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Privacy Policy

Central Title Company (collectively, “we,” “our,” or “us”) are committed to privacy and to transparency in our information practices. In this Privacy Policy (the “Policy”), we describe how we may collect, use, disclose, and otherwise process personal information related to our websites (each, a “Website”) and mobile applications (each, an “App”) that display or link to this Policy and our other services, products, and technology solutions (collectively, the “Services”).  

1.             SCOPE OF OUR PRIVACY NOTICE

This privacy notice applies to our collection, use, disclosure, and other processing of personal information related to: 

  • the use of our Services that display or link to this Policy; 
  • former, current, and prospective clients, brokers, and customers; and 
  • other individuals who use our Services, whose personal information we receive related to the Services, or who otherwise interact or communicate with us related to our Services 

Our collection, use, disclosure, and processing of personal information about individuals will vary depending upon the circumstances. This privacy notice is intended to describe our overall privacy and data protection practices. In some cases, different or additional notices about our data collection and processing practices may be provided and apply to our processing of certain personal information 

Personal information. In this privacy notice, our use of the term “personal information” includes other similar terms under applicable privacy laws—such as “personal data” and “personally identifiable information.” In general, personal information includes any information that identifies, relates to, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated, linked, or linkable with an individual.  

Not covered by this notice. This privacy notice does not apply to job applicants and candidates who apply for employment with us, or to our employees and non-employee workers.  

2.             OUR COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION  

Generally, we collect your personal information on a voluntary basis. However, if you decline to provide certain personal information that is marked mandatory, you may not be able to access certain Services, or we may be unable to fully respond to your inquiry. 

Sources of personal information we collect. The personal information that we collect, and process will vary depending upon the circumstances. We collect personal information directly from individuals, automatically related to the use of the Services, and in some cases, from third parties (such as social networks, platform providers, payment processors, data providers, and operators of certain third-party services that we use). For example, some of the ways we collect information are as follows:  

Information we collect directly. We collect information that you provide to us, such as  

  • when you create an account, provide contact information, and send other personal information to us; 
  • when you complete or submit a form through our Services, for example, “Contact Us” or “More Information” forms; 
  • when you participate in surveys or contests, submit orders or requests, or register for or use our Services, or otherwise contact us; 
  • information you submit or provide such as real estate searches and preferences, whether you plan on buying or selling real estate, home search criteria, information about financing for the purchase of real estate, and other information related to the purchase or sale of real estate. 

Information we collect from third partiesWe may collect personal information about you and your property from third party sources, such as public databases, joint marketing partners, social media platforms (including from people with whom you are friends or otherwise connected), from brokers and from other third parties. For example, without limitation: 

  • Social media. If you choose to link, create, or log in to your Services account with a social media service (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), or if you engage with a separate app or website that communicates with the Services, we may receive personal information about you or your connections from that service. In many cases you can control what personal information you share with us through privacy settings available on those third-party social media services. 
  • Real estate professionals. Information that may include, among other things, your name and email address, that you may have given to an independent real estate professional with whom you have a pre-existing relationship. The professional may collect such personal information from you with the sole purpose of pre-populating an account for the Services on your behalf and with your consent. You may choose not to finalize the creation of an account and may opt-out of certain future communications from us by following the instructions in the account creation notification or by contacting us at the email address in this Policy. 
  • Property records. We may collect information about individuals and real estate property through public databases, such as property ownership and tax records maintained by state, local and county agencies. 

3.             USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION  

While the purposes for which we may process personal information will vary depending upon the circumstances, in general we use personal information for the purposes set forth below. Where relevant laws apply, we have set forth the legal bases for such processing in parenthesis (see above for further explanation of our legal bases).  

  • Providing support and services: including, for example, to send or facilitate communications among you, independent real estate professionals and their affiliated entities, and other users of the Services, provide products and services you request (and send related information), operate our Services; to communicate with you about your access to and use of our Services; to respond to your inquiries; to provide troubleshooting, fulfill your requests and provide technical support; and for other customer service and support purposes. (Legal basis: performance of our contract with you; and our legitimate interests)
  • Analyzing and improving our business: including to better understand how users access and use our Services, to evaluate and improve our Services and business operations, and to develop new features, offerings, and services; to conduct surveys, and other evaluations, such as customer satisfaction surveys; and for other research and analytical purposes. (Legal basis: our legitimate interests)
  • Personalizing content and experiences: including to provide or recommend features, content, social connections, and referrals; tailor content we send or display on our Services; to offer location customization and personalized help and instructions; and to otherwise personalize your experiences. (Legal basis: our legitimate interests and/or with your consent) 
  • Advertising, marketing and promotional purposes: including to reach you with more relevant ads and to evaluate, measure, and improve the effectiveness of our ad campaigns; to send you newsletters, offers, or other information we think may interest you; to contact you about our 

Services or information we think may interest you; and to administer promotions and contests. (Legal basis: our legitimate interests and/or with your consent

  • Securing and protecting our business: including to protect and secure our business operations, assets, Services, network and information and technology resources; to investigate, prevent, detect and take action regarding fraud, unauthorized access, situations involving potential threats to the rights or safety of any person or third party, or other unauthorized activities or misconduct. (Legal basis: our legitimate interests and/or compliance with laws
  • Defending our legal rightsincluding to manage and respond to actual and potential legal disputes and claims, and to otherwise establish, defend or protect our rights or interests, including in the context of anticipated or actual litigation with third parties. (Legal basis: our legitimate interests and/or compliance with laws)
  • Auditing, reporting, corporate governance, and internal operations: including relating to financial, tax and accounting audits; audits and assessments of our operations, privacy, security and financial controls, risk, and compliance with legal obligations; our general business, accounting, record keeping and legal functions; and related to any actual or contemplated merger, acquisition, asset sale or transfer, financing, bankruptcy or restructuring of all or part of our business. (Legal basis:

our legitimate interests and/or compliance with laws

  • Complying with legal obligations: including to comply with the law, our legal obligations and legal process, such warrants, subpoenas, court orders, and regulatory or law enforcement requests. (Legal basis: our legitimate interests and/or compliance with laws

Aggregate and de-identified information. We may de-identify personal information and create anonymous and aggregated data sets and reports in order to assess, improve and develop our business, products and services, prepare benchmarking reports on our industry and for other research, marketing and analytics purposes. 

4.             DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION 

We may disclose the personal information that we collect about you as set forth below or as otherwise described at the time of collection or sharing. 

  • Service providers: We may disclose personal information with third-party service providers who use this information to perform services for us, such as hosting providers, auditors, advisors, consultants, and customer service and support providers. 
  • Subsidiaries and Affiliates: We may share your personal information with our affiliated companies (i.e., companies under common ownership, control or management with us) – use will be subject to this privacy notice. 
  • Third Parties. We may disclose personal information to third parties in order to provide our Services, facilitate your requests, or with your acknowledgement and consent, including with: 
    • independent real estate professionals and owners and operators of real estate brokerage companies to enable them to provide services you request through the Services.  
    • third parties to provide you a service you requested through a partnership or promotional offering made by a third party or us. 
    • the public if you submit to a public part of the Services, such as comments, social media posts, or other features viewable by the public or generally by registered users of the Services. o            third parties with whom you choose to let us share information, for example other apps or websites that integrate with the Services, or those with Services with which we integrate. 
    • third parties we work with to provide you with more personalized content and ads, and to track the effectiveness of campaigns.
  • Business transfers: We may disclose or transfer personal information as part of any actual or contemplated merger, sale, and transfer of our assets, acquisition, financing or restructuring of all or part of our business, bankruptcy or similar event, including related to due diligence conducted prior to such event where permitted by law.  
  • Legally required: We may disclose personal information if we are required to do so by law (e.g., to law enforcement, courts or others, e.g., in response to a subpoena or court order). 
  • Protect our rights: We may disclose personal information where we believe it necessary to respond to claims asserted against us or, comply with legal process (e.g., subpoenas or warrants), enforce or administer our agreements and terms, for fraud prevention, risk assessment, investigation, and to protect the rights, property, or safety of us, our clients and customers or others. 

Anonymized and Aggregated Data. We may share aggregate or de-identified information with third parties for research, marketing, advertising, analytics, and other purposes. 

Cookies, Tracking, and Analytics 

Our Services may use first party and third-party cookies, pixel tags, plugins, and other tools to gather device, usage and browsing information when users visit our Services. For instance, when you visit our Services, our server may record your IP address (and associated location information) and other information such as the type of your internet browser, your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, operating system name and version, device manufacturer and model, language, and the pages you view and links you select on the Services, as well as date and time stamps associates with your activities on our Services.  

We use the information for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, to personalize and improve your experience while using the Services, to improve and measure our advertising campaigns and to better reach users with relevant advertising both on our Services and on third party websites. We also gather statistical information about use of the Services in order to continually improve their design and functionality, understand how they are used and assist us with resolving questions regarding them.  

Cookies. Cookies are small text files that a website transfers to your hard drive to store and sometimes collect information about your usage of websites, such as time spent on the websites, pages visited, language preferences, and other anonymous traffic data. You can control the way in which cookies are used by altering your browser settings. You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to reject cookies. However, if you select such a setting, this may affect the functioning of our Services. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you access or log on to our Service. 

Essential cookies are essential, as they enable you to move around the Service and use its features. Without these cookies we could not, for example, authenticate your login or remember that you are logged-in as you move through the Service. 

Functionality cookies allow us to remember choices you make (such as the region you’re in) and tailor the Service to provide enhanced features and content for you. For instance, they can be used to remember your login details or remember your nickname when you next login. They may also be used to provide services you’ve requested, for example leaving a comment on the Service. 

Analytics & performances cookies collect information about how the Service is used, for example which pages users visit most often and if any error messages are displayed on certain pages. Information collected using these cookies is used to monitor activity on the Service and understand how it is being used. 

If you have disabled one or more cookies, we may still use information collected from cookies before your disabled preference was set. However, we will stop using the disabled cookie to collect any further information. 

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.  

Pixel tags and other similar technologies. Pixel tags (also known as web beacons and clear GIFs) may be used in connection with some Websites to, among other things, track the actions of users of the Websites (including email recipients), measure the success of our marketing campaigns and compile statistics about usage of the Websites and response rates. We and our service providers may also use pixel tags in HTML emails to our customers, to help us track email response rates, identify when our emails are viewed, track whether our emails are forwarded, and conduct analytics. 

Log files. Most browsers collect certain information, such as your IP address, device type, screen resolution, operating system version and internet browser type and version. This information is gathered automatically and stored in log files. 

Third party analytics tools. Our Websites use automated devices and applications operated by third parties, such as Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Websites and report on activities and trends. This service may also collect information regarding the use of other websites, apps and online resources. You can learn about Google’s practices by going to www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/, and you can opt out of them by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. 

Do-Not-Track signals. Please note that our Websites do not recognize or respond to any signal which your browser might transmit through the so-called ‘Do Not Track’ feature your browser might have. If you wish to disable cookies on our Websites, you should not rely on any ‘Do Not Track’ feature your browser might have. 

Interest-based Advertising 

On some of our Websites, we may work with third-party ad networks, analytics companies, measurement services and others (“third-party ad companies”) to display advertising on our Services and to manage our advertising on third-party sites, mobile apps and online services. We and these third-party ad companies may use cookies, pixels tags and other tools to collect information on our Websites (and on third-party sites and services), such as browsing history, IP address, device ID, cookie and advertising IDs, and other identifiers, general location information and, with your consent, your device’s geolocation information; we and these third-party ad companies use this information to provide you more relevant ads and content and to evaluate the success of such ads and content. 

For more information or to opt out of third-party advertising cookies and tags on our Websites, go to www.privacyrights.info/.  

You may also obtain more information about targeted or “interest-based advertising” and opt-out of many ad networks at the industry websites below: 

  • U.S.: www.aboutads.info

5.             SOCIAL FEATURES AND THIRD-PARTY PLUG INS 

The Services may integrate with social sharing features and other related tools which let you log in to the Services or share actions you take on the Services. Your use of such features enables the sharing of information with your friends or the public, depending on the settings you establish with the social sharing service. Please refer to the privacy policies of those social sharing services for more information about how they handle the data you provide to or share through them. We do not receive or store passwords to your third-party social media accounts in this context.  

6.             INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS OF PERSONAL INFORMATION  

The Services are hosted on servers located in the United States. Note that some countries may not provide the same level of data protection as your home country. If you are located outside the United States, your personal information will be transferred to the United States and possibly to other jurisdictions (e.g., to the location of a property for which you have requested information), which may not provide the same level of protection under your local data protection laws. In such cases, we rely on suitable personal information transfer safeguards. You may have the right to request a copy or information about those safeguards by contacting us as detailed below.  

7.             SECURITY 

We use technical, administrative, and physical controls in place to help protect Personal information from unauthorized access, use, and disclosure. Even so, despite our reasonable efforts, no security measure is ever perfect or impenetrable. If the security of your account has been compromised, please immediately notify us in accordance with Section 13 below (“Contact Us”).  

8.             DATA RETENTION 

Generally, we will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy notice or as set out in our contracts, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.  We may also retain personal information for longer where required by our legal and regulatory obligations, professional indemnity obligations, or where we believe it is necessary to establish, defend or protect our legal rights and interests or those of others. 

9.             YOUR RIGHTS AND CHOICES  

Marketing. You may opt out from receiving marketing-related communications from us on a going forward basis by contacting us or by using the unsubscribe mechanism contained in each email. We will try to comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that if you opt out of receiving marketing-related emails from us, we may still send you important administrative messages, from which you cannot opt out. 

Third party advertising and analytics. Our Websites include third party tags and cookies, which allow third parties to collect IP address and other identifier, browsing information and other personal information for advertising and analytics purposes as explained above; to opt of these on our Websites, or for more information, go to www.privacyrights.info/.  You may also review your browser or device settings for certain cookies and see above to exercise certain choices regarding cookies.  

Access, amendment and deletion. Under applicable privacy laws, you may have the right to request to review, make amendments, have deleted or otherwise exercise your rights over your personal information that we hold, subject to certain legal limitations and requirements. If you are subject to such a privacy law, please immediately notify us in accordance with Section 13 below (“Contact Us”) or by contacting us at (903) 757-2713 

We follow applicable law to take steps to keep your personal information accurate, complete and up-to date. In your request that is covered by an applicable privacy law, please make clear what personal information you would like to have changed, whether you would like to have your personal information suppressed from our database or otherwise let us know what limitations you would like to put on our use of your personal information. We may only implement requests (a) where required by applicable law and (b) with respect to the personal information associated with the email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. 

10.         CHILDREN  

The Services are not intended or directed to children under the age of 16, and we do not knowingly collect any personal information, or knowingly track the use of our Services, from children. If we have actual knowledge that personal information about a child under 16 years old has been collected, then we will take appropriate steps to try and delete such personal information.  

11.         THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES  

The Services may contain links to third-party services. We do not own, operate, or control the websites of third parties, including those of independently owned and operated franchisees. Accordingly, this Policy does not apply to any services maintained or operated by third parties. When you click on those links, you will go to a third-party website where you will be subject to that service’s privacy policy or similar statement and terms of use, and we encourage you to read that policy statement. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other services, and we expressly disclaim any liability for their actions, including actions related to the use and disclosure of personal information by those third parties. 

12.         CHANGES TO THIS POLICY  

We may amend this Policy at any time. If we make any material change in how we collect, use, disclose, or otherwise process personal information, we will prominently post a notice regarding such change on the Services. Any material changes to this Policy will be effective 10 days after our posting of the updated Policy or as otherwise required by applicable law. Where required to do so by law, we may seek your prior consent to any material changes we make to this Policy.  

13.         CONTACT US  

If you have any questions or concerns about this Policy, please use the following contact information:  

Email: office@centraltitle.com  

Mailing address: 2002 Judson Road, Ste. 300 Attn: Data Privacy  Phone number: (903) 757-2713 

RESOURCES

Our team is proud of the knowledge and expertise we provide for our customers. If you have a question that isn’t addressed here, please contact us – we will find the answer for you!

Disclaimer: The resources contained on the Central Title Company website are intended for informational purposes only and are not intended to offer advice (legal, financial, or otherwise) about specific situations or issues. Final numbers may vary based on credit, endorsements, and other factors specific to individual files. For assistance, please contact us.

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Marshall Location

History

While the exact date of Harrison County Abstract Company’s founding is unknown, its earliest prepared file is dated March 20, 1920. Marshall Title Abstractor Chris DeWoody says, “We’re possibly a little bit older than that…All I can say for sure is we do not appear in the 1914 city directory, so were were established sometime between 1914 and 1920.”

 

Over the past 100 years, the company has operated out of several different buildings and under several different names:

• 1924: 107 1/2 W. Austin St.
• 1932: 1-2-3 Citizens State Bank building
• 1939: 4 Conway building
• 1946: the Mahon Building
• 1959: Harrison County Abstract Company purchased The Burton Abstract Company
• 1978: Harrison County Abstract Company was purchased by Lawyer’s Title Agency and moved to 301 E. Austin St.
• Operated under two names simultaneously for several years: Harrison County Abstract Company for abstracts of title and Lawyer’s Title Agency of Marshall for title insurance issuance
• 1984: Lawyer’s Title Agency was purchased by Royce Brown, renamed First Southwest Title, and moved to our present location of 200 W. Bowie St.

 

In 1999, First Southwest Title joined the Central Title family and became our Marshall branch.

Kilgore Location - Fee Office

History

In the 1990s, Central Title added another convenient closing location with a fee office in Kilgore.

Longview Location

History

Central Abstract & Title Company was formed in 1931 by Paul B. Scott, Jas A. Hankerson, and EP Harding. Over its decades of operations, Central Title has passed through several owners, each group building the reputation for experience, expertise, and excellence that Central Title enjoys today, as well as expanding Central Title’s operations throughout East Texas.

 

Today, Central Title owns and operates the only sovereign title plants in Gregg, Smith, Harrison, Upshur, and Rusk counties and has 6 office locations: Longview, Tyler, Marshall, Gilmer, Hallsville, and Kilgore.

 

• Marshall: In 1999, Central Title purchased First Southwest Title in Marshall and then acquired Central Title’s second sovereignty title plant with the purchase of Professional Land Title Services in 2000
• Gilmer: Upshur County Abstract (established in 1912) was added to the Central Title family in 2002; in 2004, Central Title purchased Upshur County Index, adding a third sovereignty title plant to our resources
• Tyler: In 2008, Smith County Title (established in 1923) joined the Central Title family, along with another sovereignty title plant
• Hallsville: In 2013, Central Title opened a Hallsville location, offering an additional closing option for our customers
• Kilgore: In the 1990s, Central Title added another convenient closing location with a fee office in Kilgore

 

We are so grateful to our customers for over a century of business and look forward to continuing to grow and serve East Texas for the next 100 years.

Hallsville Location

History

Open since 2013, our expert closing team in Hallsville offers an additional closing location option for our customers.

Tyler Location

History

The Tyler office of Central Title Company began as Smith County Abstract Company in April of 1923.

The sovereignty plant was built from its sister company, Boren Abstract, to supply the ever-increasing demand for abstracts of title on properties in the area of the East Texas Oil Field. The abstracts of title were typed on manual typewriters using onion skin paper. The typists for the three abstract companies lined the hallways of the courthouse for all the years of the oil boom and earned $0.05 per legal page, single-spaced, in triplicate with no errors.

Smith County Abstract began the issuance of title insurance some time in the early 1950s while most customers still preferred a good abstract of title combined with a title opinion from a trusted real estate attorney.

In Smith County, title insurance became more popular with the local lenders when they realized that a title policy took much less file storage room than bulky abstracts. By the early 1970s, title insurance was the more requested form of title evidence, although abstracts were still being used for the customers that had acquired them with their real property. Developers still requested abstracts for their new subdivisions, and oil companies were still used them for title evidence.

By the mid 1980s, abstracts had been replaced by the title insurance policy, which is the basis of our business today.
Smith County Abstract had its only office in downtown Tyler from 1923 until 1999. In the mid 1980s, Smith County Abstract Company was the first abstract company in town to set up a closing office. Formerly, all closings took place at an attorney’s office or with a lender.

In the late 1980s, Smith County Abstract became Smith County Title and built a new office in South Tyler, combining its title and closing operations. The company continued to grow as an integral part of the real estate business in Smith County.

In 2008, Smith County Title joined Central Title Company and became the Smith County branch of its five-county network, better able to supply the title needs of its customers.

Gilmer Location

History

Upshur County Abstract (established in 1912) was added to the Central Title family in 2002; in 2004, Central Title purchased Upshur County Index, adding a third sovereignty title plant to our resources