EMC Insurance Companies Internet Privacy Notice

EMC Insurance Companies* (EMC) understands that privacy is an important issue for visitors to our website at emcinsurance.com. It is the policy of EMC to protect the nonpublic, personally-identifiable information of our customers and to keep this information secure and confidential. The following explanation is provided to help our website visitors understand what information is gathered through our site and how that information is handled and used once it is gathered.

EMC’s website consists of secure areas (Agent Access, Policyholder Access, Business Partner Access and Employee Access) and public access areas. Secure areas require the correct user-id, department number and password before a visitor is permitted access. Public access areas, by comparison, are available to any visitor.

Secure Areas
Access to EMC’s secure areas is restricted to EMC’s agents, policyholders, business partners and selected EMC employees. Individuals within these groups are “authorized” after meeting certain identification criteria and are assigned individual user-id’s, department numbers and passwords for secure areas access. Nonpublic, personally-identifiable information pertaining to applicants, policyholders, employees of commercial policyholders, beneficiaries and claimants is obtained from and displayed to our authorized users through secure communications via EMC’s secure areas. Such information is obtained and displayed as part of the insurance application, underwriting, claims, administration and/or servicing processes. Authorized users are not permitted access to nonpublic, personally-identifiable information that does not pertain to their applicable account(s). For information on how nonpublic, personally-identifiable information is used, refer to the following notices: (Click on the following links to view the notices in PDF format.)

Personal Lines Privacy Notice
Privacy Notice - California
Workers’ Compensation and Group Benefits Privacy Notice

To insure secure communications over the internet for its secure areas, EMC uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology to protect transmitted information from being intercepted while it is in transit over the internet. Access to EMC’s secure areas requires proper authentication through the entry of correct user-id’s, department numbers and passwords. The system requires passwords to be changed several times a year. Once confidential information is gathered and stored within EMC’s systems, it is protected by firewalls and other access control systems and processes to keep it secure from unauthorized access.

Public Access Areas
EMC does not collect or display nonpublic, personally-identifiable information through its public access areas, except for the collection of contact information as part of our Safety Signs, Safety Videos and Tech Sheets services. Contact name, address, etc. are collected so that the requested materials can be delivered to the requesting party. The data is encrypted using SSL to protect it during transmission. Some of the collected contact information is stored in a secured database where it is used for reports that assist us in improving this service to our commercial policyholders. This contact information is not provided to anyone outside our company except as necessary to deliver safety-related materials as requested.

Website Visitor Data
To help us improve the content and services of our website, EMC gathers data from each site visit. This data allows us to determine how many people visit our website, when they visit, what pages they visit, how long they stay and the website from which they connected to our website. We do not collect nonpublic, personally-identifiable information from visits to our public access areas. For visits to our secure areas, we do collect the visitor’s user-id and information on the services each visitor uses while logged onto our secure areas. This information helps us specifically target improvements to meet our secure areas users’ needs.

Cookies
Cookies are small text files that a website loads on a visitor’s hard drive or in temporary memory so the website can give the visitor additional functionality. EMC does not use cookies to obtain nonpublic, personally-identifiable information. EMC does not load cookies on a visitor’s hard drive. For some of our website’s services, we will load a cookie containing a session ID into the visitor’s temporary, personal computer memory. The session ID allows us to keep track of visitor’s transactions within a given service so that the correct responses are presented to the visitor’s browser. The cookie goes away when the visitor closes his/her browser. Nonpublic, personally-identifiable information is not involved in this process.

Hyperlinks
EMC’s website contains hyperlinks (links) to other websites, and other websites may link to this website. Websites that link to and from EMC’s website may have different privacy practices from those of EMC. The privacy practices described in this notice apply solely to this website. Visitors to our website should read the privacy policy statements of the other websites they visit, understanding that those policies do not apply to this website and that EMC’s policy does not apply to other websites.

Internet Privacy Notice Changes
From time to time, EMC may make changes to this notice. Visitors should revisit this notice periodically to learn of any change in our internet privacy policy.

How To Contact Us
If you have questions or concerns regarding this privacy notice, you may use one of the following methods to contact us. Remember to include, to the extent applicable, your name, address and policy or claim number.

Privacy Coordinator
EMC Insurance Companies
P.O.Box 712
Des Moines, Iowa  50303-0712
e-mail: privacycoordinator@EMCIns.com

* EMC Insurance Companies is the trade name used by several affiliated insurance companies and insurance service corporations of which Employers Mutual Casualty Company is the lead company. This notice is applicable to and made on behalf of the following affiliated insurance companies:

Employers Mutual Casualty Company
EMC Property & Casualty Company
EMCASCO Insurance Company
Dakota Fire Insurance Company
Illinois EMCASCO Insurance Company
EMC Reinsurance Company
Union Insurance Company of Providence
Hamilton Mutual Insurance Company

All of the above listed affiliated insurance companies will be bound by the statements made herein.

9-16-2005