FIRST FEDERAL BANK OF FLORIDA PRIVACY STATEMENTAt First Federal Bank of Florida (FFBF), we value our banking relationship with you. We recognize the sensitive nature of your personal financial information, and take every precaution to protect your privacy. Trust, privacy and confidentiality are the watchwords of our banking philosophy and are foundation blocks of our success. We know that you expect us to meet the highest standards of performance, and we work diligently to meet your expectations.
We have prepared this brochure to explain what types of information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we may share it.
We hope you will read through all the details of FFBF’s official position on privacy. At the very least, however, we want you to know that FFBF uses information we know about you responsibly to:
• Provide you with the services you have requested.
• Offer you other bank products and services.
• Alert you to financial services and products made available by our carefully selected joint marketing partners.
Under no circumstance do we provide account or personal information to non-affiliated companies for the purpose of independent telemarketing or direct mail marketing of any non-financial products or services of those companies.
This policy statement takes precedence over any previous privacy policies issued by FFBF.
Accuracy of Information:We continually strive to maintain complete and accurate information about you and your accounts. Should you ever believe that our records contain inaccurate or incomplete information about you, please notify us by calling our local Customer Service Call Center at (386) 362-7990 or (386) 754-0090, or email us at firstfederal@ffsb.com.
Information we collect from you:We collect, retain, and use information about you only where we reasonably believe that it will help run our business or will help provide products, services, and other opportunities to you. The information collected from you is obtained 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.
What accounts are covered:The privacy provisions apply only to consumer accounts used primarily for personal, family or household purposes. It does not apply to information about individuals or companies who obtain products for business, commercial or agricultural purposes.
How we use this information:Most of the information we collect is used for only one purpose: to help us deliver the services you have requested, easily and efficiently. It may also permit us to design and offer specific products and services that we believe will be useful to you.
Employee access to information:We restrict access to nonpublic personal information about you to those employees who need to know that information to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal standards to guard your nonpublic personal information.
With whom we may disclose information:We share information with our affiliate, First Federal Financial Services, Inc.
We may disclose nonpublic information about you to the following types of third parties:
• Financial service providers, such as securities broker-dealers, and insurance agents.
FFBF makes disclosures to other nonaffiliated third parties as permitted by law.
Joint marketing partners:We may disclose the following information to companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or to other financial institutions with whom we have joint marketing agreements:
• Information we receive from you on applications or other forms, such as your name, address, social security number, assets, and income;
• Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates, or others, such as your account balance, payment history, and parties to transactions;
• Information we receive from a consumer reporting agency, such as your creditworthiness and credit history.
Our partners must agree to strictly safeguard the confidentiality of customer information, and they are not allowed to disclose this information to anyone else without our permission.
Outside Service Providers:At times, we enter into arrangements with companies whose expertise is essential for our own services to function properly. For example, we work with specialized firms that execute securities transactions and enable online banking. As permitted by law, we may disclose to these providers the customer information necessary to perform these functions. As with all our business partners, these companies are required to safeguard your information and use it only for authorized purposes.
Consumer reporting agencies:In accordance with standard banking industry practice, and as allowed under federal and state law, FFBF routinely provides data about customer loan repayment and other transactions to these agencies and other creditors.
Courts and government entities:Certain federal and state statutes may require us to disclose information about you. For example, if you are involved in litigation with a third party, we may be ordered to provide information to a court or the other litigant. In these circumstances, only the specific information required by law, subpoena, or court order will be disclosed.
Former customer information:When you discontinue your banking relationship with FFBF, or if you are an individual with no banking relationship with FFBF, we will not share nonpublic personal information with unaffiliated banks or companies other than permitted or required by law.
Protection of Medical Information:We may occasionally receive medical or health information about you through the course of opening a new account, for example. We recognize that when you provide medical information to us for a specific purpose, you do not wish it to be used for other purposes such as marketing or in making a credit decision. We will use your personal medical information only for the purpose for which it was intended.
How to opt out of having information disclosed:By making customer information available to other companies owned by FFBF, we’re able to provide better service and offer financial solutions we believe will be of value to you.
If you prefer that we not disclose information that isn’t publicly available about you to affiliated parties, you may opt out of those disclosures; that is, you may direct us not to make those disclosures (other than disclosures permitted by law).
Your Choice to Limit MarketingYou may limit our affiliates from marketing their products or services to you based on information that we share with them, such as your income, your account history with us, and your credit score.
Your decision to limit marketing offers from our affiliates will not expire unless you revoke it in writing. This limitation does not apply in certain circumstances, such as if you currently do business with one of our affiliates or if you ask to receive information or offers from them.
If you wish to opt out you may contact our Customer Service Call Center at (386) 362-7990 or (386) 754-0090, or email us at
firstfederal@ffsb.com, or write to us at:
First Federal Bank of Florida
Attn: Privacy Coordinator
P.O. Box 2029
Lake City, Florida 32056
If you write to us, please include your name as it appears on your accounts with us, as well as your address, social security number, and account numbers. An opt-out request by one account holder is considered an opt-out by all of the associated account holders for that account. Your opt-out request becomes effective within 30 days of receipt.
You should also know that even if you opt out of information disclosure, the fair credit reporting act and other laws allow us to share with our affiliates and other companies specific details about your transactions and experience with us, including information about your account balances or payment history.
How we protect your privacy online:When you visit our website to view any pages, read product information, or use our online tools, you do so without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information. While we do not collect identifying information about visitors to our site, we do use standard software (“Cookies”) to collect information for the strict purpose of tracking activity on our site. This allows us to better understand how many visitors use our site and which pages and features are most popular. The only information we normally collect and store is:
• The name of your Internet Service Provider;
• The website that referred you to us (if any);
• The date and time the page was accessed; and,
• The page or pages you viewed.
There are instances where you may elect to provide us with personal information. If you fill out one of our feedback or request forms or send us email, you are transmitting the information that appears to you in the form or message. This will typically include information like your name, mailing address, telephone number, email address and any other information necessary to fulfill your request. This is always your option; this information cannot be collected unless you specifically elect to send it to us.
When you submit personally identifying information via one of our feedback or application forms, that information is encrypted, or scrambled, by the browser before it is transmitted back to our website. This effectively prevents anyone from intercepting and reading any of this information. Note that this encryption does not take place if you send us email, but only when you use your web browser with one of our site’s feedback or request forms.
Disclosing Our Privacy Principles:First Federal Bank recognizes and respects the privacy expectations of our customers. We want our customers to understand our commitment to privacy in our use of customer information. As a result of our commitment, we have developed these Privacy Principles, which are made readily available to our customers. Customers with questions about these Privacy Principles or concerns regarding the confidentiality of their customer information should call our Customer Service Call Center at (386) 362-7990 or (386) 754-0090, or email us at
firstfederal@ffsb.com. You may contact us by mail at:
First Federal Bank of Florida
Attn: Privacy Coordinator
P.O. Box 2029
Lake City, Florida 32056
Updated 03/08