In order to provide insurance products
and services that respond to our customers' diverse needs, Downey
Insurance Agency, Inc. collects certain personal information. Downey
Insurance Agency, Inc. does not disclose any nonpublic personal
information to any affiliated or nonaffiliated third party for marketing
purposes. At Downey Insurance maintaining the confidentiality of
our customers' personal information is of the highest importance.
Downey Insurance Agency, Inc. personal information-handling practices
are governed by this privacy policy and are further regulated by
law. This notice describes those practices and how they preserve
your privacy in a way that permits Downey Insurance Agency, Inc.
to provide you with the products and services you demand.
Collection of personal information
We get most of our information directly from you. The application
you complete, 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 potential insured's 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, and a photo
of the property may be taken.
We also may 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
and credit standing. If we order any kind of consumer report, upon
request, we will tell you how to get a copy of the report. The agency
preparing a consumer report for us may keep the information collected
about you as permitted by law, and it may be disclosed to other
persons.
Disclosure of Personal Information
Information which has been collected about you will be contained
in either our policy records or in your agentŐs files. We review
it in evaluating your request for insurance coverage and in determining
your rates. We will also use information in our policy records for
purposes related to issuing and servicing insurance policies and
settling claims. Downey Insurance Agency, Inc. may disclose personal
information to others in order to service, process or administer
business such as underwriting and claims operations. In this context,
Downey Insurance Agency, Inc. may disclose (i) information we receive
from you on applications and other forms, including information
such as assets, income, and identifying information such as name,
address and social security number;(ii) transaction information
such as information about balances, payments history and parties
to the transaction; and (iii) information from consumer reporting
agencies such as a consumer's credit worthiness and credit history.
If coverage is declined or the charge for coverage is increased
because of information contained in a consumer report, we will tell
you as required by state law and the Federal Fair Credit Reporting
Act. We will also give you the name and address of the consumer-reporting
agency making the report.
Parties to Whom Information May be Disclosed
Downey Insurance Agency, Inc. will not disclose information about
you to others without your written consent unless the disclosure
is necessary to conduct our business. By law, Downey Insurance Agency,
Inc. is permitted to share information about you without prior permission
under certain circumstances to certain persons and organizations
such as:
- Your insurance company
- Other businesses related to the insurance industry, such as
financial service providers and banks.
- Parties who perform a business, professional or insurance function
for our company.
- Claim adjusters, glass companies, appraisers, investigators
and attorneys who need the information to investigate, defend
or settle a claim involving you.
- Insurance support organizations, which are established to collect
information to investigate for the purpose of detecting and preventing
insurance crimes and fraudulent claims.
- 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 subpoena, warrant or other
court order or as required by law.
- Lien holder, mortgage, assignee, lessor, or other person shown
on our records or our agents' as having a legal or beneficial
interest in a policy of insurance.
- Parties acting in a fiduciary or representative capacity to
you (attorneys, accountants, and auditors).
- Insurance rate advisory organizations.
- Parties enforcing Downey Insurance Agency, Inc.'s rights in
connection with the settlement of a debt, the transfer of interest
or an audit.
- Parties administering transactions as requested or authorized
by you.
Right of Access to Personal Information
You have the right to know what kind of information we keep in
our files about you, to have reasonable access to it and to receive
a copy. Write to us if you have questions about the information.
Provide your complete name, address, type of policy and policy number
that was issued or applied for with us. Mail your request to: Downey
Insurance Agency, Inc. , Post Office Box 570, Marlborough, MA 01752.
Certain types of information generally collected when evaluating
claims or possible lawsuits need not be disclosed to you.
We will inform you in writing of the nature and substance of retrievable
recorded personal information about you in our files. You may review
this information in person or receive a copy by mail. We will also
identify the person or organization to which we have disclosed this
information within the past two (2) 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. We will consider your request, and within thirty
(30) days either change the information or tell you that we did
not and state 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 which information on file you believe 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.
Confidentiality and Security of Personal
Information
Our company maintains appropriate standards and procedures to prevent
unauthorized access to your information.
Downey Insurance Agency, Inc. limits employee access to personally
identifiable information to those with a business reason for knowing
such information. We educate our employee so that they will understand
the importance of confidentiality of personal information and take
appropriate measures to enforce privacy responsibilities.
Treatment of Personal Information of Former
Customers
Downey Insurance Agency, Inc. follows this personal information
privacy policy even when a customer relationship no longer exists.
If you have additional questions about the privacy of your personal
information or about your insurance needs in general, please feel
free to contact us.
Effective July 1, 2001
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