Privacy policy

Privacy — frequently asked questions

At Capital Group, home of American Funds, one of our core principles is placing the interests of fund shareholders and clients first. This principle dictates many of our business practices, including our ongoing efforts to preserve and maintain the confidentiality of information shared with us. The following frequently asked questions are intended to help you understand what data we collect, how we use it and the efforts we undertake to safeguard it. If you have any further questions about our data practices, please direct your questions to (800) 421-4225, ext. 61.

What information do we collect?

As part of doing business, we regularly collect personal information. What we collect about an individual, however, may differ depending on your relationship with Capital Group/American Funds. 

If you own shares in the American Funds family of mutual funds or have an account with Capital Group Private Client Services

A description of the personal information we collect about you is available in our privacy policy.

If you do business with Capital Group or its affiliates, we may collect, process and retain certain public and nonpublic personal information about you, including:

  • Your contact and identification information, such as name, company, work and personal address, phone numbers, date of birth and representative identification number;
  • Information regarding your business, such as assets under management, types of assets, customer profiles, areas of interest, preferences and coverage;
  • Information from third-party data services (for example, information about your business, assets under management, preferences, business interests); and
  • Information collected from you online, including personal information you submit on our forms and personal information collected automatically from cookies and beacons like IP address and your interactions on our websites (for example, if you use our website for financial professionals, we, or our service providers on our behalf, monitor and record your interactions with our website, including pages visited, time spent on different pages and links clicked, to personalize and provide you with relevant content).
     

We or our service providers may use AI in connection with our processing of your personal information described above.

If you join our talent community or are an applicant, employee or contractor, to manage our relationship with you, we may collect, process and retain certain nonpublic information about you, including:

  • Information we received directly from you such as your name, address, personal email address, phone numbers, date of birth, race, sex, ethnicity, Social Security number, fingerprints, prior employment history, education, skills and references, emergency contact information and banking information;
  • Information we received from third parties such as confirmation of employment and educational history and criminal records; and
  • Information we receive to administer benefits under our employee benefit programs, such as health benefits, short- and long-term disability benefits, life insurance benefits and retirement benefits. 


In all instances, our effort is to collect only the information we need to comply with the law, administer our compensation and benefits programs and effectively run our business and for business purposes as described below. We occasionally disclose nonpublic personal information about you to affiliates and non-affiliates as permitted by law. We also may share your information with third parties who assist us with administering our compensation and benefits programs and who help us to benchmark our employment practices, compensation and benefits programs so we can provide premiere health, welfare and compensation programs to our associates.

We or our service providers may use AI in connection with our processing of your personal information described above.

Additional information regarding our collection, use and disclosure of this data is available in our Notice of Consumer Privacy Rights.

If you are enrolled in a retirement plan that is administered by Capital Group Retirement Plan Services pursuant to a services agreement with a plan sponsor (your employer or former employer), we may collect, process and retain certain nonpublic personal information about you, including:

  • Information, such as account balance and transaction activity;
  • Information collected from you online, information provided by you and data gathered from your activity and location. (For example, we may use cookies and web beacons to collect device and browser information, such as your IP address, so we know your online preferences and viewing behaviors and can recognize you and your devices for multi-factor authentication.); and
  • Information we collect from you, your employer or plan sponsor (such as your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number).
     

We or our service providers may use AI in connection with our processing of your personal information described above. 

How do we use the information we collect?

A description of how we use the personal information we collect is available in our privacy policy.

Do we share your information with third parties?

An overview of our personal information sharing practices is available in our privacy policy.

Do we sell your information?

We do not directly sell any personal information. However, if you live in California, some of our activities may be considered a sale of data for purposes of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act. For example, our participation in consortiums that assist us in providing improved products and services to financial advisors may be considered a sale of data when we share information regarding individual financial professionals to the consortium. Our participation in behavioral advertising also falls under the broad definition of sale under the CCPA. For this reason, we have placed a link on our websites for California residents that gives them the opportunity to opt out of any of these services should they choose to do so. In addition, any visitor to our websites can use the Ad Choices online behavioral advertising icon to opt out of having their browsing behavior used for online behavior advertising purposes.

How do we protect your information?

An overview of our personal information protection practices is available in our privacy policy.

Do we have a process to notify you if your information is improperly accessed by third parties?

Yes, pursuant to various state and federal laws, we will notify individuals of any unauthorized release of sensitive personal data such as Social Security numbers and account information.

Do we comply with state privacy laws?

Yes. We comply with applicable state and federal laws that relate to privacy including the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act and CCPA. We collect data from California residents and have implemented processes to comply with the CCPA. For more information about consumer rights under the CCPA, see our Notice of Consumer Privacy Rights.

Do we comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)?

Because we have operations and employees in the European Union, we have implemented processes to comply with GDPR. We also comply with the other privacy laws that govern our operations abroad.

Where can you get more information on how to protect your personal information?

Visit these government websites to learn more about consumer privacy resources: 
California Department of Justice: Consumer Privacy Resources
Federal Trade Commission

Investments are not FDIC-insured, nor are they deposits of or guaranteed by a bank or any other entity, so they may lose value.
Investors should carefully consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other important information is contained in the prospectuses and summary prospectuses, which can be obtained from a financial professional and should be read carefully before investing.
All Capital Group trademarks mentioned are owned by The Capital Group Companies, Inc., an affiliated company or fund. All other company and product names mentioned are the property of their respective companies.
Use of this website is intended for U.S. residents only.
Capital Client Group, Inc.
This content, developed by Capital Group, home of American Funds, should not be used as a primary basis for investment decisions and is not intended to serve as impartial investment or fiduciary advice.