Last updated: January 2, 2023
Advisory Services USA Inc. and https://www.wefinanceamerica.com/ (collectively, “ASUSA” “we,” “us,” or “our”) recognizes, respects, and strives to protect the personal privacy rights of all our users, visitors, and customers (“you”). We are committed to providing security and privacy regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information.
Overview
This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) applies to data collected by Advisory Services USA Inc., a provider of Finance Advisory Services concerning business and commercial funding products, and associated services (collectively “Services”). The Policy has two parts:
- Part 1 provides our U.S. Privacy Policy, including our Privacy Policy https://www.wefinanceamerica.com/ (“Website”), which is owned and operated by Advisory Services USA Inc.. This Policy describes how Advisory Services USA Inc. collects and uses the personal information you provide (directly or through third parties), or which is automatically generated, when you interact with our Website, and our mobile application (“Mobile App”).
- Part 2 is our California Supplement, which provides our California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) Privacy Policy. The CCPA provides various rights to consumers who reside in California with regard to personal information. A natural person, including a business owner or guarantor, is considered to be a consumer under the CCPA. Any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in Part 2.
Part 1: Advisory Services USA Inc. US Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal information and how you can access and update such information. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Personal Information” means information that personally identifies you, including your contact information, IP address, and loan application information. A large portion of the Personal Information we collect, use, share, and store are sensitive in nature, including your social security number and financial account information (“Sensitive Personal Information”).
Information We Collect
We collect the following information from you:
- Contact information such as name, business name, email address, mailing address, and phone number.
- Financial information such as bank statements, financial statements, tax returns, credit card statements, your average bank balance, personal and business credit history, payment behavior, bank account information, and tax ID number.
- Social security number.
- Unique identifiers such as username and password, and IP address.
- Business information including company size, and business type, and
- Beneficial ownership information*
* When required in the U.S., we will collect information on the beneficial owners of our business customers for purposes of verifying their identity only. The U.S. Government implemented the beneficial ownership regulation to help deter financial crimes. By complying, we are doing part in upholding the regulation to protect the financial system. Pursuant to our privacy policies and procedures, we will maintain beneficial ownership information in our system of record.
Use of Information
We use the information we collect to:
- Compile, save, use, and analyze your Personal Information in both a personally identifiable form and as part of aggregated data.
- Operate, maintain, improve, and provide to you the Service and to conduct our business, and referring you to third party lenders and investors etal.
- Verify your identity and conduct appropriate diligence.
- Register you as a user and identify you when you sign into your account.
- Process your application(s) and help determine whether you qualify for a specific loan product provided by one of our lending partners.
Privacy and Sharing of Information
Advisory Services USA Inc. will share your Personal Information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy and as required by law. We do not sell your Personal Information to third parties.
We will provide your Personal Information, which may include application information, to our trusted business partners, third party lenders of Advisory Services USA Inc. products, service providers, and subsidiaries and affiliates to provide financing and/or to provide services to help us with our business activities, such as offering customer service, processing credit checks or secure data storage, and other similar services. These companies are authorized to use your Personal Information only as necessary to provide these types of services to us.
We may also disclose your Personal Information:
- As required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal process, including in a bankruptcy proceeding.
- When we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a request from a governmental entity.
- If Advisory Services USA Inc. is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or substantially all of its assets or equity, in which case, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Website of any change in ownership or uses of your Personal Information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your Personal Information; and
- To any other third party with your prior consent to do so.
User Access and Choice
Opt-Out Policy
Advisory Services USA Inc. and our business partners may contact you to offer you products and services that may be of interest to you. Out of respect for your privacy, you may choose to stop receiving our newsletter or marketing emails, telephone solicitations or other forms of contact from Advisory Services USA Inc. and our trusted business partners by following the unsubscribe instructions included in these emails, accessing the email preferences in your account settings page or by contacting us by email at Yianni@advisoryservicesusa.com
Tracking Technologies
Log Files
As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you. We do this to improve services we offer you and to improve marketing, analytics, and Website functionality.
Security of Information
Advisory Services USA Inc. takes the security of your information very seriously. Your information is securely sent to Advisory Services USA Inc. with 128 bit-encryption over the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. This creates an encrypted connection between your browser and our servers. Thus, when you enter Sensitive Personal Information (such as a bank account number) on our order forms, we encrypt the transmission of that information.
If you allow, Advisory Services USA Inc. to see your banking information online rather than in paper form, it is on a read-only basis. We do not have access to change, edit, or modify bank account information in any way. Advisory Services USA Inc. employees cannot view your banking username and passwords.
Additional Information
Links to 3rd Party Sites
Our Website includes links to other websites whose privacy practices may differ from those of Advisory Services USA Inc. If you submit personal information to any of those sites, your information is governed by their privacy policies. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit.
Contact Information
General Queries: If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Website, or your dealings with this Website, please contact us by email at info@advisoryservicesusa.com or with a letter by postal mail to:
Advisory Services USA Inc.
ATTN: Marketing
1309 Coffeen Ave Ste 1824
Sheridan Wyoming 82801
To opt-out of marketing communications: please use one of the communication methods below, and include your full name and business mailing, email addresses and account number. Once we locate your contact information based on the information you provide us, it will be removed from our databases and mailings lists.
- Send an email to info@advisoryservicesusa.com
- Send a letter to:
- Advisory Services USA Inc.
ATTN: Marketing
1309 Coffeen Ave Ste 1824
Sheridan Wyoming 82801
Advisory Services USA Inc. Privacy Policy Part 2: California Supplement:
CCPA Policy
Information We Collect
We collect the following categories of information from you, which may include the following:
- Identifiers such as a real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, Social Security number/tax ID number, driver’s license number, passport number or other similar identifiers.
- Personal Information such as your name, signature, social security number, address, telephone number, passport number, driver’s license or state identification card number, employment history, bank account number or other financial information.
- Protected classification characteristics under Wyoming or Federal Law such as age (date of birth).
- Commercial information, including records of personal property and personal credit information.
- Internet or other electronic network activity information, including, but not limited to, browsing history (Advisory Services USA Inc. pages visited), device ID, device type and information regarding a consumer’s interaction with Advisory Services USA Inc.’s Internet Web site, application or advertisement.
- Geolocation Data
- Audio, or similar information
- Professional or employment-related information
- Inferences drawn from any of the information categorized above
Personal information does not include:
- Publicly available information from government records.
- De-identified or aggregated information.
- Information excluded from the CCPA’s scope, such as:
- Health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA).
- Personal information covered by certain privacy laws, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), the California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA) and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994.
- Directly from our applicants, clients, or their agents. For example, information provided as part of the loan application or related processes.
- Indirectly from our clients or their agents. For example, through information we collect from our clients while providing services to them.
- Directly and indirectly from activity on our website https://www.wefinanceamerica.com/). For example, from submissions though our website portal or website usage details collected automatically.
- From third parties that interact with us in connection with the services we perform. For example, from referral partners and brokers who provide us with loan applications or credit reporting agencies that provide us with information regarding a guarantor’s or business owner’s credit history.
Use of Information:
We use the information we collect to:
- Compile, save, use, and analyze your Personal Information in both a personally identifiable form and as part of aggregated data.
- Operate, maintain, improve, and provide you with services.
- Conduct our business, including our own lending, and refer your business to third party small business lenders.
- Verify your identity and conduct appropriate diligence.
- Review for potentially fraudulent activity.
- Register you as a user and identify you when you sign into your account.
- Process your business’ application and determine whether your business qualifies for one of our loan products.
- Process your business loan product account, including deducting automatic payments from your business bank account.
- Communicate with you to send order confirmations, respond to customer service requests, send marketing communications, and send account update notifications related to your business.
- Post and review your comments on our blog.
- Conduct research and analyses to better understand our customers.
- Produce data analytics and reports containing de-identified summaries of Personal Information and other information that is not Personal Information (such information, “General Information”) that we share with business partners. General Information may include Personal Information that has been aggregated and will not identify you.
Sharing Personal Information
Advisory Services USA Inc. will share your Personal Information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy and as required by law. We do not sell your Personal Information to third parties.
We will provide your Personal Information, which may include application information, to our trusted business partners, third party lenders of Advisory Services USA Inc. products, service providers, and subsidiaries and affiliates to provide financing and/or to provide services to help us with our business activities, such as offering customer service, processing credit checks or secure data storage, and other similar services. These companies are authorized to use your Personal Information only as necessary to provide these types of services to us. In addition, we may share your basic information (name, company name, phone number, email address and requested loan amount) with one of our business partners to market their services to you, provided, however, if you do not want us to share your Personal Information in these circumstances with these business partners you can opt out at the email or mailing address provided in Advisory Services USA Inc.’s Privacy Policy Part 1, which precedes this policy. In addition, we may also share General Information for the same reasons as we provide Personal Information and for business partners and others to conduct analyses and research and track marketing performance or as otherwise provided in the Tracking Technologies part herein.
Some of our pages utilize framing or white-labeling techniques to serve content from our partners while preserving the look and feel of our Website. For example, our Careers page utilizes white-labeling techniques. Please be aware that in these instances you are providing your Personal Information to these third parties and not to Advisory Services USA Inc..
We may also disclose your Personal Information:
- As required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal process, including in a bankruptcy proceeding.
- When we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a request from a governmental entity.
- If Advisory Services USA Inc. is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or substantially all of its assets or equity, in which case, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Website of any change in ownership or uses of your Personal Information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your Personal Information; and
- To any other third party with your prior consent to do so.
Sale of Personal Information
We do not sell personal information.
Your Rights and Choices
The CCPA provides consumers, including owners/guarantors of small business loans (California residents), with specific rights regarding their personal information. Advisory Services USA Inc. is providing these rights to California consumer residents who have provided their personal information as part of an Advisory Services USA Inc. application or loan. This section describes the CCPA rights and explains how to exercise those rights.
Access to Specific Information and Data Portability Rights:
You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request (“Request”), we will disclose to you:
- The categories of information we collected about you.
- The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.
- Our business or commercial purpose for collecting that personal information.
- The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.
- The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you (also called a data portability request).
- If we disclosed your personal information for a business purpose, a list identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient obtained.
Deletion Request Rights:
You have the right to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies.
Exceptions
We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service providers to:
- Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.
- Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
- Debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
- Exercise free speech ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided by law.
- Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code Section 1546 seq.).
- Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the deletion of the information may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.
- Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with expectations based on your relationship with us.
- Comply with a legal obligation, such as retaining personal information collected to verify/identify under federal anti-money laundering laws (“AML”).
- Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.
Exercising Access. Data Portability and Deletion Rights
To exercise the access, data portability and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable request to us by one of these methods:
- Call: 424-245-0588
- or
- E-mail: info@advisoryservicesusa.com
You may only make a Request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The Request must:
- Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative.
- Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate and respond to it.
We can’t respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we are unable to verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. Making a Request does not require you to create an account with us. We will only use personal information provided in a Request to verify your identity or authority to make the request.
Response Timing and Format
We endeavor to respond to a Request in writing within 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. If you have an account with us, we will deliver our written response to that account. If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option. Any disclosures we provide will cover the 12-month period preceding the receipt of the Request. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we can’t comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide the information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.
We do not charge a fee to process or response to your Request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.
Non-Discrimination
We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not, because you have exercised rights under the CCPA:
- Deny you goods or services.
- Charge you different prices for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.
- Provide you a different level or quality of goods or services.
- Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.
We reserve the right to amend this privacy notice at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this privacy notice, we will notify you by email or through a notice on our website homepage.