Privacy Practices

Is my information kept confidential by you?

Yes. Business owners often share their financial and private information with outside professionals to gain assistance or credit for their businesses. When doing so, business owners have the right to expect that appropriate steps will be taken to keep their information confidential. We respect your right to confidentiality and take steps we believe will afford your information the confidentiality you expect.

For example, computer access is given only to employees involved in the process of administering or monitoring account information. Staff must adhere to standards of conduct that prohibit unauthorized use of your information. We do not sell customer information to third parties. Unless required by law, legal process or required government disclosures, or under other very limited circumstances under Farm Credit regulations, your information is not provided to others, including your accountant or attorney, without your authorization.

How do you protect my privacy on the internet?

Protecting the privacy of your information that can be accessed by you on the Internet is a priority to us. While no system of security is absolutely foolproof, we employ many security measures in our efforts to safeguard your information, including:

Browser encryption

To use Ag Banking Online, you must use an Internet browser that utilizes 128-bit encryption technology. This is an industry standard for secure area browsing when using information of a sensitive nature.

Enrollment

Ag Banking Online includes an extended enrollment process to assure that only you receive information about your account. After completing and electronically submitting the enrollment form, a Representative approves your enrollment and notifies you. We believe that the additional time required to enroll, relative to other Internet services, is offset by the greater assurance of your privacy.

Password

We’ve made our password parameters stringent in order to reduce the potential for security breaches. Of course, you must protect the confidentiality and use of your password. Passwords are encrypted.

Human review

Once you're enrolled and the account is active, you can immediately access information about your account, such as loan balance, payment amount, interest rate, etc. Loan numbers may be submitted by you electronically, but must be reviewed and verified by an Association representative before you have access to it via the Internet. This usually takes one to two business days. This step also helps prevent any unauthorized access to your account.

Software safeguards

A "time out" feature exists to keep others from viewing your data after you have left your computer. After 5 minutes, the site will lock up and will require you to sign on again by re-entering your password. To thwart would-be hackers, a customer’s account will be inaccessible after three unsuccessful sign-on attempts. You can attempt to log in at a later time, after contacting your branch about unlocking the account. All activities are designed to be electronically logged, giving us the ability to review the logs if any suspicious activity occurs.

Secure electronic mail

Ag Banking Online includes a secure electronic mail system. A secure messaging system such as this is used for passing confidential information. This system is designed in such a way that passing of information outside the secure area is restricted. This allows you to communicate directly with us with the comfort of knowing that your information is protected and secure.

Firewall

The only way to get access to customer account information is by coming through the secured section of our website through a "firewall".

How can I protect my information?

Keep your password confidential and safe. Do not allow others to use your passwords or otherwise access your account. Sign off of your Ag Banking Online session before walking away from your computer or before visiting other Internet sites. Use our secure electronic mail, rather than your regular Internet e-mail for communicating with us.

What information do you gather about me?

When you visit our website, we generally automatically recognize your domain name and email address. We collect the e-mail information on what pages and features you access or use. We also collect the information you voluntarily provide us.

The information we collect is used to communicate with you via e-mail where appropriate, improve our website, personalize the content of our website for you, and notify you about updates to our website or the service we offer. This information is not retained after initial contact, unless at your request (such as applying for credit or other services), and is destroyed after this purpose has been fulfilled.

From time to time, we may also employ "cookies" for better operation of our website. A "cookie" generally permits websites to recognize whether or not you have visited the site before. It is a piece of data given to a browser by a web server, so that the browser will hand it back to the server on subsequent visits.

If you do nothing during your visit but browse through the website, read pages, or download information, we may, through the use of cookies, gather and store certain information about your visit automatically. This information does not identify you personally. In this manner, we may automatically collect and store only the following information about your visit:

• Your Internet domain (i.e., “yourcompany.com”) if you use a private Internet access account, and IP address from which you access your site
• The type of browser and operating system used to access our site
• The date and time you access our site
• The pages you visit, and
• If you linked to our website from another website, the address of that website.

Do you collect information from minors?

We do not knowingly solicit data from children, and we do not knowingly market to children. This website is intended for individuals over the age of 13 and AFC does not collect (and will delete) information from those it learns are under the age of 13. We recognize that protecting children's identities and privacy online is important and that the responsibility to do so rests with both the online industry and with parents.

What online tools do you use to insure security?

For website security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this computer system employs software programs (commonly known as “sniffers”) to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload, change, corrupt information, or to otherwise cause damage (commonly known as “hacking”).

What are your policies on web linking?

We may provide access to information, products or services on websites that are owned by other companies ("Third Party Websites"). We provide this access through the use of hyperlinks that automatically move you from this website to the Third Party Website.

While we do our best to provide you with helpful, trustworthy resources, we do not endorse, approve or guarantee information, products, services or recommendations provided at a Third Party Website. We are not responsible for the content or accuracy of any Third Party Website and offer you links to the Third Party Websites on an "as is" basis. We are not responsible for any loss or damage of any sort resulting from the use of a Third Party Website, or any failure on products or services advertised or provided on a Third Party Website.

When you visit a Third Party Website by using a link on our website, you will no longer be protected by our Privacy Practices. The data collection, use and protection practices of the Third Party Website may differ from our Privacy Practices. You should familiarize yourself with the privacy policy and security practices of each Third Party Website.

Who do I contact if I have questions about confidentiality or privacy?

You may email us at [email protected] or, during normal business hours, call (877) 681-6087.