Our Commitment to Your Privacy
This Privacy Policy explains how American Broadband and Telecommunications, LLC (“AMBT,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, and discloses your information. It applies to our California Lifeline telecommunications services, our website, and any associated apps or devices (collectively, “Services”). This policy applies to all services marketed under the American Assistance brand.
Please review these terms carefully. We may update this policy from time to time, so we encourage you to check this page regularly.
What Information Do We Collect?
Depending on your interaction with our Services, we may collect the following categories of Personal Information:
- Identity & Contact Information: Your name, date of birth, mailing address, billing address, and email addresses.
- Lifeline Eligibility Information: Documentation proving participation in an eligible government low-income or financial assistance program, documentation demonstrating proof of income, or your Social Security number. This information will only be used to determine your Lifeline eligibility.
- Billing and Payment Information: Credit card, debit card, or checking account information, purchase history, and billing details.
- Correspondence Information: Records of your communications with us, including questions, concerns, or issues, and recordings of your communications with us.
- Usage Information: Information about your use of the Services, such as dates, times, and frequency of use, your interaction with our communications, Wi-Fi usage, and Customer Proprietary Network Information (“CPNI”).
- Location Information: The approximate location of your device from GPS, our underlying carrier’s wireless network, or other location technology.
- Device and Computer Information: Your IP address, browser type, operating system, and device type, model, or identifier.
- Information Stored on Devices: Any content stored on your device when you relinquish, exchange, return, or recycle it. You should remove any Personal Information from your device before giving it to us, our contractors, or our vendors.
Personal Information does not include aggregated, de-identified, or anonymous information that is not reasonably capable of being associated with you.
Where Do We Get This Information?
- From You: Information you provide when you apply for our California Lifeline service, subscribe to or purchase our Services, or communicate with us.
- Collected Automatically: Usage, Location, and Device information that is passively or automatically collected when you use our Services, including through cookies, web beacons, and other analytics tools.
- From Other Sources: We may collect information from our affiliates, business partners (like retailers), data aggregators, and other commercially available sources.
How We Use Your Information
We may use your Personal Information for the following business purposes:
- Verifying Eligibility: To confirm your identity and eligibility for the California Lifeline program and to subscribe you to our Services, including porting your phone number.
- Providing Services: To initiate, maintain, analyze, and improve our Services, manage our networks, and resolve technical problems.
- Customer Service: To respond to your questions, communicate about your account status, and for training or quality assurance.
- Billing and Payments: To complete your purchases and process payments.
- Fraud Prevention: To prevent and detect fraud, abuse, and other unlawful uses of our Services, and to protect the security of our business and our customers.
- Legal Obligations: To comply with legal and regulatory obligations, including responding to legal processes like subpoenas, court orders, or search warrants.
- Emergency Situations: To respond to 911 requests and for other emergencies involving danger of death or serious physical injury.
- Marketing and Advertising: To serve you promotional offers about our Services or those of our partners, with your consent where necessary.
When Do We Share Your Information?
We do not sell or knowingly allow third parties to access your Personal Information for their own use. We may share your Personal Information in the following circumstances:
- Business Operations: With our parent, subsidiary, and affiliate companies for operational and legal purposes.
- Service Providers: With trusted vendors that provide professional or technical support functions for us (such as network operations, billing, website hosting, or customer service). We do not authorize them to use or disclose your Personal Information except as necessary to perform services on our behalf.
- Legal Rights and Obligations: With governmental authorities or other entities if we believe disclosure is necessary to: protect against fraudulent or unlawful use of our Services; respond to legal process; comply with our legal obligations; or recover payment for services.
- Sale or Transfer of Business: In connection with a corporate transaction, such as a merger, bankruptcy, or sale of assets. If our company or assets are acquired, your Personal Information may be transferred to the new entity.
- Emergencies: With governmental authorities or other entities in emergency situations, including responding to 911 requests.
Your Rights & Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI)
CPNI is information related to the telecommunications services you purchase from us, including the type, quantity, destination, and location of your use. Under federal law, you have the right, and we have a duty, to protect the confidentiality of your CPNI.
We are permitted to use or disclose your CPNI to provide your services, for billing, and to protect from fraud. We may also use your CPNI to offer you communications-related products and services that are different from the types of services you currently purchase. You have the right to opt-out of the use of your CPNI for these specific marketing purposes. Opting-out will not affect your Lifeline service.
Your Advertising Choices
You have choices regarding interest-based advertising and marketing communications.
- Interest-Based Ads: To opt out of interest-based advertising, you can visit the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) at
optout.aboutads.info or the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) at optout.networkadvertising.org.
- Marketing Communications: You can unsubscribe from our email communications by following the “unsubscribe” instructions in the email. You can also opt-out of text messages by replying “STOP”.
- Do Not Track: Our Services may not respond to “Do Not Track” (DNT) signals, as industry standards for this are not yet common.
Data Security and Storage
We maintain reasonable physical, technical, and procedural safeguards to help protect your Personal Information. We encrypt sensitive information and restrict access to our databases. We only retain your Personal Information for as long as is reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, or as required by law.
While we take reasonable steps to ensure security, we cannot guarantee that your communications will not be intercepted while being transmitted over our underlying carriers’ network or the Internet.
Children’s Privacy
Our Services are not directed toward children, and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with information, please contact us to request its deletion.
Changes to This Policy
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. When we do, we will post the changes on this page and update the effective date. It is your responsibility to check this page regularly to review any changes.
Your California Privacy Rights
As a California resident, you have specific rights regarding your Personal Information under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). This section describes your CCPA rights and explains how to exercise them.
- Right to Know: You have the right to request that we disclose what Personal Information we have collected, used, and disclosed about you over the past 12 months.
- Right to Delete: You have the right to request that we delete any of your Personal Information that we collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.
- Right to Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing: You have the right to opt-out of the “sale” or “sharing” of your Personal Information. As stated, we do not sell or share your Personal Information.
- Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Information: You may request limitations on the use of your Sensitive Personal Information. We do not use your sensitive personal information (like your Social Security number or Lifeline eligibility data) for any purpose other than to provide the Services, verify eligibility, and as permitted by law.
- Right to Correction: You have the right to request that we correct inaccurate Personal Information that we maintain about you.
- Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights.
How to Exercise Your Rights & Verification
To exercise your rights, you must submit a verifiable consumer request. To protect your privacy and maintain security, we will take steps to verify your identity before processing your request. We may require you to provide information such as your name, date of birth, or other details to match our records.
We will confirm our receipt of your request within 10 days and will respond within 45 days. If we need more time, we will inform you of the reason. In certain cases, a request may be denied if we cannot verify your identity, if the law requires us to maintain the information, or if an exception applies. If we deny your request, we will explain the reason.
Authorized Agents
You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. The agent must provide proof of your signed permission to act on your behalf. We may also require you to verify your own identity directly with us.