Privacy and Security/Terms of Use

Privacy Notice for Federal Family Education Program (FFELP) Loans and Private Loans

Index

Notice of privacy policies of the NHHEAF Network Organizations

Granite State Management & Resources
New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation
New Hampshire Higher Education Loan Corporation

Introduction

Protecting the privacy of your personal and financial information is a serious concern for the organizations of the NHHEAF Network and its employees. We respect your right to privacy and recognize our obligation to keep information about you secure and confidential. We want you to feel confident that we will protect the privacy of your personal and financial information.

In addition to this NOTICE OF PRIVACY POLICIES OF THE NHHEAF NETWORK ORGANIZATIONS, the NHHEAF Network will provide new customers with its Privacy Notice which reflects our privacy policies and practices and informs customers of their rights pertaining to those policies. Our Privacy Notice can also be located by clicking the privacy notice links at the top of this page . The NHHEAF Network reserves the right to modify its Privacy Policies at any time and these modifications will be reflected on this privacy page. When we use the term "nonpublic personal information" in this Notice, we mean information about you that identifies you, and that is not available from public sources. These Privacy Policies were adopted July 1, 2001. These Policies were updated as of March 16, 2016.

Independence of The NHHEAF Network Organizations

The New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation, Granite State Management & Resources, and New Hampshire Higher Education Loan Corporation are independent New Hampshire not-for-profit corporations. To save costs of the preparation and distribution of this notice and to further their charitable missions, the three corporations have elected to jointly issue this Notice of Privacy Policies. However, the three corporations are separate legal entities and are solely and independently responsible for their respective legal obligations.

NHHEAF Network privacy policy

Collection of Information

We collect nonpublic personal information about you from the following sources:

Information we receive from you on loan applications, promissory notes, correspondence, communications, and other forms, such as your name, address, email address, telephone number, social security number, assets, liabilities, and income;
Information we receive about your transactions with us, our affiliates, your lender(s), the U.S. Department of Education, and others, such as your account balance, payment history, parties to transactions and account usage;
Information received from schools you attend or formerly attended, or to which you have applied for admission, such as your academic status and progress; and
Information received from credit reporting agencies, such as your creditworthiness, credit history, and credit score.

If you determine that one of the organizations of NHHEAF Network has personal information of yours that must be corrected or updated, please contact that specific organization to make the request.

Disclosure of Information

We do not share any nonpublic personal information about our current or former customers to anyone, except in connection with the lawful servicing of their loans as required under the program terms or to fulfil a customer request. Customers may not limit the sharing of information that is necessary for the proper servicing of the loan. Examples of legally permitted sharing or disclosures include, without limitation:

Disclosures made at your request or with your consent,
Disclosures to outside companies to perform services for us such as printing payment coupons, preparing or mailing statements, software programming, or marketing our own products.
Disclosures necessary to effect, administer or enforce your loan, including without limitation, disclosures in connection with:
1. Maintaining, or servicing your loan;
2. Selling all or part of our rights in your loan to another party;
3. Using your loan as collateral for money that we borrow; and
4. Enforcing our rights with respect to your loan.
Disclosures to prevent fraud or to resolve borrower disputes or inquiries;
Disclosures to your fiduciaries or your legal representatives;
Disclosures to credit reporting agencies;
Disclosures made in response to a subpoena or other valid order to produce information;
Disclosures to our contractors and agents, to schools, lenders, and the United States Department of Education that are necessary to process your loan; and
Disclosures to colleges and other educational institutions at which you have applied for admission and for which you request or direct such information should be provided.

In compliance with United States Department of Education requirements under the authority of Section 484(a)(4)(B) of the Higher Education Act , the NHHEAF Network is required to collect and disclose the Social Security Numbers of applicants for Federal student loans. This information is used only as needed in verifying customer identity, determining program eligibility and benefits, permitting the servicing of financial aid, and certifying attendance and status at an approved higher education institution.

Access to Information

We restrict access to your nonpublic personal information to our employees, who need the information and to our contractors and agents in order to provide service to you in connection with the administering, servicing, and collection of your loan account. We maintain reasonable physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards in compliance with Federal and State regulations to protect your nonpublic personal information from the point of collection through the destruction and disposal of information that has reached its retention threshold.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments about this notice, please contact us at:

Privacy Group
The NHHEAF Network
4 Barrell Court
Concord, NH 03301
(603)227-5317

Online Privacy Policy

Protecting the privacy of your personal and financial information online is a serious concern for the organizations of the NHHEAF Network ("Network") and our employees. We respect your right to privacy and recognize our obligation to keep information about you secure and confidential. While our Privacy Policies are the same whether you are online or not, we have taken extra measures to protect the privacy of your personal and financial information online.

The NHHEAF Network is committed to protecting the personally identifiable information of our customers. If you choose to reach the NHHEAF Network via the internet or our websites in order to request information, apply for products or services, or to take advantage of program benefits, you may need to provide us certain personal information just as you would if you were communicating with us in person, by mail or by telephone. The Network's Privacy Policy applies only to consumer transactions (not business transactions). The Network's Online Privacy Policy applies to all visitors to this website.

While our Online Privacy Policy provides information on the technical practices used by this website, the NHHEAF Network Privacy Policy details our policy for collection of personal information, use and retention of personal information, and our security measures. Online activity by visitors is subject to both the NHHEAF Network Privacy Policy and this Online Privacy Policy as set forth in the Notice of Privacy Policies.

About Cookies

NHHEAF Network sponsored websites use cookies to enhance the performance and delivery of information and services. Cookies are small bits of code stored on your computer hard drive, which contain your preferences and other information relating to your use of our websites. Most are temporary session cookies, which are automatically deleted from your hard drive once you end your online session. Others are persistent cookies, which remain on your hard drive to facilitate future interaction with the site.

Most web browsers can be set to accept cookies, reject cookies, notify you when a cookie is received, or require permission before accepting cookies.

Usage Tracking

The NHHEAF Network tracks all user traffic patterns throughout all our sites, even for users who have enabled "Do Not Track" signals on their web browsers. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. All information is reported in aggregate form. The NHHEAF Network does break down overall usage statistics according to a user's domain name, browser type, page requests and referring host.

The NHHEAF Network at times tracks and catalogs the search terms that users enter in our search function, but this tracking is never associated with individual users. We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you.

Google AdWords™

This site utilizes Google AdWords™ and tracking cookies to monitor the success of advertising campaigns through the Google tool. The cookies used for monitoring Google AdWords™ persist for a limited time only. The cookies are not isolated meaning that the data gathered cannot be matched back to a specific website visitor. Instead, the data permits an aggregated view of the overall data for ads and keywords.

Email

The NHHEAF Network may send unsolicited email to its visitors who provide an email address and do not opt out of receiving information about our products or services. For customers of the NHHEAF Network, we may send emails in response to direct queries, as part of newsletter subscriptions, as a function of our online account processes or if you request that information about your loan such as your loan status be emailed to you. Standard email is not secure. Therefore, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as social security or account numbers to us via an unsecured email. Such communications should be sent to us via the U.S. Postal Service or you may call or visit us at our office.

Children’s Online Privacy

Consistent with the Federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), NHHEAF will not knowingly collect names or any other personally identifiable information from children. The NHHEAF Network will not knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting parental consent.

Visiting Links to Other Sites

NHHEAF Network sponsored websites contain links to other sites. Please be aware that the NHHEAF Network is not responsible for the privacy policies of other websites. The NHHEAF Network encourages visitors when they link to other websites to read and be aware of the privacy policies of those sites. This privacy statement pertains only to the NHHEAF Network.

Security

The NHHEAF Network takes the safeguarding of information seriously. We maintain administrative physical and technical controls to safeguard the information in our care. Some of the security measures employed by the NHHEAF Network include:

Encrypted access to secure areas of the NHHEAF Network sponsored websites using Secure Socket Layers (SSL) technology;
Compliance with the strict security standards of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST);
Security screening and regular training of our employees on proper handling of sensitive information; and
Granting information access to our employees only as required for their job responsibilities.

Your Consent

By using this website, you consent to the collection and use of this information by NHHEAF Network. If we decide to change our Privacy Policies as set for in the Notice of Policies, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what personal information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.

Terms of use

Agreement

When you access a NHHEAF Network sponsored website (“Site“), you agree to the following:

When using products or services that require you to log in by creating a username/ID and password, you must provide current, complete and accurate information;
You assume complete responsibility for maintaining the confidentiality of your username/ID and password and must not provide your password to another party;
You will not use the Site for any fraudulent or unlawful purpose including violating the privacy rights of other visitors to the Site;
You will not impersonate any person or entity;
You will not attempt to gain unauthorized access to our Site, our systems or servers;
You may retrieve, save, copy or print informational content found on our Site for your own personal use. However, you may not charge others for such use;
You will include the copyright notice in any copy that you make; and
You will not modify the information found in NHHEAF Network Online without the express permission of NHHEAF Network.

Protecting Username/ID and Password or PIN

You have an important role in protecting your own account information by ensuring that any Username/ID and Password or PIN that you establish are not disclosed to another party. You must also immediately report any unauthorized access to your account that becomes known to you. The Network will not be held responsible for activities performed or damages incurred due to noncompliance with the Terms of Use including your disclosure of login information (username/ID and password) to another party, whether these activities were permitted by the you or not. The Network reserves the right to terminate online access if it becomes aware of such occurrences.

Legal Notices

No Warranty
The organizations of the NHHEAF Network intend that the materials and information available in this website shall be as accurate, up to date, and secure as possible. However, the organizations of the NHHEAF Network do not warrant that the materials or information contained or described on this website are or will be accurate, complete, current, reliable or suitable for any particular purpose, that your access will be uninterrupted, that the materials or information are free of computer viruses, or that this website cannot be tampered with by third parties.
Right to Modify
The NHHEAF Network reserves the right to change or modify, or even remove, portions of this website at any time and for any reason and without notice.
Limitation of Liability and Disclaimer
This website and all information and materials and materials made available on or accessed through this website are provided As Is and without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
In no event will the Organizations of the NHHEAF Network be liable to you or to any third party for any damages, including without limitation, direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential, exemplary damages, lost profits, or lost savings, arising out of the use of, inability to use, accuracy, quality or performance of the website or any hypertext links in the website, whether or not the Organizations of the NHHEAF Network have been advised of the possibility of such damages, and whether or not based upon theories of contract, negligence, warranty, strict liability, or other tort, breach or any statutory duty, principles of indemnity or contribution, the failure of any remedy to achieve its essential purpose, or otherwise. If applicable state law is determined to prohibit the application of this exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages to you, in no event shall total liability of the NHHEAF Network Organizations to you, or to any third party, for all damages, losses, and causes of action exceed the amount paid by you to access this website.

Copyright

Trademark/Servicemark

NHHEAF Network trademarks, logos, and service marks (collectively the "Trademarks") displayed on our Sites, are registered trademarks of The NHHEAF Network Organizations. Nothing contained on the Site should be construed as granting any license or right to use any Trademark displayed on the Site without the written permission of the NHHEAF Network or such third party that may own other trademarks displayed on the NHHEAF Network sponsored sites. Misuse of the Trademarks displayed on the NHHEAF Network sponsored sites is strictly prohibited.