Our Great Privacy Policy

Last Modified May 19, 2024

WE ARE COMMITTED TO GREAT PRIVACY AND WE NEVER SELL YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION. 

Our Great Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) provides a clear explanation of how we collect, use, disclose, transfer and store your information.  It covers how our company, affiliates and all of our Websites (collectively, “TheAdviser.com” or “us” or “we”) handles personal data whether you interact with us on the Internet, through our toll-free number, or in person (including when meeting with any of our employees.) If you do not agree with our Privacy Policy, you should not use our Websites, products or services, or any other sites or services that link to this Privacy Policy. No service can be completely secure – if you have a concern that your information has been put at risk, please get in touch with us right away by completing this form

Any persons using our Websites agrees to be bound by this Privacy Policy, our Terms of Use, Legal Notices and Disclaimers and to the extent it applies, a Gramm-Leach Bliley Privacy Notice. We may also link to third parties on our services or make third-party software available for download or use.  Our Privacy Policy does not apply to how third parties (including social media sites such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn) define personal data or how they use it. We encourage you to read their privacy policies and know your privacy rights before interacting with them.  

Our Websites are offered to the public for educational and informational use only, intended for a U.S. audience only and we do not provide any services in any other country.

We might ask you for your name, contact details, personal and financial information if you are asking us for help or in response to your request for a Free Consultation. We might collect information about your device and location so that we can provide you with services and comply with legal requirements. We might follow-up with you via emails for a number of reasons including marketing purposes. You can tell us to stop or not email you. We are committed to keeping you and your family’s information safe and we designed our Websites and services with safety in mind. 

Websites
 
Our Websites also include all of our Social Media Profiles including those on: Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter also known as “X”, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and any of our RSS feeds. The operators of these Social Media websites may also have their own Terms of Use, Legal Notices and Disclaimers and Privacy Policy which you must agree and comply with.
 
What is Personal Data on our Websites?

We believe strongly in fundamental privacy rights — and that those rights should not differ depending on where you live. That’s why we treat any data that relates to an identified or identifiable individual or that is linked or linkable to them by us as “personal data,” no matter where the individual lives. This means that data that directly identifies you — such as your name — we consider to be personal data. Aggregated data is considered non‑personal data for the purposes of this Privacy Policy.

Your Privacy Rights

We respect your ability to know, access, correct, transfer, restrict the processing of, and delete your personal data. If you choose to exercise these privacy rights, you have the right not to be treated in a discriminatory way nor to receive a less degree of service from us. Where you are requested to consent to the processing of your personal data by us, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.  In order to do so, your identity may need to be further verified and can withdraw consent by completing this form

There may be situations where we cannot grant your request — for example, if you ask us to delete your data and we are legally obligated to keep a record to comply with the law. We may also decline to grant a request if doing so would undermine our legitimate use of data for anti-fraud and security purposes, such as when you request deletion of an account that is being investigated for security or other concerns. Other reasons your privacy request may be denied are if it jeopardizes the privacy of others, is frivolous or vexatious, or would be extremely impractical.

 
Personal Data We Collect from You

We believe that you can get 100% Independent and 100% Objective advice and get connected with Fee-Only professionals such as Financial Advisers, CPAs, Attorneys, College Guidance counselors and financial aid advisers with great privacy. This means that we will strive to collect only the personal data that we need. When you visit any one of our Websites, connect to our services, subscribe to our newsletters, use our FeeOnlyMarketing.com marketing services, contact us (including by social media), or otherwise interact with us, we may collect a variety of information, including:

  • Account Information. Data about your email address.
  • Device Information. Data from which your device could be identified, such as device serial number, or about your device, such as browser type.
  • Contact Information. Data such as name, email address, physical address, phone number, or other contact information.
  • Payment Information. Data about your billing address and method of payment, such as bank details, credit, debit, or other payment card information.
  • Transaction Information. Data about purchases of our services or transactions facilitated by us.
  • Fraud Prevention Information. Data used to help identify and prevent fraud, including a device or email trust score.
  • Usage Data. Data about your activity on and use of our Websites, including browsing history; search history; service interaction; crash data, performance and other diagnostic data; and other usage data.
  • Location Data. Data about your location including the location of you or your device with the same or greater resolution as a latitude and longitude with three or more decimal places.
  • Financial Information. Details including salary, income, and assets information where collected, and information related to providing financial services.
  • Other Information You Provide to Us. Details such as the content of your communications with us, including interactions with customer support and contacts through social media channels.

 

If you are listed in the 1800ADVISER.com directory, certain information about you is posted publicly on our Websites. Such information may be obtained directly from you or obtained from others. When you become listed or request changes, we may need to verify you identify and determine your eligibility to be listed through information that may include date of birth, social security number, a government-issued photo identification card such as driver’s license and any professional certifications and membership organizations.   

You are not required to provide the personal data that we have requested. However, if you choose not to do so, in many cases we will not be able to provide you with the services you are seeking or to even respond to requests you may have.

Personal Data We Receive from Others

We may receive personal data about you from other individuals, from businesses or third parties acting at your direction, from our partners who work with us to provide our products and services and assist us in security and fraud prevention, and from other lawful sources.

  • Individuals. We may collect data about you from other individuals — for example, if that individual has invited you to visit one of our Websites, use any of our services, or shared content with you.
  • At Your Direction. You may direct other individuals or third parties to share data with us. For example, you may direct your accountant, adviser, stockbroker, attorney or other representatives/agents to share data about you with us so that we can better provide you services including connecting you with a Fee-Only professional.
  • Social Media Networks. When you “like” or “follow” us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social media sites, we may collect some information from you including your name, e-mail address, and any comments or content you post relevant to us. We also may collect your information if you interact with social media features on our websites, such as like and share buttons.
  • Our Partners. We may also validate the information you provide — for example, when creating an account with us, with a third party for security, and for fraud-prevention purposes.

 

For research and development purposes, we may use datasets of our Websites visitors such as those that contain images, voices, or other data that could be associated with an identifiable person. When acquiring such datasets, we do so in accordance with applicable law, including law in the jurisdiction in which the dataset is hosted. When using such datasets for research and development, we do not attempt to reidentify individuals who may appear therein.

Our Use of Personal Data

We use personal data to operate our Websites, to service you and process your transactions, to communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also use personal data for other purposes with your consent. Depending on the circumstance, we may rely on your consent or the fact that the processing is necessary to fulfill a contract with you, protect your vital interests or those of other persons, or to comply with law. We may also process your personal data where we believe it is in our or others’ legitimate interests, taking into consideration your interests, rights, and expectations.

  • Operate Our Websites. We collect personal data necessary to operate our Websites, which may include personal data collected to improve our offerings, for internal purposes such as auditing or data analysis, or for troubleshooting. For example, if you would like to subscribe to our newsletters or visit our Websites to read our articles, we collect data on what articles you read in order to provide you with the content requested and to optimize our Websites to provide information that are most in demand.
  • To Service You and Process Your Transactions. To service you and process transactions – such as connecting you with Fee-Only professionals, we must collect data such as your name, address, email, phone number and other related information.
  • Communicate with You. To respond to communications, reach out to you about your transactions or account, market our products and services, provide other relevant information, or request information or feedback. From time to time, we may use your personal data to send important notices, such as communications about purchases and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies. Because this information is important to your interaction with us, you may not opt out of receiving these important notices.
  • Security and Fraud Prevention. To protect individuals, employees, and us and for loss prevention and to prevent fraud, including to protect individuals, employees, and us for the benefit of all our users, and prescreening or scanning uploaded content for potentially illegal content, including child sexual exploitation material.
  • Personal Data Used for Personalization. If you choose to personalize your services or communications where such options are available, we will use information that we collect so that we can offer you those personalized services or communications.
  • Within our Organization. We may share your personal data within our organization including legal entities and our employees or consultants so that we can provide you personalized services.
  • Comply with Law. To comply with applicable law — for example, to satisfy tax or reporting obligations, or to comply with a lawful governmental request.

 

We do not use algorithms or profiling to make any decision that would significantly affect you without the opportunity for human review. We also do not use or disclose sensitive personal data for any purposes that would require a user to exercise a right to limit processing according to California law.

We retain personal data only for so long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including as described in this Privacy Policy, or as required by law. We will retain your personal data for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy and our service-specific privacy summaries. When assessing retention periods, we first carefully examine whether it is necessary to retain the personal data collected and, if retention is required, work to retain the personal data for the shortest possible period permissible under law.

Our Sharing of Personal Data

We may share personal data with our affiliated companies, service providers who act on our behalf, our 1800ADVISER directory, our partners, developers and publishers, or others at your direction. We do not share data with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

  • Our 1800ADVISER Directory. We may provide your personal data to Professionals listed in the 1800ADVISER.COM directory including Fee-Only professionals such as financial advisers, CPAs, accountants, tax professionals, attorneys, college guidance counselors and financial aid advisers and other professionals so they can provide professional services to you. We ask that professionals listed in the directory or our Websites to protect your personal data in conformance with all applicable laws and regulations; however, we do not control the content or privacy policies of the individual websites of professionals listed in our 1800ADVISER directory and they are responsible for complying with any regulations or laws that require notice, disclosure, and/or obtaining consent with respect to Personal Data. However, you may forward any concerns you have about their website to us by sending us a message by by completing this form and we will contact them on your behalf.
  • Service Providers. We may engage third parties to act as our service providers and perform certain tasks on our behalf, such as processing or storing data, including personal data, in connection with your use of our services and delivering products or services to customers. Our service providers are obligated to handle personal data consistent with all applicable laws and regulations.
  • Partners. At times, we may partner with third parties to provide services or other offerings. For example, we may refer you to partners for services that we do not directly offer but that are offered by our partners. We require our partners to protect your personal data in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.
  • Developers and Publishers. If you subscribe to our services, such as our Research Newsletters, TheAdviserMagazine.com, or TheAdviserTimes.com, we may use your email and may provide that to a distributor of such subscription. Your email may be used to provide reports to the developer or publisher, which include information about the subscription, your name and your address.  This information is provided to developers or publishers so that they can understand the performance, such as proper and timely delivery of the subscriptions.
  • Others. We may share personal data with others at your direction or with your consent. We may also disclose information about you if we determine that for purposes of security, law enforcement, or other issues of public importance, disclosure is necessary or appropriate. We may also disclose information about you where there is a lawful basis for doing so, if we determine that disclosure is reasonably necessary to enforce our terms and conditions or to protect our operations or users, or in the event of a reorganization, merger, or sale.
 
Protection of Personal Data

We believe that great privacy rests on great security. We use a variety of safeguards including administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your personal data, taking into account the nature of the personal data and the processing, and the threats posed. We are constantly working to improve on these safeguards to help keep your personal data secure.

Children and Personal Data

We understand the importance of safeguarding the personal data of children, which we consider to be an individual under the age of 13 or the equivalent age as specified by the law in your jurisdiction. If we learn that a child’s personal data was collected without appropriate authorization, it will be deleted as soon as possible.

Cookies and Other Technologies 

Our Websites, online services, interactive applications, and advertisements may use “cookies.”  Cookies enable you to use our Websites and to personalize your experience on our sites, help us to better understand user behavior including for security and fraud prevention purposes, tell us which parts of our Websites people have visited, and facilitate and measure the effectiveness of advertisements and web searches. We define our use of cookies into the following categories:

  • Category 1 and Strictly Necessary Cookies. These cookies are essential to enable you to browse around our Websites and use our Websites features such as when you request a free consultation. These cookies are set as required to provide a specific feature or service
  •  that you have accessed or requested. For example, they allow us to display our maps in the proper format and language, to authenticate and verify your transactions, and to preserve the contents of searches when you seek to find a Fee-Only professional.
  • Category 2 and Performance/Communications Cookies. These cookies are used to enable network traffic to and from our (or our partners) systems and Websites, including by helping us detect any errors. These cookies collect information about how you use our Websites — for instance, which pages you go to most. This data may be used to help optimize our Websites and make them easier for you to navigate. The cookies are also used to let affiliates know if you came to one of our Websites from an affiliate and if your visit resulted in the use or purchase of a product or service from us, including details of the product or service purchased. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies you. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous.
  • Category 3 and Functionality Cookies. These cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with our Websites and online services, including by helping us to assess the effectiveness of advertisements and web searches. We also use these cookies to remember choices you make while browsing our Website, so we can provide you with a better and sometimes customized experience. For instance, we may store your geographic location in a cookie to allow us to show our Website localized for your area. We may also keep track of what featured services have been viewed to avoid repetition.

 

In addition to cookies, we use other technologies that help us achieve similar objectives. In some email messages we send to you, we provide a “click-through URL” that links you to content on our Websites. When you click one of these URLs, they may pass through a separate server before arriving at the destination page on our website. We track this click-through to help us determine interest in particular topics and measure whether we are communicating with you effectively. If you prefer not to be tracked in this way, you should not click graphic or text links in email messages.

We generally treat data we collect using cookies and similar technologies as non-personal data. However, to the extent that Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or similar identifiers are considered personal data by local law, we also treat these identifiers as personal data in those regions. In addition, we sometime combine non-personal data collected from these technologies with other personal data we hold. When we combine data in this way, we treat the combined data as personal data for purposes of this Privacy Policy.

Opting Out of Cookies and Deemed “Sale/Sharing” Using Online Tracking Technologies

Certain of our service providers do use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your device when you visit anyone of our Websites. To the extent these online tracking technologies are deemed to be a “sale” or “sharing” of data we provide an ability for you to Opt-Out.  Our service providers are: 

  • Google – We use Google Analytics to analyze the use of our Websites. Google gathers information about our Websites by means of cookies. Google’s privacy policy is available at https://www.Google.com/policies/privacy/.
  • HubSpot – We use Hubspot to report on and manage our Websites activity. Hubspot uses cookies for tracking activity across our Websites.  Hubspot’s privacy policy is available at https://legal.hubspot.com/privacy-policy/.
  • Facebook – We use Facebook for group pages, our business and Website profile pages and to help connect individuals, families and businesses with Fee-Only professionals. Facebook’s privacy policy is available at https://facebook.com/privacy/policy.
  • LinkedIn – We use LinkedIn for our group pages, our business and Website profile pages and to help connect individuals, families and businesses with Fee-Only professionals. LinkedIn’s privacy policy is available at https://LinkedIn.com/Legal/privacy-policy.
  • Brilliant Directories – We use Brilliant Directories to help connect individuals, families and businesses with Fee-Only professionals and to maintain information about Professionals listed in the 1800ADVISER.COM directory or on our Websites.  Brilliant Directories privacy policy is available at https://www.brilliantdirectories.com/online-directory-script-privacy-policy.

 

Opt-Out Preference Signals, such as the Global Privacy Control (GPC) and Do Not Track (“DNT”) options are privacy preferences that certain users can set in certain third-party web browsers. You can download at the GPC web site at https://globalprivacycontrols.org/orgs. We do not currently recognize GPC or DNT signals, however, if you prefer that we not use cookies, we provide you with the means to disable their use. If you want to disable cookies and you’re using the Safari web browser, choose “Block all cookies” in Safari’s privacy settings. If you are using the Chrome browser, choose “Privacy and security, click Site settings, Click Cookies and site data and thereafter, you can choose to ‘Turn Off Cookies.” If you are using a different browser, check with your provider to find out how to disable cookies. Google also offers an Opt-Out Browser Add-On that can provide you the ability to prevent your data from being used by Google Analytic. Certain features of our Websites may not be available if all cookies are disabled.

You may also take other steps to op-out of some advertising programs that may use your information. This includes the Digital Advertising Alliance Opt-Out Page, the Network Advertising Initiatives Web site and YourAdChoices.com. You can contact us at by completing this Privacy Related Concern Form.

State-Specific Privacy Related Disclosures 

Some U.S. states such as California, Utah, Colorado, and Virginia require specific disclosures to their residents. Almost all states require some specific disclosures and provide certain privacy data rates to their citizens.  Because we provide a single version of our Websites to all U.S. residents and have a single Privacy Policy, we make equal disclosures to all.  To the extent we qualify as a “business” under California specific disclosures as defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) or California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), additional information can be found by reading our California Specific Disclosures

Transfer of Personal Data Between Countries  

We are located in the United States. Although our Websites are intended for a U.S. audience only and we do not provide any services in any other country, there are instances where your personal data may be transferred to or access by entities around the world, including our technology vendors or partners, to perform processing activities such as those described in this Privacy Policy in connection with your use of our products and services. We comply with laws on the transfer of personal data between countries to help ensure your data is protected, where it may be.

Our Commitment to Your Privacy 

To make sure your personal data is secure, we communicate our Privacy Policy to employees and enforce privacy guidelines within the company. When there is a material change to this Privacy Policy, we’ll post a notice on this page at least a week in advance of doing so and contact you directly about the change if we have your data on file.

Exemptions
The description of our Privacy Policy as well as state-specific privacy related disclosures do not apply to the personal information we collect, use or disclose about consumers who initiate or complete the process of applying for financial products or services if such services are subject to the federal Gramm-Leach Biley Act, and implementing regulations, or the California Financial Information Privacy Act, and representatives of businesses that seek to obtain our services, or to provide their products or services. to us.

Exercising Your Privacy Rights, Your Privacy Questions and Complaints 

We take your privacy questions seriously. We will review any inquiry to determine how best to respond to your question or concern. In most cases, all substantive inquires, or concerns receive a response within seven days. In other cases, we may require additional information or let you know that we need more time to respond. Where your complaint indicates an improvement could be made in our handling of privacy issues, we will take steps to make such an update at the next reasonable opportunity. In the event that a privacy issue has resulted in a negative impact on you or another person, we will take steps to address that with you or that other person. You may at any time — including if you are not satisfied with our response — refer your complaint to the applicable regulator.

If you wish to exercise your privacy rights or have questions about our Privacy Policy or privacy practices including where a third-party service provider is acting on our behalf, or you wish to submit a complaint, you can contact us at by sending us a message by completing this form

You can also write to us at:

Attention: Privacy Control Officer, The Independent Adviser Corporation, 482 W. Main Street, Huntington, NY, 11743.