Ballston Spa National Bank

Privacy Notice

Protecting your privacy is important to Ballston Spa National Bank (BSNB) 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 and other means to manage and maintain customer information. BSNB maintains a privacy policy that serves as a standard for all BSNB employees for collection, use, retention and security of nonpublic personal information. Nonpublic personal information is information about you, not available from public sources, 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.

This Privacy Notice applies only to individuals and not to business entities or business transactions. This Privacy Notice replaces all Privacy Notices previously issued by BSNB and may be amended by us at any time.

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, our affiliates or others; and
Information we receive from third parties, such as credit bureaus, that we require in order to provide the products or services you have requested.

What Information We Disclose

We are permitted under law to disclose nonpublic personal information about you to "nonaffiliated third parties" (i.e., third parties that are not members of our corporate family) in certain circumstances. For example, we may disclose nonpublic personal information about you to such 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 any other third parties, except as permitted by law.

We also are permitted under law, to disclose all of the information we collect (as described above), to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with which we have joint marketing agreements.

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.

Internet Banking Privacy

We use stringent security measures in the collection of your personal information for Online Banking purposes. All BSNB Online Banking account applications are submitted to the bank's secure administration site through an encrypted connection to the bank. Once received by the bank, only designated personnel may open and process the application.

We also gather data regarding visits to our Web site, including domain name, pages visited, length of user session, etc., to evaluate the usefulness of our Web site. When browsing our Web site, personal information, such as your e-mail address or account number is not collected. However, some areas of our Web site require information, such as your e-mail address or account number to enable you to perform certain tasks (e.g., to review your accounts, enroll in Online Banking/Bill Pay, or to correspond with us). In these cases, we collect the information necessary to interact with you over a secure, encrypted connection.

If you use our Online Banking or Bill Pay features, we may place a “cookie” on your Internet browser which contains your unique identifier, allowing you to view and manage your accounts. These “cookies” may be linked to personally identifiable information for that particular session. These session “cookies” are not stored when you end your Internet Banking session and therefore cannot be used to track additional information about the user. At your discretion, secure “cookies” may also be used for enhanced security purposes.

Children’s Online Privacy

We do not knowingly solicit information online from children or market online products and services to children.

Our Security Procedures

We take steps to safeguard customer information. Access to your personal and account information is restricted to those employees who need to know that information in order to provide products and services to you. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your nonpublic personal information.

Identity Theft

One of the fastest growing crimes is identity theft. Identity theft occurs when an unauthorized person gains access to and uses an individual’s personally identifiable information without the individual’s knowledge in order to commit fraud or theft. You can help protect yourself from becoming a victim by using the following precautions:

Always protect your personally identifiable information [e.g., date of birth, social security number, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, personal identification numbers (“PINs”) and passwords].
Review your bank statements for any unauthorized transactions and report them to your financial institution as soon as possible. Contact BSNB if you do not receive your account statement in a timely manner.
Do not give any of your personally identifiable information over the telephone, through the mail or on-line unless you have initiated the contact or know and trust the person or company to whom it is given.
Promptly remove mail from your mailbox. Tear up or shred credit card offers and other documents containing personally identifiable information before discarding.
Be suspicious of any proposed transaction that requires you to send an advance payment or deposit by wire transfer.
Be suspicious of any offer made by telephone, on the internet or by mail that seems too good to be true.
Change passwords periodically and keep PINs and passwords confidential.
Obtain and review a copy of your free credit report annually, through one of the major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian or TransUnion).

If you believe you are a victim of identity theft and have an account at BSNB, contact us immediately.

Please remember that BSNB will NEVER contact you by phone, by e-mail or any other unsolicited and unverifiable method to request any non public personal information (such as account numbers, PINs, social security numbers, etc.). If you receive any fraudulent e-mails, phone calls or other suspicious correspondence, please call us at 518-885-6781.