Online Privacy and Security

Waterstone Mortgage Corporation (“Waterstone”) is committed to keeping its customers and website visitors informed of its privacy and security practices and policies. This “Privacy Policy” (the “Policy”), explains how information collected through WaterstoneMortgage.com (our “Website”) and offline is treated, used and shared.

We pledge to use and share any information that we collect from or about our customers in accordance with Waterstone’s Consumer Privacy Notice, which provides choices regarding our use and sharing of information.

Information We Collect

Waterstone collects two types of information when consumers visit our Website: “Personally Identifiable Information” and “Non-Personally Identifiable Information.” Together, both of these are referred to in this Policy as “Information."

Personally Identifiable Information is information that can reasonably identify the borrower, which may include the following:

  • Identifiers (your name, alias, mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address, Social Security number, driver’s license number, passport number, or similar identifiers).
  • Protected classification characteristics (age, race, national origin, citizenship, marital status, sex, veteran or military status). 
  • Commercial information (records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies).

Personal information does not include publicly available information from government records, de-identified or aggregated consumer information, or, for purposes of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), information excluded from the CCPA’S scope, such as health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) or personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA).

Waterstone may also collect and store information consumer’s share with us about other people (for example, co-borrowers). Non-Personally Identifiable Information is information that cannot directly or indirectly identify the consumer, such as demographic information about consumers’ online activity on our Website.

How We Collect Your Information

From Consumer: Waterstone collects Information the consumer directly provides such Information to us in connection with obtaining our services. The consumer may choose not to provide Waterstone with certain information; however, Waterstone identifies what information is required to fulfill a request for service. If the consumer chooses not to provide mandatory information, Waterstone may not be able to provide the service being requested.

From Other Sources: Waterstone may also collect information about consumers from other sources, such as credit reports pulled upon the borrower’s authorization.

Automatically: Waterstone may collect Information from the consumer automatically by tracking usage data and using other technologies. For example, Waterstone may send “cookies” to a consumer’s computer. “Cookies” are text files of information that are stored on the consumer’s computer. Cookies help identify the consumer as a unique customer and stores personal preferences and technical information. Cookies allow us to collect information such as the type of browser, which pages are viewed, which webpages are visited, which pages linked the consumer to our site, and which link, if any, the consumer follows off of our Website. We use this information to personalize the borrower experience, enhance security, facilitate navigation, and to display material more efficiently. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but the borrowers can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if preferred.

Waterstone may also use web beacons, pixel tags, clear GIFs and other technologies to track consumer’s online movements. These are small pieces of data that are embedded in images on our Website. Waterstone may also use third-party technologies to provide audience measurements and other analytics services for us. We, or our third-party vendors, may collect personal information about your online activities over time when you use our Website.

How We Respond To Do-Not-Track ("DNT") Signals

DNT is the concept that has been promoted by regulatory authorities, in particular the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), for the Internet industry to develop and implement a mechanism for allowing Internet users to control the tracking of their online activities across websites. Most browsers provide a DNT option that relies on a technology known as a DNT header that sends a signal to websites visited by the browser user about the user's DNT preference.

Waterstone does not currently does not respond to DNT signals in browsers because it does not track individual members across the web. Waterstone does not authorize the collection of personally identifiable information from consumers through advertising technologies.

How We Use Information

Waterstone uses consumer Information to better understand online activity to improve our Website offerings, to reconstruct activity from a user’s previous session, and for troubleshooting and issue resolution purposes. We may also use this data to provide a more personalized online experience, to provide consumers with assistance with support, and to send special offers, product and service updates, or other promotional materials that are relevant and personalized.

Waterstone does not allow third parties to display advertisements on our Website; however, our Website contains links to other websites owned and operated by third parties. By including a link to a third-party website, Waterstone does not endorse or recommend any products or services offered or information contained at the third-party website. Waterstone does not control and is not responsible for the privacy practices of these third parties. Such third party may have a privacy policy different from that of Waterstone and the third-party website may provide less security protection than our Website. If you decide to visit a third-party website via a link contained on our Website, you do so at your risk.

Waterstone may use consumer’s information to communicate regarding services or products that may be of interest to the consumer, to deliver the consumer the services or products requested, to manage the customer relationship, to provide the consumer with support, and to research and analyze the consumer’s use of our services or products. Waterstone may also use this information to allow consumers to participate in surveys, contests and similar promotions, and to administer such promotions.

Waterstone may also use your Information to optimize our services or products, to manage our business, and to measure the overall effectiveness of our business as it relates to online content, advertising, programming, and other activities.

Waterstone may also use your information for the following purposes:

  • Audit related to our current interactions with you and concurrent transactions, including, but not limited to, counting ad impressions to unique visitors, verifying positioning and quality of ad impressions, and auditing compliance with this specification and other standards.
  • Detect security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity.
  • Debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
  • Short-term, transient uses, but your personal information will not be disclosed to another third party and is not used to build a profile about you or otherwise alter your experience outside the current interaction, including, but not limited to, the contextual customization of ads shown as part of the same interaction.
  • Perform services, including maintaining or servicing accounts, providing customer service, processing or fulfilling orders and transactions, verifying customer information, processing payments, providing financing, providing advertising or marketing services, providing analytic services, or providing similar services.
  • Undertake internal research for technological development and demonstration.
  • Undertake activities to verify or maintain the quality or safety of a service or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by us, and to improve, upgrade, or enhance our services or devices.
  • Any commercial purposes, including any purpose to advance your commercial or economic interests, such as by inducing you to buy, rent, lease, join, subscribe to, provide, or exchange products, goods, property, information, or services, or enabling or effecting, directly or indirectly, a commercial transaction.

How We Share Information

Service Providers: Waterstone may also supply consumer Information, on a strictly confidential basis, to service providers, such as title companies, appraisers, credit reporting services, etc., who assist us in qualifying, processing, closing and servicing your loan. By submitting a loan application or a request to be pre-approved, the borrower authorizes us to share their credit report only to process their loan application.

Legal Disclosures: In some instances, Waterstone may use or disclose consumer information to detect, investigate and prevent fraudulent activities or other activities that may violate our policies or be illegal. Waterstone also may disclose information to comply with a legal process, such as a court order, subpoena, search warrant, or law enforcement request. Waterstone will not share personal information with non-affiliates, except under limited circumstances.

We do not sell personal information, and we will not sell personal information except as described in this Policy or if we provide you with notice and a right to opt-out of such sale.

Protecting your Information:

Waterstone takes appropriate security measures that comply with federal law and industry standards to help safeguard your Information from unauthorized access and disclosure, such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption for online sessions, secure websites, network firewalls, and dedicated security teams and secured files and buildings. Nevertheless, because no system can be completely secure, Waterstone does not promise, and the consumer should not expect, that information, searches or other communications will always remain secure.

Waterstone will never ask you for sensitive information, such as your Social Security number, via e-mail. In certain telephone and in-person transactions we may ask for consumer’s full Social Security number, account number or other information to verify your identity before conducting the transactions being requested.

This Policy is intended to cover collection of information on our Website from residents of the United States. If consumers are visiting our Website 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 other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in other countries. By using our Website, consumers understand that their Information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Policy.

Child Privacy

Waterstone does not knowingly solicit data from or market to children under the age of thirteen (13) without parental consent. For additional information regarding the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), please visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website.

Waterstone does not sell the personal information of California consumers, including consumers that are less than 16 years of age, unless the consumer (in the case of consumers between 13 and 16 years of age) or the consumer’s parent or guardian (in the case of consumers who are less than 13 years of age) has affirmatively authorized the sale of the consumer’s personal information.

Your California Privacy Rights

Under the CCPA, California residents have the right to:

  • Request that a business delete any personal information about the consumer which the business has collected from the consumer.
  • Request that a business that collects personal information about the consumer disclose to the consumer, free of charge, the following:
    • The categories of personal information that it has collected about that consumer.
    • The categories of sources from which the personal information is collected.
    • The business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling personal information.
    • The categories of third parties with whom the business shares personal information.
    • The specific pieces of personal information it has collected about that consumer.
  • Request that a business that sells the consumer’s personal information, or that discloses it for a business purpose disclose, free of charge, to the consumer:
    • The categories of personal information that the business collected about the consumer.
    • The categories of personal information that the business sold about the consumer and the categories of third parties to whom the personal was sold, by category or categories of personal information for each third party to whom the personal information was sold.
    • The categories of personal information that the business disclosed about the consumer for a business purpose.
  • Direct a business that sells personal information about the consumer to third parties not to sell the consumer’s personal information.

You may also designate an authorized agent to make such requests on your behalf by contacting us by e-mail or postal mail as follows:

Waterstone Mortgage Corporation
N25W23255 Paul Road
Pewaukee, 53072
Info@WaterstoneMortgage.com

Waterstone will not discriminate against you if you choose to exercise any of your rights as described in this section.

Changes to this Policy

Waterstone may update this Policy from time to time with respect to how we use and/or share consumers Information. This Policy will reflect the date it was last updated and any revisions or updates to this Policy will become effective when the revised Policy is posted on our Website. The consumers continued use of our Website will signify your acceptance to the terms of the updated and revised Policy.

Updating Your Communication Preferences and Contacting Us

Credit reporting agencies may share the borrower’s Information with other companies when applying for a home loan.

Waterstone may provide you the opportunity to subscribe to e-mail newsletters and other communications. You may unsubscribe by following the instructions provided in each e-mail newsletter. Similarly, if at any time you do not wish to continue to receive communications from Waterstone or its associated third parties' communications, you may modify your preferences by accessing the website provided to you upon submission of you initial application or inquiry.

If you have submitted a loan request application or an application for pre-approval with us, you can update your Information through the website provided to you after the submission of your application. Federal and state regulations require that we store completed loan requests for various periods of time. In order to comply with these requirements, we may be unable to delete your Information from our database until the expiration of the applicable period.

If you have any questions about this Policy or our information-handling practices, or if you wish to request access to or deletion of your Personal Information or to exercise any other data rights under California law, please contact us by e-mail or postal mail as follows:

Waterstone Mortgage Corporation
N25W23255 Paul Road
Pewaukee, 53072
Info@WaterstoneMortgage.com

View Waterstone’s Consumer Privacy Notice