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| Privacy and Security with ERATE | PRIVACY STATEMENT |
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Information Collection and Use There are two ways to obtain financing through our website. One is to have ERATE originate your loan and then broker your loan through a third party lender. The other is for ERATE to receive the personal information you input to our forms, or our affiliate forms, and then sell that information to 4 to 5 third party lenders who will compete for your loan. ERATE receives a commission through either process.
The user should expect communication from the site with 24 hours. The communication will come in the form of an email. In most but not all cases there will be communication via telephone. Obviously if the user is obtaining financing, ERATE will use the form of communication which the borrower prefers.
Who we are
How the information is used Limited distribution of your personal information After you apply for a loan through ERATE we must share both personal and financial information with:
Since ERATE is a licensed mortgage broker we are required to let the California Department of Real Estate audit customer loan files periodically. The purpose of these audits is to ensure that we are complying with the regulations in place to protect consumers. What choices are available to you regarding collection, use and distribution of information Your choice is to either apply for your mortgage via our website, on the telephone, in person, or by regular mail. If there is some information that we are requesting than you are unwilling to provide, we will decide whether to continue with the loan process based on our estimate of the possibility of still getting your loan approved. The site will not send the user unsolicited email such as promotional email from third parties. ERATE will however from time to time send promotional email about products being offered by ERATE. The recipients of these emails will be able to unsubscribe to these emails by sending an email to unsubscribe@erate.com and requesting that we remove their name from our email list. Or sending a letter to ERATE, Unsubscribe email, 4675 Stevens Creek Blvd, Suite 230, Santa Clara, CA 95051. How can consumers correct/update personal info? Consumers are able to correct, access and update pertinent personally identifiable information they have provided ERATE. The mechanisms provided are either email, telephone or postal mail. The consumer should email to update-my-info@erate.com or call 1-800-587-3333 or mail information to ERATE, Update-my-info, 4675 Stevens Creek Blvd, Suite 230, Santa Clara, CA 95051. Upon receiving and making the requested changes we will send consumers a confirmation via email that we have received and updated their information as requested. Security In order to guard against the unauthorized access and use of information, our site features Secured Socket Layer (SSL) technology supported with digital certificates provided by Verisign, Inc. SSL encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us. Accordingly, when you apply for a loan online, all of your personal information is encrypted, creating a secure connection between you and ERATE. 
SecurityERATE takes every precaution to protect our users' information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and off-line. When our loan application asks users to enter sensitive information that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry - Secured Socket Layer (SSL) technology supported with digital certificates provided by Verisign, Inc. While on a secure page, such as our loan application, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when you are just 'surfing'. To learn more about SSL, follow this link While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also do everything in our power to protect user-information off-line. All of our users' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our loan coordinator) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Our employees must use password-protected screen-savers when they leave their desk. When they return, they must re-enter their password to re-gain access to your information. Furthermore, ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Every quarter, as well as any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our customers' information is protected. If you have any questions about the security at our website, you can send an email to security@erate.com Cookies A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes. We do use session cookies on this site within the secure loan application. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser or after a period of inactivity while visiting our site. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our site. We use session cookies to maintain your session during the loan application process.. If your browser is set to decline cookies you may still use our site. Log Files We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user's movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information. Third Party Host A third party, Myers Internet Services, hosts the secure server on which the users information is stored. Myers Internet Services has access to the user information for purposes such as maintaining the site. Links This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that ERATE is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personally identifiable information. The ERATE privacy statement applies solely to information collected by the ERATE website. Tell-A-Friend If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for the friend's name and email address. ERATE will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. ERATE stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email. The friend may contact ERATE at privacy@erate.com to request the removal of this information from their database. Inman News ERATE subscribes to Inman News to provide additional content to its users. This content consists of a Glossary and two columnists. These pages do not collect any personally identifiable information. No information from these pages is gathered or shared. Legal Disclaimer We may disclose personal information when required by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary in order to conform to the edicts of the law or comply with a legal process served on our Web site. Notification of Changes If we decide to change our privacy policy or security precautions, we will post a notification on our homepage so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and to whom we share it. If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected. If you have questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy, you should contact Nancy Osborne, CEO by mailing a letter to ERATE Privacy Policy, Attn. Nancy Osborne, 4675 Stevens Creek Blvd, Suite 230, Santa Clara, CA 95051 or send an email to privacypolicy@erate.com. Protecting Your Identity from Identity Theft What to do if you're a Victim of Identity Theft More info on Identity Theft Protection
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