Privacy Policy
Texas AgFinance, FCS Privacy
Practices
Introduction
Thank you for visiting our Web site and reviewing our Privacy Practices
Policy.Our Privacy Practices Policy is clear: We will collect no personal
information about you when you visit our Web site unless you choose
to provide that information to us.
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 Account Access, 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
- Account Access 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.
- PIN
- We’ve made our PIN selection and verification parameters stringent
to reduce the potential for security breaches. A PIN must be at least
4 and no more than 10 characters long. Of course, you must protect
the confidentiality and use of your PIN. PINs are encrypted.
- Human
review - Once enrolled and 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 business day. 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 again sign-on,
with re-entry of your PIN. 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. All activities are designed
to be electronically logged, giving us the ability to review the logs
if any suspicious activity occurs.
- Secure
electronic mail - Account Access 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 PIN confidential and safe. Do not allow others to use you
PINs or otherwise access your account.
Sign off
of your Account Access 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 e-mail 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 web site, personalize the content of our web site 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 Web site, 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:
Protecting
our children
We do not knowingly solicit data from children, and we do not knowingly
market to children. 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.
Security,
Intrusion and Detection Language
For Web site 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”)
Web
Linking
While we do our best to provide you with helpful, trustworthy resources,
we cannot endorse, approve or guarantee information, products, services,
or recommendations provided at a third party Web site. Because we may
not always know when information in a linked site changes, we are not
responsible for content or accuracy of any third party Web sites. We
will not be responsible for any loss or damage of any sort resulting
from the use of a link on our web site nor will we be liable for any
failure of products or services advertised or provided on these linked
sites.
We offer
links to you on an “as is” basis. When you visit a third-party Web site
by using a link on our web site, our Privacy Policy or security practices
will no longer protect you. The data collection, use and security practices
of the linked site may differ from the practices of our site. ou should
familiarize yourself with the Privacy Policy and security practices
of the linked web site. Those are the policy and practices that will
apply to your use of the linked Web site, NOT our policy and practices.
Who
do I contact if I have questions about confidentiality or privacy?
You may email us at joe.hayman@texasagfinance.com
or, during normal business hours, call 1-800-950-8563 and ask for Mark
Miller.