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11/20/08 |
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully.
PRIVACY PRINCIPLES
FOR INDIVIDUALS:
Protecting your privacy is important to our Bank
and our employees. We want you to understand what information
we collect and how we use it. In order to provide our customers
with a broad range of financial products and services as effectively
and conveniently as possible, we use technology to manage
and maintain customer information. The following policy serves
as a standard for all employees for collection, use, retention
and security of nonpublic personal information.
What Information We Collect
We may collect "nonpublic personal information" about
you from the following sources:
• Information we receive from you on applications or
other loan and account forms;
• Information about your transactions with us or others;
• Information about your transactions with nonaffiliated
third parties; and
• Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency,
such as credit bureaus.
"Nonpublic personal information" is nonpublic information
about you that we obtain in connection with providing a financial
product or service to you. For example, nonpublic personal
information includes information regarding your account balance,
payment history, and overdraft history.
What Information We Disclose
We are permitted under law to disclose nonpublic information
about you to other third parties in certain circumstances.
For example, we may disclose nonpublic information about you
to third parties to assist us in servicing your loan or account
with us, to government entities in response to subpoenas,
and to credit bureaus. We do not disclose any nonpublic personal
information about you to anyone, except as permitted by law.
If you decide to close your account(s) or become an inactive
customer, we will continue to adhere to the privacy policies
and practices described in this notice.
Our Security Procedures
We also take steps to safeguard customer information. We restrict
access to your personal and account information to those employees
who need to know that information to provide products or services
to you. Employees who violate these standards will be subject
to disciplinary measures. We maintain physical, electronic,
and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards
to guard your nonpublic personal information.
Maintaining accurate information
We continually strive to maintain complete and accurate information
about you and your accounts. If you ever believe that our
records contain inaccurate or incomplete information about
you, please let us know immediately. We'll correct any inaccuracies
as quickly as possible.
Consumer reporting agencies
If you believe we have reported inaccurate information about
your account to any consumer reporting agency, please let
us know in writing. Be sure to include your complete name,
current address, social security number, telephone number,
account number, type of account, specific item of dispute
and the reason you believe the information is wrong. We'll
investigate your concern and correct any inaccuracies we find.
We'll confirm any actions we take with you.
Internet Privacy
Browsing our Site
When you visit our website to view any pages, read product
information, or use our online calculators and tools, you
do so without telling us who you are and without revealing
any personal information. While we do not collect identifying
information about visitors to our site, we do use standard
software to collect information for the strict purpose of
tracking activity on our site. This allows us to better understand
how many people use our site and which pages and features
are most popular. To evaluate the usefulness of our site,
we may gather and analyze data regarding usage such as:
• The name of your Internet Service Provider,
• The website that referred you to us (if any),
• The date and time the pages were accessed, and
• The page or pages you requested.
About "cookies"
To provide better service and a more effective web site, we
use "cookies" as part of our interaction with your browser.
A "cookie" is a small text file placed on your hard drive
by our web page server. We do not use cookies to get data
from your hard drive or to get your email address or personal
identifying information.
Cookies are commonly used on web sites and do not harm your
system. By configuring your preferences or options in your
browser, you determine if and how a cookie will be accepted.
We use cookies to determine if you have previously visited
our web site and for a number of administrative purpose.
How We Handle E-Mail
When you send us an e-mail to comment on something or to ask
a question, we will use your e-mail address to reply to you
and for a limited time we will store your e-mail address,
your message and our response for quality assurance. We may
also do this to meet legal and regulatory requirements. If
we collect your e-mail address in this manner, we won't use
it to let you know about our products and services unless
you have given us permission.
This information is not given or sold to any other organization.
E-Mail Security
Regular non-encrypted Internet e-mail is not secure. In the
instances where our Internet e-mail addresses are provided,
these are provided for information inquiries of a non-sensitive
and non-confidential nature. E-mail you send us may not be
secure unless we advise you that it is secure prior to transmitting
your message. Therefore, we recommend that you not send us
confidential information such as social security or account
numbers via unsecured email. You may also contact us by phone,
U.S. mail or by visiting your nearest banking center.
On-Line Banking Security
When you bank online with us, we, along with the outside companies
we work with to bring these services to you, have access to
your information. Information is retained on our system or
the system of the appropriate outside company, depending on
what is required in order to serve you.
We use state-of-the-art Internet technology, supported by
the outside companies we work with, to make online banking
secure and to protect your personal information. We also require
an I.D. and password or PIN to access your accounts. If you
do not provide this information, we cannot establish an online
banking service for you.
You can also help safeguard your personal information by taking
a few simple precautions. Protect your account, PIN, and customer
access numbers. Do not share your I.D. or password with anyone,
change your password regularly, and remember to sign off.
Never disclose confidential information to unknown callers.
When banking on the Internet, be sure to use a secure browser
and current virus detection software, and never open e-mail
from unknown sources.
Protecting your privacy online
Whenever we ask for personal information on our web site,
we use Secure Socket Layer (SSL technology) for transferring
data. This technology encrypts - or scrambles - your account
information so it's virtually impossible to read by anyone
other than employees at our Bank.
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology secretly encodes information
that is being sent over the Internet between your computer
and our Bank, helping to ensure that the information remains
confidential.
The use of SSL requires that you have an SSL compatible browser.
While older browser versions may support SSL sessions, we
strongly recommends the following browsers.
• Windows and Unix operating systems: Netscape Navigator
4.08 of later, Netscape Communicator 4.7 or later and Microsoft
Internet Explorer 4.01 or later.
• Macintosh: Netscape Navigator 4.08 or later, Netscape
Communicator 4.7 or later and Microsoft Internet Explorer
4.5 or later.
You can download the latest version from
either of the links below.
http://www.microsoft.com/ie/download/
http://home.netscape.com/download/index.html
Protecting Your Children
Our website is not targeted or marketed to children under
the age of thirteen. We respect the privacy of your children,
and we comply with the practices established under the Children's
Online Privacy Protection Act. We do not knowingly collect
or retain personally identifiable information from consumers
under the age of thirteen.