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Notice of Citizens Privacy Pledge
Effective September 1, 2007
Our Pledge to You Regarding the Responsible Use and Protection of Your InformationThis notice tells you:
- What information we may collect about you
- How we protect your information and what you can do to help us protect your information
- How we may share your information within and outside our family of companies
- How to contact us.
We encourage you to read and retain this notice, and to call 1-877-229-6430 (New England customers) or 1-800-255-6522 (DE, NJ, NY or PA customers) or visit us if you have any questions about the notice.
At Citizens, one of our most important responsibilities to you is the safekeeping of your nonpublic personal information (information). Appropriate use of the information is also at the heart of our ability to provide you with exceptional personal service whenever you contact us.
We protect customers who have opened an account or obtained a financial product or service from us for personal, family or household purposes. This notice also applies to former customers and to consumers who have provided information to us but have not entered into a customer relationship, for as long as information is retained. This notice does not apply to business or commercial customers.
A. Collection, Use and Retention of Your Information
We limit the collection, use and retention of your information to what we believe is necessary to provide you with exceptional quality service, comply with regulatory requirements, and make available to you other products, services, and opportunities that may be of interest to you. For example, your information may be used to evaluate your eligibility for a loan or other service, to improve our products and services or the way we deliver them to you, or to protect you from fraud.
Our online services use features of your Internet browser called "cookies" and "flash objects". Cookies and Flash Objects are files that are placed in your computer's browser memory or placed on your hard drive. We may use these features on our web site or online banking service to verify your identity, remember personal settings including your preferences, to offer you additional options or enhance your online experience, and to improve our products and services. We also use them for marketing site personalization, and tracking of online applications and programs. Our server recognizes and records the domain name from which visitors to our site accessed the Internet and the names of the pages visited while at our site. It does not, however, collect and store your electronic mail address or other nonpublic personal information, unless you provide it to us. Finally, we also may use "cookies" to track the effectiveness of advertisements for Citizens Bank products and services, referred to as banner ads, that we may place on Citizens Bank and non-Citizens Bank web sites. Cookies used for tracking advertising effectiveness do not collect nonpublic personal or confidential information.
The Citizens Bank web site may contain links to third party sites. These links and pointers to third party sites are not part of Citizens Bank site. Neither Citizens Bank nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties regarding these third party sites. Citizens Bank is not responsible for any losses or damages in connection with the information, security, privacy practices, availability, content or accuracy of materials of such third party sites. These third party sites might have a privacy policy different from that of Citizens Bank and third party sites may provide less security than Citizens Bank web site. You should review their privacy and security policies, before you share any nonpublic personal information.
Citizens Bank respects the privacy of children (persons under the age of 13) online. We do not knowingly collect, use, or disclose any personally identifiable information from children. We do not knowingly market to children.
B. Information Collection
We may collect information about you from the following sources-
- information we receive from you on applications or forms, or other information that you provide to us-such as your identification information, your income, where you work, your e-mail address, or the accounts you have with other financial institutions;
- information about your transactions and experiences with us-such as account balances, the current value of your investments, or account usage; and
- information we receive from third parties, including from consumer reporting agencies-such as your creditworthiness, your employment verification, or your payment history.
C. Protection of Your Information
We will safeguard your information according to prudent security standards. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards designed to comply with federal guidelines to guard your information against unauthorized access or use. We limit the access by our employees and agents to information that we believe is reasonably necessary to maintain your accounts, to complete a transaction that you authorized, or otherwise meet your needs. Our employees are subject to a corporate code of ethics and other policies that require maintaining the confidentiality of information.
How you can help us protect your information: We encourage you to help us protect your information and keep it accurate. Please do not disclose your social security number, your account numbers, your access codes, or personal identification number (PIN) for your accounts to anyone with whom you are not familiar or you would not trust with this information. We also ask that you review your statements promptly.
How to contact us: If you suspect someone has made unauthorized transactions on your Citizens accounts, or if you believe that any information about you is not accurate, please call us anytime at 1-877-229-6430 (New England customers) or 1-800-255-6522 (DE, NJ, NY or PA customers).
D. Sharing Information within our Family of Companies
We may share information about you within our family of companies as permitted by law or as expressly authorized by you. Specifically, we may share within our family of companies:
- information that relates to our experiences or transactions with you or your accounts, such as account balances, payment history and account usage;
- information that facilitates our proper identification of you when we share information about you or to protect against fraud, such as your name and address; and
- information we receive from you on applications and other forms or from third parties, such as your income, credit references and credit history, only:
- if we disclose that we may share it, and we either give you an opportunity to tell us not to share this information or you expressly authorize us to do so, or
- as permitted by applicable law (such as to make credit decisions, service your account, process transactions that you request or prepare statements).
If you have given medical information to us, such as for an insurance application, we will not share your medical information except as permitted by law or with your permission.
Certain information, such as trust and fiduciary information may be subject to additional limitations regarding the sharing of information, both within our family of companies and with third parties.
E. Sharing Information with Third Parties outside our Family of Companies
We may share your information with any third party outside our family of companies as permitted by law or as expressly authorized by you. For example, we may share your information with:
- third parties that help us provide products or services to you, such as companies that print your checks, data processors that work for us, mail companies, or software vendors;
- third parties that assist us in marketing products and services or other financial institutions with which we have joint marketing agreements to enhance our financial product or service offerings;
- consumer reporting agencies;
- third parties to respond to a subpoena, court order or judicial process;
- third parties to pursue a sale, merger, or transfer of all or a portion of a business or operating unit;
- our regulators and auditors; and
- third parties to protect against or prevent fraud, manage risk, or resolve customer disputes.
Whenever third parties provide products or services for us or on our behalf, we require them by contract to maintain appropriate safeguards designed to ensure the security and the confidentiality of the information that we provide them.
You do not have to respond to this notice in any way because we share your information only as permitted by law or as expressly authorized by you.
SPECIAL NOTICE TO VERMONT AND CALIFORNIA CUSTOMERS:
If you have a Vermont or California mailing address, we will automatically limit the disclosure of your information within and outside our family of companies as permitted by applicable law or regulation.
This notice applies to Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania and to RBS Citizens, N.A., which does business through its divisions, including Citizens Bank, Charter One and CCO Mortgage. It excludes RBS Card Services, a division of RBS Citizens, N.A., which has a separate policy. This notice also applies to the following companies within the Citizens Financial Group family: Charter One Mortgage of Delaware, LLC, First Chesapeake Mortgage, LLC, KPF Mortgage, LLC, Southeast Mortgage Group, LLC, Complete Mortgage, LLC, First Choice Mortgage, LLC, First NH Mortgage Corp., Citizens Automobile Finance, Inc., Citizens Automobile Finance Corp., CCO Investment Services Corp., Citizens Financial Services Insurance Agency, Inc., Citizens Insurance Agency of New York, Inc. and other banks or companies that we may acquire or establish from time to time.
Please contact us if you have any questions: If you have any questions regarding this notice, please call us toll-free at 1-877-229-6430 (New England customers) or 1-800-255-6522 (DE, NJ, NY, or PA customers).
At Citizens, we are dedicated to providing you with exceptional service and to ensuring your trust.
Thank you for your business.
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