This Privacy Policy Statement explains the policies of United Student Aid Funds, Inc. ("USA Funds"), and its affiliates Secondary Market Services Corp.-Hawaii ("SMS Hawaii") and Northwest Education Loan Association ("NELA") (altogether, the "Companies" or "us," " We," "we," "Our," or "our") regarding any personal identifying information you might supply to us. The Companies respect the privacy of our customers and visitors to this site, and we are committed to protecting user privacy on the Internet. We will protect personal information you share with us through this site in the same way that we protect your personal information in all the other ways in which we interact with you.
We may use "cookies" to enhance your online experience. Cookies are pieces of data that we place on your computer's hard drive to help us identify you. The cookies that we place on your hard drive allow us to immediately tell us who you are when you return to the site. They are not used to collect any nonpublic personal information.
Our Web server automatically recognizes your domain name, but not your e-mail address. We do not collect nonpublic personal information from visitors to our sites unless you expressly provide it to us. The information we do collect from this site (such as domain name, number of hits, pages visited and length of user session) may be combined to analyze how our site is used. This information is then used to improve the usefulness of the site.
The Companies collect only limited “personally identifiable information” on this site. Personally identifiable information is information about you, such as your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. We gather this information so we can deliver the products and services you request and to administer our business. This information also helps us design and offer new products and services that we believe you will like and use. We also collect some information because federal or state law requires it.
The types of personally identifiable information about you that we collect on this site and the ways in which we use such information include the following:
- Contact information, such as your name, address, e-mail address or telephone number (land-line or cellular). We may use this information, for example, to send you information that you request or to contact you about your accounts.
- Identification information, such as a Social Security number or mother’s maiden name. This information helps us, for example, identify you as our customer and prevent unauthorized use of accounts or unauthorized disclosure of your information.
- Financial information, such as your income, assets or liabilities. We may use this information, for example, to process applications.
The Companies carefully limit and control how we share personally identifiable information that we collect on this site. We may share this information with the following types of entities:
- With an affiliated organization. USA Funds is a guarantor of education loans and is affiliated with SMS Hawaii and NELA. Affiliates of USA Funds may change from time to time due to acquisitions and divestitures. In an effort to fulfill our mission of supporting access to education, we may share your nonpublic personal information with our affiliates as permitted by federal law, specifically the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.
- With other companies. To improve efficiency with which we provide you service, the Companies have contracted with other companies and organizations to perform various business operations or provide services on our behalf. These various contracted vendors are not affiliated with the Companies. As part of these business relationships, the Companies will share your personal and financial information with these contracted vendors to process, service, administer and enforce a transaction. The sharing of your nonpublic personal financial information in this instance is either required or permitted by federal law. We require these contracted vendors to comply with strict standards of security and confidentiality, and they are not permitted to release, use or transfer any personal information to any other party for their own use. The Companies also require these various contracted vendors to maintain controls to protect your privacy including physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations.
- In general. The Companies do not sell customer lists or individual customer information. We will, however, exchange personal information about you with your lender, your school, other guarantors and the U.S. Department of Education and other departments of state and federal government as permitted by federal law and regulations. The Companies also will exchange certain personal information about you with selected credit reporting agencies, when we are legally required, such as in response to a subpoena and to prevent fraud or to comply with a legally permitted inquiry by a government agency or regulator.
Unless prohibited by law, you have the right, upon reasonable notice, to view any personally identifiable information collected from you through your visits to or use of this site, to make corrections to such information, if necessary, or to request that such information be removed from our systems. You may do so by contacting us at the address indicated at the end of this Privacy Policy Statement.
Our site may also permit you to access non-affiliated sites directly from our site to provide you with value-added information, functionality or services. If you provide personal information via these sites, your information may be shared with these third-party entities. It is also important to remember that, if you link to a non-affiliated site from our site, that party's privacy policy and its terms and conditions will apply to you. We encourage you to learn about each third party's privacy policy before sharing personal information with them.
The Companies do not knowingly collect, maintain or use personal information from this site about children under age 13. If a child whom we know to be under age 13 sends personal information to us online, we will use that information only to respond directly to that child, notify parents or seek parental consent. We are not, however, responsible for the collection and use of information by non-affiliated companies and organizations that may be linked to this site.
Please remember that this Privacy Policy Statement applies only to the Companies and this site. It does not apply to sites that may be linked to or from our site or any other company or organization. If you link to a non-affiliated site from our site, that party's privacy policy and its terms and conditions may apply to you. We encourage you to learn about each third party's privacy policy before giving personal information to them.
The effective date of this Privacy Statement is January 1, 2012. It replaced all prior Privacy Policy Statements issued by USA Funds or any of its affiliates. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy Statement. Any such changes will be reflected in the updated version displayed on this site.
For additional information about this Privacy Policy Statement, please write: Vice President, Corporate Communications, USA Funds, P.O. Box 6028, Indianapolis, IN 46206-6028.