Legal Policies

Consumer
A “consumer” is a person who seeks or obtains products or services from us for personal, family or household needs. Only a natural person may be a consumer.

Personal Information
“Personal information” is information about a consumer that is not publicly available.

We collect personal information from:

• People who apply for insurance from us;
• People who visit our website;
• People we insure;
• People involved in claims under our policies;
• The consumer’s transactions with us, our affiliates, our agents or others;
• Consumer reporting agencies or insurance support organizations; and
• Other third parties including state motor vehicle departments.

Information we collect from an insurance-support organization may be kept by them. They may disclose it to others.

We do not disclose personal information, except as required or allowed by law.

Sometimes we are allowed to disclose personal information without consent. Examples of such disclosures include:

• To a person who performs administrative, business, professional, or insurance functions for us;
• To confirm eligibility for insurance benefits or payments;
• To detect or prevent crime or fraud;
• To insurers or agents that need it to perform an insurance function;
• To insurers or agents so we can perform an insurance function;
• To medical providers to confirm insurance coverage;
• To insurance regulators;
• To law enforcement;
• In response to subpoenas, search warrants or other court orders;
• For actuarial or research studies;
• In connection with a sale of our business;
• To an affiliate who is auditing us;
• To a peer review group looking at the services or conduct of a medical provider;
• To a public agency that may have paid health benefits for a consumer;
• To a certificate holder or policy owner who wants to know the status of an insurance transaction;
• To a person with a legal interest in a policy issued by us;
• To rate advisory organizations;
• To guaranty funds;
• To rating agencies;
• To our lawyers, accountants and auditors;
• To a group policy owner to report claims experience;
• To a group policy owner to conduct an audit; or
• As otherwise required or allowed by law.

We authorize our workers, agents, outside vendors and others to access personal information only when they have a business reason to do so. We have physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect personal information from unauthorized access.

For More Information

You can also find additional information on our:

• Terms of Service
• U.S. Privacy Policy (non-California)
• California Privacy Policy 

A consumer who lives in AZ, CA, CT, GA, IL, MA, ME, MT, NC, NJ, OH, OR, VA may review personal information we have gathered about the consumer. The consumer may send a letter to:

Chief Privacy Officer
P.O. Box 2048
Omaha, NE 68103

The letter should include:

• Name
• Address
• Preferred telephone number
• Policy number
• Description of the records that the consumer wants to review.

Upon receipt of this request, we will review our records and inform the consumer if we have the information sought and if it is reasonably locatable and retrievable. If it is, the consumer may review the information in person or request that we mail them a copy. We will disclose to the consumer who else received the information in the past two years or who would normally have received it in the past two years. We may charge the consumer a fee.

The consumer may ask us to fix mistakes in our records. If we agree, we will correct our files. Upon request, we will send revised information to a person who received information from us in the past 2 years. If we disagree, the consumer may file a short statement of dispute. The statement will be included with information we share in the future. Upon request, we will send the statement to a person who received information from us in the past two years.

Montana Resident / Consumer
A consumer who lives in Montana (MT) may ask for a record of medical record information we have disclosed. The consumer may send a letter to:

Chief Privacy Officer
P.O. Box 2048
Omaha, NE 68103.

We may change this policy at any time. We will provide advance notice of changes if required by law.

This privacy policy applies to the following companies within the Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Company group of insurance companies:

• Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Insurance Company
• BHHC Special Risks Insurance Company
• Continental Divide Insurance Company
• Cypress Insurance Company
• Oak River Insurance Company
• Redwood Fire and Casualty Insurance Company