Gerber Life Privacy Policy

Last Updated: November 8, 2024

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This  privacy policy (the "Privacy Policy" or “Policy”) explains how Gerber Life Insurance Company ("Gerber Life," "we," or "us") handles (a) information collected from or about individuals when they visit or use a Gerber Life website, such as GerberLife.com  (collectively, "Gerber Life websites," "our websites," or "our sites",); and (b) information we collect about prospective Gerber Life customers who have not previously interacted with us. The scope and applicability of this Privacy Policy is further described under “Who does this Privacy Policy apply to?” below.

By visiting or using our websites, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these practices, please do not use our websites.

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Table of Contents for Privacy Policy

1. Who does this privacy policy apply to?
2. When do we collect information from you online?
3. What information do we collect from you and how do we use it, including online tracking?
4. With whom do we share your information?
5. How do we protect your information?
6. How can you update your online account information or opt-out from certain features or services?
7. How do we notify you about changes to this Privacy Policy?
8. What Gerber Life does about children visiting the Web Site?
9. Additional information for California residents
10. How can I contact Gerber Life about this Privacy Policy?

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1. Who does this Privacy Policy apply to?

This Privacy Policy applies only to the individuals and information handling activities described below:

• Website Visitors.  If you visit or use the Gerber Life websites, this Privacy Policy applies to your use of our websites and the information collected through or in connection with your use of the sites. This includes information collected from or about policyholders, claimants, beneficiaries, and non-customers who may be exploring our products to the extent such information is collected through Gerber Life websites. Except for information about Gerber Life Prospects (as defined and described below), this Policy does not apply to information we collect from or about you via other methods, such as paper application forms, claim forms, phone calls with customer service, etc. For information about our practices applicable to information collected via such other methods, please refer to our other privacy policy notices available here. Further, this Policy does not apply to insurance agents who use our agency website or to any other business-to-business website that we may operate
• Gerber Life Prospective Customers.  If you are a potential customer and have never inquired about, sought to obtain, or obtained Gerber Life products or services (a “Prospect”), this Privacy Policy applies to any information we collect about you via any method or source. This includes information collected passively through your use of our websites (as described under “Automated collection via cookies and web technologies; online tracking” below), information collected offline, and information collected from third party sources. However, if you have inquired about, tried to obtain, obtained, or are (or have been) a claimant or beneficiary of Gerber Life products or services, this Privacy Policy only covers the information collected through or in connection with your use of our websites, as described above with respect to Website Visitors.

Links to Third Party Sites

Our websites may provide links to, or features from, other third party sites (such as third party social networks) that we do not own or control. If you link to such sites or use such features, you do so at your own risk. We are not responsible for the content or practices of any third party sites.

2. When do we collect information from you online?

We collect information from you on our websites when you do any of the following:

• Apply for insurance
• Sign up for our newsletter
• Enroll in and use Gerber Life eService
• Contact Customer Service via email
• Fill out customer surveys
• Use our tell-a-friend features
• Fill out other purpose-specific forms available on our sites
• Visit or browse our websites (automated collection via cookies and other web technologies)
• Sign up for our Blog

A more detailed description of each of these collection scenarios, and how we use your information in each scenario, is provided in Section 3 below.

3. What information do we collect from you and how do we use it?

The information we collect and how we use it depends on the context and purpose for collection.

Insurance application forms

The information collected on these forms will vary depending on the product but will typically include some or all of the following:

• personal information (e.g., name, address, phone number, email address, Social Security number);
• demographic information (e.g., age, date of birth, gender);
• medical and criminal history (e.g., past medical conditions, alcohol use, convictions);
• previous policy information (e.g., policy numbers, coverage amounts);
• employment information (e.g., occupation, name of employer);
• beneficiary information (e.g., designee name, relationship to insured);
• payment information (e.g., bank account or credit card information); and,
• other information needed for us to assess your eligibility for insurance (e.g., requested coverage amount, residency, etc.).

The information collected may be regarding the proposed insured, applicant for coverage and the policy beneficiary. Any information you provide on our online application form is used to review and process your application. For insurance policies that require underwriting, your application information may be used (together with other information we may obtain about you) to determine your eligibility for insurance. We may also use information from your application (such as your contact information) to keep you informed about the status of your application or to remind you about completing your application.

In addition, the information from your online application will be used and disclosed in accordance with our other privacy policy notices available here.

Newsletter & Blog

When you sign up for our newsletter and/or blog online, we may ask you for the following information:

• personal contact information (e.g., name, address, email address); and,
• communication preferences (e.g., which mailings/content you prefer to receive).

This information is used to send you the communications that you request, which may include our email newsletter, blog and other mailings (including postal mail) that may contain special offers and product news from Gerber Life and our partners. We do not sell, rent, or share any of your personal contact information with unaffiliated third party companies for their own marketing use.

In some instances, we may obtain sign-ups to our newsletter through check boxes that appear on other forms (such as on an application or quote-request form) or on the phone through our Customer Service department. We may also receive sign-ups through third party sources, such as from co-registration forms on other sites.

You can always opt-out from receiving our newsletter, blog or other marketing communications by clicking on the "Unsubscribe" link provided at the bottom of each such email communication or by contacting Customer Service.

Gerber Life eService

To set up a Gerber Life eService account (which allows our policy holders to access and manage their account online), we ask you to provide or validate the following information:

• login information (e.g., user ID, password);
• policy information (e.g., policy number, insured's date of birth); and,
• personal contact information (e.g., name, address, email address).

This information is used to verify that you own a policy (or group of policies) with Gerber Life and to create and maintain an online account that is linked to your policies.

Once set up, your eService account allows you to do many things, including:

• Receive premium-due notifications via email (i.e., Paperless Billing);
• Receive other policy documentation electronically;
• Pay your premiums online (individually or through AutoPay);
• View and make changes to your policy information (e.g., update contact or demographic information, change beneficiaries, etc.);
• View all recent premium payments and policy transactions; and,
• Add or remove policies to your eService account.

When you use our eService tool, we may collect information from you to verify or modify what we already have in our records or to obtain certain information from you (such as payment information or additional beneficiary information) for the first time. For some activities (such as when you make policy changes), you may be required to generate a printable form to sign and mail in to Gerber Life along with additional legal documentation (such as a birth certificate or other form of identification). Any new policy-related information you give us through your eService account will be handled in accordance with this policy, as well as Gerber Life's other privacy policy notices available here.

Customer Service

Our websites may allow you to contact Customer Service via email with specific questions about your policy or general questions about our different insurance products. The information collected for these purposes may include:

• personal contact information (e.g., name, email address);
• policy or application information, if applicable (e.g., policy number, application number); and
• details about your question or inquiry.

This information is used to respond to your question or request in a timely fashion, and may be retained to keep a record of your correspondence.

Customer Feedback

From time to time, we may obtain feedback from you about your experience in using our products and services. Examples may include your responses to online customer surveys as well as other comments and suggestions you may provide to us about your experience. We use this information to continually improve our products and services.

Other purpose-specific forms

From time to time, we may offer other website forms, features, or services that allow users to submit information to us, including personal information. The purposes of these forms, and how the collected information will be used in each case, will always be stated clearly at the point of collection. The types and amount of information collected will vary depending on intended uses of the data.

Prospect Information

We may obtain lists of and collect information about Prospects who may be interested in our products and services. We collect Prospect information from third party marketing partners and consumer data resellers for purposes of marketing our products and services to Prospects, including tailoring marketing content or messages that Prospects receive to better match their interests.

Automated collection via cookies and web technologies; online tracking

As you navigate through a web site, certain information can be passively collected (that is, gathered without you actively providing the information) using various technologies and means, such as navigational data collection. Like most web site operators, we track IP addresses during your visit and use session, persistent, and flash cookies and may use any other successor tracker technology. We use cookies to help identify you when you visit our sites. You should be aware that we might use these cookies for other purposes now and in the future. Our system also automatically gathers information about the areas you visit on our sites and collects operational information about the technology you use, such as your browser, type of computer, operating systems, and Internet service providers.

The collection and use of this information allows us to:

• Enhance the operation and functionality of our sites;
• Troubleshoot technical problems, including security issues;
• Tailor the online content or messages that you see to better match your interests;
• Save you time when you use our sites (e.g., remembering your User ID for easy login);
• Understand how people generally use our site and which features are most popular; and,
• Analyze our website traffic and, in turn, optimize the layout of our sites.

We also collect personal information about users over time and across different websites when you use our websites. We use tracking tools to provide you advertising based on interest and to better understand your behaviors and browsing activities. We might permit third parties to gather information passively on our websites, including for behavioral advertising purposes. We partner with third party ad networks to either display advertising on our website or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our ad network partners use cookies and web beacons to collect non-personally identifiable information about your activities on our websites and other websites to provide you targeted advertising based upon your interests. Web beacons collect only a limited set of information including a cookie number, the time and date of a page view and a description of the page on which the web beacon resides. Web beacons are not used to access your personal information on our websites. You can opt-out from third party Ad Network tracking at any time by going to: http://optout.networkadvertising.org.

If you block or delete cookies, not all of the tracking that we have described in this Privacy Policy may stop. Additionally, if you block cookies, you may not be able to use all of the features and functionality of the Web Site.

Please note that our systems currently don't respond to "Do Not Track" headers or signals from web browsers.

Artificial Intelligence and External Data Disclosure

The information below outlines the usage of Artificial Intelligence Systems (AIS) and External Consumer Data and Information Sources (ECDIS).

• Use of Artificial Intelligence Systems (AIS) and External Consumer Data (ECDIS) We use AIS and ECDIS in a variety of ways, including in our underwriting and pricing processes, to improve the quality and efficiency of the products and services we provide to you.
• External Data Usage We may obtain and use data about you from external vendors.
• Life Insurance Applicants In the case of life insurance, if a declination, limitation, rate differential, or any other adverse underwriting decision occurs, we will provide you with the reasons behind the decision. This will include an explanation of the AIS and ECDIS we used in making that decision.
• For New York Residents As a resident of New York, you have the right to request specific information regarding the ECDIS or AIS data that influenced any underwriting or pricing decisions related to your policy or contract. Should you wish to make such a request, please contact us at 877-877-2912, and we will provide the relevant information.

4. With whom do we share your information?

The sharing practices described below only apply to information we collect from you on our websites and specifically for website-related purposes (e.g., e-newsletter sign-up, eService account setup and maintenance, online customer surveys, etc.), and to any information we collect about Prospects.

To learn about how we share information collected for insurance-related purposes (e.g., insurance applications, policy changes, etc.), please refer to Gerber Life's other privacy policy notices available here.

Gerber Life may provide aggregate statistics about our customers, Prospects, sales, online traffic patterns and related information to reputable third parties, but these statistics will not identify any individual or include any personally identifying information.

We may share your website-related information (including personal contact information about you) and personal information about Prospects as set forth below.

• With agents and contractors who help us run our sites or perform other services on our behalf (e.g., e-newsletter delivery, mailing list management, etc.). These companies are only allowed to access and use your information for the specific task they've been hired to do and are required to keep your information confidential and secure.
• For legal-related purposes (if necessary), including disclosures in connection with a lawsuit or legal investigation, court order, governmental inquiry, enforcement of legal rights (e.g., contract terms, intellectual property rights, etc.), fraud investigation, safety issue, or other similar matter.
• In the event of an acquisition, merger, sale, corporate restructuring, bankruptcy, or other similar event that involves Gerber Life. If such an event occurred, we would make reasonable efforts to require that your personal information continue to be handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy, unless it is not practical or permissible to do so.
• With Gerber Life’s affiliates for their own business purposes.  Our affiliates can be financial and nonfinancial companies. Our affiliates include companies within the Western & Southern Financial Group family of companies. Please visit www.westernsouthern.com for more information about our affiliates.

5. How do we protect your information?

We use a variety of methods to keep the information we collect confidential and secure. These measures include (among other things) the use of industry-standard encryption to protect sensitive information and activities (e.g., submission of online application form, registration and login for eService account, etc.), storage of your information on firewall-protected servers, and limiting access to your information to only those Gerber Life employees and agents/contractors who need it to do their job and have been trained in the proper handling of customer information.

Please note, however, that these protections do not apply to information you choose to share in public areas such as our website community features or other social areas.

The safety and security of your information also depend on you. Never share your password with anyone else and notify us promptly if you believe your password security has been breached.

6. How can you update your online account information or opt-out from certain features or services?

If you created an eService account with us, you can always access and update your account profile (including the name, contact information, and password associated with your account) by logging in to your account and clicking on "Profile." Within your account, you also have the ability to turn on/off electronic billing notifications or other account-related email alerts.

If you signed up to receive our newsletter, blog or other marketing communications, you can always opt-out from receiving these communications by clicking on the unsubscribe link provided at the bottom of each such email communication or by contacting Customer Service.

To opt-out from being tracked by third party ad networks (for targeted advertising purposes), please go to http://optout.networkadvertising.org.

Please see your browser instructions for how to block or erase cookies.

If you have opted in to receive push notifications, you may opt out at any time by using your web browser or mobile device controls.

7. How do we notify you about changes to this Privacy Policy?

If we decide to change the way in which we handle your website-related information, we will post the changes in this Privacy Policy. For material changes (i.e., substantially new practices you wouldn't expect from us or that we didn't previously disclose in this policy), we may decide to notify you more prominently (such as through a notice on the home page of our site).

8. What Gerber Life does about children visiting our websites?

The websites are not intended for children under the age of 18. We will not knowingly collect information from our site visitors in this age group. We encourage parents to talk to their children about their use of the Internet and the information they disclose online.

9. Additional information for California residents.

The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) gives California residents the right to know what personally identifiable information Gerber Life collects about them, including whether it is being sold or disclosed to third parties, and grants them certain rights described below. However, the CCPA does not apply to personal information that Gerber Life collects, processes, sells, or discloses pursuant to certain federal and state financial privacy laws (“Financial Privacy Laws”). The only personal information we do not collect, process, or disclose pursuant to Financial Privacy Law is personal information about Prospects. As a result, the information and rights described in this section below only apply to Prospects who are residents of California.  All other individuals should refer to Gerber Life's other privacy policy notices available here to learn about how your personal information is used and shared, and what rights you may have and how to exercise them.

A list of the categories of personal information Gerber Life has collected in the preceding 12 months about Prospects residing in California, along with the categories of sources from which the information was collected, the purposes for which the information is used, the categories of third parties to whom we have disclosed the information, and if we sell the personal information, the categories of third parties to whom we sell it

In addition to the purposes described in the table above, Gerber Life collects and discloses any and all personal information we collect as necessary or appropriate to comply with laws and regulations; monitor, investigate, and enforce compliance with and potential breaches of our policies and procedures and legal and regulatory requirements; comply with civil, criminal, judicial, or regulatory inquiries, investigations, subpoenas, or summons; and exercise or defend the legal rights of Gerber Life and its employees, affiliates, customers, contractors, and agents.

California Prospects have certain rights with respect to Gerber Life’s use and disclosure of personal information about them:

• Right of Access | Right to Notice. You have the right to request that we disclose to you the categories of personal information we have collected about you in the preceding 12 months, the categories of sources from which the personal information was collected, the purpose for collecting or selling the personal information, the categories of third parties with whom we shared the personal information, and the categories of personal information we sold about you or disclosed about you for a business purpose in the preceding 12 months. You also have the right to request that we disclose or provide you with access to the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you in the preceding 12 months
• Right to Deletion.  You have the right to request that Gerber Life delete the personal information we collect from you. However, in certain situations we are not required to delete your personal information.
• Right to Opt-Out of the Sale of Personal Information. If Gerber Life sells your personal information to third parties, you have the right, at any time, to direct us not to sell your personal information. Gerber Life does not sell personal information. In addition, Gerber Life does not have actual knowledge that our company sells the personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.
• Right Not to Be Subject to Discrimination. Gerber Life shall not discriminate against a Prospect because the Prospect exercised any of the Prospect’s California rights described above.

To exercise any of the rights described above, you can call us at (877) 877-2912 or use the online submission form available at https://www.gerberlife.com/gl/portal/customer-service/privacy-legal/privacy-CCPA-request.

We value the security and confidentiality of your personal information. Therefore, if you exercise your right to notice, right of access, or right to deletion, we must first verify your identify to make sure that you are the person about whom we have collected personal information. We verify every request carefully and ask that you provide your name, address, email address, and date of birth along with your request for verification purposes.

You may also authorize someone else (an “Authorized Agent”) to submit a request to exercise your rights on your behalf. To do so, you must provide your Authorized Agent with signed permission to submit a request on your behalf (unless you provide your Authorized Agent with power of attorney pursuant to California Probate Code sections 4121 to 4130). If you give your Authorized Agent signed permission to submit a request on your behalf, before we provide any information to your Authorized Agent, we will require your Authorized Agent to provide us with (1) proof of your signed permission (such as by submitting a copy of the permission); and (2) your name, address, email address, and date of birth.

California residents who are unable to review or access this Privacy Policy due to a disability may call us at (877) 877-2912 to access this Privacy Policy in an alternative format.

10. How can I contact Gerber Life about this policy?

For privacy policy questions or concerns, please contact us:

Gerber Life Insurance Company
Attn: Privacy Officer
1311 Mamaroneck Avenue
White Plains, NY 10605
877-877-2912
info@gerberlife.com