Experian is one of the national credit reporting agencies. Our credit-reporting business is regulated by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and companion state laws. We are also held accountable by various other laws and industry standards as well as your expectations. We are sensitive to your interest in privacy, and we are committed to letting you know what information is being collected, how the information is being used, and in providing you choices in the use of the information. Each time we request identification information from you, we will explain why we are asking and how we will use your information. The online personal credit report service is provided to consumers in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act and with Experian's Information Values.
We will not release an individual's personal credit report through the Service Website without first conducting an authentication process of the requester or without the individual’s consent. To complete this process we require that you provide us with the requested personal information during the online registration, authentication, and ordering process. Additionally, we will ask you several multiple choice questions about your credit history and other information that only you should know. We cannot deliver your personal credit report online if you do not provide us with this information or if you provide us with incorrect information. We take these precautions for your privacy and security protection.
The personal information you provide to us in connection with registering for an account or in ordering your credit report online will not be shared with any third parties, except as required to establish a connection to other users of the Service Website, as permitted by law, or by your consent. Your information may be shared with an Experian affiliate for fulfillment of your request and will not be used for any other purpose.
When you make a purchase through the Service Website, we may collect your credit card number or other payment account number, billing address and other information related to such purchase (collectively, "Payment Information") from you. We will also collect certain information arising out of your use of our web site, or augment the data we collect with other information from other online or offline sources. We collect information you provide us through customer service correspondence and general feedback. We reserve the right to collect information about you and store it in connection with other online or offline information we may possess or obtain about you.
If you have purchased your Experian Credit Report and VantageScore® from the Service Website, and you have elected to contact Experian's National Consumer Assistance Center ("NCAC") through the applicable link provided on the Service Website, your pertinent identifying information may be provided to the NCAC in order to facilitate your request for obtaining a free consumer file disclosure required in order for you to dispute any inaccurate information in your credit report directly with the NCAC.
We may also contact any user of this online service for system notifications, audit, and verification purposes in order to comply with Experian policy or laws and regulations governing the credit reporting industry. For example, we may institute random mail or telephonic confirmations to ensure that our system is secure.
When you visit the Service Website, we may collect non-personal information, such as a catalog of the Service Website pages you visit. Non-personal information is generally collected through the Service Website from the following sources: server log files, environmental variables, cookies, pixel tags and other similar technologies and information that you voluntarily provide. When such information is not combined with any personal information, such information is considered to be non-personal information, as it does not personally identify you or any other user. Additionally, we may aggregate personal information in a manner such that the end-product does not personally identify you or any other user of the Service Website, for example, by using personal information to calculate the percentage of our users who have a particular telephone area code. Such aggregate information is considered non-personal information for purposes of this Policy. Non-personal information may be used to develop enhancements to this product and other Experian products. We may use data to make changes to our product, as deemed necessary to continue to ensure your security and privacy online.
Your Internet Protocol (IP) address is a number that is automatically assigned to the computer that you are using by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This number is identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever you visit the Service Website, along with the time(s) of your visit(s) and the page(s) that you visited. We use your IP address, and the IP addresses of all users, for purposes such as calculating Service Website usage levels, helping diagnose problems with the Service Website's servers, and administering the Service Website. Collecting IP addresses is standard practice on the Internet and is done automatically by many websites.
We and our service providers may also collect certain environmental variables, such as computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, OS version, Internet browser, and Internet browser version. These environmental variables are collected by most browsers, and can be used to optimize your experience on the Service Website.
We, our service providers, and/or non-affiliated Third-parties, may use "cookies" or similar technologies on the Service Website. Cookies are data that a web server transfers to an individual's computer for record keeping purposes. Cookies are an industry standard used by many websites, and can facilitate your ongoing access to and use of a particular website; cookies do not cause damage to your computer systems or files. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to automatically decline cookies, or to be given the choice of declining or accepting the transfer of a particular cookie, or cookies from a particular website, to your computer.
We, our service providers, and/or non-affiliated Third-parties, may also use so-called "pixel tags," "web beacons," "clear GIFs" or similar means (collectively, "Pixel Tags") in connection with some Service Website pages and HTML-formatted e-mail messages to, among other things, compile aggregate statistics about Service Website usage and response rates. A Pixel Tag is an electronic image, often a single pixel (1x1) that is ordinarily not visible to Service Website visitors and may be associated with Cookies on the visitors' hard drives. Pixel Tags allow us to count users who have visited certain pages of the Service Website, to deliver branded services, to provide online advertising, and to help determine the effectiveness of promotional or advertising campaigns. When used in HTML-formatted e-mail messages, Pixel Tags can tell the sender whether and when the e-mail has been opened.
When you register, we will store your email, address, full name, PIN and password. You can use the email address, PIN and password to gain access to your online account. We use your registration information to provide you with email alerts and updates regarding your account and our services. Billing information, such as credit card number, is required to process the payment for the products and services you order from us. This Service Website uses an outside third party credit card processing company to bill you for your purchases, which may in some instances include the storage of your personal information by the third party, such as your credit card number. We will also store the information you provide to us during your visit for fraud detection and verification purposes. Your email address does not become part of your credit information, but does become part of your online profile with this Service Website. We will not use your email address for marketing purposes; however we may occasionally send important notifications of changes or enhancements to the service.
Consumers under the age of 18 must not send any personal information to us, including but not limited to information such as name, address or email address.
In order to use this Service Website, your 'cookies' must be enabled. A cookie is a small amount of data stored by the web browser and associated with a particular Web page or site. Cookies serve to give the web browser a memory so that it can use data that was input on one page in another page, or so it can recall user input when the user leaves a page and later returns. Only the information that you provide while visiting this service will be stored in a cookie, and it can only be read by Experian servers. We do not store any cookies on Experian servers. The cookie you accept uniquely identifies your computer, not you. Cookies are never disclosed to any third party.
Experian protects your information over the Internet by using a secure web server, which allows your web browser programs (Netscape Navigator/Communicator or Microsoft Internet Explorer) to interact with Experian's web server via an encrypted session. Experian employs a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection that provides an encrypted connection between your computer and Experian. The 128 bit encrypted connection scrambles ordinary text or data into ciphertext to safeguard your sensitive and private information during its journey across the Internet. The information is decrypted, or put back into a readable format, when it reaches its intended destination, your computer.
Depending on which browser you use, you will know you are in a secured area by 'https' appearing in front of the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) in the address bar, and/or a locked padlock appearing somewhere in the lower corner of your screen. When you visit our Web site, you may move in and out of secured areas. Any time that you are on a registration page or viewing your personal credit report, you will be in a secure area.
Additionally, Experian restricts access to information that you provide only to those employees who need to know such information to provide and process the information you have requested or to investigate matters you have requested be investigated. Experian maintains physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to guard your information. Experian also utilizes systems access controls to protect your information. Experian continually monitors access to its systems to detect unauthorized attempts to gain access to information.
Our Web site may contain links for other offers and services in which we feel you may have an interest. We believe these sites share a similar commitment to consumer privacy and urge you to review their privacy policy when visiting their sites. We cannot, however, be responsible for their privacy practices.
Experian reserves the right to change this privacy policy at any time. Therefore, we encourage you to review this privacy policy from time to time to review any changes in our information sharing practices.
Please note: This privacy policy applies only to this Service Web site and application(s). It does not apply to any products or services offered through other channels.