Privacy Policy

 

1. Privacy Policy Overview:

FMA Alliance, Ltd. is committed to conducting its business affairs and relationships according to the rules and guidelines that are compliant with industry self-regulatory principles set forth by the American Collectors Association (ACA), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and various state financial regulatory agencies. We realize the importance of consumer privacy and accept our responsibility to keep consumer and customer nonpublic personal information private and safe.

This Privacy Policy discloses the privacy practices of FMA Alliance, Ltd. (“FMA”, “us,” or “we”). We are committed to protecting your privacy. We believe that making you aware of how we collect and use your non-public personal information (Personal Information), and to whom it is disclosed will form the basis for a relationship of trust between the public and us. This Privacy Policy provides that explanation.

FMA’s websites are www.fmaalliance.comwww.thefmadifference.comwww.payfma.com, and www.thebestjobinhouston.com.

Nothing in this Privacy Notice is intended to contradict your rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) or the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). FMA will not disclose any information to third parties that is otherwise prohibited by the FDCPA or GLBA.

2. Customer Defined:

A “customer” is a consumer who has a “customer relationship” with the institution. A “customer relationship” means a continuing relationship with a financial institution.

3. Nonpublic Personal Information Defined:

“Nonpublic personal information” generally is any information that is not publicly available and that:

·       a consumer provides to a financial institution to obtain a financial product or service from the institution;

·       results from a transaction between the consumer and the institution involving a financial product or service; or

·       a financial institution otherwise obtains about a consumer in connection with providing a financial product or service.

Examples of nonpublic personal information may include addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, income, credit score, and information obtained through internet collection devices (i.e., cookies). This type of information is governed and restricted by the GLBA.

4. Public Personal Information Defined:

Information is publicly available if an institution has a reasonable basis to believe that the information is lawfully made available to the general public from government records, widely distributed media, or legally required disclosures to the general public.

Examples of public personal information may include motor vehicle ownership, drivers’ license information (in some states), real estate ownership data (derived from public records), addresses, phone numbers, court records, and information obtained from any website which can be accessed by anyone without restriction. Please note that paying a fee for this information is not a restriction.

These “public” data can be exchanged with third parties without privacy notices because the data is not “nonpublic personal information.”

5. Authorized Access to Customer Information:

Access to “customer” information is restricted to legitimate FMA Alliance, Ltd. business and is limited to only those employees that have a legitimate purpose. All unauthorized access to customer information is strictly prohibited.

6. Skip-Tracing:

The GLBA does not prohibit the sharing or transfer of public personal information and does not prohibit any lawful utilization of such information for legitimate business purposes. However, the FDCPA is applicable to third party disclosures and inquiries.

7. Conformance with Applicable Industry Standards and “Certifications”:

The security of your Personal Information is important to us. We have implemented reasonable physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards designed to prevent unauthorized intrusion, acquisition or misuse of your personal information. Additionally, our safeguards are designed to protect the confidentiality, prohibit disclosure, and limit access to those necessary of any personal information collected. However, remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

8. Information We Collect:

We may have collected the following categories of personal information from consumers. The inclusion of a category indicates that we may collect some information in that category. It does not mean that we collect all information listed in that category in all situations.

Categories of Personal Information:

  • Identifiers

    • Examples of Specific Types of Personal Information Collected: A real name, alias, postal address, email address, telephone numbers, Internet Protocol address, account number, Social Security number, date of birth, or other similar identifiers.

    • Collected: Yes

    • Purpose:

      • a) Necessary to provide the services

      • b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

      • c) Necessary for our legitimate business interests

      • d) Prevent Fraud

  • Personal Information Category

    • Examples of Specific Types of Personal Information Collected: A name, signature, Social Security number, address, telephone number, driver’s license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education (to the extent that FMA is involved in student loan collection for the consumer), employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information. Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other Category.

    • Collected: Yes

    • Purpose:

      • a) Necessary to provide the services

      • b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

      • c) Necessary for our legitimate business interests

      • d) Prevent Fraud

  • Protected classification characteristics

    • Examples of Specific Types of Personal Information Collected: Age (40 years or older), veteran or military status

    • Collected: Yes

    • Purpose:

      • a) Necessary to provide the services

      • b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

      • c) Necessary for our legitimate business interests

  • Internet or other electronic network activity information

    • Examples of Specific Types of Personal Information Collected: Information regarding a consumer’s interaction with an internet website, application, or advertisement.

    • Collected: Yes

    • Purpose:

      • a) Necessary to provide the services

      • b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

      • c) Necessary for our legitimate business interests

  • Geolocation data

    • Examples of Specific Types of Personal Information Collected: Physical location

    • Collected: Yes

    • Purpose:

      • a) Necessary to provide the services

      • b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

      • c) Necessary for our legitimate business interests

  • Professional or employment-related information

    • Examples of Specific Types of Personal Information Collected: Current or past job history.

    • Collected: Yes

    • Purpose:

      • a) Necessary to provide the services

      • b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

      • c) Necessary for our legitimate business interests

  • Non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)).

    • Examples of Specific Types of Personal Information Collected: Education records directly related to a student maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalf, such student financial information.

    • Collected: Yes

    • Purpose:

      • a) Necessary to provide the services

      • b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

      • c) Necessary for our legitimate business interests

  • California Residents – Sensitive Personal Information

    • Examples of Specific Types of Personal Information Collected: Government-issued identifying numbers, such as a driver’s license, or social security number, financial account details that allow access to an account, such as a credit card number and access code.

    • Collected: Yes

    • Purpose:

      • a) Necessary to provide the services

      • b) Maintain and service your account

      • c) Process Payments

      • d) Ensure security and integrity regarding the use of such personal information

      • e) Verify or maintain the safety and quality of the services

      • f) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

      • g) Necessary for our legitimate business interests

  • Non-California Residents – Sensitive Personal Information

    • Examples of Specific Types of Personal Information Collected: Genetic data (to the extent that consumer reports this to a creditor that assigns the account to FMA for collection), precise geolocation, contents of mail email or text messages related to your unique identification.

    • Collected: Yes

    • Purpose:

      • a) Necessary to provide the services

      • b) Maintain and service your account

      • c) Process Payments

      • d) Ensure security and integrity regarding the use of such personal information

      • e) Verify or maintain the safety and quality of the services

      • f) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

      • g) Necessary for our legitimate business interests

 

9. How We Use Your Information

FMA will only use your information if we have your permission or we have another legal reason for using it. These reasons may include:

  • To pursue our legitimate business interests;

  • To perform our services;

  • Ensure security and integrity to the extent personal information is reasonably necessary and proportionate to these purposes;

  • Where required by law;

  • To verify or maintain the quality or safety of the services or accounts;

  • To establish, utilize or defend our legal rights.

For example, FMA may use your personal information for authentication purposes, to update your contact information and to process payments on your account. FMA will retain your personal data in line with its retention policy and will delete the information once it is no longer needed, after which it will be deleted or anonymized.

Personal information is collected solely for the purpose of debt recovery in a lawful manner and remains part of our records until we determine the information is no longer needed, or we are required by law to delete such information. We will collect the minimum amount of data necessary to collect a debt.

Sensitive personal information is collected only as necessary to perform our services, process payments, maintain or service your account, to ensure security and integrity regarding the use of such personal information, and to verify or maintain the safety and quality of the Services. Sensitive personal information is not collected with the purpose of inferring characteristics about you. We do not collect “sensitive” personal information as that term is defined in certain states.

We will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice. We do not sell and will not sell your personal information. We also do not “share” your personal information as that term is defined in the California Privacy Rights Act.

10. How We Collect Your Information

FMA collects your personally identifiable information when you update your personal information on the website and when you make a payment, either by credit card or by check.

We collect most of this personal information directly from our clients for whom we provide services to, as well as from you by telephone, written correspondence through mail, email, fax, or other information available online. However, we may also collect information from:

  • Publicly accessible sources (e.g., property records or court records);

  • Your transactions with us;

  • Our service providers (e.g., letter vendor, location vendors, payment processing vendors, call analytics vendor, and/or electronic signature service provider);

  • A third party (e.g., third parties contacted during location activities pursuant to 15 U.S.C. §1692b, such as your friends, neighbors, relatives, and/or employer);

  • Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs);

  • A third party with your consent (e.g., your authorized representative and/or attorney); and

  • Activity on our website.

11. How We Share Your Information

FMA does not disclose personal information it obtains about you, except as provided in this Privacy Policy. FMA may share personally identifiable information obtained on its website with financial institutions, if necessary.

FMA may share personally identifiable information it collects with its employees who need to know that information to service your account. Except as provided below, FMA does not share or disclose any personally identifiable information to any company for marketing or promotional purposes. FMA may share your personal information with third parties to the extent it is reasonably necessary to manage or service your account, verify employment, determine location, process payment, fulfill a transaction, provide customer service, or as otherwise authorized by law. Aggregated information may be derived from your personal data but does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity.

Further, FMA may disclose personally identifiable information (i) to another entity with which FMA enters or reasonably may enter into a corporate transaction, such as, for example, a merger, consolidation, acquisition, or asset purchase, (ii) to a third party pursuant to a subpoena, court order, or other form of legal process or in response to a request by or on behalf of any local, state, federal, or other government agency, department, or body, whether or not pursuant to a subpoena, court order, or other form of legal process, or in connection with litigation brought against, or on behalf of, FMA, where appropriate, (iii) to a third party if determined by FMA in its sole judgment that such disclosure is appropriate to protect the life, health, or property of FMA or any other person or entity, all in compliance with applicable law, (iv) to third parties as authorized or designated by you, or (v) to conduct any other legitimate business activity not otherwise prohibited by law. The foregoing is not intended to avoid or displace any legal obligations or duties applicable to FMA.

Except as necessary for FMA to provide the services, information, or products requested by a website user, or except for the disclosures identified in the preceding paragraphs, the user may opt out of having his or her personally identifiable information, which has been voluntarily provided to FMA through or from its website, prospectively retained by FMA, used by FMA for secondary purposes, or disclosed by FMA to third parties.

Emails posted or sent to FMA may not be secure against interception by unauthorized individuals. To protect against interception by unauthorized individuals, or because we cannot verify your identity, we may be unable to respond to email requests concerning accounts placed for collection unless you have requested or authorized us to do so.

12. Sharing your information with Consumer Reporting Agencies

Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) collect and maintain information on consumer and business credit profiles on behalf of organizations in the United States. We may share information about you with CRAs and may carry out periodic searches with them to verify your identity or manage your account.

Details of your account(s) with us may be sent to CRAs and recorded by them. This information may be supplied by CRAs and may be used and searched for by us in order to manage your accounts.

13. Hyperlinks (Third-party links)

FMA’s websites contain hyperlinks that allow you to leave the website and go to the website of a third party. FMA has no control over the services and/or websites of third parties. The use of these services and/or websites of third parties may be subject to different privacy statements and/or conditions. This privacy statement of FMA only relates to personal data obtained within the framework of FMA performing services on the account or the website. FMA does not accept any responsibility or liability for the operation, content, and/or privacy practices of services and/or websites of third parties. We suggest that you exercise caution and that you review the privacy policies of any linked websites you visit.

14. How We Use Cookies

FMA may collect certain computer and browser information through automated technologies. Cookies are files with small amount of data, which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a web site and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Like many sites, we use “cookies” to collect information. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent, however, our websites do not behave differently if your computer transmits a “do not track” or similar notification.

15. Your Choices

FMA offers you certain choices in connection with the personal data it collects from you, including:

Your FMA Account: You may review, update and correct your contact information, including your telephone number and email address, by sending an email to CustomerService@FMAAlliance.com calling our office at (800) 955-5598.

Your Choice to Decline Cookies: You may adjust your browser settings to decline cookies if you do not want to accept FMA’s cookies. However, declining cookies may affect proper operation of FMA’s website.

Your Payments: You can elect not to utilize the payment portal of FMA’s website and not to make payments via credit card or check.

If you have any questions regarding any of these choices, please contact FMA.

Our contact information is:

Address

12339 Cutten Road, Houston, TX 77066

Email

CustomerService@FMAAlliance.com

Telephone

(800) 955-5598 Toll Free

(281) 931-5050 Local

Hours

Monday – Friday 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM Central Time

16. How Long We Keep Your Information

FMA will retain your personal data until we determine the information is no longer needed to fulfill the business or legal purposes described in this Privacy Notice, or as otherwise required for legal compliance purposes.

17. How We Protect Information

FMA has implemented physical, electronic, and procedural security safeguards to protect against the unauthorized release of or access to personal information. We employ internal and external system safeguards designed to protect confidentiality and security of personal information.

The confidentiality of any communication or material transmitted to or from FMA via the website or via email cannot be, and is not, guaranteed. You acknowledge that the technical processing and transmission of the website’s content may be transferred unencrypted and involve: (a) transmissions over various networks; and (b) changes to confirm and adapt to technical requirements of connecting networks or devices.

Like many site operators, we may collect information that your browser sends whenever you visit our websites (“Log Data”). This Log Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, browser version, the pages of our websites that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages and other statistics. We do not release this data outside of our corporate team nor utilize the data other than for internal purposes.

If any questions arise about security, please contact FMA using the information provided above.

18. Your Options

  • Request to access personal information – You may submit a verifiable request for access to your personal information that we collected about you, subject to certain exceptions. This may include the categories and specific pieces of information collected, the sources of that information, and the business or commercial purpose for the collection or disclosure of that information.

  • Request correction of personal data we hold about you – This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

  • Request deletion of personal information – You may request that we delete your personal information, however, state and federal law may prohibit us from deleting personal information, which FMA will disclose to you.

  • Object to processing of your personal data – You may object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, or if you generally believe that it impedes on your fundamental rights and freedoms. Please note that in some cases, state and federal law may require us to process your information.

  • Request restriction of processing of your personal data – This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legal or internal policy grounds to use it.

  • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party – We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used format. Note that this only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

  • Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data – You may withdraw consent at any time. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

  • Non-discrimination – We will not discriminate against you if you exercise any of these rights.

  • Authorized agent – You can designate an authorized agent to make any of these requests by providing your express written authorization. We must be able to verify your identity, and the authorization must include the authorized agent’s name, address, telephone number, and email address.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact FMA by doing one of the following:

  1. Submit via email to CustomerService@FMAAlliance.com;

  2. By mailing a request to: FMA Alliance, Ltd., 12339 Cutten Road, Houston, TX 77066.

  3. Toll-free Telephone Number: (800) 955-5598

  4. Submit online at https://www.fmaalliance.com/contact

If you choose to contact us, please provide us with the following:

  • Your full name;

  • Your mailing address;

  • Your file number (if known); and

  • Your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate and respond to it.

We are not obligated to make a data access or data portability disclosure if we cannot verify that the person making the request is the person about whom we collected information or is someone authorized to act on such person’s behalf. To prevent anyone other than you or your authorized agent from exercising the options to know or to delete with respect to your personal information, we follow procedures to verify your identity and/or your agent’s identity. These procedures seek to confirm that the person making a request is the person about whom we have collected personal information or that person’s authorized agent. The verification procedures involve matching data points that you provide with your request against information about you we already have in our records and that we have determined to be reliable for purposes of verifying your identity. We will use the information you provide in your request to verify your identity, and we may request additional information if necessary to complete the verification process.

19. Data Controller

FMA is the data controller and responsible for your personal data.

Questions, comments, and complaints about FMA’s data practices can be submitted to:

Address

12339 Cutten Road, Houston, TX 77066

Email

CustomerService@FMAAlliance.com

Telephone

(800) 955-5598 Toll Free

(281) 931-5050 Local

20. Privacy Notice Changes

FMA may change this Privacy Notice at any time. Notice of any new or revised Privacy Notice, as well as the location of the new or revised statement, will be posted on FMAs websites after the change.

 

Effective Date: 11/18/2024