Privacy Policy

Interstate Auto Group, Inc. d/b/a CarHop (“CarHop”), Universal Acceptance Corporation d/b/a CarHop Finance (“UAC”), and their subsidiaries* (collectively “Company,” “UAC/CarHop Finance,” “we,” “us” or “our”) are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. This Privacy Policy is designed to provide you with information regarding our privacy practices, including our website.

Additional Downloadable Privacy Documents

• CarHop – Privacy Notice
• CarHop – Supplement-California Privacy Notice
• UAC/CarHop Finance Privacy Notice
• UAC/CarHop Finance California Financial Privacy Opt-Out

This Privacy Policy supplements the downloadable privacy documents listed above.

About Our Privacy Policy

This policy explains: 

• The type of information we may collect about you 
• How we may use that information 
• With whom that information may be disclosed 
• How we protect the information we collect about you 
• What choices are available to you regarding your information 
• How you can contact us regarding this Privacy Policy and your personal information 
• Complaint or dispute procedures 

This policy applies to personally and non-personally identifiable information collected by us, including via www.carhop.com and any other Company website or mobile application on which this Privacy Policy is posted. 

When this Privacy Policy uses the term “personally identifiable information” or “personal information,” we mean information that identifies a particular individual, such as the individual’s first or last name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, social security number, or any other information that permits the physical or online contacting of you. 

Your Consent 

Please be sure to read this entire Privacy Policy carefully before using or submitting personal information to us or via our website. This Privacy Policy can be accessed in the footer of CarHop’s home page or in settings in our mobile application. When you access, use or submit personal information to us, you consent to the collection, processing, use, and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the conditions of this Privacy Policy, you may not access, visit, or use the service. 

The Type of Information We May Collect 

In general, you can visit our website without telling us who you are or revealing your identity. The Company does, however, offer website visitors the opportunity to contact, communicate and transact business with us directly via our website. If you choose to take advantage of any of these opportunities, we may ask that you voluntarily provide us with personal information to facilitate the communication or transaction.
By providing us with your personal information, you guarantee that the information is accurate, complete and up to date. If any of your contact or personal information changes it is your responsibility to promptly update the information. 

We may collect various types of personal information from you, including: 

• Real name, alias, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, account name, driver’s license number, or other similar identifiers. 
• Signature, state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, or any other financial information, or medical information. 
• Characteristics of protected classifications under state or federal law (sex, race, religion, color, national origin, age, handicaps) 
• Commercial information, including records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies. 
• Internet or other electronic network activity information, including, but not limited to, browsing history, search history, and information regarding a consumer’s interaction with an Internet website, application, or advertisement. 
• Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information. 
• Professional (or employment) related information. 
• Education information. 
• Inferences drawn from any of the information identified in this subdivision to create a profile about a consumer reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes. 
• Any other information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. Personal information includes, but is not limited to, the following if it identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could be reasonably linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. 
• Call recording data. 

Cookies 

We may also utilize “cookies” in connection with our website. A cookie is a small data file that is stored on your computer’s hard drive. They enable servers to recognize your computer when it visits a website again (which, in some cases, eliminates the need to re-enter your information). Cookies help website owners analyze data about web page traffic and improve site functionality to meet customer needs or desires. Cookies also allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can then tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. Overall, cookies help provide you with better websites, by enabling website owners to understand which web pages you find useful and which you do not. 

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. The “help” segment of the toolbar on most browsers typically explains how to configure a browser to reject new cookies, how to have the browser inform a user when they receive a new cookie, and how to erase cookies from a computer’s hard drive. However, disabling cookies may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website you are browsing. See “Tracking Tools” below for additional information about cookies. 

Tracking Tools 

Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, text files that are stored on your computer and allow an analysis of your use of the website. You can prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie relating to the use of the site (including your IP address) to Google and the processing of these data by Google by following the link below and downloading and installing the available browser plug-in.  You can also opt out by visiting this website: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout 

You can learn about online advertising cookies and your ability to opt-out of certain online advertising cookies by visiting the following websites: http://www.aboutads.info/choices or http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices. For your mobile device, you can understand which third parties have currently enabled cookies on your mobile device and how to opt-out of some of those cookies by accessing the Network Advertising Initiative’s website at http://www.networkadvertising.org/mobile-choices from your mobile device. On your mobile device you may also select “Limit Ad Tracking” (on iOS devices) or “Opt out of Interest-Based Ads” (on Android). Even if you disable tracking, keep in mind that you may still receive interest-based advertising, including from third parties with whom your information had been previously disclosed and that you may still receive advertising from third parties, though such advertising may not be based on your interests and preferences. 

Third-party vendors may collect personally identifiable information about your online activities over time and across different websites when you use the website. Our website and mobile application do not respond to browser “Do Not Track” signals. 

How We Obtain Your Personal Information 

We collect personal information when you engage with us as follows: 

• Completing and submitting any of the electronic inquiry, information request, contact or comment forms made available to you. 
• Sending us email. 
• Registering, applying for or setting up an account with the company via any of our websites. 
• Accessing or using any password-protected portions of our website or any customer or employee-specific portions of the website. 
• Signing up for company email alerts or for one or more of our mailing lists. 
• Submitting a resume to us. 
• Requesting information, products, or services from us. 
• Conducting other online transactions with us. 
• We monitor and record select calls. 
• As part of the standard operation of our website, we may use technology to collect information concerning our users, including, but not limited to, domain name from which you accessed our website (e.g., google.com), browser type (e.g., Chrome or IE), pages viewed, the date and time you visited our website, operating system (e.g., Windows or Macintosh), Internet Service Provider (“ISP”), the areas or pages of our website that you visit, the amount of time spent viewing our website, the number of times you return to our website, and other click-stream data. (This type of information is not used to identify you but rather is used in aggregate form to measure our users’ habits. This helps us to measure the use of our website, improve the content, functionality and operation of our website and to better understand and serve our users.) 

How We May Use Personal Information 

We may use your personal information for the following purposes: 

• To perform services or provide products you request from us, 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 on our behalf.  
• To review, evaluate and respond to job applications and resumes you submit to us. 
• Internal record keeping. 
• To improve our products and services, and to develop new products and services. 
• To contact you from time to time. We may contact you by email, phone, fax, mail or text message. 
• To customize our website according to your interests. 
• To protect the security and/or integrity of our website. 
• Any other legitimate business activities not otherwise prohibited by law. 
• To conduct auditing related to a current interaction with the consumer 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. 
• To detect security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity. 
• To debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality. 
• For short-term, transient use, provided the personal information that is not disclosed to another third party and is not used to build a profile about a consumer or otherwise alter an individual consumer’s experience outside the current interaction, including, but not limited to, the contextual customization of ads shown as part of the same interaction. 
• To undertake internal research for technological development and demonstration. 
• To undertake activities to verify or maintain the quality or safety of a service or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by the business, and to improve, upgrade, or enhance the service or device that is owned, manufactured, manufactured for, or controlled by the business. 

How We May Disclose Your Information 

We may disclose personal information among our subsidiary, affiliated, and parent companies for marketing, promotional and business purposes. 

Like most companies, we hire vendors to provide certain administrative and other business-related services on our behalf (e.g. accountants, shipping companies, companies that help administer our website or process transactions for us, etc.). We may disclose personal information to these vendors as needed to perform the services for which they have been hired. In addition, we may disclose personal information outside of our Company if you direct us to do so, or if we are required to do so as specified in more detail in “Disclosure Exceptions” below. 

Disclosure Exceptions 

Notwithstanding the preceding section, we reserve the right to disclose, without notice to you, your personal information if we are required to do so by law or we believe that such action is necessary: 

• To comply with legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena or court order. 
• To protect the company’s rights and property or defend against legal claims. 
• To protect any other party’s rights, property, and safety. 
• To report to any law enforcement agency any activities that we, in good faith, believe to be unlawful. 
• To investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving harassment, abusive messages or potential threats to the physical safety of any persons. 
• To protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our website. 
• During emergencies, such as when we believe someone’s physical safety is at risk. 
• In the event that one or more of our companies is ever sold, acquired, merged, liquidated, reorganized, or otherwise transferred, we reserve the right to transfer our user databases, together with any personal and non-personal information contained therein, to the third party acquiring the respective company. 

Under the United States Patriot Act, we may be restricted from notifying individuals that such information has been disclosed. 

Children’s Privacy 

Our website and any products or services provided via our website are not intended to target, and are not structured to attract, children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly solicit or collect personal information from or about children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly market our products and services to children under the age of 13. Minors under the age of 18 must get permission from their parents or legal guardians before submitting personally identifiable information. If we discover personal information submitted via one or more of our websites from a child under the age of 13, we will eliminate that information. If a parent or guardian notifies us that we have unknowingly collected (via one or more of our websites) personal information from a child under the age of 13, we will eliminate that information at the parent or guardian’s request. 

Security 

Our company strives to provide both functionality and security to our employees and users of the website and other systems we maintain. Our approach to security involves many different facets including, but not limited to, firewalls, proxy servers, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates, password policies, data encryption and Virtual Private Network (VPN) clients. 

Unfortunately, no electronic communication over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. While we strive to take great care to protect your personal information, we cannot warrant the security of any information that you submit to us via the internet, and you do so at your own risk. We are not responsible for any loss of such information or the consequences thereof. We urge you to take every precaution to protect your personal data when you are on the Internet. Change your passwords often, use a combination of letters and numbers, and make sure you use a secure browser. Also, remember to signoff of our website and close your browser window when you are finished. This is to help ensure that others cannot pose as you online. 

We reserve the right, with or without notice, to either remove or require you change a username or password. You will be solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of account login credentials. You may not authorize or permit anyone else to access and/or use your account. You may not access and/or use anyone else’s account. 

You are solely responsible for all access to, usage of or activity on, your account/profile including, but not limited to, use of the account/profile by any person who uses your account login credentials, with or without authorization, or who has access to any computer, mobile or other device on which your account/profile resides or is accessible. You acknowledge and agree that we may, and you specifically authorize us to, process all transactions, including without limitation purchases and/or registration for additional merchandise, products and/or services, that are initiated through your account. If you have reason to believe that your account is no longer secure, immediately change the affected information, and/or close the account/profile. If you need assistance, please immediately notify us at [email protected]. 

Links to Other Websites 

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest, which are owned, operated and/or controlled by third parties. However, once you have used these links to leave our website, you should note that we may not have any control over the other third-party website you visit. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the content, security and/or privacy of any information which you provide while visiting third-party websites and such websites are not governed by this policy. The use of technological tracking by third parties is subject to their own privacy policies. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to each website in question before browsing that site and submitting personal information over the Internet. 

California Privacy Rights 

Under California’s “Shine the Light” law, California residents who have an established business relationship with us and provide personal information in obtaining products or services for personal, family or household use are entitled to request and obtain from us (once per calendar year) information about the customer information we have shared, if any, with third parties for their own direct marketing use. If applicable, this information would include the categories of customer information shared and the names and addresses of those third parties with whom we shared customer information. For instance, we may share customer information with Interstate Auto Group, Inc. or its subsidiaries regarding a customer’s change of address, payments, or transaction or experience information. 

The information we will provide in response to your request would be for the immediately preceding calendar year. For example, if you make a request during the 2023 calendar year that is covered under the law, we will provide you with information regarding any sharing activities covered under this law during the 2022 calendar year. 

Please be aware that not all information sharing is covered by the “Shine the Light” requirements and only information on covered sharing will be included in our response. 

To obtain this information please contact us as set forth below under “How to Contact Us,” and include “Request for California Privacy Information” in the subject line of your correspondence. If your request is covered under the law, we will provide the requested information to you in writing or at the e-mail address you provide. 

California Consumer Privacy Act 

We do not currently meet the applicability thresholds for the California Consumer Privacy Act.

As set forth in our Privacy Notice and Supplemental California Privacy Notice, with respect of California residents, we will not share information we collect about you with affiliated or non-affiliated third-parties, except in the limited circumstances permitted under state law, or if you give us your permission. 

Changes to This Policy 

We reserve the right, but undertake no duty, to change this policy at any time at our discretion and without prior notice. This includes the right to edit, move, delete or add features and functionality or content available on our website. You agree to accept and not interfere with updates or upgrades on the webpage, if for whatever reason you choose not to accept or download updates, you may not have the most recent features or content. We disclaim any and all responsibilities and liability. Changes to the service may not affect all platforms and the Company will notify you of any changes to this policy which will go into immediate effect after they have been posted on the website, as indicated by the Effective Date located at the end of this Privacy Policy.  We encourage you to review our policy regularly for changes and to contact us if you have any questions or concerns. Continued usage of company website(s) indicates your acceptance of changes. 

How to Contact Us 

If you have any questions about this policy, or for other online privacy inquiries, please contact us at [email protected] or call us toll free at (855) 856-1761  

Complaints and Disputes 

Copyright complaints: If you believe your content has been copied or constitutes copyright infringement, please notify us by U.S. mail or email at [email protected]. Include the information required by the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. sec. 512. 

If you have reason to believe you may be the victim of an online crime, such as identity theft, fraud, infringement, or hacking, you may contact the Internet Crime Complaint Center, at www.ic3.gov, a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).  Please also notify us at [email protected]. 

IMPORTANT: FALSE OR INACCURATE ACCUSATIONS THAT OTHERS HAVE COMMITTED A CRIME, INAPPROPRIATE ACT, OR VIOLATION OF THIS AGREEMENT, COULD BE A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND/OR CIVIL LAW, OR OTHERWISE EXPOSE YOU TO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES (INCLUDING COSTS AND ATTORNEYS’ FEES). 

You agree that in the event of any dispute between us, you will first contact us and make a good faith effort to resolve the dispute before resorting to formal means of resolution, including without limitation any court action. In the event of any court action, all disputes will be resolved individually, without resort to any class action, and you specifically waive your right to a trial by jury. 

* UAC/CarHop Finance’s subsidiary companies currently include: Universal Acceptance Corporation (CA), Universal Acceptance Corporation (CO), Universal Acceptance Corporation (IA),  Universal Acceptance Corporation (KS), Universal Acceptance Corporation (MN), Universal Acceptance Corporation (MO), Universal Acceptance Corporation (NE), Universal Acceptance Corporation (OK), Universal Acceptance  Corporation (PA), Universal Acceptance Corporation (SD), Universal Acceptance Corporation (ID), Universal Acceptance (UT) Corporation, Universal Acceptance Corporation (WA), and Universal Acceptance Corporation (WI). All also operate under the name CarHop Finance.  

Interstate Auto Group, Inc. d/b/a CarHop’s subsidiary companies currently include: Interstate Auto Group (AZ) Interstate Auto Group, Inc. (NE), Interstate Auto Group, Inc. (IA), Interstate Auto Group, Inc. (MO), Interstate Auto Group (WA) Inc., Interstate Auto Group, Inc. (KS), Interstate Auto Group, Inc. (OK), Interstate Auto Group, Inc. (CO), Interstate Auto Group, Inc. (WI), Interstate Auto Group, Inc. (PA), Interstate Auto Group (UT), Inc. Interstate Auto Group, Inc. (SD), Interstate Auto Group, Inc. (MN), Interstate Auto Group, Inc. (CA), Interstate Auto Group, Inc. (ID). 

Last updated 01/01/2023