Privacy Statement

Notice of Privacy Statement

Protecting the privacy of your personal information is important to us at EdFund. We respect your right to privacy and recognize our obligation to keep information about you secure and confidential. We do not sell or share information about you with outside marketers.

Our Privacy Statement explains how we handle and protect customer information and how we manage this information to serve you. This notice uses the term “nonpublic personal information.” This means personal information about you which identifies you, and that is not available from public sources.

We are Committed to Protecting Your Privacy

We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring the security of your information. This commitment is demonstrated by:

  • Safeguarding any information that is shared with us by our customers according to strict standards of confidentiality and security.
  • Employing strict standards and safeguards to prevent fraud.
  • Not selling customer information to other companies for marketing purposes.
  • Not revealing your information to any external entity unless we have been authorized to do so, are required to by law or have previously informed you via disclosures or agreements.
  • Limiting the collection and use of your personal information to the minimum we require to administer our business and deliver superior service.
  • Permitting only those employees who are trained in the proper handling of customer information access to your information; any employee violating this privacy commitment is subject to our established disciplinary process.
  • Not revealing your information to any external entity unless we have been authorized to do so, are required to by law or have previously informed you via disclosures or agreements.
  • Continuing to protect your privacy after you are no longer our customer.

Information Collected About You

We collect nonpublic personal information about you from the following sources:

  • Information we receive from you on the loan application(s), promissory note(s), correspondence or that you provide in connection with the collection of your loan such as financial statements or tax returns;
  • Information about your transactions with us or others with respect to student loans (from parties such as lender(s) and the U.S. Department of Education and its agents);
  • Information received from schools you attend or formerly attended, or to which you have applied for admission;
  • Information received from credit reporting agencies;
  • Information received from the federal or state government, which is authorized by law, such as employment information from the California Employment Development Department; and
  • Information obtained when online (Internet) products and services are used. For example: data provided on applications and information contained in e-mails EdFund receives from you.

Managing Information to Serve Your Needs

We do not disclose any nonpublic personal information about you or our other current and former customers to anyone, except as permitted by law. For example, we share such information with schools, lenders, and other guarantee agencies and the U.S. Department of Education, as needed to administer your loan in conformance with the law. Nonpublic information may also be disclosed to persons or entities which you have authorized us to contact with respect to your student loan(s), such as your parents or references.

We restrict access to nonpublic information about you to our employees who need to know the information and to our contractors and agents, in order to provide service to you, such as servicing and collecting your student loan. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards in compliance with federal regulations to safeguard your nonpublic personal information.

Outside companies that provide services on our behalf are carefully selected and are prohibited from using customer information for any reason other than supporting our business. They are not allowed to use your information for their purposes, or to share/sell this information. The information provided to these entities is restricted to that information that is necessary for them to fulfill their responsibilities.

In order to best serve your needs, there might be times when we will need to contact you to obtain additional information from you or resolve an issue.

Our Goal is to Maintain Accurate Information

We continually strive to maintain complete and accurate information about you and your accounts. If you ever believe that our records contain inaccurate or incomplete information about you, please let us know immediately. We will correct any inaccuracies as quickly as possible.

Protecting Your Privacy Online

Protecting your personal information online is an essential part of our service to you. For example:

  • We validate your identity before we allow online access to your accounts.
  • When collecting information about you online, we employ technologies such as firewalls and data encryption to protect your information from others.

Gathering and Managing Information Online

When you use online (Internet) products and services, we may collect application and/or service offering, site navigation, customer contact and optional survey information. We use this information to respond to your requests, personalize our online services and improve our site to make it more responsive to your needs. See the topics below for more detail on the tools we use to serve you better.

Cookies

You'll notice this term used across the Internet. Cookies are a basic way to identify the information you share with us and do not identify you personally. They cannot be used to obtain data from your hard drive, your e-mail address or personal information stored on your computer.

Is Accepting Cookies Required to Use Our Products?

While you can disallow cookies by making the appropriate selection from your browser, certain EdFund services require cookies. Therefore, if you set your browser options to disallow cookies, you will limit the functionality we can provide when you visit our site.

How this site uses cookies

When you enter personal information (e.g., name, address, phone number) through one of our applications, like EdTest, QuickForms or Student Loan Debt Summary, a cookie is created and submitted along with your information. A cookie is a unique identifier. Without this identifier, we cannot retrieve the information you are trying to submit to us from our server. Cookies do not store confidential information or contain viruses.

E-mail

When you send us an e-mail to make a comment or to ask a question, we will use your e-mail address to reply to you, and for a limited time we may store your e-mail address, your message and our response for quality assurance and/or to meet legal and regulatory requirements.

Using Your IP Address

When you enter an EdFund Web site, you pass through a “firewall” we use for security purposes. As you pass through it, we may identify the Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the device you are using, such as a personal computer or handheld device. The IP address does not identify you personally, but it may allow us to identify the device you are using. We store IP addresses in case we ever need to track a connection to its point of origin for security reasons.

Linking to Other Web sites

Links to third-party sites are provided for your convenience. Such sites are not within our control and may not follow the same privacy, security or accessibility standards as ours. EdFund is not responsible for the content or availability of third-party sites, their partners or advertisers. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of third parties before providing information on their sites.

Protecting Your Information — How You Can Help

By taking a few simple precautions, you can help safeguard your personal information:

  • Keep account information, passwords and/or PINs to yourself. Do not disclose this information to others.
  • Never provide personal or confidential information over the telephone to unknown callers.
  • Be sure to use a secure browser when doing any business over the Internet. When you have completed your Internet business, exit online applications immediately.
  • Maintain current virus protection software on your personal computer. Never open e-mail from unknown sources.

Report Identity Theft

If you believe you may be a victim of identity theft:

  • Contact EdFund at 1.877.233.3863 to report the situation.
  • Contact the Social Security Administration's Fraud Hotline at 1.800.269.0271 to report fraudulent use of your personal identification information.
  • Report the incident as quickly as possible to each of the credit reporting agencies:
    • Experian — 888.397.3742
    • Equifax — 800.685.1111
    • Trans Union — 800.916.8800
  • File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by contacting the FTC's Identity Theft Hotline: 1.877.IDTHEFT.

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this privacy statement or privacy concerns, please send an e-mail or send a letter to:

EdFund
Attn: Legal Department
Chief Privacy Officer
P.O. Box 419038
Rancho Cordova, CA 95741