In the interest of absolute transparency, Mortgages.com has developed a comprehensive privacy policy below outlining its data collection practices.
The following policy applies to users of the Mortgages.com website, and its subdomain, GetMortgageQuotes.net. It is intended to explain what kind of information Mortgages.com and its subdomain gather when a user visits the site(s), and for what purpose(s) that information is gathered.
Mortgages.com reserves the right to modify its privacy policies at any time. Periodically, Mortgages.com may utilize user information in ways that are not outlined here.
Information Collected When You Visit Mortgages.com and GetMortgageQuotes.net
Mortgages.com and GetMortgagesQuotes.net use Google Analytics, an online marketing analytics and measurement platform, to monitor user behaviors on the sites and to generate reports based on the metrics associated with those user behaviors. This information is used to refine marketing tactics on the Mortgages.com and GetMortgageQuotes.net websites; both properties utilize this information to optimize written content, reorganize the site and page structures, and to adjust the interface as needed based on engagement levels. It is also used to gather general demographic information, so that both sites—should they embark on digital marketing or remarketing campaigns—can customize outreach efforts for target users and develop ads that are sure to be of interest to them.
Mortgages.com does collect general information. This includes but is not limited to: the length of your visit, various on-site behaviors (such as scroll depth), the type of web browser used, the type of device used to access the site, the operating system/platform used, your IP address, the websites from which you linked to the College, and your CPU speed, among other things. Mortgages.com reserves the right to analyze this data for the purposes outlined in the paragraph above, and to share the results of its analyses, as well as the original data used in those analyses, with third parties like sponsors and advertisers. All of this information is aggregated and anonymized to ensure an even greater level of privacy for Mortgages.com visitors. To the extent you interact with or submit PII to third parties through our website, the information collected and stored by such third parties remains subject to their policies and practices.
Cookies
Third party marketing and remarketing partners for Mortgages.com, such as AdRoll, may install cookies on your browser to optimize their targeted advertising efforts in the future. Cookies are files that sites store on a given user’s browser; these files collect data about the user in question. When a user makes a return visit to a site that has installed a cookie on their browser, the site scans it for their cookie, and—if they detect one—they tailor subsequent site experiences for the user based on the information gathered in the cookie file. So, for instance, if a particularly sophisticated cookie were installed on a user’s browser, it might collect information like the duration of your visit, the links clicked from page to page, and more.
Here’s a succinct definition from the Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF): “[C]ookies… allow sites to store a unique ID in your browser, and therefore to track you—and if a company is present on multiple websites, it can track your visits to each of those sites. In other words, a company can use cookies to construct a detailed overview of users’ activity.”
How to Opt Out of Interest-Based Advertising
The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), an organization to which our partners at AdRoll belong, offers an opt out tool for consumers who do not wish to see targeted advertising from their members any longer. Access the NAI’s tool here to request opt outs from participating companies. Utilizing this tool will not remove interest-based advertising and other forms of online marketing from your browser entirely, but it will restrict how participating NAI member organizations interact with you and your data moving forward. It’s worth noting that opt outs are browser specific—that is, if you opt out on Apple’s Safari, then the opt out will not extend to your internet usage on Google Chrome.
This opt out is not applicable with regards to data collection: if you utilize the Mortgages.com or GetMortgageQuotes.net websites, the general information outlined in the section above (“Information Collected When You Visit…”) will still be collected from you. Even if you utilize the ad industry’s other opt out program, AdChoices, your data will still be collected by sites that have tracking mechanisms in place—it just won’t go toward targeted advertising that you will encounter in your browser.
To opt out from receiving targeted interest-based advertising on your smartphone or mobile device, do the following:
- For iOS 7 or greater: Select settings, then Privacy, then Advertising, then select the “Limit Ad Tracking” setting
- For Android devices with OS 2.2 or greater, as well as Google Play Services version 4.0 or greater: Open your Google Settings app, select Ads, then select “Opt out of interest-based advertising”
Links
Mortgages.com features links to third party websites embedded in its on-page content, and in the display ads that appear around the site. Mortgages.com is not responsible for, nor is it privy to, the data collection practices of these third-party sites. As such, third-party sites’ approaches toward information-gathering may be significantly less restricted; Mortgages.com is not responsible for third-party websites’ privacy policies, and expressly absolves itself of any liability in cases where a breach of trust occurs. For more information about each particular site’s data collection practices, visit their privacy notice pages, or reach out to their site administrators for more about their advertising and analytics policies.
User Recourse
If you, as a user, feel that Mortgages.com is not abiding by the principles of data collection and user privacy described here, contact us at this email address—media@mortgages.com—to address your concerns.