At SMW Financial Credit Union the basis of each member relationship, many of which span generations, is trust. Since you have chosen to do business with SMW Financial Credit Union, we want to treat that relationship with great care, beginning with the information you have chosen to share with us. We are committed to protecting the personal information of all our members. Protecting your personal information and using it in a manner consistent with your expectations is a high priority for everyone associated with SMW Financial Credit Union. SMW Financial Credit Union collects only personal information that is deemed necessary to verify who you are, conducts your financial transactions, and satisfy certain regulatory requirements.

Security

One of the most important reasons we gather information is to protect you. We need to be able to identify you and your products and services to prevent access by unauthorized persons. Where appropriate, SMW Financial Credit Union uses security encoding techniques to safeguard personal and financial information. All confidential information requested and sent to this site is encrypted. SMW Financial Credit Union provides secure financial services through a protocol known as Secure Socket Layer (SSL). The Secure Socket Layer scrambles meaningful text and numbers into complex algorithmic formulas to create a key that is used to translate the information back into useable content. There are literally billions of potential keys, making your information extremely secure and impossible for an authorized user to read.

When you use SMW FCU E-branch, encryption is automatically enabled. This is called a secure site. To verify if your Internet session is secure, check the key icon on Netscape's browser screen. If the key appears intact, then encryption is activated. If the key is a broken key, then encryption is not in use and the current session is not secure. Microsoft Explorer displays a locked padlock in the lower right corner of the screen to indicate a secured site.

Safeguarding Your Personal Information

SMW Financial Credit Union restricts access to your Credit Union held non-public personal information to those employees who have a specific business purpose in utilizing your information. The Credit Union maintains physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with federal regulations and leading industry practices to safeguard your non-public personal information. Employees receive ongoing training regarding the Credit Union's privacy policy and procedures and member confidentiality.

Sharing Information

The Credit Union occasionally shares member information with third party providers under the strict circumstance of meeting the customer's financial needs. For example to offer members greater convenience and more choices, the Credit Union informs members of new products and services via email, mail and telephone. The Credit Union may also share information with external sources, such as check printing and data processing companies. These companies might, for example, assist the Credit Union with offering you certain products and services or mail your account statements.

The Credit Union chooses only vendors and services providers that acknowledge and adhere to the Credit Unions strict confidentiality requirements. All disclosures are made in accordance with Federal Regulations.

Additional Privacy/Security Information

SMW Financial Credit Union does not collect personal identifying information about visitors to our Internet site although general information is gathered about visitor's browsing activities. This enables the Credit Union to track how a visitor navigates through the site and the areas in which they show interest. This allows the Credit Union to track trends and behaviors of members in general, but does not identify individuals in particular.

Some portions of the SMW Financial Credit Union website, such as E-branch, may require you to disclose personally identifying information and may place "cookies" on your hard drive. Cookies are unique identifiers used to make it easier, quicker and more secure for you to log onto and use the website. A cookie is a nugget of data stored on your hard drive that holds no sensitive information. These cookies do not compromise your privacy.