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Privacy Policy Notice
This privacy policy notice summarizes how AARP Financial Incorporated (AFI) and AARP Funds and AARP Portfolios (funds and collectively with AFI, we, our or us) plan to protect our customers' (your) nonpublic personal information (Information).
Our commitment to safeguarding your privacy
We value your trust and continue to recognize the importance of holding your Information as confidential.
We will do our best to use your Information responsibly in order to protect you from fraud, and comply with legal obligations.
We will require companies with which we do business to use any Information we provide appropriately and to safeguard the confidentiality of such Information.
We collect the following categories of Information about you
We collect Information about you from the following sources:
- Information we receive from you on applications or other forms, on our web site or through other means;
- Information we receive from your transactions, correspondence and other communications with us; and
- Information we receive from you in connection with providing you a financial product or service.
We disclose the following categories of Information about you
We do not disclose any Information about you or any former shareholder to anyone, except as permitted or required by law. All Information may be shared among the funds or between a fund and AFI, including its affiliates, AARP and AARP Services, Inc. to provide products or services to you or to make a solicitation for marketing purposes related to financial products or nonfinancial products such as membership in AARP.
We may disclose all Information about you or any former customer to the following types of affiliated and non-affiliated third parties:
- Financial service providers who assist us in maintaining or servicing your accounts, such as securities broker/dealers, the distributor of any funds for which AFI provides investment advisory services, transfer agent, printers and those who assist with mailing and other services that are typically provided to funds as well as financial service providers who do not assist us in maintaining or servicing your accounts, such as companies engaged in banking, credit cards, consumer finance, securities and insurance with whom we or our affiliates have agreements to provide endorsed products or services;
- Nonfinancial companies, such as service providers who fulfill information requests as well as nonfinancial companies engaged in direct marketing and the selling of consumer products and services with whom we or our affiliates have agreements to provide member benefits or discounts; and
- Others with whom you have consented to our sharing your Information or joint account holders.
We may also disclose all of the Information we collect to companies who perform marketing services on our behalf or to other institutions with whom we or our affiliates have joint marketing agreements, except as otherwise prohibited by federal or state law.
Protecting the security and confidentiality of your Information
We restrict access to Information about you to those employees who need to know that information to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your Information. We will protect against anticipated threats or hazards to the security of the Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency, as well as against unauthorized use of this Information. When disposing of any Information, we will take reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access or use of the Information.
Your Privacy Choices
If you do not want us to share your Information with non-affiliated third parties who do not provide services to us (we may still provide your Information as permitted by law and as necessary to process and service your accounts) or if you want us to limit the personal Information that we share about you with our affiliates (unless otherwise permitted by law), you can opt-out of the disclosure of your Information by contacting us at 1-800-958-6457. Please allow 30 days from our receipt of your privacy choices for them to become effective.
Investors purchasing or owning interests of the funds through their bank, broker or other financial institution should consult that institution's privacy policies.
Adopted: December 8, 2005
Amended: September 9, 2007
For More Information. For more detailed information about our privacy practices, and about privacy on www.aarpfinancial.com, please review the frequently asked questions below. To exercise your choices, or ask questions about your customer information, please contact us at:
Online: Contact AFI - www.aarpfinancial.com/contact
Phone or Mail:
AARP Financial
2 Highwood Drive
Suite 202
Tewksbury, MA 01876
info@aarpfinancial.com
1-866-218-6142
Privacy and AFI: Questions and Answers
The following Questions and Answers address AFI www.aarpfinancial.com privacy issues in more detail. We want to make sure you understand the types of information that is collected at www.aarpfinancial.com, the ways in which that information is used and protected, and the choices that you have about this collection and use. Specifically, this privacy policy answers the following frequently asked questions:
- Do I have to submit any personal information in order to use www.aarpfinancial.com?
- Does www.aarpfinancial.com collect non-personal information, using "cookies" or otherwise?
- How is this information used, and can I control its use?
- Is any information shared with other companies or organizations?
- What privacy rules apply when I "click" over to other web sites?
- How does www.aarpfinancial.com protect security and confidentiality?
- Will this privacy policy ever change?
- Who can I contact with questions or comments about privacy issues?
In this policy, we use the terms "AFI," "we," "our," and "us" to refer to AFI. We use the terms "you" and "your" to refer to www.aarpfinancial.com visitors like yourself.
1. Do I have to submit any personal information in order to use www.aarpfinancial.com ?
You do not need to give us any information about yourself in order to access most of www.aarpfinancial.com. You can visit our pages, read our publications, and learn about our services on a completely anonymous basis.
If you want to take advantage of some of the optional services available on www.aarpfinancial.com, however, we will sometimes request information that allows us to identify you ("personal information"). If you register to receive e-mail newsletters, we will ask for your name, address, and e-mail address so that we can send you the newsletters. We may also ask for personal information when you participate in other activities or services on www.aarpfinancial.com, such as surveys.
We also have relationships with certain providers and vendors that we have selected and approved to offer services and benefits on linked sites. On some of these sites, you may be asked to enter personal information in order to take advantage of their services or programs. If you decide to purchase services on the web site of one of our service providers, the contracted benefit provider offering the services may ask for your name, member number, address, and e-mail in order to contact you about the services. These sites may also have their own unique privacy policies that you should review.
Again, regardless of whether you are visiting www.aarpfinancial.com or an affiliated site, you do not have to disclose any personal information if you do not want to. You can always decide not to use the optional services that require the submission of such information. The choice is yours. We are only interested in offering you convenient online services that match your interests and needs.
2. Does www.aarpfinancial.com collect non-personal information, using "cookies" or otherwise?
We collect information that does not allow us to identify your name, e-mail address, or other personal characteristics. This "non-personal information" includes the number assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet ("IP address"), and the type of browser you use. None of this non-personal information allows us to identify or contact you. We use this information to help us evaluate how www.aarpfinancial.com is being used. By gathering this information, we can learn, among other things, how many people visit www.aarpfinancial.com, which pages are the most and least popular, and which other Web sites are the most frequent referral sources for www.aarpfinancial.com.
We may also assign a "cookie" to your computer in some situations. Like an IP address, a "cookie" is a kind of online identification tag that allows us to recognize your computer each time you visit www.aarpfinancial.com.
Unless you have already provided us with personal information on www.aarpfinancial.com or an affiliated site, cookies do not allow us to identify you by name, e-mail address, or other personal characteristics. We use cookies primarily to identify return visitors and make your www.aarpfinancial.com experience more convenient.
We have contracted with an advertising vendor (DoubleClick) to monitor the usage of ads we place at other web sites. This company may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to our and other Web sites, in combination with non-personally identifiable information about your purchases and interests from other online and offline sources. In addition, we share Web site usage information about visitors to our site with this company for the purpose of managing and targeting advertisements and for market research analysis on our site and other sites. For these purposes, we and our third-party advertising company may note some of the pages you visit on our site through the use of pixel tags (also called clear gifs). Our third-party advertiser may place or recognize a unique "cookie" on your computer. If you would like more information about the information collection practices of this third-party advertising company and to know your choices about not having this information used by this company, please read the privacy policy on the DoubleClick website.
AFI uses another vendor (WebSideStory) to collect aggregate information about www.aarpfinancial.com usage - such as the most visited pages and features. This vendor also uses cookies and transparent images called "pixel dots" to collect this information. Like cookies, pixel dots do not allow us or the vendor to identify you by name or other personal characteristics. These vendors do not collect any personal information from customers on www.aarpfinancial.com, and they do not share the non-personal information collected on www.aarpfinancial.com with anyone else for any other purpose.
If you are uncomfortable allowing cookies to be placed on your computer, a feature on www.AARP.org - Computers and Technology will teach you how to set your browser so that it will not accept these cookies, or so that it will notify you whenever a web site is trying to use cookies. If you choose not to accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use certain features of www.aarpfinancial.com or linked sites. You will still be able to visit the general www.aarpfinancial.com pages on an anonymous basis, just as you have in the past.
3. How is this information used, and can I control the uses?
Our primary purpose in collecting this information is to provide you with the services you request, and to evaluate and improve other services that we offer. As explained above, for example, we ask for information so that we can send you the e-mail newsletters to which you have subscribed. We may also use this information for other purposes. For example, we may review demographic information, survey results, and statistical analyses of www.aarpfinancial.com usage in order to help us evaluate, modify, and develop services that are likely to be of interest to our customers.
If you have subscribed to any of the www.aarpfinancial.com e-mail newsletters and would like to stop receiving them, follow the instructions at the bottom of each of the newsletters that you receive. Some affiliated sites may also send you promotional e-mails if you asked to receive them when you registered for their respective services. In addition, each issue of these e-mail newsletters or notices will always include instructions for unsubscribing.
4. Is any information shared with other companies or organizations, and can I "opt out"?
AFI takes very seriously its responsibility to keep your personal information confidential and private. We do not sell or rent any of our customers' personal information to telemarketers, mailing list brokers, or any other companies that are not offering AFI endorsed services or benefits. As explained above, we share customer information with the limited number of companies that we have selected to provide AFI services. These "AFI Service Providers" include but are not limited to the insurance companies offering policies through AARP Property and Casualty Insurance Program and the financial institutions offering products through AFI Credit Card Services. Like most organizations, we also hire companies to provide certain administrative services that require access to customer information, such as processing address labels, managing databases, and sending mailings ("approved vendors").
We require all of these AFI service providers and approved vendors to hold customer information in strict confidence. These providers and vendors are contractually required to maintain the security and confidentiality of all customer information, and are prohibited from using that information for any purpose other than providing the services specified in their contracts with AFI. We closely monitor these companies to ensure that the customer information is protected.
If you do not want us to share your personal information with AFI service providers, you can: (1) e-mail us at info@aarpfinancial.com, (2) call us at 1-866-218-6142 or (3) write to us at:
AARP Financial
2 Highwood Drive
Suite 202
Tewksbury, MA 01876
If you ask us not to share your personal information, you should then stop receiving AFI service provider mailings in about six to eight weeks.
We may also disclose personal information when required to do so by law or when such action is necessary or appropriate to comply with legal process served on AFI, to protect and defend the rights or property of AFI, or to protect the personal safety of users of the www.aarpfinancial.com. We reserve the right to contact the appropriate authorities in our discretion when visitors' activities appear to be illegal or inconsistent with our policies.
Finally, we may sometimes share aggregate statistics and non-personal information with the media, government agencies, advertisers, and other third-parties. For example, we may publish statistics on the number of members in various states, or the number of visitors to www.aarpfinancial.com. These aggregate statistics will not allow anyone to identify member names or other personal information.
5. What privacy rules apply when I "click" over to other Web sites?
The www.aarpfinancial.com Web site includes links to other Web sites, some of which are operated by AFI service providers or approved vendors, and some of which are not. Sites operated by AFI service providers and approved vendors may also collect personal information, and may have their own privacy policies that differ from, and are not covered by, this privacy policy. It is important that you review any privacy policies on these sites carefully before you use any services or programs offered.
When you click to unaffiliated third-party sites, AFI is not responsible for, and has no control over, the information collection or privacy practices of that site. It is important that you review and understand the privacy policies posted on any linked sites you visit before volunteering any of your personal information. These sites may also collect cookies, or allow third-party advertisers on their sites to collect cookies. You can often find information regarding a site and its privacy policy on the site's home page. If you cannot find or do not like a site's privacy policy, you may prefer not to do business with, or offer information to, that site.
6. How does www.aarpfinancial.com protect security and confidentiality?
In order to protect your personal information, we use technologies and processes such as encryption, access control procedures, network firewalls, physical security, and other measures. These measures increase the security and privacy of information traveling to, from, and within www.aarpfinancial.com. Only our authorized employees or agents carrying out permitted business functions are allowed to access personal information. Employees who violate our privacy access policies may be subject to disciplinary actions, including termination when appropriate.
In order to receive some services, we may require you to use a password to protect your customer account from unauthorized access by others. If you do allow others, including family or household members, to access AFI customer-only services through your personal password , please understand that you are responsible for the actions of those individuals.
7. Will this privacy policy ever change?
This privacy policy describes the types of information we currently collect, and the ways we use and protect that information. If you are uncomfortable with our policies and practices, please do not provide any personal information to us through www.aarpfinancial.com.
From time to time, we may collect different types of information and use that information in different ways - for example, when we add features or services to www.aarpfinancial.com. In these cases, we may edit this policy to explain the new practices. Because protecting our customers' privacy is very important to us, we do not expect major changes in policy. However, if we do make significant changes in our practices, we will include announcements on the www.aarpfinancial.com home page so that you will know to review the revised policy.
8. Who can I contact with privacy questions?
If you have any questions or comments about your personal information or this privacy policy, please send an e-mail by visiting www.aarpfinancial.com/contact, or writing to info@aarpfinancial.com, call us at 1-866-218-6142, or write us at the address listed above. We will do our best to investigate any complaint you may have and respond promptly to your concerns.
For more information about online privacy issues generally, we encourage you to visit the web sites of the Federal Trade Commission, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.