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Taking Title, LLC
Privacy Policy
Describes how Taking Title collects, uses, protects, and shares personal information collected through its platform.
Introduction
Taking Title, LLC, a Maryland limited liability company ("Taking Title," "we," "us," or "our"), is committed to protecting the privacy and security of all personal information collected through its proprietary SaaS platform (the "Platform"). This Privacy Policy describes the types of information we collect, how we use and protect that information, with whom we share it, and your rights and choices with respect to your personal data. This Privacy Policy applies to all users of the Platform, including title companies and other professional participants ("Company Users") and individual clients and end users ("Client Users" or "Clients"), collectively referred to as "Users." This Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference into the Taking Title User Agreement — Title Company / Platform Participant and the User Agreement — Client. By using the Platform, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and agree to the data practices described herein. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, you must not use the Platform
Taking Title operates the Platform exclusively within and for transactions occurring in the State of Maryland. This Privacy Policy is designed to comply with applicable Maryland and federal privacy laws, including without limitation the Maryland Personal Data Privacy Act (Md. Code, Com. Law, Title 14, Subtitle 46) (the "Maryland PDPA"), the Maryland Personal Information Protection Act (Md. Code, Com. Law §§ 14-3501 et seq.) (the "Maryland PIPA"), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 6801 et seq.) (the "GLBA"), and applicable provisions of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (12 U.S.C. §§ 2601 et seq.) ("RESPA").
Information We Collect
Information Provided Directly by Users
We collect personal information that you provide to us directly through the Platform, including:
- Registration and Account Information: full name, email address, phone number, business name, professional license number (for Company Users), business address, and account credentials.
- Transaction and Identity Documents: government-issued identification (driver's license, passport), Social Security numbers or tax identification numbers (as required for closing documents), property addresses, deed information, and other real estate transaction records.
- Communications: information contained in any messages, requests, or other communications you send to Taking Title or transmit through the Platform between Company Users and Client Users.
- Professional Credentials: for Company Users, Maryland Insurance Administration license information, entity formation documents, and professional certifications submitted during onboarding.
- Plaid Identity Verification Data: where a Company User initiates a Plaid identity verification for a transaction participant through the Platform, we may collect and process the verification request data and verification result (confirmed / unconfirmed) in connection with that Transaction. Detailed personal financial or identity information submitted directly to Plaid is processed by Plaid pursuant to its own privacy policy and is not stored on the Platform beyond what is necessary to record the verification result.
- Guest Access Data: for Client Users accessing the Platform through Guest Access (magic link), we collect the email address used to deliver the magic link, access timestamps, and session activity data necessary to provide the service and maintain security logs.
Information Collected Automatically
When you access or use the Platform, we automatically collect certain technical and usage information, including:
- Log Data: Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, operating system, device identifiers, referring URLs, pages visited within the Platform, and the date and time of access
- Cookies and Tracking Technologies: We use session cookies and persistent cookies to facilitate authentication, maintain session security, and analyze usage patterns. Session cookies expire when you close your browser. Persistent cookies remain until deleted or expired. You may configure your browser to refuse cookies; however, certain Platform features may not function properly without cookies.
- Two-Factor Authentication Data: Records of 2FA enrollment and authentication events, including timestamps and device information, are collected and retained for security and audit purposes
- Platform Usage Data: Features accessed, documents uploaded and retrieved, actions taken within the Platform, and session duration data.
Information from Third Parties
We may receive information about you from Company Users who submit your information to the Platform in connection with your real estate Transaction, from identity verification service providers, and from public records sources in connection with title-related services.
Information We Do Not Collect
The Platform does not collect, process, or store financial account numbers, credit card information, wire transfer details, bank routing numbers, or any information relating to monetary transactions or payments. The Platform is not designed or authorized for the transmission or processing of financial transactions of any kind.
How We Use Your Information
We use the personal information we collect for the following purposes:
- To provide, operate, maintain, and improve the Platform and its features and functionality;
- To authenticate users and enforce 2FA security requirements;
- To facilitate the secure collection, storage, and transmission of Client Data between Company Users and Client Users in connection with real estate title transactions;
- To enable Company Users to request additional documentation or information from Client Users through the Platform;
- To communicate with you regarding your Account, including sending administrative messages, security alerts, and Platform updates;
- To verify the professional credentials and Maryland licensure status of Company Users;
- To detect, prevent, and respond to fraud, security incidents, unauthorized access, and other unlawful activity;
- To comply with applicable federal and Maryland state legal obligations, including without limitation those under the GLBA, RESPA, the Maryland PDPA, and the Maryland PIPA
- To resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and protect the rights and interests of Taking Title and our Users; and
- To generate aggregated, anonymized, and de-identified statistical data about Platform usage for product improvement purposes, provided that such data cannot reasonably be used to identify any individual.
We do not use your personal information for targeted advertising, sale to data brokers, or any purpose unrelated to the provision of the Platform services described above.
Legal Basis for Processing
We process personal information on the following legal bases: (a) Performance of Contract — processing necessary to provide the Platform services pursuant to our User Agreements with you; (b) Legal Obligation — processing required to comply with applicable federal and Maryland state law; (c) Legitimate Interests — processing necessary for fraud prevention, platform security, and improvement of our services, where such interests are not overridden by your privacy rights; and (d) Consent — where you have provided specific, informed consent to certain processing activities, which you may withdraw at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing prior to withdrawal.
Disclosure and Sharing of Information
Sharing with Title Companies
Client Data submitted by or relating to a Client User is shared with the Company User (Title Company) that has engaged Taking Title in connection with the Client's Transaction. This sharing is the core function of the Platform and is performed with the Client's prior consent as provided in the applicable User Agreement. Company Users are contractually required to use Client Data only for legitimate Transaction-related purposes and in compliance with applicable law.
Service Providers
We may disclose personal information to third-party service providers who assist us in operating the Platform, including cloud hosting providers, data encryption and security vendors, identity verification providers, and customer support platforms. Specifically, we use Plaid, Inc. as our identity verification service provider. When a Plaid identity verification is initiated for a transaction participant, certain personal information necessary to complete the verification is shared with Plaid. Plaid's use of this information is governed by Plaid's privacy policy, available at plaid.com/legal/privacy-policy. Taking Title is not responsible for Plaid's data practices beyond the contractual obligations we impose on Plaid as a service provider. All service providers are contractually required to:
- Use personal information only as directed by Taking Title and for no independent purpose;
- Implement appropriate security measures; and
- Comply with all applicable privacy laws. We do not authorize service providers to sell or otherwise disclose personal information to additional third parties without our written consent.
Legal Requirements and Law Enforcement
We may disclose personal information when required to do so by applicable law, regulation, court order, or governmental authority, including disclosures required by the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, the Maryland Insurance Administration, or federal law enforcement agencies. We will endeavor to provide you with prior notice of any such required disclosure to the extent permitted by law.
Business Transfers
In the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, or similar transaction involving Taking Title, personal information may be transferred to the acquiring or surviving entity as part of that transaction. We will notify affected Users of any such transfer and any material changes to this Privacy Policy that result therefrom.
Prohibited Disclosures
We do not sell, rent, or lease personal information to third parties for their own marketing or commercial purposes. We do not share personal information with data brokers or advertising networks.
Data Security
Security Measures
Taking Title implements commercially reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Our security measures include, without limitation:
- Encryption of all data at rest using industry-standard encryption protocols;
- Encryption of all data in transit using Transport Layer Security (TLS);
- mandatory Two-Factor Authentication for all Platform logins;
- Role-based access controls limiting employee access to personal information on a need-to-know basis;
- Regular security assessments and vulnerability testing; and
- Incident response procedures designed to detect, contain, and remediate security incidents promptly.
No Absolute Security Guarantee
No electronic system or data transmission is completely secure. While we are committed to protecting your personal information, we cannot guarantee absolute security. You acknowledge that you provide personal information to the Platform at your own risk, subject to the safeguards described herein.
Data Breach Notification
In the event of a data security breach that compromises your personal information, Taking Title will provide notification in accordance with the Maryland Personal Information Protection Act (Md. Code, Com. Law §§ 14-3501 et seq.). Under Maryland law, notice must be provided to affected Maryland residents in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, and notice must also be provided to the Maryland Office of the Attorney General when more than one thousand (1,000) Maryland residents are affected. Notification will be provided to you via email to your registered address and, where required by law, by other means.
Data Retention
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, to resolve disputes, and to enforce our agreements. Specifically:
- Account and Transaction Data: retained for a period of seven (7) years following the completion or termination of the relevant Transaction or Account, consistent with applicable Maryland real estate record-keeping requirements and professional standards.
- Security and Audit Logs: retained for a minimum of three (3) years to support security monitoring and incident investigation
- Communications: retained for the period necessary to resolve the matter to which they relate, and thereafter for such additional period as required by law.
- De-Identified Data: aggregated and de-identified statistical data may be retained indefinitely for product analytics purposes
Upon expiration of the applicable retention period, we will securely delete or anonymize personal information in accordance with our data disposal procedures.
For Company Users whose accounts are closed or terminated, the following post-termination process applies: (a) following expiration of the Wind-Down Period under the applicable Master Services Agreement, the account is placed in Read-Only Mode for thirty (30) days; (b) at least seven (7) days before deleting any Client Data following the Read-Only Period, Taking Title will provide written notice to the Company User’s registered email address; (c) Company Users are solely responsible for exporting and retaining any Client Data required for compliance with the Maryland seven-year title record retention requirement or other applicable legal obligations before the end of the Read-Only Period; and (d) following expiration of the notice period, Taking Title may permanently delete all Client Data and Account data associated with the closed account, subject to any extended archive arrangements agreed in writing and any mandatory legal retention obligations.
Your Privacy Rights — Maryland Residents
If you are a Maryland resident, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data under the Maryland PDPA and other applicable Maryland law, subject to certain legal limitations and exceptions:
- Right to Know/Access: You have the right to confirm whether we are processing your personal data and to access a copy of your personal data, including information about the categories of data collected, the purposes for which it is processed, and the categories of third parties with whom it is shared.
- Right to Correct: You have the right to request correction of inaccurate personal data we hold about you.
- Right to Delete: You have the right to request deletion of personal data we hold about you, subject to certain exceptions for data we are required to retain by law or for legitimate business purposes.
- Right to Data Portability: You have the right to receive a copy of your personal data in a portable, machine-readable format, to the extent technically feasible.
- Right to Opt Out of Sale: We do not sell personal data. If we were to do so in the future, you would have the right to opt out
- Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights
- Right to Appeal: If we decline to take action on your privacy rights request, you have the right to appeal our decision. Information regarding the appeal process will be provided in our response to your request.
To exercise any of the foregoing rights, please submit a written request to info@takingtitle.com or by mail to Taking Title, LLC, 4813 Seton Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21215. We will respond to verified requests within forty-five (45) days as required by the Maryland PDPA, which period may be extended by an additional forty-five (45) days with notice. We may be required to verify your identity before processing your request.
Children's Privacy
The Platform is intended for use by adults (18 years of age and older) only. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of thirteen (13) and do not knowingly permit children under 18 to create Accounts. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will promptly delete such information in accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 6501 et seq.) ("COPPA"). If you believe that a child under 13 may have provided personal information to us, please contact us at info@takingtitle.com.
Cookies and Tracking Technologies
We use the following types of cookies and similar tracking technologies on the Platform: (a) Strictly Necessary Cookies, which are essential to the functioning of the Platform, including authentication and security; (b) Functional Cookies, which enable the Platform to remember your preferences and settings; and (c) Analytics Cookies, which help us understand how Users interact with the Platform in order to improve its functionality and user experience. We do not use cookies for targeted advertising or cross-site tracking. You may disable non-essential cookies through your browser settings; however, doing so may affect Platform functionality.
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Notice
To the extent that Taking Title qualifies as a "financial institution" under the GLBA with respect to its role in processing nonpublic personal financial information in connection with real estate title transactions, Taking Title provides the following notice: We collect nonpublic personal financial information from you as described in Section 1 of this Privacy Policy in order to provide Platform services. We do not share such information with unaffiliated third parties for their own marketing purposes. We implement security measures as described in Section 5 to protect such information. You may have rights under applicable law to limit certain sharing of your nonpublic personal information; however, we do not engage in the categories of sharing for which such opt-out rights would apply.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. We will provide notice of material changes by posting the updated Privacy Policy on the Platform and by email to registered Users at least thirty (30) days before the effective date of the change, to the extent practicable. Your continued use of the Platform following the effective date of any modification constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the updated Privacy Policy, you must discontinue use of the Platform and may request deletion of your personal data as described in Section 7.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact: Taking Title, LLC, Attn: Privacy Officer, 4813 Seton Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21215. Email: info@takingtitle.com | Website: www.takingtitle.com