Sapelo Southern Bank recognizes the importance our customers place on privacy and the security of their personal information.  Our goal is to protect your personal information in every way that we interact with you, whether it's on the telephone, in our lobby, at one of our ATMs, or on the Internet. 

We think it is important for you to be informed of the policies, procedures, and security measures we have in place to safeguard your personal and confidential information. We have developed this policy to help you to understand the steps we take to protect your personal information. 

Privacy Updates:

New product releases may require changes to our Privacy Policy.  The effective date of our policy will always be clearly displayed.  We will provide our customers copies of our Privacy Policy on an annual basis. If you have agreed to accept disclosures electronically, we may send you an email telling you where the Privacy Policy can be viewed from our website.  

How We Gather Information:

As part of providing financial products or services, we may obtain information about our customers and consumers from the following sources:

• Information we receive from you on applications, emails, or other forms;
• Information you provide when you choose to customize the portal;
• Information about your transactions with us, our affiliates, and others; 
• Information we receive from a consumer-reporting agency; and 
• Information that is generated electronically when you visit our website and use our Internet Banking and Portal services.   

Privacy for Internet Users:

Our commitment to safeguard your privacy also extends to the Internet. If you are just browsing through our website, we do not request any personally identifiable information, nor do we collect unique identifying information about you unless you voluntarily and knowingly provide us that information, such as when you send us an email or complete an application online. If you provide us this information, it is only used internally and in furtherance of the purpose for which it was provided.

Sapelo Southern Bank may collect general information on our website and Portal visitors simply to help us provide banking and other financial services to you online. They collect certain information on our behalf for security and statistical purposes. The information collected for these purposes may include:

• The Internet address (referral site) which brought you to our web site;
• The date and time you access our site;
• The name and version of your web browser;
• The Internet service provider you used when you accessed our site;
• Your Internet Protocol (IP) address; and
• The pages visited in our website and Portal.

Sapelo Southern Bank may use cookies to collect this general information on all website and Portal Visitors.  They also use cookies for security purposes in our Internet Banking product and for customization and personalization of the Portal. 

In the future, we may use aggregate, general, non-personally identifiable information to help us market our products and services that may be of interest you.   

Additional information about IP addresses and cookies are provided below.

Internet Protocol (IP) Addresses:

An IP address is a number that's automatically assigned to your computer whenever you're on the Internet.  Web servers, the computers that "serve up" Web pages, automatically identify your computer by its IP address.

When collecting information for us, Sapelo Southern Bank does not link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable, which means that a user's session will be logged, but the user remains anonymous.

Sapelo Southern Bank may use IP addresses to audit the use of our site. They can and will use IP addresses to identify a user when necessary for security purposes. 

What is a Cookie?

A cookie is a very small text file sent by a web server and stored on your hard drive, your computer’s memory, or in your browser so that it can be read back later.  Cookies cannot “read” information about you from your computer or be used to “steal” information about you; and cookies don’t carry viruses.  Cookies are a basic way for a server to identify you (most cookies actually identify the computer you happen to be using at the time, not you personally). Cookies are used for many things from personalizing start up pages to facilitating online purchases.  Cookies help sites recognize return visitors and they perform a very important function when you engage in secure Internet banking.  For your security, we do not store any of your personal information in our cookies. The cookies used in our Internet banking system and Portal are further described below.  

Internet Banking Cookies:

Our Internet financial services provider, FundsXpress Financial Network, Inc. (FundsXpress) uses encrypted cookies that do not pass to your computer’s hard drive.  Instead, the cookie is stored in your computer’s memory, identifying only your computer while you are logged on. Only FundsXpress can read the information in these cookies. This Internet banking cookie allows FundsXpress to process multiple transactions during your session without requiring you to reenter your pass code for each individual transaction. The cookies for Internet banking simply provide another level of security for our Internet banking product. When you log off, or close your browser, the cookie is destroyed. A new cookie is used for each session. That way, no one can use the prior cookie to access your account. For additional security, the cookie expires after 10 minutes of inactivity. It must then be renewed by reentering your pass code. FundsXpress does not (and cannot) use this cookie to collect or obtain new personal information about you.  You must allow your browser to accept this cookie so you can use the Internet banking system.

Portal Cookies:

Sapelo Southern Bank uses several cookies to provide features within the Portal.  We send a “Web Trends” cookie to all Portal visitors in order to help collect general information on all Portal visitors. This cookie is sent to your computer hard drive and provides us information such as; when you accessed our site, which pages you accessed in the portal, and what Internet provider you used when you accessed our site. The information collected through this cookie is not personally identifiable and is only used for statistical purposes to assist us in our planning process and our marketing program.

When visitors register on the Portal and select the “Remember Me” checkbox, FundsXpress sends additional cookies to your hard drive, which enable you to customize the Portal and bypass the login process each time you revisit the Portal. These cookies are retained on your computer until you either delete them or click on the Logout link within the Portal. These cookies only contain a unique user identification number and do not contain or collect any personally identifiable information.

When registered users login to the Portal, FundsXpress sends an additional cookie called a "per-session" cookie or "server-side" cookie. This "server-side" cookie resides in the browser and is only used by FundsXpress to monitor the session by a unique identification number. This cookie is used for security purposes and you must allow your browser to accept the "server-side" cookie to use the Portal. The cookie is destroyed after eight hours. 

When you click on advertisements of 3rd party merchants within they Portal, they may also send you a cookie to collect general non-personally identifiable information.  You do not have to accept these cookies to use the Portal. 

Disclosure of Information:

• We do not disclose any nonpublic personal information about our customers, former customers, website visitors or portal visitors to anyone, except as permitted by law.

• We must provide certain customer account information to service providers, such as FundsXpress, so that we may process your Internet banking transactions.

• We do not sell any of your personal information.

• We will not disclose any medical information that you provide to us, unless you specifically authorize its disclosure.

Email Policies:

In the future we may send you email notices for certain required disclosures if you choose to accept electronic disclosures or statements.  We may also send you emails to market our products and services that may be of interest you. We may also provide you an opportunity to subscribe to a newsletter; however, we will always provide you an opportunity to opt-in or opt-out of these advertising promotions if required by law.  FundsXpress may send emails as an agent on our behalf.

External 3rd Party Links:

Our Website has numerous links to other 3rd party sites.  These links to external third parties are offered as a courtesy and a convenience to our customers.

This financial institution is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such web sites.  As a general rule, you should always look for and review a site's privacy policy before giving out any personal information.

Third party merchants may collect personal information from you when you visit their sites.  For example, they collect personal information from you when you provide billing information or send them an email.  Some third party merchants may also send you a cookie to collect data on your Internet usage and preferences.  When you click on advertisements at third party sites, the advertising company may also send you a cookie.  With the exception of our service provider, FundsXpress, we do NOT have access to the information collected by any third party, nor can we control how they use this information.  If you have questions or concerns about the privacy policies and practices of these third parties, please review their websites and contact them directly.

Security:

This financial institution has developed strict policies and procedures to safeguard your personal information. We restrict employee access to your sensitive personal information to a "need to know" basis. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations to guard your nonpublic personal information. We educate our employees about the importance of confidentiality and customer privacy.  We take appropriate disciplinary measures to enforce employee privacy responsibilities. We offer secure email through our Internet Banking service.  You should use the secure mail service anytime you send us sensitive personal information.

Our Internet Banking service provider, FundsXpress, has also developed security policies and procedures to protect the customer information that they must collect and maintain to help us process your banking transactions over the Internet. They have developed a top-of-the line security system to ensure your customer information is protected on the Internet and within the FundsXpress environment. For more information on the FundsXpress security measures, please visit their website at www.fundsxpress.com.

Privacy of Children:

Sapelo Southern Bank respects the privacy of children.  We do not knowingly collect names or any other personally identifiable information from children.  We do not knowingly market to children nor do we allow children to open accounts online without parental consent

Questions:

If you would like to know what information we have collected in connection with your use of our products and services, including Internet based products and services, please contact us at (478) 757-8181.

After reviewing the information, if you believe any of the information is in error, contact us either by phone or email webmaster@Sapelosouthernbank.com, or send a letter that explains the alleged discrepancy. If the information is incorrect, we will work with you to ensure your information is promptly updated.

In addition, if you believe any information that this financial institution or FundsXpress has collected about you has been used for an improper purpose; please contact us at webmaster@Sapelosouthernbank.com.   Explain your concerns in as much detail as possible so that we may take any appropriate action.