Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance is committed to safeguarding your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information. This Notice explains how we manage, collect, use and protect the personal information entrusted to us. In particular, this Notice aims to provide you with a better understanding of the types of personal information we collect and the purposes for which that information is used, including circumstances where information may be disclosed to third-parties and overseas recipients.
We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information so that we can provide you with products and services including:
Without your personal information, we may not be able to issue insurance coverage, administer your insurance, answer your questions or concerns, or process your claim.
Our websites are not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children under 16-years old.
We collect and hold a range of personal information from and about individuals who are insured, or have submitted a claim, under our insurance policies. Depending on the products or services we are providing to you, we may collect and hold the following information about you:
We will only collect information for the purposes outlined above.
Where it is reasonable and practicable to do so, we collect personal information directly from you or from your insurance broker. This information may be collected using various means including in writing, in person, by telephone, by email or through other electronic messages.
We may also collect your personal information from:
We will only collect and use your personal information in accordance with applicable privacy laws. Some laws require your consent to collect certain personal information from you and we will first obtain your consent where required by law to do so.
Our websites also utilize technology such as tracking pixels and cookies, which may collect data such as your IP address, referring websites, and unique or returning visitors. This data may be linked with personal information we have collected, such as your name or contact information.
We hold your personal information in various internal systems and databases including shared drives, email, document management systems and in hard copy. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect the security of personal information from misuse and loss, as well as unauthorized access, modification or disclosure. After it is no longer needed or required for applicable legal or regulatory purposes, we dispose of or de-identify personal information.
We may make your personal information available to third-parties as permitted by applicable law to administer our insurance policies or when required by law to do so. We may provide your personal information to:
We do not sell any personal information to marketing companies.
We are an international insurance company, with offices in several countries. In some circumstances and for the purposes set out above, we may disclose personal information to parties, including our own offices, located in other countries. The laws governing personal data protection vary and the country where your personal information is transferred may have different laws than those in the country in which you reside.
We make all reasonable efforts to ensure that the arrangements we have in place with overseas parties impose appropriate privacy and confidentiality obligations on those parties to ensure that the personal information shared is kept secure and used only for the purposes noted above.
We take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up-to-date.
If you wish to access the personal information we may hold about you or if you believe that the personal information we hold about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date, you can request access to or correction of the information by contacting us (contact details below).
In order to process any request for access or correction of personal information, we may need to obtain a minimum level of information, including:
If you are seeking access to, or correction of, information on another person’s behalf, we will also require written authorization from that individual.
We reserve the right to refuse access to personal information under grounds permitted by applicable privacy laws. There is no fee to access or correct your information but there may be a cost charged, if permitted by applicable law, for providing access to personal information, which reflects the cost of locating and providing the information to you.
If you have any questions or concerns about how we handle your personal information, please contact us (contact details below).
If you have contacted us with a complaint and you are not satisfied with our response, you may refer your complaint to your state privacy regulatory authority. If you reside in the United States, complaints can be made with the state insurance regulator. If you reside outside the United States and your country has a privacy commissioner, information about submitting complaints should be available on their web site.
We may reach out to you by email or use third-party vendors to allow policyholders to submit original ratings and reviews of our insurance products and services (“Submissions”). Submissions to us or to such third-party vendors’ review submission forms and via email may be published on our websites, marketing, advertising, or any other lawful purpose. We may publish your review Submissions with limited information to possibly include your first name, first letter of last name, and your state of residency. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and/or practices of third-parties. By submitting a review or rating of our products and services, you agree to the following: (1) We reserve the right to publish partial versions of the Submissions in any manner, for marketing, advertising, trade, or any other lawful purpose; (2) You explicitly waive rights of publicity, privacy, and all right to compensation as it relates to the Submissions; (3) You grant us an irrevocable, unrestricted, and royalty-free license to use, reproduce, publish, exhibit, and distribute any part of the Submissions in any format and media; and (4) We have no obligation to use or publish your Submissions
This Notice may change from time to time and where this occurs, the updated Notice will be posted on our web site.
The privacy contact for each of our offices can be reached by:
Level 25, 8 Chifley Square
Sydney, NSW 2000
Australia
Attn: Corporate and Compliance Counsel
+61 (0) 28002 2125
Email
8 Cross Street
#24-01/02 Manulife Tower
Singapore 048424
Attn: Corporate and Compliance Counsel
+65 6675 1474
Email
100 Federal Street
7th Floor
Boston, MA 02110
Attn: Deputy Compliance Officer
617.943.6103
Email
Data Protection Officer
Berkshire Hathaway International Insurance Limited
4th Floor, 8 Fenchurch Place
London EC3M 4AJ
Email
Per Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.100-§ 1798.198 (“The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018”), you have the following rights, subject to our legal and records retention obligations:
You will not receive any discriminatory treatment by exercising these privacy rights.
We will respond to all reasonable, verified requests within the amount of time required by applicable law. If you want to exercise any of these rights, please contact:
You may authorize an agent to make a request on your behalf, if proof of authorization is provided. We will return your call or email the following business day and will ask for information to help verify your identity (or verify your agent is authorized to make the request on your behalf). We will confirm whether we are able to verify, and if so will respond to your request within 45 days
December 2019