Privacy Policy
How BenefitHub, Inc. and Insurean, Inc. collect, use, disclose and protect your personal information in connection with our direct-to-consumer insurance Services.
Overview
This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how BenefitHub, Inc. and its wholly-owned insurance agency, Insurean, Inc. (“Insurean”) (collectively, "BenefitHub," "we," "us," or "our") collect, use, disclose and protect personal information in connection with insurance.benefithub.com and any related applications or services through which you request insurance quotes, apply for coverage or manage a policy placed through Insurean in its capacity as a licensed insurance producer (collectively, the "Services"). This Policy supplements, and should be read together with, BenefitHub's Terms of Service for our direct-to-consumer insurance Services found at insurance.benefithub.com/terms (“Terms of Service”). This Policy applies specifically to our direct-to-consumer insurance Services; where BenefitHub provides other products (such as employee benefits or perks platforms), those offerings are governed by BenefitHub's global privacy policy found at benefithub.com/privacy-policy-global and BenefitHub's global terms of service found at https://www.benefithub.com/terms-and-conditions-global.
The Services are directed to residents of U.S. States, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. By using the Services, you consent to the practices described in this Policy.
1. Information We Collect
(a) Information You Provide Directly
When you request a quote, complete an application, create an account, or otherwise interact with the Services, we collect information such as:
- Identity and contact information — name, date of birth, mailing and email address, phone number, and, where applicable, government-issued identification such as a driver's license number or Social Security number;
- Insurance and underwriting information — the type of coverage you are seeking, property, vehicle, or household information, prior coverage and claims history, and, for certain lines of insurance (for example, life or health insurance), health-related information you choose to provide;
- Financial information — billing address, bank account, or payment card information used to pay a premium, and income or financial information relevant to certain underwriting decisions;
- Account credentials — a username and password if you register for an account; and
- Communications — information you provide when you contact our customer care team, respond to a survey, or otherwise communicate with us.
(b) Information We Receive from Other Sources
Because insurance underwriting depends on information beyond what you provide, we and the Carriers (defined below) also obtain information about you from:
- Insurance carriers and other producers with whom we place or have placed coverage on your behalf;
- Consumer reporting agencies and credit bureaus, which may provide credit-based insurance scores, claims history reports (such as CLUE reports), and other information used in underwriting, consistent with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act;
- Motor vehicle departments and driving record providers, for lines of insurance involving a vehicle;
- Public records and government agencies, and service providers; and
- Marketing partners, referral sources and social media platforms, if you arrive at our Services through a partner site or choose to link a social media account.
(c) Information Collected Automatically
When you visit or use the Services, we and our service providers automatically collect certain information using cookies, web beacons, software development kits (SDKs), and similar technologies, including your IP address, device and browser identifiers, operating system, approximate location derived from your IP address, pages viewed, links clicked, and referring URLs. Section 5 below describes these technologies, and your choices regarding them, in more detail.
(d) Sensitive Personal Information
Some of the information described above — including your Social Security number, driver's license number, precise geolocation, financial account information and health information that you provide in connection with certain insurance products — is considered “sensitive personal information” under applicable law. We collect this information only where necessary to obtain quotes, underwrite, place, service, or administer insurance coverage, to prevent fraud, or as otherwise permitted or required by law. Section 8 below describes your rights to limit certain uses of sensitive personal information.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use the information described above to:
- Generate insurance quotes, process applications, and place, bind, and service policies through the insurance carriers with whom we work (“Carriers”);
- Verify your identity and the accuracy of the information you provide, and detect, investigate, and prevent fraud or other prohibited activity;
- Communicate with you about your quote, application or policy, and respond to your questions and requests;
- Comply with insurance regulatory requirements, respond to regulators and maintain records required by law;
- Personalize your experience on the Services and recommend relevant coverage options;
- Perform analytics, develop and improve the Services, and understand how consumers use our Services; and
- Market our Services and those of our partners to you, as may be further described in our Terms of Service.
Automated Underwriting and Decision-Making
Carriers, not BenefitHub, make final underwriting and pricing decisions, and many Carriers use automated tools, including algorithms and predictive models, to help evaluate applications and generate premium quotes. Depending on your state of residence, you may have rights to obtain information about this automated processing, to correct inaccurate information used in it, or to appeal or request human review of a decision that produces a legal or similarly significant effect. You can submit such a request using the contact information in Section 14; because these decisions are made by the Carrier, we may need to refer your request to the applicable Carrier, which will maintain its own privacy policy and terms and conditions governing its decision-making.
4. Marketing and Communications Preferences
We and the Carriers or agents to whom your quote request is referred may contact you by phone, text message and email about insurance products, consistent with the consent that you provide under Section 4 of our Terms of Service. You can opt out of marketing text messages by replying “STOP,” opt out of marketing emails using the unsubscribe link in any email, and opt out of marketing calls by informing the caller or contacting us using the information in Section 14 of this Policy. Opting out of marketing communications does not stop transactional or service messages related to a quote that you requested or a policy that you hold.
6. Financial Privacy Notice (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act)
As a licensed insurance producer, Insurean is a “financial institution” for purposes of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and analogous state insurance privacy laws, which govern our handling of the “nonpublic personal financial information” that we collect in connection with providing insurance products and services to you. Consistent with those laws:
- we may disclose the information we collect about you — such as your identity, application and transaction information — to Carriers and service providers as necessary to provide the insurance products and services you request;
- we may disclose information to nonaffiliated third parties for our everyday business purposes, such as processing your transactions, maintaining your account and complying with legal and regulatory requirements, without offering you an opt-out, as permitted by law; and
- to the extent we disclose your nonpublic personal financial information to a nonaffiliated third party for that party's own marketing purposes outside the exceptions permitted by law, we will offer you the opportunity to opt out of that disclosure before doing so.
7. Data Retention
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to provide the Services, service any policy placed through us, comply with insurance recordkeeping and other legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements. Retention periods vary depending on the type of information, the purpose for which it was collected and applicable law (including state-specific insurance recordkeeping requirements, which commonly require records to be kept for a period of years after a policy terminates).
8. Your Privacy Rights and Choices
Depending on your state of residence, you may have some or all of the following rights with respect to your personal information:
- to know or access the categories and specific pieces of personal information that we hold about you;
- to correct inaccurate information;
- to delete your personal information;
- to obtain a portable copy of your information;
- to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information and of targeted advertising;
- to opt out of profiling in furtherance of automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects; and
- to not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising these rights.
These rights are subject to exceptions under applicable law. For example, we may need to retain certain information to service an active policy, complete a transaction that you requested, or comply with insurance regulatory recordkeeping requirements.
To exercise these rights, contact us using the information in Section 14 of this Policy. We will verify your identity before responding, which may require confirming information that you have already provided to us. You may designate an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf by providing that agent with written authorization, which we may ask the agent to provide along with proof of your identity. If we deny your request in whole or in part, you may appeal by contacting us with “Appeal of Refusal to Take Action on Privacy Request” in the subject line.
9. Additional Notice for California Residents
This section supplements the rest of this Policy for California residents and is provided under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended (“CCPA”).
Categories collected. In the preceding 12 months, we have collected the categories of personal information described in Section 1 of this Policy, including identifiers, financial information, insurance and underwriting information, internet/network activity, geolocation and, where applicable, health information and other sensitive personal information.
Sources, purposes, and disclosures. The sources from which we collect information, the purposes for which we use it, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it, are described in Sections 1 through 4 of this Policy above.
Sale/sharing. As described in Section 3 of this Policy, we do not sell personal information. To the extent our sharing of information with Carriers and advertising partners is considered a “sale” or “share” under the CCPA's broad definitions, you may opt out by contacting us at the information in Section 14 with the subject line “California Resident – Do Not Sell or Share,” or by using an enabled Global Privacy Control signal as described in Section 5 of this Policy.
Right to limit use of sensitive personal information. You may direct us to limit our use of your sensitive personal information to that which is necessary to provide the insurance products and services that you request, by contacting us as described in Section 14 of this Policy.
Shine the Light. California residents may request, once per year, information about any personal information that we have disclosed to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year, by contacting us as described in Section 14 of this Policy.
Non-discrimination. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any right described in this Policy.
10. Data Security
We maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration or destruction. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you believe that your account or information has been compromised, please contact us immediately using the information in Section 14 of this Policy.
11. Children's Privacy
The Services are intended for adults and are not directed to individuals under 18 years of age, consistent with the eligibility requirements in our Terms of Service. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 18, particularly children under the age of 13, and if we learn that we have done so, we will take steps to delete it. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us using the information in Section 14 of this Policy.
12. Third-Party Links and Carrier Privacy Policies
The Services may link to Carrier websites or other third-party sites. Once you leave our Services — for example, to complete an application directly on a Carrier's website or to make a payment through a Carrier's portal — that Carrier's own privacy policy and terms of service, not this Policy, governs such Carrier's collection and use of your information. We encourage you to review the privacy policy and terms of service of any Carrier and any such third-party site before providing information directly to it.
13. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or applicable law. We will post the updated Policy with a new “Effective Date”, and, where required by law, provide additional notice of material changes. Your continued use of the Services after an updated Policy is posted constitutes your acceptance of the changes.
14. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Policy, or wish to exercise any of the rights described above, please contact us at DPO@benefithub.com, 813-675-2220 or the mailing address below.
BenefitHub
169 Madison Ave, Suite 11773
New York, NY 10016
U.S.A.
Attn: Data Protection Officer