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Your Privacy
The opportunities you deserve, the privacy you expect
For more than 30 years, Countrywide has been a trusted leader in home loans. Our primary focus is on empowering you to meet your homeownership goals by offering a wide range of financial products and services. This section explains how we protect and use your information in a safe, secure and responsible manner.
We offer you products and services at a lower cost or with greater convenience by sharing limited information within our Countrywide family of companies and with carefully selected business partners.
Your protection is our priority
We strive to safeguard your data. We do this by:
  • setting policies and procedures for carefully handling your information;
  • limiting employee access to sensitive information;
  • protecting against unauthorized access to customer data using data encryption, authentication, and virus detection technology;
  • requiring service providers who do business with Countrywide to comply with privacy laws;
  • auditing company security practices;
  • monitoring our websites through recognized online privacy and security organizations such as Cybertrust Corporation; and
  • conducting background checks on all employees and providing privacy training.

Cybertrust Certified Logo
About our websites
Our systems automatically switch to "secure" mode when you are asked to enter personal information on a Countrywide website (such as your loan number, account number or Social Security Number). To keep your data safe, we use:
  • Encryption and authentication technology
  • Website design that blocks or limits online display of customer information when not necessary for the transaction
  • IDs and passwords to protect customer information
For more details on Internet security, please see our "About Internet Security" section.
Use of cookies, Web beacons and similar files
We design many features of our website so new visitors may anonymously learn about our products and services, view today’s rates and use our educational tools without revealing their identity. For new visitors, we use "cookies" and Web beacons to collect limited data (such as the date, time and areas of our website visited and the website the new visitor came from). When you select one of our products or services, review your accounts online or respond to marketing materials sent to you directly, we will try to identify your browser and may combine information from "cookies," Web beacons and other information collected online with any other data we maintain about you. By improving the marketing and content of our website and making your online experience more convenient, we are able to better serve our customers’ financial needs.
Cookies are required to access your online accounts
You can have your web browser disable "cookies" But if you turn off "cookies," it is not possible to access your online accounts. Cookies are used for security purposes when you log into your account so that we can recognize your computer. Cookies used to access your online account are encrypted and used solely to support your online account activity.
Similar files
Countrywide sometimes uses technologies similar to cookies to store information. For example, we also use files called Flash objects to help assure security as part of the online account log-in process. Flash object files are also encrypted and used solely to support your online account activity.
Benefits to sharing within the Countrywide family
To offer and recommend valuable products and services, we may share customer and former customer information within our Countrywide family. All of these Countrywide companies follow the same policies and procedures described in this section.
  • New Home Loans – Countrywide Bank, FSB offers new home loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, and many refinancing options.
  • Home Loan Servicing – Countrywide Home Loan Servicing LP provides industry-leading customer service and easy access to your home loan account information.
  • Insurance – The Countrywide Insurance Group of companies* offer homeowners, life, auto, disability, home warranty and other insurance products.
  • Loan Closing Services – The LandSafe family of companies offers title and escrow services, title insurance, credit reporting, property appraisals and flood zone determinations.
  • Investments – Countrywide Investment Services, Inc. offers investment planning, mutual funds, IRAs, Roth IRAs, IRA and 401(k) rollovers, stocks, bonds, and fixed and variable annuities.
  • Banking – Countrywide Bank, FSB offers savings, CDs, money market accounts, new home loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, and many refinancing options.
  • New Products and Services – We may expand to offer you new products and services by forming, acquiring or merging with a new company.
As Countrywide Financial continues to expand its Global Operations, we also look for ways to enhance customer satisfaction in the United States by using our resources overseas. Our mission is to quickly respond to your homeownership and financial needs at all hours of the day.
Benefits to sharing outside the Countrywide family
To make products and services available, often at a savings to you, we may prudently share some customer and former customer non-public personal information with business partners under an agreement requiring the partner to keep the information confidential and only use it for those offers.
How we obtain and use information
To fund and service your loan, comply with government regulations, improve our products and services, and better understand your financial needs, we collect and maintain customer and former customer data. We collect information:
  • you provide us on applications and other forms (such as your name, address, phone, Social Security and account numbers, assets, income and employment history);
  • about your transactions with us (such as your loan balance, payment history and other account information);
  • about your credit history from a credit reporting agency; and
  • about you or your property from business partners and service providers (such as a property appraisal, purchase contract or membership number).
We disclose some of this data to third parties (such as credit reporting agencies, regulators and loan investors). We may share some of this information with companies performing services on our behalf (such as the vendor who prepares our monthly statements). These service providers agree to keep the information confidential and not use it for any other purpose.
Additionally, to provide you with valuable product and service offerings, we share limited information (such as a list of customers in a certain income range) within our Countrywide family of companies and with business partners who are obligated to maintain the confidentiality of your information.
You have choices
You may limit how we share your personal information. This is called a right to "opt out." You have three options to consider.
 1)   Continue receiving valuable and convenient product and service offers
You can enjoy the benefits of valuable product and service offerings without taking any action.
 2)   Opt out of information sharing outside the Countrywide family of companies
This choice would stop us from sharing non-public personal information with our carefully screened business partners. This may limit our ability to inform you of valuable and convenient products and services from partner companies.
 3)   Opt out of information sharing within the Countrywide family of companies
This choice would stop us from sharing non-public personal information within the Countrywide family of companies. This may limit our ability to offer conveniences such as a tailored savings quote on homeowners insurance, a custom financial investment plan, and other financial service offers.
We honor our customers' privacy choices across the family of companies. For loans to multiple borrowers, we will apply an opt out by any borrower to all borrowers on the loan. If you opt out, we will continue to share non-public personal information with our service providers (such as the vendor who prepares our monthly statements), with third parties as required or permitted by law (such as credit reporting agencies or regulators), and share transaction and experience information (such as your loan balance or payment history) within the Countrywide family of companies.
During the application process, you will receive a privacy notice that includes a toll-free telephone number to call if you want to opt-out. Please have your account and billing information available when you call. If you have any questions about our privacy policy, please send an email message to privacypolicy@countrywide.com.
In today’s dynamic market, opting out may mean missing timely information about products and services that help you accomplish your homeownership and other financial goals. It’s something to think about carefully. We don’t want you to miss out on any opportunities.
In the states below, we have different information sharing practices
Notice to CA Residents: We will provide a separate short form notice describing the rights of California residents to opt out under California law, including rights to opt out of affiliate sharing. We will only share non-public personal information as required or permitted by law.
Notice to ND Residents: We will share information within the Countrywide family of companies unless you opt out by calling the number provided in the privacy notice you receive during the loan application process. If you opt out, we will continue to share only transaction and experience information (such as your loan balance and payment history) within the Countrywide family of companies. In addition, we will only share information with our service providers and with third parties as required or permitted by law. We may also disclose your non-public personal information with your written consent.
Notice to VT Residents: We will not share non-public personal information with anyone except our service providers and third parties as required or permitted by law. We will share transaction and experience information (such as your loan balance and payment history) within the Countrywide family of companies. We may also share information with your consent or at your direction.
Please review the website privacy notices of the companies listed below for state-specific information of other members of the Countrywide family:
Countrywide Insurance Services
Balboa Insurance Group
Countrywide Investment Services
Countrywide Bank
Companies not covered under this section
Some companies in the Countrywide family have different information sharing practices. Please review their websites for more information.
Countrywide websites may contain links to other companies not in the Countrywide family for your convenience and information. If you access those links, you will leave the Countrywide website. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any company before submitting your personal information.
How to confirm accuracy of your information
We commit to maintain accurate and up-to-date information on all of our customers. We provide access to account information in many ways – over the phone, in online and paper statements, and other communications. If you believe any of your information is incorrect, please notify us immediately using the customer service number provided on your account statement. We will respond timely to your request to correct inaccurate account or transaction information. However, in order to protect your information, we may ask to verify your identity and for other details to respond to your request.
Notification of changes
The policies and practices in this section replace all previous notices or statements about your privacy rights at Countrywide. If we make any significant changes, we will notify you and only apply those new changes to future use of your information. If we make such changes, we will also revise the policy effective date, so that you can keep track of when those changes occur.
Policy Effective Date: December 15, 2004
*Countrywide Insurance Group consists of Balboa Insurance Company, Meritplan Insurance Company, Newport Insurance Company, Newport E & S Insurance Company, Balboa Life Insurance Company, Balboa Life Insurance Company of New York and Balboa Warranty Services Corporation.

Cybertrust is a registered trademark of Cybertrust Corporation.
How Does Browser Security Work?
Recent versions of most internet browsers support the encrypted transmission of on-line documents and the data you enter on a web page. This means that instead of sending readable text, both your browser and the website's secure server encode all text using a security key. That way, personal data sent to your browser or data you send back would be extremely difficult to decode in the unlikely event it was intercepted by an unauthorized party. The key used for encoding is a random number that is unique to your session at the secure website.

There are two grades of internet security: International-grade encryption uses a 40-bit random number negotiated between your browser and the web-server. This means that only one out of about 1,000,000,000,000 possible decoding keys can be used to decipher your data. Domestic-grade encryption uses a 128-bit key, so that the number of possible keys is vastly larger. The Countrywide site uses the highest grade of encryption supported by your browser and your internet connection.
How Do I Know If Security Is Operating?
Your internet session is encrypted if your security-enabled browser is connected to a website using the Secure Hypertext Transport Protocol. URL strings beginning with "HTTPS://" instead of the usual "HTTP://" indicate that the secure protocol is in effect. Your browser may also tell you if security is operating. For example, Mozilla's Firefox will display the icon in the lower right corner of your screen in secure mode. Microsoft Internet Explorer shows a icon. Note that security may be operating without any visible indication if the web page you are viewing employs frames (see below).

If secure transmission is not in effect or only part of a frame-based page is secure, Firefox shows the "red-slashed lock" icon, and Explorer does not show the "lock" icon.

Most browsers can be set to give you a pop-up announcement when you enter or leave a secure web page. In Firefox, these settings are on the Security section when you select "Options" on the Tools menu. In IE, the setting is on the "Advanced" tab when you select "Options" on the View menu.
Secure Mode and Frame-Based Web Pages
Security may be operating without displaying any security icons (or Firefox may show the "red-slashed lock" icon) if only part of a frame-based page is employing security. You can verify the security of a page within a frame by opening it in a new browser window. Both IE and Firefox allow you to open a link in a new window by right-clicking on the link and selecting that option from the pop-up context menu. When a secure page is open in its own window, instead of being viewed within a frame, you can then see the security icons provided by your browser as well as the "https://" secure protocol prefix in the URL string.
Cookies
When you visit a website, a small file called a "cookie" may be saved to your computer’s hard drive during your visit. When you revisit the site, the website’s server may open the cookie file and access the stored information. You can usually set your browser to limit or let you know about cookies that a website places on your computer.
Web Beacons
A Web beacon is a graphic image (such as a pixel tag or clear GIF) that is placed on a web page or in an e-mail message to monitor user activity (such as whether the web page or e-mail message is read or clicked). They are often invisible because they are very small in size. They are also used on many web pages for alignment purposes. We sometimes use Web beacons to provide an independent accounting of how many people visit our websites or to gather statistics about browser usage at our websites. Some of our web pages and HTML-formatted e-mail newsletters use Web beacons in conjunction with cookies. It is difficult for you to limit the use of Web beacons because there is no easy way to distinguish their use from alignment and other purposes. They may be loaded from a different web server than the rest of the page.
Third Party Advertising
We sometimes use third party advertising companies to serve our internet ad banners on our site and other sites on which we advertise. If you click on one of those ads, you will be directed to one of the Countrywide Financial sites offering that particular product or service. If you view a web page where our ads appear, the advertising company may place a cookie on your computer or use a Web beacon to access a cookie they previously placed on your computer. These companies do not collect information that can identify you personally, but may use information about your visits to our sites and other sites to measure the effectiveness of ads. We do not give any personally identifiable information to these companies. Unless you are first notified, these advertising companies do not link any online actions or cookie to any information that can be used to personally identify you (such as your name, address or e-mail address). The companies that distribute our ads are prohibited by contract from using information other than for the agreed upon purpose – to help us market our products and services and to measure response rates.
Third party advertisers are subject to their own privacy policies. Currently, we use web beacons provided by Doubleclick, Yahoo!, Google, and MSN. If you prefer that Doubleclick does not record your information by means of these web beacons on our website, please click here . If you prefer that Yahoo! not record information by means of these Beacons on our web site, visit Yahoo! at http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/beacons/details.html to opt out. To view Google’s privacy policy, visit http://www.google.com/privacy.htm. To view MSN’s privacy policy visit http://advertising.microsoft.com/microsoft-adcenter/privacy-policy. To prevent other advertising companies from placing cookies on your computer, you may adjust the privacy settings for your browser to block or filter cookies, or visit each website individually and opt-out.
Similar Devices
For example, we include URLs in email marketing materials sent directly to you (such as special offers) so that we can identify that it is you responding to the campaign and provide details on the offer available to you.
What are Shared Secrets?
Shared secrets are the most common security method for accessing confidential information. A shared secret is something known to both the user and the holder of the confidential information. The most common shared secrets are a user ID and password. These shared secrets allow the user to log into the site of the holder of confidential information such as a financial institution or online merchants. Shared secrets form an integral part of user authentication in today's online environment.
Protecting Your Shared Secrets
Protecting your shared secrets ensures that information accessed via those shared secrets is protected. You should never record your shared secrets electronically such as in documents or spreadsheets. In the event of a compromise of your computer hard drive, your shared secrets can be compromised as well placing all the data protected by those shared secrets at banks and merchants at risk. Likewise you should never store credit card numbers, expiration dates, bank account number, social security numbers, driver’s license number or other personal identifying information electronically on your computer for the same reason.
Your shared secrets should never be revealed in response to unsolicited e-mails. Criminals attempt to obtain individual’s personal identifying information and use that information illegally such as to open and/or use credit cards, obtain phone or utility accounts, obtain loans, work, open bank accounts and/or pass fraudulent checks using a technique called "phishing" . Criminals may also attempt to obtain that information over the phone posing as a survey taker, telemarketer or other unsolicited caller ("pretexting") .
Common Shared Secrets
To minimize the potential compromise of your shared secrets, you should avoid commonly used secrets such as names (yours, your spouse's name, your children's, parents), common terms that appear in the dictionary (brute force attacks to crack passwords often use dictionaries in an attempt to randomly match the password), exclusively numbers (numbers range from 0 to 9 for each character where letters range from a to z creating 26 potential variations or 52 if case sensitive). The best passwords are a combination of both letters and numbers where the letters do not spell words that could be found in a dictionary and the password is of sufficient length, 6 characters or preferably more, to make brute force attacks harder.
We suggest you do not use shared secrets across multiple domains (e.g. websites). If you use the same logon and password while shopping or surfing online as you use for your bank, if one of the online merchant sites is compromised, your user ID and password could then be used to access your bank information. Not all website apply the same level of security to their database. The use of a single logon ID and password across multiple sites is only as secure as the least secure site.
What Do I Do If My Shared Secrets are Compromised?
Immediately change your shared secrets with all sites on which you have used the same shared secrets. Follow the instructions What Should I Do if I Become a Victim of Identity Theft?
What is Identity Theft?
Identity theft is when someone takes and uses your personal information (such as your name, social security or credit card number) without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes. These criminals take the identities of others to open new credit cards; obtain phone or utility accounts, loans, or employment; open bank accounts; and/or pass fraudulent checks. According to the FBI, identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America.
How Does Identity Theft Occur?
Criminals gain access to personal information in many ways, but the most common method is to take it from the victim themselves. They steal mail (such as account statements, new checks and offers of credit) left in a mailbox, discarded in the trash or stored in an easy to get to location in your home or office. They take credit card and personal identification from your purse or wallet. Without knowing it, you may give the information directly to the criminal when you enter data at an unsecured or unknown website, or in response to a fraudulent request for account information through an unverified e-mail ("phishing") . Imposters also ask for information from you in unsolicited phone calls, tricking you into thinking it is someone you know, such as your bank ("pretexting") .
What Happens to the Victim?
Identity thieves can damage the credit reputations and lives of victims. Studies have shown that victims spend an average of $808 and 205 hours resolving the identity theft. Time and money is spent clearing credit reports, reporting the theft to lenders and merchants, and filing complaints with law enforcement and governmental agencies. One of the menacing problems of identity theft is that it can happen more than once. Once the initial incident is resolved, the thief may begin using the victim’s identity again after waiting 6 months to a year and the cycle begins all over again.
How Can I Prevent Becoming a Victim?
Identity theft requires someone to gain access to your personal information. You can take steps to decrease the risk of someone stealing your information.
  • Destroy papers you throw out. Shred or completely destroy any documents that contain personal information before discarding them in the trash. This includes information about you, your family, your home, or your accounts such as credit card solicitations, pre-approved credit offers, convenience checks contained in your statements, bills, cancelled checks, loan offerings, ATM or credit card receipts, insurance or tax information. Just as important are receipts from ATM’s or self-service devices such as gasoline pumps. Don’t just leave them behind or throw them in the trash. Criminals only need a few pieces of information about you to get credit in your name and access your existing accounts.
  • Be careful who you give your information to over the telephone. Do not give out personal information such as your social security number, credit card or bank account numbers, or loan numbers over the phone to anyone who has called you without first confirming who you are speaking to, why they need the information and that they are who they claim to be.
  • Guard your PINs. Never give out your Personal Identification Number (PIN). Memorize your PINs and never write them on your cards or carry them in your wallet.
  • Report lost or stolen credit cards, checks or identification immediately.
  • Store your personal information securely. Keep it where it is not easily available in the event of a burglary or other unauthorized access.
  • Be cautious online. Be cautious when providing information at websites or with online merchants you do not have an existing relationship with. Always confirm that you are in a secure session before entering personal information online (see How Do I Know if Security is Operating?).
  • Check your credit reports. Review your credit report regularly to identify any inquiries or accounts that you are not aware of and did not apply for.
  • Protect your mailbox. If your residential mailbox is not secure, don’t put outgoing mail in the box and promptly pick up incoming mail or obtain a secure postal mailbox.
  • Safeguard your checks. Never print your personal information such as a Social Security Number or driver’s license number on your checks.
What Should I Do if I Become a Victim of Identity Theft?
Contact the three major credit bureaus
Equifax
1-800-525-6285
www.equifax.com 		Experian
1-888-397-3742
www.experian.com 		TransUnion
1-800-680-7289
www.transunion.com
Ask them to send you a copy of your credit report and instruct them to place a fraud alert on your record. Once you receive the report, review it carefully. Contact any creditors listed that you did not apply for credit with and inform them that you have been a victim of identity theft. Instruct them to close the account, send you copies of the application and any transactions, and to promptly clear your credit record.
Contact your local police or sheriff’s department and file an identity theft complaint.
File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov/idtheft or via their hotline at 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338).
Identity Theft Resources
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
1-877-438-4338

Social Security Administration Fraud Hotline
1-800-269-0271

Department of Justice

US Postal Inspection Service
1-800-372-8347

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
1-619-298-3396

Identity Theft Resource Center
1-858-693-7935

Identity Theft Statistics

Identity Theft Laws (by state)
What is Countrywide Doing to Assist in the Battle Against Identity Theft?
Protecting the confidentiality and security of our customers’ personal information is a priority for Countrywide and its family of companies. You can find more information in our Privacy and Security Policy. We understand the implications identity theft can have and take very specific steps to reduce the chance that identity thieves can damage the credit reputations of our customers. As a result, Countrywide has put multiple safety measures in place to combat identity theft.
Training
Countrywide trains key employees in customer identification and authentication. Our training is designed to reduce the chance of an account or loan being opened in your name without your permission. We regularly update training to educate our employees on changing trends in identity theft.

Fraud Hotline
For many years, Countrywide has maintained a Fraud Hotline for consumers, employees and the public to report crimes, including identity theft. Fraud Hotline staff work with departments across the Countrywide family of companies to block credit reporting based on claims of identity theft, conduct investigations including reviews of the account or loan documentation, and, if identity theft is confirmed, notify the credit bureaus and correct credit reporting history on affected Countrywide relationships. The Fraud Hotline serves as a single point of contact for consumers to report identity theft complaints to Countrywide. You can reach the Fraud Hotline by any method described under the Reporting Identity Theft on a Countrywide Relationship section below.

CreditGuardTM
Countrywide also offers a variety of services to help customers protect themselves against identity theft including CreditGuard. Offered through Countrywide’s Landsafe subsidiary, CreditGuard provides round-the-clock monitoring of your credit report and notification if any critical information changes.

Education
Consumer awareness is a critical component in reducing the incidence of identity theft. Countrywide provides consumer education and training on identity theft through featured articles in our quarterly newsletters, statement messaging and our websites.

Industry Associations
Countrywide works in concert with industry groups in developing legislation, policies and practices to fight identity theft and other crimes in the businesses we operate in. Countrywide also works with these industry groups in the establishment and adherence to security and customer authentication programs to ensure that we remain an industry leader in protecting your identity and assets held with us.

Law Enforcement
Countrywide coordinates with local, state and federal law enforcement when identity theft cases arise.
Reporting Identity Theft on a Countrywide Relationship
If you think your identity has been stolen, affecting any of your loans or accounts with any of the companies in the Countrywide family, or resulting in the establishment of a fraudulent relationship with us, please contact us immediately. The Identity Theft Complaint provided below should be completed and then faxed or mailed back to us at the address shown below. The Complaint, which requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, can be obtained by clicking the link below:
e-mail fraud_hotline@countrywide.com
phone 1-877-CUFRAUD (283-7283)
fax 1-805-306-7158
mail Countrywide Financial Corporation
Fraud Investigation
30930 Russell Ranch Road, WLRR-469
Westlake Village, CA 91362

ID Theft Complaint 		Requires
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Click to download free
Due to the insecure nature of e-mail, the ID Theft Complaint should be faxed or mailed to Countrywide as shown to the left.
  Equal Housing Lender Equal Housing Lenders. © 2008 Countrywide Bank, FSB, Countrywide Home Loans Division. Member FDIC. Trade/service marks are the property of Countrywide Financial Corporation, Countrywide Bank, FSB, or their respective affiliates and/or its subsidiaries. Some products may not be available in all states. This is not a commitment to lend. Restrictions apply. All rights reserved. Privacy & Security.