Privacy & Security

Your privacy and security is serious business. We take rigorous measures to ensure that your accounts and your identity are protected, and that your personal information is safe.

View our Online Privacy Policy

Online Privacy Policy

Online Security

To ensure your security and protect your confidential information, Community Bank of the Bay uses a layered approach to security. We have fraud monitoring in place that reviews all activity looking for behaviors that are out of the norm. Please contact us the moment you encounter a threat or suspect suspicious activity that could compromise your accounts, so we can take additional steps to protect you.

In the meantime, here are some tips you can use to protect yourself:

  • Don’t open links or attachments in emails unless you know the sender
  • Be cautious about all links online, and research suspicious websites
  • Change passwords often, using long, complex passwords whenever possible
  • Always use updated antivirus software and a firewall
  • Secure your home wireless network with a complex password and disconnect it when not in use
  • Enable pop-up blockers and clear cookies from your browser regularly
  • Regularly backup important content from your computer
  • Learn about phishing, and stay informed about emerging scams
  • Secure your personal information to avoid identity theft
  • Secure your mobile device using these 12 tips
device security

Online Security

Business Security

Cybercriminals often target small businesses for fraud. They know that your security systems may be vulnerable, and they know your employees are often multi-tasking and wearing multiple hats.

Are you training your employees to lookout for “CEO email scams?” The most prevalent scam today doesn’t generally involve hacking at all. Fraudsters can easily spoof your CEO or CFO’s email address and send emails to internal staff asking them to send funds out of your accounts. As most employees are eager to respond quickly to requests from management, if the request and the imposter sounds reasonable, they won’t question the request and send the funds out. Every one of your employees should know to question any requests to send money anywhere.

Follow these best practices to protect your business

computer screen

Business Security

Identity Theft

Identity theft is a form of fraud where a criminal uses your name and personal information to obtain credit, loans or cash. Research shows that identity theft occurs more often offline than online. Managing your financial activities online puts you in control and reduces risk of unauthorized access to your personal information.

What to do if your identity is stolen (PDF)?

identity theft protection

Identity Theft

Online Privacy Policy

This section explains our policy regarding any personal information you might supply to us when you visit this site. Our goal is to protect your information online in the same way that we protect it elsewhere (in-branch, at ATMs, and on the phone).

You can visit this site and find out about our products and services, read our corporate reports, check on career opportunities, or get a news update and other value-added services without giving us any information about yourself.

If you do provide personal information, such as address, e-mail, telephone, and fax numbers, as well as demographic and customer identification, we will not disclose (share, sell or divulge) it to third parties without your consent except as already explained in our privacy statement. We will maintain this information, as well as your business activities and transactions, according to our usual strict security and confidentiality standards.

Community Bank of the Bay does not accept any responsibility for the security of or any losses incurred as a result of your sharing your personal account information (such as usernames, passwords, and PINs) with any unaffiliated third party for account aggregation purposes.

Tips for Securing Online Financial Transactions

Conduct financial transactions first in any online session. After completing financial transactions online, especially those that include providing a credit card number, log off before continuing other online activity. This may help to protect your confidential data (account numbers, passwords, etc.).

Protect your PINs and passwords! Create PINs and passwords that do not use readily identifiable information like names, birth dates, personal numbers or familiar words.

When applying online for any financial account, ensure that you are dealing with a reputable, federally insured institution with secure pages.

Learn about your financial institution’s capabilities for secure online financial services. All online contact with the institution should be through its secured web pages.

Notify us immediately of any changes in your account information.

Information About Cookies

In order to provide better service, we will occasionally use a “cookie.” A cookie is a small piece of information that a website stores on your web browser on your PC and can later retrieve. The cookie cannot be read by a website other than the one that set the cookie. We use cookies for a number of administrative purposes, for example, to store your preferences for certain kinds of information or to store a password so that you do not have to input it every time you visit our site. None will contain information that will enable anyone to contact you via telephone, e-mail, or “snail mail.” You can set up your web browser to inform you when cookies are set or to prevent cookies from being set. Cookies facilitate certain features that can make the surfing experience more convenient and valuable for web users. This is useful for having your browser remember some specific information, which the web server can later retrieve. As you browse the web, some cookies are “set” on your web browser. When you quit your browser, some cookies are stored in your computer’s memory in a cookie file, while some expire, or disappear. Most cookies last only through a single session, or visit. All cookies have expiration dates. The cookie is set on a particular browser on a particular computer, so when you use a different computer, the cookie will not exist. Instances where cookies are most commonly used include:

Ordering Online
Online ordering systems can use cookies that remember what a person wants to buy. Cookies enable users to keep browsing and adding to their “shopping cart.” They can even end a browser session, come back, and still have the same items in their carts from the last session, if they so choose.

Registering Online
If you decide to register for an informational site, such as a newspaper, periodical or an interest group site, or even a chat group or online community, you will likely be asked to supply some information about yourself so that you can use the service on a regular basis. Often cookies are used so that you do not have to identify yourself every time you re-enter the site

Site Personalization
Cookies allow users to indicate what types of information they are interested in receiving when they visit a particular site.

Website Tracking
Tracking allows site owners to find out what pages visitors link to, and interpret or infer what is interesting to them. This helps the owners of sites keep their content fresh and relevant.

Targeted Marketing
Cookies can be used to build a profile of where on a particular site you visit. This information is then used to target advertising that might be of interest to you. Some sites use cookies to “remember” which advertisements were sent to you, so that you do not see the same ones again.

Security
Cookies cannot be shared between web servers. Cookies can however, be used to obtain data from your hard drive, get your email address, or steal sensitive or personal information about you without your knowledge. Computer viruses are not passed through the setting or use of cookies. If you, as a visitor, want to disallow cookies you can do so in your web browser. Please be advised that cookies should be considered as sensitive data, and you should protect yourself from unauthorized access to them.

General Privacy Policy

Effective February 8, 2024

Facts:    What does Community Bank of the Bay do with your personal information?

Why?    Financial Companies choose how they share your personal information.  Federal law gives consumers the right to limit some but not all sharing.  Federal law also requires us to tell you how we collect, share and protect your personal information.  Please read this notice carefully to understand what we do.

What?   The types of personal information we collect and share depend on the product or service you have with us.  When you are no longer our customer, we continue to share your information as described in this notice.  This information can include:

  • Social Security Number
  • Account Balances
  • Transaction History
  • Credit History
  • Payment History
  • Wire Transfer Instructions

When you are no longer our customer, we continue to share your information as described in this notice.

How?    All financial companies need to share customers’ personal information to run their everyday business.  In the section below, we list the reasons financial companies can share their customers’ personal information, the reasons Community Bank of the Bay choose to share and whether you can limit this sharing.

Reasons we can share your personal information

Does Community Bank of the Bay share? Can you limit the sharing?
For our everyday business purposes – Such as to process transactions, maintain your account(s), respond to court orders and legal investigations or report to credit bureaus Yes No
For our general communication purposes – To facilitate mailing communications on our behalf Yes No
For our marketing purposes – To offer products and services to you No We don’t share
For joint marketing with other financial companies
No We don’t share
For our affiliates everyday business purposes – Information about your transactions and experiences Yes No
For our affiliates everyday business purposes – Information about credit worthiness No We don’t share
For our affiliates to market to you No We don’t share
For our non-affiliates to market to you No We don’t share

Who we are

Who is providing this notice? To protect your personal information from unauthorized access and use, we use security measures that comply with federal law. These measures include computer safeguards and secured files and buildings.

What we do

How does Community Bank of the Bay protect my personal information? To protect your personal information from unauthorized access and use, we use security measures that comply with federal law. These measures include computer safeguards and secured files and buildings.
How does Community Bank of the Bay collect my personal information?

We collect your personal information, for example, when you:

  • Open an account or deposit money
  • Pay your bills or apply for a loan
  • Use your debit card

We also collect personal information from others, such as credit bureaus or other companies.

Why can’t I limit all sharing?

Federal law gives you the right to limit only:

  • Sharing information about your creditworthiness with affiliates for everyday business purposes
  • Affiliates from using your information to market to you
  • Sharing for non-affiliates to market to youState law and individual companies may give you additional rights to limit sharing; please see below.

Definitions

Affiliates

Companies related by common ownership or control. They can be financial or non- financial companies.

  • Bay Community Bancorp is the Holding Company for Community Bank of the Bay.
Non Affiliates

Companies not related by common ownership or control. They can be financial and non- financial companies.

  • Community Bank of the Bay does not share information with non-affiliates so they can market to you.
Joint Marketing

A formal agreement between nonaffiliated financial companies that together market financial products or services to you.

  • Community Bank of the Bay does not currently have any joint marketing agreements.

Other Important Information

For California Customers. We will not share personal information with nonaffiliates either for them to market to you or for joint marketing – without your authorization. We will also limit our sharing of personal information about you with our affiliates to comply with all California privacy laws that apply to us.

Questions?         Call (510)433-5400

Download or Print our Privacy Notice

Need More Info? Contact Us