Horizon Educational Resources, Inc. and its employees are committed to protecting the privacy of personal information we may obtain during the course of providing professional services. All of us at Horizon respect the privacy and confidentiality of student loan information. Horizon, is an affiliated servicer of the client, that is involved in student loan counseling and consulting services. Horizon is committed to excellent customer service to Schools, Lenders, Servicers, Guarantors, and Student Borrowers through its “Student Services” division.
I. Communications
As part of our student loan counseling and consulting services, we may obtain certain “nonpublic personal financial information” about student loan borrower’s that pertains to the repayment of his or her loan (referred to hereinafter as “Private Information”). The Private Information includes student loan data we may receive from the Borrower, a School, a Lender, a Servicer, a Guarantor, or the Department of Education on an application, electronic transmission of data files, reports, or other forms (including information provided to us by FAX or electronically via a secured website). We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to store and secure information about the borrower from unauthorized access, alteration and destruction.
II. Why We Collect Information
We collect student borrower information from various sources to identify student loan borrowers that need loan counseling and to generate management reports for cohort default rate calculation purposes. Contact information such as the borrowers name, address, email address, telephone numbers, or reference information is used for providing information to the borrowers regarding their rights and responsibilities. Identification information such as a social security number or birth date is used to identify the borrower and/or to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure of information.
III. What Information We Collect
We collect only limited "nonpublic personal information". “Nonpublic personal information” is information about a person that is not publicly available, but that we get in connection with providing counseling to our student borrowers.
IV. What Information We Share
We do not sell or otherwise disclose Private Information to anyone except as permitted by law.
The law permits us to share Private Information with affiliates, which are financial service providers such as Lenders, Servicers, and Guarantors that are contacted during the course of providing services on behalf of our clients.
We may share Private Information with non-affiliated third parties only as authorized by our clients, or for a specific business purpose permitted by law, or as otherwise permitted or required by law.
We restrict access to Private Information to authorized individuals and affiliates who need to know this information to provide services to our clients. We regularly train our employees on privacy, information security, and their obligation to protect student loan borrower information.
We sometimes share client information with outside companies that perform services for us, such as software programming. When we use such companies, we provide them only the client information that is needed to perform the service. Before we disclose the client information to these companies, we require them, by legal agreement, to keep this information confidential and to use it only as authorized. They are not permitted to use this information for their own purposes or to sell this information to any other person.
V. How the Information is Protected
Horizon uses every means possible to safeguard the information that it obtains with tools such as firewalls, passwords and data encryption. We continually strive to improve the way we use these tools to meet or exceed industry standards.
VI. Accuracy of Information
We work hard to keep complete and accurate information of our client’s student borrowers. If you ever believe that our records are incorrect or incomplete, please let us know. We will investigate and correct any inaccuracies as quickly as possible.
VII. How to Contact Horizon
We are committed to the security of our client’s student borrower information. We value our relationship with our clients and strive to earn your continued trust. If you have any questions about this policy, please write us or call us at:
Horizon Educational Resources, Inc.
Privacy Coordinator
P.O. Box 150759
Austin, Texas 78715
(512) 292-1540
(512) 291-1590 FAX
Hours of operation: Monday – Friday 8AM – 5PM CST
