Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: July 1, 2024

This Privacy Policy describes the data protection practices of Farm Credit of the Virginias (“Farm Credit,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). This Privacy Policy applies to information that we collect and use about you when you access or use the Knowledge Center Member Portal, located at www.farmcreditknowledgecenter.com (the “Member Portal”). We refer to the provision of the educational resources available on the Member Portal collectively as the “Services.”

PLEASE READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY CAREFULLY TO UNDERSTAND HOW WE HANDLE YOUR INFORMATION. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY, PLEASE DO NOT ACCESS THE MEMBER PORTAL. BY ACCESSING OR USING THIS MEMBER PORTAL, YOU AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY. THIS POLICY MAY CHANGE FROM TIME TO TIME (SEE TERMS OF USE, NOTICE AND REVISIONS SECTION BELOW). YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THIS MEMBER PORTAL AFTER WE MAKE CHANGES IS DEEMED TO BE ACCEPTANCE OF THOSE CHANGES, SO PLEASE CHECK THE POLICY FREQUENTLY FOR UPDATES.

OUR POLICY TOWARDS CHILDREN

The Member Portal is not directed to persons under 16 and Farm Credit does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from children or knowingly allow such persons to register. If you are under 16, please do not attempt to register for the Member Portal or send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. No one under the age of 16 may provide any personal information to or on the Member Portal.  In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 16 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you become aware that a child has provided us with personal information without appropriate consent, then please contact us using the details below so that we can take the appropriate steps in accordance with our legal obligations and this Privacy Policy.

THE INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT

When you visit the Member Portal, you provide us with website usage information that is collected by us as you interact with the Member Portal. That includes the following:

  1. Automatic Data Collection. 

  • Cookies and Web Logs. When you enter the Member Portal as a visitor, we may collect your browser type and IP address. In addition, we may store certain information from your browser using “cookies.”  A cookie is a data file containing a string of characters that uniquely identifies your browser and is stored on your computer.  We may use cookies to improve the quality of our service by storing user preferences, personalization features and other information about the user.  You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser if you want to disable this convenience feature.  In addition, our web logs automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website.  These web server logs may include information such as the URL of the web page you have requested, your IP address, your browser type, your browser language, the date and time of your request to be served a certain page and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.  We may also record information about the URL from which you came to the Member Portal if the associated website contained a direct link to the Member Portal.
  • Web Beacons. Pages of our Member Portal may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit Farm Credit, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

SEARCH ENGINES AND OTHER SITES

Search engines and other sites not affiliated with Farm Credit – including archive.org, google.com, and groups.yahoo.com – archive or otherwise may crawl the Member Portal and make available content from the Member Portal.

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

Farm Credit may use information about you or your movement or activities within the Member Portal in an anonymous, aggregate manner that does not disclose your identity or any personally identifiable information for purposes of determining how the Member Portal is being used and improving the Member Portal’s content and/or performance. 

DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

We will not share your personal information with any third parties except as described in this Privacy Policy. Farm Credit also does not sell your personal information to third parties for marketing, sales or other purposes.  Farm Credit shares your information with third parties only in the limited circumstances described below, in which Farm Credit believes that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to provide a service, is legally required or is permitted by you.

  • Farm Credit may provide information to Farm Credit’s own employees and service providers to help us operate the Member Portal and to provide the educational services to you that are offered through the Member Portal.  This type of sharing may include disclosures to third parties who host the Member Portal, or otherwise provide back-end services.  These providers will only be able to use such information subject to Farm Credit’s rights to do so and only for the purposes of performing the services that Farm Credit contracts with them to provide on Farm Credit’s behalf. 
  • Farm Credit may be required to disclose personal information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. We do not reveal information unless we have a good faith belief that an information request by law enforcement or private litigants meets applicable legal standards.
  • We may share personal information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law, to protect our interests or property, to prevent fraud or other illegal activity perpetrated through the Member Portal, or to prevent imminent harm to any person or group of people.  This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.

STORING AND TRANSFERRING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

  • SECURITY

Farm Credit is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. We use a variety of up-to date security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store any personal information you provide on computer systems with limited access. When we transmit highly confidential information over the Internet, we protect it through the use of encryption.

Please keep in mind that no internet communication is ever completely secure or error-free. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Member Portal. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Member Portal.

RETAINING YOUR INFORMATION

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of our legitimate business interests and satisfying any legal or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and the applicable legal requirements.

YOUR RIGHTS IN RESPECT OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

In accordance with applicable privacy law, you have the following rights in respect of your personal information that we hold:

  • Right of access and transferability. The right to obtain access to your personal information along with certain information, and to receive that personal information in a commonly used format and to have it transported to another data controller.
  • Right to rectification. The right to obtain rectification of your personal information without undue delay where that personal information is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • Right to delete. The right to have your personal information deleted without undue delay in certain circumstances, such as where the personal information is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or processed.
  • Right to restriction. The right to obtain the restriction of the processing undertaken by us on your personal information in certain circumstances, such as where the accuracy of the personal information is contested by you, for a period enabling us to verify the accuracy of that personal information.
  • Right to object. The right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of your personal information, and to object to processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes, to the extent it is related to such direct marketing.

If you wish to exercise one of these rights, please contact us using the contact details at the end of this privacy policy. Upon request, we will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your personal information. You may access, correct or request deletion of your personal information by contacting us at [email protected]. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

CHOICES AND ACCESS TO INFORMATION

The help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Otherwise, you may choose not to access the Member Portal.

LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

The Member Portal may, from time to time, contain links to and from other websites.  If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies, and Farm Credit does not accept any responsibility or liability for their policies or for the content.  Farm Credit encourages its visitors to be aware when they leave the Member Portal and to read the privacy statements of each website they visit.

TERMS OF USE, NOTICE AND REVISIONS

Your use of the Member Portal, and any disputes arising from it, is subject to this Privacy Policy as well as our Terms of Use. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use at any time. All changes are effective immediately when we post them, and apply to all access to and use of the Member Portal thereafter. Your continued use of the Member Portal following the posting of a revised Privacy Policy means that you accept and agree to the changes. We encourage you to refer to this page on an ongoing basis so that you are aware of and understand our current Privacy Policy. Unless stated otherwise, the current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account.

NOTICE TO YOU

If we need to provide you with information about something, whether for legal, marketing or other business-related purposes, we will select what we believe is the best way to get in contact with you. We will usually do this through email or by placing a notice on our website.

CONTACT INFORMATION

To report any violations of this Privacy Policy or if you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, you may contact Farm Credit’s Data Protection Officer at [email protected] or by writing to us at Privacy Matters, Farm Credits of the Virginias, P.O. Box 899, Staunton, Virginia 24402.