Welcome to the Pearl Privacy Policy.   

At Pearl, we are committed to providing the best possible experience and value to our customers, partners and the general public while protecting your Personal Information through compliance with this Policy (this “Privacy Policy”). 

This Privacy Policy is part of Pearl’s Terms of Use. Please read it carefully to understand what and how Personal, Non-Personal, and Sensitive Information is collected and used by Pearl.  By using the Pearl’s website, https://pearlcertification.com/, and the Pearl System, you confirm that you have agreed to our Terms of Use Agreement and have read, understood, and agree to comply with this Privacy Policy.

 

Introduction

Pearl seeks to give consumers the tools to improve their homes’ safety and health, comfort, efficiency, resilience, and energy features and to ensure that these features contribute to their home’s value. 

This Privacy Policy describes the types of data we may collect through your use of the Pearl System, as well as our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and sharing that information. This Privacy Policy applies to all information that we collect, store, and share through the Pearl System.


Definitions

Definitions are provided in Pearl’s Terms of Use, including the definitions of Non-Personal Information, Personal Information/Personally-Identifiable Information, Sensitive Information, Home Data, Content, Orders, and the Pearl System.

 

Protection Of Privacy for Children Under Age 18

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children under the age of eighteen (18) years old (each a “Child” and collectively, “Children”). Children are prohibited from using the Pearl System. The Pearl System is not designed for or marketed to Children, and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information (as defined below) from or about Children. If we learn we have collected or received Personal Information from or about a Child, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a Child, please contact us at: [email protected].

 

Information We Collect and Why

We collect personal information in multiple ways, whether that data is passively collected from your browser or device, provided to Pearl directly from you, or provided to Pearl by third parties. We collect non-personal Home Data to fulfill our mission to capture and communicate the value of a home’s high-performing features. In the last twelve (12) months, we may have collected the following information: 

  • Information Provided by You. When you create and use your Pearl Account, sign up for a Pearl newsletter, place an Order for a Pearl Performance Report, request customer support, place a Service Claim, or use other products and services in the Pearl System, you may provide us with a wide variety of information. This includes identifiers, such as your first and last name, email address, postal address, payment information, telephone number, and Home Data (including photos, documents, and comments) related to your home.
  • Internet or Other Electronic Network Activity Information. To help us improve your experience and the value of our products and services, we may automatically collect information about you when you use the Pearl System (inclusive of websites and apps), such as the Content you access, the amount of data transferred, the links you follow, the amount of time you spend interacting with Content, and other information about your interactions with the Pearl System, as well as certain standard information that your browser sends to every website that you visit, including your Internet Protocol (IP) address, operating environment (such as browser type and version, browser plugins installed, operating system version, regional and language settings, screen size and/or resolution, window size, and page size), access dates and times, and referring websites. We may also collect diagnostic information, including without limitation device hardware and operating system information, device state information, unique device identifiers, and information relating to how the Pearl System functions on the devices you use to access the Pearl System.
  • Communications Information. This includes information that you provide during communications and interactions with our Website and the Pearl System, including information that you provide by filling in forms and when you report a problem with our Website or the Pearl System.
  • Geolocation Information. This includes your country, city, and region information when using the Pearl System (if your device settings permit us to collect this information).
  • Information Provided by Others. Pearl may collect Home Data from a variety of public and non-public sources, such as permit data based on new construction or home improvement projects, professionals that inspect, assess, maintain, or improve homes, or other sources of information that help us to fulfill our mission of making high-performing home features visible and valuable.


Use of Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with the Pearl System, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns (collectively, “Automatic Data”). To collect Automatic Data, we use: 

  • Online Analytical Tools. To improve your experience and the performance of the Pearl System, we may, from time to time, use online data analytics tools to collect information about your use of the Pearl System, which help us track page content and click/touch, movement, scroll, and keystroke activity, and provide Content that is relevant to you and optimized for the devices that you use (such as smartphones and tablets.) These tools may include “Google Analytics” (including Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting features). We do not combine the information collected through the use of these tools with Personal Information.

Google’s use and sharing of information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use (http://www.google.com/analytics/tos.html) and the Google Privacy Policy (http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html). You can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize Google Display Network ads using Google’s Ad Settings (https://www.google.com/settings/ads) tool. As an added privacy measure, you can use the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/). 

  • Cookies and Local Storage. We use cookies and other similar technologies, such as HTML5 local storage, to deliver our online tools. Cookies are small text files placed onto your device when you visit and interact with the Pearl System. Local storage is a technology that allows a website or application to store information locally on your device. These technologies enable us to provide and enhance your experience using the Pearl System.

 

How We Use Cookies and Local Storage. 

We use these technologies to provide the Pearl System to you and to analyze and improve the Pearl System. Our uses generally fall into one of the following categories: 

  • Essential Processes and Security: To enable essential functions of the Pearl System, such as to facilitate logging you into the Pearl System, processing and facilitating your Orders, protecting your security, and helping us fight spam, abuse, and violations of our Terms and Conditions.
  • Preferences: To remember information about your browser and your preferences.
  • Performance, Analytics, and Research: To help us understand and measure how you use the Pearl System and to improve the Pearl Products and Services.
  • Advertising: To help us deliver ads, measure their performance, and make them more relevant to you.

 

Blocking and Removing Cookies. 

Most browsers allow you to modify your settings to accept or deny all cookies or to request your permission each time a website attempts to place a cookie on your device, and most browsers allow you to delete cookies that have already been placed on your device. However, the Pearl System may not function properly if you prevent it from placing cookies on your device.

 

Other Tools. 

Pearl reserves the right to add or remove online analytical tools from different components of the Pearl System in order to learn from and optimize the user experience, deliver services to our customers, or to engage with focus groups and product testing. Users may request more information about specific online analytical tools that are used for a specific Pearl product, service, or application, including a link to those tools’ privacy policies and terms of use. Active users of the Pearl System may contact [email protected] to place that request as it relates to their specific use of the Pearl System and the potential use of their Personal Information.


How We Use and Disclose Your Information 

We may use Personal Information, in aggregated, anonymized, and/or in non-personally identifiable form, for any of the lawful bases listed below (except to the extent prohibited by applicable law).

 

Use of Personal Information. 

We will only use and share your Personal Information as is reasonably necessary or appropriate in connection with the use of the Pearl System, including: 

  • to provide the Pearl Products and Services to you, including to contact you in connection with your use of the Pearl System, and respond to your inquiries;
  • for authentication and identification purposes;
  • to fulfill your requests, process your Orders, and to provide you with notices about your Pearl Account and your Orders;
  • to comply with legal processes and safety requirements, including but not limited to maintaining the security of our users, employees, and property, respond to court orders, lawsuits, subpoenas, and government requests, as well as to address emergency, legal, and regulatory compliance purposes;
  • to carry out our obligations and enforce our rights;
  • to provide you with relevant educational content, advertising, and promotions, such as those provided in newsletters and to which you may opt-out;
  • to ensure your compliance with the Terms of Use and/or to investigate any potential breach of the Terms of Use;
  • to protect our networks, data, software, or business interests.

 

PEARL WILL NOT SELL YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO OTHER PARTIES.

 

Use of Non-Personal Information. 

We may use Non-Personal Information (including, for example, aggregated information about our users or information that does not identify any individual) for any purposes whatsoever (including without limitation, advertising, marketing, enhancing, designing, or developing products and/or services, and research), and we may share Non-Personal Information with others, including our partners, affiliates, and our service providers.

 

Third Parties and Information We Share

Other than as set forth in this Privacy Policy, Pearl will not share your Personal Information, nor will such information be sold or otherwise transferred to unaffiliated third parties without your approval at the time of collection. 

Third parties such as our business partners, service providers, vendors, and agents may help us administer the Pearl System, communicate with you or others, comply with regulations, or deliver services. We may share your data with them in support of any of these goals. However, prior to doing so, we obtain assurances from these third parties that they will safeguard your Personal Information. There may be other limited instances where we need to share your Personal Information in order to respond to your request or inquiry. 

In connection with your Account, we will make available to you a variety of resources. In order to facilitate the use of these resources, certain data may be shared with third parties, as follows:

  • Authorized Users of the Pearl System. For example, when an authorized user of a Multiple Listing Service or Multiple Listing Service vendor (“Real Estate Professional”) creates or updates a home record associated with a home address, data associated with the home may be shared for verification and/or update by the corresponding Real Estate Professional in connection with the sale or refinance of that same home. Additionally, if you opt to connect with a professional or program within the Pearl System or other directory, you consent to Pearl sharing data associated with your Account with the corresponding professional or program, which may include real estate agents, appraisers, lenders, or residential home improvement contractors to enable these contractors to understand the features of the home and to make additional improvements and/or recommendations.
  • Third Party Payment Processors. Payment information, including credit card details, is collected and processed by the appropriate Payment Processor and is not stored on our servers. While we take reasonable precautions, including those discussed in the “How We Protect Your Information” section, to ensure your data is transmitted securely, we cannot guarantee the security of payment information once it has been shared with the appropriate Payment Processor. By providing your payment information, you acknowledge that we are not liable for any breach of security or misuse of your payment details while in the control of the appropriate Payment Processor.

Third Party Service Providers. 

Some or all of your Home Data may be disclosed to a third-party service provider to provide you with additional data on your home features and recommendations for improvement and maintenance. To facilitate these services, limited personally identifiable information, such as your email address, may also be provided to the third-party provider to facilitate your use of the application but not for any marketing purpose or purpose for which your consent is required. Third Party Service Providers also include vendors that Pearl may hire such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) providers to facilitate customer service and other business services. We prohibit all Third Party Service Providers from sharing, selling, or using your Personal Information for any purpose not required by Pearl.

How We Protect Your Information

We have implemented industry-standard administrative, technical, and physical measures designed to secure your Personal Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure, including the use of transport layer security (TLS) to encrypt information you send through the Pearl System.

 Pearl is SOC 2 compliant, which means we have implemented rigorous security controls to protect customer data and have undergone an audit to verify these controls. SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls 2) is a standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), specifically for service organizations that handle customer data.

 Unfortunately, the transmission of information electronically is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Information transmitted to the Pearl System. Any transmission of Personal Information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained in the Pearl System. 

Email is not recognized as a secure medium of communication. For this reason, we request that you do not send sensitive Personal Information to us by email. While doing so is not restricted,  you do so at your own risk. 

 

Your Role in Protecting Information

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Pearl’s Terms of Use Policy describes your role and responsibilities to protect information.

Data Retention

Pearl is located in the United States. Your Personal Information may be stored or processed in the United States or globally as required to administer the Pearl System. We will retain your Personal Information for no longer than it is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it is collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, any legitimate administrative or operational purposes, your requirements, or reporting requirements. When it is no longer necessary to retain your Personal Information, it will be securely deleted. 

However, certain information associated with Orders placed through the Pearl System may be retained permanently for legal, tax, and business reasons. In addition, because certain Personal Information may be necessary to provide the Pearl Products and Services to you, you understand that the removal of that Personal Information may require us to close your Pearl Account. 

 For more information about how long your Personal Information is stored, and for more information on your rights for erasure or portability, please contact us at [email protected].

Rights to Your Personal Information

You may contact us at any time to: (a) request the removal of the Personal Information you provided to us from our databases; (b) update your Personal Information; (c) access or rectify your Personal Information or request its deletion; (d) request a restriction on the processing or opt out of certain processing of your Personal Information, such as targeted advertising; (e) object to the processing of your Personal Information; (f) request a portable form of your Personal Information or (g) exercise other rights with respect to your Personal Information. 

We may need to verify your identity or the identity of your agent before complying with any request. While we strongly encourage you to first raise any questions or concerns about your Personal Information directly with us, you may have a right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority. You may appeal our decision regarding a request related to these rights by contacting us at [email protected] 

You can contact us with any other questions about our privacy practices at [email protected].

 

Rights of Certain Types of Users

 

  1. Individuals Outside of the United States
    Pearl is located in the United States. Your Personal Information may be stored or processed in the United States or globally as required to administer the Pearl System. If you are accessing the Pearl System from outside the United States, please be aware that your Personal Information may be transferred to, stored, and processed by us and by those third parties with whom we may share your Personal Information as set forth above (see Third Parties and Information We Share section above), in the United States and other countries.

    Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your Personal Information out of your country of residence. If you wish to be informed about what Personal Information we hold and want it removed from our systems, please contact us at [email protected].

  2. California
    Except where expressly noted, the subsections below apply only to “personal information” about California residents, as that term is defined in the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), and as supplemented in the Privacy Policy as described above. California residents who wish to exercise the rights described here with respect to their Personal Information may contact us at [email protected]. 

    California residents may request and obtain information about the Personal Information that Pearl has shared with third parties for such third parties’ direct marketing purposes within the prior calendar year (as defined by California Civil Code § 1798.83, commonly known as California’s “Shine the Light Law”). If applicable, this information would include a list of the categories of Personal Information that was shared and the names and addresses of all third parties with which Pearl shared this information in the immediately preceding calendar year. To obtain this information, please send an email message to [email protected] with the words “California Shine the Light Privacy Request” in the subject line as well as in the body of your message.

The categories of Personal Information we have collected and disclose is described in the “Information We Collect and Why” section of this Policy.

 

Notice of Privacy Rights for California Residents

Right to request deletion of the data – Request to delete

You can ask for the deletion of your Personal Information. If you ask us to delete your Personal Information, we will respect your request and delete your Personal Information, subject to certain exceptions provided by law, such as (but not limited to) the exercise by another consumer of his or her right to free speech, our compliance requirements resulting from a legal obligation or any processing that may be required to protect against illegal activities.

 

Right to be informed – Request to know

Depending on the circumstances, you have a right to know:

  • whether we collect and use your Personal Information;
  • the categories of Personal Information that we collected in the last twelve months;
  • the purposes for which the collected Personal Information is used;
  • whether we sell your Personal Information to third parties;
  • the categories of Personal Information that we sold or disclosed for a business purpose;
  • the categories of third parties to whom the Personal Information was sold or disclosed for a business purpose; and
  • the business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling Personal Information.

In accordance with applicable law, we are not obligated to provide or delete consumer information that is de-identified in response to a consumer request or to re-identify individual data to verify a consumer request. 

Right to Non-Discrimination for the Exercise of a Consumer’s Privacy Rights

We will not discriminate against you if you exercise your privacy rights.

 

Right to Limit Sensitive Personal Information Use

You may request that we limit our use of sensitive information (e.g. information relating to your government ID or geolocation) to specifically permitted purposes.

 

Right to Opt-Out

You can request that we stop any sharing of your Personal Information. Upon receiving a request to opt-out, we will act upon the request as soon as feasibly possible.

 

Verification process

Upon receiving your request, we will need to verify your identity to determine you are the same person about whom we have the information in our system. These verification efforts require us to ask you to provide information so that we can match it with information you have previously provided us. For instance, depending on the type of request you submit, we may ask you to provide certain information so that we can match the information you provide with the information we already have on file, or we may contact you through a communication method (e.g., phone or email) that you have previously provided to us. We may also use other verification methods as the circumstances dictate. 

We will only use Personal Information provided in your request to verify your identity or authority to make the request. To the extent possible, we will avoid requesting additional information from you for the purposes of verification. If, however, we cannot verify your identity from the information already maintained by us, we may request that you provide additional information for the purposes of verifying your identity, and for security or fraud-prevention purposes. We will delete such additionally provided information as soon as we finish verifying you. 

To exercise these rights, you can contact us by email at [email protected], or by referring to the contact details at the bottom of this Policy. If you have a complaint about how we handle your data, we would like to hear from you.  

 

  1. Other United States Users

For users residing in Colorado, Connecticut, Montana, Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, or Utah, and in other such states not explicitly listed, state law grants you additional rights with regard to your Personal Information under applicable law. You or your legally designated representative may submit a request to exercise your Personal Information rights by contacting us at [email protected].


Updates to Privacy Policy

Pearl may modify its Privacy Policy, in whole or in part, from time to time at its sole discretion, or due to changes in technology or legal requirements. Changes will be effective immediately upon posting modified Privacy Policy at pearlcertification.com/privacy-policy. 

Pearl will make all commercially viable efforts to notify Account Holders of modifications to its Privacy Policy by directly communicating modifications to you when you log in your account in the Pearl System. By not terminating your Account within seven (7) days after receiving a notice of modifications to the Privacy Policy as described above or by continuing to use or access the Pearl System after modified Privacy Policy are posted to at pearlcertification.com/privacy-policy, you agree to comply with, and be bound by, such modifications. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any future offer(s) made available to you through the Pearl System that augment(s) or otherwise enhance(s) the current features shall be subject to this Privacy Policy. 

If, prior to the effective date of these Privacy Policy, you created an Account with Pearl governing your use of the Pearl System, your continued use of the Pearl System is now subject to this Privacy Policy.


How to Contact Us

To ask questions, comment, or submit complaints and issues about this Policy and our privacy practices, contact us at:

 

(888) 557-5543

 

9450 SW Gemini Dr. PMB 83738

Beaverton, Oregon 97008-7105

 

Or you may email us at [email protected].

 

Pearl will respond to you promptly, especially with regard to any data breach, but in any event within 30 days of receipt.