These Terms of Use represent the complete and final agreement between you and Home Equity Compare regarding the subject matter discussed herein, superseding any prior agreements or negotiations between you and Home Equity Compare on the same subject.
These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of England, without regard to conflict of laws principles, and the parties hereby submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts of London, England.
You may not transfer or assign these Terms of Use or any rights or licenses granted hereunder. Home Equity Compare, however, may assign these Terms of Use without any restrictions.
Definitions
“Business Representatives” means the personnel of our service providers, resellers, distributors, agents and/or finders.
“CCPA” means the California Consumer Privacy Act 2018.
“GDPR” means the General Data Protection Regulation 679/2016 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation, as applicable.
“Users” means individuals who browse and/or make use of our Website or register for our Services.
“you” means Users, Business Representatives and any individual we communicate with in order to operate our Website and deliver our Services.
Policy Update Note
This Privacy Policy may be updated periodically, so we recommend checking back regularly for the latest version. If we make significant changes to how your Personal Information is used, different from what was stated at the time of collection, we will notify you by posting a notice on our Website or by other means.
Please be aware that certain Personal Information will be utilized for detecting, preventing, and prosecuting fraud or other illegal activities, identifying and rectifying errors, conducting audits, and ensuring security. Additionally, Personal Information may be employed to comply with relevant laws, assist in investigations conducted by relevant authorities, serve law enforcement purposes, and/or exercise or defend legal claims.
“Anonymous Information” refers to data that does not enable the identification of an individual user, such as aggregated information about the use of our services. In some instances, we may anonymize or de-identify your Personal Information to generate Anonymous Information.
How We Protect and Retain Your Information
Security: We have implemented appropriate technical, organizational, and security measures to protect your Personal Information. However, please note that we cannot guarantee the security of this information. The security of information depends, in part, on the security of the computer, device, or network you use to communicate with us and the security measures you use to protect your user IDs and passwords. Please ensure that you take appropriate measures to protect this information.
Retention of Your Personal Information: Your Personal Information will be stored until we proactively delete it or until you send a valid deletion request. Please note that in some circumstances, we may store your Personal Information for longer periods of time, as required or permitted by applicable laws. We have an internal data retention policy to ensure that we do not retain your Personal Information perpetually or not in compliance with applicable law.
How We Share Your Personal Data
In addition to the recipients described above, we may share your Personal Information in the following ways:
- With our business partners with whom we jointly offer products or services.
- To the extent necessary, with regulators, courts, or competent authorities, to comply with applicable laws, regulations, and rules (including, without limitation, federal, state, or local laws), and requests/orders of such bodies.
- To the maximum extent permitted by law, in the event that we are acquired by, or merged with, a third-party entity, or in the event of bankruptcy or a comparable event, we reserve the right to transfer, disclose, or assign your Personal Information in connection with the foregoing events, including, in connection with, or during negotiations of, any potential or actual merger, sale, or transfer of company assets, consolidation, or restructuring, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business, shares, or assets by or to another third party.
- Where you have provided your consent to us for sharing or transferring your Personal Information (e.g., where you provide us with marketing consents or opt-in to optional additional services or functionality).
Additional Information Regarding Transfers Of Personal Information
Storage: We store Personal Information in the US or another country with similar safety safeguards, as may be communicated from time to time.
External transfers: When we transfer your Personal Information outside of the EU/EEA (for example, to third parties who provide us with services), we will obtain contractual commitments from them to protect your Personal Information, as required by applicable laws.
Your Privacy Rights & How To Delete Your Account
The following rights (which may be subject to certain exemptions or derogations) shall apply to individuals protected by the GDPR. You have the following rights regarding your Personal Information:
- Right to access: You have the right to access the Personal Information we hold about you.
- Right to rectification: You can request that we correct any inaccurate or misleading Personal Information we hold.
- Right to erasure: You can request the erasure or deletion of your Personal Information from our records. Please note that we may need to retain your Personal Information in certain circumstances, such as for legal reasons.
- Right to object or restrict processing: You can object to or request restriction of the processing of your Personal Information.
- Right to data portability: You have the right to receive your Personal Information in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and to transmit that data to another controller.
- Right to object to profiling: You can object to profiling activities.
- Right to withdraw consent: You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Please note that this will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
- Right to information about data transfers: You have the right to request certain details about the basis on which your Personal Information is transferred outside the European Economic Area, although some details may need to be redacted for commercial confidentiality reasons.
- Right to lodge a complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.
The following rights (which may be subject to certain exemptions or derogations) shall apply to individuals covered by the CCPA
You have the following rights regarding your Personal Information:
- Right to know: You have the right to know what Personal Information is being collected about you. This includes the right to request that we disclose what Personal Information of yours we collect, use, disclose, and sell.
- Right to erasure: You can request the erasure or deletion of your Personal Information from our records and the records of our service providers. Please note that we may be required to retain your Personal Information in certain circumstances, such as for legal reasons. To submit a request to delete, you can email us at the contact information below or at support@homeequitycompare.com.
- Right to restriction or objection: You have the right to restriction of, or objection to, processing of your Personal Information, including the right to opt-out of the sale of your Personal Information to third parties, where such requests are permitted by law.
- Right to non-discrimination: You have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your privacy rights under the CCPA.
- Right to withdraw consent: If you have consented to the processing of your Personal Information, you may withdraw that consent at any time and prevent further processing by contacting us as described in this Privacy Policy.
How to exercise your rights
While we cannot guarantee privacy perfection, we will address any requests to the best of our ability in a timely manner. We will process such requests in accordance with applicable laws.
You can exercise your rights by contacting us at support@homeequitycompare.com or, if you are an individual protected by CCPA, you can make your requests by email sent to support@homeequitycompare.com. You may use an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf if you provide the authorized agent written permission signed by you. You must provide us with a copy of the signed permission you have given to the authorized agent to submit the request on your behalf and verify your own identity directly with us. To protect your privacy and data security, we will take steps to verify your identity before fulfilling your request. We will make reasonable efforts to honor your request promptly in accordance with applicable law and provided it does not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others. We reserve the right to charge a fee where permitted by law, for instance if your request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.
Use By Children
We do not offer our products or services for use by children, and therefore, we do not knowingly collect Personal Information from or about children under the age of eighteen (18). If you are under the age of eighteen (18), do not provide any Personal Information to us without the involvement of a parent or guardian. For the purposes of the GDPR, we do not intend to offer information society services directly to children. If we become aware that you have provided Personal Information in violation of applicable privacy laws, we reserve the right to delete it. If you believe that we might have any such information, please contact us at support@homeequitycompare.com.
Interaction With Third-Party Products
We allow you to interact with third-party websites, mobile applications, and products or services that are not owned or controlled by us (each a “Third-Party Service”). We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such Third-Party Services. Please note that Third-Party Services may collect Personal Information from you. Therefore, we recommend that you read the terms and conditions and privacy policies of each Third-Party Service.
Analytic Tools
The Website utilizes a tool called “Google Analytics” to gather information about its usage. Google Analytics collects data such as how frequently users visit the Website, which pages they visit, and the websites they visited before coming to this Website. We use this information to enhance the Website and our products. The data collected through Google Analytics is not combined with any Personal Information we collect. Google’s use of information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this Website is governed by the Google Analytics Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy. You can learn more about how Google collects and processes data in connection with Google Analytics and opt out of Google Analytics tracking by downloading and installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. Please note that we may add or remove analytic tools at any time.
Specific Provisions Applicable Under California Law
California Privacy Rights: Under California Civil Code Section 1798.83, California residents have the right to request certain information regarding our disclosure of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to support@homeequitycompare.com. Please note that we are only required to respond to one request per customer each year.
California Do Not Track Notice (Shine the Light): Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. We do not respond to or honor DNT signals transmitted by web browsers. However, we may allow third parties, such as analytics tools providers, to collect personally identifiable information about an individual consumer’s online activities over time and across different websites when a consumer uses our services.