The Bureaus, Inc. Privacy Policy

Last Updated: March 15, 2024

Contents
I. Introduction.

II. Personal Information We Collect, From Where, And Why.

A. Information that you provide to us directly.

B. Information provided to us by others acting on your behalf.

C. Information we receive from owners of the portfolios that we service.

D. Information we receive from our Service Providers.

E. Information we receive from Credit Reporting Bureaus.

F. Information collected by your use of this Site.

(i) Your IP Address

(ii) Cookies, Pixel Tags, and Web Beacons

(iii) Do Not Track.

(iv)  Analytics Information.

III. Personal Information That We Share With Others

A. No Sales of Information to Third Parties for their Own Use.

B. Reporting to Consumer Credit Agencies.

C. Sharing Information with Our Affiliates and Service Providers That Help Us Perform Our Business Activities.

D. Sharing Information with Third-Parties at Your Direction.

E. Sale of our Company or Company Assets.

F. Monitoring, Law Enforcement and Legal Requests

G. Our Internal Use and Research.

H. Text Messaging Information

IV. Other Sites/Third Party Links.

V. Protection Of Your Personal Information.

VI. Terms of Use.

VII. Contact Us With Questions.

VIII. CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: Summary Of Consumer Rights Under The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”)

A. Overview.

B. Right to Know.

C. Right to Deletion.

D. Right to Non-Discrimination.

E. Right to Opt-Out.

F. Privacy Policy Requirements.

IX. CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: How To Make A CCPA Consumer Rights Request.

A. INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING A CCPA CONSUMER RIGHTS REQUEST TO US.

B. Verification Of The Person Making A Consumer Rights Request.

C. Designating An Authorized Agent to Make A Consumer Rights Request for You.

D. Response Timing and Format.

I. Introduction

The Bureaus, Inc. is a company located in Wood Dale, Illinois, U.S.A., that serves as master servicer for accounts receivable portfolios. The company has been owned by the same family since 1978, maintaining a proud tradition of professional financial management services.

This Privacy Policy applies to The Bureaus, Inc.’s online and offline information gathering and dissemination practices in connection with this website (collectively, the “Site”) and personal information collected or received through other means. We do not knowingly attempt to solicit or receive information from children or from persons residing outside the U.S.A.

If you have arrived at this Privacy Policy by “clicking” on an authorized link directing you to a Site operated by The Bureaus, Inc., then this Privacy Policy applies to you and such Site.  This Privacy Policy does not apply to any website owned and/or operated by or on behalf of any third party, even if we provide a link to such website on our Site.

Use of our Site is strictly limited to persons who are of legal age in the jurisdictions in which they reside.  You must be at least eighteen (18) years of age to use our Site. If you are not at least 18 years of age, please do not use or provide any information through this Site.

We understand that you care about your own personal privacy interests, and we take that seriously. This Privacy Policy describes The Bureaus, Inc’s policies and practices regarding its collection and use of your personal data and sets forth your privacy rights. We recognize that information privacy is an ongoing responsibility, and so we will from time to time update this Privacy Policy as we undertake new personal data practices or adopt new privacy policies.

Any questions regarding this Privacy Policy may be directed to the Privacy Compliance Officer using the contact information provided below.

II. Personal Information We Collect, From Where, And Why

The following is a description of: (i) the categories of non-public Personal Information we may have collected in the preceding 12 months; (ii) the sources from which we may have collected it; and (iii) the business purposes for which we may have collected it.

A. Information that you provide to us directly.

Should you choose to voluntarily submit or otherwise disclose Personal Information to us (e.g., name, address, telephone number, email address, social security number, account numbers, financial information, etc.), whether submitted or disclosed by mail, telephone, fax or electronically, it is governed by this Privacy Policy.

If you contact or correspond with us, we may keep a record of your contact information and correspondence, and we reserve the right to use your contact information, and any other information that you provide to us in your message, to respond thereto. We may use this Personal Information to further correspond with you, to accept payments on your account, or to otherwise manage your account with us.

If you wish to change or correct any information voluntarily submitted to us, please do so by contacting us in the manner described, below.

Please note that all communications between us are with a debt collector, in an attempt to collect a debt. Any information obtained will be used for that purpose.

In some instances, you may sign up to receive communications from us via text or SMS.  We may use the information you provide (e.g., your phone number, account details, etc) to contact you. By signing up to receive information from us via text or SMS, you are agreeing to receive recurring messages such as account notifications, payment reminders , including other messages regarding our services, at the phone number provided.

For help reply HELP to any message we send or contact (877) 887-4824 or [email protected]

To unsubscribe from receiving text communications, reply “STOP” at anytime or send “STOP” to 70793.

Message and data rates may apply.

Message frequency varies

If your handset does not support MMS, any MMS messages sent may be delivered as SMS messages.

Wireless carriers are not liable for undelivered or delayed messages.”

B. Information provided to us by others acting on your behalf.

We may also receive and maintain Personal Information (e.g., name, address, telephone number, email address, social security number, account numbers, financial information, etc.) contained in communications with parties other than a consumer, such as a consumer’s spouse, power of attorney, authorized representative, or the consumer’s attorney in connection with the collection of any debt.

C. Information we receive from owners of the portfolios that we service.

We receive and maintain Personal Information contained in the consumer accounts receivable within the portfolios that we service for our clients. This information usually includes the consumer’s name, consumer’s social security number, information contained on credit applications, the original creditor’s account number, the balance of the account at the time of sale, and the last date a payment was received on the account. We use this information to seek the collection and recovery of those accounts receivable and to fulfill our responsibilities as master servicer to our clients.

D. Information we receive from our Service Providers.

We use Service Providers to assist us with our business activities. “Legal Service Providers” are our attorneys or law firms that we engage to collect consumer debts through litigation. “Collection Service Providers” are any Service Providers, other than a Legal Service Providers, that we place consumer accounts with for collection activities, such as letter vendor providers, bankruptcy providers, and probate providers. We may receive and maintain Personal Information from Legal Service Providers and Collection Service Providers that we contract with to assist us in recovering accounts. This information includes letter correspondence, email and SMS (text) communications, and call recordings with consumers.

E. Information we receive from Credit Reporting Bureaus.

We receive and maintain Personal Information provided by one or more of the major Credit Reporting Bureaus. We use this information to seek the collection and recovery of those accounts receivable and fulfill our responsibilities as master servicer to our clients.

F. Information collected by your use of this Site

We do not collect information from you (such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, social security number, account numbers, or financial information) when you simply visit or use this Site. Any on-line payment that is made through a link from this Site to a third-party Internet Payment Site is outside of this Privacy Policy and is instead governed by its own separate privacy policy. We do not collect, receive, or keep any Personal Information you may provide through such third-party Internet Payment Sites.

However, like most other websites, our Site automatically collects certain other information and stores it in log files. The information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, the region or general location where your computer or device is accessing the internet, browser type, operating system and other usage information about the use of The Bureaus, Inc.’s website, including a history of the pages you view. We use this information to help us design our site to better suit our users’ needs. We may also use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website, analyze trends, track visitor movements, and gather broad demographic information that assists us in identifying visitor preferences.

More specifically:

(i) Your IP Address

Like most websites, each time you visit our Site, we may automatically collect your internet protocol (IP) address and the web page from which you came.  In order to administer and optimize the Sites for you and to diagnose and resolve potential issues with or security threats to our Site or the company, we may use your IP address to help identify users and to gather broad demographic information about them.

(ii) Cookies, Pixel Tags, and Web Beacons

Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the site’s or service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. We use cookies to optimize Site functionality and give users the best possible experience. Most or all browsers permit you to disable or reject cookies.  You can do this by adjusting your preferences in the browser.  You can also click on the “cookies” banner at the bottom of the screen to accept or reject tracking cookies on our Site.

Our web pages may also incorporate “pixel tags,” “web beacons,” or similar tracking technologies (collectively, “pixel tags”) that allow us or our agents to track the actions of users of the Site. Pixel tags are used to collect information, such as the name of your Internet service provider, the IP address of the computer you are using, the type of browser software and operating system that you use, the date and time you access the Site, the website address, if any, from which you linked directly to the Site, the website address, if any, to which you travel from the Site and other similar traffic-related information.

We may also aggregate your information with similar data collected from other users to help us improve the Site and the services that we provide through the Site.

(iii) Do Not Track

Our Site tracks when visitors to our website enter through a marketing landing page. The Site also keeps a record of third party websites accessed when a user is on The Bureaus, Inc. website and clicks on a hyperlink. But we do not track users to subsequent sites and do not serve targeted advertising to them.

(iv) Analytics Information

The web servers that serve the Site may gather certain navigational information about where visitors go on our Site and information about the technical efficiencies of our Site and services. In the process of gathering navigational information, anonymous information may be collected which will provide information regarding a visitor’s use of our Site.  Anonymous information does not directly or indirectly identify, and cannot reasonably be used to identify, a particular individual. Examples of anonymous information may include certain information about your Internet browser, domain type, service provider and IP address information collected through tracking technologies and aggregated or de-identified data. We use this anonymous analytics information to operate, maintain, and provide to you the features and functionality of the Site.

III. Personal Information That We Share With Others

A. No Sales of Information to Third Parties for their Own Use.

We do not sell to third-parties for their own use any of your non-public Personal Information that we collect. Except as described in this Privacy Policy, we also do not disclose to third-parties information about your visits to our Site. Accordingly, there have been no sales of non-public Personal Information to Third-Parties for their own use or further disclosure in the past twelve (12) months. Similarly, The Bureaus, Inc. does not knowingly collect and does not, and will not, sell non-public Personal Information of minors under 16 years of age without affirmative authorization.

B. Reporting to Consumer Credit Agencies.

The Bureaus, Inc. provides monthly reports to the three major Consumer Credit Agencies containing Personal Information about the status and current balance of active consumer debt accounts that it manages. This information and the consumer reporting agencies are covered by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

C. Sharing Information with Our Affiliates and Service Providers That Help Us Perform Our Business Activities.

We may share your non-public Personal Information and other information that we have collected with our affiliates and Service Providers.

Service Providers are persons and entities that we contract with to provide us a material service in connection with debt buying and collection activities and to assist us with recovering accounts for our portfolio clients. Our Service Providers include law firms, collection agencies, accounts receivable management companies, data service providers, and technological support companies.

In connection with providing these business services to The Bureaus, Inc., one or more of our Service Providers may have access to your non-public Personal Information.  This Personal Information will not be used for any purpose other than as reasonably necessary to perform a business purpose that we authorize, and it will not be further used by the Service Provider or disclosed to any Third Party.  That includes telephone data, mobile data, or SMS/text data shared with our Service Provider Solutions by Text for communications with you.

D. Sharing Information with Third-Parties at Your Direction.

We may share your non-public Personal Information with Third Parties to whom you or your agents authorize us in advance to intentionally disclose to or allow to use your Personal Information in connection with services that we provide.

E. Sale of our Company or Company Assets

In the event of a sale, assignment, liquidation, or transfer of our assets or of any portion of our business, we reserve the right to transfer any and all information that we collect from individuals, or that we otherwise collect in connection with the Site, to unaffiliated third-party purchasers.

F. Monitoring, Law Enforcement and Legal Requests

The Bureaus, Inc. has no obligation to monitor the Site or the use of the Site or to retain the content of any user session. However, we reserve the right, at all times, to monitor, review, retain and/or disclose any information, including non-public Personal Information, as may be necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request or to cooperate with law enforcement and other authorities.

We may also use IP addresses to identify a Site user when we feel it is necessary to protect the Site, our service, clients, potential clients or others.

G. Our Internal Use and Research

The Bureaus, Inc. reserves the full and unrestricted right to use and disclose de-identified information; anonymized information; aggregated information or publicly available information that has not been combined with nonpublic Personal Information for purposes including, but not limited to, The Bureaus, Inc.’s own internal use, data mining, and research. We may also use non-personal information about portfolio accounts to assist our clients with the acquisition of and disposition of certain portfolio accounts at the end of their lifecycle.

IV. Other Sites/Third Party Links

We may include third party links on our site. These linked sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. When you click on such links and visit such other websites, you need to be aware that we may not control such other websites or such other websites’ business practices, and that this Privacy Policy does not apply to such other websites. This Privacy Policy only addresses our use and disclosure of information that we collect from you. To the extent that you disclose personal or non-personal information to other sites, you are subject to the privacy policies and practices of those sites. We encourage you to ask questions of these third-parties before you disclose any personal information.

V. Protection Of Your Personal Information

The Bureaus, Inc. is committed to protecting your privacy. We will take reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to protect Personal Information provided to us through the Site or that we otherwise collect from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.  Our data security and privacy policies and practices are periodically reviewed and modified as necessary.

When you use the Site, you consent to the use of your information in the manner specified in this Privacy Policy. This policy may change periodically, so please check back from time to time. By your continued use of the Site, you consent to the terms of the revised policy.

VI. Terms of Use

Please also visit our Terms of Use  section establishing the use, disclaimers, and limitations of liability governing the use of our website.

VII. Contact Us With Questions

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or our practices, or wish to make a request regarding your Personal Information, please contact us as follows:

Chief Privacy Officer
711 N Edgewood Ave.
Suite 200
Wood Dale, IL 60191
847.328.4300
[email protected]

VIII. CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: Summary Of Consumer Rights Under The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”)

A. Overview

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) took effect on January 1, 2020. The CCPA grants new privacy rights to California consumers, including:

• The right to know what personal information is collected, used, shared or sold, both as to the categories and specific pieces of personal information;
• The right to delete personal information held by businesses and by extension, a business’s service provider;
• The right to opt-out of the sale of personal information. Consumers are able to direct a business that sells personal information to stop selling that information. Children under the age of 16 must provide opt in consent, with a parent or guardian consenting for children under 13; and
• The right to non-discrimination in terms of price or service when a consumer exercises a privacy right under CCPA.

A business subject to the CCPA that collects a California consumer’s personal information must, at or before the point of collection, inform the consumer as to the categories of personal information to be collected and the purposes for which the categories of personal information shall be used.

A covered business must disclose and deliver the personal information the business collected about the consumer in response to a verifiable consumer request.

For purposes of the CCPA, “Personal information” does not include:

• Publicly available information from government records;
• De-identified or aggregated consumer information; or
• Information excluded from the CCPA’s scope, such as:
  • health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) or clinical trial data;
  • personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994.

A further summary of consumer rights provided by the CCPA follows.

B. Right to Know.

A business subject to the CCPA must disclose in its privacy policy the personal information about consumers that the business has collected, sold, or disclosed for a business purpose in the past 12 months.

A business that collects personal information must also disclose, in response to a verifiable consumer request, the following:

• The categories of personal information the business has collected about the consumer;
• The categories of sources from which that personal information is collected;
• The business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling personal information collected from consumers;
• The categories of third parties with which the business shares personal information;
• The specific pieces of personal information the business has collected about the consumer making the request;

A business that sells a consumer’s personal information or discloses a consumer’s personal information for a business purpose must disclose the following in response to a verifiable consumer request:

• The categories of personal information the business has collected about the individual consumer
• The categories of personal information the business has sold about the consumer and categories of third parties to which the personal information was sold by category or categories of personal information for each third party to which the personal information was sold. Or, if the business has not sold any consumer personal information, it must state that fact)
• The categories of personal information the business has disclosed about the consumer for a business purpose. Or, if the business has not disclosed any consumer personal information for a business purpose, it must state that fact.

C. Right to Deletion.

You have the right to request that we delete any of your Personal Information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will delete (and direct our Service Providers to delete) your Personal Information from our records, unless an exception applies.

We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our Service Providers to:

1. Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.
2. Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
3. Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
4. Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
5. Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 seq.).
6. Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.
7. Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
8. Comply with a legal obligation.
9. Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

D. Right to Non-Discrimination.

A business must not discriminate against a consumer who exercises any of the consumer’s rights under the CCPA. However, a business may charge different prices or provide a different quality of goods or services if the difference is reasonably related to the value provided to the consumer by the consumer’s data and may offer financial incentives to a consumer for the collection, sale, or deletion of personal information on a prior opt-in consent basis.

E. Right to Opt-Out.

A business that sells consumers’ personal information to third parties needs to provide notice to consumers thereof and that consumers have the right to opt out of the sale of their personal information. A business must provide a “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” link on its Internet homepage that links to an Internet webpage that enables a consumer to opt out of the sale of the consumer’s personal information.

A business must not sell the personal information of consumers if the business has actual knowledge that the consumer is less than 16 years of age, unless the consumer, in the case of consumers between 13 and 16 years of age, or the consumer’s parent or guardian, in the case of consumers who are less than 13 years of age, has affirmatively authorized the sale of the consumer’s personal information.

F. Privacy Policy Requirements.

A business must describe in its online privacy policy or in any California-specific description of consumer privacy rights the following, which must be updated at least once every 12 months:

• Consumers’ rights under the CCPA, including the consumer right to opt out of the sale of the consumer’s personal information and a separate link to the “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” Internet Web page;
• The methods for submitting consumer requests; and
• A list of the categories of personal information that the business has collected about consumers, sold about consumers, and disclosed about consumers for a business purpose in the preceding 12 months

IX. CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS: How To Make A CCPA Consumer Rights Request.

A. Instructions For Submitting A CCPA Consumer Rights Request To Us

If you are a California resident and wish to exercise any of the CCPA consumer rights summarized above, such as a Request to Know or a Request to Delete Personal Information, you can do so in one of the following ways:

• Click on this link to complete and submit the referenced form;
• Call us at 1-800-445-6901; or
• Reach us by email or U.S. mail at:

Chief Privacy Officer
711 N Edgewood Ave.
Suite 200
Wood Dale, IL 60191
[email protected]

Upon receiving a verifiable request to know or a request to delete, we will confirm receipt of the request within ten (10) days and provide some information about how we will verify and handle the request, and by when you should expect to receive a response.

Please note that you may only make a verifiable consumer Request to Know or Request to Access your data under the CCPA two times within any 12-month period.

B. Verification Of The Person Making A Consumer Rights Request.

Of course, we need to be reasonably sure that the person making the request is actually you! So, we may need some information from you to verify that you are the person whose Personal Information you are asking to know about or to delete. Accordingly, a verifiable consumer request must:

• Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we have collected Personal Information or an authorized representative. This will include:
  • Your first and last name, plus
  • Last four digits of your Social Security Number;
  • Account number of credit report; or
  • Current mailing address
• Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.
• If possible, please provide this information by clicking on this to complete and submit the referenced form

Understandably, we cannot respond to your request or provide you with Personal Information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm that the personal information relates to you.  Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us.  We will only use any Personal Information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify your identity or authority to make the request.

C. Designating An Authorized Agent to Make A Consumer Rights Request for You.

Only you or a person that you designate and authorize to act on your behalf may make a verifiable consumer request related to your Personal Information. For your protection, we will need to first see some proof that someone seeking to act on your behalf is actually authorized by you to do so. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child, again with some proof that you are the minor child’s parent or legal guardian. Forms of authorization may include:

• California Power of Attorney
• Written authorization sworn and signed under penalty of perjury
• Registered Agent status with the California Secretary of State

D. Response Timing and Format.

We will try to respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt.  If we need more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.  If you have an account with us, we will deliver our written response to that account.  If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option.  Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request’s receipt.

If you are making a Request to Delete your Personal Information, we will need to re-confirm with you that you really want your information deleted after verifying your request.

If we cannot respond to or comply with your Request to Know or Request to Delete, say because we cannot verify your identity or because an exception applies, we will explain the reasons we cannot comply with your request.  For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer 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.