Insurance information and privacy protection
This notice applies to insurance transactions involving insurance primarily for personal, family or household needs rather than business or professional needs.
Below you'll find information as to how State Farm® collects and discloses personal information about you. Also included are the procedures available to you for seeing and, if necessary, correcting personal information in our records.
Sources of personal information
Most of the personal information we collect comes from your application. We use this information to help decide whether or not a policy can be issued and for rating purposes. In some instances, in order to assist in making necessary business decisions, we may need to obtain additional information about you and any others who are to be covered. This information may be requested from sources such as public records, consumer reporting agencies, doctors, hospitals, MIB, Inc. (Medical Information Bureau), other insurance companies or other individuals in connection with your insurance transactions with State Farm. These sources may be asked to provide information concerning your driving record, employment history, hobbies, other insurance coverage, general reputation, health and medical history.
Personal information may be disclosed
Personal or privileged information collected in connection with your insurance may be disclosed under certain circumstances without your written authorization to:
- A person, such as a lawyer or reinsurer, to perform a business or professional service for us.
- Other insurance companies, agents or insurance support organizations to prevent fraud, material misrepresentation or material nondisclosure in connection with insurance transactions.
- Medical-care institutions or medical professionals to verify insurance coverage or benefits, to inform you of a medical problem you may not be aware of, or to conduct an operations or services audit.
- An insurance regulatory department.
- A law enforcement or other governmental authority in order to prevent or prosecute fraud, or if it is believed you have been involved in illegal activities.
- Aid in conducting scientific research, including actuarial and underwriting studies, management audits, financial audits or program evaluations.
- A person who will only use the information as an aid in the marketing of a product or service. However, no medical-record information, privileged information, or personal information relating to your character, personal habits, mode of living or general reputation may be disclosed. You will be given an opportunity to indicate whether you want personal information disclosed for marketing purposes.
- An affiliate of this company for use in connection with their marketing activities. Our affiliates will not disclose the information to persons outside our organization.
- A group policyholder who needs the information to report claims experience or to conduct an operations or services audit.
Your right to know personal information
As an individual, you have certain rights to know what personal information we've recorded. Here is the procedure:
- After you submit a written request for access to recorded personal information which is reasonably locatable and retrievable, within 30 days we will:
- inform you of the nature and substance of the recorded personal information in writing, by telephone or by other oral communication.
- permit you to see and copy, in person, the recorded personal information (except medical-record information) which applies to you, or provide you with copies of this information by mail, whichever you prefer.
- inform you of the persons, if recorded, to which the personal information (except medical-record information) has been disclosed in the two years prior to your request. If the identities have not been recorded, we will provide you with the names of those insurance institutions, agents, insurance-support organizations or other persons to whom such information is normally disclosed.
- provide you with a summary of the procedures by which you may request correction, amendment or deletion of recorded personal information.
- Medical-record information — Subject to a few state exceptions, medical-record information provided by a medical-care institution or a medical professional generally will be disclosed by State Farm to a medical professional whose name and address you provide us and who is licensed to provide medical care for the conditions to which the information applies.
- State Farm may charge you a reasonable fee to cover the costs incurred in providing you with a copy of recorded personal information. If the information applies to reasons for an adverse underwriting decision, there will be no charge.
- In some circumstances, our obligations to you regarding access to recorded personal information may be satisfied by referring you to an insurance-support organization.
- Your rights regarding access to recorded personal information apply to the information collected and maintained in connection with insurance transactions. These rights do not extend to information collected in connection with or in reasonable anticipation of a claim or civil or criminal proceeding.
Your right to correct personal information
As an individual, you have the following rights in regard to the correction, amendment or deletion of recorded personal information:
- Within 30 days of receiving your written request to correct, amend or delete any recorded personal information we have, State Farm will:
- correct, amend or delete the portion of the recorded personal information in dispute, or
- notify you of our refusal to make the correction, amendment or deletion, the reasons for the refusal and your right to file a protest statement.
- If the recorded personal information is corrected, amended or deleted, you will be notified in writing and this information will be furnished to:
- any person you've designated who may have, within the preceding 2 years, received such recorded personal information.
- any insurance-support organization whose primary source of personal information is insurance institutions, if it has systematically received recorded personal information about you from us within the preceding 7 years, unless this information is no longer maintained.
- any insurance-support organization that furnished the personal information that has been corrected, amended or deleted.
- If you disagree with a refusal to correct, amend or delete recorded personal information, you may file a:
- concise statement setting forth what you think is the correct, relevant or fair information, and
- concise statement of the reasons why you disagree with the refusal to correct, amend or delete recorded personal information.
- If you file either of the statements described above, State Farm will:
- file the statement with the disputed personal information and provide a means by which anyone reviewing the disputed personal information will be made aware of the statement and have access to it.
- in any subsequent disclosure of the recorded personal information that is the subject of disagreement, clearly identify the information in dispute and provide the statements that have been filed.
- furnish the statement to any of the three categories of persons and organizations covered in the preceding point "2."
- Your rights regarding the correction, amendment or deletion of recorded personal information apply to the information collected and maintained in connection with insurance transactions. These rights do not extend to information collected in connection with or in reasonable anticipation of a claim or civil or criminal proceeding.
Finally, we feel you should know that insurance-support organizations, which furnish personal information to insurance companies, may retain copies of this information in their files and may disclose the information to others.
State Farm Insurance Companies
Bloomington, IL
8/17 (C) 153-1048.5e
You may exercise your right to correction by submitting a written request using one of the following options.
- Writing us at:
State Farm
Attention: Enterprise Compliance & Ethics - Office of Privacy, C-2
PO Box 2322
Bloomington, IL 61704-2322 - Emailing us at privacy@statefarm.com (Please include your first name, last name, and address.)
Last Reviewed 06/2020
Last Updated 06/2020