Identity Theft/Privacy

Protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information is important to everyone who works at Haverhill Bank. Your business and your trust are highly valued. The bank collects, maintains and uses information about you on a routine basis so it can offer the products and services you want. The following statement describing the bank’s practices and policies regarding the privacy of customer information is provided to help you better understand how your personal information is protected at Haverhill Bank.

Haverhill Bank:

• May collect information volunteered by you during the application process, gathered from your transactions and experiences with the bank, and obtained from other authorized sources, such as credit bureaus. All information collected and stored by Haverhill Bank is used for specific business purposes, such as administering your account, complying with state/federal banking regulations, protecting against fraud, and developing a better understanding of your financial needs to provide you with improved products and services.
• Understands that the protection of your nonpublic personal information is of the utmost importance. Guarding your privacy is our obligation. Haverhill Bank maintains strict procedures and policies to safeguard your privacy. Employee access to customer information is restricted to only those who have a business reason to know such information, and employees are educated about the importance of confidentiality and customer privacy.
• May disclose all of the information collected as described above to companies that perform marketing services for the bank or to other financial institutions with which the bank has joint marketing agreements. Haverhill Bank may also disclose nonpublic personal information about you to non-affiliated third parties as permitted by law.

If you decide to close your accounts or become an inactive customer, the bank will adhere to the privacy policies and practices described in this notice.

More detailed information is available upon request.

Keep your personal information safe
With the increase in identity theft sweeping the nation, it pays to be sure that your personal information is protected.

Take precautions to secure your information by placing passwords on your bank, credit card and telephone accounts. Don’t use words or numbers that are easily available – like your mother’s maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of your social security or phone numbers or a series of consecutive numbers. Use a combination of letters and numbers in your passwords. When asked for your mother’s maiden name for a new account, try using a password instead.

Ask how your personal information is kept secure at work and who has access to it. Ask about disposal procedures for these records as well.

It’s easy to be caught off guard. Don’t give out personal information over the phone, by mail or on the Internet unless you have initiated the contact or you are sure you know whom you’re dealing with. Before giving out personal information, confirm you are talking with a legitimate representative of a legitimate organization. To do so, call customer service using the phone number on your statement or in the phone book.

Deposit outgoing mail in a post office collection box or at your local post office instead of in an unsecured mailbox. Tear up or shred charge receipts, copies of credit applications or offers, insurance forms, physician statements, checks and bank statements and expired charge cards.

Keep your social security card in a safe place and only give out your social security number when it’s absolutely necessary.

Information stored on your computer needs extra protection, too. Here are some ways to secure personal data on your computer:

• Update your virus software regularly
  
• Don’t download files from strangers or click on hyperlinks from people you don’t know
  
• Use a firewall and a secure browser
  
• Don’t store financial information on your laptop
  
• Avoid using an automatic log-in feature that saves your user name and password

Keeping your personal information private is an ongoing task. The bank takes every precaution to keep your private information from falling into the wrong hands.

To learn more about how to protect yourself, visit: www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/