Privacy Policy
We believe it is important to protect your privacy and we are committed to giving you a personalised service that meets your needs in a way that also protects your privacy.
This policy explains how we may collect information about you and then use it to meet your needs. It also explains some of the security measures we take to protect your privacy, and tells you certain things we will not do. When you first give us personal information, or when you take a new service or product from us, we will give you the opportunity to tell us if you do not want to receive information from us about other services or products - to 'opt out'. You can normally do this by ticking a box on an application form or contract. You may change your mind at any time by writing to us.
Some of the personal information we hold about you may be 'sensitive personal data' within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 1998 - for example, information about your health or ethnic origin. We will not use sensitive personal data about you other than for the specific purpose for which you provide it.
Collecting information
1. We may collect personal information about you from a number of sources, including the following:
- From you, when you agree to take a service or product from us, in which case this may include your contact details, date of birth, how you will pay for the product or service and your bank details.
- From you, when you contact us with an enquiry or in response to a communication from us, in which case this may tell us something about how you use our services.
- From documents that are available to the public, such as the electoral register.
Using information
2. We may use personal information about you for a number of purposes, including the following:.
- To help us identify you when you phone us to make an enquiry - for example, we may ask you for your date of birth or phone number so we can avoid giving information to someone you have not authorised to receive it.
- To carry out market research and produce statistics.
- To contact you (by e-mail, mail, phone or text messages) with information about other services or products either from us or from our carefully selected partners. We will not use your information in this way unless you have given us your permission.
- To help us to run any accounts, services and products which we provide now or in the future, and to contact you about any improvements to these.
- To help prevent or detect fraud or loss.
- To respond to enquiries from you.
3. Whether or not you have told us you don't want us to use your information for direct marketing, it is still our policy to search the mailing, telephone, fax and e-mail preference services as appropriate. So, if you have registered your details with those services, you will not receive any direct marketing material from us in that way.
4. We may do certain credit checks with licensed credit reference agencies when you apply to take a service or product. If this is the case, we will put it in our terms and conditions of business.
Protecting information
5. We have strict security measures to protect personal information. This includes following certain procedures (for example, checking your identity when you phone us), encrypting (encoding) data on our websites, and making sure we keep to all relevant legal requirements.
The Internet
6. If you communicate with us using the Internet, we may occasionally e-mail you about our services and products. When you first give us personal information through our website, we will normally give you the opportunity to say whether you would prefer us not to contact you by e-mail. However, you can always send us an e-mail at any time if you change your mind.
Please remember that communications over the Internet, such as e-mails and webmails (messages sent through a website), are not secure unless they have been encrypted. Your communications may go through a number of countries before they are delivered - this is the nature of the Internet. We cannot accept responsibility for any unauthorised access or loss of personal information that is beyond our control.
7. We use 'cookies' to monitor how people use our site. This helps us to understand how our customers and potential customers use our website so we can develop and improve the design, layout and function of the sites. A cookie is a piece of information that is stored on your computer's hard drive which records how you have used a website. This means that when you go back to that website, it can give you tailored options based on the information it has stored about your last visit. You can normally alter the settings of your browser to prevent it from accepting cookies.
If you do not want us to use cookies in your browser, you can set your browser to reject cookies or to tell you when a website tries to put a cookie on your computer. However, you may not be able to use some of the products or services on our website without cookies.
How to turn off cookies in different browsers
Internet Explorer 5.0:
From your browser menu, select 'Tools' and then 'Internet Options'. This will bring up the 'Internet Options' dialogue box. On the top of the dialogue box, select 'Security', then 'Custom Level'. This will bring up the 'Security Settings' box.
Using the scroll bar on the right-hand side of the box, scroll down until you come to the section with the title 'Allow cookies to be stored on your computer'. Select 'Disable', and click on the 'OK' button on the bottom of the menu box.
Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer:
From your browser menu, select 'Tools' and then 'Internet Options'. This will bring up the 'Internet Options' dialogue box. On the top of the dialogue box, select 'Privacy'. This will bring up the 'Privacy Settings' box.
On the privacy tab, move the slider up for a higher level of privacy or down for a lower level of privacy. Move the slider to the top to block cookies from all websites.
Following these instructions will stop your computer from accepting cookies. You can set your computer to accept cookies again by following the above instructions, by selecting 'Enable' and the 'OK' button at the bottom of the menu box (if you are using Internet Explorer 5.0), or by selecting the 'Default' button (if you are using Internet Explorer 6.0).
Netscape 4.7:
In Netscape 4.7: On your top menu, select 'Edit' and then 'Preferences'. This will bring up the 'Preferences' menu box. From the options on the left-hand side, select 'Advanced', which will bring up another menu. Halfway down you will see a section on cookies. To turn cookies off, you should select 'Disable' and click on the 'OK' button at the bottom of the menu box.
You can set your computer to accept cookies again by following the above instructions, and then by selecting 'Accept all cookies' and the 'OK' button at the bottom of the menu box.
Netscape 6.0 or newer:
On your top menu, select 'Tasks' and then 'Privacy and Security'. From here you can block or unlock cookies from this site, or view and remove cookies and prevent your computer from accepting cookies from selected sites in the future.
