HomeGuard, Incorporated and/or any affiliated entities (the “Company” or “we”) has developed this privacy policy out of respect for the privacy of our customers, visitors to our website, job applicants, and independent contractors. This policy describes the personal information we collect, use, and disclose about individual consumers, applicants, and contractors who visit or interact with this website, use our mobile phone application, 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, apply for a position of employment, or otherwise interact or do business with us.

Whenever you visit our website, we will collect some information from you automatically simply by you visiting and navigating through this site, and some voluntarily when you submit information using a form on the website, utilize the Live 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. Through this website, we will collect information that can identify you and/or your activity.

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.

This policy 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 privacyrequests@homeguard.com.

Consent to Share Personal Information When Using Live Chat Function

By using the Live Chat feature on either the website or mobile phone application, you consent to our collection and analysis of all personal information provided. On the website, we utilize a vendor called “Pure Chat” and in the mobile application we utilize Google Firebase (“Chat Vendors”), to process, analyze, and store the contents of the chat on our behalf. The Chat Vendors features do not use any chatbot or artificial intelligence technology. Rather, each chat takes place with a live representative of the Company. For more information on how the Chat Vendors may use or disclose your personal information, please review their privacy policy at https://www.ruby.com/privacy/ and https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy respectively. By using these forms and features, you direct the Company to disclose to and share with the Chat Vendors any personal information you provide.

Collection of Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information

We may collect, and we have in the last 12 months collected, the following categories of personal information about you based on your specific transactions and interactions with us or our website. For each category of information, we identify below the categories of third parties, service providers, and contactors to whom we have disclosed the information in the last 12 months. 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.

Of the above categories of Personal Information, the following are categories of Sensitive Personal Information the Company may collect from or about consumers, independent contractors, or applicants:

1. Personal Identifiers (social security number, driver’s license or state identification card number, passport number)
2. Geolocation Data (IP address and/or GPS location, latitude & longitude)
3. Username and Password

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, independent contractor, or applicant, or from widely distributed media.
• Information made available by a person to whom the consumer, independent contractor, or applicant has disclosed the information if the consumer, independent contractor, or applicant has not restricted the information to a specific audience.
• Deidentified or aggregated information.

We may collect your personal information from the following sources:

• You the consumer, independent contractor, or job applicant, 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 Live 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)
• We utilize cookies to automatically collect information about our website visitors
• Surveillance cameras at our physical locations
• Lead generators and referral sources
• Credit and consumer reporting agencies
• HR support vendors
• Recruiters or career sites (such as Indeed or LinkedIn)  
• Social media platforms
• 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
• Personal references and former employers (if you are a job applicant)
• Schools, universities, or other educational institutions which you attended (if you are a job applicant)
• From friends, family, or colleagues who choose to email you job postings that they think you may be interested in from our application platform or careers page
• Industry trade groups or associations

We may disclose, sell, or share your personal information with the following categories of service providers, contractors, or third parties:

1. Financial institutions
2. Lead providers
3. Government agencies
4. Promotional or other fulfilment vendors
5. Marketing support vendors and vendors that support managing or hosting the website and the Chat function on the website and mobile application
6. Transaction support vendors (e.g., check guaranty, payment processors)
7. Data analytics vendors
8. Consumer reporting agencies or credit reporting agencies
9. Talent acquisition management systems, and other vendors providing services for purposes of our human resources information system (HRIS) and management of job applicant data and recruiting process
10. Security and risk management vendors, including IT, cybersecurity, and privacy vendors and consultants
11. Corporate customers (meaning an entity, as opposed to a natural person, that purchases, leases, or finances any of our products or services)
12. Insurance carriers, administrators, and brokers
13. Communication providers
14. Consulting and investigation firms, including HR consultants, safety consultants, and workplace investigators
15. Social media platforms
16. Company affiliated entities

We may collect your personal information for the following business purposes:

1. To fulfill or meet the purpose for which you provided the information.
2. To process, complete, and maintain records on transactions.
3. To provide warranty coverage on products and services.
4. To retain your selection for Text opt in/opt out to ensure customers who opted out are not sent any text messages.
5. To provide and communicate recall notifications to customers.
6. To schedule, manage and keep track of customer appointments.
7. To complete appraisals.
8. To maintain records of when customers decline a service or sale.
9. To respond to consumer inquiries, including requests for information, customer support online, Live Chat on the website, phone calls, and in-store inquiries.
10. To provide interest-based and targeted advertising.
11. 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.
12. To improve user experience on our website.
13. To improve the customer experience.
14. To understand the demographics of our website visitors.
15. To detect security incidents.
16. To debug, identify, and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality of our website.
17. To protect against malicious or illegal activity and prosecute those responsible.
18. To verify and respond to consumer requests.
19. To prevent identity theft.
20. JOB APPLICANT PURPOSES:

1. To fulfill or meet the purpose for which you provided the information. For example, if you share your name and contact information to apply for a job with the Company, we will use that Personal Information in connection with your candidacy for employment.
2. To comply with local, state, and federal law and regulations requiring employers to maintain certain records, as well as local, state, and federal law, regulations, ordinances, guidelines, and orders relating to infectious diseases, pandemics, outbreaks, and public health emergencies, including applicable reporting requirements.
3. To evaluate your job application and candidacy for employment.
4. To obtain and verify background check and references.
5. To communicate with you regarding your candidacy for employment.
6. To keep your application on file even if you did not get the job applied for, in case there is another position for which we want to consider you as a candidate even if you do not formally apply.
7. To evaluate and improve our recruiting methods and strategies.
8. To engage in lawful monitoring of job applicant activities and communications when they are on Company premises, or utilizing Company internet and WiFi connections, computers, networks, devices, software applications or systems.
9. To engage in corporate transactions requiring review or disclosure of job applicant records subject to non-disclosure agreements, such as for evaluating potential mergers and acquisitions of the Company.
10. To evaluate, assess, and manage the Company’s business relationship with vendors, service providers, and contractors that provide services to the Company related to recruiting or processing of data from or about job applicants.
11. To improve job applicant experience on Company computers, networks, devices, software applications or systems, and to debug, identify, and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality of our systems.
12. To reduce the risk of spreading infectious diseases in or through the workplace.

21. INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR PURPOSES:

1. To fulfill or meet the purpose for which you provided the information.
2. To comply with state and federal law and regulations requiring businesses to maintain certain records (accident or safety records, and tax records/1099 forms).
3. To engage the services of independent contractors and compensate them for services.
4. To evaluate, make, and communicate decisions regarding an independent contractor, including decisions to hire and/or terminate.
5. To grant independent contractors access to secure Company facilities, systems, networks, computers, and equipment, and maintain information on who accessed such facilities, systems, networks, computers, and equipment, and what they did therein or thereon.
6. To implement, monitor, and manage electronic security measures on independent contractor devices that are used to access Company networks and systems.
7. To maintain commercial insurance policies and coverages.
8. To provide services to corporate customers who may request certain pieces of information about a Company independent contractor (such as name and phone number) to permit the independent contractor access or security clearance to their facility in advance of the Company independent contractor being dispatched to provide services at the customer’s facility.
9. To evaluate, assess, and manage the Company’s business relationship with vendors, service providers, and contractors that provide services to the Company.
10. To improve user experience on Company computers, networks, devices, software applications or systems, and to debug, identify, and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality of our systems.

We may disclose your personal information for any one or more of the business purposes identified above.

We do NOT and will not sell or share your personal information in exchange for monetary consideration. However, we may sell or share some of your information to third parties for other valuable consideration, as noted in the table above.

We may sell or share your personal information for the following business purposes:

1. To provide interest-based and targeted advertising
2. To understand the demographics of our website visitors
3. To improve user experience on our website
4. To improve the customer experience

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.

Notice of Right of California Residents to Opt-Out of the Selling and Sharing of Your Information

Opt-Out Preference Signals

Opt-out preference signals provide consumers with a simple and easy-to-use method by which to exercise the right to opt-out of the selling and sharing of their information. Global Privacy Controls (GPC) is a user-enabled opt-out preference signal which can communicate a user’s “Do Not Sell or Share” request on behalf of the person or device. We will process opt-out preferences from GPC signals which are in formats commonly used and recognized by businesses, such as an HTTP field header. We will treat a consumer’s use of GPCs as a valid request to opt-out of the selling and sharing of information for that browser. We currently do not connect browser use to particular consumers and, as such, you will need to use GPCs on all browsers in which you access our website and use our opt-out form to opt-out of offline sales.

Do Not Track (DNT) is a privacy preference that users can set if they do not want web services to collect information about their online activity. We do not respond to DNT signals or other mechanisms (with the exception of GPCs) that provide a choice regarding the collection of personal information about activities over time and across different websites or online services. We encourage users who have DNTs to use GPCs.

We do not and will not use or disclose your sensitive personal information for purposes other than the following:

1. To perform the services or provide the goods reasonably expected by an average consumer who requests those goods or services.
2. To detect security incidents that compromise the availability, authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality of stored or transmitted personal information.
3. To resist malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal actions directed at the business and to prosecute those responsible for those actions.
4. To ensure the physical safety of natural persons.
5. For short-term, transient use.
6. To perform services on behalf of the Company.
7. To verify or maintain the quality or safety of a product, service or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by the Company, and to improve, upgrade, or enhance the service or device that is owned, manufactured by, manufactured for, or controlled by the Company.
8. For purposes that do not involve inferring characteristics about the consumers, contractors, and applicants.

Retention of Personal Information

We will retain each category of personal information in accordance with our established data retention schedule as indicated above. 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 statutes 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. Subscribers or site visitors will never receive unsolicited e-mail messages from vendors working on our behalf.

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.

Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

Cookies are small files that a website may transfer to a user’s computer that reside there for either the duration of the browsing session (session cookies) or on a permanent, until deleted, basis (persistent cookies) that may be used to identify a user, a user’s machine, or a user’s behavior. We make use of cookies under the following circumstances and for the following reasons:

• Provide you with services available through the website and to enable you to use some of its features
• Authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of user accounts
• Identify if users have accepted the use of cookies on the website
• Compile data about website traffic and how users use the website to offer a better website experience
• Understand and save visitor preferences for future visits, such as remembering your login details or language preference, to provide you with a more personal experience and to avoid you having to re-enter your preferences every time you use the website
• Track your browsing habits to enable us to show advertising which is more likely to be of interest to you, including advertising by third parties on our website

You may delete cookies from your web browser at any time or block cookies on your equipment, but this may affect the functioning of or even block the website. You can prevent saving of cookies (disable and delete them) by changing your browser settings accordingly at any time. It is possible that some functions will not be available on our website when use of cookies is deactivated. Check the settings of your browser. Below you can find some guidance:

• Safari
• Opera 
• Internet Explorer
• Google Chrome
• Mozilla

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 keep automatically collected data and voluntarily collected data separate at all times.
• We use internal encryption on all data stores that house voluntarily captured data.
• 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.  

Rights Under the CCPA and CPRA

This section of the Privacy Policy applies only to California residents who are natural persons. If you are a California resident, you have the following rights pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):

1. Right to Know. The right to request, up to 2 times in a 12-month period, that we identify to you (1) the categories of personal information we have collected about you going back to January 1, 2022, unless doing so would be impossible or involve disproportionate effort, or unless you request a specific time period, (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) 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, and (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;
2. Right to Access. The right to request, up to 2 times in a 12-month period, that we disclose to you, free of charge, the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you going back to January 1, 2022, unless doing so would be impossible or involve disproportionate effort, or unless you request a specific time period;
3. Right to Delete. The right to request, up to 2 times in a 12-month period, that we delete personal information that we collected from you, subject to certain exceptions;
4. Right to Correct. The right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information (to the extent such an inaccuracy exists) that we maintain about you;
5. Right to Opt-Out. The right to opt-out of the selling or sharing of your personal information to third parties;
6. The right to designate an authorized agent to submit one of the above requests on your behalf. See below for how you can designate an authorized agent; and
7. The right to not be discriminated or retaliated against for exercising any of the above rights, including an applicant’s and independent contractor’s right not to be retaliated against for exercising the above rights.

You can submit any of the above types of consumer requests through any of the 3 options below:

1. Submit an online request on our website at www.homeguard.com/privacy-request.
2. Call our privacy toll-free line at (855) 331-1900.
3. Complete a paper form, which can be requested at Homeguard Incorporated – Human Resources Dept, 58 Wright Brothers Ave., Livermore, CA 94551.

How We Will Verify That it is Really You Submitting the Request

If you are a California resident, when you submit a Right to Know, Right to Access, Right to Delete, or Right to Correct request through one of the methods provided above, 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. For example, we may need you to provide your name, email, phone number, IP address, browser ID, amount of your last purchase with the business, and/or date of your last transaction with the business.

Responding to Your Right to Know, Right to Access, Right to Delete, and Right to Correct Requests

Upon receiving a verifiable request from a California resident, we will confirm receipt of the request no later than 10 business days after receiving it. We endeavor to respond to a verifiable request within forty-five (45) calendar days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to an additional 45 calendar days, or 90 calendar days total from the date we receive your request), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. We will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

For a request to correct inaccurate personal information, we will accept, review, and consider any documentation that you provide, and we may require that you provide documentation to rebut our own documentation that the personal information is accurate. You should make a good-faith effort to provide us with all necessarily information at the time that you make the request to correct. We may deny a request to correct if we have a good-faith, reasonable, and documented belief that a request to correct is fraudulent or abusive. If we deny your request to correct, we shall inform you of our decision not to comply and provide an explanation as to why we believe the request is fraudulent.

Responding to Your Request to Opt-Out of the Selling or Sharing of Your Personal Information

We will act upon a consumer request to opt-out within fifteen (15) days of its receipt. We will notify all third parties to whom we have sold or shared personal information of your request and instruct them to comply with the request within the same time frame. We will notify you when this has been completed by mail or electronically, at your option.

A request to opt-out need not be a verifiable consumer request. However, we may deny a request to opt-out if we have a good faith, reasonable, and documented belief that a request to opt-out is fraudulent. If we deny your request to opt-out, we shall inform you of our decision not to comply and provide an explanation as to why we believe the request is fraudulent.

If You Have an Authorized Agent:

If you are a California resident, you can authorize someone else as an authorized agent who can submit a request 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. When we receive a request submitted on your behalf by an authorized agent who does not have a power of attorney, that person will be asked to provide written proof that they have your permission to act on your behalf, and we will also contact you and ask you for information to verify your own identity directly with us and not through your authorized agent. We may deny a request from an authorized agent if the agent does not provide your signed permission demonstrating that they have been authorized by you to act on your behalf.

Other California Privacy Rights

The California Civil Code permits California Residents with whom we have an established business relationship to request that we provide you with a list of certain categories of personal information that we have disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year. To make such a request, please send an email to privacyrequests@homeguard.com, or write to us at the address listed below. Please mention that you are making a “California Shine the Light” inquiry.

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 HomeGuard, Incorporated. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacyrequests@homeguard.com or call (855) 331-1900.

**This policy was last updated January 5, 2024.