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PRIVACY NOTICE AND NOTICE OF INFORMATION PRACTICES
The employees of Hopkins Insurance, Inc., respect
your right to privacy. Although we may provide this Notice as information
to additional persons, the terms of this Notice apply to those individuals
who inquire about or obtain insurance from Hopkins Insurance primarily
for personal, family or household purposes, and certain group insurance
plans.
We want you to know about our procedures for protecting
your privacy and your rights and responsibilities regarding information
we receive about you. We want you to understand how we gather information
about you, how we protect it, and how you can help ensure its accuracy.
We will provide our customers with a copy of the most recent notice
of our privacy policy at least annually and more often if we make
any changes affecting their rights under our privacy policy. This
Notice applies to current and former customers of Hopkins Insurance,
but does not in any way imply or affect insurance coverage.
Because Hopkins Insurance does not share consumer
information outside of permitted exceptions, there is no need to
take any action under this Notice. If we change our practices in
the future, we will update this notice and, if applicable, enable
affected consumers to opt-out of certain sharing.
1. What kind of information is collected about you?
We get most of our information about you directly
from you, such as your name, address, social security number, income
level and certain other financial information, on insurance applications
and other forms that you provide to us. While in some cases the
information you provide to your insurance representative during
the insurance application process gives us all the information we
need to evaluate you or your property for insurance, there are instances
when we may need additional information or may need to verify information
you have given us. In those cases, we may obtain information from
outside sources at our own expense.
It is common for an insurance company to ask an
independent source to verify and supplement information given on
an insurance application. There are many such independent companies,
commonly called "consumer reporting agencies," which are
in the business of providing independent information to insurance
and other financial services companies. We will treat the information
we receive about you from an independent reporting agency in accordance
with the terms of this Notice. Upon our receipt of your written
request sent to the address set forth in Section 5, we will inform
you of the name and address of any agency we have used to prepare
a report on you so that you can contact the agency.
Once you have been an insured customer of ours
for a period of time, your record may contain information related
to our experiences and transactions with you, such as insurance
policy coverage, premiums and payment history, and any claims you
make under your insurance policy. For example, information collected
by a claims representative and any police or fire report will be
retained by us. Any information that we collect in connection with
an insurance claim will be kept in accordance with this Notice.
Finally, we do use "cookies" when you
interact with our web sites to make that experience easy and meaningful
for you. When you visit our web site, our web server sends a cookie
to your computer. A cookie is an electronically transmitted file
that holds small pieces of information. When you navigate through
our web site, your browser "requests" pages for you to
view, and that request will include the information stored in the
cookie we previously sent to your computer. This process is like
an electronic "handshake" between our system and your
computer; the information exchanged allows us to recognize your
browser.
Cookies are used to collect and store only the
following information: the visitor's domain name, the Internet address
of the web site from which the visitor linked directly to our web
site, the pages of our site that the visitor views and the length
of time spent on each page, browser and operating system platform
type, and the date and time the visitor accessed our site.
Cookies, as well as data taken from them, do not
identify you personally. They merely recognize your browser. Unless
you choose to identify yourself to us, either by responding to a
promotional offer, buying a policy, or registering for an online
service, you remain anonymous.
Session cookies exist only during an online session
with Hopkins Insurance. Session cookies allow you to conduct transactions
or requests on our web site. Without the session cookie information,
we would not be able to complete your web transactions securely.
Session cookies help us make sure you are who you say you are after
you have logged in.
We do not sell this or any other information about
you to other web sites, merchants or financial institutions. While
we strive to protect your information, Hopkins Insurance cannot
ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to
us electronically, and you do so at your own risk. This web site
contains links to other web sites. Hopkins Insurance is not responsible
for the privacy practices or the content of such web sites.
2. What do we do with information about you?
Information about you will be kept in our insurance
policy records. We will refer to and use that information for purposes
related to issuing and servicing insurance policies and settling
claims. Generally, personal information about you in our records
will not be disclosed by us to any external organization without
your prior authorization. However, we may, as permitted by law,
share information about you contained in our files with certain
persons or organizations such as: your insurance representative,
persons who represent you in a fiduciary capacity, including your
attorney or trustee, or who have a legal interest in your insurance
policy, adjusters, appraisers, auditors, investigators and attorneys,
persons or organizations who need the information to perform a business,
professional or insurance function for us, other insurance companies,
agents or consumer reporting agencies as information is needed in
connection with any insurance application, policy or claim involving
you, medical professionals to inform you of a medical condition
of which you may not be aware,persons or organizations that conduct
research, including actuarial or underwriting studies, provided
that no individual information may be identified in any research
study report, persons or organizations that perform marketing services
on our behalf or to other financial institutions with whom we have
joint marketing agreements, our affiliated companies, to a court,
state insurance department or other government agency pursuant to
a summons, court order, search warrant, subpoena, or as otherwise
required by law or regulation.
Except as permitted or required by law, unless
we obtain your written consent, we will not use or share any personally
identifiable health information about you for any purpose other
than underwriting or administration of your insurance policy, claim
or account, or in a manner as previously disclosed to you by us
when we collected such information.
When your nonpublic personal financial or health
information is disclosed by us to third parties for certain purposes
described above, we will require them to use your information only
for its intended purpose.
3. Who has access to your information?
Hopkins Insurance currently incorporates a system
of passwords and other appropriate physical, electronic and procedural
safeguards to protect against unauthorized access to potentially
private information. We will educate our employees about the terms
of this Notice and the importance of confidentiality and customer
privacy. Employees who gain unauthorized access or who otherwise
violate our privacy policy are subject to disciplinary action up
to and including termination of employment. We plan to monitor and
evaluate our information security program and available security
software in light of relevant changes in technology to determine
ways to increase protections to the security or integrity of our
records and information.
4. How can you review recorded information about
you?
Generally, you have the right to review and receive
a copy of the recorded personal information about you contained
in our files with respect to a particular policy number, except
for certain legal and medical documents. You have the further right
to request that we correct any of this information. To exercise
these rights, you must send to us a notarized request at the address
set forth below stating your complete name, address, insurance policy
number, daytime phone number, and a copy of your driver’s license
or other personal identification. If you believe any information
is incorrect, we will investigate and correct it if we can substantiate
the error. Even if we do not correct the information, you have the
right to file with us a written statement of dispute which we will
include in any future disclosure of the information.
5. How can you contact us?
If, after reading this, you have any questions
about our privacy policy, please write to us at the following address:
HOPKINS INSURANCE, INCORPORATED
216 Front Avenue
Pocahontas, Iowa 50574
Attn: Compliance Office – Privacy Alternatively,
you can visit our home page and click on "Contact" to
send us a message. Be sure to type the words "Privacy Notice"
in the subject line so we will know where to deliver your message. |
