This Privacy Policy ("Policy") explains how BridgeSpan Financial LLC ("BridgeSpan", or "We") protects personal information provided through our website www.yoursafestart.com (the "Site") and how we use that information in connection with our service offered through the Site.

Personal information that we collect

We collect personal information that you provide when using the Site.  This personal information may be collected at or subsequent to the time of purchase of a SafeStart product.  This information includes your first and last name, current and permanent mailing address, school and permanent email address, personal and permanent telephone numbers, date of birth, social security number, loan information (including but not limited to loan number, loan type, loan servicer, total loan amount, and monthly loan payment), user name and password when you create your SafeStart account.  You can browse this Site without creating an account, but you will need to create an account to be able to purchase a SafeStart and in order to take advantage of certain features, such as our Literacy Stream^SM and Literacy Library^SM.  We may ask you to confirm your personal information when you contact our customer service department or debt counselors.  This will allow us to protect your confidentiality by verifying your identity.  If you are under the age of 18 but at least 13 years of age you may use this Site only for informational purposes.  Children under the age of 13 may not use this Site and parents or legal guardians may not agree to the BridgeSpan Terms of Use on their behalf.  If you do not agree to (or cannot comply with) any of the BridgeSpan Terms of Use, do not use this Site.

Purchase information

When you make a SafeStart purchase, BridgeSpan receives information regarding your purchase in order to activate your SafeStart account.  Information is collected only on the beneficiary of the SafeStart that was purchased.   We may contact credit bureaus or other governmental or private agencies in order to verify the information you provide and your eligibility to obtain advances.  We also verify your identity for purposes of complying with U.S. laws designed to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and drug dealing.  We use the information you provide and the other information we collect to verify your eligibility for advances and to administer and collect your account.  Information you provide may be provided to Federal or State governments to comply with tax or other law.  When you create a SafeStart account, your account information will automatically be saved in "My Account."  You may change or delete this saved information anytime.  If you remove information that is required for BridgeSpan to contact you about your account or provide false or incorrect information, we have the right to deny any further advances under your Line of Credit.

Our use of "cookies"

"Cookies" are small files of data that reside on your computer and allow us to recognize you as a SafeStart purchaser if you return to the Site using the same computer and browser.  We send a "session cookie" to your computer if and when you log in to your SafeStart account by entering your user name and password.  These cookies allow us to recognize you if you visit multiple pages in our site during the same session, so that you don't need to re-enter your password multiple times.  Once you log out or close your browser, these session cookies expire and no longer have any effect.  We also use longer-lasting cookies to display your e-mail address on our sign-in form, so that you don't have to retype your user name each time when you log in to your SafeStart account.  Our cookie files are encoded so that your e-mail address and other information can only be interpreted by BridgeSpan.  We may, however, share cookie information regarding whether or not a certain user is already registered with SafeStart with certain merchants with whom we have an official co-marketing relationship.

Internet address information

We use IP addresses, browser types and access times to analyze trends, administer the site, improve site performance and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.

Customer service correspondence

If you send us correspondence, including e-mails and faxes, we retain such information in the records of your account.  We will also retain customer service correspondence and other correspondence from BridgeSpan to you.  We retain these records in order to measure and improve our customer service, and to investigate potential fraud and violations of our Agreements.  We may, over time, delete these records if permitted by law.

Questionnaires, surveys and profile data

From time to time, we offer optional questionnaires and surveys to our users for such purposes as collecting demographic information or assessing users' interests and needs.  The use of the information collected will be explained in detail in the survey itself.  If we collect personally identifiable information from our users in these questionnaires and surveys, the users will be given notice of how the information will be used prior to their participation in the survey or questionnaire.

Other times we may collect personal information

From time to time, BridgeSpan may conduct surveys and contests via this Site, email, other media, or at physical locations not yet determined.  If you choose to participate, we may request your name, email address, mailing address and other personal information.  We will never sell or rent such information to any third parties.

When and with whom we share your personal information

We never sell or rent your personal information to any third parties for marketing purposes under any circumstances.  We will share personal customer information only with our agents, representatives, service providers, contractors, credit bureaus, financial institutions from which you have obtained a student loan for the purpose of verifying the loan and payment information and making payments to those financial institutions when you request a draw; offering certain products and services in connection with this Site; communicating to customers; providing customer service; enhancing and improving customers' experience; enabling access to our partners' web sites; preventing fraud; and providing our product and collecting amounts owed to us.  Aside from the purposes described above, we will never share your personal information with any other third parties unless we have your express permission or under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the disclosure is required to prevent harm or injury (such as fraud, claims or other liability) or to comply with valid legal processes (subpoenas, warrants) or as otherwise permitted by applicable state and federal law.  We may share aggregated demographic and statistical information with third parties without restriction so long as that information is not identifiable to you individually.  This is not linked to any personal information that can identify any individual person.  These policies apply both while you are our customer and to any information we continue to hold after you are no longer our customer.

How you can control the use of your personal information

You can modify (or delete if you have not purchased any SafeStart product) your personal information anytime.  Please contact SafeStart customer service if you are having difficulty removing any information.  Do not share your SafeStart user name or password with anyone.  Other than for purposes of logging into or using this Site, BridgeSpan will never ask you for your password.

How we protect the security of your personal information

The security of your personal information is very important to us.  We only grant access to nonpublic personal information about you (such as your name, address, social security number and credit history) to company employees and our affiliated and nonaffiliated service providers so that they can provide or offer products and services to you, process and service your accounts, and administer our business.  We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard this personal information.  Some state laws may further restrict the sharing of your nonpublic personal information.  In our efforts to protect your online transactions, we use a technology called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).  If your browser is capable of SSL (and most are), your personal information will be automatically encrypted, or encoded, before it is sent over the Internet.  BridgeSpan has also obtained a digital certificate from GeoTrust, Inc., a leading provider of Internet trust services.  This certificate guarantees that your personal information is being transmitted in secure (encrypted) form to a SafeStart web server, not to some unknown or unauthorized server.  Ultimately, your personal information is protected by the user name and password you created when you created an account at SafeStart (or another user name and password you chose after changing a previous user name and password).  Please keep this user name and password confidential.  No SafeStart customer service member or any other representative of SafeStart will ever ask you for your password.  The confidentiality of your password is yours to protect.  You may change it anytime by going to My Account.

No need to "opt-out" of information sharing

Because we strictly limit the sharing of your personal information as explained in this Policy, you do not need to "opt-out" of information sharing.  In other words, we treat all our customers as if they have "opted-out" of sharing of their personal information as provided under applicable state and federal laws.

No sharing with affiliates

Some companies that you do business with may be part of a larger family of companies, and where that is the case, they may have reasons to want to share your personal information within their family of companies.  They may give you a right to opt-out of that information sharing.  BridgeSpan is not a part of a corporate family and does not share your information with any corporate affiliates.

More about your privacy

We realize that making purchases and providing personal information at the Site or at any other web site requires trust on your part.  We value your trust very highly, and pledge to you, our customer, that we will work to protect the security and privacy of any personal information you provide to us and that your personal information will only be used as set forth in this Policy.  This includes your name, address(es), phone number(s), email address(es), date of birth, social security number, loan information, account number, user name and password, in addition to any other personal information that can be linked to you, personally.  We believe that you have a right to know, before using SafeStart or at any other time, exactly what information we might collect from you, why we collect it and how we use it.  We do not and will not sell or rent your personal information to anyone, either while you are our customer or if we continue to hold any information about you or your account after you are no longer our customer.  You have the right to control your personal information as you see fit.  If you have an account at SafeStart and you want to change, modify your personal information, you can do so anytime by going to My Account.  SafeStart provides links to certain third party web sites.  This Privacy Policy applies only to activities conducted and personal information collected on this Site.  Other web sites may have their own policies regarding privacy and security.  SafeStart will obtain your consent before allowing the download of any software from the Site, and SafeStart will not automatically download any software to your computer system.  You understand and agree that any material, including but not limited to downloaded software, required or automated updates, modifications, reinstallations, or software otherwise obtained through the use of the Site is done at your own discretion and risk and that you will be solely responsible for any damages to your computer system or loss of data that may result from any such material.

Destruction of your personal information

We will protect your personal information as explained in this Policy for as long as we retain your personal information.  If we decide to destroy any records of your personal information, we will do so in a proper manner that protects the confidentiality of that information.

Changes to the SafeStart privacy policy