User Agreement & Privacy Policy

User Agreement

Please read PennyGeeks’s User Agreement (“User Agreement,” the “Agreement”) before using www.PennyGeeks.com (the “Site”). If you do not agree to this User Agreement or to PennyGeeks’s Privacy Policy, please exit this Site immediately.

This Agreement constitutes a legal contract between you and PennyGeeks regarding your use of this Site.

“PennyGeeks” includes SEARCHMARK, LLC and its employees, directors, officers, agents, affiliates, independent contractors, consultants, and subsidiaries. The PennyGeeks services (“Services”) include but are not limited to providing informational blog posts and studies that compare and rate car insurance companies, car insurance policies, and estimated car insurance premiums.

By using the Site, you agree that any blogs, studies, videos, images, graphics, tables, or other materials or information provided on the Site (“Content”) is provided only for entertainment, education, and information purposes and does not constitute financial, legal, tax planning, or other advice or recommendations from PennyGeeks. You acknowledge and agree that you are responsible for your own financial decisions, and you agree that PennyGeeks is not liable or responsible for any financial actions or decisions that you take or authorize a third party to take on your behalf based on Content published on the Site.

PennyGeeks, at its sole discretion, may terminate or suspend your access to the Services or the Site at any time with or without notice to you.

Please exit the Site immediately if:

  • You do not agree to this User Agreement or to PennyGeeks’s Privacy Policy;
  • You are younger than 18 years old;
  • You intend to use the Services in any way that violates any law or regulation; or
  • You were previously removed or suspended from the Services or the Site.

By using the Site, you agree that any dispute between you and PennyGeeks will be resolved in small claims court or in arbitration.

1. Third Party Services

PennyGeeks Does Not Endorse Third Parties Mentioned On This Site

The Site and Content contain links to the websites of third parties. You acknowledge and agree that:

  • PennyGeeks does not endorse third parties or control any of their services or websites;
  • Links to third party services or websites are provided only as a convenience;
  • PennyGeeks has not evaluated or reviewed the products, services, content, or other materials in the services or on the websites of third parties;
  • Any service marks or trademarks of third parties are the property of their respective owners;
  • PennyGeeks is not responsible for the accuracy or legality of third party content; and
  • PennyGeeks shall not be held indirectly or directly liable for any loss or damage alleged to be caused by or caused by your use of third party services or websites.

PennyGeeks Is Not Liable For Any Advice And Recommendations From Third Parties

You acknowledge and agree that PennyGeeks is not liable for any advice provided by third parties. You acknowledge and agree that you are responsible for your own financial decisions, and you agree that PennyGeeks is not liable or responsible for any financial actions or decisions that you take or authorize a third party to take on your behalf based on Content published on this Site.

2. Prohibited Use Of The Site, Content, Or Services

By using or accessing the Site, you agree not to:

  • Link to this Site from another website without prior written permission from PennyGeeks;
  • Use the Site, Content, or Services for any illegal purpose;
  • Violate the rights of third parties including but not limited to intellectual property rights;
  • Encourage others to violate the rights of third parties including but not limited to intellectual property rights;
  • Interfere with any of the security-related features of the Site or the Services;
  • Upload or disseminate adware, spyware, worms, viruses, or other malicious code;
  • Contact other users of the Site to make unsolicited offers;
  • Engage in fraudulent activity including but not limited to impersonating an entity, impersonating a person, using a false identity, or using false personal information about you;
  • Copy, monitor, or access the Site or any Content using a scraper, spider, or robot;
  • Attempt to collect any personal information about third parties or users of the Site without their permission; or
  • Distribute, upload, or post any content that is libelous, defamatory, inaccurate, illegal, threatening, profane, pornographic, or offensive.

3. Copyright Statement

All Content on the Site is protected by applicable intellectual property laws and copyright laws. Except where your use constitutes “fair use” under copyright law, you may not download, use, upload, copy, display, print, publish, produce, perform, or distribute any website materials, in part or in whole, without the prior written consent of PennyGeeks.

You warrant and represent that you are the owner or that you have the right to publish any content that you post to the Site or the Services. If you believe that PennyGeeks has copied or misused your work in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, or has violated your intellectual property rights in any way, please provide PennyGeeks’s Customer Service department ([email protected]) with the following information (“Notice”):

  • A physical or electronic signature of the person who is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest;
  • A description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;
  • A description of where such material is located on the Site;
  • Your email address, physical address, and telephone number;
  • A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
  • A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or are authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner’s behalf.

By accessing or using the Site, you acknowledge and agree that you are personally responsible for your use of the Site and the Services, and you will hold harmless, indemnify, and defend PennyGeeks against and from any and all liabilities, claims, losses, damages, and expenses including accounting, attorneys’ fees, and other related costs associated with:

  • Your use of or access to the Site or the Services;
  • Any disputes between you and a third party;
  • Your violation of any right of a third party including but not limited to any right to publicity, property right, confidentiality right, privacy right, or intellectual property right; or
  • Your violation of the Agreement or of any regulation or law.

Your permission to access or use the Site and the Services will automatically terminate if you violate the Agreement.

4. Modification Of The User Agreement And Privacy Policy

PennyGeeks reserves the right at any time to modify this User Agreement and the Privacy Policy and to impose new or additional terms or conditions on your use of the Services. Such modifications and additional terms and conditions will be effective immediately upon notice and incorporated into this User Agreement or Privacy Policy.

5. No Warranties

By using or accessing the Site, you acknowledge and agree that the Services are provided on an “as available” basis and that the Services are provided “as is,” without any warranty or condition either implied or express.

PennyGeeks makes reasonable efforts to ensure the Content and the Services on the Site are secure and accurate, but we cannot guarantee the accuracy of any Content or the continuous operation of any Services, and there may be unintentional factual inaccuracies or errors or technical errors on the Site or in the Services.

By using or accessing the Site or the Services, you agree to assume all risk for any and all damages that arise from your access or use of the Site or the Services.

a. Services Provided For Education, Entertainment, Or Information Purposes

The information on the Site and the Services is provided for education, entertainment, or information purposes only. PennyGeeks is not an insurance provider or a financial institution. PennyGeeks is not affiliated with or endorsed by the FINRA.  PennyGeeks makes no guarantees, warranties, or representations, implied or express, regarding the savings or results that you may obtain through the use of the Services. PennyGeeks recommends that you consult a financial advisor, accountant, or other relevant specialist before making any financial decisions.

b. No Guarantee Of Accuracy

PennyGeeks disclaims all liability for and does not guarantee the accuracy of any inaccuracies or errors in the Content, the Site, or the Services.

c. No Guarantees Or Warranties Regarding Third Parties

PennyGeeks makes no guarantees, warranties, or representations, implied or express, regarding any offers or quotes through the Services as well as any advice or service provided by a third party.  PennyGeeks does not endorse any third party.  PennyGeeks is only an intermediary between you and the providers of third party services. PennyGeeks disclaims any and all liability for any products, services, or content provided by third parties.

d. Limitation Of Liability

Under no circumstances will PennyGeeks be liable to you for any special, consequential, incidental, punitive, direct, or indirect damages, whether based on tort (including negligence), contract, warranty, or statute. These limitations may not apply to you if you are in a jurisdiction that does not allow the limitation of liability or disclaimer of warranties under certain circumstances.

6. Governing

This User Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict of law principles.  Any disputes between you and PennyGeeks must be resolved in small claims court or through binding arbitration.

You agree to submit to the exclusive personal jurisdiction of the federal courts and state courts located within San Diego County, California, for the purpose of litigating any court proceeding or lawsuit that is permitted hereunder.

7. Disputes Must Be Resolved In Arbitration Or Small Claims Court

By using the Site, you agree that any dispute between you and PennyGeeks will be resolved in arbitration or in small claims court instead of in general jurisdiction. Any arbitration under this User Agreement will take place on an individual basis. Class actions and class arbitrations are not permitted.  You agree and acknowledge that the arbitrator may award relief (including injunctive, declaratory, and monetary relief) only in favor of the party seeking relief and only to the extent necessary to provide relief based on that party’s claim(s).

a. Claims Must Be Resolved In Binding Arbitration

You and PennyGeeks agree to arbitrate all disputes and claims between us.  This Arbitration Agreement includes, but is not limited to:

  • Claims that arose before this or any prior User Agreement;
  • Claims based in statute, tort, misrepresentation, fraud, or contract; and
  • Any claims that arise after the termination of this User Agreement.

b. Exceptions

Notwithstanding Section 7(a), you agree that no statements herein shall be deemed to preclude, waive, or limit your right or PennyGeeks’s right to:

  • Pursue enforcement actions through local, state, or federal agencies;
  • Bring an action in small claims court;
  • File a lawsuit to address intellectual property infringement claims; or
  • Seek injunctive relief in a court of law.

c. Governed By American Arbitration Association

The Commercial Dispute Resolution Procedures and the Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes (collectively “AAA Regulations”) of the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”), as modified by this User Agreement, will govern any arbitration between you and PennyGeeks.

d. Notice

If you or PennyGeeks wishes to seek arbitration, that party must first send a Notice of Dispute (“NOD”) to the other by certified mail.  The NOD to PennyGeeks should be sent to:

SEARCHMARK LLC

1930 Village Center Circle #3-8263

Las Vegas NV 89134

The NOD must include the following:

  • A description of the basis and nature of the dispute or claim; and
  • A description of the specific relief sought (“Demand”).

If you and PennyGeeks do not establish an agreement and resolve the claim within 30 days after the NOD has been received, you or PennyGeeks may commence an arbitration proceeding.

e. No Class Actions

You and PennyGeeks agree not to bring claims against the other as a class member or plaintiff in any representative or class proceeding.  The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims or preside over any form of a class or representative proceeding, unless you and PennyGeeks otherwise agree.

f. Enforceability And Severability

If a court or an arbitrator finds that any part of this Section 7 is unenforceable or invalid, the other parts of this Section 7 shall still apply. If a court or an arbitrator finds that this entire Section 7 is unenforceable, then you and PennyGeeks agree that the exclusive venue and jurisdiction described in Section 6 shall govern any action that arises related to this User Agreement and that the remainder of this User Agreement shall still apply.

8. Modification Of This User Agreement

We reserve the right to permanently or temporarily discontinue or modify this User Agreement without notice at any time. By using this Site, you agree that PennyGeeks will not be liable to any third party or to you for any discontinuance, suspension, or modification of any of the Services.

9. General Provisions

a. Entire Agreement

This User Agreement, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the exclusive and entire agreement and understanding between you and PennyGeeks regarding your access and use of the Services, and except as specifically permitted above may only be amended by a written agreement that is signed by the parties’ authorized representatives.

b. Paragraph Headers Used For Convenience Only

Paragraph headers in this User Agreement are used only for convenience and shall not impact the interpretation of any provisions.

c. Severability

In the event that any part of this User Agreement is held to be unenforceable or invalid, the unenforceable part will be given effect to the greatest extent possible and the remaining parts shall remain in full force and effect.

d. No Waiver

The failure to require performance of any provision shall not affect our right to require performance at any time thereafter, nor shall a waiver of any default or breach of this User Agreement constitute a waiver of any subsequent default or breach or waiver of the provision itself.

e. Partner User Agreements

PennyGeeks’s third party partners may in some instances require that PennyGeeks users agree to be bound by additional user agreements that are specific to certain services or products (“Partner UA”).  In the event of any dispute between the Partner UA and PennyGeeks’s User Agreement, PennyGeeks’s User Agreement shall control and govern.

f. Notice To California Residents

Pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1789.3, you may contact the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs in writing at by telephone at (800) 952-5210 or at 1625 N. Market Blvd., Suite S-202, Sacramento, California 95834 to receive further information regarding use of the service or to resolve a complaint regarding the service.

Privacy Policy

At PennyGeeks, we are committed to protecting the security and privacy of all of our website visitors. We only collect and access information that you voluntarily send to us via email or other direct contact from you. When you share information with us via the website or email, we take precautions to protect that information both online and offline.

Cookies

Cookies are text files that contain strings of alphanumeric characters. We may send Persistent Cookies and Session Cookies to your mobile device or your computer when you use www.PennyGeeks.com. Your browser can use Persistent Cookies during your subsequent visits to www.PennyGeeks.com because they do not disappear after your browser is closed. Session Cookies disappear after your browser is closed.

Information We Collect About You

Our Site collects information that identifies, describes, references, relates to, is able to be associated with, or might be linked to, either indirectly or directly, a particular device or consumer (“Personal Information”). Specifically, our Site has collected the following categories of Personal Information from consumers within the past twelve (12) months:

Category: Identifiers

  • Examples: zip code, email address, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, or similar identifiers

Category: Personal Information Categories – as listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80€)

  • Examples: telephone number, name, insurance status (currently insured?), homeowner status (own a home?), or any other financial information, medical information, or insurance information.
  • Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other categories.

Category: Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law.

  • Examples: Age (age range)

How We Collect Information About You

PennyGeeks obtains the above-listed categories of Personal Information from the following categories of sources:

Information You Provide to Us

The following information may be collected through or on our Site:

  • Information you provide by filling in forms on our Site
  • Records and copies of your correspondence we received from you
  • You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, “Posted”) on public areas of the Site, including comments (“User Contributions”). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. We cannot control the actions of other users of the Site with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you interact with and navigate through our Site, we may use automatic data collection technologies to obtain information about your browsing actions, equipment, and patterns including:

  • Details of your visits to our Site, including location and traffic data, logs, and other communication data and the resources you access and use on the Site.
  • Information about your internet connection and computer, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

We also may use these technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking).

The information we collect automatically may include Personal Information, or we may maintain it or associate it with Personal Information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Site and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

  • Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
  • Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Site according to your individual interests.
  • Speed up your searches.
  • Recognize you when you return to our Site.
  • The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Site.

Our Do Not Track Policy

Some browsers have a “do not track” feature that lets you tell websites that you do not want to have your online activities tracked. At this time, we do not respond to browser “do not track” signals.

How We Use Your Information

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

  • To present our Site and its contents to you.
  • To sell to car insurance companies and insurance aggregators.
  • To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us.
  • To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.
  • To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for billing and collection.
  • To notify you about changes to our Site or any products or services we offer or provide though it.
  • In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
  • For any other purpose with your consent.
  • Additionally, we may use information that we collect about you in order to allow third-party vendors, including Google, to show you ads on sites across the Internet (e.g. remarketing).

We may sell or disclose Personal Information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:

  • To our subsidiaries and affiliates.
  • To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them. In particular, we may disclose Personal Information to a third-party payment processing provider in order to process payments made by credit card. Further, we may disclose Personal Information information to a third-party manufacturer if the fulfillment of your order requires that your order be shipped directly from said third-party manufacturer to you.
  • To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of PennyGeeks’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Information held by PennyGeeks about our Site users is among the assets transferred.
  • To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
  • For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
  • With your consent.

We may also disclose your Personal Information:

  • To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
  • To enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
  • If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of PennyGeeks, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection.
  • We may share aggregated information about our users without restriction.

Sales of Personal Information

In the preceding twelve (12) months, PennyGeeks has sold the following categories of personal information for a business purpose: (A) Identifiers, (B) Personal Information Categories, (C) Protected classification characteristics.

Disclosures of Personal Information for a Business Purpose

In the preceding twelve (12) months, PennyGeeks has disclosed the following categories of personal information for a business purpose: (A) Identifiers, (B) Personal Information Categories, (C) Protected classification characteristics.

Your Rights and Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the personal information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

  • Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
  • We do not control third parties’ collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way. You can opt out of receiving targeted ads from members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) on the NAI’s website. You can find information about opting out of Google’s use of cookies or device identifiers by visiting Google’s Ads Settings.

Access to Specific Information and Data Portability Rights

You have the right to request that PennyGeeks disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your Personal Information over the past 12 months. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request (see Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights), we will disclose to you:

  • The categories of Personal Information we collected about you.
  • The categories of sources for the Personal Information we collected about you.
  • Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that Personal Information.
  • The categories of third parties with whom we share that Personal Information.
  • The specific pieces of Personal Information we collected about you (also called a data portability request).
  • If we sold or disclosed your Personal Information for a business purpose, two separate lists disclosing:
    • sales, identifying the Personal Information categories that each category of recipient purchased; and
    • disclosures for a business purpose, identifying the Personal Information categories that each category of recipient obtained.

Deletion Request Rights

You have the right to request that PennyGeeks delete any of your Personal Information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your verifiable consumer request (see Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights, below), we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your Personal Information from our records, unless an exception applies.

We may deny your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for us or our service provider(s) to:

  • Complete the transaction for which we collected the Personal Information, provide a good or service that you requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform our contract with you.
  • Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
  • Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
  • Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
  • Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.).
  • Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if you previously provided informed consent.
  • Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on your relationship with us.
  • Comply with a legal obligation.
  • Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which you provided it.

Exercising Access, Data Portability, and Deletion Rights

To exercise the access, data portability, and deletion rights described above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by either:

Only you, or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal information. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.

You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must:

  • Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative.
  • Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.
  • We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal information relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. We will only use personal information provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.

Response Timing and Format

We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within forty-five (45) days of its receipt. If we require more time, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.

If you have an account with us, we will deliver our written response to that account. If you do not have an account with us, we will deliver our written response by mail or electronically, at your option.

Any disclosures we provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request’s receipt. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

California law requires that we maintain a separate webpage that allows you to opt out of the sale of your personal information, which can be accessed by clicking the link below:

https://pennygeeks.com/do-not-sell-my-personal-information/

Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:

  • Deny you goods or services.
  • Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.
  • Provide you a different level or quality of goods or services. Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.
  • However, we may offer you certain financial incentives permitted by the CCPA that can result in different prices, rates, or quality levels. Any CCPA-permitted financial incentive we offer will reasonably relate to your personal information’s value and contain written terms that describe the program’s material aspects. Participation in a financial incentive program requires your prior opt in consent, which you may revoke at any time.

Data Security

We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet 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 our Site. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site.