Re: In the news...
Stocks initially gained this morning on better-than-expected news, only to retreat a short time later, after worse-than-expected Consumer Sentiment news was reported.
Early this morning, the Commerce Department reported that Retail Sales climbed to...
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POLICY
Peoples Bank is committed to providing the highest level of security and privacy regarding the collection and use of our banking customers' personal information. A detailed description of Peoples Bank's privacy statement is provided below.
PRIVACY STATEMENT
Respecting Your Right To Privacy
At Peoples Bank, we believe the confidentiality and protection of customer information is one of our fundamental responsibilities. Unlike many other businesses these days, we won't sell our Guest or Customer list to anyone. While information is critical to providing quality service, we recognize that one of our most important assets is our customer's trust. Thus, the safekeeping of customer information is a high priority at Peoples Bank.
Collection of Personal Information
Peoples Bank collects non-public personal information about you from the following sources:
Information we receive from you on applications or other forms
Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates or others; and
Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency
As you will read, we don't give away or sell personal information outside Peoples Family to anyone except as required by law (bank examiners, etc) or as permitted by law to those who do work for us (bank auditors, people who print and mail our statements, etc) - all of whom are themselves required to keep the information confidential and who can not solicit you. (This is explained in more detail below, read on!)
"Cookie" Technology
Many commercial websites use a technology called "cookies" to provide you with tailored information from their website. Peoples Bank’s web site uses "cookie" technology to identify which affiliate’s online banking log-in to use. Another cookie allows you to choose your community in order to prioritize the contact information and community event information provided. There is another “cookie” used when applying for a mortgage online through our “Mortgage-bot” which allows the system to identify your application if you need to log back in to the application. We make no attempt to identify individual users or log their personal information unless illegal behavior is suspected.
Use of Marketing Services and Third Parties
We do share information with companies that work for us - and they must keep the info confidential and private themselves. For example, we have vendors that print your personal checks and print and mail your account statements. These companies are acting on our behalf for your benefit and are contractually obligated to keep your personal information confidential. They are not authorized to use your information for any purpose other than the purpose for which we've contracted. The type of information that may be disclosed under these circumstances includes:
- Information you authorize us to release
- Our experience with you may be reported to credit reporting agencies
- To other parties when it is necessary or helpful in processing transactions that you have requested, including other financial institutions and networks involved in processing your transactions (for example, resolving a problem you've had with an ATM transaction at some other bank's ATM, or a check that's been presented with an encoding error.)
- In connection with maintaining or servicing your account with us
- In response to an inquiry about whether a check you have written will clear (in the case, we will only respond with a "yes" or "not at this time" - we will never provide balance information on your account.)
- Sometimes, we are required to release account information for other reasons:
- To comply with a law, regulation, court order or subpoena
- To local, state and federal authorities if we (or you) believe a crime may have been committed involving your account (for instance, if your checkbook is stolen)
- To our independent auditors, attorneys and to our state and federal regulators
- If you decide to close your account(s) or become an inactive customer, we will continue to follow the privacy policies and practices as described in this brochure.
In short, we promise never to release your personal information unless it's for your benefit, you've authorized it or it's required by law - at Peoples Bank, confidentiality is something we expect you to expect from us.
The Peoples Family of Affiliated Companies
There are many members of our Peoples family, all owned or controlled by Peoples, Inc, including Peoples Bank (Lawrence, Overland Park, Ottawa, Stanley, Stilwell, Louisburg, and Paola in Kansas as well as Taos, Red River, and Albuquerque, NM); Oread Mortgage, LLC; Oread Land Title Company, LLC; those companies owned or controlled by Peoples Bancshares, Inc. including Peoples National Bank, Colorado; Peoples National Bank, Leadville; and Peoples Mortgage Corporation. Together they give you the widest range of financial products and services possible.
All Peoples companies have the same strict privacy policy. There are some times that sharing information about you allows us to offer you a more complete range of quality Peoples products and services. For example, information we receive from you on an application or other forms allows us to help fulfill your needs within the Peoples family, without making you fill out another set of virtually identical paperwork. Other examples include information we receive from other sources such as credit reporting agencies, property appraisals or the date your homeowner's insurance expires. This allows us to provide you with the best products and services at the lowest cost to you. No duplication of effort and no duplication of fees. But rest assured, we will not share your information outside our Peoples family of companies. You are a Peoples Guest and we want you to feel at home in any of our companies. If you prefer that we not disclose such non-public information about you to our affiliated Peoples family, you may opt-out of these disclosures at any time (other than those required by law).
If you choose to opt-out, please call us at Peoples at 1-800-722-5056. If you prefer to email, please contact us at electserv@epeoples.com. Send only your name, address, location where you bank and daytime contact resource. Don't ever send your account numbers or social security numbers via email to us or to anyone else. We will never request that information by email. It's just not always a secure channel to protect your information the way we want it protected.
Maintaining Accurate Information
It is in the best interest of both you and the bank to maintain accurate records concerning your personal information. We continually strive to maintain complete and accurate information about your personal accounts. Should you ever believe that our records contain inaccurate or incomplete information about you, please notify us. We will promptly investigate your concerns and correct any inaccuracies.
Limiting Employee Access to Personal Accounts
At Peoples Bank, employee access to personally identifiable information is limited to those with a business reason to know such information. Peoples Bankers are educated on the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of guest information and on these Privacy Principles. Because of the importance of these issues, all Peoples Bankers are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your information, and anyone violating these principles will be subject to disciplinary measures. Any printed material that is subject to these guidelines is shredded on-site at each location - you don't have to worry about anyone dumpster-diving and coming up with your personal information.
Securing Your Personal Information
Peoples Bank restricts employee access to nonpublic personal information as indicated above. In addition, we maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your nonpublic personal information.
At Peoples, we hold your personal information and your trust in strictest confidence. As your bank, we wouldn't have it any other way.
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