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Privacy & Data Protection Policy

Introduction

In order to operate effectively and fulfil its legal obligations, ABC Finance Limited needs to collect, maintain and use certain personal information about current, past and future employees, clients and other individuals with whom it has dealings. All personal information, whether held on computer, paper or other media, will be obtained, handled, processed, transported and stored lawfully and correctly, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and the safeguards contained in the Data Protection Act. This policy sets out how we seek to protect personal data and describes how this data must be collected, handled and stored to meet the company’s data protection standards and to comply with the law.

About us

ABC Finance Limited is a company registered in England & Wales, Company No 03918844. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Our permission number is 304671. We are registered with the Information Commissioners Office, Data Protection No Z4795242 and we comply fully with the requirements of UK Data Protection Laws

Why this policy exists

This data protection policy ensures ABC Finance Limited:

  • Complies with data protection law and follows good practice
  • Protects the rights of staff, customers and partners
  • Is open about how it stores and processes individuals’ data
  • Protects itself from the risks of a data breach

Data protection law

The Data Protection Act describes how organisations, including ABC Finance Limited must collect, handle and store personal information. These rules apply regardless of whether data is stored electronically, on paper or on other materials. To comply with the law, personal information must be collected and used fairly, stored safely and not disclosed unlawfully. The Data Protection Act is underpinned by eight important principles. These say that personal data must:

  1. Be processed fairly and lawfully
  2. Be obtained only for specific, lawful purposes
  3. Be adequate, relevant and not excessive
  4. Be accurate and kept up to date
  5. Not be held for any longer than necessary
  6. Processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects
  7. Be protected in appropriate ways
  8. Not be transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA), unless that country or territory also ensures an adequate level of protection

How we use your information

All information you provide us with by any means including online forms will be held securely and confidentially in line with the Data Protection Act. Your information will be used for the purpose of sourcing a mortgage, loan application or any other form of credit on your behalf or on behalf of someone you represent, in which case you must have the permission of the data subject to supply this information. We may share your information with and obtain information about you from credit reference agencies and / or fraud prevention agencies. We will be particularly careful with sensitive personal data including details of an individual’s physical or mental health or condition, criminal offences or related proceedings or other individuals classed as sensitive. We will pass your information on to a lender, lenders or other selected brokers for the purpose of obtaining credit. If a credit search is undertaken which will include current and previous names, addresses and dates of birth for all parties to the application this may be recorded on your credit file by the credit reference agency and remain for 6 years. Lenders use the results from credit searches to make lending decisions about applicants and to verify their identity for the prevention of fraud or money laundering. A large number of credit application searches in a short period of time may impact on your ability to obtain credit.

Disclosing data for other reasons

In certain circumstances the Data Protection Act allows personal data to be disclosed to law enforcement agencies without the consent of the data subject.
Under these circumstances, ABC Finance Limited will disclose the requested data. However, the data controller will ensure that the request is legitimate before doing so. We will not sell your data to other companies.

Accuracy and relevance

We will ensure that any personal data we process is accurate, adequate, relevant and not excessive, given the purpose for which it was obtained. We will not process personal data obtained for one purpose for any unconnected purpose unless the individual concerned has agreed to this or would otherwise reasonably expect this. Individuals may ask that we correct inaccurate personal data relating to them. If you believe that information is inaccurate you should record the fact that the accuracy of the information is disputed and inform the ABC Finance Limited Data Protection Officer.

Your personal data

You have certain legal rights under UK Data Protection law and regulations regarding your personal data. You have the right to be informed about our data processing activities, including through Privacy Notices such as this. You have the right to have your personal information erased and to prevent processing except where we have a legal obligation to process your personal information. You should bear in mind that by exercising this right you may hinder or prevent our ability to provide products and services. You must take reasonable steps to ensure that personal data we hold about you is accurate and updated as required. For example, if your personal circumstances change, please inform the Data Protection Officer so that they can update your records.

Data retention

We must retain personal data for no longer than is necessary. What is necessary will depend on the circumstances of each case, taking into account the reasons that the personal data was obtained, but should be determined in a manner consistent with our data retention guidelines.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes. Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Marketing

We would like to keep you updated about our relevant products and services by email, SMS and/or telephone and we will only contact you about services which you have already requested information about. If we send you details of our services by email we will provide the opportunity to unsubscribe each time we email you. If we intend to use your data to contact you about other products or services we will only do so with your consent. Your consent will be obtained specifically at the appropriate time. If you have already consented and wish us to stop using your personal information for this purpose, or any other purpose, then please contact us. We will not sell your data to other companies for marketing purposes.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Subject access requests

All individuals who are the subject of personal data held by ABC Finance Limited are entitled to:

  • Ask what information the company holds about them and why.
  • Ask how to gain access to it.

Subject access requests from individuals should be made by mail, addressed to the data controller ABC Finance Limited at Point North, Park Plaza, Heath Hayes, Cannock WS12 2DF but can be made in other ways.. The data controller will always verify the identity of anyone making a subject access request before handing over any information.

We will aim to respond to your subject access request within 14 days but in any case will provide the relevant data within one month of receiving it. There is not normally any charge for a subject access request. If your request is ‘manifestly unfounded or excessive’ (for example, if you make repetitive requests) a fee may be charged to cover our administrative costs in responding.

Policy updates

ABC Finance Limited Privacy & Data Protection Policy is subject to change at any time to ensure that we operate in an efficient and lawful manner. We will make this policy easily available for you to view on our website or by request by email.

Contact details

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our treatment of your personal data, please write to us by email to info@abcfinance.co.uk
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