February 2021
The Association of Benefit Counslors. and its affiliates and subsidiaries (collectively “ABC”) respect the privacy of our customers and users. Please take time to read this Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) as we believe it is important for our customers and users to understand how we collect, process and use personal data.
By using the Products and Services, Websites or Portals, you consent to the data we collect and how we use and share it in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the data we collect and how we use and share it, you should not use the Products and Services, Websites, or Portals.
ABC’s customers and users voluntarily provide us with data when they purchase or use our products and services (together, “Products and Services”) and access our websites or portals (“Websites” or “Portals”). Some of this data includes “Personal Data”, which is data that can be reasonably used to identify, either directly or indirectly, an individual or reasonably can be linked to a particular individual (“Personal Data”).
| Categories of information collected | Purposes of use (see chart below for additional information) | Sources of personal information |
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Contact and account registration information, Name, address, email, telephone number, username and password (collectively “Account Information”) |
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Financial and transactional information. Credit card, debit card, banking or other payment information. |
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Customer Content. Information provided by customers stored, processed, maintained or transmitted using our Products and Services. File system information such as stored file folder names, file extensions, file sizes. |
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Device information and identifiers. The configuration of any device registered for use in connection with the Products and Services, including any hardware delivered as part of the Products and Services (each a “Device”); also IP address; browser type and language; operating system; platform type; device type; software and hardware attributes; and unique device, advertising, and app identifier. |
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Connection and usage data, e.g., information about files you download, domain names, landing pages, usage activity, content viewed and accessed, dates and times of access, pages viewed, forms you complete or partially complete, search terms, uploads or downloads, whether you open an email and your interaction with email content, access times, error logs, and other similar information. |
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Other information, e.g., any other information you choose to directly or indirectly provide to us in connection with your use of the Products and Services, Websites or Portals |
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Automated Decisions. To the extent permitted by applicable law, ABC may collect data in an automated manner and make and use automated decisions about customers, including using machine learning algorithms, in order to provide or optimize the Products and Services, for security or analytics purposes, to display advertisements and offers based on individual preferences and for any other lawful purpose.
Aggregate Information. To the extent permitted by law, ABC may use, process, transfer and store customer and user data in a non-personally identifiable, anonymous (or pseudonymous) or aggregated manner. We may combine such data with other information collected, including information from third-party sources. By using the Products and Services, our customers and users agree that we may collect, use, share and store anonymized (or pseudonymized) aggregated data collected through the Products and Services for benchmarking, analytics, metrics, research, reporting, machine learning and other legitimate business purposes.
Purposes of Use
Communicate with you, for example:
Provide the Services, for example:
Personalize your experience, for example:
Secure our Services and users, for example:
Fraud detection and prevention, defending our legal rights and compliance with the law, for example:
The legal basis for collecting and using the Personal Data described above will depend on the Personal Data concerned and specific context in which we collect it, such as:
We use certain automatic data collection technologies such as cookies, web beacons, pixel tags and other technologies to collect data, including Personal Data, when users or customers visit the Websites or Portals, use the Products and Services or interact with us, and may share this data with our third-party marketing vendors (including for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services and analytics tools). We explain these technologies below.
Cookies. Cookies are small text files placed on a computer by a web server when browsing online and are used to store user preference data so a web server doesn't have to repeatedly request this information. A user may block cookies by activating the settings on the browser that blocks all or some cookies. However, if a user blocks all cookies (including strictly necessary cookies), a user may not be able to access all or parts of our Websites or Portals. We use the following types cookies:
Web Beacons. A web beacon is a small pixel incorporated into a web page or email to keep track of activity on the page or email. A web beacon helps us better manage the content of our Websites by informing us of what content is effective.
Cross-device Tracking. We may use third-party cross-device tracking. For example, a user may use multiple browsers on a single device, or use various devices, which can cause the customer having multiple accounts or profiles across various devices. Cross-device tracking may connect these various accounts or profiles and the corresponding data from different devices.
ABC is a U.S. based organization with global reach and ties. Data collected by us, including Personal Data, may be transferred or accessed by ABC’s subsidiaries and affiliates in other countries around the world regardless of a customer or user country of residence. By using the Products and Services, Websites or Portals or by providing Personal Data to us, customers and users acknowledge and agree that Personal Data may be sent to and processed in countries outside your country of residence, including the U.S. For individuals residing in the European Economic Area ("EEA"), Switzerland or the United Kingdom ("UK"), and for Personal Data subject to EEA, Swiss or UK data protection laws, this includes transfers outside of the EEA, Switzerland or UK. The transfer to other countries shall be in accordance with applicable data protection legislation which may include an adequacy decision or appropriate safeguards under Article 46 of the General Data Protection Regulation.
The California Consumer Privacy Act 2018 sets forth obligations for businesses that “sell” personal information. ABC does not engage in such activity based on our current understanding of the definition of sell. We may share certain personal information with other businesses or allow them to collect certain personal information through the use of website cookies, pixels, or other technologies in order to provide services to us such as analyzing our Services and advertising and marketing our Services on other sites or apps. You can control certain of these cookies through browser settings and other controls.
Under Nevada law, certain Nevada consumers may opt out of the “sale” of “personally identifiable information” as such terms are defined under Nevada law. However, we do not engage in such activity. If you have questions about this, you may contact us at privacy@ABC.com.
We do not access customer stored data that is protected by our Products and Services for marketing purposes.
ABC may share categories of information about you or your use of the Products and Services for the reasons set forth below.
Such categories of information may include:
Identifiers (such as name, address, email address); commercial information (such as transaction data); financial data (such as credit card information); internet or other network or device activity (such as browsing history or app usage); geolocation information, and other information that identifies or can reasonably be linked to you.
Service Providers. ABC may share any category of data it collects, including Personal Data, with our contracted third-party service providers (“Service Providers”) in order to provide our Products and Services, Websites or Portals. We may share Personal Data with Service Providers who administer surveys and perform user analysis to better understand user needs and preferences. These Service Providers include business partners, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, credit reference agencies, social media companies, email distributors, marketing automation partners, customer survey companies, data storage and hosting partners, IT specialists and product developers.
Legal Purposes. ABC may share any category data it collects, including Personal Data, as necessary to comply with law, court orders, governmental agencies, for the administration of justice, to protect vital interests, to protect the security or integrity of ABC’s databases, Products and Services, Websites or Portals, or to take precautions against legal liability.
Sale. In the event of a merger, consolidation, or acquisition of all, substantially all or a portion of ABC’s business or assets, ABC may share data, including Personal Data. Customers and users acknowledge and agree that data, including encrypted stored data and Personal Data that ABC has collected, may be securely shared, disclosed and transferred to such successor or assignee.
Customers and users can opt-out of receiving marketing and promotional communications from ABC by emailing optout@ABC.com or mailing The Association of Benefit Counslors., 611 Johnson Road, Sicklerville, NJ 08081 Attn: Privacy. We will continue to process Personal Data to deliver operational and service-related communications relating to purchases, changes to Products and Services or policies, and other purposes as permitted by law.
We may retain data, including Personal Data, for as long as necessary to deliver the Products and Services or for other lawful purposes. We may retain anonymized aggregated data indefinitely or to the extent permitted under law.
Subject to data protection laws, customers and users may have the following rights regarding ABC’s handling of Personal Data. Certain information may be exempt from such requests under applicable law.
We will take reasonable steps to verify Your identity when exercising these rights. To exercise these rights, you or your agent may be required to authenticate to your account or provide information contained in your account profile. Please ensure that you keep your profile information up to date and accurate so that we may verify your requests.
To exercise any of the above listed rights, email ABC at privacy@ABC.com, contact customer support here or at the appropriate geographical telephone number found here, visit the following page or mail The Association of Benefit Counslors., 611 Johnson Road, Sicklerville, NJ 08081 Attn: Privacy. ABC will process requests in accordance with applicable law and within a reasonable period of time.
California law provides California residents with the right to not be discriminated against (as provided for in applicable law) for exercising these rights or their right to opt-out of sales of personal information. Please note that certain information may be exempt from such requests under California law.
Under California’s "Shine the Light" law California residents have the right, twice in a calendar year, to request and obtain from ABC information about Personal Data ABC has shared, if any, with other businesses for their own direct marketing uses. ABC does not currently share your Personal Data with other businesses for their own direct marketing uses.
The Association of Benefit Counslors. acts as a data controller when we collect and process Personal Data for ABC’s legitimate interests, such as analyzing user interaction with our Websites or processing a customer credit card payment. The Association of Benefit Counslors. acts as a data processor when we provide Products and Services to our customers, such as remote troubleshooting technical support. When acting as a data processor, ABC will only process Personal Data in accordance with customer instructions and this Privacy Policy. The Association of Benefit Counslors.'s affiliates or subsidiaries may also act as data controllers or processors to the extent customers purchase Products and Services from those entities or Personal Data is shared with those entities.
ABC belongs to advertising networks that may use browsing history across participating websites to show interest-based advertisements. Our Products and Services do not recognize if a browser sends a “do not track” signal or similar mechanism to indicate the wish not to be tracked or receive interest-based advertisements.
ABC and its global third-party cloud storage providers have reasonable and appropriate technical and organizational security measures in place to protect against unauthorized processing, loss, misuse and alteration of Personal Data under its control, including: (a) pseudonymization (such as where data is separated from identifiers so that linkage to an identity is not possible without additional information that is stored separately) and encryption, (b) ensuring the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of systems and services used to process Personal Data, and (c) ensuring a process for regularly testing, assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of technical and organizational security measures. We cannot, and we do not believe that anyone can, genuinely guarantee or warrant absolute security of Personal Data disclosed or transmitted via the Internet to us or a third-party. Absent ABC’s gross negligence, customers and users agree to not hold ABC responsible for the theft, destruction, loss, damage or inadvertent disclosure of Personal Data or other data provided to ABC.
The Websites and Portals may contain links to third-party websites that ABC does not control or maintain. ABC is not responsible for the privacy practices employed by these third-party websites. ABC encourages users to read the privacy statements of such other websites before submitting any Personal Data.
ABC does not knowingly collect or distribute any Personal Data from children under 13 years old. If a child under 13 has provided ABC with Personal Data, the parent or guardian of that child should contact ABC immediately at privacy@ABC.com to delete this Personal Data.
While ABC is certified to the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks and the commitments they entail, ABC does not rely on the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework as a legal basis for transfers of Personal Data in light of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU in Case C-311/18.
As laws and best practices evolve, this Privacy Policy will likely change. By continuing to access our Websites and Portals or using our Products and Services, users and customers acknowledge and accept the Privacy Policy as revised. We encourage You to periodically review this Policy to stay informed about how we collect, use and disclose Personal Data. If we update this statement, the new statement will be posted to the website. If we make a material change to the Privacy Policy, you will be provided with appropriate notice in accordance with legal requirements. At such time, Your continued use of the Services after notice of posting or notice of such changes constitutes Your agreement to this latest version of this Policy and any future revisions.
To contact ABC’s Data Privacy Officer, or questions related to this Privacy Policy generally, please email privacy@ABC.com.
Disclaimer: All federal, state and local laws apply. COVID and other pandemics change on a daily basis. The Association of Benefit Counselors always strives to keep up with any and all regulations as they become known and available, applicable to any given situation or jurisdiction. We reserve the right to modify or change our solution at any point in time without prior notice. All warranties, expressed or implied, are subject to change at any time and the Association of Benefit Counselors, www.ABCounselors.com, any affiliates or partners cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of our data or solutions because of a change in any applicable law.