If you are like me, you have received dozens of “privacy policy notices” from your banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms, credit card companies and so forth. This is because a new law requires financial institutions to clearly disclose its policies on safeguarding private information and what information may be disclosed.

Although I can not explain the reasoning, the law specifically includes real estate appraisers under the definition of a financial institution. Therefore, Sargent Consulting, Ltd. must make these same disclosures. Because the law focuses on personal individual information and not on information related to business activities, its regulations typically only impact us when performing residential appraisals for individuals, as opposed to lenders or other financial institutions. If you are not utilizing our services under these circumstances, rest assured that we still must adhere to strict confidentiality requirements … we are simply not bound by law to actually tell you so!

We are bound to disclose a privacy policy if you are a “consumer” of our services. A consumer is an individual who obtains an appraisal for personal, family or household purposes. A consumer is a person with no continuing relationship with the appraiser and who obtains his or her appraisal in an isolated, one-time transaction. If you meet these criteria, I offer, for your reading pleasure, our policy….

Our privacy principles: We are committed to protecting our clients' personal and financial information. We consider privacy to be fundamental to our relationship with clients. We are committed to maintaining the confidentiality, integrity and security of clients' personal information. Internal policies have been developed to protect this confidentiality, while allowing client needs to be served. This privacy statement addresses what nonpublic personal information we collect, what we do with it, and how we protect it.

What information we collect: We may collect and maintain several types of personal information in the course of providing you with appraisal services, such as:

Information we receive from you on applications, letters of engagement, correspondence, or conversations, including, but not limited to, your name, address, phone number, the income and expenses associated with the subject property, the sale price of the subject property, and the details of any financing on the subject property.

Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates or others, including, but not limited to, payments history, parties to transactions and other financial information.

What information we may disclose: We may disclose the nonpublic personal information about you described above, primarily to provide you with the appraisal services you seek from us. We do not disclose nonpublic personal information about clients or former clients except as required by or permitted by law. The law permits us to share this information with our affiliates, such as employees, subcontractors or providers of similar services in exchange for comparable information.

Who we share the information with: We restrict access to personal information to authorized individuals who need to know this information to provide service and products for you. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to protect your nonpublic personal information. Unless you tell us not to, we may disclose nonpublic personal information about you to the following types of third parties:

When we share nonpublic information referred to above, the information is made available for limited purposes and under controlled circumstances. We require third parties to comply with our standards for security and confidentiality. We do not permit use of consumer/customer information for any other purpose nor do we permit third parties to rent, sell, trade or otherwise release or disclose information to any other party.

You may limit information shared about you. If you prefer that we not disclose nonpublic personal information about you to third parties, you may opt out of those disclosures, that is, you may direct us not to make those disclosures (other than those permitted by law). If you wish to opt out, contact us via the telephone and facsimile numbers to left, or via e-mail.