Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston Online Privacy Policy

This policy does not apply to information exchanged on private sections of FHLBankBoston's Site that require a password to access. Your use of those private sections, and the treatment of information exchanged therein, are governed by the relevant agreements between you and FHLBank Boston and any privacy statement specifically covering those sections of our Site. If you would like information about the services available in the private portions of our Site, or the registration process for those services, please contact our Customer Service group at customerservice@fhlbboston.com. Please note, those services are, by law, only available to eligible financial institutions and their employees (“Members”).

Throughout this privacy policy we use several specialized terms. The term "you" applies to users of the public portions of our Site. "Personally Identifiable Information" is information that tells us sensitive, non-public information regarding individuals, like a person's social security number, bank account number and certain financial information. "User Information" means all Personally Identifiable Information and any other forms of information supplied by you through the Site such as your email address, street address or the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer.

You may browse portions of the Site that do not require entry of login credentials without registration, and without actively entering Personally Identifiable Information. However, certain information may be provided automatically by your web browser or application when entering or utilizing the Site, including, as examples: IP addresses; other device identifiers; browser types; operating systems; access dates and times; and referring and exiting URLs. We may use this information to measure the number of visitors to sections of the Site, to determine from where our visitors linked and to where our visitors link from the Site, and to help us make the Site more useful. For example, we may organize and analyze IP addresses so that we can provide efficient service, improve your user experience, enhance security, monitor usage and produce traffic volume statistics. This type of information may be shared with third parties on an aggregated basis, such as if we choose to disclose site traffic information for marketing or other commercial purposes. The FHLBank Boston does not use this information alone or in combination with other information to develop consumer profiles.

When using our Site, you may contact us to request information about FHLBank Boston or our products and services. Members or other users of our Site may also be able to sign up for seminars, request specific information about programs, or register or apply for various programs or services. In choosing these options, you may provide us with user information that we use to send you the information, evaluate and process your request or application, or provide you with the services you request. We may share this information with third parties to facilitate the offering of such services or enhance your use of the Site. We may also use such information to send you additional marketing and informational materials about our programs, services, and products.

We will not share any Personally Identifiable Information with third parties, except as permitted by law. Those permitted exceptions include, for example, disclosures: (i) to protect the confidentiality or security of your records; (ii) to our attorneys, accountants, auditors or other third parties providing services to FHLBank Boston; (iii) to law enforcement or other government officials or agencies; (iv) to consumer reporting agencies; or (v) in connection with a sale, reorganization or merger of FHLBank Boston. We require third parties to whom we disclose your Personally Identifiable Information to take measures to keep that information confidential. We also maintain and require various security measures designed to protect this information.

If you are a California resident, please refer to the notice below for additional information about your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018.

Cookies are small text files that our Site may send to your browser for storage on the hard drive. Cookies can make use of our Site easier by saving users' status and preferences upon visits to our site. Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies, but a user may be able to change the settings to refuse cookies or to be alerted when cookies are being sent. Although you may have the ability to modify your browser and reject certain cookies, such actions may affect your use of certain portions of the Site.

This privacy policy only addresses the use and disclosure of information collected by us through this Site. If you disclose information to other parties, different rules may apply to those parties' use or disclosure of such information regardless of their affiliation or relationship with us. Because we do not control the privacy practices of third parties, you are subject to the privacy customs and policies of those third parties. A user of this Site that links to another website will be subject to the privacy policy of that website. We encourage you to ask questions and review the applicable privacy policy before disclosing information to third parties. We have no responsibility or liability for the independent actions or policies of independent sites and are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of such sites.

FHLBank Boston is committed to protecting the privacy of its Members and their customers by maintaining the confidentiality of nonpublic personal information (as that term is defined in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 and the various implementing federal regulations) as detailed in each Member’s respective Correspondent Services Agreement. FHLBank Boston's practices for safeguarding the privacy of any nonpublic personal information received by FHLBank Boston from or on behalf of Members are summarized below. These key practices represent a variety of processes and procedures implemented by FHLBank Boston for the handling of such information and are stated here to assist Members with their required regulatory compliance.

• FHLBank Boston does not disclose nonpublic personal information about Members' customers to third parties, other than for purposes or in a manner authorized by the Member or required for legal, accounting or regulatory purposes, or to third parties that are providing services to FHLBank Boston. FHLBank Boston requires such third-party service providers to comply with all applicable privacy laws and keep any nonpublic personal information of Members' customers confidential.
  
• FHLBank Boston maintains administrative, physical and electronic safeguards to help protect the confidentiality of nonpublic personal information received from Members about their customers.
  

We may from time to time change this privacy policy. All revisions to the privacy policy will be posted on our Site, other places we deem appropriate, and where otherwise required under applicable law. Your continued use of the Site will constitute acceptance of the then-current privacy policy. Please check this privacy policy regularly for any revisions.

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the “CCPA”) (see California Civil Code Section 1798.100 et seq.), covered businesses that collect the personal information of California residents must provide notice regarding their data collection and sharing practices. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston (“FHLBank Boston”) provides such notice in our Online Privacy Policy listed above. In addition, the CCPA confers upon California residents the right to make certain requests with respect to their data. This notice is pursuant to CCPA.

The specific Personal Information, as defined in the CCPA, that we collect, use, and disclose relating to a California resident covered by the CCPA will vary based on our relationship or interaction with that individual. For example, this notice does not apply with respect to information that we collect about California residents through our Members who apply for or obtain our financial products and services (i.e., information subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act). For more information about how we collect, disclose, and secure information relating to our members, please refer to our Online Privacy Policy listed above.

Keeping Personal Information secure is one of our most important priorities. Consistent with our obligations under applicable laws and regulations, we maintain physical, technical, electronic, procedural and organizational safeguards and security measures that are designed to protect personal data against accidental, unlawful, or unauthorized destruction, loss, alteration, disclosure, or access, whether it is processed by us or elsewhere.

As permitted by applicable law, FHLBank Boston does not treat de-identified data or aggregate consumer information as Personal Information, and we reserve the right to convert, or permit others to convert, Personal Information into de-identified data or aggregate consumer information. We have no obligation to re-identify such information or retain it longer than we need to respond to requests. This data minimization process is considered a privacy best practice aligned with our mission to respect our Members’, their customers’, and your privacy. 

If you are a California resident, you have the right to:

Request that we disclose to you the following information covering the 12 months preceding your request (“request to know”): (a) the categories of Personal Information that we collected about you and the categories of sources from which we collected such Personal Information; (b) the business or commercial purposes for collecting Personal Information about you; (c) the categories of Personal Information about you that we disclosed to third parties for a business purpose and the categories of third parties to whom we disclosed such Personal Information; and (d) the specific pieces of Personal Information we collected about you;

• Request that we delete Personal Information that we collected from you, subject to applicable exceptions (“request to delete”). As stated above and in our Online Privacy Policy, we do not sell your Personal Information; and
• Be free from unlawful discrimination for exercising your rights under the CCPA.
• You also have the right to designate an authorized agent to make a request under the CCPA on your behalf. If you wish to designate an authorized agent, FHLBank Boston requires a valid power of attorney with express powers under the CCPA.

In some instances, we may not be able to honor your request. For example, we will not honor your request if we cannot verify your identity or confirm that the Personal Information that we maintain relates to you, or if we cannot verify that you have the authority to make a request on behalf of another individual. Additionally, we may not honor your request where an exception applies, such as where the disclosure of Personal Information would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of another individual or where the Personal Information that we maintain about you is not subject to the CCPA’s rights.  We will advise you in our response if we are not able to honor your request.

Consistent with the CCPA and our mission to protect your privacy, FHLBank Boston will not deliver full Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, other government-issued identification numbers, financial account numbers, any health or medical identification numbers, account passwords, or security questions or answers in response to any CCPA request.

If you are a California resident (or an authorized agent thereof), you may, no more than twice in any twelve-month period, make a request for the disclosures described above or make a request to delete Personal Information we collected from you by using one of the below methods.

1. Members or others who have a direct relationship with FHLBank Boston may ask to obtain a "request to know" or "request to delete" form and submit the request by calling Customer Service at 1-800-357-3453 (option 3).
2. Mail a notarized copy of the request to FHLBank Boston at 800 Boylston Street, 9th Floor, Boston, MA 02199, Attn: General Counsel.
   

Upon submission of your request, we will take steps to verify your identity, which may include contacting you by mail, email, or telephone. The verification steps will vary depending on your relationship with FHLBank Boston. We will put forth a good faith effort to respond to your request within 45 days pursuant to the CCPA. If we require more information or more time respond to your request, we will reach out to you.