Harborstone Credit Union's Privacy Policy
Our Privacy Pledge
At Harborstone Credit Union, we respect the privacy of our members. We recognize the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of your personal financial information. This notice describes the privacy policy and practices followed by Harborstone Credit Union. This notice explains what types of member information we collect and under what circumstances we may share it.
Member Information We Collect
Harborstone Credit Union collects only relevant information about members needed to establish and maintain your accounts and services as the law allows or requires us to collect. We may collect personal and financial information about you (member information) which is “nonpublic.” The member information we collect varies depending on the accounts and services you request and use. We collect information about you from the following sources:
Application Information.
We retain personal information we receive from you on any application you provide for membership, deposit account, EFT services, loans, insurance, or other Credit Union services. This information includes name, address, e-mail address, social security number, birth date, phone number, employment and financial status, and credit history.
Your Transactions.
Any time you make a transaction on one of your accounts, including ATM or card transactions, loan advances, insurance transactions, transactions through Online Banking, over the phone or at a branch we retain the transaction information, including your account number, the date, amount, location of the transaction, and other pertinent information.
Credit Reports.
When we evaluate your application for an account or service, we may request a credit report about you from a consumer reporting agency. We retain the personal and credit history information about you and we may use it to evaluate future account service requests.
Online.
We obtain information online when you visit our Web site, harborstone.com. This includes retaining information you provide us on any online application, Online Banking transaction, or information you send to us by e-mail.
Member Information We Share
In order to provide financial services to you, we share certain information about you with our affiliates and third party service providers. However, we only share information to the extent necessary to service your account or offer new services to you. If we share your information, it is with the goal of bringing you quality services, more choices, and greater convenience. Information we may have about former members is generally only shared or disclosed if necessary to enforce or administer an account or as required by law.
Aggregate Information.
We share aggregate demographic and survey information with our partners. That information does not contain any personally identifiable information. From time to time Harborstone may initiate an online survey to measure our effectiveness in providing a useful Web tool. These surveys are not linked to your account or member information and results are presented in aggregate form. You may opt out of these surveys by declining the survey invitation.
Sharing Information with Credit Union Affiliates.
Our financial services affiliates, including Harborstone Investment Services, CU Dealer Direct, and other financial service providers, provide financial services, including financial planning, securities brokerage, insurance products, and auto financing services. We may share personal information (such as name, address, and account number) and account information (such as type of accounts, account balances, and transaction history) with our affiliates, so they can serve you more efficiently. Our affiliates maintain the same privacy standards as the credit union.
Sharing Information with Third Party Service Providers.
In order for us to conduct our operations, including servicing your account or processing your transactions, we need to share information with our service providers, including: data processing companies; check, ATM, and other payment processing companies; payment networks; loan service providers; collection agencies; credit reporting agencies; insurance companies; and financial service providers with whom we have joint marketing agreements. These service providers act on our behalf and have agreed in writing to keep the member information we provide to them confidential. We share the following categories of information to third party service providers depending on the specific services provided:
- Personal information (name, address,
and account number)- Account information (type of account,
account balance, and transaction history)- Transaction information (date, amount,
location, and type of transaction)
We do not sell member information or share your account numbers with independent third party marketers offering their products and services. While we may assist in offering financial products and services of our affiliates or other financial service providers, we control the member information used to make such offers.
Sharing Information as Legally Required or Permitted.
We may share any member information of yours in response to a lawful request issued by a court, government agency, or regulatory authority, or as permitted by law in order to administer or enforce your account. We may also share our experience information about you with credit bureaus. Our reporting to credit bureaus is governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which affords you the right to make sure that your credit bureau reports are accurate.
Our Confidentiality & Security Safeguards
We maintain strict policies and security controls to assure that member information in our computer systems and files is protected. Our employees and agents are permitted access to member information that they may need to perform their jobs and to provide service to you. Our employees and agents have access to such member information as necessary to conduct a transaction or respond to your inquiries. All employees and agents are trained to respect member privacy. No one except our employees and agents has regular access to the Credit Union computer system and records storage. The Credit Union has established internal security controls, including physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect the information you provide us and the information we collect about you. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job are granted access to personally identifiable information. We will continue to review our internal security controls to safeguard your member information as we employ new technology in the future.
Online Privacy Protections
At our Web site, harborstone.com, you may apply for accounts and services and you may communicate with us via e-mail. To protect the information you provide us online, we use multiple levels of security. The application information we accept online and our Online Banking service relies on industry standard “Secure Sockets Layer” (SSL) encryption to secure your transaction information and communication. Generally, our e-mails are not secure. However, if we ask you to e-mail us information other than your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, you have the option to submit it to us using a secure (SSL encryption) e-mail form. When you visit our Web site, you can access site information without revealing your personal identity.
Online Web Links.
Our Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that Harborstone Credit Union is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site. Some of the links from our site will take you off the Harborstone.com site to a “co-branded” site where you will see the Harborstone logo as well as the logo of another service provider. The following links to sites are co-branded: Intuit, Turbo Tax, and ShareBuilder. Any information you provide is collected by the service provider and you are encouraged to read the privacy statement of that provider. We also have links from harborstone.com to “fully branded” service provider sites. As you view information on a fully branded site you will see a change in the URL but the pages appear as Harborstone Credit Union’s and the service provider is not identified. All information collected on fully branded sites is used by Harborstone Credit Union only and is not shared or used for any purpose other than processing your application and providing the requested service. Fully branded sites include online lending applications, Online Banking applications, and Online Bill Pay services.
Log files are used to collect aggregate statistics. Web server logs tell which pages are more and less popular in our site and types of Web browsers used. This information does not contain any personally identifiable information.
Log Files.
Protecting Children’s Information Privacy.
Our online financial services are not designed for or directed toward children. We do not knowingly solicit or collect data from children and we do not knowingly market to children online. We recognize that protecting children’s identities and online privacy is important and that responsibility rests with us and with parents.
Privacy Policy Inquiries
If you have any questions about our privacy practices or need to correct or delete your information, contact us by calling (253) 584-2260 or toll-free 1-800-523-3641, sending us an e-mail at hcu.comments@harborstone.com, or writing to us at Harborstone Credit Union, P.O. Box 4207, Tacoma, WA 98438-0207.
Notification Of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, on our home page, and other places we deem appropriate so that our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will mail a printed version of this policy annually to our members. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.
Tips For Protecting Privacy
You may limit the non-Harborstone marketing materials you receive through the mail or by telephone. If you would like to reduce the amount of advertising you receive from other companies, write the Direct Marketing Association at the appropriate address listed below. You must provide your name, address, and telephone number with your request:
Mail Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 282
Carmel, NY 10512Telephone Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 1559
Carmel, NY 10512
