ScholarShare 529 Privacy Policy
Please read this notice carefully. It gives you important information about how ScholarShare 529 (the “Plan”) handles nonpublic personal information it may receive about you in connection with the Plan through its Program Manager, TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc. (“TFI” or “we”). Subject to the “Changes to our Privacy Policy” section below, this policy applies to all account owners in the Plan.
Information We May Collect
We, on behalf of the Plan, may collect personal information about you from various sources to provide information requested by you about the Plan, as well as to service and maintain your account in the Plan. We may obtain this personal information (which may include your Social Security Number) in any of the following ways:
- you provide it on the Plan enrollment form (“Application”);
- you provide it on other Plan forms;
- you provide it or is collected through “cookies” on the Plan website;
- you provide it during consultations; or
- we obtain it to complete your requested transactions.
How Your Information Is Shared and Used
TFI does not disclose your personal information to any third parties so that they can market their products and services to you.
As permitted by law or contract, TFI may disclose your information to those service providers, affiliated and non-affiliated, hired by us on behalf of the Plan and which need the information to respond to your inquiries and/or to service and maintain your account.
The affiliated and non-affiliated service providers who receive your personal information may use it to:
- process your Plan transactions;
- provide you with Plan materials;
- mail you Plan account statements;
- maintain the Plan website; and
- enhance your Plan benefits.
These service providers provide services at TFI’s direction and include fulfillment companies, printing and mailing facilities. Under their agreements with TFI, these service providers are required to keep your personal information confidential and to use it only for providing the contractually required services.
In addition, TFI may be required by law to disclose your personal information to government agencies and other regulatory bodies (for example, for tax reporting purposes or to report suspicious transactions).
Security of Your Information
TFI protects the personal information you provide against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, destruction, loss or misuse. Your personal information is protected by physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in accordance with federal and state standards. These safeguards include appropriate procedures for access and use of electronic data, provisions for the secure transmission of sensitive personal information on the Plan’s website, and telephone system authentication procedures.
Changes in Our Privacy Policy
TFI, on behalf of the Plan, periodically reviews and updates this Privacy Policy and its related practices and procedures. You will be notified of amendments to this Privacy Policy.
Notice About Online Privacy
The personal information that you provide through the Plan website is handled in the same way as the personal information that you provide by any other means, as described above. This section of the notice gives you additional information about the way in which personal information that is obtained online is handled.
Online Enrollment, Account Access, and Online Transactions
When you visit the Plan website, you can go to pages that are open to the general public or log on to protected pages to enroll in the Plan, access information about your account, or conduct certain transactions on your account. Once you have opened an account in the Plan, access to the secure pages of the Plan website is permitted only after you have created a Username and Password by supplying your Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number, Account Number, and zip code. The Username and Password must be supplied each time you want to access your account information online. This information serves to verify your identity.
When you enter personal data into the Plan website (including your Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number and your password) to enroll or access your account online, you will log in to secure pages where we use Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol for protecting information.
To use this section of the Plan website you need a browser that supports TLS encryption and dynamic Web page construction.
If you provide personal information to effect transactions on the Plan website, a record of the transactions that you have performed while on the site is retained by the Plan.
Other Personal Information Provided by You on the Plan Website
If you decide not to enroll online and you want to request Plan enrollment materials to be mailed to you, or you want to subscribe to receive additional Plan information, you can click on another section of the Plan website (i.e., the Order an Enrollment Kit page in the Help Desk section) to provide your name, mailing address and e-mail address, respectively. The personal information that you provide on that page of the site will be stored and used to market the Plan more effectively. Although that page of the Plan website does not use TLS encryption protocol, your information will be safeguarded in accordance with federal and state privacy laws and industry norms.
When you visit the Plan’s website, we may collect information about your use of the site through “cookies.” Cookies are small bits of information transferred to your computer’s hard drive that allow us to know how often a user visits our site and the activities they are most interested in performing. By visiting the Plan’s site, you are deemed to accept such cookies to enable you to take full advantage of specific services offered. We may also require you to accept cookies placed by a third party supporting this activity on behalf of the Plan.
The cookies collect certain technical and navigational information only, such as computer browser type, internet protocol address, pages visited, and average time spent on our websites. In addition, we capture the paths taken as you move from page to page (i.e., your “click stream” activity). This information allows us to enhance your experience while on our site.
Finally, we use cookies to establish and maintain a logged-in connection while you are in the secure section(s) of our website. For example, when you visit your account, perform transactions, update contact information or perform other activity, the cookie allows you to navigate from page to page in a secure fashion without having to repeatedly log-in.
Internet Tracking Disclosure
We do not have the protocol that offers you the choice to opt-out of Internet tracking. You may reset your web browser to enable do not track functionality if your browser supports it.
Obtaining Additional Information
You may call the Plan toll-free at 1-800-544-5248 or write to the Plan at ScholarShare 529, PO Box 219185, Kansas City, MO 64121-9185.
© 2023 TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc.
January 2023
