This Privacy Policy explains how Transparent LLC ("Transparent," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, and shares personal information about you when you use AdviserReport.com and the AdviserReport service (the "Service"). It applies to information about visitors and account holders.
This Policy does not govern the public regulatory data we display about investment advisory firms, broker-dealers, and the individuals associated with them. That information is sourced from public regulatory records and is addressed separately in Section 4.
By using the Service, you agree to this Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.
This is a publication. We sell access to reports about investment advisory firms; we do not run advertising, do not sell data, do not build behavioral profiles, and do not share your information with the firms we publish about. The information we collect is what's needed to give you an account, charge you for reports you purchase, and run the Service:
We do not collect financial-profile information about you, do not connect to your email or calendar, and do not use your data to train AI models. The full detail follows.
Account information. When you create an account, we collect the email address and password you provide. Passwords are stored as one-way hashes; we do not have access to your plaintext password.
Purchase information. When you purchase a report or credit pack, we record the purchase transaction (date, amount, product purchased, credits added, credits redeemed). Payment is processed by Stripe, Inc.; Stripe collects and stores your payment card information directly. We receive only payment metadata from Stripe: typically the last four digits of the card, the card brand, the country, the transaction status, and a Stripe customer identifier. We do not receive or store full card numbers, expiration dates, or CVV codes.
Communications. If you contact us by email or by other means, we receive the contents of those communications and the email address you sent them from.
Correction requests about Advisory Firms or IARs. If you submit a correction request about a firm or individual we publish (per the process in our Terms of Use, Section 4.3), we receive and retain that correspondence.
Server logs. Our hosting infrastructure automatically logs basic technical information when you access the Service, including your Internet Protocol (IP) address, the pages and resources you request, the date and time of the request, the HTTP status returned, your browser and operating system as identified by the user-agent string, and the referring URL. Logs are retained for a limited operational period (see Section 8).
Analytics. We use Google Analytics 4 to understand aggregate usage patterns: for example, which pages are visited most, how visitors arrive at the Service, and which device and browser categories are most common. Google Analytics may set cookies and collect technical information about your visit. We have configured Google Analytics in a manner intended to limit data collection to what is necessary for service-improvement analytics; we have not enabled Google Signals, Google's advertising features, or cross-site advertising integrations.
Cookies. We use cookies and similar technologies that are necessary for the Service to function (for example, to keep you signed in to your account) and for analytics as described above. We do not use cookies for advertising or for cross-site behavioral tracking. See Section 7.
We want to be specific about what we do not collect, because it differs from what consumers may expect from financial-services-adjacent platforms:
We use the information we collect to:
We do not use your information for behavioral advertising, marketing email (we do not run a marketing email program), or to train, fine-tune, or evaluate any artificial intelligence or machine learning model.
This Policy concerns information about users of the Service. The Service also displays information about Advisory Firms, broker-dealer firms, and individual representatives, sourced from public regulatory records published by the SEC, FINRA, and state securities regulators. That published information is editorial content, not "user data" governed by this Policy. The terms governing publication of that information are in our Terms of Use, Sections 4 and 10.
In short: this Policy protects you, the user. It does not give Advisory Firms or individual representatives a right to have their public regulatory record removed from the Service. Factual-error corrections to published data are handled through the corrections process described in our Terms of Use, Section 4.3.
We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your personal information with Advisory Firms, IARs, or any other third party for their own marketing or commercial purposes.
We share personal information only in the following limited circumstances:
We share information with third-party service providers who help us operate the Service, under contracts that limit them to using your information only to provide services to us:
| Provider | Purpose | Categories of data shared |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe, Inc. | Payment processing | Payment card information (you provide this directly to Stripe), name and email associated with the transaction, billing country, transaction details |
| Postmark | Transactional email delivery (account verification, password reset, correction acknowledgments) | Email address, message content |
| Google Analytics | Aggregate usage analytics | IP address (truncated where supported), browser, device, page-view data, referrer |
| Replit, Inc. | Hosting and infrastructure | All server-side data we collect, as part of hosting our application |
The list above is current as of the effective date of this Policy. We may add, change, or remove service providers from time to time as our infrastructure evolves; the latest list will be reflected in the most recent version of this Policy.
We may disclose information when we have a good-faith belief that disclosure is required or appropriate to:
If Transparent is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, sale of assets, or similar transaction, personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will require any successor entity to honor commitments made in this Policy with respect to information transferred, and we will provide notice of any material change in privacy practices that follows the transaction.
We will share information at your direction or with your consent, for example, if you forward a report to a third party (we do not facilitate this within the Service, but you may do so on your own initiative).
The Service is operated from the United States and is intended primarily for users in the United States. Where European data protection law applies to our processing of your personal information, our legal bases are:
We use a small set of cookies and similar technologies:
We do not use advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, social-media tracking pixels, or cross-site behavioral tracking technologies.
Your choices. Essential cookies are required for the Service to operate and are always active. Analytics cookies are optional. By using the Service you agree to our use of cookies as described in this Policy; you may opt out of analytics cookies at any time on our Cookie Preferences page. When you opt out, Google Analytics is not loaded and sets no analytics cookies.
You can control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to refuse or delete cookies; some browsers offer a "Do Not Track" signal. Because there is no industry-standard interpretation of Do Not Track, we do not currently respond to Do Not Track signals. We do honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) as a request to opt out of any "sale" or "share" of personal information under the California Consumer Privacy Act, though we do not sell or share personal information in any circumstances, so a GPC signal does not change our practices.
We retain personal information for as long as needed to provide the Service and as required to satisfy our legal, accounting, and reporting obligations. Specifically:
When you delete your account, we will delete or de-identify your account information consistent with the schedule above, except where retention is required for legal compliance, dispute resolution, or fraud prevention. Backup systems may retain copies for a limited period before backups cycle out.
We implement administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These include:
No system is perfectly secure. We cannot guarantee that an unauthorized party will never gain access to your information, and we do not warrant the security of the Service. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential and for promptly notifying us at support@adviserreport.com if you suspect your credentials have been compromised.
If we become aware of a security breach affecting your personal information, we will notify you and any applicable regulators in accordance with applicable law.
You may sign in at any time to view or update your account information. If you cannot make a change you need through the account interface, contact us at support@adviserreport.com.
You may delete your account at any time, either through the account-deletion function within your account settings (where available) or by contacting support@adviserreport.com. We will process deletion as described in Section 8. Note that deletion of your account does not entitle you to a refund of paid-but-unused credits except as described in our Terms of Use, Section 6.4.
We do not run a marketing email program. The emails we send are transactional: for example, account verification, password reset, transaction receipts, and acknowledgments of requests you submit. Because these emails are necessary to operate your account, you cannot opt out of them while maintaining an active account; closing your account will end them.
You may control cookies through your browser settings as described in Section 7.
Several U.S. states grant residents specific privacy rights. The rights below are extended to all users of the Service regardless of residence; specific state-by-state mechanics are summarized after.
Subject to applicable law and identity verification, you have the right to:
To exercise any of the rights above, contact us at support@adviserreport.com with the subject line "Privacy Rights Request." We will verify your identity by reasonable means (typically by confirming control of the email address associated with your account) before fulfilling your request. We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law (in most jurisdictions, within 45 days, with a possible extension for complex requests).
You may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. The agent must provide signed permission from you and verify their own identity; we may also confirm directly with you that you authorized the request.
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act and California Privacy Rights Act:
California residents may also designate an authorized agent and have the right to non-discrimination as described above.
Residents of Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Oregon, Texas, and other states with comprehensive privacy laws have similar rights to those described above. Residents of these states should follow the request procedure in Section 11.2; we honor the rights granted under your state's law.
If we deny a privacy rights request, you may appeal our decision by replying to our denial email or contacting support@adviserreport.com with the subject line "Privacy Rights Appeal." Where required by state law, you also have the right to contact your state Attorney General if you are not satisfied with our response.
The Service is operated from the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to, processed in, and stored in the United States. The data protection laws of the United States may differ from those of your country of residence.
We do not actively market the Service outside the United States and do not maintain establishments in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland. To the extent applicable European data protection law nonetheless applies to your interaction with the Service, the legal bases described in Section 6 apply, and you may exercise the rights described in Section 11.
The Service is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. If you believe a child under 18 has provided personal information to us, contact us at support@adviserreport.com and we will take appropriate steps to delete the information.
The Service is not directed to children under 13 within the meaning of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
We do not use your personal information to train, fine-tune, or evaluate artificial intelligence or machine learning models. Our service providers are contractually prohibited from using personal information they receive from us for AI/ML training purposes outside of the services they provide to us.
The Transparency Grade methodology that powers our reports is a deterministic, rule-based scoring system. It is not a machine-learning model and does not adapt based on user behavior or user data. See our Terms of Use, Section 2.4.
We may update this Policy from time to time. The updated Policy will be posted on AdviserReport.com with a new "Last Updated" date. Material changes (for example, new categories of personal information collected, new sub-processors with materially different data flows, or new sharing or use practices) will be communicated by email to your account email address or by prominent notice on the Service before they take effect.
Non-material updates (for example, clarifying language, correcting typos, or adding a new sub-processor that fits within an existing category) may be made by posting a revised Policy without separate notice.
If you do not agree to a revised Policy, you should stop using the Service and may delete your account. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of an updated Policy constitutes acceptance.
Questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Policy or our privacy practices may be directed to:
For privacy rights requests, please use the subject line "Privacy Rights Request" as described in Section 11.2.