Privacy & Accessibility Policy

California Consumer Privacy Notice (CCPA)
Accessibility Statement

Overview

This privacy (the “Policy”) sets out how Element, Inc., dba Element Home Loans including its affiliates (“Element”) use and protect personally identifiable information that customer (referenced herein as “consumer”, “customer’, “you” or “your”) gives Element when a consumer is using this website. Element may share your personal information collected from you or other sources to originate your loan, service your account, or offer you a service or offer you a product offered by one of our affiliates or third-party service providers.

We take our responsibility to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the customer’s personal information very seriously. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with Federal, state, and applicable laws to store and secure personal information about you from unauthorized access, alteration, and destruction. It is Element’s policy to strictly restrict access to your personal information only to individuals who need the information to perform their job functions.

From time to time, we enter into agreements with other companies to provide services to us or make products and services available to you. Under these agreements, the companies may receive your personal information, but they are contractually required to safeguard the information provided, and they may not use it for any other purpose.

Element Home Loans Website

This website is owned, managed, and maintained by Element. By using this website, you are consenting to this Policy.

Scope

Who is Covered by this Privacy Policy

This Policy applies to customers who are current customers or former customers. If we change our privacy policies to permit us to share additional information, we have about you, as described below, or to permit disclosures to additional types of parties, you will be notified in advance.

Policy Statement

This Policy outlines the reasons we may use or share your personal information. This policy details how you can limit Element from sharing your personal information.

What Personal Information We Collect and Share

The types of personal information we collect and share depend on the product or service you have with us. This information can include but is not limited to the following:

  • Social Security number and employment information;
  • Account balances, transaction history, and credit information;
  • Assets and investment experience;
  • Name, date of birth, email address, postal address, phone number, mobile number;
  • Debit or credit card details;
  • Information about your device (such as the IP address, which is a numerical code to identify your device that can provide information about the country, region or city where you are based); and
  • User information relating to your circumstances and how you use our sites, apps, and services.
  • SMS opt-in or phone numbers for the purpose of SMS are not being shared.
How We Gather Your Personal Information

As part of providing you with financial products or services, we may obtain information about you from the following sources:

  • Applications, forms, and other information that you provide us (such as name, address, Social Security and account numbers, and income and employment history);
  • Transactions with us, our affiliates, or others (such as loan balance, payment history, and other account information);
  • Federal and state taxing authorities;
  • Federal, state or local government agencies;
  • Other financial institutions with which you do business;
  • Mortgage settlement service providers like consumer reporting agencies (such as account information and information about your creditworthiness); or
  • Website page visits, web browsers, and blog post comments (such as non-personal information which includes the date, time, location, and cookies).
  • Loan data information, including personal information, are collected and stored in Loan Origination System (LOS). Our LOS maintains detailed logs when records are created and edited. The data and the logs, including personal information, are maintained and managed in our LOS for extended time lengths, subject to the Federal, state, and appliable laws.
  • Our LOS is a cloud based, hosted system, and is recognized as one of the most important and most widely used systems for mortgage lending. NFM follows the technology capabilities provided by our LOS to extract and delete information from the loan files.

Information Collected When Using This Website

We do not access information about your identity while you are using our website. Your information is used after an application is completed or once you submit a contact form. Before completing an application or contact form your personal information will remain anonymous to us. We only collect the date, time, location, and activity on the website.

Cookies

Cookies are small text 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 sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information.

We use cookies to make it easier to navigate our site, to understand and save your preferences for future visits, keep track of advertisements, and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business.

If a user rejects cookies, the user’s ability to use some areas of our website will be limited. For further information on cookies please visit http://www.aboutcookies.org.

Call Monitoring and Recording

If you communicate with us by telephone, we may monitor or record the call.

Why We Use Your Personal Data

We use your personal information collected through our websites or applications for several purposes, including the following:

  • Business purposes — such as to process your loan transactions, maintain your account(s), respond to court orders and legal investigations, or report to credit bureaus, or
  • Marketing purposes — with service providers we use to offer our products and our services to you (please see below to limit how we contact you), or
  • Use by a Third Party Service Providers – We may share your information with a third-party service provider which may offer their products or services to you directly.
What Information We Share

We may disclose collected information we have about you s permitted by law. We may provide information about you to third parties without your consent, as permitted by law, such as:

  • To regulatory authorities and law enforcement officials;
  • To protect against or prevent actual or potential fraud, unauthorized transactions, claims, or other liability;
  • To consumer reporting agencies;
  • To respond to a subpoena or court order, judicial process or legal investigations; or
  • In connection with a proposed or actual sale, merger, or transfer of all or a portion of a business or an operating unit, etc.

In addition, we may provide information about you to our service providers to help us process your application, service your accounts, or to offer services. Our service providers, which may include billing service providers, mail and telephone service companies, lenders, investors, title, and escrow companies, home-owner insurance companies, appraisal companies, or other services needed to originate or service a loan.

Third-Party Services and Agreements

We may disclose all of the information we collect, to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing or purchaser or seller agreements.

How We Protect Your Personal Information and Your Privacy

We restrict access to non-public personal information about you to those employees and agents who we determine need to know the information to provide products or services to you, service your account, or maintain the systems that support your account. To restrict unauthorized access and use of your non-public personal information, we use security measures that comply with the law. These measures include computer safeguards, and maintenance of physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards.

Links to Other Sites

Our website includes links to other, non-Element, websites whose privacy policies and practices may differ from those of Element. If you submit personal information to any of those sites, your information is governed by their privacy statements and we are not responsible for how your personal information is used or stored. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy statement of any non-Element website you visit.

Public Posts

Our website offers publicly accessible blogs. You should be aware that any information they provide as a blog post comment may be read, collected, and used by others who access them. To request removal of customer’s personal information from our blog, contact us at info@nfmlendig.com.

Contacting and Marketing

By clicking on any button for submission of information on this website, you are agreeing to the following terms and conditions:

  • To receive important notices and other communications at any telephone number (including a mobile device) or email address you entered so that Element can contact you. This authorization removes any previous registration(s) on a federal or state Do-Not-Call (DNC) registry or any internal opt-out/unsubscribe requests you may have previously requested with Element;
  • That Element or one of its third party associates may use an automatic dialing system in connection with calls made to any telephone number you entered, even if it is a mobile phone number or other services for which the called person(s) could be charged for such call.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

We comply with the requirements of COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act). We do not collect any information from anyone under 18 years of age. Our website, products, and services are all directed to people who are at least 18 years old or older.

Opting Out or Updating Personal Preferences

Except as otherwise provided above, you may choose to opt-out from any or all of the ways that your personal information is shared, and how we may be contacted in any of the following ways:

  • Email us at unsubscribe@elementhl.com;
  • Call our customer service number by dialing 888-233-0092;
  • Write to us via U.S. mail to the address below indicating customer’s contact preferences or opt-out request, including your name, address, loan number(s), and Social Security number.

Element Home Loans
Attn: Customer Service Department
1190 Winterson Road, Suite 300
Linthicum, MD 21090

Changes to Our Privacy Policy Statement

We reserve the right to amend this privacy notice at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this privacy notice, we will notify you by email or through a notice on our website homepage.

If we decide to change our Policy, we will post those changes on this page, and/or update the Privacy Policy modification date below. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

Contact Information

 If you have any questions or comments about this notice, our Privacy Policy Statement, how we collect and use your personal information, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under this Privacy Policy Statement or applicable law, please do not hesitate to contact us at:

Phone: 888-233-0092
Email: privacy@elementhl.com
Website: www.elementhl.com
Postal Address:
Attn: Customer Service Department
1190 Winterson Road, Suite 300
Linthicum, MD 21090

Accessibility

Element Home Loans is committed to ensuring our customers can readily access the products and services we provide, both in our physical locations and on our website. We aim to comply with all applicable standards, including WCAG 2.0 accessibility standards up to level AA. As the law and accessibility standards continue to change and we strive to deliver the most up-to-date content online. If you experience any difficulty in accessing any part of this website, please feel free to call us at 1-888-233-0092, email us at info@nfmlending.com, or use the Contact Us Online form.  We will work with you to provide the information, through an alternate communication method or one that is accessible for you, consistent with applicable law (for example, through telephone support). 

Limitations and alternatives

We make every effort to ensure accessibility of elementhl.com, however, there may be some limitations. Below is a description of known limitations and potential solutions. Please contact us if you observe an issue not listed below:

Contact Form: The form uses a Captcha service for security and to prevent spam, which may not be accessible by screen readers. We are looking into alternative methods for blocking unwanted form entries while having the form be accessible to users. If you are having trouble with the contact form, please contact us by phone at (888) 233-0092 or by email at .

Mortgage Calculators: The calculators come from a third party site and may not be fully accessible to all users. At this time, we are limited in our abilities to change things. If you are having trouble accessing the calculators, please give us a call at (888) 233-0092 or by email at .