This website is owned and operated by Tree.com, Inc. or a Tree.com, Inc. subsidiary, division or line of business (“Tree”).  For a list of Tree subsidiaries, divisions, lines of business and websites (collectively, “Tree Businesses”) please see “Tree Businesses” below.   We want you to understand what information we gather about you, how we use it and the safeguards we have in place to protect it.  This Privacy Policy applies to information collected through this website and otherwise.   Your use of this website and our services, and any disputes arising from it, is subject to this Privacy Policy as well as the website’s Terms of Use and all of its dispute resolution provisions, including arbitration, limitation on damages and choice of law.

This website is a general audience site and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13.

• Information we Collect
• How we Collect and Use Information
• With Whom do we Share Your Information
• Tree.com Considerations
• Non-Personally Identifiable Information
• Third Party Links and Policies
• Special Notice to California Residents
• Special Notice to Vermont Residents
• Updating and Accessing Your Information
• Choices about Collection and Use of Your Information
• How We Protect your PII
• Changes to this Privacy Policy
• Visiting Our Website from Outside the United States
• No Rights of Third Parties
• How to Contact Us
• Tree Businesses

Information We Collect.

We collect personally identifiable information that can identify you such as your name, e-mail address and Social Security Number (“Personally Identifiable Information” or “PII”).  We also collect information such as demographic data and data about your online activity on our website that does not identify you (“Non-Personally Identifiable Information” or “Non-PII”).  PII and Non-PII are known together as “Information”. We may also collect and store Information that you provide to us about other people (such as co-borrowers), including their name, address, phone number and Social Security Number.

How We Collect and Use Information.

i. From You. We collect Information you provide to us: (a) in connection with inquiring about or obtaining our services; and (b) in connection with a job application.  The Information we collect from you will vary depending on the product or service requested.

ii. Other Sources. We may obtain Information about you from third parties such as: credit reports, information about your home and demographic information.  We do not pull a credit bureau report on loan customers without their permission.

iii. Automatic Collection, Cookies and Other Internet Technologies. We use cookies, web beacons and other standard internet technologies to collect information from your computer and about your activities on our website.  We automatically collect Non-PII from your browser when you visit our website. This information includes your IP address, your browser type and language, access times, the content of any undeleted cookies that your browser previously accepted from us and the referring website address.

• Cookies. A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record keeping purposes.
  • When you visit our website, we may assign your computer one or more cookies to facilitate access to our website, personalize your online experience and record information about your visit. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your online activity on our website, such as the web pages you visit, the links or advertisements you click on and other actions you take while on our website. The cookies do not store any PII about you. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, please note that some of the features and services of our website may not function properly.
  • We may allow third-parties, advertising companies and ad networks (“Advertisers”) to display advertisements on our website. Advertisers may use tracking technologies, such as cookies, to collect information about users who view or interact with their advertisements. Our website does not provide any PII to these Advertisers, but they may collect information about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw and/or clicked on the advertisements they delivered, and possibly associate this information with your subsequent visits to the advertised websites. They also may combine this information with personal information they collect directly from you. The collection and use of that personal information is subject to the particular Advertiser’s privacy policy.  Some of these Advertisers may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative, which offers a single location to opt out of ad targeting from member companies.  For a list of Advertisers we typically use, click here.
• Other Technologies. We may use web beacons and other standard Internet technologies to track your use on our websites. Web beacons (also known as clear gifs, pixel tags or web bugs) are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users or to access cookies.  We also may include web beacons in e-mail messages or newsletters to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon.

How We Use Information.

In General. We may use Information to:

• Deliver the products and services you requested;
• Manage your customer relationship and provide you with customer support;
• Research and analyze your use of, or interest in, our products, services and content and the products, services and content offered by others;
• Communicate with you via e-mail, postal mail and/or mobile devices about products or services that may be of interest to you;
• Develop and display content and services tailored to your interests on our website and other websites;
• Develop and deliver targeted advertisements;
• Measure the overall effectiveness of our online advertising, content, programming and other activities;
• Verify your eligibility and deliver prizes in connection with promotions, contests and sweepstakes;
• Manage our business; and
• Perform functions as described to you at the time of collection.

 

Financial Information. Depending on the service requested, we may use financial information to: match you with real estate agents, real estate brokers,  lenders, provide you with lenders' conditional loan offers, verify your identity, protect against or identify possible fraudulent transactions, or otherwise as needed to manage our business.  If you request a loan through LendingTree Loans or Home Loan Center, we will use financial information to determine your eligibility for a loan and to charge you for any lock, processing or appraisal fees.  If you request real estate brokerage services through a RealEstate.com-affiliated agent, we will use your financial information and information about your home to provide real estate brokerage services directly to you.  If you submit an iNest form we may use home price information to match you with appropriate home builders.

Job Applicants. If your PII is submitted when applying for a position with us, the information will be used solely in connection with considering and acting upon your application. We may retain your PII for a period of time, but only for the purpose of considering your application for current or future available positions or as required by law.

With Whom do we Share Your Information

Tree Businesses. We may share your Information with Tree Businesses.  All Tree Businesses adhere to this Privacy Policy.  We will not share with other Tree Businesses any PII if that information bears on your creditworthiness.  Except as described in this policy, we will not disclose your PII to others outside of the Tree Businesses.

Lenders or Investors. IIn submitting a request for a loan product or service offered through this website, when you click “Accept and Continue” or otherwise signify your agreement to proceed you are consenting to the disclosure of your PII with lenders in our network (“Lenders”) with whom you are or may be matched.  If you are matched with LendingTree Loans we will share your PII with third party investors to whom LendingTree Loans intends to transfer your loan after closing.   Please note that no credit check will be performed by us unless you authorize us to do so by submitting a completed loan request.

Be aware that the Lenders with whom you are matched may retain or use your Information whether or not you use their services and you should contact these Lenders directly concerning their privacy and information sharing practices which may differ from ours.

Real Estate Agents, Brokers and Home Builders. .  If you submit a request form, including “Find-a-REALTOR®” request, iNest request or New Homes Realty form, we may share your Information with real estate agents, brokers or home builders on our network in which you have expressed interest.  We will not share Information with other real estate agents, brokers or home builders not disclosed to you.   Be aware that the real estate agents, brokers or home builders with whom we share your Information may retain or use your Information whether or not you use their services and you should contact these parties directly concerning their privacy and information sharing practices which may differ from ours.

Referrals for your Non-Mortgage Business. When you express interest in other products, services, promotions that we offer (by, for example, completing a request for such services), we will share your request or expression of interest with the businesses with which we partner to offer you those products, services and promotions, and, as applicable, with their affiliates and third party finder or marketing companies (collectively, “Business Providers”).  When you choose to participate in a particular offer or program, you authorize us to provide PII to those Business Providers.  Be aware the Business Providers with whom we share your Information may retain or use your Information whether or not you use their services and you should contact these parties directly concerning their privacy and information sharing practices which may differ from ours.

Services Providers. We may share your personal information with our authorized service providers that perform certain services on our behalf, including service providers that perform services on our behalf in connection with your request for a loan or the funding, sale and/or servicing of your loan.  These third parties include, without limitation credit bureaus, title companies, flood or other insurance companies, appraisal companies, escrow companies, closing agents,  marketing and customer services firms, credit card,  or entities that provide business analysis or website support. These third parties may have access to PII needed to perform their functions.

Other Situations. We also may disclose your information at our sole discretion:

• In response to a subpoena or similar investigative demand, a court order or a request for cooperation from a law enforcement or other government agency; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to defend against legal claims; or as we reasonably believe is required by law. In such cases, we may raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us.
• When we believe disclosure is appropriate in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent or take other action regarding actual or suspected illegal activity or other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, our employees or others; or to enforce our websites' terms and conditions or other agreements or policies.
• In connection with a substantial corporate transaction, such as the sale of our business, a divestiture, merger, consolidation, asset sale or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.

 

Tree.com Considerations.

For certain products and services available through www.tree.com, we will not share your email address or phone number with the Business Provider or Lender with whom you are matched. Where this feature is available for a product or service, it will be noted on the web page for that product or service. Nevertheless these Business Providers and Lender will still receive other PII about you and they may retain or use your PII whether or not you use their services and you should contact these Providers or Lenders directly concerning their privacy and information sharing practices, which may differ from ours. If you provide your Information on any other website besides www.tree.com, this Section 4 will not apply.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information.

We may share Non-PII with third parties in our discretion.

Third Party Links and Policies.

Our website contains links to other websites owned and operated by third parties.  These third parties and their servers may be located in the United States or in other countries.  We do not control, and are not responsible for, the privacy and security practices of these third parties.  We recommend that you review the privacy and security policies of these third parties to determine how they handle Information they may collect about you.

Special Notice to California Residents.

If you are a resident of California, in addition to the rights set forth in this Privacy Policy:

• We will not share any personal information about you with other Tree Businesses to the extent prohibited by applicable California law or to the extent your prior consent to share is required by applicable California law; and
• You have the right to request information from us regarding the manner in which we share certain categories of information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. California law gives you the right to send us a request at a designated address to receive the following information:

  i. the categories of information we disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year

  ii. the names and addresses of the third parties that received that information; and

  iii. if the nature of the third party’s business cannot be determined from their name, examples of the products or services marketed.

 

We may provide this information in a standardized format that is not specific to you. The designated e-mail address for these requests is privacy@tree.com.

Special Notice to Vermont Residents.

We will not share any personal information about you with other Businesses to the extent prohibited by applicable Vermont law or to the extent your prior consent to share is required by applicable Vermont law. 

Updating and Accessing Your Information.

The appropriate method(s) for accessing your Information, if any, will depend on which sites or services you have used.  Depending on the respective service, you may have the ability to view or edit some of your Information online.  If you have submitted a loan request with us, you can update your personal information by contacting our Customer Care Department at customercare@lendingtree.com.  Our address is 11115 Rushmore Drive, Charlotte, NC 28277.

Choices about Collection and Use of Your Information.

• You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but that may result in the inability to use certain features of our websites or receive certain products or services.  Public forums are not intended for the disclosure of PII.  To the extent you provide PII in any public forum, it is at your own risk.
• Federal and state regulations require that we store completed loan requests for various periods of time. In order to comply with these requirements, we may be unable to delete your information from our database until the expiration of the applicable period.

How we Protect your PII.

We take appropriate security measures (including physical, electronic and procedural measures) to help safeguard your PII from unauthorized access and disclosure.  In addition to the restrictions outlined above, we require employees to comply with information security safeguards, we use encryption in the transmission of your PII between your system and ours, and we use firewalls to help prevent unauthorized persons from gaining access to your PII.

No system can be completely secure. Therefore, although we take steps to secure your information, we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your PII, searches or other communications will always remain secure. Users should also take care with how they handle and disclose their PII. Please refer to the Federal Trade Commission’s website for information about how to protect yourself against identity theft.

Changes to this Privacy Policy.

We may update or modify this Privacy Policy to reflect changes  to how we will collect, use and/or share Information.  Our Privacy Policy will reflect the date it was last updated.  If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes before implementing them or by sending you electronic notification of the changes.  Please check this Privacy Policy each time you use our websites to ensure you are aware of any changes in our practices.  Your continued use of our websites will signify your acceptance of the changes to the Privacy Policy.

Visiting our Websites From Outside the United States.

This Privacy Policy is intended to cover collection of information on our websites from residents of the United States. If you are visiting our websites from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. By using our services, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Privacy Policy..

No Rights of Third Parties.

This Privacy Policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties or require disclosure of any PII relating to users of our websites.

How to Contact Us.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our information-handling practices, or if you would like to request information about our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes, please contact us by e-mail or postal mail as follows:

Privacy Officer
Tree.com, Inc.
11115 Rushmore Drive 
Charlotte, North Carolina 28277

or

privacy@tree.com

Tree Businesses.

Tree Businesses include, without limitation:  DegreeTree, Done Right!, Domania, GetSmart, HealthTree, HLC Escrow, Inc., HLC Settlement Services, Inc., Home Loan Center, Inc., iNest, iNest Realty Minnesota, Inc., iNest Realty,  Inc., InsuranceTree, LendingTree Alabama Title Services, LLC, LendingTree Autos, LendingTree Holdings Corp., LendingTree Loans^SM, LendingTree Operations, LLC, LendingTree, LLC, LT Real Estate, Inc., LT Realty Services, New, Homes Realty, RealEstate.com, LLC, RealEstate.com, Inc., RealEstate.com Oregon, LLC

RealEstate.com, REALTORS®, Tree Insurance Agency, Inc., www.careerdegreesource.com, www.careereducationsource.com, www.domania.com, www.degreetree.com, www.educationdegreesource.com, www.getsmart.com, www.justthrive.com, www.healthtree.com, www.homeloancenter.com, www.inest.com, www.insurancetree.com, www.investinyoureducation.com, www.lendingtree.com, www.newhomes.com, www.realestate.com and www.tree.com.

We may change, remove or add a Tree Business in our discretion without notice to you

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Posted 10 Dec 2009 12:46 AM