ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY
Scope and Definitions
Data Mortgage Inc. dba Essex Mortgage (the "Company", "Essex Mortgage", "we" or "us") has developed this privacy policy out of respect for the privacy of our customers and visitors to our website. This policy describes the personal information we collect, use, and disclose about individual visitors, consumers and customers who visit or interact with this website, visit any of our offices, stores, facilities or locations, purchase or inquire about any of our products or services, contract with us to provide services, or otherwise interact or do business with us.
Whenever you visit our website, we will collect voluntarily when you submit information using a form on the website, utilize the Chat feature on our website, enroll in or subscribe to our newsletter or marketing communications, request information, or use any of the other interactive portions of our website.
Additionally, whenever you communicate, interact or do business with us, whether online or at any of our physical locations or facilities, or whether you are contracted to perform services for us or apply for a position of employment, we will be collecting personal information from you or about you in the course of our interaction or dealings with you.
You should know that Essex Mortgage's obligations to you are subject to certain important exemptions that may limit the information we are required to provide to you, or limit our obligations to you, under various state consumer privacy laws. As a financial institution we are subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). Many state consumer privacy laws contain exemptions and exceptions for entities and data subject to the GLBA. Accordingly, this means that even if you submit a consumer request, we may not be required to provide information to you or delete your information if your information is required by us to provide any of the financial products and services we provide to consumers or clients. This will likely limit the amount of information you receive in response to a consumer request under state consumer privacy laws. In addition, we are not obligated to delete information in response to a consumer request if other regulations require us to maintain these records for a period of time. In many instances that will be the case.
When applicable, this privacy policy applies to "Consumers", including customers, as defined under various U.S. federal and State consumer privacy laws and all laws implementing, supplementing or amending the foregoing, including regulations promulgated thereunder ("U.S. Privacy Laws"). The meaning of "personal information" may be defined based on your state of residence: in this policy, it means any information that can reasonably be used to identify an individual.
This policy does not apply to information collected from or about job applicants regarding their application for employment or candidacy. If you are a job applicant, click HERE for our Job Applicant Notice and Privacy Policy.
This policy also does not apply to our current and former employees and their family members, dependents, and beneficiaries; if you are a California resident who is a current or former employee of the Company or a family member, dependent, or beneficiary of any of our current or former employees, you may request access to our Employee Privacy Policy by sending an email to compliance@essexmortgage.com.
Consent to Share Personal Information When Using Live Chat Function
By using the Live Chat feature, you consent to our collection and analysis of all personal information provided. The Chat feature utilizes a chatbot that then connects you with Live Chat feature that takes place with a live representative of the Company. We utilize a vendor called Five9 ("Chat Vendor") to process, analyze, and store the contents of the chat on our behalf. The Chat Vendor will not sell this data or share it besides the Company, or another vendor engaged to assist in the services provided to the Company. The Chat Vendor will not use or disclose this data for any purpose other than providing services to the Company. By using these forms and features, you direct the Company to disclose to and share with the Chat Vendor any personal information you provide. You cannot use the Live Chat feature without consenting to these terms and to the disclosure of your personal information to the Chat Vendor who may use or disclose the information for their own commercial purposes. If you do not consent to such disclosure, please do NOT use the Live Chat feature.
Collection of Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information
Based on your specific transactions and interactions with us or our website, we will or may collect, and we have in the last 12 months collected, the following categories of personal information about you. For each category of information, the categories of third parties and service providers to whom we have disclosed the information in the last 12 months are referenced below. In jurisdictions where required by law, we limit our collection of personal information to what is reasonably necessary and proportionate to provide or maintain the services you have requested or reasonably expect in the context of your relationship with us. The examples provided for each category are not intended to be an exhaustive list or an indication of all specific pieces of information we collect from or about you in each category, but rather the examples are to provide you a meaningful understanding of the types of information that may be collected within each category.
Category | Personal Identifiers |
Examples | Name, alias, social security number, date of birth, driver's license or state identification card number, passport number. |
Disclosed To in Last 12 Months |
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Business Purposes |
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Sold/Shared | Not sold for monetary or other valuable consideration. Not shared for cross-context behavioral advertising. |
Retention Period | Duration of our relationship with you plus 4 years |
Category | Contact Information |
Examples | Home, postal or mailing address, email address, home phone number, cell phone number. |
Disclosed To in Last 12 Months |
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Business Purposes |
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Sold/Shared | Not sold for monetary or other valuable consideration. Not shared for cross-context behavioral advertising. |
Retention Period | Duration of our relationship with you plus 4 years |
Category | Account Information |
Examples | Username and password for Company accounts and systems, and any required security or access code, password, security questions, or credentials allowing access to your Company accounts. |
Disclosed To in Last 12 Months |
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Business Purposes |
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Sold/Shared | Not sold for monetary or other valuable consideration. Not shared for cross-context behavioral advertising. |
Retention Period | Usernames and passwords that have had no activity since January 1st of the prior year will be deleted after April 14th each year. |
Category | Protected Classifications |
Examples | Race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious or philosophical beliefs, age, disability, medical or mental condition, military status, familial status, union membership. |
Disclosed To in Last 12 Months |
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Business Purposes |
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Sold/Shared | Not sold for monetary or other valuable consideration. Not shared for cross-context behavioral advertising. |
Retention Period | Duration of our relationship with you plus 4 years |
Category | Commercial or Transactional Data |
Examples | Information regarding products or services provided, purchasing history. |
Disclosed To in Last 12 Months |
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Business Purposes |
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Sold/Shared | Not sold for monetary or other valuable consideration. Not shared for cross-context behavioral advertising. |
Retention Period | 7 years after transaction, unless necessary to maintain for a longer period for regulatory compliance. |
Category | Credit/Financing Application Data |
Examples | Information collected through credit or financing applications, including employment history, company name, role, salary, dates of employment, bank accounts, income sources. |
Disclosed To in Last 12 Months |
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Business Purposes |
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Sold/Shared | Not sold for monetary or other valuable consideration. Not shared for cross-context behavioral advertising. |
Retention Period | 4 years |
Category | Internet Network and Computer Activity |
Examples | Date and time of your visit to this website; webpages visited; links clicked on the website; browser ID; browser type; device ID; operating system; domain name from which our site was accessed; search history; internet or other electronic network activity information related to usage of Company networks, servers, intranet, or shared drives, as well as Company-owned computers and electronic devices, including system and file access logs, security clearance level, browsing history, search history, and usage history. |
Disclosed To in Last 12 Months |
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Business Purposes |
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Sold/Shared | Not sold for monetary or other valuable consideration. Not shared for cross-context behavioral advertising. |
Retention Period | 4 years |
Category | Form and other Electronic Submission Data |
Examples | Data submitted through the website, including Contact Us forms, Chat box, and search bar queries. |
Disclosed To in Last 12 Months |
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Business Purposes |
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Sold/Shared | Not sold for monetary or other valuable consideration. Not shared for cross-context behavioral advertising. |
Retention Period | 4 Years |
Category | Mobile Device Data |
Examples | Information collected when you navigate, access or use any of our websites via mobile device, including device type, software type; data identifying your device if you access our business networks and systems, including cell phone make, model, and serial number, cell phone number, and cell phone provider. |
Disclosed To in Last 12 Months |
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Business Purposes |
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Sold/Shared | Not sold for monetary or other valuable consideration. Not shared for cross-context behavioral advertising. |
Retention Period | 4 years |
Category | Online Portal and/or Mobile App Access and Usage Information |
Examples | Username and password, account history, usage history, file access logs, security clearance level, and any information submitted through the account. |
Disclosed To in Last 12 Months | Not Disclosed. |
Business Purposes |
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Sold/Shared | Not sold for monetary or other valuable consideration. Not shared for cross-context behavioral advertising. |
Retention Period | 4 years |
Category | Visual, Audio, or Video Recordings |
Examples | Your image when recorded or captured in surveillance camera footage or pictures of you taken on our premises or at our events or that you share with us; audio recordings of calls and virtual meetings as disclosed to you at the time of the call. |
Disclosed To in Last 12 Months |
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Business Purposes |
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Sold/Shared | Not sold for monetary or other valuable consideration. Not shared for cross-context behavioral advertising. |
Retention Period | Surveillance video – 90 days; the rest of this category is retained for the duration of our relationship with you plus 4 years. |
Category | Facility & Systems Access Information |
Examples | Information identifying you, if you accessed our secure company facilities, systems, networks, computers, and equipment, and at what times, using keys, badges, fobs, login credentials, or other security access method. |
Disclosed To in Last 12 Months |
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Business Purposes |
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Sold/Shared | Not sold for monetary or other valuable consideration. Not shared for cross-context behavioral advertising. |
Retention Period | 4 years. |
Categories of Sensitive Personal Information Collected or Processed
Of the above categories of Personal Information, the following are categories of Sensitive Personal Information the Company may collect from or about consumers and customers.
- Personal Identifiers (social security number, driver's license or state identification card number, passport number)
- Account Information (your Company account log-in, in combination with any required security or access code, password, or credentials allowing access to the account)
- Protected Classifications (racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, union membership, or sexual orientation)
- Contents of Personal Communications (contents of mail, email, and text messages where the Company is not the intended recipient)
- Personal data revealing race, racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, gender, age, military status, familial status, disability, or medical, mental, or physical health condition or diagnosis.
Personal information does not include:
- Publicly available information from government records.
- Information that a business has a reasonable basis to believe is lawfully made available to the general public by the consumer or from widely distributed media.
- Information made available by a person to whom the consumer has disclosed the information if the consumer has not restricted the information to a specific audience.
- Deidentified or aggregated information.
Sources of Personal Information
We may collect your personal information from the following sources:
- You the consumer, when you visit the website and voluntarily submit information through forms on the website or social media, when you visit any of our physical locations, when you purchase or inquire about any of our products or services, when you utilize the Chat feature on the website, when you enter into a contract to perform services for us, or when you apply for a position of employment
- Our employees, contractors, vendors, suppliers, guests, visitors, other consumers, and customers based on your interactions with them (if any)
- Surveillance cameras at our physical locations
- Lead generators and referral sources
- Credit and consumer reporting agencies
- Company systems, networks, software applications, and databases you log into or use
- Company systems, networks, software applications, and databases you log into or use in the course of applying for a position with the Company, interacting with our website, or otherwise interacting with us in any other capacity, including from vendors the Company engages to manage or host such systems, networks, applications or databases
- Third-party customer databases
To Whom We Disclose Personal Information
We may disclose, sell, or share your personal information to/with the following categories of service providers, contractors, or third parties:
- Financial institutions
- Government agencies
- Promotional or other fulfilment vendors
- Vendors that support managing or hosting the website and the Chat function on the website
- Communication providers/vendors that facilitate, manage, and send/receive communications on our behalf via email, text/SMS, or phone
- Lead providers (referral sources)
- Transaction support vendors (e.g., check guaranty, payment processors)
- Consumer reporting agencies or credit reporting agencies
- Consulting and investigation firms, including safety consultants, and workplace investigators
- Security and risk management vendors, including IT, cybersecurity, and privacy vendors and consultants
- Insurance carriers, administrators, and brokers
Reasons Why We Collect, Use, Retain, and Disclose Personal Information
We may collect and disclose your personal information for any of the following business purposes:
- To fulfill or meet the purpose for which you provided the information.
- To process and submit financing applications, including to apply for credit, or credit pre-qualification.
- To process, complete, and maintain records on transactions.
- To provide warranty coverage on products and services.
- To retain your selection for text opt in/opt out to ensure customers who opted out are not sent any text messages.
- To provide and communicate recall notifications to customers.
- To schedule, manage and keep track of customer appointments.
- To complete appraisals.
- To maintain records of when customers decline a service or sale.
- To respond to consumer inquiries, including requests for information, customer support online, Chat on the website, phone calls, and in-person inquiries.
- To contact you by email, telephone calls, mail, SMS, or other equivalent forms of communication regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, services, or other information you requested or asked the Company to provide to you.
- To improve user experience on our website.
- To understand the demographics of our website visitors.
- To detect security incidents.
- To debug, identify, and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality of our website.
- To protect against malicious or illegal activity and prosecute those responsible.
- To verify and respond to consumer requests.
- To prevent identity theft.
Do We Sell Your Information?
We have adjusted our practices and do NOT currently and will not sell your personal information in exchange for monetary or other valuable consideration. Likewise, we currently do NOT and will not share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
In the past, we may have sold or shared your personal information for the following business purposes:
- Marketing activities
- Lead generation
- To improve user experience on the website or app
Other than these exceptions, we do not and will not disclose your personal information to any third party in exchange for monetary or other valuable consideration or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
We do NOT and will not use or disclose your sensitive personal information for any purposes that give rise to a right to limit the use or disclosure of your sensitive personal information under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), if it applies and you are a California resident.
U.S. Consumer Privacy Rights
Under the applicable U.S. Privacy Laws, depending on state of residence, Consumers may have the following rights, which can be exercised directly or, in certain cases, through an authorized agent:
- Right to Know
- You may, depending on your state of residence, have the right to request, (1) the categories of personal information we have collected about you, (2) the categories of sources from which the personal information was collected, (3) the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing this information, (4) the categories of third parties with whom we share or have shared your personal information, (5) as applicable, the categories of personal information that we have sold or shared about you and the categories of third parties to whom the personal information was sold or shared, by category or categories of personal information for each category of third parties to whom the personal information was sold or shared, (6) the categories of personal information that we have disclosed about you for a business purpose and the categories of persons to whom it was disclosed for a business purpose, (7) a list of the specific third parties to whom we sell personal data (if we sell such data, which we do not), and (8) the reasons behind any profiling decisions made about you (if we engage in profiling, which we do not), the data used in making those decisions, and the actions you can take to secure a different decision in the future.
- Right to Access
- You may, depending on your state of residence, have the right, in certain circumstances, to receive a copy of the personal information you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format that supports re-use, or to request the transfer of your personal information to another person.
- Right to Portability
- You may, depending on your state of residence, have the right, in certain circumstances, to receive a copy of the personal information you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format that supports re-use, or to request the transfer of your personal information to another person.
- Right to Confirm
- You may, depending on your state of residence, have the right to confirm if we are processing your Personal Information and to access your Personal Information, as just stated above.
- Right to Delete
- You may, depending on your state of residence, have the right to request that we delete personal information that we collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.
- Right to Correct
- You may, depending on your state of residence, have the right to request we correct inaccurate personal information (to the extent such an inaccuracy exists) that we maintain about you.
- Right to Opt-Out
- You may, depending on your state of residence, have the right to opt-out of certain uses or disclosures of your personal information, such as opting out of the selling of your personal information for monetary or other valuable consideration. As we do not currently sell and will not sell your personal information in the future, this right is inapplicable.
- Right to Limit Sensitive Personal Information Processing
- You may, depending on your state of residence, have the right to direct businesses us to limit their use and disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information if we use or disclose it beyond certain internal business purposes. Where applicable, we will treat such a request as a revocation of any consent that you may have provided to your processing of Sensitive Personal Information.
- Right to Non-Discrimination
- You have the right to not be discriminated or retaliated against for exercising any of the above rights.
- Right to Appeal
- You may, depending on your state of residence, have the right to appeal our refusal to take action on a request.
Notice of Right to Opt-Out of Profiling and Automated Decision Making
Depending on your state of residence, you may have the right to opt out of profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects. While you have the right to make this request, we do not currently use profiling in this manner. You may submit a request to exercise this right by submitting a request through one of the two options provided in the "Submitting a Consumer Request" section below.
Submitting a Consumer Request
You can submit any of the above types of consumer requests through either of the three options below:
- Send us an email at compliance@essexmortgage.com.
- Call our privacy toll-free line at 888-892-0881.
- By submitting a request in writing by mail to our corporate office:
Essex Mortgage Compliance Department
1417 North Magnolia Avenue
Ocala, FL 34475
How We Will Verify That It Is Really You Submitting The Request:
When you submit certain consumer requests through one of the methods provided above, we will need to confirm your state of residence to determine which rights apply and then we will need to verify your identity.
To verify your identity, we will ask you to provide some information in order to verify your identity and respond to your request. Specifically, we will ask you to verify information that can be used to link your identity to particular records in our possession, which depends on the nature of your relationship and interaction with us. This process may require us to request additional personal information from you, including, but not limited to, your first name, last name, email address, phone number, state/province of residence, and/or country. During verification, we will only request the minimum personal information necessary to correctly identify you for the purpose of fulfilling your request.
In certain circumstances, we may decline a request to exercise the rights described above, particularly where we are unable to verify your identity or locate your information in our systems. If we are unable to comply with all or a portion of your request, we will explain the reasons for declining to comply with your request.
Designated Authorized Agent:
You may, depending on your state of residency, have the right to designate an authorized agent to submit one of the above requests on your behalf. To do so, you must either (a) execute a valid, verifiable, and notarized power of attorney or (b) provide other written, signed authorization that we can then verify.
Retention of Personal Information
We will retain each category of personal information in accordance with our established data retention schedule as indicated above. Some of the retention periods in the retention schedule above are measured from a particular point in time that has not occurred yet, such as the end of employment or end of a relationship (whether business, contractual, or transactional) plus a certain number of years. Where no particular event is defined in the retention schedule as the point from which the retention period is measured, we will measure the retention period from either (1) the date the record or data was collected, created, or last modified, (2) the date of the particular transaction to which the record or data pertains, or (3) another triggering event that is determined to be reasonable and appropriate based on the nature of the data and the legal/business needs for its continued use.
In deciding how long to retain each category of personal information that we collect, we consider many criteria, including, but not limited to: the business purposes for which the Personal Information was collected; relevant federal, state and local recordkeeping laws; applicable statute of limitations for claims to which the information may be relevant; and legal preservation of evidence obligations.
We apply our data retention procedures on an annual basis to determine if the business purposes for collecting the personal information, and legal reasons for retaining the personal information, have both expired. If so, we will purge the information in a secure manner.
Third Party Vendors
We may use other companies and individuals to perform certain functions on our behalf. Examples include administering e-mail services and running special promotions. Such parties only have access to the personal information needed to perform these functions and may not use or store the information for any other purpose.
Business Transfers
In the event we sell or transfer a particular portion of its business assets, information of consumers, contractors and applicants may be one of the business assets transferred as part of the transaction. If substantially all of our assets are acquired, information of consumers, contractors and applicants may be transferred as part of the acquisition.
Compliance with Law and Safety
We may disclose specific personal and/or Sensitive Personal Information based on a good faith belief that such disclosure is necessary to comply with or conform to the law or that such disclosure is necessary to protect our employees or the public.
SMS Terms of Service
By subscribing to our SMS program, you agree to receive recurring texts from Essex Mortgage for purposes including two-factor authentication, customer service, marketing (including rewards programs), account notifications, and security alerts. Your phone number is collected voluntarily and solely for providing these communications. It is shared only with our SMS service provider, https://www.tpx.com/ and not with third parties or affiliates for marketing purposes.
You can opt-out any time by replying STOP or get assistance by replying HELP or contacting us directly by email at itsupport@essexmortgage.com.
Message frequency may vary. Message and data rates may apply. Consent is not a condition of service.
External Links
Our website contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites. To help ensure the protection of your privacy, we recommend that you review the Privacy Policy of any site you visit via a link from our website.
Passwords
The personal data record created through your registration with our website can only be accessed with the unique password associated with that record. To protect the integrity of the information contained in this record, you should not disclose or otherwise reveal your password to third parties.
Children Under the Age of 16
We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.
How We Protect the Information that We Collect
The protection of the information that we collect about visitors to this website is of the utmost importance to us and we take every reasonable measure to ensure that protection, including:
- We use commercially reasonable tools and techniques to protect against unauthorized access to our systems.
- We restrict access to private information to those who need such access in the course of their duties for us.
International Visitors
We do not target, market to, or offer our products or services to consumers outside of the United States. You agree not to submit your personally identifiable information through the website if you reside outside the United States.
Consent to Terms and Conditions
By using this website, you consent to all terms and conditions expressed in this Privacy Policy.
Changes to Our Privacy Policy
As our services evolve and we perceive the need or desirability of using information collected in other ways, we may from time to time amend this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to check our website frequently to see the current Privacy Policy in effect and any changes that may have been made to them. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the revised Privacy Policy and the revised effective date on this website. Please check back here periodically or contact us at the address listed at the end of this Privacy Policy.
Consumers With Disabilities
This policy is in a form that is accessible to consumers with disabilities.
Questions About the Policy
This website is owned and operated by Data Mortgage, Inc. dba Essex Mortgage. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at compliance@essexmortgage.com or call 1-888-598-0521.
**This policy was last updated June 10, 2025.