Your privacy is important to us. We will NOT sell or trade your personal information under any circumstances. Please read below to learn how your privacy is protected.
PRIVACY POLICY
As part of our commitment to your privacy and security, we adhere to the Online Business Code Practices of the Better Business Bureau Online Reliability Program.
This Privacy Statement was last updated on November 11th, 2023.
We may collect the following nonpublic personal financial information:
* Information that you submit when you register with our site in order to receive newsletters or other announcements by e-mail or to request an insurance application;
* Information that you submit on our online form when you request an insurance application, such as your name, address and, other personal information depending on the coverage you seek.
* Information collected by the insurance agencies or insurance companies that respond to your online or telephone requests, including application information described above, credit information if requested, and information about the insurance policies you purchase; and
* Information about your transactions with us or with insurance agencies and insurance companies accessible through this site.
We may disclose the information described above to:
* Insurance agents or insurance companies as needed to fulfill your rate requests;
* Companies that perform technology or marketing services for us, and are prohibited to share that information with others;
* To others only if you consent or as permitted by law.
We restrict access to nonpublic personal information about you to employees of Sterling Group Insurance or of our service providers that have agreed to maintain its confidentiality. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations to guard your nonpublic personal information.
For more detailed information, please see Privacy Statement and Q & A below
PRIVACY STATEMENT AND Q & A
Sterling Group Insurance has created this Privacy Statement and Q & A in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for this website (Sterling Group Insurance). The statement also discloses how your information is used by other companies we do business with.
Q: What organizations have access to my nonpublic personally identifiable information?
A: The following organizations have access to your nonpublic personally identifiable information:
1. Sterling Group Insurance
On the Sterling Group Insurance website, we have a variety of areas where you can input information: for storage, to calculate insurance premiums or quotes, and to process insurance purchase requests. We also gather information about your Internet address to help understand site usage. In addition, we receive information collected by the insurance agencies or insurance companies that respond to your online requests, including application information and information about the insurance policies you purchase. Sterling Group Insurance and its technology or marketing service providers may have access to this information, and Sterling Group Insurance shares this information.
2. Quoting Providers
For most products, insurance quotes require some personal information in order to provide accurate rates. Insurance rates are based on you – who you are, where you live, your insurance history, etc. Should you wish to gain quotes for a particular line of insurance, information will be collected that is shared by Sterling Group Insurance with a third-party insurance quoting provider in order to match your information to a list of quotes. Each quoting provider has agreed with us that this information will be used by them only in connection with services you specifically request.
3. Insurance Agencies and Insurance Carriers – In General
Should you decide to apply for a particular insurance policy after obtaining a quote through one of our quoting providers, you will be asked to provide additional information needed to complete an insurance application. With your authorization, this information will be forwarded to the insurance carrier you select and which has agreed to use the information only for the purposes of completing your transaction with the carrier. Carriers use personally identifiable information (such as name and address) in combination with other information you provide about your insurance needs to provide an insurance premium estimate. However, the criteria for ratings may vary between participating insurance companies, with each carrier placing a different emphasis on particular items of information you provide. Where permitted by law, your personally identifiable information may be used to verify information that you have provided, to request a credit report or review your claims history from a third party. As your application proceeds, Sterling Group Insurance may be updated of your progress.
PLEASE NOTE: The insurance carriers are required by law to have their own privacy policies, which likely differ from those of Sterling Group Insurance. You may wish to obtain and review the carriers’ policies.
4. Sterling Group Insurance
Sterling Group Insurance provides insurance quotes and other services in states of Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. In situations where Sterling Group Insurance is available, Sterling Group Insurance requests certain required personal information during the quote process in an effort to provide more accurate quote information. Residents of those states are encouraged to see the Sterling Group Insurance Privacy Policy. In situations where you are referred to a single insurance carrier, please refer to the privacy policy listed on that insurance carrier’s site.
5. Links to Third Party Insurance Sites
In some states, or for some lines of coverage (e.g., homeowners or renters coverage; auto coverage in AR, MO, OK), we may provide direct links to insurance company or agency sites, usually because we cannot obtain comparative quote information. If you provide information on a carrier website or purchase insurance from a carrier as a result of visiting Sterling Group Insurance, the carrier may share that information with Sterling Group Insurance, but Sterling Group Insurance will not share it with any unaffiliated third parties. Sterling Group Insurance is not responsible for the privacy practices of these third party insurance companies or the content of their websites. We recommend that you read the privacy statements on the sites of each insurance company or third party agent with which you interact.
Q: How is my nonpublic personally identifiable information used?
A: Your nonpublic personally identifiable information is used in the following ways:
1. Providing Services You Request
Information that you provide during the quoting process is used to fulfill your requests for insurance quotes or applications. Information you provide during the registration or application process is:
A. used to facilitate your requests for insurance quotes or applications;
B. used to distribute newsletters, optional user experience surveys or other marketing and promotional materials to you, unless you opt not to receive this information ; and
C. stored by our service providers or within the Sterling Group Insurance site in order to enable you to re-access the information at your convenience.
2. Site Usage – Cookies
Sterling Group Insurance also gathers anonymous information and aggregate demographic information (such as age, zip code, etc.), which does not personally identify you. We use this information to better understand our site usage patterns, and we may share this information with third parties for marketing or technology purposes. Generally this information is collected through “traffic data” and the use of “Cookies,” “Internet Protocol” addresses or other numeric codes or tags used to identify a computer. Again, any disclosure of anonymous information and/or aggregate demographic information will not reveal any personally identifiable information about specific users.
A ‘cookie’ is a message given to a web browser by a web server. The browser stores the message in a small text file on the same drive that the browser is installed on. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. It will not be used to help track user’s aggregate data from sites other than our own. The only cookie-based data that we track is activity on our own site concerning demographics and site usage analysis. The user needs to have cookies enabled in order to use restricted features of the site, including the quoting process.
3. Quoting
There is no requirement to register or login prior to requesting a quote. As noted above, we share this information with third party quote providers in order to obtain the quote information you request. Sterling Group Insurance provides insurance quotes and other services for residents of Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Residents of those states serviced by Sterling Group Insurance will be asked for certain personal information, including a credit report authorization. This additional information is requested in an effort to provide you with more accurate quote information.
4. No Other Disclosure to Unaffiliated Third Parties
Unless you expressly give us permission to do so, or unless required by law, we do not willfully disclose your personally identifiable information to unaffiliated third parties, other than the above-described parties with which we contract to make certain services available through our website and which have agreed that they will keep your information confidential. However, we may share aggregated statistical information about the use of our website with quoting aggregators, participating insurance companies or other companies we do business with; in this case, your personally identifiable information is not disclosed.
Q: What choices are available to me regarding the collection, use and distribution of my nonpublic personally identifiable information?
A: You may decide to opt-out of communications from Sterling Group Insurance. Users registering during the insurance application process will automatically be placed on the email distribution list that provides you with information concerning promotions and updates to the Sterling Group Insurance site and all communications regarding your insurance request.
Except as noted in the next paragraph, during the quoting process on Sterling Group Insurance you will always retain complete control over what information you disclose in the quoting / application processes and to which insurance carriers, if any, it is sent. You will be asked for your name, contact details and other information only if you decide to proceed with coverage from a company that has offered a quote.
Sterling Group Insurance provides insurance quotes and other services for residents in states of Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Residents of those states serviced by Sterling Group Insurance will be asked for certain personal information, including a credit report authorization, in order to return accurate rates. This additional information is a standard request in the insurance industry.
With respect to third party sites to which you may link through Sterling Group Insurance, any choices regarding the handling of your personal information will be described on such parties’ websites. You should refer to the privacy statements for those sites for more information.
During the application process you will automatically opt-in to an email distribution list that will provide you with information concerning promotions and updates concerning the Sterling Group Insurance site. Upon receipt of an email communication you will have the option to opt-out of receiving any further communications.
Q: What security measures are in place to protect my nonpublic personally identifiable information?
A: This site uses strong security measures to protect the personal data you provide. Your personal data is stored on a secure system. We use a variety of security systems and control measures to restrict access to your data. We use authentication methods to confirm the identity of trusted parties. We support encryption technologies to protect the transmission of your data when you are supplying it, or if we are passing it to other companies we do business with.
Q: How can I correct any inaccuracies in my nonpublic personally identifiable information?
A: Within the quoting process, you are able to change your information by returning to the previous page via the back button of the browser, or by verifying and editing the information prior to submission.
Q: How will I know if this privacy statement changes?
A: Sterling Group Insurance may change its privacy practices in the future. If we change the way we treat any nonpublic personally identifiable information, we will:
* Post a revised privacy policy at this location; and
* In the event the change could affect your nonpublic personally identifiable information already in our database, we will email you to notify you of the change and include an option for you to opt-out of the process.
Q: How can I “opt out” of receiving any email from you?
A: Occasionally, we may email you our quarterly insurance newsletter or to let you know about new products, features, or insurance companies that we’ve added. Just reply unsubscribe, or stop to have your email removed from our email marketing lists.
Q: How can I contact you regarding the privacy of my information?
A: If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this website, please email us or contact our corporate headquarters. Click here to be redirected to our contact us page.