The mission of HomeStar Bank and all of its affiliates is to help you meet your personal financial goals by providing you with the appropriate products and services. To accomplish this, and to help us anticipate your needs, HomeStar Bank and its affiliates (HomeStar Insurance Services and HomeStar Title Company) share authorized information about you with each other on a confidential basis. This allows us to understand your financial needs better.

While information is the cornerstone of our ability to provide superior service, our most important asset is our customers trust. Keeping customer information secure, and using it only as our customers would want us to, is a top priority for everyone at HomeStar Bank.

We, our, and us, when used in this notice, mean HomeStar Bank.

This is our privacy notice for our customers. When we use the words "you" and "your" we mean the following types of customers:

•  Our consumer customers who have a continuing relationship by purchasing or holding financial products or services such as a(n):

• Deposit account
• Loan account
• Safe deposit box
• Retail installment contract we hold and service
• Insurance policies issued by or through us
• Self-directed Individual Retirement Account
• Financial, investment, or economic advisory services
• Securities
• Annuities
• Mutual fund
• Brokerage account

We will tell you the sources of the information we collect about you. We will tell you what measures we take to secure that information.

We will tell you what information we share about you with other entities. We will explain what your rights are, and how you can exercise them. If you share an account relationship with someone else, such as a joint account holder or co-borrower, we suggest that you share this information with such persons to ensure that each of you is aware of our policy and your options.
We first define some terms.

Nonpublic personal information means information about you that we collect in connection with providing a financial product or service to you. Nonpublic personal information does not include information that is available from public sources, such as telephone directories or government records. Hereafter, we will use the term "information" to mean nonpublic personal information as defined in this section.

An affiliate is a company we own or control, a company that owns or controls us, or a company that is owned or controlled by the same company that owns or controls us. Ownership does not mean complete ownership, but means owning enough to have control.

A nonaffiliated third party is a person we do not employ or a company that is not an affiliate of ours. This is also known as nonaffiliated third party, or simply, an "other party".

Opt out means a choice you can make to prevent certain sharing of information. We will explain how you can exercise this choice.

We collect information about you from the following sources:

• Information you give us on applications or other forms
• Information about your transactions with us
• Information about your transactions with our affiliates
• Information about your transactions with other parties
• Information from a consumer reporting agency
• Information we receive as a result of verifying customer information

We restrict access to information about you to those employees who need to know that information to provide products or services to you. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect this information.

We may disclose information about you to our affiliates. Here are the kinds of information and the source of that information:

Transaction and experience information from our account records:

• Information about your transactions and experience with us, such as:

• Name
• Address
• Account balances
• Account activity
• Types of accounts
• Parties to the transaction
• Credit card usage
• Payment history
• Deposit history
• Policy coverage
• Premiums

Federal law allows us to disclose the information listed above with our affiliates. However, we will allow you to opt out of the disclosure of this information to our affiliates.

Other information not taken from transactions and experience:

• Information you give us on an application or other forms, such as:

• Telephone number

You may opt out of the disclosure of the information listed above.

We may disclose information about you to the following types of affiliates:

• Financial service providers, such as:

• Insurance agents

We may disclose information about you to our affiliates to provide you with information about additional products and services.

YOUR INFORMATION AND OTHER PARTIES

We will not disclose information about you to anyone except as disclosed in this policy or as permitted by law. Examples of this might include disclosures necessary to service your account or prevent unauthorized transactions.

We do not disclose information about former customers, except as permitted by law.

YOUR RIGHT TO BLOCK THE DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

Affiliates. We may disclose your information with our affiliates. If you do not want us to disclose your information with our affiliates, you can block the disclosure of this information. This is known as your right to "opt out."

Your decision to block the disclosure of your information will apply to information collected from all products and services you receive from us.

If you have obtained one or more products or services jointly, an opt out instruction by any party will be effective for all of that party's information we have collected and for all information collected in conjunction with the product or service for all other joint parties. If one of you chooses to opt out, no information we have collected about you will be shared, nor will we share information about any other joint party collected in conjunction with the product or service.

If you wish to opt out of the disclosure of your information, you may do so by checking the appropriate box on the Opt Out Notice that you received in the mail or at the time you opened your account.  This form is also available at all of our branch locations, or you may call us at 815.468.2265 and request that we mail you a notice.

When you visit our website to view any page or read product information, you do so without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information. The only information that we normally collect and store is:

• The name of your Internet Service Provider,
• The website that referred you to us (if any),
• The type of browser used,
• The page or pages you requested.
• Whether or not you are a returning visitor.

HomeStar Bank does not collect any personal information using cookies. We do use a feature called "session" cookies that are created when you log in to review your secured account information. This session cookie is destroyed when you exit your online account access.

There are instances where you may elect to provide us with personal information. If you fill out one of our contact forms or quick applications or if you send us an e-mail, you are transmitting the information that appears to you in the form or message. This will typically include information like your name, mailing address, e-mail address, the kind of request you are making and any other information necessary to fulfill your request. You do not transfer personally identifying information that you do not enter yourself. This information is used internally only for the purpose of fulfilling your request or for contacting you directly and is not sold to any other organization.

When you input nonpublic personal information via one of our Applications, that information is encrypted or scrambled by your browser before it is transmitted back to our website. This effectively prevents anyone from intercepting and reading any personal information about you. Encryption is in place when you use your web browser with one of our website application forms and while accessing your account information. Please do not send any nonpublic personal information to us in an e-mail. Encryption does not take place if you send us e-mail, which is not a secure form of communication with us.

INFORMATION INTEGRITY

HomeStar Bank works hard to ensure that our customer's information is complete and accurate. Your role in this process is to conduct a timely review of all statements, bills and notices that we provide you and to notify us of any discrepancy. HomeStar Bank occasionally may contact you about our product and service offerings by telephone or e-mail. When we contact you, we do not request any personal information (such as your PIN or password) and limit our inquiries only to the information necessary to identify you as our customer. You may contact us at 815-468-2265 if you have any concerns about the accuracy of your information, our solicitation of your business or this privacy policy.

HomeStar Bank
3 Diversatech Drive
Manteno, IL 60954

1-815-468-BANK(2265)
www.HomeStarBank.com

HomeStar Bank has a number of links to other sites. These are offered as a courtesy and a convenience. HomeStar Bank assumes no responsibility for the content, safety, security, privacy or transactions with respect to any such site. The inclusion of links or pointers to particular items in hypertext is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed, or products or services offered on these outside sites, or the organizations sponsoring the sites. If you have questions or concerns about any other site’s policy regarding these matters, you should contact that site or its sponsor.