Notice of Information Practices for Montana
You have certain rights under state and federal law with respect to the privacy of information we obtain about you when you engage in insurance transactions involving insurance primarily for personal, family or household use. You will receive, or already may have received, a notice entitled "Farmers® Privacy Notice." Your state gives you additional protections that are explained in this notice. The Farmers Privacy Notice, in combination with this notice, explains our information practices with respect to applicants, policyholders and former policyholders.
Collection of Information
Much of the information we need comes from you when you apply for insurance. However, we may need additional information or may need to verify information you've given us. We often employ the common insurance industry practice of asking an outside source, called a "consumer reporting agency" or "insurance support organization," to provide us with consumer reports. On occasion, that source may contact you, another adult member of your household or a neighbor either by phone or in person to provide us with a report. As the Named Insured, you have the right to request that you or your spouse be contacted for a personal interview. If you choose this option, we will make every effort to comply with your request.
We may also obtain information from consumer reporting agencies and other sources for purposes other than underwriting, such as when processing claims, investigating potential fraud, or servicing your account. For example, we may obtain financial information relating to a particular bank account if you desire to set up an electronic funds transfer payment. In addition, we may obtain information relating to health and employment during the processing of a claim.
In addition to the foregoing, we collect the following types of information about you:
- Personal information such as your age, personal habits and characteristics
- Information about your driving experiences, such as use of your vehicle(s), mileage, prior accidents and driving violations, and prior arrests or convictions.
- Information about your real and personal property, such as construction type, square footage, heating, other physical characteristics of the property, and care and maintenance of the property.
- Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency or insurance support organization, such as motor vehicle records, credit report information, claims history and previous insurance experience.
What do we do with the information we collect about you
We use the information we collect about you, as described above, to perform insurance functions, including underwriting and servicing your policy, processing claims and for other purposes permitted by state and federal law. We may disclose this information, as permitted by law, and without your prior authorization, to the following types of parties:
- Persons, including insurance support organizations, other insurers, or non-affiliated parties, who perform insurance functions for us.
- Persons, including insurance support organizations or other insurers, for detecting or preventing criminal activity, fraud, material misrepresentation or material nondisclosure in connection with an insurance transaction.
- Insurance regulatory, law enforcement, or other governmental authority.
- Affiliates to perform audits, to perform an insurance function, and to market insurance or other financial products or services, or for any other purpose permitted by law. (For more information about the information we share with affiliates, see the "Sharing Information with Affiliates" and "Your Choice" sections of the Farmers Privacy Policy.)
- A medical professional or medical care institution, to verify insurance coverage or benefits, inform an individual of a medical problem of which the individual may not be aware, conduct an operations or services audit, or determine the reasonableness or necessity of medical services
- Other non-affiliated third persons, including (a) persons conducting actuarial or research studies, (b) professional peer review organizations, (c) a party to a proposed sale, transfer, merger or consolidation of all or part of the company underwriting your policy, and (d) a group policyholder to report claims experience or conduct an audit of our operations, but only as necessary to conduct the review or audit.
Our disclosure of nonpublic personal information about you for marketing purposes is more limited under Montana law than as described in Farmers Privacy Notice. We may disclose information to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf and to other licensees and our affiliates that market insurance or other financial products or services. Such disclosures do not include medical information about you.
Information obtained from a report prepared by an insurance-support organization may be retained by that organization and disclosed to other persons who use these reports, but only to the extent permitted by federal and state law.
You have the right, upon written request to Farmers, to learn of any disclosures we have made of medical record information, including the name, address and affiliate of any person that received or examined medical information during the last three years, the date of such receipt or examination, and to the extent practicable, a description of the information disclosed.
Access To and Correction of Personal Information
You have the right to know the contents of any recorded personal information about you that is in our records, including any investigative consumer report we have obtained. You also have the right to receive a copy of this information and to request that we correct, amend or delete any of the information that you feel is in error. To exercise these rights, you must send us a written request. If you request correction, amendment or deletion of any erroneous information, we will review the recorded personal information and your written request. If the requested changes are in order, we will make the appropriate changes in our records. If we cannot make the change, you then have the option of filing a statement of the reasons why you disagree with our decision, which will be included in our policy records so anyone reviewing the disputed personal information will have access to it. Any future disclosure made by us, if any, will also include your filed statement. We will also provide a copy to anyone designated by you who may have received recorded personal information from us in the past two years. In any case, whether we can or cannot comply with your request to correct recorded personal information, we will advise you of our decision in writing.
These rights do not extend to information collected in connection with or in reasonable anticipation of a claim, or civil or criminal proceeding, or to specific items of privileged information when an applicant or policyholder is suspected of fraud, material misrepresentation or material nondisclosure.
You may contact Your Farmers® agent for the appropriate service center address where you can direct your written inquiry.
Keeping You Informed
As required by law, we will notify you of our information practices regularly. We reserve the right to modify our practices at any time, when permitted by law.
If, after reading this, you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us or Your Farmers® agent.
This notice is sent on behalf of the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies, whose members include, but are not limited to:
Farmers Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange, Truck Insurance Exchange, Mid-Century Insurance Company, Farmers New Century Insurance Company, Farmers Insurance Company, Inc. (A Kansas Corp.), Farmers Insurance Company of Arizona, Farmers Insurance Company of Idaho, Farmers Insurance Company of Oregon, Farmers Insurance Company of Washington, Farmers Insurance of Columbus, Inc., Farmers Texas County Mutual Insurance Company, Illinois Farmers Insurance Company, Mid-Century Insurance Company of Texas, Texas Farmers Insurance Company, Civic Property and Casualty Company, Exact Property and Casualty Company, and Neighborhood Spirit Property and Casualty Company.