Digital Privacy Notice
Digital Privacy Notice for United Community Banks, Inc. (United)
Effective as of April 2024At United Community Bank, we take the issue of privacy very seriously. We understand that protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your personal and account information is of the utmost importance. You can be sure that our commitment to protect your financial information will continue under the principles and online guidelines described below.
This Digital Privacy Notice (the “Notice”) applies to your use of the websites, online interfaces, and mobile device applications (collectively, the “Digital Platforms,”) of United Community Banks, Inc. and its affiliates (“United”). The Notice describes how information is collected by and through the Digital Platforms and how that information may be used and shared. The Notice applies regardless of whether you are using a desktop computer, laptop, smart phone, electronic tablet, or other electronic device. For purposes of this Notice, the terms “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to United Community Bank. The terms “you,” “your,” and “yours” refer to any natural person who accesses or uses a Digital Platform for personal, family, or household purposes. By using or accessing any Digital Platform, you confirm your agreement to the terms of this Notice as may be in effect at that time.
Certain Digital Platforms may have separate privacy notices or terms and conditions that are specific to those Digital Platforms, and when you use or access those Digital Platforms those separate privacy notices or terms and conditions will apply and will control with respect to the matters addressed therein in the event of a conflict with the terms of this Notice. If you are a United customer, you should also review our customer Privacy Notice, which more broadly governs United’s handling of your personal information.Information We Collect Through Our Digital Platforms
United collects data to be able to best serve your needs. The personal information we collect depends on the types of financial products you are seeking and allows our teams to determine how to best support your financial goals. We collect personal information when you use our Digital Platforms to apply for, obtain, or use our products and services, to make inquiries about our products and services, or to provide information and feedback about our products and services. In connection with your use of our Digital Platforms, products, and services, we may ask for, and you may provide, personal information in forms, surveys, applications, and online fields, or you may authorize us to collect personal information from third party sources.
We may collect and use personally identifiable information through our Digital Platforms, including information you provide directly when completing forms or transacting with us, such as your name, your home address, your email address, your telephone number, your social security number, your account number, or transaction information.
We may collect information regarding your mobile device such as device settings, unique device identifiers, information about your location, and analytical information that may assist with diagnostics and performance.
For your convenience, you may be asked to grant permission for access to your mobile device’s geolocation data. This information may be collected when you use certain services that are dependent on your mobile device’s location (such as the location of an ATM or in-branch transactions). Additionally, we will collect location data even when the app is closed or not in use, to provide our fraud detection services. If you do not want us to collect this information, you may decline the collection of your location when prompted or adjust the location service settings on your device.
For your convenience, you may be asked to grant permission to access your mobile device’s camera to support capturing a check image to complete a mobile deposit. For your convenience, you may be asked to grant permission to access your mobile device’s contacts to load your contact list as a recipient list for person-to-person payments.
In addition, we may collect certain information about your use of our online services. For example, we may capture the IP address of the device you use to connect to the online service, the type of operating system and browser you use, geolocation and other location information transmitted by your device, information obtained from cookies that have been placed on your device or internet browser at our Digital Platforms or at other websites you have visited, demographic information, aggregated information, blind information about how you use our products and services and about the transactions you perform using our products and services, and other information obtained through your access to or use of a Digital Platform. We may supplement the information we collect from you with information we receive about you from other sources, such as credit reporting agencies.
How We Use Personal Information and Other Information
We may use the information we obtain:
- to respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests;
- to complete transactions and render services authorized by you;
- to inform you about important information regarding the Digital Platform, products or services for which you apply or may be interested in applying for, or in which you are already enrolled, changes to terms, conditions, and policies and/or other administrative information;
- to deliver marketing communications that we believe may be of interest to you, including, ads or offers tailored to you;
- to personalize your experience on the Digital Platform;
- to allow you to apply for products or services and evaluate your eligibility for such products or services;
- to verify your identity and/or location in order to allow access to your accounts, conduct online transactions and to maintain measures aimed at preventing fraud and protecting the security of account and personal information;
- to allow you to participate in surveys and other forms of market research, sweepstakes, contests and similar promotions and to administer these activities. to allow you to use some Digital Platform financial planning tools. Information that you enter into one of these planning tools may be stored for future access and use. You have the option not to save the information;
- to support our business purposes, including data analysis, audits, developing and improving products and services, enhancing the Digital Platform, identifying usage trends and determining the effectiveness of promotional campaigns;
- to control risks, for fraud detection and prevention, to comply with laws and regulations, and to comply with other legal process and law enforcement requirements;
- to allow you to utilize features within our Digital Platforms by granting us access to information from your device such as contact lists, or geo-location when you request certain services.
Protecting Your Personal Information
United uses commercially reasonable physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards security measures to protect personal information collected through the Digital Platforms. These measures include device safeguards and secured files and buildings. Please note that information you send to us electronically may not be secure when it’s transmitted to us. We recommend that you do not use unsecure channels to communicate sensitive or confidential information (such as your Social Security number) to us.
In the event we share information with third party service providers or joint marketers, we restrict the ability of such parties to use or disclose the information we furnish. We also require such parties to apply appropriate security measures to protect information. We retain your information for as long as needed: (i) to conduct business with you; (ii) as needed for the purposes outlined in this Notice or at the time of collection; or (iii) as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce any agreements. Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be absolutely secure, and we disclaim any representation or warranty that our information security systems or those of our service providers and joint marketers are invulnerable to breach or compromise.