PRIVACY PRINCIPLES NOTICE
Protecting The Privacy Of Our Customers
First Community Bank understands that our customers are concerned about their personal information. Because of this, our customers’ privacy has always been, and always will be, one of our most important concerns. We subscribe fully to those privacy principals and we strive to protect customers’ information according to not only federal and state laws, but even more importantly, according to our own strict standards.
Technology and new marketing practices have increased the amount of customer information collected and shared in today’s marketplace. We are sensitive to the importance of these concerns. We want to serve you as effectively and conveniently as possible, and such service involves making use of technology and customer information. But we also want you to be confident that your relationship with us is treated with the appropriate confidentiality. We therefore commit to you that we will take reasonable steps to protect the privacy of the information shared with us.
Safeguarding Customer Information
Keeping customer information secure, and using it only as our customers would want us to, is a top priority for us at First Community Bank. Our employees are informed of their responsibility to protect customer information and are educated about the importance of confidentiality and privacy. Further, we have procedures that limit employee access to personally identifiable information to those employees with a business reason to know such information about our customers.
Information regarding our customers is used solely in the legitimate conduct of our business, to deliver superior service and to design products and special offers that demonstrate our understanding of our customers and their needs. For instance, customers may provide us information whether or not we should provide a new type of home mortgage or checking account. We generally limit the collection and use of customer information to the minimum we require to deliver superior service to our customers, which includes advising our customers about our products, services and other opportunities, and to administer our business.
We also gather information to comply with laws and regulations that govern the financial services industries. For example, federal regulations require that we obtain a social security number or tax identification number for many types of accounts, such a checking and savings accounts.
Sharing Information
Although we are committed to protecting confidential information about our customers, occasionally it is necessary to provide some of this information to parties outside the Bank. For example, if your are involved in a legal proceeding, both federal and state law provide parties to the litigation have the right to compel the production of records and information from banks in certain situations (we will only disclose customer information to third party litigants when we are required to do so by lawful judicial process or by court order). Also, various laws and regulation require us, under certain circumstances, to provide certain customer information to government agencies. We will only disclose customer information to the government when we are required to do so by such laws or regulation (we must comply with laws that require mandatory production or disclosure).
We also may exchange information about our customers with reputable credit reporting agencies. This information largely involves transaction experiences such as loan repayment or checking account history, as permitted under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
We may also sometimes contract with outside agents or service providers to provide materials or services on our behalf (such as checking-printing or statement-printing services). Under these programs, a limited amount of information about you or your account may be provided to the third party under an agreement requiring the third party to keep the information confidential and not use it for any other purpose. These service providers agree to safeguard our information about our customers and their products with us and must abide by applicable law.
We may also decide to contract or transfer a business line, such as mortgage servicing rights or credit card services. In these cases, we may transfer to the purchaser the related customer information.
We do not provide account or personal information to independent telemarketing or direct mail marketing firms. Our customers may request to be excluded from any telephone or other solicitation by the Bank by informing the person calling them and they will be placed on a list of person we may not solicit by phone. While this may mean that consumers might not receive product information of interest to them, we will also respect anyone’s wish to not receive promotional mail solicitations (i.e. mailings independent of routine statements and other customer service mailings) if so requested.
Accuracy Of Information
Further, First Community Bank strives to assure that our customers’ financial information is accurate, current and complete. If our customers believe any information is inaccurate, we should be notified promptly so we can timely respond, investigate, and effect any necessary corrections if appropriate.
Privacy & The Internet
We understand that customers may have special privacy concerns regarding the Bank’s use of the Internet. In particular, customers might be anxious to ensure that their information is secure. First Community Bank is equally concerned about privacy in the Internet world and is committed to its protection.
First Community Bank is committed to protecting user privacy and our website is maintained consistently with banking industry privacy principles. You can be assured that you can visit our website without identifying yourself or giving us any information that identifies you personally unless you specifically choose to provide such information to us. Our website does not collect personal identifying information about site users, except for information knowingly provided by the user who posts e-mail messages or inquiries. (Since general e-mail is not encrypted, we recommend that you not send confidential information, such as social security or account numbers, via un-encrypted e-mail messages.). Any on-line banking transaction or application features that we add to our website will employ encryption; in other words, the transmission will be scrambled en route and decoded when it reaches First Community Bank.
Also, our website is directed at customers and potential customers that are adults. However, children may access our website and provide information in the ways previously explained in this policy statement. They may request information concerning certain products and services. Should children access our website, we are confident that parents will not judge any of the information provided as objectionable for viewing by their children. Parents can avail themselves of various software packages that are available to prevent their children from accessing websites that they deem to be inappropriate.
Lastly, we may provide external links to websites that contain information on topics that may be useful to users of our website. Although we provide these external links as a benefit to our customers, it does not mean that we endorse the use or content of these websites.
Objectives of First Community Bank
Superior customer service is our primary goal and safeguarding information about our customers is a vital component of this service. We will continue to use customer information to develop and provide needed products, yet we will also maintain the confidentiality expected from us. If you have any questions about our privacy principals you mail e-mail us at internetbanking@fcbanktn.com, call us at 423.272.5800, or write us at:
First Community Bank of East Tennessee
809 W Main Street
Rogersville, TN 37857
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