Privacy Statement

At Marshall & Sterling Insurance, we value you as a customer. We share your concerns about privacy. We are providing this Privacy Statement to explain how we utilize personal information ("customer information") that is not public. This is information we obtain from you or other sources when we provide you with insurance products and services.

  • We want you to know that we respect your privacy; and we protect your information.
  • We do not sell customer information.
  • We only share your information with persons, companies, or organizations directly connected to providing you with insurance products, services and information.
  • We expect persons or organizations that provide services on our behalf to keep your information confidential. We also expect those persons or organizations to use your information only to provide the services we have asked them to perform.
  • We convey to our employees about the need to protect your information. We have established safeguards (these are physical, electronic and procedural) to protect this information.
Privacy Frequently Asked Questions

What Do We Do with Your Information?
We do not sell your information to anyone. We do not share this information with companies or organizations outside of Marshall & Sterling Insurance, except with the carriers and insurance providers that provide products and service to our customers.

Your agent or broker may use your information to help you with your insurance needs. We may also contact you about products, features, and options in which you have expressed an interest. Marshall & Sterling Insurance will only disclose information about you during the course of providing insurance quotes, products and services which may:

  • Fulfill a transaction you have requested
  • Service your policy
  • Market our products to you
  • Investigate or handle claims
  • Detect or prevent fraud
  • Comply with lawful requests from regulatory and law enforcement authorities

These persons or organizations may include:

  • Our carriers
  • Companies that perform services, such as credit card processing and performing communication services on our behalf.
  • Other financial institutions with which we have an agreement for the sale of financial products.
  • Other insurance companies. This would be done so they could perform their role in an insurance transaction involving you.
  • Independent claims adjusters
  • A business or businesses that conduct actuarial or research studies.
  • People who request information pursuant to a subpoena or court order.
  • Repair shops and recommended claims vendors
  • Your agent or broker

What Kind of Customer Information Do We Have, and Where Did We Get It?
Much of the information that we have about you comes from you. When you perform certain transactions, you may give us information such as your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, family member information, credit/debit card numbers, auto/property ownership and/or Social Security Number. These transactions include your submission of an application for insurance, submission of a request for insurance, submission of a request for products and services we offer, or submission of a request for an insurance quote. We keep information about the types of services you purchase from us and our carriers. Examples of this include premiums, account balances, and payment history. We may collect information from our web site. This includes your activity while using our site and information from online collecting devices known as "cookies" (see below). We may collect information from outside sources such as consumer reporting agencies and health care providers. The information we collect may include the following:

  • Loss information reports.
  • Motor vehicle reports.
  • Credit reports.
  • Medical information.

How Do We Protect Your Customer Information?
We expect any company with whom we share your information to use it only to provide the service we have asked them to perform. Information about you is also available within Marshall & Sterling Insurance. It is available to those people who may need to use it to meet and service the needs of our customers. We communicate the need to protect your information to all employees and agents. We especially communicate this need to people who have access to it. Plus, we have established physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect your information.

Note that if your relationship with us ends, your information will remain protected. This protection will be provided according to our privacy practices outlined in this notice.

How Can You Find out What Information We Have About You?
You may request to see, or obtain by mail, the information about you in our records. If you believe that our information is incomplete or inaccurate, you may request that we correct, add to, or delete from the disputed information. To fulfill your request, we may make arrangements to copy and disclose your information to you on our behalf. This may be done with an insurance support organization or a consumer reporting agency. You may also request a more complete description of the entities to which we disclose your information, or the conditions that might warrant such disclosures. Please send any of the requests listed above in writing to:

Marshall & Sterling Insurance
110 Main Street Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
845-454-0800
845-454-0880, fax
 

If You Are an Internet User
Our web site, marshallsterling.com, provides information about us, our products, and the carriers we use to provide insurance products and services. You may also perform some transactions on the web site. This Privacy Statement applies to users of marshallsterling.com, regardless of whether the user is a Marshall & Sterling Insurance customer. In addition, as an Internet user, you should be aware of the following:

  • What are cookies and how are they used?
  • Do you log my activity on your site?
  • Will I receive promotional e-mails from Marshall & Sterling?

During the period you are logged in our site, we log IP addresses (a number assigned to your computer when you use the Internet), browser and platform types, domain names, access times, referral data (the last site or URL you visited before logging into our site and the first site or URL you visit after leaving our site), and your activity while using or reviewing our site.

As part of our services, we also use cookies. A cookie is a message sent to your browser from a Web server that is stored on your computer's hard drive. The message is sent back to the Web server whenever the browser requests a page from that server. Many commercial Internet sites use cookies. While a code in the cookie file enables the site to label you as a particular user, it does not identify you by name or address unless you have provided us with such information (over the Internet or otherwise) or set up preferences in your browser to do so automatically, in which case it may identify you by name, address or other personal information. You may opt out of accepting cookies by changing the settings on your browser. However, rejecting cookies may prevent you from using certain functions and you may have to repeatedly enter information to take advantage of services or promotions.

In general, cookies allow us to identify you as a particular user and thus provide you with a more customized service. We may also use cookies to track and measure customer or user requests, inquiries, preferences, interests, demographics, traffic patterns and Web site usage, and to determine audience size and repeated usage. This information may also be used to manage and customize our Web site's content, layout, and services in order to improve our site, enhance customer service, and provide tailored messages.

We may also use customer information to send you promotional communications about products, features, and options that we believe may be of interest to you. If we have your e-mail address, we may do this by e-mail. If you do not wish to receive promotional e-mails from us, you can inform us of your desire to be removed from our mailing lists by clicking on the “Safe Unsubscribe” button, or in writing to us at:

Marshall & Sterling Insurance
110 Main Street Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
845-454-0800
845-454-0880, fax
 

Who Should Use Our Web Site?
Our Web site is for insurance and financial products and services and is not intended for children. We offer insurance and financial products and services and thus do not market any products or services to children under the age of fifteen or knowingly collect any information from children under the age of fifteen. If we become aware that information is or has been submitted by or collected from a child under the age of fifteen, we will delete this information.

What Security Procedures Do We Use to Guard Against the Loss, Misuse, Alteration, or Theft of Information While That Information Is Being Submitted to Marshall & Sterling Over the Internet?

We use the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol, secure servers and security protocol to safeguard the information you submit.

To help ensure the security of your personal and financial information that you submit to us (other than via an e-mail message), we use security software to encrypt the information before and during its transmission through the Internet. We only allow information to be submitted for transmission if your browser is compatible with our security software. If your browser is not compatible, you will receive a message indicating your transaction can be completed but at a lower level of security.

E-mail messages are not secure. Our security software does not encrypt e-mail messages. E-mail messages traveling through the Internet are subject to viewing, alteration, and copying by potentially anyone on the Internet.

We take seriously the issue of safeguarding your privacy online. However, please note that you should exercise discretion with respect to the submission of any personal or financial information via e-mail. Please keep in mind that transmitting information via e-mail over the Internet is never completely secure and thus any information submitted may be intercepted, collected, used or disclosed by others. If you are concerned about the security of your communication, we encourage you to send your correspondence through the postal service or use the telephone to speak directly to us. We are not responsible for the security or confidentiality of communications you send to us through the Internet using e-mail messages.

What Can You Do as a Customer to Help Maintain the Security of Information When Accessing Marshall & Sterling Over the Internet?
Some steps you can take to maintain the security of your information include:

  • Utilize the latest, generally proven version of the Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari or other industry-standard browsers. Our site is most secure when using one of these browsers.
  • Keep your User ID and PIN or password confidential. Utilize a PIN or password unique to you and, if possible, change it frequently.
  • Make sure others are not watching you enter your User ID, PIN or password on your keyboard when using the Client ToolKit or when using other protected areas of marshallsterling.com.
  • Do not leave your computer unattended while logged onto our Client ToolKit or other protected areas of marshallsterling.com. After you’ve finished accessing your information, exit the protected area within marshallsterling.com. This ensures that no one can access your policy information if you leave your computer and your session has not been timed out.

Whose Privacy Statement Applies to Links and Co-Branded Sites?
This web site contains links to other sites providing insurance products and services, such as the online defensive driving course, real time auto and home insurance quoting service and Client ToolKit. Marshall & Sterling Insurance provides links to other sites as a convenience to persons who visit the Marshall & Sterling web site. If you choose to use the services provided by these links, you may be asked by these sites to provide certain personally identifiable information (some of which may, on an individual or aggregated basis, be shared with Marshall & Sterling). Please be aware that Marshall & Sterling Insurance is not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites, even though Marshall & Sterling's name or logo may appear on those sites. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our site and to read the privacy policies of each and every Web site that you visit, as the privacy policies of those sites may differ from ours. Our Privacy Statement applies solely to this Web site.

We hope you have found this Important Notice helpful. If you are not comfortable with any of the terms or policies described in this Privacy Statement, we ask that you discontinue use of our site. Please be aware that we may periodically update or revise this Privacy Statement. If we make a material change to our online Privacy Statement, we will post a notice on our homepage notifying users that the policy has been revised. If you have any questions or would like more information, please don't hesitate to contact your Marshall & Sterling representative.