Effective Date: October 5, 2015

Last Revised: October 22, 2019

Introduction

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati (“FHLB,” the “Company,” “us,” “our” and “we”) respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your information supplied through your use of our website through our compliance with this privacy policy (the “policy”). This policy should be read in conjunction with our website Terms of Use, into which this policy is incorporated by reference.

This policy describes the types of information we may collect from you and other persons who are visitors to our website (“you”) or that you may provide when you visit the public portion of our website https://fhlbcin.com (the “site”) and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information.

This policy applies to information we collect:

  • On this site; and
  • In e-mail, text and other electronic messages between you and this site.

It does not apply to information collected or exchanged by:

  • Us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by FHLB, the nonpublic portions of our site requiring a password to access, or any third party; or
  • Any third party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on the site; or
  • Non-public personal information as that term is defined under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”). Non-public personal information pursuant to GLBA is governed by a different policy.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. By accessing or using this site, you consent to the collection and use of your information by us as set forth in this policy. This policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of this site after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for any revisions.

Information we collect about you and how we collect it

To ensure that we provide you with the best possible experience, we will store, use, and share information about you in accordance with this policy.

Information you provide to us. We collect several types of information from and about users of our site, including personal information. Personal information is any information that can be used to individually identify you from a larger group, such as data including, but not limited to, your:

  • First and last name;
  • Title;
  • Email address;
  • Telephone number;
  • Age;
  • City;
  • State; and
  • Comments or messages provided in free text boxes.

You may provide us personal information when you:

  • Request information about various programs, products, or services;
  • Contact us with a message;
  • Respond to a survey we might ask you to complete for research purposes;
  • Register for an event;
  • Submit an employment application; or 
  • Subscribe to our emails.

Automated information collection. In addition to the information that you provide to us, we may also collect information about you during your visit to our site. We collect this information using automated tools that are detailed below. These tools may collect information about your behavior and your computer system, such as your internet address (IP Address), the pages you have viewed, access times, referring pages, location data, and the actions you have taken while using the site.

The information we collect automatically is statistical data, and does not identify any individual. The information helps us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalized service by enabling us to:

  • Estimate our audience size and usage patterns;
  • Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our site according to your individual interests;
  • Speed up your searches;
  • Make our site more useful, such as improve your user experience, enhance security, and monitor appropriate usage; and
  • Recognize you when you return to our site.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

  • Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer that makes browsing our site easier by saving user preferences. Cookies are usually defined in one of two ways, and we may use both of them: (1) session cookies, which do not stay on your computer after you close your browser, and (2) persistent cookies, which remain on your computer until you delete them or they expire.

    Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our site.

  • Web Beacons. A web beacon is an electronic image. Web beacons can track certain things from your computer and can report activity back to a web server allowing us to understand some of your behavior. If you choose to receive emails from us, we may use web beacons to track your reaction to our emails. We may also use them to track if you click on the links and at what time and date you do so. Some of our third-party marketing partners may use web beacons to track your interaction with online advertising banners on our site. This information is only collected in aggregate form and will not be linked to your personal information. Please note that any image file on a webpage can act as a web beacon.

  • Google Analytics. One trusted third-party partner we engage is Google Analytics. The site sends aggregated non-Personal Information to Google Analytics for the purpose of providing us with the ability to conduct technical and statistical analysis on the site’s performance. For more information on how Google Analytics supports the site and uses information sent from the site, please review Google’s privacy policy available at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

  • Other internal web analytics. The site utilizes aggregated non-Personal Information internally for the purpose of providing us with the ability to conduct technical and statistical analysis on the site’s performance, functionality, and layout. This data is never shared with third-party providers.

  • Embedded web links. Links provided in our emails and, in some cases, on third-party websites may include tracking technology embedded in the link. The tracking is accomplished through a redirection system. The redirection system allows us to understand how the link is being used by email recipients. Some of these links will enable us to identify that you have personally clicked on the link and this may be attached to the personal information that we hold about you (such as your email address). This data is used to improve our service to you and to help us understand the performance of our marketing campaigns.

  • Third-party websites and services. We work with a number of service providers of marketing communications technology. These service providers may use various data collection methods to improve the performance of the marketing campaigns we are contracting them to provide. The information collected can be gathered on our site and also on the websites where our marketing communications are appearing. For example, we may collect data where our banner advertisements are displayed on third-party websites.

How we use your information

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

  • To present our site and its contents to you;
  • Assisting you with items such as personalized experiences, facilitation of product usage, and enforcement of Terms of Use;
  • Preventing malicious activity and providing you with a secure experience;
  • To provide you with information or marketing materials on programs, products or services that you request from us;
  • To fulfill any other purpose for which you provide information;
  • To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;
  • To notify you about changes to our site or any products or services we offer or provide though the information;
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features on our site;
  • In any other way we may describe when you provide the information; and
  • For any other purpose with your consent.

We do not collect personal information unless you choose to provide it to us. For example, you may provide us with such information by email or by filling out a form and submitting it on our site. When you submit such information to us, you consent to our use and disclosure of the information for the purposes for which you have provided it.

Disclosure of your information

We may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We may disclose personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:

  • To our affiliates;
  • To fulfill the purpose for which you provide information;
  • For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information;
  • To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all of FHLB’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding; and
  • With your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information:

  • To comply with any court order, law or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request;
  • To enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements; and
  • If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of FHLB, our customers or others.

There are circumstances where FHLB may decide to buy, sell, or reorganize its business in selected countries. Under these circumstances, it may be necessary to share or receive personal information with prospective or actual partners or affiliates. In such circumstances, FHLB will ensure your information is used in accordance with this policy.

Choices about how we use and disclose your information

We want to provide you with relevant information that you have requested.

If we provide subscription-based services, such as email newsletters, we will allow you to make choices about what information you provide at the point of information collection or at any time after you have received a communication from us while you are subscribed. Any transactional or service-oriented messages are usually excluded from such preferences, as such messages are required to respond to your requests or to provide goods and services, and are not intended for the purposes of marketing.

We will not intentionally send you email newsletters and marketing emails unless you consent to receive such marketing information. After you request to receive these emails, you may opt out of them at any time by selecting the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of each email. Please note that by opting out or unsubscribing you may affect other services you have requested we provide to you, in which email communication is a requirement of the service provided.

Any such communications you receive from us will be administered in accordance with your preferences and this policy.

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. To learn how you can manage your Flash cookie settings, visit the Flash player settings page on Adobe's website.

If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.

Accessing and correcting your information

You may send us an e-mail at info@fhlbcin.com to request access to, correct, or delete any personal information that you may have provided to us. Note that we may not be able to delete your personal information except by also deleting your user account. And we may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

Your California privacy rights

We do not disclose personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We also do not track our customers over time and across third-party websites to provide targeted advertising and therefore do not respond to Do Not Track browser signals. Some third-party sites do keep track of your browsing activities when they provide you with content. You may be able to set the Do Not Track signal on your browser so that such third parties know you do not want to be tracked. For more information, visit http://donottrack.us/.

We also will not disclose or share your personal information with third parties for the purposes of third-party marketing to you without your prior consent.

Children under the age of 13

Our site is not intended or designed to attract children under 13 years of age. No one under age 13 may provide any information to or on the site. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not register on the site, make any purchases through the site, use any of the interactive or public comment features of this site or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address or any screen name or user name you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. FHLB encourages all parents to instruct their children in the safe and responsible use of their personal information while using the Internet. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at info@fhlbcin.com.

For site visitors outside of the United States

Visitors to our site may be located outside of the United States. To provide you with our services, we may store, process, and transmit information in the United States and other locations around the world, including countries that may not have the same privacy and security laws as yours. Regardless of the country in which such information is stored, we will process your personal information in accordance with this policy.

Data security

We have implemented measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration and disclosure. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers behind firewalls with submissions encrypted using SSL technology. Network traffic may be monitored for abuse or criminal activity, and such evidence may be provided to law enforcement and/or regulatory agencies. Any unauthorized attempt to upload or change information on this site is strictly prohibited and may be punishable.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where you have chosen a password for access to certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone and inform us if you think your password was compromised and someone may have used your account.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our site. 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 site.

Changes to our privacy policy

We reserve the right to modify this policy at any time. It is our policy to post any changes we make to our privacy policy on this page with a notice that the privacy policy has been updated on the site home page. Please check this policy regularly for revisions.

Links to other sites

This Privacy Policy only addresses the FHLB public site. This site may contain links to other websites, and once you link to another site you are then subject to the privacy policies of that website. You are encouraged to review the Privacy Policy of that website and any site you visit. We are not responsible or liable for independent actions, policies, privacy practices or content of other websites.

The FHLB website may use social media plugins to our other third-party social media websites to enable you to connect with us in addition to your use of the FHLB public website. When you visit our social media websites, the operator of the social plugin can place a cookie on your computer, enabling that operator to recognize individuals who have previously visited our site. If you are logged into a social media website (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) while browsing on our website, the social plugins allow that social media website to receive information that you have visited our website. FHLB does not control any of the content from the social media plugins, and thus our privacy policy and terms of use do not apply to those social media websites. For more information about social plugins from other social media websites you should refer to those sites' privacy and data sharing statements.

Contact information

To ask questions or comment about this privacy policy and our privacy practices, contact us at info@fhlbcin.com.