privacy policy

OUR COMMITMENT: RESPECT AND PROTECT OUR CUSTOMER’S PRIVACY

Your privacy is important to us. Mid Plains Rural Telephone Cooperative, Inc. (the 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.

Information We Obtain and How We Use It



The 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 representatives 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. The 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. The Cooperative does not sell CPNI in any form, including billing records, types of service, and calling habits to third party providers. We do not use CPNI for marketing purposes, nor do we provide CPNI to any third party, 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. 
• As necessary, the 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.
• The Cooperative may also use third parties or contractors to do work for the Cooperative, such as billing services. These third-party contractors have the same obligations as our regular employees concerning the confidentiality of our customer information. In cases where it is necessary to provide CPNI to a third party, the Cooperative requires that those parties sign an agreement that they will protect the confidentiality of our customers’ CPNI.
• 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 Cooperative or companies with whom we deal in this regard appropriate confidentiality agreements.