Rhode Island Student Loan Authority Privacy Policy
The College Planning Center is a free service of the non-profit Rhode Island Student Loan Authority.
PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACY IS IMPORTANT TO US. We want you to understand what information we collect and how we use it. This policy explains the standard for our employees regarding the collection, use, retention, and security of information about you.
Why We Collect Information
We collect information so we can identify you as our customer so we can establish and better manage your accounts, to create and offer you education loan products you might be interested in, and to comply with legal and regulatory requirements.
What Information We Collect
As part of providing your education loan, we obtain "non-public personal information" which is information about you that is not publicly available that we need to serve you effectively and efficiently. Such information includes, for example, account balances and payment history.
We may collect non-public personal information about you in the following ways:
- Information that you provide to us on applications or other loan or other account forms, such as your name, address, e-mail address, birthdate and phone number, so we can identify you as a customer, get in touch with you about your account when necessary and generally maintain your account; your social security number or other identifying information that helps us prevent unauthorized access to or use of your account; and personal information which helps us process your application and identify products or services that may be of interest to you.
- Information about your transactions with us or our affiliates or others, including but not limited to account balances and your payment history. We use this information to respond to your requests, service your accounts, and make recommendations or offers to you as we feel appropriate.
- Information we receive from third parties such as credit bureaus, for example your credit history and credit score. This information is used in processing loan applications, collecting accounts and determining eligibility for offers of other products or services.
What Information We Share
We will only share information as allowed by law and described in this policy.
Sharing Information With Affiliates
We have affiliates which, like us, are involved in education loan funding and servicing. Among our affiliates we may share:
- Your financial data, for example, your assets and income that you may include on a loan application; and
- Information we receive from credit bureaus and other non-affiliated parties, such as your creditworthiness and your payment history.
Our affiliates may share among themselves certain information about you in order to provide a loan to you or service your account. Our employees engaged in this sharing are only allowed to use the information for those reasons necessary to perform these functions. This information could include:
- Information we receive from you on applications or other forms, such as your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address and social security number; and
- Information about transactions with us, our affiliates or others, such as your loan account balance and payment history.
Sharing Information With Non-Affiliated Parties
In some circumstances, we may share your information with companies outside our organization, such as:
- Financial service providers. This includes companies that originate loans or process loan transactions for us, vendors that print, prepare, or mail statements for us, correspondent letters and computer system programmers; and
- Marketing service providers. Such companies may be used to help us market our products and services to you.
Our affiliates may share among themselves certain information about you in order to provide a loan to you or service your account. Our employees engaged in this sharing are only allowed to use the information for those reasons necessary to perform these functions. This information could include:
- Information we receive from you on applications or other forms, such as your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address and social security number; and
- Information about transactions with us, our affiliates or others, such as your loan account balance and payment history.
These service providers receive limited information about you as necessary to perform their functions. They are always required to maintain confidentiality of the information and we restrict their use to the purpose we authorize. They are not allowed to pass your information on to others for their own benefit.
We may also enter into agreements with non-affiliated companies who offer products and services different from ours. We are very cautious in selecting who we make such agreements with and the outside third party must agree to restrictions on the use of your information. The information we provide to these outside companies includes your contact information as described above, and may include some account activity such as balance and payment history as well as credit history and creditworthiness information.
If you do not want us to share your information with such non-affiliated third parties you may OPT OUT of that sharing and except for disclosures required or permitted by law we will not share your information with non-affiliated companies. The OPT OUT procedure is described below.
Legal and Other Situations
Sometimes the law or other circumstances requires us to disclose information about you to non-affiliated third parties. Some examples are: when you ask or permit us to do so; when a guaranty agency, school or the Department of Education needs the information in connection with your account; in response to subpoenas or court orders; with credit bureaus; or when we suspect fraud or criminal activity. The OPT OUT procedure does not apply to such disclosures.
Our Security Procedures
We take careful steps to safeguard customer information. We restrict access to your personal and account information to those employees who need to know that information to perform their jobs, and we provide regular training to our employees on privacy, information security, and their obligation to safeguard your information. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal and industry standards to protect your personal information and we regularly test those safeguards.
You can safeguard your own personal information by taking a few simple precautions. Protect your account numbers, passwords, PIN’s, and customer access numbers. Never disclose confidential information to unknown callers. You should always use a secure browser and current virus detection software, and never open e-mail from unknown sources.
Opting Out
If you prefer that we do not share information about you with non-affiliated third parties, you may restrict information (other than those disclosures permitted by law) by mailing a written request, with your name, address, and account number to: Rhode Island Student Loan Authority, 560 Jefferson Boulevard, Suite 200, Warwick, R.I. 02886-1371 Attention: Information Security Officer, or by calling our toll free number at 1-800-758-7562.
Consumer Redress
If you feel that we are not abiding by this Privacy Policy you should contact us immediately at the above address or toll free number.