Privacy Notice for California Residents

Privacy Notice for California Residents

Effective date: January 1, 2022
Last modified: October 4, 2021

Introduction

This Privacy Notice for California Residents supplements the information contained in United Fire Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates Website Privacy Policy and applies solely to all visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California ("consumers" or "you"). We adopt this notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this notice.

Information we collect

Our Website collects information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or device ("personal information"). In particular, our website has collected the following categories of personal information from its consumers within the last twelve (12) months:

Personal information does not include publicly available information from government records, de-identified or aggregated consumer information.

We obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:

• Directly from you. For example, from forms you complete on our Website, information you direct to be sent to us, information you provide to us in emails (e.g., business emails, prospective employees, etc.) or other correspondences if you contact or responded to us. 
• From third parties, such as service providers including data brokers or other data aggregators, as well as other commercial entities like financial institutions you do business with.
• Automatically from you. For example, from observing your actions on our Website, such as usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies and web beacons. 

Use of personal information

We may use, or disclose the personal information we collect for one or more of the following purposes:

• Present our Website and its contents to you.
• Provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us, including our email newsletter.
• Business correspondences or transactions.
• Potential employment opportunities.
• Fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
• Carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection.
• Notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide though it.
• To prevent fraud or other activities that violate our terms or that are illegal.
• In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
• For any other purpose with your consent.

We will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.

Sharing personal information

We may disclose each of the categories of personal information identified above to a third party for a business purpose, including service providers, affiliates and subsidiaries, government entities or other third parties pursuant to legal process such as a subpoena, or third parties in the event of a merger, acquisition or other corporate reorganization or sale of assets. When we disclose personal information to a service provider for a business purpose, we enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personal information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.

Sale of personal information

In the preceding twelve (12) months, the Company has not sold personal information.

Your rights and choices

The CCPA provides consumers (California residents) with specific rights regarding their personal information that vary depending on the nature of the personal information and the context in which the information is collected. This section describes rights that may apply to your personal information, and explains how to exercise those rights.

Right to Access to Know About Your Personal Information and Data Portability Rights

You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request (see Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights), we will disclose to you:

• The categories of personal information we collected about you.
• The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.
• Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that personal information.
• The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.
• The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you (also called a data portability request).
• If we sold or disclosed your personal information for a business purpose, two separate lists disclosing:
  • sales, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient purchased; and
  • disclosures for a business purpose, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient obtained. 

Deletion request rights

You have the right to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request (see Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights), we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies. 

We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) to: 

• Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.
• Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
• Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
• Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
• Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.).
• Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information's deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research's achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.
• Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
• Comply with a legal obligation.
• Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

Exercising access, data portability and deletion rights

To exercise the access, data portability, and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by either: 

• Calling us at 888-668-2516
• Sending an e-mail to privacycoordinator@unitedfiregroup.com
• Visiting www.ufginsurance.com/privacy-form

Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. The agent must be a natural person or a business entity that is registered with the California Secretary of State. If you would like to designate an agent to act on your behalf, you and the agent will be required to provide us with proof of the agent’s identity and proof that you gave the agent signed permission to submit a request on your behalf.  Additionally, you will be required to verify your identity by providing us with certain personal information as described above or provide us with written confirmation that you have authorized the agent to act on your behalf. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child. 
You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must:

• Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative.
• Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. 

Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. However, we do consider requests made through your password-protected account sufficiently verified when the request relates to personal information associated with that specific account.

We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor's identity or authority to make the request. 

For instructions on exercising sale opt-out rights, see Personal Information Sales Opt-Out and Opt-In Rights.

Response timing and format

We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.

If you have an account with us, we will deliver our written response to that account. If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option. 

Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request's receipt. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request. 

Personal information sales opt-out and opt-in rights 

We do not sell your personal information to any third parties such as Facebook and Google. An opt-out form is included on our website.

Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights.

Other California privacy rights 

California's "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of our Website that are California residents 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 privacycoordinator@unitedfiregroup.com or write us at: UFG Insurance, Attn: Privacy Coordinator, 118 2nd Ave SE, Cedar Rapids IA 52401.

Cookies and Do Not Track

Cookies are small, sometimes encrypted text files that are stored on computer hard drives by websites that you visit. They are used to help users navigate websites efficiently as well as to provide information to the owner of the websites. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

When you visit our Sites, we may place a “cookie” or other online tracking devices (e.g. web beacons) that recognizes you. The cookies and other tracking technologies may also collect information about your IP address or actions taken in connection with the Sites.  We use cookies or similar tracking technologies to capture information about the use of our Sites to support our Site functionality, as well as to improve your user experience. Accordingly, we may store and retrieve information on your device through the use of cookies and similar technologies.

We may contract with third parties who may use cookies and web beacons and collect information on our behalf or provide services such as payment processing, promotional services, data management, or website troubleshooting and analytics. These third parties are prohibited by our contract with them from sharing that information with anyone other than us or our other vendors who provide similar services.

“Do Not Track” signals are options available on your browser to tell operators of websites that you do not wish to have your online activity tracked. We engage in the collection of personally identifiable information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or online services and we allow other parties to do so through our Site. Our Site does not respond to automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include "do not track" instructions.

Changes to our privacy notice

We reserve the right to amend this privacy notice at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this privacy notice, we will post the updated notice on the Website and update the notice's effective date. Your continued use of our Website following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.

Accessibility

We are committed to ensuring that our communications are accessible to people with disabilities.  To make accessibility-related requests or report barriers, please contact us at the information below.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or comments about this notice, the ways in which we collect and use your information described below and in the Privacy Policy, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under California law, please do not hesitate to contact us at:

Phone: 888-668-2516
Website: www.ufginsurance.com
Email: privacycoordinator@unitedfiregroup.com
Postal Address: UFG Insurance, Attn: Privacy Coordinator, 118 2nd Ave SE, Cedar Rapids IA 52401