Legal - Privacy Policy

Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection Respects Your Privacy

Effective Date: September 2022

 

Protecting your privacy is very important to us. Policyholders like you have trusted Berkshire Hathaway companies with their insurance needs for over 75 years, and we take our obligation to safeguard and secure your personal information very seriously. We want you to understand how we protect your privacy and when we collect and use your information.



Summary

This summary tells you the basics of our privacy commitment to you-how we collect and use your information, how we protect it, and who can see it. You should read the entire privacy policy below for full details.

  • We obtain personal information from you directly, from your transactions with us, and from third-parties.
  • We do not collect personally-identifying information from you when you visit our Web site or online services unless you affirmatively provide it to us.
  • We do not allow third-parties to collect personally-identifying information from your computer or mobile device when you visit our Web site or use our online services.
  • We will not sell your information to third-parties.
  • Any third-parties who perform services for us are required to safeguard any customer information and may only use it in connection with performing those services.
  • We extensively secure and limit access to your information.
  • We protect information about potential, current, and former policyholders.



The Information We Collect

Non-public personally identifiable information ("Information") is information that identifies you and is not available to the general public. The following sections tell you more about how and when we collect your Information.



Information We Obtain From You

During the quoting, application, or claims handling processes you may give us Information such as your:

  • name
  • address
  • phone number
  • email address
  • date of birth

If you gave us your email address, BHTP may use it from time to time to notify you of such things as new services, special offers, or to confirm transactions. If you do not wish to be contacted by email for non-policy related communications, you may unsubscribe by following the instructions at the bottom of any BHTP email you receive.

If you register for an account on our site, you can log in to your account at bhtp.com, click on "Update Email Preferences" and choose the level of communication you’d like to receive from us. If you have not yet enrolled online, you will need to enroll with bhtp.com to update your email preferences.



Information About Your Transactions

We may collect Information about your transactions and experiences with us such as your payment history, travel itineraries, claims, coverage, and policy changes.



Information From Third-Parties

When filing a claim we may receive Information about you from insurance reporting agencies to provide us with claim reports where permitted by law.

As permitted by law, we may also review your claims history when filing additional claims.



Location Services for Mobile Apps

Your current location is only determined if you choose to use a function on our apps to determine your current location. If you allow your location to be obtained using a BHTP app, we will use this information to return your estimated location. We use this information solely to distinguish your current location and not to identify you. BHTP does not automatically track your location when you use our apps.



Access and Correction of Personal Information

If you are a resident of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, or Virginia, you have the right to access and correct the personal information that we have collected from or about you. To do so, simply contact BHTP’s customer service department. If you’d like to correct information that you provided to us, our representative will make the appropriate adjustments to BHTP’s records. If you wish to correct personal information provided to BHTP by a third-party (such as a claims reporting agency) the representative will provide you with the applicable third-party’s contact information.

Upon the request of residents of other states, we will take reasonable steps to verify the accuracy of the personal information in our records.

If you are a California resident, please go to the section of this policy titled “California Residents Only” for information regarding additional rights you may have, including the right to know and right to delete, and the designated methods for submitting requests.



The Information We Disclose

Information about our customers or former customers will only be disclosed as permitted or required by law. Information about you that has been collected is maintained in your policy and/or claims records.

We use this Information to process and service your policy; to settle claims; with your consent; or as directed by you. We may also disclose it to persons or organizations as necessary to perform transactions you request or authorize. Information about our former customers and about individuals who have obtained quotes from us is safeguarded to the same extent as Information about our current policyholders.

Following are some examples of how we may disclose Information:

We must exchange Information about you with our agents, investigators, appraisers, attorneys, and other persons who are or will become involved in processing your application and servicing your policy or any claims you may make.

When you are involved in a claim, policy information is provided to adjusters and the businesses that will provide assistance to you.

We may share Information with persons or organizations that we have determined need the Information to perform a business, professional, or insurance function for us. These include businesses that help us with administrative functions. If the law in your state permits, we may share Information with other institutions with which we have a joint-marketing agreement. All of these entities are obligated to keep the Information that we provide to them confidential and to use the Information only for the purpose for which the Information was provided.

Information may be provided to organizations conducting actuarial research or audits. In this case, you will not be individually identified in any research report. The organization must agree not to redisclose the Information and the Information will be returned to us or destroyed when it is no longer needed.

We may also share your Information for other permitted purposes, including:

  • with another insurance company if necessary during the claims process
  • with our reinsurers
  • with insurance-support organizations that detect and prevent fraud
  • with medical professionals or institutions in order to verify coverage or conduct operations or services audits
  • with state insurance departments or other governmental or law enforcement authorities if required by law or to protect our legal interests or in cases of suspected fraud or illegal activities
  • if ordered by a subpoena, search warrant or other court order



Confidentiality and Security

We restrict access to your Information to employees who we have determined need it in order to provide products or services to you. We train our employees to safeguard customer information. We maintain strict physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect your Information from unauthorized access by third- parties.



Your Security is Important

Please see our Internet Security Policy for further information on how we protect your information on the Internet.



Additional Information for Our Internet Users and Cookies Policy

We continuously improve bhtp.com. We are interested in how visitors use our website, what they like and dislike, and where they have problems. We may gather data on how users navigate our site so we can make bhtp.com an easy place to do business. Our tools may gather data such as what browser a person uses or even what pages are most popular.

We use cookies to improve your experience while using bhtp.com and our internet apps. Cookies are small files that are stored on your computer. They do not contain any personally identifiable information about you. They help us personalize your experience when you return to our website, and they are required for certain portions of our website. Most browsers let you determine whether or not you accept our cookies. If you don’t use cookies, you won’t be able to use certain bhtp.com features, such as the "remember me" function for policyholders that lets you store your User ID so you don’t have to input it every time you log in from the same computer.

Bhtp.com may place small pieces of computer code (embedded objects) on our pages to help our advertising partners count how many customers they referred to our site. We may use these objects to track how many referred customers actually get a rate quotation. We may also use objects placed on other sites to monitor your exposure to our advertising or other offers online. These objects don’t collect any personally identifiable information about you. You can opt out of our advertising service provider(s) and other companies’ tracking cookies used for interest-based ads by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s aboutads.info choices page.

We also provide some links to third-party websites that are not owned by BHTP. BHTP has no control over their privacy practices and assumes no responsibility in connection with your use of their websites. We recommend that you check the privacy policy of any website before you provide any personally identifiable information.



Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may modify our privacy policy from time to time. The most recent version is always posted at bhtp.com. In the event that we make a significant change to our privacy practices, we will electronically send a revised copy of our privacy policy to each of our current policyholders. Policyholders who cannot access our privacy policy electronically may contact us requesting a copy be mailed.



What to Do if You Have Privacy or Security Concerns

If you have a concern about privacy or security at BHTP, we want to hear about it by mail or email.

Please write to us at:

Privacy Administration
Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Company
1265 Main Street, Suite 301
Stevens Point, WI 54481

or email us at info@bhtp.com



California Residents Only:

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:

  • To request information from us about the categories of or specific personal information we maintain about you and the categories of the sources of such information.
  • To request we delete personal information we have collected from you.
  • To contact us with questions or concerns about our privacy policy or practices.

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.