Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy of Upgraded Points, LLC.

This Privacy Policy shall be effective as of November 6, 2023.

This website is owned and operated by Upgraded Points, LLC, a Texas limited liability company (“Upgraded Points”). We at Upgraded Points respect and protect the privacy of visitors to our websites, and the privacy of our customers. We respect and value the privacy of our clients and have developed this Privacy Policy to demonstrate our commitment to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy applies to and describes our information handling practices when you access our services, which include our content located on this website, or any other websites, pages, features, or content we own or operate (collectively, the “Site(s)”) or third-party applications relying on API, and related services (referred to collectively hereinafter as “Services”).

These Sites are general audience websites and we do not knowingly collect personal, or other, information from children under the age of 18. If you are under the age of 18, please do not use our site. If we suspect that information provided to us is, in fact, personal information of an individual younger than 18 years of age, such information will be deleted, aggregated, or anonymized as soon as possible. Please notify us if you know of any individuals under the age of 18 using our services so we can take action to prevent access to our services.

1. Acceptance of terms of Privacy Policy. Upgraded Points is an online publication focusing on travel and travel rewards including frequent flyer miles, credit card points and other travel loyalty programs.  Our Privacy Policy applies to everyone who utilizes our Sites.  You agree to this Privacy Policy by accepting Upgraded Points Terms of Use, by accessing, browsing, or using our Sites. Where we require your consent to process your personal information, we will ask for your consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information as described further below. We may provide additional “just-in-time” disclosures or information about the data processing practices of specific Services. These notices may supplement or clarify our privacy practices or may provide you with additional choices about how we process your data. If you do not agree with or you are not comfortable with any aspect of this Privacy Policy, you should immediately discontinue access or use of our Services.

2. Types of Information that is collected. We collect several types of information about you and when you access our Sites. Our Sites collects information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer, household, or device (“Personal Information”).  Personal information does not include (i) publicly available information from government records and (ii) deidentified or aggregated consumer information.  To access our Services, we’ll ask you to provide us with some important information about you. This information is either required by law (e.g. to verify your identity), necessary to provide the requested Services, or is relevant for certain specified purposes, described in greater detail below. As we add new features and Services, you may be asked to provide additional information.

Please note that we may not be able to serve you at all, or our Services may be degraded if you choose not to share certain information with us.

2.1. Information we collect directly from you:

2.1.1 Identifying Information: We collect information that could identify you such as your name, and email address.

2.1.2 Other Information: We also collect information such as demographic data, data about your online activity, and other information that is not used to identify you.

2.2. Information we collect from you automatically. We collect information about your computer’s interactions with our Sites for a variety of purposes.  We receive and store certain types of information automatically, such as whenever you interact with the Sites or use the Services. This information helps us address customer support issues, improve the performance of our Sites and applications and provide you with a streamlined and personalized experience. Information collected automatically includes:

2.2.1. Online Identifiers: Geo location/tracking details, browser fingerprint, operating system, browser name and version, and/or device IP addresses.

2.2.2. Usage Data: Authentication data, security questions, click-stream data and other data collected via cookies and similar technologies. For example, we may automatically receive and record the following information on our server logs:

• • • How you came to and use the Services;
    • Device type and unique device identification numbers;
    • Device event information (such as crashes, system activity and hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and referral URL);
    • How your device interacts with our Sites and Services, including pages accessed and links clicked;
    • Geographic location; and,
    • Other technical data collected through cookies, pixel tags and other similar technologies that uniquely identify your browser.

We may also use identifiers to recognize you when you access our Sites via an external link, such as a link appearing on a third-party site.

2.3. Information collected from third parties. We may obtain the following types of information about you from third party sources.  From time to time, we may obtain information about you from third party sources as required or permitted by applicable law. These sources may include:

• • Advertising Networks & Analytics Providers: We work with these providers to provide us with de-identified information about how you found our Sites and how you interact with the Sites and Services.
  • Third Party Service Providers: Upgraded Points customers who use certain of our products are subject to third-party privacy policies.
  • Information you provide through social media. You can engage with some of our content and offerings on or through third party communities, forums, and social media sites, platforms, services, plug-ins, and applications (“Social Media Sites”). When you link to or interact with our Sites, content, or offerings through Social Media Sites, you may allow us to receive certain Information from your social media account (e.g., name, user ID, email address, profile photo, photos and videos, gender, birthday, location, your friends and their contact details, people you follow and/or who follow you, posts, ‘likes’, or other user-generated content). We may also receive Information from your interaction with our content (e.g., content viewed and information about advertisements you have been shown or have clicked on). By providing this Information or otherwise interacting with our Sites through Social Media Sites, you consent to our use of Information from the Social Media Sites in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

2.4. Data Anonymization and Data Aggregation. We may use data we have anonymized and aggregated for any business purpose.  Anonymization is a data processing technique that removes or modifies personal information so that it cannot be associated with a specific individual. Except for this section, none of the other provisions of this Privacy Policy applies to anonymized or aggregated customer data (i.e. information about our customers that we combine together so that it no longer identifies or references an individual customer).  Upgraded Points may use anonymized or aggregate customer data for any business purpose, including to better understand customer needs and behaviors, improve our products and services, conduct business intelligence and marketing, and detect security threats. We may perform our own analytics on anonymized data or enable analytics provided by third parties.  Types of data we may anonymize include, transaction data, click-stream data, performance metrics, and fraud indicators. Moreover, should you request that your information be deleted in accordance with the policies set forth more fully below, your information will be anonymized or aggregated, which complies with applicable law regarding deletion of personal information.

3. How information is collected.

3.1. We collect information from you when you enter it or otherwise provide it in connection with an inquiry into our Services. This information could be provided via an online form or via other means in which you interact with our Services.

3.2. Information from cookies and other tracking technologies: We use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to record your preferences, track the use of our Site and collect information. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you. You may choose to set your web browser to refuse cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you do so, please note that some parts of our Sites may not function properly.

4. How your information is used. We may use collected information to:

• Deliver the products and services you requested;
• Improve customer service;
• Improve our Site;
• Personalize your user experience;
• Communicate with you about products or services that may be of interest to you; and
• Manage our business.

5. Disclosure of consumer information to third parties. We may disclose your personal information as required by law, to provide the Services, and for legitimate business purposes.  We may share your personal information by disclosing it to a third party for a business purpose. We only make these business purpose disclosures under written contracts that describe the purposes, require the recipient to keep the personal information confidential, and prohibit using the disclosed information for any purpose except performing the contract. We do not sell personal information.

5.1. Disclosure By Law: You acknowledge and agree that we may disclose information you provide if required to do so by law, at the request of a third party, or if we, in our sole discretion, believe that disclosure is reasonable to (1) comply with the law, requests or orders from law enforcement, or any legal process (whether or not such disclosure is required by applicable law) and (2) protect or defend Upgraded Points, or a third party´s, rights or property.

5.2. Lenders. By submitting a request for a credit card or service as offered on the sites, you signify your agreement to proceed and that you are consenting, acknowledging and agreeing to the disclosure of your information with lenders and/or financial partners within our network.  Please be aware that the lenders, other financial partners, and/or other service providers with whom you are provided offers are not provided any personal information until you affirmatively accept an offer to apply for a credit card or other service.   Once an invitation to accept a credit card offer is submitted, that financial party’s privacy policy and information policy will then control.   Please contact each such party directly regarding their privacy and information policies.

5.3. Disclosure to Trusted Third Parties By Us: By accepting the Terms of Use, you agree to receive various marketing materials from our trusted third parties, including potential lenders and service providers. We are not responsible for the material of the third parties or their actions. Your information may also be shared with third-party contractors that provide services to Upgraded Points and are bound by this privacy policy. Your information will be treated as private and confidential by such third parties and not used for any other purpose than you authorize. In addition, from time to time, we may share personal information (such as e-mail) about our user base with carefully selected third parties, so they can offer goods and services that we believe may be of interest to our users. If you do not wish to receive offers from our trusted partners, you can change your email preferences at any time by following the steps outlined in the “Choice/Opt-Out” section below.

5.4. Service Providers: We disclose your personal information with service providers under contract who help with parts of our business operations. Our contracts require these service providers to only use your information in connection with the services they perform for us and prohibit them from selling your information to anyone else. Examples of the types of service providers we may share personal information with (other than those mentioned above) include:

• • Network infrastructure
  • Cloud storage
  • Transaction monitoring
  • Security
  • Customer support
  • Internet (e.g. ISPs)
  • Data analytics
  • Information Technology

5.5. Professionals. We disclose your personal information with our professional advisors who provide banking, legal, compliance, insurance, accounting, or other consulting services in order to complete third party financial, technical, compliance and legal audits of our operations or otherwise comply with our legal obligations.

5.6. Miscellaneous. We may disclose your personal information for any purpose with which you consent.

6. Updating, accessing, retaining, and deleting your information. We store your personal information securely until you request its deletion.  Information collected via technical means such as cookies, web page counters and other analytics tools is kept until otherwise deleted according to our data retention policies.

7. Security. We have taken steps to protect your information in a commercially reasonable manner.  We have extensive security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse and alteration of the information stored in our database. These measures include the use of industry standard encryption methods and administrative access to site data, as well as other proprietary security measures which are applied to all repositories and transfers of user information. We will exercise reasonable care in providing secure transmission of information between your computer and our servers, but given that no information transmitted over the Internet can be guaranteed 100% secure, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information transmitted to us over the Internet and hence accept no liability for any unintentional disclosure. For further information, please see our Terms of Use.

In the event there is a data breach at Upgraded Points, Upgraded Points will notify you as soon as reasonably practicable. We will notify you that a breach occurred, and any additional information needed to fulfill our obligation with breach notification laws and regulations.

8. Choice / Opt out of Marketing. You may choose to discontinue your use of our services.  You may choose to stop receiving marketing emails by following the unsubscribe instruction included in these emails or you can contact us at alex@upgradedpoints.com.  You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but this will likely result in the inability to use certain features of the site and to obtain the services and products you are seeking.  Certain federal and state regulations require that we maintain a record of your information for certain periods of time. Due to these regulations, we may be unable to completely delete your information from our database until the time requirements of these regulations have expired.

9. Privacy Rights. You may be able to exercise certain rights regarding your personal information depending on state and federal laws.  Depending on applicable law where you reside, you may be able to assert certain rights related to your personal information identified below. If any of the rights listed below are not provided under law for your operating entity or jurisdiction, Upgraded Points has absolute discretion in providing you with those rights.  Your rights to personal information are not absolute. Depending upon the applicable law, access may be denied: (a) when denial of access is required or authorized by law; (b) If you are a resident of a state that does not provide for this right; (c) when granting access would have a negative impact on another’s privacy; (d) to protect our rights and properties; or (e) where the request is frivolous or vexatious, or for other reasons.

9.1. Access and portability. You may request that we provide you a copy of your personal information held by us. This information will be provided without undue delay subject to a potential fee associated with gathering of the information (as permitted by law), unless such provision adversely affects the rights and freedoms of others. In certain circumstances, you may request to receive your personal information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and to have us transfer your personal information directly to another data controller.

9.2. Withdraw consent. To the extent the processing of your personal information is based on your consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time. Your withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of Upgraded Points processing based on consent before your withdrawal.

9.3. Restriction of processing. In some jurisdictions, applicable law may give you the right to restrict or object to us processing your personal information under certain circumstances. We may continue to process your personal information if it is necessary for the defense of legal claims, or for any other exceptions permitted by applicable law.

10. How to make a privacy request. You can make privacy rights requests relating to your personal information by contacting us at alex@upgradedpoints.com. When we receive an individual rights request via other intake methods, we may take steps to verify your identity before complying with the request to protect your privacy and security.

11. How to lodge a complaint. If you believe that we have infringed your rights, we encourage you to contact us at alex@upgradedpoints.com.

12. California Consumer Privacy Act. Some states have passed additional privacy laws for residents, which rights can be found below.  In addition to the rights provided for above, the information contained in this section applies solely to those individuals who reside in the State of California. We adopt this notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this Policy.  Effective January 1, 2020, pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”), California residents have certain rights in relation to their personal information, subject to limited exceptions. Any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this California Privacy Rights section.  For personal information collected by us during the preceding 12 months that is not otherwise subject to an exception, California residents have the right to access and delete their personal information. Upgraded Points will not discriminate against those who exercise their rights. Specifically, if you exercise your rights, we will not deny you services, charge you different prices for services or provide you a different level or quality of services.  Upgraded Points does not sell or share your information in a manner that is contemplated by applicable California law.

Should Upgraded Points engage in any of the activities listed in this section, your ability to exercise these rights will be made available to you. You can exercise your rights by contacting us at alex@upgradedpoints.com so that we may consider your request.

If you are a California resident, you may designate an authorized agent to make a request to access or a request to delete on your behalf. We will respond to your authorized agent’s request if they submit proof that they are registered with the California Secretary of State to be able to act on your behalf or submit evidence you have provided them with power of attorney pursuant to California Probate Code section 4000 to 4465. We may deny requests from authorized agents who do not submit proof that they have been authorized by you to act on their behalf or are unable to verify their identity.

13. Special Notice to Vermont Residents. Vermont residents have access to additional limits on the sharing of their personal information subject to certain exceptions.  Vermont law places additional limits on sharing information about Vermont residents so long as they remain residents of Vermont. In accordance with Vermont law, we will not share information we collect about Vermont residents to companies outside of Upgraded Points except: (1) As permitted by law; (2) To companies that perform marketing or other services on our behalf; (3) Name, contact and transaction and experience information to other financial institutions with which we have joint marketing agreements; or (4) With the authorization or consent of the Vermont resident. We also will not share non-transactional information about Vermont residents received from others within the Upgraded Points family of companies except with the authorization or consent of the Vermont resident.

14. Special Notice to Virginia Residents. This Virginia Privacy Notice section supplements the Upgraded Points Privacy Policy and applies to the personal data of Virginia residents in order to comply with the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”), effective January 1, 2023. This notice applies to natural persons who are residents of Virginia acting only in an individual or household context. It does not apply to natural persons acting in a commercial or employment context.

14.1. Categories of Personal Data We Collect

• • Contact data: We may collect information about data subjects such as name and contact details (email, phone number, etc.) in order to communicate and facilitate the provision of our services with our users.
  • Marketing information: We may collect information to respond to inquiries regarding our services or to provide you with information, reports, or updates.
  • Website visitor information: when you visit our website, we may collect information about your visit such as your IP address and the pages you visited and when you use our services, we may collect information on how you use those services.

14.2. Purposes for Processing Personal Data

• • We process personal data to offer and administer our services. We use personal data for the purposes set out in section 4 of the Upgraded Points Privacy Policy.

14.3. Sharing of Personal Data with Third Parties

• • We do not share personal data with third parties (other than to service providers and as provided herein) unless you direct us to do so, or where required by law.
  • We may share personal data with other parties as follows:
    • Our affiliates, as needed to operate our business and provide services.
    • Service providers or contractors, such as vendors, consultants and other service providers who perform certain services on behalf of Upgraded Points, in which case we enter a contract that describes the purpose of processing and requires the recipient to not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.

14.4. Selling, Targeted Advertising, and Profiling

• • We do not sell personal data to third parties.
  • We do not process personal data for targeted advertising purposes (as defined under the VCDPA). However, you can opt-out of all advertising cookies pursuant to Section 8.
  • We do not process personal data for the purpose of profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning consumers.

14.5. Your Rights

• • Subject to the VCDPA and other applicable laws, you have the following rights concerning your data processed by Upgraded Points:
    • Deletion: You have the right to request that Upgraded Points erase your personal data, and Upgraded Points will erase such data unless it is reasonably necessary for Upgraded Points to maintain your personal data in accordance VCDPA 59.1-582
    • Correction: You have the right to request that Upgraded Points correct inaccurate personal data, taking into account the nature and purpose of processing the information.
    • Access: You have the right to request to access or obtain a copy of the personal data that Upgraded Points holds about you
    • Non-discrimination: Upgraded Points will not discriminate against a consumer because the consumer exercised any of the consumer’s rights under applicable laws.

15. Notification of Privacy Policy Changes. We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy and will notify you if we do so; however, we encourage you to regularly review this policy for the latest information.  We may update this privacy policy to reflect changes to our information practices. If we make any material changes we will notify you by email or by means of a notice on this Site. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy policy. When we make changes to this Privacy Policy we will revise the revision date at the top of the Privacy Policy.

16. Contact Information

1155 Barton Springs Rd
Austin, Texas 78704
Email: alex@upgradedpoints.com