A male privacy & security expert sitting at his desk checking a security alert on his computer

PRIVACY AND SECURITY

PRIVACY POLICY

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.

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 Live Oak Banking Company chooses to share; and whether you can limit this sharing.

What?
The types of personal information we collect and share depend on the product or service you have with us. This information can include:

  • Social Security number and assets
  • Account balances and transaction history
  • Payment history and credit history

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

If you have any questions email privacy@liveoak.bank

Fraud

Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal identifiable information to commit fraudulent acts such as withdrawing money from your bank account, opening new credit cards, applying for loans, or even employment.

General Anti-Fraud Best Practices

We recommend that you take an active role in reducing fraud by following these minimum best practices:

  • Avoid phishing attacks – Do not follow links from sources you don’t trust, including emails, texts and social media posts. Malicious links could direct you to websites or install applications that compromise your information (more information is provided on phishing below).
  • Monitor your accounts – Monitor your sensitive accounts on a regular basis to detect suspicious or fraudulent activity.
  • Monitor your credit – Review your credit report frequently and carefully by requesting a free copy of your credit report every 12 months from annualcreditreport.com.
  • Report suspicious activity – Report suspicious activities and/or forward suspicious emails to abuse@liveoak.bank.

Common Signs of Identity Theft

  • Failing to receive bills or other mail
  • Receiving suspicious charges on your accounts
  • Receiving credit cards that you didn’t apply for
  • Being denied credit unexpectedly
  • Getting information about services you didn’t buy and
  • The IRS notifying you that more than one tax return was filed in your name, or that you have income from an employer you don’t work for

Phishing – Email/Text Scamming

Today, a common method to conduct fraud is called phishing. Phishing is a scam where a fraudster sends an authentic looking email or text which appears to come from a legitimate person or company. The intention is to phish (pronounced “fish”) for personal and financial information. These phishing emails direct recipients to click on links that redirect them to fraudulent websites. These sites are designed to fool customers into believing that they are actually visiting a legitimate company website. Once on the fraudulent site, the email recipient is asked to enter personal and/or financial information that is later used to commit fraud.

Live Oak Bank will never send emails asking a customer for personal information, user IDs, passwords or PIN numbers from the authentication device.

How to Avoid Phishing Scams

  • While online banking is very safe, as a general rule you should be careful about giving out your personal financial information over the Internet.
  • Be suspicious of any email with urgent requests for personal financial information. Phishing emails typically include direct and urgent statements to get you to react immediately, and ask for information such as IDs and passwords.
  • Avoid emails that are NOT personalized – you can call to check if you are unsure of an email’s validity.
  • Do not follow links in an email to get to any web page. If you suspect the message might not be authentic or you don’t know the sender, call or log onto the website directly by typing in the web address in your browser.
  • Make it a habit to enter the address of any banking, shopping, auction or financial transaction website yourself and not to depend on displayed links.

Mobile Security

At Live Oak Bank, we take security very seriously. Even the smartest smartphone is susceptible to attack. Securing your mobile devices can reduce the likelihood of access to your personal and financial information, photos, texts and email if your device is lost or stolen.

We recommend that you take an active role in security by following these minimum mobile security best practices:

  • Maintain physical control of your device to prevent abuse
  • Protect your phone or tablet device just as you would your computer by using a strong passcode and be cautious about the sites you visit and the information you release
  • Set up biometrics on your mobile device to add an extra layer of security
  • Enable remote wipe and location features to help ensure that your personal information is protected if your device is lost or stolen
  • Keep your operating system and applications up to date
  • Beware of malicious applications – download apps only from trusted sources like the Apple® App Store or Google® Play
  • Review the privacy policy and understand what specific data applications (app) can access before you download an app on your device
  • Beware of using untrusted networks – Connecting your device to unknown wireless networks can expose your data and device
  • Turn off unnecessary services (i.e., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, location apps, NFC apps, etc…) to protect your device when you’re not using them
  • Avoid putting your device at increased risk by “rooting” or “jailbreaking”
  • Use data encryption, if your device supports it, to help protect sensitive information
  • Install and use anti-virus software and browser protection tools. Some devices, especially those running Android, support the use of anti-virus software that helps prevent bad applications from attacking your device. Browser protection products provide an additional layer of security to warn you about malicious websites.
Additional information:

Tips and advice for mobile device security: https://www.stopthinkconnect.org/tips-and-advice/safety-for-mobile-devices/

Use the FCC website’s tool that helps smartphone owners protect themselves against mobile security threats at https://www.fcc.gov/smartphone-security

CALIFORNIA CONSUMER PRIVACY ACT

Starting January 1, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives California consumers rights with respect to their personal information. Those rights and how you may exercise them are described below.

Under the CCPA, California residents have the right to:

  • Request to know what personal information we have collected about you over the past 12 months.
  • Receive notification when personal information is collected.
  • Request to know whether your personal information has been sold or disclosed, and to whom, as well as the right to say no to the sale of personal information.
  • Request that we delete any personal information that we collected from you, except for information necessary for security and fraud detection.
  • Not be discriminated against for using these rights.
  • Designate an authorized representative to make requests on your behalf. We will require verification that you authorized this representative.

Please read Live Oak Bank’s CCPA disclosure for more detailed information. If you choose to exercise your CCPA rights email privacy@liveoak.bank.

Live Oak Bank takes the security and privacy of your data very seriously. If you would like to learn more about it, please read our Privacy Policy.

GENERAL SECURITY

At Live Oak Bank, we take security very seriously. We use sophisticated tools to ensure the highest level of protection exists.

Some of these tools consist of:

  • Anti-virus and anti-malware protection to assist in detection and prevention of malicious software
  • Firewalls that assist in blocking unauthorized access
  • Fraud and threat management analytics for user and device activity
  • Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption that creates a secure connection with your browser when you login, fill out an application or enroll in online services
  • Multi-factor authentication when additional verification is needed (asking you a question that only you know the answer, or sending a security code to a device that you’ve registered).

Although we use security tools to ensure the highest level of protection, we are most effective in fighting fraud when we work together with you. We recommend that you take an active role in security by following the below safe computing best practices:

  • Update your operating systems and applications on a regular basis
  • Install and use antivirus software and personal firewalls
  • Use only a stand-alone, locked down computer system for banking
  • Do not use passwords that are easy for others to guess such as birthdays, family names or telephone numbers
  • Guard your usernames, passwords and login information – Live Oak Bank will not ask you to provide personal information, or login information such as usernames, passwords, PINs or account numbers
  • Keep your web browser software up to date to help protect yourself from malware and browser security problems
  • Remember to log off when you’ve finished browsing your banking site or if leaving your computer unattended
  • Monitor your account activity on a regular basis
  • Use WPA2 or stronger security, when using Wi-Fi or wireless, to protect your wireless connection and only connect to wireless networks that you trust
  • Email is not a secure medium of communication – you should never include banking or personal information in an email to us or anyone else

 

REPORT FRAUD

To report fraud of any kind, please email abuse@liveoak.bank.