Your privacy is important to Creditor Advocates. This privacy policy covers how we collect, use, maintain, and disclose your personal information and is part of our Terms of Use.
Any changes to this Privacy Policy are effective immediately. We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. We do so by posting and drawing attention to the updated Privacy Policy on the main page of our website, at a minimum. It is the obligation of users visiting our website before the change to learn of changes to the Privacy Policy since their last visit.
Personal Information We Collect
Personal identifiable information is data that can be used to identify or contact you. This information is collected in order to provide and improve our services and/or products.
Below are some examples of the types of personal information we collect:
Any interaction with us or information supplied to us that cannot be combined or linked with an existing account or transaction, or isn’t readily combined or linked with such, may not be considered personal information, unless and until such information is combined or linked with other personal identifying information, such as your name, address, and/or account information. For example, when you access our website, a variety of generic information may be collected and stored in log files. This may include, but not limited to, date/time stamp of interaction, IP address, type of browser, type of operating system, user interface interactions (such as, but not limited to, mouse clicks and/or navigation on our website, applications, or emails), or other usage information. Although this data may be detailed, it lacks the connection to you or an account. This general usage information would only be considered personal information when those detailed interactions are combined and linked with other personal information, such as your name, address, and/or account information.
Sources of Personal Information
Most of the information we have is provided to us by the original creditor, current creditor, servicer, or party placing your account(s) with us. We also receive information directly from you via phone call, text, sms, mail correspondence, email correspondence, in person, chat sessions, portal usage, other web or electronic applications, and/or meta data connected with such. We occasionally receive information from contracted law firms, agents, servicers, or other third parties that may service your account. We sometimes receive information from third party vendors who help us enhance and confirm the validity of our information as it relates to address, phone number, bankruptcy, deceased information, fraud, military status, employment, property information, credit worthiness, and/or identity.
If you are a potential candidate for employment with us, we may have received your personal information from a recruiter or external website.
Use of Personal Information
Personal information is used to provide and improve our service and/or products. This information is used to identify specific customers for whom we provide our services, learn and analyze trends and behaviors, administer our electronic applications, to comply with state, federal, and local laws and to demonstrate compliance with those laws.
Some examples of how we use personal information include, but not limited to: (1) Send you communications on your account, (2) Verify your identity, (3) Process payments and other account activity you authorize, (4) After you opt-in, consent, and agree to recurring messaging programs (such as SMS/MMS), we may provide alerts, updates, and other important account information which may be delivered with auto dialed messages to the phone number you provide; (5) SMS information is not rented, sold, or shared; (6) Resolve disputes and troubleshoot customer concerns; (7) Prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities, and enforce our Terms of Use; (8) Customize, measure, and improve our services and the content and layout of our website; (9) Help us create, develop and improve our content and services, including through internal auditing and data analysis; (10) Compare information for accuracy and verification purposes; (11) If you apply for a job at Creditor Advocates we use the information we receive to evaluate your candidacy and contact you.
Our website may also use cookies to gather information so that we can improve the effectiveness of our services. You may choose to set your web browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent but some parts of the website may not function properly without accepting cookies.
Our emails may contain pixel tags. Pixel tags can enable us to tell us whether the email has been opened, depending on your email provider. If you prefer not to be tracked in this way, you should not open our emails. Our email messages may contain “click-through URL” that are linked to web pages on our website or third party sites. We track this click-through data to help us determine our customer’s communication preferences or interest in particular topics. You should not click text or graphic links in the email if you prefer not to be tracked in this way.
Our website does not recognize or act on “do not track” requests from a browser. The information we receive through tracking is treated as non-personal information unless local law requires us to treat it as personal information. Additionally, if this information is combined with personal information, we treat the combined information as personal information for the purposes of this Privacy Policy at that point.
If any correspondence or information is received by us in which it cannot be combined or linked with an existing account or transaction, the correspondence or information may be returned, securely stored, or destroyed. If this correspondence is later combined with personal information, we will then treat the combined information as personal information for the purposes of this Privacy Policy at that point.
Sharing of Personal Information
We do not sell personal information. We do not allow our third-party service providers to sell personal information or otherwise use it for marketing purposes.
Personal information is shared with our creditor client and/or with a limited number of contracted third party service providers who help us provide our services, which may include, but not limited to, information verification, managing and enhancing customer data, mailing, payment processing, and account referral. When information is shared, we only share the minimum amount of information necessary for the particular third party to assist us in providing our services and require those third parties to handle it in accordance with relevant laws.
Examples on how we share information include, but not limited to:
Law enforcement or judicial authorities may occasionally require us to disclose information. We will only disclose information when there is a lawful basis or if disclosure is reasonably necessary to demonstrate compliance with the law.
We may transfer information about you in the event of a business transaction, such as if we or one of our business units or our relevant assets are acquired by, sold to, or merged with another company.
Generic data may be shared with our clients, potential clients, or governmental regulators. This information may include de-identified visitor and user interactions with our services and/or products, or generic aggregate demographic information not linked to any personally identifiable information.
Third Party Websites and Other Applications
Our website may contain links to other sites whose information practices may be different from ours. Visitors should consult the other sites’ privacy policies before submitting any information, as we have no control over information that is submitted to, or collected by, these third parties.
How We Protect Personal Information
We take data security seriously. Creditor Advocates takes measures designed to prevent unauthorized intrusion and the alteration, acquisition or misuse of personal information by unauthorized persons. For example, we store personal information on computer servers with limited access that are located in controlled facilities and we require encryption in the transmission of that data. Your access to some services will require you to verify your identity. If there is a problem verifying identity through the website we recommend you contact our office and speak to a representative directly.
No data transmission over the Internet is guaranteed to be 100% secure. In spite of our efforts to protect and maintain the confidentiality of any personal information you provide to our website, Creditor Advocates cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. You transmit all such information at your own risk. Please contact our offices directly if you would prefer to speak to a representative.
Data Integrity and Retention
We will retain your personal information for the period required to fulfill our services, meet our contractual obligations, and as required by law. When assessing these periods, we only retain it for the shortest possible period unless a longer retention period is required by law.
Access to Personal Information
To request that we correct the data if it is inaccurate please email Creditor Advocates Compliance at customerservice@creditoradvocates.com or call (866) 357-7522. You can also request we delete the data if we are not required to retain it for legitimate business purposes or by law.
How We Delete
We are required to keep your data due to the underlying contractual relationship between you and the creditor. We are also required to keep the personal information for legal reasons for as long as the statute of limitations period lasts for the type of account in collections and for other statutory obligations which sometimes are longer (such as a state licensing statute requiring us to maintain records for a certain period of time or the statute of limitations for a consumer financial law). Once our legal obligation to keep your personal information has expired, we delete the information from our systems in accordance with our data retention policies and procedures.
U.S. Audience
This website is intended for a United States audience. If you access this website from outside the U.S., you acknowledge, agree, and consent that any information you provide, including any personal information, will be transferred to and processed by a computer server located within the U.S., and subject to U.S. laws and regulations. Further, if you access this site from outside the U.S., you acknowledge and agree that you are responsible for compliance with any applicable local or national laws, rules or regulations applicable to such use.
Minor
This website is not intended for children. If you are below the age of thirteen (13), we ask that you not submit any personal information to this website. In compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, we will not accept any registrations or other personal information from those under the age of thirteen (13).
California Privacy Rights
California Civil code § 1798.83 provides certain rights to California residents, including the right to request information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for marketing purposes. To request such information, please contact us as described below.
California Consumer Privacy Act
Requests to Know or Delete: For California consumers call (866) 357-7522 or write to the address below to exercise your rights.
Direct Creditor Requests
Information concerning how you can exercise your rights directly with the creditor or current creditor, visit their website directly or contact them directly.
Other Disclosures
Please note that Creditor Advocates is a debt collector and regularly attempts to collect debts. Any information obtained will be used for that purpose. For other important information, please visit our Disclosures page.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us.
Creditor Advocates Inc
4719 Park Nicollet Ave SE #115
Prior Lake, MN 55372
Phone: (866) 357-7522
Version 20240127 – Updated on 01/27/2024.
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