Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety Website and Application Privacy Policy
1. Introduction
This Privacy Policy specifically outlines the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety’s (“IBHS,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) Privacy Policy for its Websites and Applications (“Online Policy”). If you are a consumer that is seeking our services in connection with our FORTIFIED and Wildfire Prepared Home programs, our consumer privacy policy can be found here (LINK TO CONSUMER PRIVACY POLICY).
By continuing to use our Website and Apps, you are agreeing to the terms of this Online Policy. If you do not agree, then please stop using our Website and Apps.
For purposes of this Online Policy, the term “Websites and Apps” when capitalized and used herein shall refer collectively to www.ibhs.org as well as the other websites that we operate and that link to this Online Policy, including:
- www.ibhs.org
- www.disastersafety.org
- www.fortified.org
- www.fortifiedhome.org
- www.fortifiedcommercial.org
- www.adaptingtoclimate.com
- www.fortifiedwise.com
- www.wildfireprepared.org
- www.ibhs.force.com
- IBHS branded Applications that are available to our Consumers.
2. Third-Party Websites and Apps
Our Websites and Apps may contain links that enable you to share content on social media, and to other websites or to third-party apps that do not operate under this Policy. These third-party websites and apps may independently solicit and collect personal information from you and, in some instances, provide us with information about your activities on those websites. We encourage you to review the privacy statements of all third-party websites and apps you visit and download to understand their information practices.
While we strongly support the protection of privacy on the Internet, we do not have control over, and cannot be responsible for, the actions of other third-parties. We encourage you to review each such third party’s privacy statement and other otherwise understand its privacy practices, before providing personal information directly to it.
3. Information that We collect from Our Websites and Apps
We collect certain personal information from you in order to operate our Websites and Apps effectively and provide you with the best experiences when you visit and use them.
a. Information Provided by You
When you register for an account online or download our application, we will collect certain personal information about you such as your name, address, e-mail address, and telephone number, and employer name.
If you complete one of our self-assessments or surveys online (i.e. the FORTIFIED home assessment or the Wildfire Prepared Home self-assessment), we will collect certain personal information about you as well such as your home or property address and details about the property and your manner of living.
b. Information collected on our Websites and Apps
We also may use various technologies to collect information from your computer or device and about your activities on our Websites or Apps.
i. Information collected automatically: We may automatically collect information from you when you visit our Websites and Apps. This information may include your IP address, location data, your browser type and language, access times, the content of any undeleted cookies that your browser previously accepted from us, referring or exit website address, internet service provider, date/time stamp, operating system, locale and language preferences, and system configuration information. We use Google Analytics to collect information. You can learn about how Google Analytics collects and processes data here.
ii. Cookies: When you visit our Websites and/or Apps, we may assign your device one or more cookies to facilitate access to our site and to personalize your online experience. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your online activity on our site, such as the web pages you visit, the links you click, and the searches you conduct on our site. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies please note that you may not be able to sign in or use some of the interactive features offered on our Websites or Apps.
A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record keeping purposes. Cookies can be either session cookies or persistent cookies. A session cookie expires when you close your browser and is used to make it easier for you to navigate our website. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. For example, when you sign in to our Websites or Apps, we will record your user or member ID, which is your email address, and the name on your user or member account in the cookie file on your computer. We store your unique member ID in a cookie for automatic sign-in. This cookie is removed when you sign-out. For security purposes, we will encrypt the unique member ID and any other user or member account-related data that we store in such cookies. In the case of sites and services that do not use a user or member ID, the cookie will contain a unique identifier. We may allow our authorized service providers to serve cookies from our website to allow them to assist us in various activities, such as doing analysis and research on the effectiveness of our site, content and advertising. You may delete or decline cookies by changing your browser settings (click “Help” in the toolbar of most browsers for instructions). If you do so, some of the features and services of our Websites and/or Apps may not function properly.
iii. Other technologies: We may use standard Internet technology, such as web beacons and other similar technologies, to track your use of our Websites and Apps. We also may include web beacons in promotional e-mail messages or newsletters to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon. The information we obtain in this manner enables us to customize the services we offer to users of our Websites and Apps to deliver targeted advertisements and to measure the overall effectiveness of our online advertising, content, programming, or other activities. Web beacons (also known as clear gifs, pixel tags or web bugs) are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users or to access cookies. Unlike cookies, which are stored on your device, web beacons are embedded invisibly on the web pages (or in emails) and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Web beacons may be used to deliver or communicate with cookies, to count visitors to certain pages, and to understand usage patterns. We also may receive an anonymous identification number if you come to our Website or App from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website.
4. Third-Parties that We share this Information with
We may share information collected from our Websites and Apps with our business partners, member and non-member insurance companies, and service providers. We may also use this information for research and public risk communications.
5. Third-Party Tracking on Our Website and Apps
Third-parties may be using Cookies or other technologies to collect your personal information as you navigate through the internet including from our Website and Apps. As described above, you may decline these Cookies by changing your browser settings.
6. Do Not Track (“DNT”) Settings
DNT is a setting on some web browsers or mobile devices that can be turned on to instruct websites to disable tracking of your web browsing activities. DNT is not currently widely adopted and does not have clear standards or guidelines as to how websites are to interpret it. Additionally, its signals can affect the functioning of certain websites. As such, IBHS does not generally respond to these signals.
7. Changes to this Online Policy
Any changes to the Online Policy will be posted directly on our Websites and Apps and reflected with a new Effective Date at the top of this Online Policy. We encourage you to review the Online Policy each time you visit our Websites and Apps to see if it has been updated since your last visit.
June 17, 2022