymous.

Functionality Cookies

These cookies enable our Website to remember the choices you have made when browsing. For example, we can store your geographical location in a cookie so that the Website corresponding to your area is shown. We can also remember your preferences, such as the text size, font, and other customizable aspects of the Website. Functionality cookies may also be able to keep track of the products or videos consulted to avoid repetition. The information collected by these cookies cannot be used to identify you and cannot monitor your browsing activity on sites which do not belong to us.

It is possible that you will come across third-party cookies on some pages of sites that are not under our control.

We also use cookies to implement tracking technology on our Website. This allows us to display advertising that is tailored to you on our Website, to understand which parts of our content interest you the most, and which Product or Service categories you request. This tracking uses De-Identified Personal Information data). We will not combine this data with your other Personal Information without your express permission. Some of our service providers are allowed to place cookies on our Website. Those companies may also provide you with the option of preventing the use of cookies in the future. For more information, contact the relevant third-party provider.

At any time, you can prevent the use of cookies in the future. You may activate the appropriate setting in your browser to refuse to accept browser cookies. However, if you do, your experience on our Website may be affected; e.g., you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.

Local Storage Cookies. Certain features of our Website may use local stored objects (or Adobe Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from and on our Website. Local storage cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies.

Web Beacons. Pages of our Website and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags and single-pixel gifs) that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

Pixel Tracking. In addition to using Cookies, the Website may employ “pixel tracking”, a common process which may be used in connection with advertisements on other sites. Pixel tracking involves the use of pixel tags that are not visible to the user and consist of a few lines of computer code. Pixel tracking measures the effectiveness of advertisements and compiles aggregate and specific usage statistics. A “pixel tag” is an invisible tag placed on certain pages of websites that is used to track an individual user’s activity. We may access these pixel tags to identify activity and interests that may allow us to better match our products, services, and offers with your interests and needs. For example, if you visit our Website from an advertisement on another website, the pixel tag will allow the advertiser to track that its advertisement brought you to the Website. If you visit our Website, and we link you to another website, we may also be able to determine that you were sent to and/or transacted with a third-party website. This data is collected for use in our marketing, research, and other activities.

GIF. We may use tiny images known as clear GIFs to track behavior of users, including statistics on who opens our emails.

IP Address. Our servers (or those of our service providers) automatically record certain log file information reported from your browser when you access the Website. These server logs may include information such as which pages of the Website you visited, your internet protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, and other information on how you interact with the Website. These log files are generally deleted periodically.

Information We Collect from Third Parties

We may collect information that others provide about you when you use the Website, or obtain information from other sources and combine that with information we collect through the Website.

  • Third Party Services. If you link, connect, or login to your account with a third party social media service (e.g., Facebook, Google, Instagram, Yelp, etc.), the third party service may send us information such as your registration and profile information from that service. This information varies and is controlled by that service or as authorized by you via your privacy settings at that service.
  • Other Sources. To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may receive additional information about you, such as demographic data or fraud detection information, from third party service providers and/or partners, and combine it with information we have about you. For example, we may receive background check results or fraud warnings from service providers like identity verification services for our fraud prevention and risk assessment efforts. We may receive information about you and your activities on and off the Website through partnerships, or about your experiences and interactions from our partner ad networks. Other examples of such providers include, but are not limited to, backend processing, fulfillment, and automation, video hosting platform, email management, authentication, form processing, website usage tracking, managing calendar invites and scheduling, and database hosting and management.

Third-Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Website are served by third parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers and application providers. First-party or third-party cookies may be used alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Website. A first-party cookie is a cookie set by the domain name that appears in the browser address bar. A third-party cookie is a cookie set by (and on) a domain name that is not the domain name that appears in the browser address bar. It might be set as part of a side resource load (image, JS, iframe, etc., from a different hostname) or an AJAX HTTP request to a third-party server. The information that first-party and third-party cookies collect may be associated with your Personal Information or they may collect information, including Personal Information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services (i.e., tracking such activities). They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) advertising or other targeted content.

We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or how they may be used. If you have any questions about an advertisement or other targeted content, you should contact the responsible provider directly. More information on how to opt-out of third-party advertiser tracking mechanisms here.

Google

  • Google Analytics. We use, and some of our third-party service providers may use, Google Analytics (click for link to Google’s website) or other analytics services to help us understand the use of our Website and Services. Such service providers may place their own cookies in your browser. This Privacy Policy covers the use of cookies by us only and not the use of cookies by third parties.
  • Google AdSense Advertising. We use Google AdSense Advertising (or other search engine or display network advertising) on our website. Google’s advertising requirements and principles are available here. They are put in place to provide a positive experience for users. We have implemented the following: (a) Remarketing with Google AdSense and (b) Google Display Network Impression Reporting.
  • Google DART Cookie. Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our Website. Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on previous visits to our Website and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt-out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google Ad and Content Network privacy policy.
  • We, along with third-party vendors such as Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookies) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to compile data regarding user interactions with ad impressions and other ad service functions as they relate to our Website.
  • Google DoubleClick Cookie. We work with DoubleClick Cookie Google, a third-party vendor, which uses cookies to serve ads on our Website. Google’s use of the DoubleClick cookie enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our Website or other websites on the Internet. You may opt out of the use of the DoubleClick Cookie for interest-based advertising by visiting the Google Ads Settings web page here.
  • Google Maps/Google Earth. We also use Google Maps (including the Google Maps API(s)) and/or Google Earth, which may, among other things, request access to your geolocation, and both of which are subject to their own terms of use and privacy policy.
  • Google reCAPTCHA. We use Google reCAPTCHA, which identifies bots by collecting hardware and software information and sending that data to Google for analysis. More about Google reCAPTCHA is available here and here.

Users can set preferences for how Google advertises to you using the Google Ad Settings page. Alternatively, you can opt-out by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative Opt Out page or by using the Google Analytics Opt Out Browser add-on.

Why Do We Collect Personal Information? 

ComparisonGenius collects Personal Information to enable us to manage, maintain, and develop our business and operations, including:

  • to establish, maintain and manage our relationship with you so that we may provide you with, or receive from you, the products and services that have been requested, including for example, to facilitate or otherwise assist you in obtaining a loan, credit card or other product or service from a third party. In connection with this, ComparisonGenius and/or our third-party business affiliates may perform a credit check on you, based on the information you have provided, to confirm your financial situation and your initial and ongoing eligibility for such products and services; 
  • to be able to review the products and services that we provide to you so that we may understand your requirements for our products and services and so that we may work to improve our products and services; 
  • to send you promotional and other materials that we think might be of interest to you, subject to our compliance with applicable laws;
  • to be able to review the products and services that we obtain from you so that we may work with you and so that you may understand our requirements for such products and services; 
  • to be able to comply with your requests (for example, if you prefer to be contacted at a business or residential telephone number and advise us of your preference, we will use this information to contact you at that number);
  • to protect us against error, fraud, theft and damage to our goods and property, including verifying your identity;
  • to enable us to comply with applicable law or regulatory process; and 
  • any other reasonable purpose to which you consent.

We may use your Personal Information to create Aggregated Information (as defined below) for the purposes of managing, maintaining, and developing our operations. Such purposes include: (i) identifying the demographics of our clients; (ii) creating and selling benchmarks, reports, summary metrics, predictive algorithms; and (iii) developing new or improving our existing products and/or services. In this Privacy Policy, “Aggregated Information” means information that: (i) arises from the compilation, combination, and/or analysis of personal and other information; and (ii) is anonymized.

How Do We Use and Disclose Your Personal Information?

We may use or disclose your Personal Information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy (including, for the purposes of ComparisonGenius and/or our third-party business affiliates performing a credit check on you to confirm your financial situation and your initial and ongoing eligibility for the products and services that you have requested); and for any additional purposes for which we have obtained your consent to the use or disclosure of your Personal Information. We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any Personal Information, for one or more of the following purposes:

  • To present our Website and its contents to you.
  • To provide you with information and respond to your questions on Products or Services that you request from us and information on new products and services, discounts, special promotions or upcoming events, and features or offers that we believe will be of interest to you.
  • To provide you with the Products, Services, or information that you have requested.
  • To provide you with notices about your account, including expiration and renewal notices.
  • To notify you about information regarding or changes to our Website, our policies, terms, or any Products or Services we offer or provide, or regarding your account.
  • To process your account application and any changes to your account information.
  • To process Personal Information or other information that you submit through to us.
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Website.
  • To contact you about our own and third-parties’ products and services that may be of interest to you.
  • To provide access to restricted parts of our Website, e.g., areas accessible if you have a user account.
  • To enhance and improve our products and Services, for example, by performing internal research, analyzing user trends, or measuring demographics and interests.
  • For internal purposes, such as Website and system administration or internal audits and reviews.
  • For analyzing how the Services are used, diagnosing Service or technical problems, maintaining security, and personalizing content.
  • To operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of the Services.
  • To provide statistics about the usage levels of the Website and other related information to our service providers.
  • To notify you of data privacy incidents or provide you with legally required information.
  • To contact you regarding a promotion, contest, or sweepstakes in which you have participated.
  • To request your participation in ratings, reviews, surveys, focus groups, or other initiatives which help us to gather information used to develop and enhance our products and Services.
  • To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide Personal Information.
  • In any other way we may describe and for which we obtain your consent when you provide the information and you give your consent.

We use cookies, clear gifs, and log file information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the Website; (b) provide custom, personalized content, and information; (c) monitor the effectiveness of our Service; (d) monitor aggregate metrics such as a total number of visitors, traffic, and demographic patterns; (e) diagnose or fix technology problems reported by our users or engineers that are associated with certain IP addresses; and, (f) help you efficiently access your information after you sign in.

We may use your Personal Information you provide us and which we obtain from other sources to better understand your interests so we can try to predict what other products, services, and information you might be most interested in. This practice involves making automated decisions about you based on this information in order to better enable us to tailor our interactions with you to make them more relevant and interesting. You may object to our doing this at any time by contacting us.

We may use the information we have collected from you to enable us to display advertisements to our advertisers’ target audiences. Even though we do not disclose your Personal Information for these purposes without your consent, if you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, the advertiser may assume that you meet its target criteria.

Text Messages

You consent to be contacted and receive informational and marketing communications and messages by us and one or more of its service providers about mortgage services by a live agent, artificial, automated, or pre-recorded voice, by email and by Short Message Service (“SMS”) text at your residence, mobile, or other phone number, using any number or address you have provided, or that you will provide in the future (of which you hereby represent you are the owner, subscriber, or regular user) (collectively, “Contact Info”). Those communications may be dialed manually or by an automated telephone dialing system. For SMS messages, you acknowledge that standard message and data rates may apply.

You consent to be contacted even if your Contact Info appears on our or our service providers’ Do Not Call / Do Not Email List, a State or National Do Not Call Registry, or any other Do Not Contact List. You will promptly notify us in the event that you stop using a particular number or address that you have provided to us. Consent to the contact in this paragraph is not a condition to purchase services and you acknowledge that you may revoke this consent at any time, by emailing us at hello@comparisongenius.com.

You consent to and acknowledge that an automated message or an artificial or prerecorded voice may be played when the telephone is answered whether by you or someone else.

You consent to and acknowledge that we and/or one or more of our service providers may listen and/or record and retain recordings of calls between us and one or more service providers and you for quality assurance or other purposes, as permitted by applicable laws, without additional notice.

Our services may include an SMS message which may deliver up to five messages per day to your wireless device. We may use your information to contact you about your info, purchases, Website updates, conduct surveys, or informational and service-related communications, including important security updates. You may remove your information at any time by replying “STOP” to the SMS message you received. After you send the SMS message “STOP” to us, we will send you an SMS message to confirm that you have been unsubscribed. After this, you will no longer receive SMS messages from us. If you want to join again, just sign up as you did the first time and we will start sending SMS messages to you again. For help, please reply to a text with HELP. Message and data rates may apply, depending on your cell phone plan. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Alternatively, you may submit your request to stop sending SMS messages by email to us, and include the email address and phone number you registered with us

Social Media Plugins

We integrate social media application program interfaces or plug-ins (“Plug-ins”) from social networks, including Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Xing, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and/or possibly other companies, into the Website. In order to register as a user with us, you may have the option to sign in using your Facebook or other social media site login.

For example, when you visit our Website, the plugin creates a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server. This allows Facebook to receive information about your visit to our Website with your IP address. If you click the Facebook “Like” button while you are logged on to your Facebook account, you can link the contents of our Website to your Facebook profile. This allows Facebook to assign your visit to our Website to your user account. Please note that as provider of the Website, we receive no notification about the contents of the transmitted data or their use by Facebook. If you do not want Facebook to assign your visit to our Website to your Facebook user account, please log out of your Facebook user account.

If you do so, you authorize us to access certain social media site account information, such as your public social media profile (consistent with your privacy settings in the social media site), your email address, interests, likes, gender, birthday, education history, relationships, interests, current city, photos, personal description, friend list, and information about and photos of your social media site friends who might be common social media site friends with other users. Plug-ins may transfer information about you to the Plug-in’s respective platform without action by you. This information may include your platform user identification number, which website you are on, and more. Interacting with a Plug-in will transmit information directly to that Plug-in’s social network and that information may be visible by others on that platform. Plug-ins are controlled by the respective platform’s privacy policy, and not by our Privacy Policy. You can find the privacy policy for a platform on their website.

How And To Whom Do We Disclose Your Personal Information?

We may share your Personal Information with our employees, contractors, consultants, and other parties who require such information to assist us with managing our relationship with you, including: third parties that assist ComparisonGenius in the provision of services to you and third parties whose services we use to conduct our business. 

Such third parties may include lenders and dealerships who may wish to provide you with goods or services. They may also include related parties who process and store your Personal Information for us.

For example, our third-party service providers may provide certain information technology, data processing, and advertising/marketing, and call center services to us from time to time so that we may operate our business, and as result, your Personal Information may be collected, used, processed, stored or disclosed in the United States of America, Canada and in Europe (including the United Kingdom and Russia), India or Asia (including China). As a result, your Personal Information may be used, stored or accessed in other countries and may be subject to the laws of those countries. For example, information may be disclosed in response to valid demands or requests from government authorities, courts, or law enforcement agencies in those countries.

Where you have requested us to do so (either expressly or by your actions), we may share your Personal Information with persons who may consider you and/or your application for a loan, credit card, or other product or service. In connection with this, ComparisonGenius and/or our third-party business affiliate to perform a credit check on you to confirm your financial situation and your initial and ongoing eligibility for the products and services you have requested.

In addition, Personal Information may be disclosed or transferred to another party during the course of, or completion of, a change in ownership of or the grant of a security interest in, all or a part of ComparisonGenius or its affiliates through, for example, an asset or share sale, or some other form of business combination, merger or joint venture, provided that such party is bound by appropriate agreements or obligations and required to use or disclose your Personal Information in a manner consistent with the use and disclosure provisions of this Privacy Policy, unless you consent otherwise. 

Further, your Personal Information may be disclosed:

  • as permitted or required by applicable law or regulatory requirements;
  • to comply with valid legal processes such as search warrants, subpoenas or court orders;
  • as above, in order to administer or service your aim to obtain credit with one or more third parties;
  • to protect the rights and property of ComparisonGenius;
  • during emergency situations or where necessary to protect the safety of a person or group; or
  • with your consent. 

How We Share Your Personal Information

We may or do disclose your Personal Information, in whole or in part, to the following types of third parties, and for one or more the following purposes:

  • Data storage or hosting providers for the secure storage and transmission of your data
  • Database and software service providers for the management and tracking of your data
  • Technology providers who assist in the development and management of our Website
  • Identity management providers for authentication purposes
  • Legal and compliance consultants, such as external counsel, external auditors, or tax consultants
  • Manufacturers, retailers, and wholesalers for submission, processing, and management of rebates, discounts, offers, loyalty rewards, and the like
  • Outbound call center providers, who may perform outreach on our behalf regarding our products and Services
  • Survey and research providers who perform studies on our behalf
  • Publishers and learning providers who develop products on our behalf
  • Learning technology and online event providers for the delivery and improvement of web events and learning programs and the tracking of your progress
  • Advertising partners, including social media providers, for the delivery of targeted advertisements
  • Unrelated third-party list renters for one-time mail or email approved by us
  • Marketing providers who may sell mailing lists

Disclosures to Service Providers: We may share your Personal Information with third parties for the purpose of providing or improving the Services to you. We may share your Personal Information with third-party service providers which perform services on our behalf (“Service Providers”). This includes, without limitation, Service Providers which provide services relating to: outbound and/or inbound communications, data analysis, credit checks, screening checks, collection services, marketing assistance, managing customer information, creating, hosting, and/or providing customer or support services on our behalf, sending postal mail and email, removing repetitive information from customer lists, providing search results and links (including paid listings and links), processing credit card payments, or managing our conferences and other events. These Service Providers may have access to your Personal Information in order to provide these services to us or on our behalf. If we engage Service Providers for any of the foregoing, use of your Personal Information will be bound by obligations of confidentiality and their use of Personal Information will be restricted to providing their services to us. We may store Personal Information in locations outside our direct control (for instance, on servers or databases located or co-located with hosting Service Providers).

Required Disclosures: Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, we will not disclose your Personal Information to any third party unless required to do so by law, court order, legal process, or subpoena, including, but not limited to, in order to respond to any government, regulatory, or licensing request, or if we believe that such action is necessary to: (a) comply with the law, comply with legal process served on us or our affiliates, subsidiaries, contracted vendors, or affinity partners, or investigate, prevent, or take action regarding suspected or actual illegal activities; (b) enforce our Terms or customer agreement (including for billing and collection purposes); (c) take precautions against liability; (d) investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations; (e) assist government enforcement agencies or to meet national security requirements; (f) to protect the security or integrity of our Website and our Services; or, (g) exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of us, our users or others.

We will attempt to notify you about these requests unless: (i) providing notice is prohibited by the legal process itself, by court order we receive, or by applicable law, or (ii) we believe that providing notice would be futile, ineffective, create a risk of injury or bodily harm to an individual or group, or create or increase a risk of fraud upon us, our users, our Website, or our Services. In instances where we comply with legal requests without notice for these reasons, we will attempt to notify that user about the request after the fact if we determine in good faith that we are no longer legally prohibited from doing so and that no risk scenarios described in this paragraph apply.

It is likely that the identity and categories of such third parties will change during the life of your account. We require that our third-party service providers only use your Personal Information as necessary to provide the requested services to us and each service provider is subject to a set of terms consistent with the applicable portions of this Privacy Policy.

Disclosure of De-Identified Personal Information: We may share De-Identified Personal Information with third parties for any purpose. De-Identified Personal Information or non-Personal Information may be aggregated for system administration and to monitor the usage of the Website. It may be utilized to measure the number of visits to our Website, average time spent, the number of pages viewed, and to monitor various other Website statistics. This monitoring helps us evaluate how visitors use and navigate our Website so we can improve the content. We may share De-Identified Personal Information or anonymous information (including, but not limited to, anonymous usage data, referring/exit pages and URLs, IP address, platform types, number of clicks, etc.) with interested third parties in any way we choose and for any purpose. We may disclose, sell, rent, etc., your De-Identified Personal Information to third parties and we may receive valuable consideration for doing so.

Your Consent to Disclosure/Transfer/Sale of Your Personal Information: You consent to our disclosure of your Personal Information, De-Identified Personal Information, and other information you provide to us (“Transferred Information”) to a potential or actual buyer or acquirer of our company or other successor for the purpose of considering a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, change in control, or sale or transfer of some or all of our assets (each of the foregoing referred to as a “Transfer”), whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or other court proceeding, in which Personal Information held by us is among the assets transferred. You agree to and do hereby consent to (and shall not object to) our assignment, conveyance, transfer, and/or license (whether by contract, merger or operation of law) as part of a Transfer, of any or all of our rights, in whole or in part, in or to Transferred Information and your consents, with or without notice to you and without your further consent. We cannot make any representations regarding the use or transfer of Transferred Information that we may have in the c of our bankruptcy, reorganization, insolvency, receivership, or an assignment for the benefit of creditors. By providing any Personal Information, you expressly agree and consent to the use and/or transfer of Transferred Information or other information in connection with a Transfer. Furthermore, except as required by law, we are not and will not be responsible for any breach of security by any third parties or for any actions of any third parties that receive any of the Transferred Information that is disclosed to us.

Data Transfer/Access Outside of the United States

We have our headquarters in the United States. The Personal Information we or our service providers collect may be stored and processed in servers within or outside of the United States and wherever we and our service providers have facilities around the globe, and certain information may be accessible by persons or companies outside of the United States who provide services for us. As such, we and our service providers may transfer your Personal Information to, or access it in, jurisdictions that may not provide equivalent levels of data protection as your home jurisdiction. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your Personal Information receives an adequate level of protection in the jurisdictions in which we process it.

Security

We have implemented measures designed to secure your Personal Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration and disclosure. Your Personal Information is contained behind secured networks and a firewall and is only accessible by our personnel and by a limited number of Service Providers who have special access rights to our systems, and who are required to keep the information confidential. Our Website is scanned on a regular basis for security holes and known vulnerabilities in order to make your visit to our Website safe.

Any payment transactions will be performed using our third party payment processors or gateways, who will use appropriate security procedures designed to protect your information. We do not collect or store full credit card numbers.

Our agents, contractors, service providers, and partners who require access to your Personal Information in order to provide services to us or to you on our behalf are also required to keep the information confidential in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy and are not permitted to disclose the information to third parties or use the information for any purpose other than to carry out the services they are performing for us, or as permitted pursuant to our agreement with them.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. You should maintain good internet security practices. Where you have password-protected access to an account or certain parts of the Website or Services, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. You should not share your password with anyone. You must prevent unauthorized access to your account and Personal Information by selecting and protecting your password appropriately and limiting access to your computer or mobile device and browser by signing off after you have finished accessing your account. If your email account or Facebook account is compromised this could allow access to your account with us if you have given up those details and/or permitted access through those accounts. If your email account is compromised it could be used to ask us to reset a password and gain access to your account with us. If you think that any of your accounts have been compromised you should change your account credentials with us, and in particular, make sure any compromised account does not allow access to your account with us. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by other users. We will never email you to ask for your password or other account login information. If you receive such an email, please send it to us so we can investigate.

Data Retention

The time periods for which we retain your Personal Information depend on the purposes for which we use it. We will retain your Personal Information for as long as your account is active, or as long as you are a registered account holder or user of our Services or for as long as we have another business purpose to do so (such as, but not limited to, for business, tax, or legal purposes) and, thereafter, for no longer than is required or permitted by law, or our records retention policy, reasonably necessary for internal reporting and reconciliation purposes, or to provide you with feedback or information you might request. This period of retention is subject to our review and alteration.

Following termination or deactivation of your user account, we may retain your profile information and all information posted to public areas of the Website. Following termination or deactivation of your user account, we may retain your Personal Information and other data, but will maintain it as confidential according to the Terms, this Privacy Policy, and as required by applicable law. We have the right to delete all of your Personal Information and other data after termination of your user account without notice to you.

We may retain De-Identified Personal Information for as long as we deem appropriate.

Your Consent is Important to Us

It is important to us that we collect, use or disclose your Personal Information where we have your consent to do so. Depending on the sensitivity of the Personal Information, your consent may be implied, deemed (using an opt-out mechanism), or express. Express consent can be given orally, electronically, or in writing. Implied consent is consent that can reasonably be inferred from your action or inaction. For example, when you enter into an agreement with us, we will assume your consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information for purposes related to the performance of that agreement and for any other purposes identified to you at the relevant time.

Typically, we will seek your consent at the time that we collect your Personal Information. In certain circumstances, your consent may be obtained after collection but prior to our use or disclosure of your Personal Information. If we plan to use or disclose your Personal Information for a purpose not previously identified (either in this Privacy Policy or separately), we will endeavor to advise you of that purpose before such use or disclosure.

As we have described above, we may collect, use or disclose your Personal Information without your knowledge or consent where we are permitted or required to do so by applicable law or regulatory requirements.

Choice/Opt-Out

You may change or withdraw your consent at any time, subject to legal or contractual obligations and reasonable notice, by contacting our Privacy Officer using the contact information set out below. All communications with respect to such withdrawal or variation of consent should be in writing and addressed to our Privacy Officer. 

In certain circumstances, the withdrawal of consent may render us unable to continue to provide products or services where the collection, use, or disclosure of your Personal Information is necessary to provide the product or service.

We assume that, unless you advise us otherwise, you have consented to the collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information as explained in this Privacy Policy.

How is Your Personal Information Protected?

ComparisonGenius endeavors to maintain physical, technical, and procedural safeguards that are appropriate to the sensitivity of the Personal Information in question. These safeguards are designed to prevent your Personal Information from loss and unauthorized access, copying, use, modification, or disclosure.

The security of your Personal Information is important to us, please advise our Privacy Officer immediately of any incident involving the loss of or unauthorized access to or disclosure of Personal Information that is in our custody or control.

Updating Your Personal Information

It is important that the information contained in our records is both accurate and current. If your Personal Information happens to change during the course of our relationship, please inform our Customer Care department of this change. If our Customer Care department is unable to help you, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information below.

In some circumstances, we may not agree with your request to change your Personal Information and will instead append an alternative text to the record in question.

Access to Your Personal Information

You can ask to see your Personal Information. If you want to review, verify or correct your Personal Information, please contact our Customer Care department, and if our Customer Care department is unable to help you, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information below. Please note that any such communication must be in writing.

When requesting access to your Personal Information, please note that we may request specific information from you to enable us to confirm your identity and right to access, as well as to search for and provide you with the Personal Information that we hold about you. We may charge you a fee to access your Personal Information; however, we will advise you of any fee in advance. If you require assistance in preparing your request, please contact our Customer Care department. If our Customer Care department is unable to help you, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information below

Your right to access the Personal Information that we hold about you is not absolute. There are instances where applicable law or regulatory requirements allow or require us to refuse to provide some or all of the Personal Information that we hold about you. In addition, the Personal Information may have been destroyed, erased or made anonymous in accordance with our record retention obligations and practices.

In the event that we cannot provide you with access to your Personal Information, we will endeavor to inform you of the reasons why subject to any legal or regulatory restrictions.

NOTICE TO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS

We are required by the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) to provide to California residents an explanation of how we collect, use, and share their Personal Information, and of the rights and choices, we offer California residents regarding our handling of their Personal Information (the “Notice”).

California law provides California residents with the following privacy rights:

  • Access Personal Information: Individuals exercising this right may request access to the categories and specific pieces of their Personal Information we have collected in the prior 12-month period. 
  • Disclosure: Individuals exercising this right can receive additional information regarding the sources from which we collect information, the purposes for which we collect and share Personal Information, the information of theirs we hold, and the categories of parties with whom we share their information.
  • Deletion: Individuals exercising this right can ask us to delete their Personal Information we have collected, though we may be permitted to retain Personal Information for certain purposes.
  • Non-Discrimination: Users may freely exercise these rights without fear of being denied goods or services.
  • “Opt Out” of Sales: As permitted by applicable law, we may share your Personal Information for monetary or other valuable consideration (under California law, this is considered a “sale”). You may opt out of such a “sale” of your Personal Information to third parties. You can exercise your right to opt-out by emailing us (see our contact information below).

CCPA Scope and Exclusions

The description in this Notice of our Privacy Practices and your Privacy Rights apply only to California residents whose interactions with us are limited to:

  • Visiting our consumer websites,
  • Signing up for email alerts,
  • Commenting on or contributing to our blogs,
  • Establishing an account that may or may not include financial products or services, or
  • Applying for our job openings on our websites or third party sites (however, note that the CCPA does not extend Privacy Rights to job applicants).

The description in this Notice of our Privacy Policies and CCPA Privacy Rights do not apply to the Personal Information we collect, use or disclose about:

  • Consumers who initiate or complete the process of applying for financial products or services. This is because this information is subject to the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”) and implementing regulations, or the California Financial Information Privacy Act (“FIPA”), or
  • Representatives of businesses that seek to obtain our products or services, or to provide products or services to us. Please note that the CCPA limits these rights by, for example, prohibiting us from providing certain sensitive information in response to an access request and limiting the circumstances in which we must comply with a deletion request. We will also respond to requests for information and access only to the extent we are able to associate with a reasonable effort the information we maintain with the identifying details you provide in your request. If we deny your request, we will communicate our decision to you.

You are entitled to exercise the rights described above free from discrimination.

Identity verification 

The CCPA requires us to verify the identity of the individual submitting a request to access or delete Personal Information before providing a substantive response to the request. We will ask you to verify your identity when you submit a request.

Authorized agents

California residents can empower an “authorized agent” to submit requests on their behalf. We will require the authorized agent to have a written authorization confirming that authority.

“Sales” of Personal Information in the Preceding 12 Months

In the preceding twelve months, we have sold (as that term is defined under CCPA) the following categories of Personal Information:

  • Identifiers
  • California Customer Records personal information categories
  • Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law
  • Commercial information
  • Internet or other similar network activity
  • Geolocation data
  • Professional or employment-related information
  • Inferences drawn from other personal information

We have sold Personal Information to the third parties or categories of third parties available at https://bestlendersfor.com/service-providers/.

Privacy Rights Notice For Nevada Residents Only

Nevada residents have the right to opt-out of the sale of their Personal Information by, emailing us at hello@comparisongenius.com, and including “NV Sale Opt Out Request” in the subject line, by emailing us at hello@comparisongenius.com. Please note we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity and the authenticity of the request. We will respond to your request within sixty (60) days and, once verified, we will maintain your opt-out request in the event our practices change. Please note that this right does not apply to business-to-business customers, employment applicants, or independent contractors to us, or if the disclosure of Personal Information is for purposes consistent with the Nevada resident’s reasonable expectations, when considering the submission’s circumstances.

Notices; Opting Out

By providing us with your email address (including by “following,” “liking,” linking your account to our Website or Service or other services, etc., on a third party website or network), you consent to our using the email address to send you Service-related notices by email, including any notices required by law (e.g., notice of data privacy or security incidents), in lieu of communication by postal mail. You also agree that we may send you notifications of activity regarding the Service, the Website, your Personal Information, or any aspect of our relationship, to the email address you give us, in accordance with any applicable privacy settings. We may use your email address to send you other messages or content, such as, but not limited to, newsletters, additions or changes to features of the Service, or special offers. If you do not want to receive such email messages, you may opt out by emailing us your opt-out request or, where available, by clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of our e-newsletter. Opting out may prevent you from receiving email messages regarding updates, improvements, special features, announcements, or offers. You may not opt out of Service-related emails.

You can add, update, or delete the information as explained above. When you update information, however, we may maintain a copy of the unrevised information in our records. You may request deletion of your account by emailing us. It is your responsibility to maintain your current email address with us.

Inquiries or Concerns?

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or concerns about how we manage your Personal Information, please contact our Customer Care department by telephone, in writing or by e-mail. We will endeavor to answer your questions and advise you of any steps taken to address the issues raised by you. If our Customer Care department is unable to help you, please contact our Privacy Officer using the contact information below. If you remain dissatisfied with our response, you may be entitled to make a written submission to the Privacy Commissioner in your jurisdiction.

Contact Information

Contact us for questions on our Privacy Policy. Our contact information is as follows:

  • By Email to: hello@comparisongenius.com
  • By Mail to:
    ComparisonGenius Inc.
    4500 Bankers Hall East
    855 2 Street SW
    Calgary, Alberta T2P 4K7
    Attention: Advertising Department

Revisions to this Privacy Policy

We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the revised version of this Privacy Policy on our comparisongenius.com website and any updates will be effective upon posting. You are responsible for periodically checking our Website for updates.

Interpretation of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy includes examples but is not intended to be restricted in its application to such examples, therefore where the word “including” is used, it shall mean “including without limitation”.