Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
Last updated: August 22, 2024
Debt Relief Advocates, LLC (“DRA”) is the owner of this web site or other online interface. This Privacy Policy (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the “Notice”) applies to any DRA online interfaces (i.e., websites or mobile applications) (the “Site”). The term DRA or “we” or “us” or “our” in this Notice refers to DRA, and any of DRA’s affiliates or subsidiaries that may adopt this Notice. This Notice describes how this Site, or any DRA landing pages linked to this Site (DRA’s landing pages and this Site shall collectively refer to as “Sites”), may collect, use and share information from or about you, and explains how information may be collected and used for advertising purposes. DRA may provide other online interfaces not covered by this Notice. If you visit or access your services from one of these sites, please review the online privacy practices of that site to understand how your online information may be collected, used and shared.
Agreement to this Policy:
By using, interacting with, entering information, or viewing information on this Site, you expressly acknowledge and consent to this Online Privacy Policy, including your consent to our use and disclosure of information collected from, or about, you in the manner described herein. You agree that DRA can rely on your use and interaction with this Site as your express consent to the terms of this Online Privacy Notice.
Collecting and Using Information
Registration and Other Information Provided to Us
When you visit and/or subscribe to DRA, you may be asked to disclose Personally Identifiable Information (also known as “PII”). You may also choose to submit PII to us when you send us an email. You acknowledge and agree that we may use and store any such PII about you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. We may also process and store your PII on a server located outside of your jurisdiction. By providing your PII to us, you consent to the transfer of your information across national boundaries. If you do not consent to such transfer as well as the processing and storage of your personally identifiable information outside your jurisdiction, you should not provide such PII to us and end your interaction with our Site. DRA will not process or transfer PII or other information across international boundaries, and does not conduct any data processing or transfer with European entities.
Personal Information We Collect Online
Personal Information means information you provide via forms, surveys, applications or other online fields including but not limited to the following: any information constituting PII, your name, postal or email addresses, telephone, fax or mobile numbers, or account numbers.
How We Use Personal Information
We may use Personal Information, including PII, as follow:
- to respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests;
- to inform you about important information regarding the Site, products or services for which you may apply or in which you are enrolled, changes to terms, conditions, and policies and/or other administrative information;
- to deliver marketing communications that we believe may be of interest to you, including, ads or offers tailored to you, including ads on other websites, or from affiliated or unaffiliated third parties;
- to personalize your experience on the Site;
- to allow you to apply for various products or services and evaluate your eligibility for such products or services;
- to verify your identity and/or location (or the identity or location of your representative or agent) in order to allow access to services you may enroll in, conduct online transactions and to maintain measures aimed at preventing fraud and protecting the security of your Personal Information;
- to allow you to participate in surveys and other forms of market research, sweepstakes, contests and similar promotions, and to administer these activities. These activities may have additional rules of participation, which may also contain additional policies about how the Personal Information provided is used and/or shared;
- to allow us to verify your identity or other information collected from or through our social media pages or campaigns and other interaction with online forms generated on our behalf. We may combine and use PII you provide in this Site with the information collected from our social media pages or from your interaction with online forms generated on our behalf.
- to allow you to enter and participate in our live chat, forums, and/or other Bulletin Board that we may have on the site from time to time.
- for business purposes, including data and marketing analysis, audits, developing and improving products and services, enhancing the Site, identifying usage trends and determining the effectiveness of promotional campaigns;
- for risk control, fraud detection and prevention, to comply with laws and regulations, and to comply with other legal process and law enforcement requirements;
- to allow you to utilize features within our Site by granting us access to information from your device such as contact lists, or geo-location when you request certain services.
How Personal Information is Shared
When you submit Personal Information and/or PII to us (which may include among other information your first name, last name, email address, zip code, contact phone number, other information provided by you such as your date of birth or household income), you acknowledge and agree that we may share this information with third party service providers offering various products and/or services in which you were interested in or have requested additional information about. You also acknowledge and agree that the Personal Information provided may also be used for cross-marketing purposes with third party affiliates and to provide you with offers that may be of interest or benefit to you based upon your initial request. Our affiliates and/or third-party companies may use your email address for their own marketing use.
We may also share non-personally identifiable information (also known as “Non-PII”), consisting of general information about our user base with our advertising affiliates who drive traffic to our website to help them identify and target our ideal customer. We may also share your contact information with third parties who may contact you for a free, no-obligation consultation about services that may be of interest to you based on your interaction with our Site. For your reference, a non-exclusive list of third party companies with whom we may share your information is here.
Other Information We Collect Online
Other Information is any information, other than Personal Information or PII, which does not reveal your specific identity or does not directly relate to an individual, such as browser information, information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies, demographic information, and aggregated and de-identified data. In the event that information collected through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies, demographic information is determined to contain PII, you understand and agree that DRA may use and transfer such PII in accordance with the terms governing PII in this Notice.How Do We Collect and Use Other Information
We and any of our affiliated third-party service providers may collect and use Other Information in a variety of ways, including but not limited to the following:
- Through your browser or device: Certain information is collected by most browsers and/or through your device, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, device type, screen resolution, operating system version and internet browser type and version. While such information is often regarded as Other Information, you understand that it may be treated as PII and thus, regardless of its nature, it may be used under the PII provisions of this Notice. We use this information to ensure Sites function properly, for fraud detection and prevention, and security purposes.
- Using cookies: Cookies are pieces of information stored directly on the device that you are using to access our Site. Cookies we use do not contain or capture unencrypted Personal Information. Cookies allow us to collect information such as browser type, time spent on the Site, pages visited, language preferences, and general interaction with our Site. We may use the information collected from cookies for various purposes including, but not limited to, the following: for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, to display information more effectively, to personalize/tailor your experience while interacting with our Site or engaging with us, and to recognize your device in the future for ease of use of our online products and services. We, further, collect statistical information about the usage of the Site in order to continually improve the design and functionality, to monitor responses to our advertisements and content, to understand how visitors use the Site and to assist us in resolving issues with the Site. We also utilize cookies for advertising purposes. Please see the Advertising section below for more information. You may refuse to accept these cookies and most devices and browsers offer their own privacy settings for cookies. You will need to manage your cookie settings for each device and browser you use. However, please be advised that should you choose not accept these cookies, the Site and some online products and services may not work properly as you proceed to interact with our Site.
- Other technologies including pixel tags, web beacons, and clear GIFs: These may be used in connection with some Site pages, downloadable mobile applications, and HTML-formatted email messages to measure the effectiveness of our communications, the success of our marketing campaigns, to compile statistics about usage and response rates, for fraud detection and prevention, for security purposes, and for advertising. You understand and agree that we may use third party pixel tags, web beacons and/or clear GIFs that may give access to third parties to your information, including your IP address and browsing activity on pages of our Sites where these devices are placed. You understand that we do not control any information gathered by such devices or its use by such third parties. Please see our Advertising section below for more information regarding our use of these and other technologies.
- Google Analytics: We use a tool called “Google Analytics” to collect information about use of this Site. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit this Site, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other Sites they used prior to coming to this Site. We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve this Site. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or other identifying information. If the Google Analytics is determined to be PII, we will maintain and use the information gathered from Google Analytics pursuant to the terms governing PII in this Notice. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with other PII that you may provide on our Site. Although Google Analytics plants a permanent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this Site, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this Site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You may prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to this site by disabling cookies on your browser.
- IP Address: Your IP Address is a number that is automatically assigned to the device that you are using by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Your IP may be dynamic or static. An IP Address is identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever a user visits the Site, along with the time of the visit and the page(s) that were visited. Collecting IP Addresses is standard practice on the internet and is done automatically by many websites. We will treat your IP as PII if it is used to identify you for any purpose in accordance with this Notice. Furthermore, we may use IP Addresses for purposes such as calculating Site usage levels, helping diagnose server problems, advertising, for compliance and security purposes and administering the Site. Please see the Advertising section below for more information.
- Aggregated and De-identified Data: Aggregated and De-identified Data is data that we may create or compile from various sources, including but not limited to accounts and transactions. This information, which does not identify individual PII, may be used for our business purposes, which may include offering products or services, research, marketing or analyzing market trends, and other purposes consistent with applicable laws.
Additional Information
Third party widgets – We may allow use of certain widgets (e.g., social share buttons) on our Sites that enable users to easily share information on another platform, such as the user’s social media platform. You understand and agree that the third parties’ widgets may give access, and the third parties may be granted access, to certain information about your browsing on pages of our Sites where these widgets are placed. You understand that we do not have control on the information to which the third parties receive access and you may wish to review the privacy information at the third party site to determine how these third parties collect and treat such information.
Retargeting – As you browse https://debtreliefadvocates.com, advertising cookies will be placed on your computer so that we can understand what you are interested in. Our display advertising partners, enable us to present you with retargeting advertising on other sites based on your previous interaction with https://debtreliefadvocates.com and affiliated pages and sites.
Google Interest Based Advertising Program – In order to enhance your experience when you visit our Site, we participate in the Google Interest-based Advertising Program (“Program”) to ensure the advertisements on this Site correspond to your interests. We do this by working with Google and other Program participants who, like us, place ads on our Site and those of other Program Participants. We then share the information we collect using Web Cookies placed in your browser in order to provide you with targeted advertising when you visit the Site. You may opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting the https://policies.google.com/technologies/adsGoogle Advertising Opt-Out Page.
Third-Party Web Beacons – We use third-party web beacons from Yahoo! to help analyze where visitors go and what they do while visiting our website. Yahoo! may also use anonymous information about your visits to this and other websites in order to improve its products and services and provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by Yahoo! click here or visit https://yahoo.mydashboard.oath.com/device.
The Meta Companies – Meta owns and operates each of the companies listed below, in accordance with their respective terms of service and privacy policies. We may share information about you within their family of companies to assist in advertising our services. For more information on the Meta Companies’ privacy practices and how they treat individuals’ information, PII or Non-PII, please visit the following links:
- Facebook Payments Inc. (https://www.facebook.com/payments_terms/privacy)
- Facebook (https://developers.facebook.com/policy)
- Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/)
- Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms)
- Instagram LLC TOS (https://www.instagram.com/about/legal/terms/)
- Atlas (https://www.facebook.com/business/measurement/privacy-policy)
- Instagram LLC (http://instagram.com/about/legal/privacy/)
- Onavo (https://www.onavo.com/privacy_policy)
- Parse (https://opencollective.com/privacypolicy)
- Oculus (https://www.oculus.com/legal/privacy-policy/)
- LiveRail (https://www.facebook.com/audiencenetwork/privacy-policy)
- WhatsApp Inc. (https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/)
Opt-Out Policy for Newsletter and Email Subscriptions
You may opt-out or unsubscribe from a newsletter or other email list at any time by following the instructions at the end of the newsletters or emails which you receive. Please allow five to ten (5-10) business days for changes to take effect. You understand and agree that during that period and while your request is pending you may still receive newsletters and emails. Client service-related communications are an integral part of the services you receive from us, and you may continue to receive such service-related emails unless you cancel your account, even if you opt out of the newsletters or email list. If you have provided more than one email address to us, you may continue to be contacted unless you request to unsubscribe each email address you have provided. You may also opt-out of receiving our newsletter or marketing emails by contacting us at unsubscribe@debtreliefadvocates.com or by replying to an existing email with your request to be removed from the mailing list.
Short Message Service
We may make available a service through which you can receive communications from your wireless device via short message service (“SMS Service”). Data obtained from you in connection with this SMS service may include your name, address, cell phone number, your provider’s name, and the date, time, and content of your messages. By providing your contact information, you affirmatively represent that you are 18 years of age and the owner or authorized user of the wireless device on which messages will be received, and that you understand that such communication may be subject to certain applicable charges, and that you approve all such applicable charges. In addition to any fee of which you are notified, your provider’s standard message and data rates may apply to our SMS confirmation and all subsequent SMS correspondence. All charges for data rates are billed by, and payable to, your mobile service provider. We will not be liable for any delays in the receipt of any SMS messages, as delivery is subject to effective transmission from your network operator. We will not be liable if SMS are received after hours due to such transmission delays. SMS message services are provided on an AS IS basis. We may also obtain the date, time, and content of your messages in the course of your use of the SMS Service. We will use the information we obtain in connection with our SMS Service in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We may provide your carrier with your applicable information in connection with your consent to receive SMS. Your wireless carrier and other service providers may also collect data about your wireless device usage, and their practices are governed by their own policies. We will not be liable for any data use or misuse by your wireless carrier.
You acknowledge and agree that the SMS Service is provided via wireless systems which use radios (and other means) to transmit communications over complex networks. You must have a two-way text-enabled phone with a compatible carrier and plan. Compatible major carriers include Alltel Wireless, AT&T, Boost Mobile, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Virgin Mobile USA. We do not guarantee that your use of the SMS Service will be private or secure, and we are not liable to you for any lack of privacy or security you may experience. You are fully responsible for taking precautions and providing security measures best suited for your situation and intended use of the SMS Service.
SMS and Phone Call Opt-In
By providing your phone number and/or joining our SMS Service, you expressly authorize us to contact you (including using autodialers, automated text and pre-recorded messages) via your telephone, cellphone, mobile device (including SMS and MMS) and email, even if your telephone number is currently listed on any state, federal or company’s Do Not Call list. Standard phone and data charges will apply. Your consent to the above terms is not required as a condition of purchasing or receiving our services. You also consent to the recording and monitoring of all calls to and from us. You may choose to opt-out and remove your authorization to receive such calls and/or text messages by emailing us your instructions at admin@debtreliefadvocates.com. You may also opt-out and remove your authorization to receive SMS text messages by replying or sending “STOP”, “END”, “QUIT”, “UNSUBSCRIBE”, or “CANCEL” to the Company.
Advertising
DRA advertises online through various methods (e.g., pages within our Sites and mobile apps through company managed social media presences, and/or through other sites and mobile apps not affiliated with DRA) and offline through various methods (e.g. through call centers, and direct marketing). In order to understand how advertising performs, we may collect certain PII and Non-PII information on our Site or through other sites and mobile apps through our advertising service providers or partners using cookies, IP addresses, and other technologies. The collected information may include, but is not limited to, the number of page visits, pages viewed on our Site, search engine referrals, browsing activities over time and across other sites following your visit to one of our Site or apps, and responses to advertisements and promotions on the Site and on sites and apps where we advertise.
DRA uses the PII and Non-PII information (as applicable) described in this Notice to help advertise our products and services in a variety of ways. We may use such information to:
- Present tailored ads to you in the form of:
- Banner ads and splash ads and other mobility applications; or
- Email newsletters and communications, postal mail, and other telemarketing communications;
- Analyze the effectiveness of our ads; and/or
- Determine whether you might be interested in new products or services which may be offered by our third party service provider partners.
Our services may also be offered to you in advertisements presented by other providers using information obtained during your visits to our Site.
How we tailor ads:
Relationship based advertising
In order to help make our advertising informative and useful, we may use PII and Non-PII information about your interaction with us (such as the type of services requested or inquired about, identifiable and non-identifiable transactional information, or non-identifiable geographical information ). Such PII and Non-PII information will be used to help us determine which advertisements or offers to present to you, or which types of offers you may be interested in learning more about.
Online Behavioral Advertising
We or our advertising service providers may use certain information (both PII and Non-PII) obtained about your activities on our Site, such as pages visited and search keywords entered to help determine which of our advertisements or offers may be of interest to you. This PII and Non-PII information may be used for online and offline advertising to you.
Advertising Choices
You may change your choices for advertising in the following ways:
Online Behavioral Advertising by DRA Sites: If you prefer that we not use information based on online Site behavior to provide online and offline tailored content and advertising, you may opt out of online behavioral advertising by emailing us your request at admin@debtreliefadvocates.com.
Online Behavioral Advertising by Third Parties. Apart from setting your browser not to allow cookies from our Site or changing your Privacy settings on other sites, such as those operated by the Meta Companies, you cannot opt out of online behavioral advertising by third parties using pixel tags, web beacons and/or clear GIFs on our Site.
DRA Managed Direct Marketing: If you prefer that we not deliver you marketing offers in email, postal mail or through telemarketing, you may manage your direct marketing choices by emailing us your requests at admin@debtreliefadvocates.com.
Important Reminder
In order for opt outs from online behavioral advertising on our Sites and on other sites to work on your device, your browser must be set to accept cookies. If you delete cookies, buy a new device, access our Site or other sites from a different device, login under a different screen name (if applicable), or change web browsers, you will need to opt-out again. If your browser has scripting disabled, you do not need to opt out, as online behavioral advertising technology does not work when scripting is disabled. Please check your browser’s security settings to validate whether scripting is active or disabled.
Linking to other sites
We may provide links to third party sites. If you follow links to sites not affiliated or controlled by DRA, you should review their privacy and security policies and other terms and conditions, as they may be different from those of our Site. DRA does not guarantee and is not responsible for any interaction between you and the third party sites, including but not limited to the privacy or security of these sites, including the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of their information. You acknowledge that the availability of third party site links is merely for convenience purposes, and that DRA does not endorse, support, acknowledge, agree with, or otherwise promote the contents of the third party sites linked to our Site.
Social media sites
DRA provides experiences on social media platforms that enable online sharing and collaboration among users who have registered to use them. Any content you post on official DRA managed social media pages, such as pictures, information, opinions, or any Personal Information that you make available to other participants on these social platforms, is subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policies of those respective platforms. By allowing you to post or share information on DRA’s social mediate pages, you acknowledge that DRA does not endorse, support, acknowledge, or otherwise agree with the posted information and any such posts shall be your sole responsibility. You also agree that DRA may use any information posted by you on DRA’s social media for any purpose provided in this Notice. Please refer to them to better understand your rights and obligations with regard to such content. In addition, please note that when visiting any official DRA social media pages, you are also subject to DRA‘s Privacy Notices.
Security
To protect Personal Information from unauthorized access and use, we use security measures that comply with applicable federal and state laws. These measures may include device safeguards and secured files and buildings as well as oversight of our third-party service providers to ensure information remains confidential and secure. While we follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the Personal Information and PII submitted to us (both during your submission and after we receive it), please be advised that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information and PII, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about security on our website, you can email us at admin@debtreliefadvocates.com.
Making sure information is accurate
You understand and agree that DRA presumes that the Personal Information you provided is, indeed, accurate. DRA will not be responsible for verifying that Personal Information. It is your responsibility to ensure the information provided is accurate and up to date. If you have previously submitted information which is incomplete, inaccurate or not current, please email or write to us at the appropriate address with updated information which you would like us to use in our communication with you.
Business Transitions
You understand and agree that if DRA goes through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your Personal Information, PII, and Non-PII will likely be among the assets transferred.
California Do Not Track Disclosures
How do we respond to Web browser “do not track” (also referred to as “DNT”) signals or other mechanisms that provide consumers the ability to exercise choice regarding the collection of personally identifiable information about an individual consumer’s online activities over time and across third-party websites or online services?
We currently do not respond to DNT signals in browsers because we do not track individual users across the web.
May other parties collect personally identifiable information about an individual consumer’s online activities over time and across different websites when they visit www.DRA?
Yes, as disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Notice to California Residents
Residents of the State of California may request a list of all third-parties to which this website has disclosed certain information during the preceding year for those third-parties’ direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident and want such a list, please contact us at admin@DRA.
With certain exceptions, residents of the State of California may request (a) disclosure of personal information collected, (b) disclosure of personal information sold or disclosed for a business purpose, (c) deletion of personal information, (d) to opt out of the sale of personal information, and (e) access and data portability. Moreover, DRA will not discriminate based on your exercise of such rights. If you are a California resident and want to make any such requests, please contact us through our website (www.debtreliefadvocates.com) or admin@debtreliefadvocates.com or at DRA LLC, For all mailed requests, you must put the statement “California Privacy Request” in the body of your request, as well as your name, street address, city, state, and zip code. Please note that we are not responsible for requests that are not labeled or sent properly, or that do not have complete information.
For all requests, you must put the statement “California Shine the Light Privacy Request” in the body of your request, as well as your name, street address, city, state, and zip code. Please note that we are not responsible for requests that are not labeled or sent properly, or that do not have complete information.
Notice to Vermont Residents
Based on your consent, DRA may share your information with nonaffiliated third parties to the extent authorized by this Privacy Policy and Vermont regulations. As stated above, you may withdraw your consent to such sharing at any time by emailing us your requests at admin@debtreliefadvocates.com and/or setting your browser not to allow cookies from our Site and/or changing your Privacy settings on other sites, such as those operated by the Meta Companies, as appropriate.
Notice to Nevada Residents
We are providing you this Notice pursuant to state law. You may be placed on our internal Do Not Call List by following the directions set forth above. Nevada law requires that we also provide you with the following contact information: Bureau of Consumer Protection, Office of the Nevada Attorney General, 555 E. Washington St., Suite 3900, Las Vegas, NV 89101; Phone number: 702-486-3132; e-mail: BCPINFO@ag.state.nv.us.
Notice to Users Outside of the United States
This Online Privacy Policy is intended to cover collection of information on our websites from residents of the United States. If you are visiting our websites from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. The data protection and laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. By using our services, you understand that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third-parties with whom we share it as described in this Notice. We do not sell, offer, or otherwise provide services to individuals outside of the United States.
Protecting Children’s Privacy Online
The Site is not directed to individuals under the age of thirteen (13), and we request that these individuals do not provide Personally Identifiable Information (PII) through the Site. We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13 years of age without parental consent. If you are a User under the age of 13, please do not send any PII to us if we have not obtained prior consent from your parent or guardian. If we learn we have collected PII from a User under the age of 13 without parental consent, or if we learn a User under the age of 13 has provided us with PII beyond what we request from him or her, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that a User under the age of 13 may have provided DRA with PII in violation of this Privacy Policy, please contact us at our e-mail or physical mailing address listed in the “Contact Us” section below and we will take all reasonable efforts to remove the information. For more information about the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), please visit the Federal Trade Commission website at https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/privacy-security/childrens-privacy.
Updates to this Privacy Notice
This Online Privacy Notice is subject to change at the sole discretion of DRA. Please review the Privacy Policy periodically to see if there are any changes. If we make changes to the Privacy Notice, we will revise the “Last Updated” date at the top of this Notice. Any changes to this Notice will become effective when we post the revised Notice on the Site. You agree that your use of the Site following any changes to this Notice means that you accept the revised Notice and the Privacy policies therein.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at admin@debtreliefadvocates.com or 1.800.575.6818, or write us at:
DRA LLC
16808 Armstrong Ave Suite 215
Irvine, CA 92606