June 2012

Your Right to Privacy as an Allband Communications Cooperative Customer…
PRIVACY POLICY OF ALLBAND COMMUNICATIONS COOPERATIVE

OUR COMMITMENT: RESPECT AND PROTECT OUR CUSTOMERS’ PRIVACY

Allband Communications Cooperative is committed to protecting your privacy. Allband Communications Cooperative respects and protects the privacy of our customers. We carefully ensure the confidentiality of each customer’s telephone account and calling information. Our employees are educated about their obligation to safeguard customer information and telephone calls, and are held accountable for any failure to meet their obligations.

The Information We Obtain and How We Use It
Allband Communications Cooperative obtains information about customers that helps us provide service. This information is used for business purposes only. For example, we need to know your name, address and the services you buy from us for billing purposes and to better serve you when you contact our service representative about your account. It may also be beneficial for us to know about your telephone bill, your calling patterns, and whether you have special needs, so that we can offer you the most effective services for your needs when you contact us.

We publish and distribute directories in print. Customer names, addresses and telephone numbers are included in these directories without restriction to their use. Allband Communications Cooperative is required by law to provide customer names, addresses and telephone numbers to unaffiliated directory publishers and directory assistance providers for their use in creating directories and offering directory assistance.

Information typically available from details on a customer’s monthly telephone bill that has been obtained in the normal course of providing telephone service is known as Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI). CPNI might include the type of line, technical characteristics, class of service, current telephone charges, local and long distance billing records, directory assistance charges, usage data and calling patterns. Allband Communications Cooperative does not sell CPNI in any form, including billing records, types of service, and calling habits to third parties. We do not use CPNI for marketing purposes, nor do we provide CPNI to any third party or affiliate, except as required by law or in certain normal courses of business, as explained below.

  • When you dial 911, information about your location may be automatically transmitted to a public safety agency.
  • Certain information about your long distance calls is transmitted to your billing company for billing purposes.
  • Allband Communications Cooperative may use the information to provide inside wiring installation, maintenance, and repair services.
  • As necessary, Allband Communications Cooperative must disclose information to comply with court orders or subpoenas. We will also share information to protect our rights or property and to protect use of our services and other carriers from fraudulent, abusive or unlawful use of services, or if the company believes in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect public safety or to protect the employees and property of Allband Communications Cooperative.
  • Allband Communications Cooperative may also use third parties or contractors to do work for the Company, such as billing services. These third party contractors have the same obligations as our regular employees concerning confidentiality of our customer information. In cases where it is necessary to provide CPNI to a third party or affiliate, Allband Communications Cooperative requires that those parties sign an agreement that they will protect the confidentiality of our customers’ CPNI.
  • To initiate, render, bill and collect for telecommunications services, we may, where permitted by law, provide personal information to credit bureaus, or provide information and/or sell receivables to collection agencies, to obtain payment for our products and services. We will enter into with the company or companies with whom we deal in this regard appropriate confidentiality agreements.

Your Telephone Account Information Rights
Under Federal Law, you have the right to, and we have the duty to protect the confidentiality of your telecommunications service information. Although it is Allband Communications Cooperative’s policy not to use or provide CPNI to others for marketing purposes, under Federal Communication Commission rules, without further authorization from you, we can use CPNI to offer you services of the type you already purchase from us.

As mentioned previously, Allband Communications Cooperative does not currently use or provide CPNI for marketing purposes; however, if we should decide in the future to use or provide CPNI to offer you services that may be different from the type of services you currently buy from us, you will be notified in advance. You will then have the opportunity to tell us you do not want us to use your CPNI for that purpose.

Children
Allband Communications Cooperative does not knowingly collect CPNI or other Personal Information from minors under the age of 18, and will not accept orders from minors without the permission of their parents or guardians.

Services to Enhance Your Privacy
You may choose to have a non-published number that will eliminate your telephone number from Allband Communications Cooperative’s printed directory or directory assistance. The non-published number will not be provided to other directory publishers or directory assistance providers.

You may choose to have a non-listed number. Non-listed numbers are not available in Allband Communications Cooperative’s printed directory, but are publicly available through directory assistance. These numbers may be provided to other directory assistance providers.

You may also choose to exclude partial or all address information from your listings.

Privacy management services, such as Call ID and Call ID blocking, are available to customers.

Website
By using our site, you consent to our privacy policy.

We do not use cookies.

We collect information from you when you fill out a form. When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address, mailing address or phone number. You may, however, visit our site anonymously.

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:

  • To personalize your experience (your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs)
  • To improve our website (we continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you)
  • To improve customer service (your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs)
  • To process transactions (your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or service requested)
  • To administer a contest, promotion, survey or other site feature
  • To send periodic emails
  • The email address you provide for order processing, may be used to send you information and updates pertaining to your order, in addition to receiving occasional company news, updates, related product or service information, etc.

Note: If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include detailed unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email.

Links to Other Sites
Allband Communications Cooperative’s website may provide links to websites maintained by third parties. Allband Communications Cooperative provides these links for your convenience, and makes no endorsements or representations regarding the content, products, features or privacy of any linked website, nor is Allband Communications Cooperative responsible therefore.

Red Flag Rules
Allband Communications Cooperative (“Allband” or “Company”) operating procedures certify that Allband is subject to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) regulations regarding the Red Flag Rules. The Company has created and implemented a Company Handbook (Manual) that will enable all their employees to help identify, detect, and mitigate any instances of Identity Theft or Fraud. The Program that the Company has implemented adheres to all the prerequisites, as established by the FTC in Section 114 of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA) in October of 2007.

Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA)
It is the policy of Allband Communications Cooperative to comply with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, Public Law No. 103-414, 108 Stat. 4279 (1994) (CALEA), with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regulations on implementing the statute.

In particular, it is the policy of Allband Communications Cooperative to ensure that any interception of communications or access to call-identifying information effected within its facilities can be activated only in accordance with appropriate legal authorization, with appropriate Carrier authorization, and with the affirmative intervention of an individual officer or employee of Carrier acting in accordance with regulations prescribed by the FCC. All officers, employees, or agents are required to follow the policies and procedures specified in the Carrier’s CALEA System Security and Integrity Policies and Procedures compliance manual.

Revisions
Allband Communications Cooperative may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. The Company encourages you to review this Privacy Policy each time you visit our website.

This policy was last modified on 6/25/12.

Limitation of Liability
Allband Communications Cooperative operates and maintains a website for the convenience of its customers and visitors and is committed to abiding by the terms of this Privacy Policy. However, the Company does not warrant against breaches of the Privacy Policy and makes no promises to you, express or implied, by posting this Privacy Policy. All services provided by Allband Communications Cooperative are governed by its applicable tariff(s) and service agreements, including limitations of liability contained therein.

Contact Us: Questions, Comments, Concerns
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this statement, you may contact us by calling our business office at (989) 369-9999, toll free at (866) 500-6799, by email at info@Allband.org, or write to us at 7251 Cemetery Road, Curran, MI 48728.