Fidelity Investments And First Data Services: Partners Or Competitors?

Fidelity Investments, formerly known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR), is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest asset managers in the world, with trillions of dollars in assets under management and administration. The company offers a wide range of financial products and services, including brokerage services, mutual funds, investment advice, retirement services, and life insurance.

In terms of data services, Fidelity has introduced a feature called Fidelity Access, which allows customers to share their account data with third-party websites and applications securely. This means that customers do not need to provide their username and password to these third parties to access their account information. Instead, they authorise Fidelity to allow the third party to access their data.

Fidelity also takes steps to protect its customers' data privacy. It collects, uses, and shares personal information for specific purposes, such as servicing accounts, processing transactions, and complying with legal requirements. The company also has measures in place to protect personal information, restrict access, and ensure that service providers keep customer data confidential.

Therefore, while it is not clear if Fidelity Investments uses First Data Services specifically, they do have their own data services and place a strong emphasis on data security and privacy.

section 3.1 of the privacy policy: Fidelity and the use of personal information

Fidelity Investments and the Fidelity Funds recognize the importance of maintaining the privacy of personal information about our current and prospective customers. In this privacy policy, "Fidelity" refers to Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC and other Fidelity companies that offer products and services available through the website and mobile applications.

Fidelity collects and maintains personal information about you to service, maintain, and protect your account; process transactions in your account; respond to inquiries from you or your representative; develop, offer, and deliver products and services; operate and manage our business; and fulfill legal and regulatory requirements.

Fidelity collects public and non-public personal information from customers and visitors through various sources, including:

• You or your representative on applications or forms (e.g., when interacting with customer service staff, visiting our websites, or using our applications)
• You or your representative regarding your preferences (e.g., your choice of electronic statement delivery)
• You or your employer or plan sponsor if Fidelity provides record-keeping and/or employee benefits advisory services (e.g., payroll, human resources, or benefits information)
• Transactional activity in your account (e.g., trading history and balances)
• Other interactions with Fidelity (e.g., discussions with customer service staff, information entered into our websites, or enrollment in our authentication services)
• Information from consumer reporting agencies (e.g., to assess your creditworthiness for margin products)
• Information from other third-party sources (e.g., to verify your identity and understand your product and service needs)
• Other sources with your consent or the consent of your representative (e.g., from other institutions if you transfer positions into Fidelity)

Please note that anonymous, de-identified, or aggregated information that cannot be used to identify an individual is not considered personal information and is therefore not subject to this privacy policy.

Fidelity implements and maintains physical, administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect personal information. Access to personal information is restricted to those who require it to develop, support, offer, and deliver products and services to you and operate our business.

Fidelity does not share or sell personal information about our customers with unaffiliated third parties for marketing their products and services. However, we may share personal information with the following entities:

• Unaffiliated service providers (e.g., printing and mailing companies, securities clearinghouses, marketing service providers, and other entities providing services at Fidelity's direction)
• Government agencies, other regulatory bodies, and law enforcement officials (e.g., for tax purposes or reporting suspicious transactions)
• Other third parties, with your consent or as directed by your representative (e.g., if you request to transfer assets from another financial institution or use an external aggregation service)
• Other third parties whose products, services, and investment offerings are made available through Fidelity, and which you decide to utilize
• Other organizations as permitted or required by law (e.g., for fraud prevention or in response to a subpoena)
• In connection with corporate business transactions, such as a merger or sale of a business

Our service providers are obligated to maintain the confidentiality of personal information and use it only for the purposes specified by Fidelity.

In addition, if you choose to use a product, service, or investment offering made available through Fidelity and offered by a third party, we may share personal information with that third party in connection with your use or interest in their product, service, or investment offering.

Based on the nature of your relationship with Fidelity, we may exchange information with other third parties as described below:

• If Fidelity provides workplace services to your employer or plan sponsor, such as payroll or employee benefits advisory services, we may exchange information received in connection with such services with your employer or plan sponsor or others they authorize.
• If you conduct business with Fidelity through your investment professional, we may exchange information we collect with your investment professional or with others they authorize.
• If you transact business through Fidelity's life insurance companies, we may share personal information with and obtain information about you from an insurance support organization, which may further share your information with other insurers as permitted by law. We may also share medical information about you to determine your eligibility for coverage, process claims, prevent fraud, or as otherwise directed by you, as permitted by law.

Fidelity manages personal information in accordance with the practices and safeguards described in this policy when you interact with us by using our websites, online services, or applications (including mobile apps) that are owned and controlled by Fidelity Investments or via electronic communications.

When you use or interact with us via our digital offerings or electronic communications, we (or our service providers on our behalf) may automatically collect technical and location information, such as device type, browser type, Internet protocol address, pages visited, and average time spent on our digital offerings. This information is used for various purposes, including maintaining the security of your session, facilitating site navigation, improving the design and functionality of our digital offerings and electronic communications, and personalizing your experience.

Fidelity and our third-party service providers may use cookies and similar technologies ("cookies") to support the operation of and maintain our digital offerings. Cookies are small amounts of data that a website or online service exchanges with a web browser or application on a visitor's device. Cookies help us collect information about users of our digital offerings, including the date and time of visits, pages viewed, the amount of time spent on our digital offerings, and general information about the device used to access our digital offerings. Fidelity cookies are also used for security purposes and to personalize your experience, such as customizing your screen layout.

Both Fidelity and third-party service providers may use cookies and other technologies, such as web beacons, pixel tags, or mobile device IDs, in online advertising.

Fidelity's use of third-party websites and applications

Fidelity Investments has established a secure connection, Fidelity Access, to better control how third-party websites and applications that customers have authorised, and the data aggregators they use, connect to their Fidelity accounts. This means that customers do not have to provide their username and password to these third parties to access their Fidelity account data. Instead, they authorise Fidelity to allow the third party to access their account information.

Fidelity Access also allows customers to revoke third-party access to their data at any time. This is done through a control centre on Fidelity.com and other Fidelity websites, where customers can grant, monitor and revoke third-party data access.

Fidelity Investments recognises the importance of maintaining the privacy of personal information about its current and prospective customers. It collects and maintains various types of personal information, including personal identifiers, commercial information, characteristics of protected classifications, biometric information, and internet/electronic network activity information.

Fidelity does not share or sell personal information about its customers with unaffiliated third parties for marketing purposes. However, it may share personal information with unaffiliated service providers, government agencies, other regulatory bodies, and law enforcement officials.

Fidelity also advertises its products and services on third-party digital offerings and uses third-party advertising companies, such as Meta, to display these ads. These third-party advertising companies may use cookies and similar technologies to collect technical and web navigational information.

Fidelity's commitment to privacy

Fidelity Investments recognizes the importance of maintaining the privacy of personal information about its current and prospective customers. The company collects and maintains several types of personal information, including personal identifiers, commercial information, characteristics of protected classifications, biometric information, internet/electronic network activity information, and more. This information is used to service, maintain, and protect accounts; process transactions; respond to inquiries; develop, offer, and deliver products and services; operate and manage the business; and fulfill legal and regulatory requirements.

Fidelity is committed to protecting personal information and implements physical, administrative, technical, and organizational measures to safeguard customer data. The company restricts access to personal information to authorized individuals and has a detailed privacy policy that outlines its data-sharing practices.

Fidelity does not share or sell personal information about its customers with unaffiliated third parties for marketing purposes. However, they may share personal information with specific entities, such as service providers, government agencies, and other third parties with the customer's consent or as required by law.

The company's privacy policy is reviewed and updated annually to reflect any changes and ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

Fidelity is committed to maintaining the privacy of its customers' personal information and has implemented robust measures to protect their data.

Fidelity's privacy policy annual review

Fidelity Investments' privacy policy is reviewed annually and updated to reflect any changes. The policy outlines the company's commitment to maintaining the privacy of personal information about its current and prospective customers. It details how Fidelity collects, uses, shares, and otherwise processes personal information across its digital offerings, including websites, mobile apps, and other online services.

How and Why Fidelity Obtains and Uses Personal Information

Fidelity obtains and uses personal information to service, maintain, and protect customer accounts; process transactions; respond to inquiries; develop, offer, and deliver products and services; operate and manage its business; and fulfill legal and regulatory requirements. The company collects public and non-public personal information from various sources, including applications, forms, customer interactions, transactional activity, consumer reporting agencies, and other third-party sources.

How Fidelity Protects Information

Fidelity implements and maintains physical, administrative, technical, and organizational measures to protect personal information. The company restricts access to personal information to employees who require it for developing, supporting, offering, and delivering products and services.

How Fidelity Shares Information with Third Parties

Fidelity does not share or sell personal information about its customers with unaffiliated third parties for marketing their products and services. However, the company may share personal information with specific entities, such as unaffiliated service providers, government agencies, law enforcement officials, and other third parties with the customer's consent or as required by law.

How Fidelity Provides Information to Affiliates

Fidelity may provide personal information to its corporate affiliates, including internal service providers performing functions like printing, mailing, and data processing. When providing services under an arrangement with an employer or plan sponsor, Fidelity may share information with its brokerage and insurance companies for marketing purposes, as permitted by the customer or under the agreement with the employer.

Digital Privacy

When customers interact with Fidelity through its digital offerings or electronic communications, the company collects technical, navigational, and location information, such as device type, browser type, and internet protocol address. This information is used for security, site navigation, improving digital offerings, personalizing the user experience, and other purposes.

Fidelity and its third-party service providers use cookies and similar technologies to support the operation of its digital offerings and for online advertising. Customers can manage cookies through their browser settings, but this may impact the functionality of certain features on Fidelity's websites.

Additional Information

Fidelity provides details on the categories of personal information it collects, the sources of this information, and the purposes for collecting it. The company also outlines the rights of California residents under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the process for submitting CCPA requests.

Fidelity's privacy policy additional information

Additional Information

Fidelity offers several options for accessing and, if necessary, correcting your account information. You can review your information using your statements, or through our automated telephone or our digital offerings. You may also write or call us with your request for information. If you transact business through Fidelity's life insurance companies, you are entitled to receive, upon written request, a record of any disclosures of your medical record information. If we serve you through an investment professional, please contact them directly. Specific internet addresses, mailing addresses and telephone numbers are listed on your statements and other correspondence.

If you are a former customer, this policy also applies to you; we treat your information with the same care as we do information about current customers.

Fidelity collects various types of personal information about you. The amount and types of personal information collected will vary depending on the nature of your relationship and your interactions with us, and the products and services we provide to you. The categories of personal information that we may collect about you include:

• Personal identifiers, such as your name, postal address, email address, online identifier, internet protocol address, account name, or other similar identifiers
• Information covered by California's records-destruction law, such as your signature, telephone number, and financial account information
• Commercial information, including products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies
• Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law, for example, gender
• Biometric information, such as when you use our voice-recognition service that we use for identity verification and security purposes
• Internet/electronic network activity information, including, but not limited to, browsing history, search history, and other information regarding your interactions with our digital offerings or our advertisements
• Audio, electronic, visual, and similar data, such as call recordings
• Professional or employment-related information, such as job title and business contact information
• Education information
• Inferences drawn from any of the information listed above to create a profile about you, such as a profile that reflects your preferences, characteristics, behavior, and attitudes
• Sensitive personal information such as social security number, account log-in, password or credentials allowing access to your account(s) or to our digital offerings

The retention periods for data elements within each category listed above vary depending on the nature of the data element and the purposes for which it is collected and used. Our retention period for the data elements within each category is set based on the following criteria:

• The length of time that the data is needed for the purposes for which it was created or collected
• The length of time the data is needed for other operational or record retention purposes
• The length of time the data is needed in connection with our legal, compliance and regulatory requirements, legal defense and legal holds
• How the data is stored
• Whether the data is needed for security purposes and fraud prevention
• Whether the data is needed to ensure the continuity of our products and services

In addition to the sources described in the section "How and why we obtain and use personal information", depending on the nature of your relationship and your interactions with us, and on the products and services that we provide to you, we may obtain personal information from the following sources:

• You or your representative, such as when using our products, services or digital offerings, when interacting with us or any of our service providers regarding our products, services or digital offerings or when otherwise communicating with us
• Providers of publicly available information
• Another person or other persons (typically people who know you) who provide referral information about you to us or who use the capabilities we offer on specific websites and applications to forward an article or other information to you
• Third parties that provide products and services to you through your relationship with us
• Third parties that perform services for us or on our behalf
• Other third-party sources, including government sources, data brokers and social networks
• Automatically, via technologies such as cookies and web beacons, when you interact with our digital offerings or electronic communications

Please note that certain types of personal information collected or maintained by a covered business are exempt from the CCPA. For example, a covered business has limited obligations, or in some cases, no obligations, under the CCPA with regard to the following types of personal information:

• Personal information collected, processed, sold, or disclosed pursuant to the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and implementing regulations, or pursuant to the California Financial Information Privacy Act
• Medical information governed by the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act or protected health information that is collected by a covered entity or business associate pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996

In addition, some businesses are not subject to the CCPA, such as:

• A business that does not do business in the State of California
• A business that is not organized or operated for the profit of financial benefit of its shareholders or other owners
• A business that does not determine the purposes and means of the processing of consumers' personal information
• A business that has annual gross revenue of $25,000,000 or less

CCPA may refuse to honor a CCPA request to delete a consumer's personal information and is allowed to continue to maintain the personal information. Some examples include situations where retention of the personal information is reasonably necessary to:

• Complete the transaction for which the personal information was collected, provide a good or service requested by the consumer or reasonably anticipated within the context of the covered business’s ongoing business relationship with the consumer, or otherwise perform a contract between the Fidelity company and the consumer
• Help to ensure security and integrity to the extent the use of the personal information is reasonably necessary and proportionate for those purposes
• Debugging to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality
• Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise that consumer's right of free speech, or exercise another right provided by law
• To enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on the consumer's relationship with the business and compatible with the context in which the consumer provided the information
• Comply with a legal obligation

Submitting a CCPA Request

If you wish to submit a CCPA request to any of the Fidelity companies listed in this privacy policy, you may initiate your request through one of the options provided on our California Privacy Rights Request Page. Before submitting your request, please ensure you have reviewed all the CCPA exemptions, including those described above under the section "CCPA Exemptions".

You should generally expect to receive a response within 45 days of the date we receive your request. However, in some instances, we may require an additional 45 days to process your request in which case we will notify you and explain why the extension is necessary.

We will need to verify your identity before we can process your request. Through the request process, we will make you aware of any information that you will need to provide to us to process your request. You may have to confirm that you are a California resident and verify your identity or the identities of those authorized to submit requests on your behalf. Additionally, the information you provide will be used to help verify your identity.

To understand how you can designate an authorized agent with the ability to make a request under the CCPA on your behalf, please refer to our California Privacy Rights Request page.

Frequently asked questions