Privacy Policy and Notice

Last updated on November 4, 2022

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how Embed Inc. d/b/a Pylon, Pylon Lending (“Pylon,” “we,” or “us”) may collect, use, disclose, and otherwise process personal information, on behalf of our business customers (“Partner/s”) in connection with our “Powered by Pylon” suite of products and services that allows businesses the ability to integrate Pylon services or features within their own websites (collectively, the “Services”).

Effective January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides specific rights and protections to California residents. If you are a California resident, please see the section entitled “Notice to California Residents” below for more information.

What We Collect

The categories of personal information we collect depend on how you interact with our Services, and the requirements of applicable law. For example, we may collect:

Consumer’s Personal Information, such as a consumer’s name, address, telephone number, mobile number, email address, and Social Security Number.

Loan Application Information, such as when you apply for a loan, a pre-approval letter, or request related information such as mortgage rates, we may collect financial information such as your household income and expenses, financial account details, employment history and payment card information, outstanding debt, mortgage pre-approval documentation, demographic information, and other information related to funding availability. 

Property Information, such as addresses, prices, photos, and other information about the properties. 

Correspondence, such as your feedback, questionnaire and other survey responses, and information you provide to our support teams.

Online Identifiers, such as geo location/tracking details, browser fingerprint, operating system, browser name and version, and/or personal IP addresses.

Usage Data, such as authentication data, and other data collected via cookies and similar technologies.

Information We Get From Others. We may obtain information about you from other sources, including through third party services and organizations. We may collect information about your identity and finances from third parties. For example, we may receive information about you from a third-party identity verification service. We may also receive information about your funding availability from a third-party financial institution. In addition, if you access our Services through a third-party application, such as a social networking site, third-party login service or other website (our “Partner/s”), we may collect information about you from that third-party that you have made available via your privacy settings or have otherwise consented to disclose. In addition, we may receive information about you from a third-party through which you have expressed interest in buying or selling a home and consented to sharing of your information for that purpose.

Credit Information. When you check your rate or apply for a loan, we may collect information from credit bureaus and other third parties to facilitate determinations for credit eligibility, perform analyses, provide you with marketing offers, and/or assess risks related to extending credit to you and any co-applicant, and, if you are a  loan applicant, to help investors determine whether to commit to your loan. Such information may include your credit score, credit history, and other information related to your creditworthiness, identity, and financial transactions. When you obtain a loan, we may also collect information throughout the life of your financial obligation to us from the credit bureaus and other third parties in order to assess risks associated with your financial obligation, perform analyses, provide information to investors interested in buying or selling your financial obligation, and/or to provide you with marketing offers. If another entity refers you to us or assists you in any way in the application process, we may also collect your information from that company.

Information from cookies and other tracking technologies. We, and third parties we authorize, may use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to record your preferences, track the use of our Sites and mobile apps, and collect information about the use of the Services, as well as about our interactions with you. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and clickstream data, and information about your interactions with the communications we send to you. We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you. You may choose to set your web browser to refuse cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you do so, please note that some parts of our Services may not function properly.

Third Party Property Information. We may collect information about properties from third parties. This information may include photos, location, price and sales transaction details, tax records, and appraisals. This third party property information may relate to properties you identify, and may be associated with your account.

How We Use Information

We use your personal information for a variety of business purposes, including:

Providing Services And Features. We may use the information we collect to provide, personalize, maintain, and improve our products and Services. This includes using information to:

  1. operate, maintain, customize, measure, and improve our Services, and manage our business; 
  2. create and update user accounts;
  3. process transactions, including providing services specific to the escrow and loan approval process;
  4. send information, including confirmations, notices, invoices, technical notices, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages; and 
  5. to create de-identified or aggregated data.
  6. to assess and pursue potential business opportunities.

Safety And Security. We may use your information to help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of you as a customer and our Services, including to:

  1. protect, investigate, and deter against fraudulent, unauthorized, or illegal activity;
  2. monitor and verify identity or service access, combat spam, malware or security risks;
  3. perform internal operations necessary to provide our Services, including to troubleshoot software bugs and operational problems;
  4. enforce our agreements with third parties, and address violations of our Terms of Service or agreements for other Services; and
  5. comply with applicable security laws and regulations.

Customer Support. We may use information we collect to provide customer support, including to:

  1. direct questions to the appropriate customer support person;
  2. investigate and address user concerns; and
  3. monitor and improve our customer support responses and processes.

Research And Development. We may use the information we collect for testing, research, analysis, and product development to improve your experience. This helps us to improve and enhance the safety and security of our Services, improve our ability to prevent the use of our Services for illegal or improper purposes, develop new features and products, and facilitate payment solutions in connection with our Services.

Legal And Regulatory Compliance. Many of our Services are subject to laws and regulations requiring us to collect, use, and store your personal information in certain ways. We also use third parties to verify your identity by comparing the personal information you provide against third-party databases and public records. If you do not provide information required by law, we will have to close your account and/or will not be able to provide you with Services. We may use the information we collect to investigate or address claims or disputes relating to use of our Services, or as otherwise allowed by applicable law, or as requested by regulators, government entities, and official inquiries.

De-identified and Aggregated Information Use. We may use personal information and other data about you to create de-identified and/or aggregated information, such as de-identified demographic information, de-identified location information, information about the device from which you access our Services, or other analyses we create. De-identified and/or aggregated information is not personal information, and we may use and disclose such information in a number of ways, including research, internal analysis, analytics, and any other legally permissible purposes.

Direct Marketing. We may use the information we collect to market our Services to you. This may include sending you communications about our Services, features, promotions, surveys, news, updates, and events, and managing your participation in these promotions and events. If you do not want us to send you marketing communications, please opt out by selecting “unsubscribe” to any marketing email sent by us or by contacting us at support@pylonlending.com

Telephonic Communications. We may use the information we collect to contact you by telephone for any purpose described above, including marketing. By providing us a telephone number, you are providing express written permission and consent for us to contact you at that phone number at any time, for any lawful purpose. The ways in which we may contact you include live operator, automatic telephone dialing system (auto-dialer), prerecorded and artificial voice message, or text/SMS. Phone numbers you provide include those you give to us and those from which you, or someone acting on your behalf, contact us. You may revoke your authorization for some, but not all, types and forms of communications. If you would like to revoke your consent to receive marketing calls or text messages and/or automated calls or text messages, email us at support@pylonlending.com.

How We Share and Disclose Information

We may share your information in the following circumstances:

With Your Consent.
For example, you may let us share personal information with others for their own marketing uses. Those uses will be subject to their privacy policies.

With Our Client Who Provides The Platform For Our Services.
We share information about your transaction with our Partner whose platform you use to access our services, as part of our services agreement with our Partner. Such information may be used for the purpose of integration of the services offered to you as well as for marketing purposes by our Partner. Federal law gives you the right to limit our sharing of information when it is used for the purpose of marketing to you. We may begin sharing your information to be used for marketing purposes 30 days from the date that we first provided this notice if you have not opted-out. If you wish to opt out of our sharing your information for marketing purposes, please contact us at support@pylonlending.com. Please note that you may still receive marketing communications from our Partner, but those marketing communications will not result from our information sharing and may be less relevant to you.

To Comply With Our Legal Obligations.
We may share your information: (A) to comply with laws and regulations; (B) to cooperate with government or other regulatory investigations, including when we are compelled to do so by a subpoena, court order, or similar legal procedure; (C) to comply with one or more forms of “travel rules” that require our transmitting of your information to another financial institution; (D) when we believe in good faith that the disclosure of personal information is necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss; (E) to report suspected illegal activity; or (F) to investigate violations of our User Agreement or any other applicable policies.

With Third-Party Identity Verification Services.
We may share your information to help prevent fraud and deny service to persons presenting an unacceptable level of money laundering, terrorism financing, or fraud risks. This allows us to confirm your identity by comparing the information you provide us to public records and other third-party databases. These providers may create derivative data based on your personal information that they can use in connection with provision of identity verification and fraud prevention services. We do not control these providers’ privacy policies.

With Service Providers.
We may share any personal information we collect about you with our third-party service providers. The categories of service providers to whom we entrust personal information include service providers for: (i) the provision of the Services; (ii) the provision of information, products, and other services you have requested; (iii) marketing and advertising; (iv) payment, loan, and transaction processing; (v) customer service activities; and (vi) the provision of IT and related services.

With Financial Institutions.
We may share your information with financial institutions to process payments you have authorized.
During A Change To Our Business. If we engage in a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, reorganization, sale of some or all of our assets or stock, or other change of control, financing, public offering of securities, acquisition of all or a portion of our business, a similar transaction or proceeding, or steps in contemplation of such activities, some or all of your information may be shared or transferred, subject to standard confidentiality arrangements.

Aggregated Or De-identified Data.
We may share aggregated and/or anonymized data with others for their own uses.

Data Retention

We store the personal information we receive as described in this Privacy Policy For as long as you use our Services or as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide our Services, resolve disputes, establish legal defenses, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with applicable laws.

Age Limitations

The Services are directed to those  18 years of age or older , capable of forming a binding contract and are not barred from using the Services under applicable law. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18 years of age. If you learn that your minor child has provided us with personal information without your consent, you may contact us as set forth below. If we learn that we have collected any personal information in violation of applicable law, we will promptly take steps to delete such information and terminate the child’s account.

Changes To This Policy

If we make any changes, we will change the Last Updated date above. We encourage you to review this Policy to stay informed. If we make material changes, we will provide additional notice, such as via the email specified in your account or through the Services or Sites.

Online Tracing Opt-Out Guide

Like many companies online, we use services provided by Google and other companies that use tracking technology. These services rely on tracking technologies—such as cookies and web beacons—to collect directly from your device information about your browsing activities, your interactions with websites, and the device you are using to connect to the Internet. There are a number of ways to opt out of having your online activity and device data collected through these services, which we have summarized below:

  1. Blocking cookies in your browser. Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies, including cookies used for interest-based advertising. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings.  For more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your device and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
  2. Blocking advertising ID use in your mobile settings. Your mobile device settings may provide functionality to limit use of the advertising ID associated with your mobile device for interest-based advertising purposes.
  3. Using privacy plug-ins or browsers. You can block our websites from setting cookies used for interest-based ads by using a browser with privacy features, like Brave, or installing browser plugins like Privacy Badger, Ghostery or uBlock Origin, and configuring them to block third-party cookies/trackers.

Platform opt-outs. The following advertising partners offer opt-out features that let you opt-out of use of your information for interest-based advertising:

Advertising industry opt-out tools.  You can also use these opt-out options to limit use of your information for interest-based advertising by participating companies:

  1. Digital Advertising Alliance: http://optout.aboutads.info
  2. Network Advertising Initiative: http://optout.networkadvertising.org
  3. Note that because these opt-out mechanisms are specific to the device or browser on which they are exercised, you will need to opt out on every browser and device that you use.

How you can change your personal information

If you have applied for a loan, you can access the personal information you have provided to us by logging in and navigating to the “Settings” page of your account. You can update your password, email, phone number, or home address at any time. As a registered personal loan applicant or borrower, you may update your password, email, phone number, bank account information, or mailing address at any time, though certain changes prior to loan origination may require you to submit a new loan application. To change your information, you may also contact us at support@pylonlending.com. We will respond to your request within a reasonable time.

Or by calling our customer service at (855) 300-8520.

For all customers, we will retain your information for as long as needed to provide you services, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, conduct analysis and audits, or enforce our agreements as otherwise permitted and/or required by law.

Contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about this Policy or if you are seeking to exercise any of your statutory rights. We will respond within a reasonable timeframe. You may contact us at support@pylonlending.com or at our mailing address below:

51 Madison Avenue, suite 31003
New York, New York 10010
Attn: Legal Department

NOTICE AT COLLECTION (CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS)

Effective January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides specific rights to California residents related to their “personal information,” as defined under the CCPA. Virtually all of the information that Pylon collects about its users is exempt from the CCPA, as it is collected, processed, sold, or disclosed pursuant to the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”). The information that Pylon collects about its users pursuant to GLBA is described in the “Information Pylon Collects About You” section of this Privacy Policy.

Below is a description of the remaining “personal information” that is collected and disclosed to third parties, as well as your rights pertaining to this information.

This section only applies to California residents. The rights discussed in this section do not extend to individuals who are not California residents.

Personal Information Collected By Pylon:

Information about your interactions with our website and the mobile application: For all users, Pylon collects information about your interactions with our homepage, landing pages, other Pylon websites that you may visit prior to beginning the registration and/or application process, and information about the device you use to access the website and the mobile application. This includes your click movements on the webpage and the mobile application, IP address, mobile device identifier (IDFA or AAID), geographical location, operating system, browser type, referral source, time and length of visit, button clicks, and/or page views. This information is collected by Pylon and our third-party service providers, who work with us to track your interactions on these pages.

We collect this information in order to (i) help detect security incidents and protect against malicious, deceptive, or fraudulent activity on our websites; (ii) identify and fix errors that affect the functionality of our websites; (iii) conduct internal research and analysis; (iv) determine eligibility for products and services, and (v) improve our websites and services.

Information that you provide in surveys, questionnaires, and/or requests for feedback: For users that complete surveys, questionnaires, and/or requests for feedback regarding their experience, we collect the information that you provide to us. This information is collected by Pylon and our third-party service providers, who may help facilitate these information requests.

We collect this information in order to (i) conduct internal research and analysis and (ii) improve our websites and services.

Information from third parties for marketing: For certain consumers, we may work with marketing service providers to obtain your personal information, such as your name, address, and/or email address.

We collect this information for marketing purposes in order to present you with offers, promotions, advertisements, and other marketing communications.

How Pylon Discloses Personal Information:

Pylon may share your personal information with third-party service providers to help us conduct the business purposes listed above. Our service providers are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to Pylon. Pylon does not and will not sell your personal information.

Your Rights Under the CCPA

Right to Know/Right to Access.
Under the CCPA, California residents have the right to request that Pylon disclose what personal information we have collected, used, disclosed, or sold over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request for such information, (see “How You Can Exercise Your Rights Under CCPA”), we will disclose to you:

  • The categories of personal information we collected about you over the past 12 months;
  • The categories of sources from which such personal information has been collected over the past 12 months;
  • The business or commercial purpose for collecting, disclosing, or selling such personal information over the past 12 months;
  • The categories of third parties with whom we shared your personal information over the past 12 months;
  • If we disclosed your personal information for a business purpose, the personal information categories that each category of recipients obtained.
  • Upon receiving your verified request for such information (see “How You Can Exercise Your Rights Under CCPA”), we will also disclose to you the specific pieces of personal information that we collected about you.

Right to Request Deletion.
Under the CCPA, California residents 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 (see “How You Can Exercise Your Rights Under CCPA”), we will delete your personal information from our records, and direct our service providers to do the same, unless an exception applies.

Right to Opt-Out of Sale of Personal Information.
Under the CCPA, California residents have the right to direct us to not sell their personal information (the “right to opt-out”). Pylon does not and will not sell the personal information of consumers.

Right to Non-Discrimination.
Under the CCPA, California residents have the right not to be discriminated against for having exercised the rights established by the CCPA. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:

We may, however, offer you certain financial incentives permitted by the CCPA that can result in different prices, rates, or quality levels. Such financial incentives may include gift cards, credits, and other monetary offerings; additional details related to the material terms of these financial incentives will be provided to you at the time the incentive is presented to you. Any CCPA-permitted financial incentive we offer will reasonably relate to your personal information’s value and contain written terms that describe the program’s material aspects. Participation in a financial incentive program requires your prior opt-in consent, which you may revoke at any time.

  • Deny you any goods or services;
  • Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties;
  • Provide you with a different level or quality of goods or services;
  • Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

How You Can Exercise Your Rights Under CCPA

In order to exercise the right to know/right to access information and the right to request deletion, you or your authorized agent may submit a verifiable consumer request in one of the following ways:

If you are a personal loan customer and/or investor, you may exercise these rights by contacting us at support@pylonlending.com with a brief description of your request. If you do not have a Pylon account, you may contact us at support@pylonlending.com with a brief description of your request. Please note that if you contact us with your request via email we may request additional information from you or your agent as needed to authenticate your request. You may only make a verifiable consumer request to know or request for access twice within a 12-month period.

The verifiable consumer request must do the following:

  • Provide sufficient information to allow us to reasonably verify that you are the person about whom we collected personal information or that you are an authorized representative.
  • Describe your request with sufficient detail so that we can properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

Upon receiving a request to know/request for access or a request for deletion, we will confirm receipt within 10 days. If we are able to verify your request, we will make our best effort to respond within forty-five (45) days of our receipt of your request. If we require more time (up to 45 additional days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. Additionally, in our response, we will specify the manner in which we have deleted your personal information, in accordance with the CCPA.

We will not disclose information to you or delete information if we cannot verify your identity.

How California Residents Can Designate an Authorized Representative

Only you as a California resident, or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable request to know/request for access, request for deletion, or request to opt-out.To appoint an authorized representative to submit requests on your behalf, please provide us with written instructions stating the identity of the authorized representative and your authorization to have the representative act on your behalf as outlined below:

All other customers: please send the written instructions appointing your authorized representative to support@pylonlending.com. We may also request additional information from you as needed to authenticate your request. If an authorized representative is acting on your behalf to make a request to know/request for access, request for deletion, or request to opt-out., your representative may also contact us at support@pylonlending.com with a brief description of the request. Please note that we may request additional information from your representative as needed to authenticate your request.

Federal Policy Notice Date: November 4, 2022
Facts
What Does Pylon Do With Your Personal Information?
Why?

Financial companies choose how they share your personal information. Federal law gives consumers the right to limit some but not all sharing. Federal law also requires us to tell you how we collect, share, and protect your personal information. Please read this notice carefully to understand what we do.

What?

The types of personal information we collect and share depend on the product or service you have with us. This information can include:

  • Social Security Number and income

  • Account balances and transaction history

  • Credit history, credit scores and employment information

When you are no longer our customer, we continue to share your information as described in this notice

How?

All financial companies need to share customers’ personal information to run their everyday business. In the section below, we list the reasons financial companies can share their customers’ personal information; the reasons Pylon chooses to share; and whether you can limit this sharing.

Reasons we can share your personal information
Does Embed share?
Can you limit this sharing?

For our everyday business purposes—such as to process your transactions, maintain your account(s), respond to court orders and legal investigations, or report to credit bureaus

Yes
No

For our marketing purposes—to offer our products and services to you

Yes
Yes

For joint marketing with other financial companies

No
N/A

For our affiliates’ everyday business purposes— information about your transactions and experiences

No
No

For our affiliate’s everyday business purposes—Information about your creditworthiness

No
N/A

For our affiliates to market to you

No
N/A

For our Non-affiliates to market to you

Yes
Yes

To limit our sharing

All consumers may contact us at support@pylonlending.com and we will assist you in limiting such information sharing.

Please note that your opt-out choices will also apply to any co-borrower.

Please note: If you are a new customer, we can begin sharing your information 30 days from the date we sent this notice (except where we have received your affirmative consent to begin sharing information sooner, through our privacy policy or otherwise). When you are no longer our customer, we continue to share your information as described in this notice. However, you can contact us at any time to limit our sharing.

Questions? 

Email us at support@pylonlending.com or call us at 855-300-8520

Who Are We?

Who is providing this notice?

Pylon  
51 Madison Avenue, Suite 31003
New York, NY 10010

What Do We Do?

How does Pylon protect my personal information?

To protect your personal information from unauthorized access and use, we use security measures that comply with federal law. These measures include computer safeguards and secured files and building.

How does Embed collect my personal information?

We collect your personal information, for example, when you: 

  • Open an account or apply for credit
  • Provide us information including your personal information, income, employment information and other relevant information necessary to the loan application process.
Why can’t I limit all sharing?

Federal law gives you the right to limit only

  • sharing for affiliates’ everyday business purposes—information about your creditworthiness
  • affiliates from using your information to market to you
  • sharing for nonaffiliates to market to you
What happens when I limit sharing for an account I hold jointly with someone else?

Your choices will apply to everyone on your account.

Definitions

Affiliates

Companies related by common ownership or control. They can be financial and nonfinancial companies. We currently do not have affiliates.

Non-Affiliates

Companies not related by common ownership or control. They can be financial and nonfinancial companies. We currently share information with non-affiliated companies.

Joint Marketing

A formal agreement between non affiliated financial companies that together market financial products or services to you. We currently don’t engage in joint marketing but might do so  in the future

Other Important Information

Telephone Communications

Pylon and its authorized agents, service providers, originating banks and partners may monitor and/or record all telephone communications in accordance with applicable law.

Vermont Residents

We will not disclose information about your creditworthiness to our affiliates and will not disclose your personal information, financial information, credit report, or health information to nonaffiliated third parties to market to you, other than as permitted by Vermont law, unless you authorize us to make those disclosures.

Nevada Residents

We are providing you this notice pursuant to state law. You may be placed on our internal Do Not Call List by calling 855-300-8520 or emailing support@pylonlending.com. Nevada law also requires us to provide you with the following to obtain additional information: Bureau of Consumer Protection, Office of the Nevada Attorney General, 555 E. Washington Street, Suite 3900, Las Vegas, NV 89101; Phone: 702-486-3132; Email: BCPINFO@ag.state.nv.us.