Our Privacy Policy
DCU is a not-for-profit, member-owned financial cooperative. We only exist to serve you and your fellow members and help you achieve financial well-being. For you to allow your credit union to serve you, we must earn your confidence and trust. As you should expect, the privacy of your personal financial information is extremely important to us. We take significant steps to protect your privacy so we can maintain your trust – and, it’s the right thing to do.
The information below explains our policies for using and protecting the personal financial information you entrust to us.
At DCU, your information is not for sale
We do not and will not sell mailing lists or the financial information of our members.
All information we must share with third-party service providers is protected
In the course of providing and administering the products and services you use, we do share some information with our service providers (see more details below). All of our information sharing is protected by contractual non-disclosure agreements that address the confidential nature of all of our member information. They require strict measures to protect the privacy of that information. In addition, ALL of these contractual provisions are specifically worded to survive the termination of every contract. This means that we have protected your information both now and at any future point in time.
Collection and disclosure of personal information
When you apply for a product or service, you provide personal information necessary for us to process your application. In order to fulfill your requests and continue to maintain your membership effectively, we retain and may share information we learn about you from the following sources: information we receive from you on applications (paper and on-line) or other forms such as your name, address, Social Security Number; information about your transactions with us such as your payment history and credit card usage; information we receive from consumer reporting agencies such as credit history. See additional details below.
Sharing information with third-party service providers
By using the services of reputable companies, we can provide you state-of-the-art products and services we would not be able to provide you on our own. In all cases where we use third-party service providers to help us serve you, contract provisions and our due diligence protect the privacy of all member information shared. Generally, we share your nonpublic personal information with nonaffiliated third parties to complete transactions or maintain accounts and related records. We limit the information shared to only what is absolutely necessary to provide the service to you. Here are some examples of third-party service providers we use…
We may also share information with select nonaffiliated third parties if: you request or authorize it, such as a deposit verification, or the information is necessary to process a transaction initiated by you, such as a Visa® Credit Card purchase, ATM withdrawal, or transaction at a CU Service Center® location.
DCU enters into arrangements only with businesses we believe provide a quality product or service and who follow strict confidentiality requirements to assure they are legally bound to safeguard any information that is shared with them.
Credit reporting
Without using and sharing information with credit reporting agencies as virtually all lenders do, DCU would be unable to meet the mortgage and consumer loan needs of our members. DCU has a fiduciary responsibility to protect the assets of your credit union from losses. As a result, we make use of data supplied by credit reporting firms to help ensure members we lend money to or give a checking account to will fulfill their financial obligations.
In exchange for access to this data, we are required by contract to report back to these agencies on what loans members have with us and if they are repaying their loans on time. The use and reporting of credit information is regulated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. DCU follows the letter and the spirit of these regulations. We make every effort to ensure credit information we report is accurate and up to date.
Group benefit providers, surveys, consulting, and election firms
We may occasionally provide information to reputable non-affiliated third parties to give you access to products you have requested that are not offered directly by DCU, often at a reduced cost. For example, as a DCU member, you’re eligible for a certain amount of FREE Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance and reduced cost additional coverage through Progeny Marketing Innovations.
From time to time, we contract with financial institution consulting and survey firms. They may survey your opinions on our behalf or analyze financial data to help us identify trends and determine what future services may be of value to you.
DCU’s Board of Directors is made up of unpaid member volunteers elected by you. Each year, we hire an experienced firm that specializes in board elections to print, mail, receive, validate, and tabulate the ballots under the supervision of an independent accounting firm. We do share member information so that the firm can positively identify eligible voters. Upon completion of the election, with the approval of members at the annual meeting, all ballots are destroyed.
Information we must report to government agencies or the courts
As a financial institution, we may be required by law or regulation to disclose personal financial information to government agencies, law enforcement, or the courts. Here is a summary of what we disclose under these circumstances:
- Tax reporting – By law, we must report information on your dividends, Individual Retirement Account contributions, and real estate loan interest to the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS requires this reporting include your name, address, and Social Security Number (or tax I.D. number). This same information is provided to you in accordance with the IRS requirements to assist in preparation of you tax returns.
- Loans secured by real property – By law, any loan secured by a home or land (such as a mortgage or home equity loan) must be recorded with the local government – typically a county government. This information includes the name of the borrower(s), address of the property, the name of the financial institution, and the amount of the loan. DCU must follow these local laws as do all mortgage lenders.
Unfortunately, once recorded, the information becomes public record and is usually accessible to anyone. Various businesses compile and sell this public record information to other firms who may use it to market mortgage insurance, mortgage refinancing, and other services to you. Be wary of any mail solicitations that mention DCU, but do not have the DCU logo or our address. Please report anything suspicious to DCU so we can take action if warranted. - Loans secured by vehicles – By law, any loan secured by a titled vehicle is recorded with the state Registry of Motor Vehicles or similar agency. Our security interest is noted on the title. DCU follows applicable state laws when filing a security interest. Only the fact that we have a security interest in the vehicle is shared. Unfortunately, some state agencies still sell access to motor vehicle registration information to marketers and automotive companies.
- Court order – There are instances when we may be ordered by a court of law to provide certain account information. This is usually the result of a court proceeding that you have been involved with and are therefore aware of.
Security of Information
We take security seriously. And, while we continue providing you convenient new methods by which to access your account, we realize there are a number of precautions we must take to safeguard the information you are transmitting. Transmissions between your PC and the PC Branch file servers, for example, are encrypted so that the information you enter can only be deciphered by DCU. We have incorporated email into our PC Branch product so that too is secure. We have also disabled account information pages in PC Branch from being able to be stored in your computer's cache, a common PC feature that enables you to return to pages more quickly. This means once you have exited PC Branch, no one can use your browser's back button to view those pages previously displayed.
We restrict the level of access our employees have to your membership based on their responsibilities and hold them to high levels of confidentiality. In addition, we maintain physical, electronic, and procedural protections that comply with federal regulations to guard your nonpublic personal information and privacy.
Opt-Out
You may have seen or heard the term opt-out in articles or on the news in relation to privacy laws. An opt-out method is required to be provided by any institution sharing customer or member information in a manner that is not allowed for within the privacy laws. The opt-out effectively removes that customer or member’s information from sharing processes. DCU currently only shares information as is allowed in the privacy laws. We NEVER sell our member information and only share it within the context of providing services to you.
Our confidentiality agreements include provisions preventing any third-party we deal with from contacting you in any manner outside of the terms of the agreement. Therefore, DCU does not currently provide an opt-out option. We do not intend to alter our current practices but rest assured that if we do, we will provide an opt-out method and make sure you that are given notice and more than adequate time to respond.
Discontinuation of Direct Mail Communications
We DO provide you with a method to discontinue receiving any of our mailed member communication pieces. We use these to keep you informed of the benefits of DCU membership as we try to help you achieve financial well-being. We hope you find them worthwhile especially because the ideas behind many of these mailings come directly from our members. If you do decide to discontinue receiving DCU promotional pieces, you will cease receiving the following from us:
- Mailed offers of credit union products
- Loans approved for you in advance
- Mailed credit union newsletters including special coupons
- Statement inserts not sent to all members
- Mailed offers we provide for third-party financial services
If you wish to stop receiving these mailings, send an email to dcu@dcu.org with Discontinue DCU Promotions in the subject line. Please include your name and member number in the body of the message. You can also call us or mail this information to:
Digital Federal Credit Union
Marketing Department
PO Box 9130
Marlborough, MA 01752-9130
Marketing Department
PO Box 9130
Marlborough, MA 01752-9130
Accuracy of Information
We strive to make sure our records contain accurate information. Inaccurate information, when brought to our attention, is corrected promptly. We request that you keep your personal information with us, including the often forgotten phone number, as current as possible so that you may take advantage of all that DCU has to offer. You can check your current address and phone number on file by logging into PC Branch and looking at the top of the Account Access page. You can give us updating instructions while you are on line. Or call our Information Center to verify your personal information.
We Care About Your Privacy and You
Again, we take our member’s privacy very seriously. We do not however, have control of the privacy practices of other institutions or web sites. We strongly advise you to review the privacy policies of any other institution or web site you visit including those you've heard about through us. Learn about ways to protect yourself by visiting our StreetWise Privacy Protection and Fraud Prevention site.
Our privacy policy and practices apply whether you are an active DCU member, an inactive member, or a former DCU member.
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Digital Federal Credit Union
220 Donald Lynch Boulevard PO Box 9130 Marlborough, MA 01752-9130 508.263.6700 • 800.328.8797 |
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© 2008. Digital Federal Credit Union