We collect, retain, and use information about you when we reasonably believe it will help administer our business, provide you with a high level of quality service, and to provide products, services, and other opportunities that may be of benefit or interest to you. We use this information to protect and administer your records, accounts, and funds; to comply with state and federal banking regulations; and to understand your financial needs so that we can design and improve our product line and further enhance our services.

•  Information we receive from you on applications or other forms, such as your name, address, telephone number, social security number, employment information, assets and income

•  Information about your transactions with us, or others, such as account balances and payment history

•  Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency, such as your credit history and creditworthiness

•  Information you provide to us such as your e-mail address, your fax number, or other information necessary to fulfill your authorized request.

•  If you use our online banking services we may use cookies to verify your identity, recall your preferences, and to offer you additional options. We do not use cookies to store any personal information.

We do not disclose any nonpublic personal information about you or our former customers to anyone, except as permitted by law, such as:

•  Consumer reporting agencies
•  Law enforcement to protect against fraud
•  In response to a subpoena or court order, judicial process or regulatory authorities
•  By your written authorization to do so

We may share nonpublic personal information with certain nonaffiliated third parties to the extent permissible by law to service your account. Our service providers may include internet banking service providers, attorneys and other professionals.

Walpole Co-operative Bank does not use a third party for marketing purposes. If at some future date a business decision is made to enlist a third party to assist our marketing efforts, you will be notified well in advance and you will have the option to “opt-out” of sharing your information.

Walpole Co-operative Bank uses advanced technology and information management techniques that comply with federal guidelines to provide protection against unauthorized access or use of your nonpublic personal information. As part of the process we exercise appropriate due diligence in the management and monitoring of any outsourcing arrangements.

Our employees are educated about the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of customer information and on these privacy principles. Access to nonpublic personal information is limited to employees with a business reason to know such information.

We use firewalls and other sophisticated security methods and techniques to protect the Bank’s systems. These security systems allow only legitimate online banking transactions to communicate with our system.

In addition, to protect your data and transmissions over the Internet we utilize the highest level of encryption. Encryption scrambles the information you provide into undecipherable codes making it virtually impossible for anyone other than the Walpole Co-operative Bank to translate it.

If you suspect that someone has made unauthorized transactions on your Walpole Co-operative Bank accounts, or if you believe that any information about you is not accurate, call us at 1-800-431-3340, or you may write to us at 982 Main Street, Walpole, MA 02081, or notify us in person.

If you send an e-mail message to the bank, we may retain the content of your message and your e-mail address in order to respond to your question or concern. We cannot guarantee the security of regular e-mail; therefore we request that you do not use e-mail to report unauthorized transfers from your account, or to send any other information of a confidential nature, including account numbers, social security numbers, and other personal information.

Although Walpole Co-operative has taken these measures, and uses advanced technology to implement security features and control programs to ensure that your personal information is secure, we cannot guarantee that the nonpublic personal information you provide will not be intercepted and decrypted by others. We are not liable for any breaches of security that may occur beyond our control.

With continued advances in technology, the types of transactions you can complete online today are endless. However, the increase in online transactions also increases the possibility of online identity theft. Two of the most common methods for fraud via the internet are phishing and pharming.

Phishing: Phishing can lure an unsuspecting consumer to divulge personal information to a fraudulent website. The phisher sends an e-mail purporting to be from a legitimate bank or business. The consumer is instructed to click on the supposed business’ link to verify personal account information. The message often describes a problem with an account that the victim feels needs immediate attention. During the process the victim may disclose a personal password or PIN and the phisher now has personal data to access the victim’s accounts or commit other identity theft.

Pharming: Pharming is a more sophisticated method because it is not necessary to click on a link or open an attachment; just opening the e-mail message does the damage. The e-mail message contains a virus that will hijack the victim’s browser without his knowledge. You then type a legitimate website into the address bar of a browser, and the virus redirects you to a fake website. Although you entered the website address into the browser yourself, and the site appears to be identical to the site you are accustomed to doing business with, you have actually been redirected to a different site, set up by the pharmer. You enter in your identifying information, such as passwords, PINs or account numbers, and unknowingly submit it to someone waiting to steal your identity. In this scenario, since you typed the address yourself and the website has the same appearance as it usually does, it is unlikely that you will know that you were directed to a different website.

Awareness is the key: •  Always install anti-virus and anti-spyware software on your computer, and keep it up to date
•  Never use links in an e-mail to get to a web page
•  Always be suspicious of an e-mail with requests for personal information; legitimate banks and business sites will never contact you by e-mail and ask you to update your account, password or other personal information
•  Never open an e-mail if you don’t know who it is from

How you can help us protect your confidential information:

• Never disclose your account number, social security number or financial data to anyone by phone or e-mail. Only provide information when you initiate the call and know the person or company you are dealing with.
• The Bank or any state or federal financial agency would never contact or e-mail a consumer requesting important personal information such as your name, social security number, account number, password or other information.  If you receive suspicious phone inquiries or e-mails of this nature please notify us immediately. The best defense against unauthorized access to your accounts is to protect your password.  Never disclose your password to anyone.  Do not carry it in your wallet, or write it on your computer or anywhere where it may be easily found.
• Do not leave your computer unattended when using the online service.  Log off any application when you finish using them.
• Do not use common names, words, dates or numbers for passwords. i.e. do not use your name, birth date, social security number, words like computer, password, or words found in the dictionary.
• Review your monthly bank statement(s) and credit card statement(s) for accuracy as soon as you receive them.
• Never discard financial statements, ATM receipts, credit card receipts, debit cards, unsolicited credit cards received in the mail, before physically destroying them, i.e. shredding, cutting, burning, etc.

If your purse or wallet is lost or stolen, or if you feel that you have been a victim of identify theft, notify the bank immediately and file a report with your local police.   We will close your existing accounts and access cards, open new accounts and issue new ATM and Debit cards.  Report the loss of credit cards to the credit bureaus.

The three major credit bureaus are:

• Equifax
• Place a fraud alert   888-766-0008

• Experian
• Place a fraud alert   888-397-3742

• TransUnion
• Place a fraud alert   800-680-7289

* Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) all consumers are able to obtain a free copy of their credit report on an annual basis.  You may order your free reports from all three bureaus by calling Toll Free 1-877 FACTACT (322-8228), or on the web at http://www.annualcreditreport.com

This Privacy Policy updates any previous notice from Walpole Co-operative Bank.  We reserve the right to revise this policy at any time to reflect changes in the law or our policies.  You will receive a revised copy of our Privacy Policy whenever a change is implemented.

We value your trust and confidence in Walpole Co-operative Bank.  If you have any questions or concerns about protecting your personal financial information, please call 1-800-431-3340 or stop by our office and speak to a customer service representative.