Privacy Policy

At First Federal Bank we are committed to providing our customers and consumers with the highest level of security and privacy. We want to help you understand our commitment to privacy in the use of customer information. We require all bank employees to be trained and informed to know that all customer information is considered private and privileged. We will take all reasonable steps consistent with state and federal laws. Should you terminate your customer relationship, or become an inactive customer of First Federal Bank, know that we will continue to follow the policies described in this notice.

Information Collected
We recognize that consumers have become increasingly concerned about the privacy of their personal information. We collect, retain and use information for providing customer service, products and other opportunities, by complying with legal and regulatory requirements. We may collect nonpublic personal information from the following sources:

• Loan or new account applications disclosed by the consumer or customer;
• Information received from a consumer reporting agency; or others.

Information Shared
To help us anticipate consumer financial goals and needs, we will collect information and may share this data unless instructed otherwise on a confidential basis, so that we can better understand and serve our customers public and nonpublic personal financial needs.

Who Receives Information and Why
First Federal Bank may provide information to consumer reporting agencies and to third parties participating with us to offer financial or other related products. We may provide or disclose specific information about consumers accounts or other business relationships with us when:

• Developing financial products and services;
• Providing advisor assistance;
• Requested or expressively authorized by a customer;
• Required to assert a legal claim; and
• Lawfully permitted or required.
  

Service Providers/Joint Marketing Partners
First Federal Bank may exchange a limited amount of nonpublic information to non-affiliated third party marketing and/or servicing companies, so we may provide you with products and services to meet your growing needs. Information which we might share:

• From a loan or new account application - name, address, social security number, income;
• Information we may receive from a credit report - such as payment history, credit worthiness.
  

How We Protect Your Information
Information we have about our customers is available to our employees and agents on a need to know basis, so they may process their jobs more effectively. We prohibit our employees and agents from giving information about customers to anyone in a manner that would violate any applicable law or privacy policy. We value our banking relationship with our customers. Our goal is to serve our customers as effectively and conveniently as possible, and to make sure they feel confident that information about their banking relationship with us is treated with the utmost care. Should you have any questions please call 309-776-3225 or e-mail us at colchester@first-federal-bank.com.

Security Statement

This Internet Banking System brings together a combination of industry-approved security technologies to protect data for the bank and for you, our customer. It features password-controlled system entry, a VeriSign-issued Digital ID for the bank's server, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol for data encryption, and a router loaded with a firewall to regulate the inflow and outflow of server traffic.

Secure Access and Verifying User Authenticity
To begin a session with the bank's server the user must key in a Log-in ID and a password. Our system, the Internet Banking System, uses a "3 strikes and you're out" lock-out mechanism to deter users from repeated login attempts. After three unsuccessful login attempts, the system locks the user out, requiring either a designated wait period or a phone call to the bank to verify the password before re-entry into the system. Upon successful login, the Digital ID from VeriSign, the experts in digital identification certificates, authenticates the user's identity and establishes a secure session with that visitor.

Secure Data Transfer
Once the server session is established, the user and the server are in a secured environment. Because the server has been certified as a 128-bit secure server by VeriSign, data traveling between the user and the server is encrypted with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. With SSL, data that travels between the bank and customer is encrypted and can only be decrypted with the public and private key pair. In short, the bank's server issues a public key to the end user's browser and creates a temporary private key. These two keys are the only combination possible for that session. When the session is complete, the keys expire and the whole process starts over when a new end user makes a server session.

Router and Firewall
Requests must filter through a router and firewall before they are permitted to reach the server. A router, a piece of hardware, works in conjunction with the firewall, a piece of software, to block and direct traffic coming to the server. The configuration begins by disallowing ALL traffic and then opens holes only when necessary to process acceptable data requests, such as retrieving web pages or sending customer requests to the bank.

Using the above technologies, your Internet banking transactions are secure.

"Phishing" Scams Warning

The practice of "Phishing" involves sending customers seemingly legitimate e-mail requests for account information, often under the pretext of king the customer to verify or reconfirm confidential personal information such as account numbers, social security numbers, passwords, or other sensitive information. Many times intruders flood an area with e-mails saying the bank is changing its website address. Once a customer logs on the new site, the visitor is asked for personal nonpublic information. The ultimate goal of this fraud is to use the information to gain unauthorized access to a customer's bank or financial accounts, or to engage in other illegal acts. First Federal Bank will never request confidential information through e- mail. If any customer receives such a request they are encouraged to report it to their local branch immediately.