Legal Matters

The nature of our business requires a relationship of trust and respect with our Agents and Insurance Companies. Since 1968, The H. W. Gorst team has been protecting the privacy of Business Partners and Insureds’ nonpublic personal information. We pledge our continuing commitment by taking measures to safeguard the information collected on Business Partners, Insureds and potential Insureds.

We established this policy to help you better understand how we keep personal information private and secure while using it to serve you better. This notice applies to current and former Agents, Insurance Companies, and Third Party Business Partners. H. W. Gorst Company encourages you to read this Privacy Policy carefully. We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, and it is subject to periodic updates. Notice of any modification will be provided in accordance with the law.

We maintain internal physical, technical, and procedural safeguards to ensure personal information is handled responsibly and within the guidelines of our Privacy Policy and regulatory requirements. We use firewalls, user authentication, encryption, and access control to safeguard the privacy of personal information accessed through our Web site. Although we make every effort to secure our network and systems, we cannot guarantee “hackers” from illegally accessing information.

We restrict access of nonpublic personal information to authorized personnel who need it to complete their job functions, servicing affiliates and Third-Party Business Partners with a legitimate business purpose. Employees are prohibited from making unauthorized disclosure of nonpublic personal information that we acquire. Any employee who violates our Privacy Policy is subject to disciplinary action. In addition, affiliates and Third-Party Business Partners may not disclose Insureds’ nonpublic personal information or use it in any other way, and they must comply with all data security regulations.

Personal information identifies an individual personally, and it includes but is not limited to name, address, Business Partner credit history or rating, policy and claim information. We collect nonpublic personal information as necessary in the ordinary course of business operations through mail, telephone, email, fax and our Web site. Personal information is provided to us through several sources, as more fully described below:

Information received during the application, renewal and underwriting process is received in the form of applications, policy change forms and other industry required forms and reports, including but not limited to questionnaires, inspections, loss histories, consumer reporting, and motor vehicle reporting. The information we collect depends on what we believe is reasonably needed to provide the product or service.

Information received during the online registration process to set up your user account and personalize your service is received in the form of an online user contact and preference questionnaire.

Certain computer hardware and software technical information is received automatically during online transactions. This is a standard industry practice that gives us general feedback information on the use of H. W. Gorst Company’s Web site, which enables us to provide and maintain quality service to you. The information received includes but is not limited to your IP address, browser type, domain name(s), access times and transaction activity.

Information received through our customer service requests, web site feedback, and technical support processes are generated from you to facilitate continuous improvement to better serve your needs.

H. W. Gorst Company may use “cookies” to collect data when you visit our web site. A cookie is a tiny electronic file that contains only non personal information that not only assists in creating and maintaining a secure session to do business online, but merely allows us to recognize your browser upon entering our Website. If you choose not to identify yourself to us, you remain anonymous. Cookies do not track a user after leaving our Web site.

We use a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), when logged in that keeps information confidential when it is sent between our Web site and the user’s computer, but if you transmit personal information to us electronically while not logged in, by fax or e-mail please note The Harry W. Gorst Company, Inc. cannot ensure or warrant the security of the information transmitted. Therefore, you do so at your own risk.

Our Web site contains links to other websites. H. W. Gorst Company is not responsible for the collection, use, security and privacy practices or the content of other web sites. Please read the privacy policy of other web sites reached through the use of links on our Web site to gain an understanding of their security and privacy practices.

We keep information received in our records and use it to deliver the services requested and manage your account. During the ordinary course of business we may use affiliates and trusted Third-Party Business Partners in order to complete delivery of products and services, offer new products and services, and enhance our existing services. This requires us to disclose certain personal information to our Business Partners as allowed by law. We advise our affiliates and Third-Party Business Partners of our Privacy Policy and make every effort to use Business Partners whose philosophy towards customer privacy reflects our own.

We do not sell any personal information, nor do we share any personal information collected, except in the ordinary course of business as permitted by law. As a result, there is no action needed under this Privacy Policy notification. If our practices change in the future, you will be notified.

The law may require us to share information about our current and former Business Partners and Insureds with government agencies or authorized third parties under certain circumstances. For example, we may be required to share such information in response to subpoenas or to comply with certain legal regulations.