Privacy Practices

Privacy Practices

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Privacy Practices

Introduction

Thank you for visiting Central Texas Farm Credit (CTFC) and reviewing our Privacy Notice (herein “Notice”). We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this Notice. This Notice describes the types of personal information we may collect about you through our websites www.ranchmoney.com and www.centraltexasfarmcredit.com (collectively the “Website”) or that you may provide when you visit our Website, and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information. This Notice does not apply to the privacy practices of any website, mobile application, service, or product that does not display or link to this Notice or that contains its own privacy statement. 

We encourage you to carefully read this Notice to understand our policies and practices regarding your personal information and how we secure it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Websites. By accessing or using our Websites, you agree to this Notice. We will review and update this Notice as needed. Your continued use of our Websites after changes to this Notice are made is deemed to be your acceptance of those changes. Thus, we encourage you to check this Notice periodically for updates.

Collecting personal information

  • This notice applies to information we collect in different ways. Including but not limited to the following:

    Directly through the Websites, such as when you complete our “Contact Us” form;

    • Automated technologies that collect certain data (including personal information) as you use the Websites;
    • Personal information that you provide (such as when you make an inquiry through the Websites, using a form (like “Contact Us”);
    • Personal information provided when interacting online and offline with us (via social media, email, phone, and postal mail).
    • In email, text, and other electronic messages between you and this Website;
    • Through mobile and desktop applications you download from this Website, which provide dedicated non-browser-based interaction between you and this Website.

During the course of business

Our team members may receive personal information directly from you when you provide your business card or contact details (such as when a team member and you are present at the same event). This type of information collected during the course of business may include your name, email, phone number, and job title.

Webforms

If you complete a webform to ask us a question or otherwise contact us, we may receive the personal information you provide, such as name, company name, phone, email address, and mailing address. We will use this information to respond to your question or address your concern.

Filing an ethics or compliance report 

Ethics and compliance are very important to us and essential to maintaining the integrity of our business. Questions or concerns related to ethics or compliance may be filed through our third-party provider. Any personal information submitted through our compliance line – which may include name, phone number, email address, and substantive report information – will be provided to us.

Social media

We may collect information about you from other third parties, such as social networks, when you “share” information via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, or use other social media “like” buttons or plug-ins. Please note that any personal information collected by a third party, such as a social networking site, is handled based on their privacy practices rather than this Notice.

Information from individuals under 16 years of age

Our Website is not intended for individuals under 16 years of age that do not have parental consent. We support several youth organizations (like FFA and 4-H), but we require parental consent before collecting any personal information from an individual that is younger than 16. If you are younger than 16, do not provide any information on this Website. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from anyone under the age of 16, we will delete that information.

Automated collection mechanisms

We use automated collection technologies – such as cookies, beacons, tags, pixels and scripts – to analyze trends, understand the effectiveness of our communications, administer the Website, and track users’ movements around the Website. We use these technologies to gather demographic information about our user base as individuals and in the aggregate. In some cases, we may use service providers to help us gather and analyze this information for us. 

We may collect personal information from third parties.

We may receive information about you from other sources, including from the Farm Credit Bank of Texas, third-party contractors, or vendors. This helps us comply with our legal obligations, update, expand, and analyze our records, identify borrowers, and provide information about products and services that may be of interest to you. The information external sources provide may include name, contact details (email address and phone number), loan information, and credit reporting information.

We also contract with certain vendors to provide us with Web-based services that include email delivery; these services may collect click through data including whether you opened an email and clicked on any content in that email and then share that information with us. These vendors may only use the directly identifying information (for example, email address) for the service they are providing and not for their own marketing purposes.

Do-not-track requests.

Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” setting. Generally, when a user turns on the Do Not Track Signal, their browser sends a message to websites requesting that the user not be tracked. Our website and services currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” signals.

USING PERSONAL INFORMATION

We do not and will not sell your personal information. In addition, we do not rent, lease, trade, or disclose your personal information, other than as outlined in this Notice.

The following are examples of how Central Texas Farm Credit may use your personal information:

  • To provide access to our Website, including maintaining its security and integrity.
  • To respond to inquiries, questions, feedback, or other content you have elected to provide.
  • To provide marketing information regarding Website and product updates, special promotions, etc.
  • To conduct reviews of our Website and to help us understand how you use it. This will help us to tailor our product offerings and marketing promotions to make your experience more enjoyable and convenient.
  • To comply with legal and regulatory requirements applicable to our business and internal policies for maintaining records.
  • To comply with court orders and legal processes, and to enforce our terms of use and this Privacy Notice.
  • To facilitate lending in the ordinary course of Association business.
  • For any other legal, business, or marketing purposes that comply with the practices described in this Notice.

SHARING PERSONAL INFORMATION

This section provides detail on how we share information once we collect it based on our collection practices explained above. Please note that we require any third party we share your personal information with to protect that information consistent with this policy and applicable law, and to limit their use of that information to performing the service they provide to us.

We will not sell your personal information.

The personal information we collect is not and will not be sold. In addition, the personal information we collect will not be rented or traded to third parties for their own marketing purposes. 

We may share your personal information with the Farm Credit Bank of Texas (“FCBT”) or other financial institutions with which we do business.

We may share your personal information with the District Bank or other financial institutions in the following instances:

  • You ask us to (like when you submit a web form)
  • We have engaged the District Bank as a service provider. 
  • To facilitate funding. 

In each case we share personal information as is necessary to achieve the business transaction. Typically, the categories of information we share are your contact details, financial information, commercial information, and professional details.

We may share your personal information with our vendors.

We may share certain personal information with third-party service providers who help us operate and support the Website, perform Website analytics, design marketing or consulting services, process employment applications, or help us prepare and distribute business and marketing communications. 

Our vendors help with Website analytics.

Central Texas Farm Credit uses Google Analytics to study how people interact with our Website. To learn more about Google's privacy practices, visit Google's Privacy & Terms at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. We occasionally may use other analytics providers. These third parties may combine your information with the information of other individuals for analytics purposes. Some analytics providers use cookies, and you may opt out of those cookies by visiting https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout to manage your cookie preferences.

Public Posts by User

If you make a public post, others may see it.

Your personal information may be publicly available if you identify us in your social media pages or on various social media platforms by tagging us using a hashtag (#) or “at” (@) indicator. Your personal information also may be publicly available if you make a post on a social media site on a page we maintain. We maintain Central Texas Farm Credit social media pages on the following sites:

Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RanchMoney/

Twitter at https://twitter.com/CenTxFarmCredit

Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/centraltexasfarmcredit/

LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/9452072/admin/

When you use a social media site, your personal information is subject to the privacy policies of those sites. However, once your personal information is in our possession, we will treat it in accordance with this Notice. We strongly recommend you review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit to understand the data collection and use practices of that third party.

Business successors may access information.

This paragraph describes what may happen to your personal information if our business structure or ownership changes. In the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, bankruptcy, or other sale of all or a portion of our assets, any customer information owned or controlled by us may be among the assets transferred to third parties as successors in interest. As part of these types of transactions, we reserve the right to transfer or assign your personal information to third parties. Other than to the extent ordered by a bankruptcy or other court, or as otherwise agreed to by you, the use and disclosure of all transferred customer information will be subject to this Notice.

We need to comply with legal requirements.

We may disclose your information to government authorities or other third parties if any lawful circumstance arises, including when:

  • You have given us permission to share your information;
  • We are required to do so by law, or in response to a subpoena or court order;
  • At our sole discretion, we believe that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect against fraud, or to protect our property or other rights, or those of other individuals visiting the Website, third parties, or the public at large; or
  • We believe that you have misused the Website by using it to attack or gain unauthorized access to a system or to engage in spamming or other conduct that violates applicable laws or any terms of use.

SECURITY

Securing your personal information is essential. We have implemented industry-accepted administrative, physical, and technology-based security measures to protect against loss, misuse, and alteration of personal information in our systems. We also ensure that any employee, contractor, or vendor who has access to personal information in our systems is subject to contractual and professional obligations to safeguard that personal information.

As part of our commitment to securing the information provided by Website visitors and customers, we will store personal information for so long as we have a legal reason to hold it. We use firewalls and encryption to restrict access from third parties unless explicitly authorized by us.

We also protect your information off-line. Only personnel who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. All employees are kept up to date on our security and privacy practices.

While we strive to use industry-accepted means to protect your personal information, no method of transmission over the Internet or form of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

SECURITY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS.
If you have questions or concerns about the security details in this Notice, please send an email to websiteprivacy@farmcreditbank.com.

YOUR RIGHTS

This section provides information on how you can manage your personal information.

Accessing, correcting, or updating your personal information.

If you want to review or update personal information you have provided to the Association, please contact us at websiteprivacy@farmcreditbank.com. Please put “Update My Information” in the subject line and include details related to your request. 

Opting out.

If you do not wish to receive promotional e-mails from us, you may follow the unsubscribe process at the bottom of the promotional e-mail you receive or by emailing us at websiteprivacy@farmcreditbank.com with “Opt Me Out” in the subject line. You may still receive transactional e-mails from us (e.g., e-mails related to webforms you have submitted, correction of your personal information, password reset requests, or any other similar communications essential to your transactions on the Website or use of our products) that may be necessary to make the Website available to you, or for us to respond to your inquiries.

Your opt-out will be managed through the use of cookies, so if you delete these cookies or use a different Internet browser or computer, you will have to make this same election again.

CALIFORNIA CONSUMER RIGHTS.
As of January 1, 2020, some people who reside in California have additional rights reserved under the California Consumer Privacy Act and the California Shine the Light law. If you are a California-based consumer, as that term is defined under California law, this section applies in addition to all other applicable rights and information contained in this Notice:

You have the right to request that we provide you information on what personal information we collect, use, and disclose.

You have the right to request that we delete personal information that we or our service providers store about you.

We will not discriminate or retaliate against you if you elect to exercise any rights under this section of our Notice.

You may request that we not sell your personal information; as noted previously, Central Texas Farm Credit does not sell your personal information.

You have the right to designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf.

Please see the Identity Verification Requirement section for information on our process for verifying we have received a legally valid request.

If you are a California-based consumer and have additional questions about this section of our Privacy Notice, please use this email us at websiteprivacy@farmcreditbank.com or call our toll-free hotline 877-229-0221. Also check this policy for updates, as we will review it every 12 months, or more often, and update it as needed.

IDENTITY VERIFICATION REQUIREMENT.
The law requires us to verify that any request for access to personal information, or any other right legally granted in relation to personal information, is made by someone with the legal authority to make the request or access the information. Before accessing or disclosing information to an individual, we may request additional information so we can verify your identity and legal authority.

To make a request if you are a California consumer, please use this web form. Otherwise, please contact us at websiteprivacy@FarmCreditBank.com with “Personal Information Request” in the subject line and provide full details relevant to your request, including your contact information. Please note that in either instance, we may need additional information from you or require that you take additional steps to validate your identity. We will provide a response to an access request within the timeframe required by applicable law. If we cannot substantively respond in a timely manner, we will notify you with the reason for the delay.

Under certain circumstances, we may not be able to fulfill your request, such as when doing so would interfere with our regulatory or legal obligations, when we cannot verify your identity, if your request involves disproportionate cost or effort, or we have a legal right to do so. However, we will respond within a reasonable time and as required by law and provide an explanation.

UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE.

Any updates or changes to this Notice will be posted to this Notice, the home page, or any other places we feel are appropriate, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under which circumstances we share it. We reserve the right to modify this Notice at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by e-mail, or by means of a notice on our home page before the change becomes effective.

SECURITY, INTRUSION, AND DETECTION LANGUAGE:
For Website security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this computer system employs software programs (commonly known as “sniffers”) to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload, change, corrupt information, or to otherwise cause damage (commonly known as “hacking”).

WEB LINKING:
We may provide access to information, products, or services on websites that are owned by other companies (herein "Third Party Websites"). We provide this access through the use of hyperlinks that automatically move you from this Website to the Third-Party Website.

While we do our best to provide you with helpful, trustworthy resources, we do not endorse, approve, or guarantee information, products, services, or recommendations provided at a Third-Party Website. We are not responsible for the content or accuracy of any Third-Party Website and offer you links to the Third-Party Websites on an "As Is" basis. We are not responsible for any loss or damage of any sort resulting from the use of a Third-Party Website, or any failure on products or services advertised or provided on a Third-Party Website.

When you visit a Third-Party Website by using a link on our Website, you will no longer be protected by our Notice and privacy practices. The data collection use and protection practices of the Third-Party Website may differ from our Notice and privacy practices. You should familiarize yourself with the privacy policy and security practices of each Third-Party Website.

WHO DO I CONTACT IF I HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT CONFIDENTIALITY OR PRIVACY?
You may e-mail us at websiteprivacy@farmcreditbank.com or, during normal business hours, call 877-229-0221.