Privacy Policy

At Franklin Templeton, we care about your privacy and value the trust you place in us when you share your personal information.

Accordingly, we want to let you know how we deal with the personal information you give us or is given to us by a third party. The way we may use an investor's personal information is discussed in our Mutual Fund Privacy Notice, and information about privacy on the web is addressed in Web-related Privacy Issues.

Web-Related Privacy Issues

Information we collect about users of our website and social media sites

We collect personal information about users through our website, and Franklin Templeton webpages on social media sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn, which may include the following:

• Information users provide when they enter information on our website, such as when submitting a “Contact Us” message (such as name and email address);
• Information users provide when they subscribe to email newsletters, press releases or other periodicals through our website (such as name, email address, and investor type);
• Information users provide when they respond to a survey or marketing communication, such as their opinions about our services and information about themselves (such as age range, services used, how they know us, their opinions of our services);
• Information users provide when they register for an online account through our website (such as name, email address, user ID, and password). The decision to provide this information is optional, however, users who decide not to provide such information may not be able to access certain content or features available on or through our website;
• Information users provide when requesting literature such as applications or prospectuses (such as name, address, phone number, and email address);
• Information users provide when posting content on social media sites;
• Information users provide in their social media bio;
• Information captured in our web logs such as device information (e.g. device brand and model, screen dimensions), unique identification numbers (e.g. IP address and device ID), and browser information (e.g. URL, browser type, pages visited, date/time of access);
• Information captured by cookies (refer to the ‘Cookies, Tags and Similar Technologies’ section below);

Our websites and online services are for individuals who are at least 18 years of age. Our online services are not designed to be used by minors under the age of 18.

How we use website and social media users’ information

We use the personal information we collect from our website users and individuals accessing Franklin Templeton web pages on social media sites for some or all of the following purposes:

• providing products and services that website users have requested;
• personalizing their experience of our website;
• monitoring social media content to manage relations with our customers, respond to inquiries, and promote our business and brand;
• administering the website, investigating any complaints and providing customer service;
• providing website users and individuals accessing our web pages on social media sites with information and offers on products or services that may be of interest to them; and
• performing statistical and trend analysis to improve the user experience and performance of our website.

Please refer to Cookies, tags, and similar technologies regarding information we collect through cookies and other tracking technologies.

Recipients of website and social media user data

We may disclose personal information of website and social media users as follows:

• to our affiliated Franklin Templeton companies and entities
• to companies who perform services on our behalf or assist us with provision of services 
• to external auditors, legal advisors, or other professional advisors

External Links

Our website may contain links to online websites or content operated and maintained by third parties, over which we have no control. Please consult the privacy policies of these third-party sites to become familiar with their privacy practices and to learn about any choices that these companies may offer you with respect to your personal information.

Cookies, tags and similar technologies

A cookie is a small text file which includes a unique identifier that is sent by a web server to the browser on your computer, mobile phone or any other internet enabled device when you visit an online site. Cookies and similar technologies are widely used to make websites work efficiently and to collect information about your online preferences.

Some of our web pages may contain electronic images known as web beacons (also known as clear gifs, tags or pixels) that allow us to count users who have visited our pages. Web beacons collect only limited information, e.g. a cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the web beacon resides. We may also carry web beacons placed by third party advertisers. These beacons do not carry any information that could directly identify you.

For simplicity, we refer to all these technologies as “cookies.”

How do we use cookies?

We use cookies and other tracking technologies to customize content and advertising, provide social media features, and to see how our visitors move through our website. We use this information to make decisions about ways to improve the services we offer you.

We may engage third party tracking and advertising providers to act on our behalf to track and analyze your usage of our website through the use of cookies. These third parties collect, and share with us, usage information about visits to our website and, sometimes by correlating this information with other information (e.g. your IP address), measure and research the effectiveness of our advertisements, track page usage, help us target our recommendations and advertising, and track use of our recommendations and advertisements.

To learn more about the types of cookies we use, visit our site usage information page.

Enabling and Disabling Cookies

You can learn more about each type of cookie we use and choose which cookie categories you wish to allow by visiting the Cookie Preference Center.

Preference Centre

California Residents

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) provides some California residents with rights concerning their personal information, also known as the “right to know” and the “right to delete.” Although these rights do not necessarily apply to Franklin Templeton investors who are covered under applicable Federal privacy law or exceptions within CCPA, other California residents may be covered.

Right to Know

You may have the right to know what data we have collected about you over the past 12 months, the purpose for collecting your personal information, and the categories of third parties with whom we have shared your personal information.

Right to Delete

You may have the right to request that we delete the personal information we have collected about you, although we are not obligated to do so if we need to retain the information to comply with a legal requirement or under exceptions identified in CCPA.

You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising privacy rights under the CCPA.

To exercise your privacy rights under California law, use one of the methods noted below. Please understand that we may need to verify your identity, or the identity of your authorized agent, before we can fulfill your request.

• Complete the California Privacy Rights Request Form and email or mail it to the address noted in the form.
• Call 1-800-632-2301 to speak to a service associate and request to exercise your California privacy rights.

Our Mutual Fund Privacy Notice

Your Privacy Is Our Priority

Franklin Templeton is committed to safeguarding information provided to us by individual shareholders of our U.S.-based Franklin, Templeton and Mutual Series Funds. This notice is designed to provide you with a summary of the non-public personal information we may collect and maintain about current or former investors; our policy regarding the use of that information; and the measures we take to safeguard the information. The Franklin, Templeton and Mutual Series Funds, Franklin/Templeton Distributors, Inc., Templeton/Franklin Investment Services, Inc., and Fiduciary Trust International of the South (“FTIOS”), custodian for retirement plans, (together referred to as “we,” “our” and “us” throughout this notice) do not sell non-public personal information to anyone and only share it as described in this notice.

Information We Collect

When you invest in our Franklin, Templeton and Mutual Series Funds or establish a retirement plan with FTIOS as custodian, you provide us with your non-public personal information. We collect and use this information to service your accounts and respond to your requests. The non-public personal information we collect falls into the following categories:

• Information we receive from you or your financial intermediary on applications or other forms, whether we receive the form in writing or electronically. For example, this information includes your name, address, tax identification number, birth date, investment selection, beneficiary information, and possibly your personal bank account information and/or email address if you have provided that information.
• Information about your transactions and account history with us, or with other companies that are part of Franklin Templeton, including transactions you request on our website. This category also includes your communications to us concerning your investments.
• Information collected from you online, such as your IP address and data gathered from your browsing activity and location. (For example, we may use cookies to collect device and browser information so our website recognizes your online preferences and device information.) Our website contains more information about cookies and ways you may choose to limit them.
• Other general information that we may obtain about you such as demographic information.

Disclosure Policy

To better service your accounts and process transactions or services you’ve requested, we may share non-public personal information with other Franklin Templeton companies. From time to time we may also send you information about products/services offered by other Franklin Templeton companies although we will not share your non-public personal information with these companies without first offering you the opportunity to prevent that sharing.

We will only share non-public personal information with outside parties in the limited circumstances permitted by law. For example, this includes situations where we need to share information with companies who work on our behalf to service or maintain your account or process transactions you’ve requested, when the disclosure is to companies assisting us with our own marketing efforts, when the disclosure is to a party representing you, or when required by law (for example, in response to legal process). Additionally, we will ensure that any outside companies working on our behalf, or with whom we have joint marketing agreements, are under contractual obligations to protect the confidentiality of your information, and to use it only to provide the services we’ve asked them to perform.

Confidentiality and Security

Our employees are required to follow procedures with respect to maintaining the confidentiality of our investors’ nonpublic personal information. Additionally, we maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect the information. This includes performing ongoing evaluations of our systems containing investor information and making changes when appropriate.

How to Contact Us

From time to time, we may update this notice, and any new version will be posted on our website. We recommend you review it regularly to ensure that you are aware of our privacy practices. If you would like further information regarding the collection or use of your personal information, please email us at DataProtectionOfficer@franklintempleton.com.

Last Updated June 24, 2020