Children Under the Age of 16
Our Websites and Application are not intended for children under 16 years of age. No one under age 16 is authorized to provide any information to the Websites or Application. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you are under 16, do not use or provide any information on these Websites, Application, or through any of their features, register on the Websites or Application, use any of the interactive or public comment features of the Websites or Application, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 16 without verification of parental consent, we will endeavor to delete that information if possible. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 16, please contact us at privacy@preferredmutual.com.
Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It
PMIC collects several types of information from current and former policy owners and about users of our Websites and Application, including information:
- By which you may be personally identified, such as name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, device information, social security number, marital status, subscription information or any other identifier by which you may be contacted online or offline ("personal information");
- To assist with billing inquiries, premium payments, and claim reporting;
- Records that include, but are not limited to, policy coverage, premiums, and payment history;
- We collect from outside sources including, but not limited to, your driving record, claims history, and credit information.
- That is about you but individually does not identify you, such as statistical information and analytic data relating to Websites and Application usage; and/or
- About your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Websites, device you use to access our Application, and usage details.
We collect this information:
- Directly from you when you provide it to us;
- Automatically as you navigate through the Websites or Application. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies; or
- From third parties, for example, our business partners.
Information You Provide to Us
The information we collect on or through our Websites or Application may include:
Information you provide by filling in forms on our Websites or Application. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our MYPreferred Customer Portal, MYPreferred Mobile, subscribing to our services or newsletters, or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our Websites or Application.
Information you provide for billing inquiries, premium payments, and claim reporting.
Records that include, but are not limited to, policy coverage, premiums, and payment history.
Records and copies of your correspondence, including email addresses or SMS messaging if you contact us.
Details of services we provide to you as requested through our MYPreferred Customer Portal on the Websites or Application.
Any information you submit to us via our online forms, email, or SMS messaging, through the Websites or Application is done so on a voluntary basis. The collection, use, and distribution of your information will be handled according to the terms and policies outlined in this Privacy Policy. If you object to the collection, use, and distribution policies outlined in this Privacy Policy, we ask you not to submit information or access our Websites or Application. We encourage you to send confidential information via the postal service to the address at the bottom of this document.
Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies
As you navigate through and interact with our Websites or Application, 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 Websites or Application, including traffic data, location data, and other communication data and the resources you access and use on the Websites or Application.
Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system and browser type.
When you download, access, or use our Websites or Application, they may use technology to automatically collect:
- Usage Details. When you access and use the Application, we may automatically collect certain details of your access to and use of the Application, including traffic data, location data, logs, and other communication data and the resources you access and use on or through the Application;
- Device Information. We may collect information about your mobile device and internet connection, including the device's unique device identifier, IP address, operating system, browser type, mobile network information, and the device's telephone number;
- Stored Information and Files. The Application also may access metadata and other information associated with other files stored on your device. This may include, for example, photographs, audio and video clips, personal contacts, and address book information; or
- Location Information. Our Website or Application may collect real-time information about the location of your device. If you do not want us to collect this information from your Application do not download the Application or delete it from your device.
The information we collect automatically from you in the form of usage data is only statistical data and does not include personal information, but we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. This helps us to improve our Websites and Application and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:
Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Websites, Application, or MYPreferred Customer Portal according to your individual interests.
Speed up your searches.
Recognize you when you return to our Websites or Application.
The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:
Cookies (or browser/mobile cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer or device. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Websites or Application. 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 Websites or Application.
Web Beacons. Pages of our Websites, the Application, and our e-mails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit PMIC, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website or application statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain application content and verifying system and server integrity).
Third-Party Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Websites or Application are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Websites or Application. The information they 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.
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. For information about how you can opt out of receiving targeted advertising from many providers, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.
The Websites or Application may contain links to other sites or applications. Please be aware PMIC is not responsible for the privacy practices of those other sites or applications. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our Websites or Application and to review the privacy statements of each and every website or application that collects personal information. This privacy policy applies solely to information collected on our Websites or Application. Information collected on other sites or applications is not covered by this privacy policy.
How We Use Your Information
We use information we collect about you or you provide to us, including any personal information:
To present our Websites and its contents to you.
To present our Application and its contents to you.
To provide you with information, products, or services you request from us.
To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
To provide you with notices about your MYPreferred account.
To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection.
To notify you about changes to our Websites, Application, or any products or services we offer or provide though it.
To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Websites or Application.
To evaluate our marketing campaigns and develop new services on our behalf.
In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
For any other purpose with your consent.
Disclosure of Your Information
We use customer information to underwrite your policies, process your claims, ensure proper billing, and service your accounts. We may share information about your transactions (such as payment of premium) and experiences (such as an auto accident) with our PMIC partners and agents to better serve you and assist in meeting your current product and service needs. Additionally, we may share personal information as necessary to handle your claim and protect you against fraud and unauthorized transactions. For example, we might share customer information such as name, address, and coverage information with an auto body shop to speed up repairs on an auto-damage claim. We share financial information with our credit card processor and e-check provider as necessary to accept your payment. We may disclose aggregated information about our users, customers, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction. We may disclose personal information we collect or you provide as described in this Privacy Policy:
To our subsidiaries and affiliates
Your agent, broker, or PMIC-affiliated companies
Companies that perform services, such as marketing, credit/debit card processing, and communication services on our behalf
Business partners that assist us with tracking how visitors use our Websites or Application
Other financial institutions with whom we have a joint marketing agreement
Other insurance companies that play a role in an insurance transaction with you
Independent claims adjusters
A business or businesses that conduct actuarial or research studies
Those who request information pursuant to a subpoena or court order
Repair shops and recommended claims vendors
To other contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business
To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of PMIC's assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by PMIC about our Websites or Application users is among the assets transferred
To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it
For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information
With your consent
We may also disclose your personal information:
To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
To enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of PMIC, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
We do not sell your personal information.
We will not disclose any information about you to others unless the disclosure is necessary to conduct our business and as permitted by applicable law and regulation.
Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information
We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:
Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
We do not control third parties' collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising
Data Security
We have implemented reasonable administrative, physical, and technical security measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. We use the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol in the transmission of any data and secured servers to safeguard the information you submit. All payment transactions are processed through third parties and are subject to the security, terms and conditions, and policies of these third party providers. While we use TLS encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also endeavor to do everything in our power to protect user information off-line. All of our users' or customers' information, not just sensitive information, is restricted in our offices. We limit employee access of personally identifiable information to those with a business reason for accessing such information. PMIC also believes in educating our employees so they will understand the importance of confidentiality of personal information, and in taking appropriate measures to enforce employee privacy responsibilities. Finally, the servers on which we store personal information are kept in a secure environment.
The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you or where you have chosen a password for access to certain parts of our Websites or Application, including the MYPreferred Customer Portal, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. Protecting your account login credentials (i.e. your username and password) from unauthorized access is your responsibility. You may not share your login credentials with any third party. We recommend you log out after accessing your account, change your password on a periodic basis, and limit access to your computer or device and its browser. While we use commercially reasonable security measures to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing our files or tampering with the Websites or Application, we cannot guarantee these efforts will always be successful. We do not represent, warrant, or guarantee our safeguards will protect the total privacy of your personal information.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information while within our control, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information during transmission to our Websites or the Application. You are responsible for ensuring the security and safety of your internet connection. You should not transfer any data to our Websites or Applications via an unsecured internet connection. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We cannot and do not ensure, represent, warrant, or guarantee the security of any information you transmit through the Websites or Application. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Websites or the Application.
Retention of Your Personal Information
We retain your information for as long as required, allowed or as long as we believe it is useful, but do not undertake additional retention obligations. We may dispose of your information at our sole discretion without notice, subject to applicable law that specifically requires the handling or retention of your information. You must keep your own, separate back-up records of your data.
You can correct, update, and remove your information if it changes or if you no longer want to receive information except that which is related to our services. This can be done by e-mailing a request to us at privacy@preferredmutual.com. We may not be able to completely remove your information from our systems in certain circumstances.
Third Party Links
The Websites or Application may contain links to other sites or applications. Please be aware PMIC is not responsible for the privacy practices of those other sites or applications. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our Websites or Application and to review the privacy statements of each and every website or application that collects personal information. This privacy policy applies solely to information collected on our Websites or Application. Information collected on other sites or applications is not covered by this privacy policy.
Information for Current and Former Customers
When you apply for any type of insurance, you disclose a certain amount of information about yourself to us. The collection, use, and disclosure of such information is regulated by applicable law and regulation. PMIC recognizes the confidentiality expectations of our applicants and policyholders. Therefore, it is the policy of PMIC to:
Collect only information necessary or relevant to our business.
Make a reasonable effort to ensure information we act upon is accurate, relevant, timely and complete.
Use only legitimate means to collect information.
Make nonpublic personal information available externally only to respond to legitimate business needs as permitted by applicable law and regulation, to regulatory or other government authorities and as otherwise permitted by law.
Limit employees' access to those who need to know and are trained in the proper handling of nonpublic personal information.
We collect most of our information directly from you. The application you complete via our Websites or Application, as well as any additional information you provide, generally gives us most of the information we need to know. Sometimes we may contact you by phone or mail to obtain additional information. Depending on the nature of your insurance transaction, we may need additional information about you, or other individuals proposed for coverage, from outside sources, such as motor vehicle records, loss information reports, credit reports, court records or other public records. For property insurance, we may send someone to inspect your property and verify information about its value and condition. A photo of any property to be insured might be taken.
We also might obtain information from third parties, such as other insurance companies or consumer reporting agencies. A consumer report from such an agency may contain information as to credit worthiness*, credit standing*, credit capacity*, character, general reputation, hobbies, occupation, personal characteristics, or mode of living. If we order any kind of consumer report, under state law and the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, upon written request, we will provide to you, or tell you how to request, a copy of the report. The agency preparing a consumer report for us may keep the information collected about you as permitted by law.
*Preferred Mutual Insurance Company does not use credit reports or credit scores in the rating or underwriting of Massachusetts personal automobile insurance.
What do we do with the information collected about you?
Information which has been collected about you will be contained in our policy records. We review it in evaluating your request for insurance coverage and in determining your rates. We will also refer to and use information in our policy records for purposes related to issuing and servicing insurance policies and settling claims.
If coverage is declined or the charge for coverage is increased because of information contained in a consumer report we obtained, we will tell you as required by state law and the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. We also will give you the name and address of the consumer-reporting agency making the report.
To whom do we disclose information about you?
We may disclose information we collect about you, as described in this paragraph. We will not disclose nonpublic personal information about you to nonaffiliated companies without your written consent unless the disclosure is necessary to conduct our business and permitted by applicable law and regulation. For example, we may disclose your nonpublic personal information to nonaffiliated companies to conduct our business, such as to process insurance transactions, maintain your policy, respond to court orders and legal investigations, or report to credit bureaus. By law, we are also permitted to share nonpublic personal information about you without prior permission under certain circumstances to certain affiliated and nonaffiliated persons and organizations such as:
Our affiliated insurance companies.
Your agent or broker.
Parties who perform a business, professional or insurance function for our company, including our reinsurance companies.
Independent claims adjuster, appraisers, investigators, and attorneys who need the information to investigate, defend or settle a claim involving you.
Businesses that help us with data processing or marketing of our products on our behalf to you.
Businesses that conduct scientific research, including actuarial or underwriting studies (without identifying you individually).
Other insurance companies, agents, or consumer reporting agencies as reasonably necessary in connection with any application, policy, or claim involving you.
Insurance support organizations which are established to collect information for the purpose of detecting and preventing insurance crimes and fraudulent claims.
Medical care institutions or medical professionals to verify coverage or conduct an audit of services.
Insurance regulatory agencies in connection with the regulation of our business.
Law enforcement or other governmental authorities to protect our legal interest or in cases of suspected fraud or illegal activities.
Authorized persons as ordered by a subpoena, warrant or other court order or as required by law.
Certificate holders or policyholders for the purpose of providing information regarding the status of an insurance transaction.
Lienholders, mortgagees, lessors, or other persons shown on our records as having a legal or beneficial interest in your policy.
Consumer reporting agencies in accordance with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and, if applicable, the New York Fair Credit Reporting Act.
We respect your privacy and will not sell, provide, or disclose any nonpublic personal information about you to nonaffiliated third parties unless the disclosure is allowed by applicable law and regulation and is necessary to conduct our business.
What this means to our valued policyholders is that we will not disclose any nonpublic personal information to any telemarketing companies, direct-mail companies, or any other nonaffiliated third party for the marketing of their products.
We prohibit any business partner we utilize to conduct our business and to whom we disclose information as permitted by applicable law and regulation from sharing any of your nonpublic personal information or using the information other than to carry out the purposes for which the information was provided. We also prohibit our business partners we utilize in conducting our business and to whom we disclose information as permitted by applicable law and regulation from using any of your nonpublic personal information for marketing of their products.
We require any business partner we utilize to conduct our business and to whom we disclose information as permitted by applicable law and regulation to comply with the applicable laws and regulations regarding the confidentiality and security of your nonpublic personal information.
We comply with all applicable federal and state law and regulation to protect the privacy of your nonpublic personal information and voluntarily restrict our information sharing practices to only those disclosures permitted by applicable law and regulation. As a result, you do not need to take any further action or request an opt out of our information sharing practices.
How can you find out about information we have about you?
Information we collect about you will be kept in our files. We may refer to this information if you file a claim under any policy you have with us or if you apply to us for a new policy. You have the right to know what kind of information we keep in our files about you, to have access to the information, and to receive a copy. Certain types of information generally collected when evaluating claims or possible lawsuits need not be disclosed to you.
Upon your written request, we will make available information from your files for your review. Send us a letter requesting the information you would like to receive. In the letter, please provide your complete name, address, date of birth, type of policy held or applied for and all numbers of any policies issued to you by us. Within thirty business days of receipt of your written request, we will inform you in writing of the nature and substance of locatable and retrievable recorded personal information about you in our files. You may review this information in person or receive a copy at a reasonable charge. We will also identify the person or organizations who we disclosed this information to within the past two years. In addition, you will be given the name and address of any consumer-reporting agency which prepared a report about you so that you can contact them for a copy.
After you have reviewed the personal information about you in our file, you can write to us if you believe it should be corrected, amended, or deleted. Tell us what you think is wrong and why. We will consider your request and, within thirty business days from the date of receipt of your written request, either change our files or tell you that we did not change our files and the reason. If we do not make changes, you will have the right to insert in our file a concise statement containing what you believe to be the correct, relevant, or fair information and explaining why you believe the information on file to be improper. We will notify persons designated by you to whom we have previously disclosed the information of the change or your statement. Subsequent disclosures we make also will include your statement.
How do we protect the confidentiality of information about you?
Our company maintains appropriate security standards and procedures to prevent unauthorized access to your information in whatever medium it is stored. We limit employee access to personally identifiable information to those with a business reason for knowing such information. Preferred Mutual Insurance Company also believes in educating our employees so that they will understand the importance of confidentiality of personal information, and in taking appropriate measures to enforce employee privacy responsibilities.
We will not sell, provide, or disclose any information about you to others unless the disclosure is necessary to conduct our business and is permitted by applicable law and regulation. We will maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with Federal and State regulations to guard the information we have. Your privacy is important to us. If you have any questions, please email us at privacy@preferredmutual.com.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
PMIC reserves the right to introduce new services or practices that may require a change in this policy. We are committed to make the necessary changes promptly to keep you informed on how we use the information you provide us. It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users' personal information, we will post an update privacy policy to both Websites and Application. The date the privacy policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for keeping up to date on the terms of this Privacy Policy and to review this policy frequently for any changes. Your continued use of the Websites or Application constitutes your acceptance of any updated Privacy Policy.
Contact Information
To ask questions or comment about this privacy policy and our privacy practices, contact us at:
privacy@preferredmutual.com
Preferred Mutual Insurance Company
One Preferred Way
New Berlin, NY 13411
800-333-7642