Questions or requests? To submit privacy-related questions or requests, please call our toll-free number at 855-756-4738 or send us an email at Participant_services@empower-retirement.com. Please do not put any confidential or personal account information in an email request.

Additional privacy information for California residents

This Privacy Notice for California Residents is intended to be supplemental to, and not replace, the information contained in our Privacy Policy and applies solely to individuals who reside in the State of California (you). This additional information is provided pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended (the “CCPA”). Any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this notice.

We collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer, device or household (personal information). As described in the chart below, depending on what our relationship is with you or which Empower products or services you use, we may collect the following categories of personal information from you, so we’re disclosing the sources from whom it was collected and the business purpose(s) for which it was collected.

Categories of personal information Sources Business purpose
A. Identifiers From you, your plan sponsor (employer or former employer), our service providers or third parties To provide our products and services to you or to the plan sponsor of your retirement plan. We may share this information with service providers, subcontractors, auditors and regulatory authorities, and other parties as set forth in the Privacy Policy to which this document is linked.
B. Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)) From you, your plan sponsor (employer or former employer), our service providers or third parties To provide our products and services to you or to the plan sponsor of your retirement plan. We may share this information with service providers, subcontractors, auditors and regulatory authorities, and other parties as set forth in the Privacy Policy to which this document is linked.
C. Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law From you, your plan sponsor (employer or former employer), our service providers or third parties To provide our products and services to you or to the plan sponsor of your retirement plan. We may share this information with service providers, subcontractors, auditors and regulatory authorities, and other parties as set forth in the Privacy Policy to which this document is linked.
D. Commercial information From you, our service providers or third parties To provide our products and services to you or to the plan sponsor of your retirement plan. We may share this information with service providers, subcontractors, auditors and regulatory authorities, and other parties as set forth in the Privacy Policy to which this document is linked.
E. Biometric information From you when you call our service center (voiceprint data) To provide our products and services to you or to the plan sponsor of your retirement plan We may share this information with service providers, subcontractors, auditors and regulatory authorities, and other parties as set forth in the Privacy Policy to which this document is linked.
F. Internet or other similar network activity From you, our service providers or third parties To provide our products and services to you or to the plan sponsor of your retirement plan. We may share this information with service providers, subcontractors, auditors and regulatory authorities, and other parties as set forth in the Privacy Policy to which this document is linked.
G. Geolocation data From you, your plan sponsor (employer or former employer), our service providers or third parties To provide our products and services to you or to the plan sponsor of your retirement plan. We may share this information with service providers, subcontractors, auditors and regulatory authorities, and other parties as set forth in the Privacy Policy to which this document is linked.
H. Sensory data From you when you call our service center (voiceprint data) To provide our products and services to you or to the plan sponsor of your retirement plan. We may share this information with service providers, subcontractors, auditors and regulatory authorities, and other parties as set forth in the Privacy Policy to which this document is linked.
I. Professional or employment-related information From you, your plan sponsor (employer or former employer), our service providers or third parties To provide our products and services to you or to the plan sponsor of your retirement plan. We may share this information with service providers, subcontractors, auditors and regulatory authorities, and other parties as set forth in the Privacy Policy to which this document is linked.
J. Non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)) Not collected Not applicable
K. Inferences drawn from other personal information From you, our service providers or third parties To provide our products and services to you or to the plan sponsor of your retirement plan. We may share this information with service providers, subcontractors, auditors and regulatory authorities, and other parties as set forth in the Privacy Policy to which this document is linked.

Personal information does not include:

  • Publicly available information from government records.
  • De-identified or aggregated consumer information.
  • Information excluded from the CCPA’s scope, like:
    • Health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) or clinical trial data.
    • Personal information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994.

We obtain information directly from you and other sources. For example, we obtain information from forms you complete on our website, your conversations with an Empower call center representative, from observing your actions on our website or interactions with our advertisers. In addition, we obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following other sources:

  • Directly from your retirement plan or plan sponsor (your employer or former employer). For example, your employer’s retirement plan may contain some of your personal information necessary to maintain your account or perform our services for your retirement plan or plan sponsor.
  • Directly from third parties. For example, we may need to verify your identity with third parties in order to prevent fraudulent transactions.

Use of personal information

We use the personal information we collect for one or more of the following business purposes:

  • To fulfill or meet the reason you provided the information. For example, if you share your name and contact information to ask a question about our products or services, we will use that personal information to respond to your inquiry.
  • To maintain or service accounts, provide customer service, process or fulfill orders and transactions, verify customer information or provide similar services on behalf of a retirement plan, if applicable.
  • To fulfill our obligations to service your retirement plan, if applicable.
  • To provide you with support and to respond to your inquiries, including to investigate and address your concerns and monitor and improve our responses.
  • To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
  • To undertake internal research to improve our services or for product development.
  • As described to you when collecting your personal information or as otherwise set forth in the CCPA.

We will not use your personal information for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice as required by law.

Sharing personal information

We may disclose your personal information to a third party for the business purposes described above, such as detecting security incidents; performing services on behalf of the retirement plan sponsor or employer or to offer you our own services and products. Disclosures may be made to service providers providing advertising and marketing services, internal research and quality control. When we disclose personal information for a business purpose, we enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personal information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.

We share your personal information with the following categories of third parties: service providers (including affiliates), vendors, auditors and applicable regulatory authorities. The categories of personal information we may share with such third parties may include: identifiers, personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute, protected classification characteristics under applicable law, commercial information, biometric information, internet or network activity, geolocation data, sensory data, employment-related information and inferences drawn from personal information.

Sales of personal information

Empower does not sell your personal information. This includes the personal information of minors, as defined by law.

Your rights and choices

The CCPA provides consumers (California residents) with specific rights regarding their personal information. This section describes your CCPA rights and explains how to exercise those rights.

Right to know about personal information collected, disclosed or sold

Subject to applicable exemptions in the CCPA, you have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection of your personal information over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, to the extent required by the CCPA, we will disclose to you:

  • The categories of personal information we have collected from you.
  • The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.
  • Our business or commercial purpose for collecting that personal information.
  • The categories of third parties with whom we share that personal information.
  • The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you (also called a data portability request).
  • Two separate lists, in the event we sold or disclosed your personal information for a business purpose. The lists will disclose:
    • Any sales, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient purchased, and
    • The applicable business purpose, identifying the personal information categories that each category of recipient obtained.

Right to request deletion

You have the right to request that we delete any of your personal information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request, we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies. Even after we have responded to your request, we will maintain a record of your deletion request for our own recordkeeping and compliance purposes for at least 24 months.

We may deny your deletion request if the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) to:

  • Complete the transaction for which we collected the personal information, provide a service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you or your employer.
  • Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
  • Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
  • Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights or exercise another right provided for by law.
  • Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.).
  • Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.
  • Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
  • Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
  • Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

Exercising right to know and deletion rights

If Empower holds your data in connection with a workplace retirement plan, any request to obtain copies of your data or delete data under the CCPA, as described above, should be directed to the sponsor of your retirement plan (your employer or former employer who is the sponsor of that plan). Otherwise, to submit a request to exercise the right to know or the deletion right described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by emailing us at Participant_services@empower-retirement.com or calling us at 855-756-4738. Only you, or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child. Do not include any confidential information in any e-mail that you send pursuant to this paragraph.

You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must include sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

When making a request, in order to maintain the security of your personal information and verify your identity, we may require you to call our service center or log in to your account to answer a few identity-related questions, including providing additional information about yourself. We may deny your request in the event that any exemptions in the CCPA are applicable to your request or we are not able to verify your identity.

Response timing and format

We will confirm receipt of a request to know or a request to delete as required by applicable law. Such confirmation will include our verification process and when you should expect a response.

We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days of its receipt or as required by law. If we require more time (up to 45 additional days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. We will deliver our final response by mail.

Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request’s receipt. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we will not comply with a request, if applicable.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

Designating an authorized agent

You may use an authorized agent to submit a request on your behalf. To do so, the authorized agent must provide a copy of your signed authorization to Participant_services@empower-retirement.com. You will also be required to verify your identity directly with us and confirm that you provided the authorized agent with permission to submit a request on your behalf.

Nondiscrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. To the extent prohibited by the CCPA, we will not:

  • Deny you goods or services.
  • Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.
  • Provide you a different level or quality of goods or services.
  • Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services, or a different level or quality of goods or services.

However, we may offer you certain financial incentives permitted by the CCPA that can result in different prices, rates or quality levels. Any CCPA-permitted financial incentive we offer will reasonably relate to your personal information’s value and contain written terms that describe the program’s material aspects. Participation in a financial incentive program requires your prior opt-in consent, which you may revoke at any time.

Rev 3/15/2021