Legal Information

Data Protection & Legal Information

• Data Protection & Privacy Statement
• Claims & Underwriting Register
• Marketing
• Email & Websites
• Use of Cookies
• Disabling Cookies

Data Protection & Privacy Statement

We know how important the privacy of your information is to you. Not just your financial information but any data that you provide. Confidentiality is of utmost importance to us. This privacy statement explains what we do with your data and what purposes it may be used for. We may change the content or services found on our sites at any time without notice and this privacy policy may change at any time in the future.

We will treat all your personal information as private and confidential except where disclosure is made at your request or with your consent or where we are required by law to disclose. We will continue to hold information about you after your relationship with us has ended, but we will only hold it for as long as we are legally required.

Bradford & Bingley plc and its Group companies may use your information for the purposes of administration, to process an application, to respond to any requests that you may have, to source your financial products, marketing, customer services, analysing your purchasing preferences, customer profiling and market research.

We may share your information with our agents and service providers for these purposes.

For some products we may search the files of credit reference agencies that record the search. We will not do this without telling you first. Information may be shared with other credit grantors and used for credit decisions and fraud prevention.

We may also provide your information to relevant third parties such as mortgage lenders and the providers of other financial products in order to achieve your various requirements.

Where necessary you consent to our processing data that is defined as sensitive by the Data Protection Act such as data relating to your health or offences for the above purposes. You also consent to our transferring your information to countries that do not provide the same level of data protection as the UK, if necessary for the above purposes. In order to provide certain on-line services to you, we may transfer your data to countries or territories outside of the EEA (European Economic Area) that may not provide the same level of protection as within the EEA. Bradford & Bingley, its agents and sub-contractors will apply appropriate technical and organisational measures against the unauthorised processing of personal data and against accidental loss of, or damage to personal data. By providing your data you agree to your data being used and transferred as stated above.

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Claims & Underwriting Register

When you apply for an insurance product or make a claim, Insurers pass information to the Claims and Underwriting Register managed by Insurance Database Services Limited. This is done to check information provided and also to prevent fraudulent claims. Under the conditions of your policy, you must tell your Insurer about any incident such as fire, theft and water damage, this information is provided to the registers. We highly recommend that you read policy documents when you receive them from your Insurer.

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Marketing

For marketing purposes we may share your information with other companies within the same group and agents. We or they may wish to contact you by mail, telephone, email or fax with offers of goods or services or forthcoming events which may interest you. Before completing any agreement with Bradford & Bingley, you will be given an opportunity to indicate whether you wish to receive this information or not.

If you decide now or at any time that you do not want to receive marketing information on other products and services please:

• e-mail us using our online enquiry form
• use the 'contact us' page on our website:
• write to: The Data Protection Officer, Legal Department, Bradford & Bingley, PO BOX 88, Croft Road, Crossflatts, Bingley, West Yorkshire, BD16 2UA

You have the right to ask for a copy of your information (subject to a fee). Please write to: The Data Protection Officer, Legal Department, Bradford & Bingley, PO BOX 88, Croft Road, Crossflatts, Bingley, West Yorkshire, BD16 2UA.

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Email & Websites

Bradford & Bingley have various websites that offer a range of products and services. Please ensure that you read the legal information notices when you enter these sites.

Where we provide hypertext links to other websites or resources we do so for you to access at your sole discretion. If you choose to click on such hypertext links, you will leave the Bradford & Bingley websites and will enter the websites of the third parties who own and/or control them.

You acknowledge and agree that Bradford & Bingley are not responsible for the functionality of such hypertext links contained on the Bradford & Bingley websites nor the availability of the third party websites to which such hypertext links connect. Additionally, you acknowledge and agree that Bradford & Bingley have not verified the content, products, goods, services or any other material of such third party websites.

Therefore your access and use of such third party websites shall be at your own risk and will be in accordance with the separate terms and conditions of use and privacy policies (including the use of cookies) of such third party websites. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Bradford & Bingley are not responsible or liable for any damage, loss or offence caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with your access and/or use of such hypertext links or third party websites.

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Use of Cookies

We also obtain data and information by using cookies. Our website may send Cookies to your browser. A cookie is a piece of software that is placed on your computer that identifies it to our website. They can be stored on your computer’s hard drive or your browser’s memory. Cookies are used to provide a better browsing experience and for analysis of our web site traffic by a 3rd party so we can improve our service to you.

A cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets us know when you visit a particular web page. 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 only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system. When Cookies are used for either analysis or to improve your browsing experience, information is not collected that would identify individual users for sales or marketing purposes.

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. We know that people have concerns about cookies, but we believe that the benefit we both gain from their proper use is worthwhile. You may set your web browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) to notify you of cookie placement requests or decline cookies completely. You can delete files that contain cookies – those files are stored as part of your Internet browser.

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Disabling Cookies

By adjusting the settings of your browser, you may opt to accept cookies, to be informed when one is about to be placed on your computer, or to automatically reject all cookies.

On BBG sites where we conduct online business with you, cookies can be used to assist in securing your transactions while you are logged in, disabling cookies on these sites would stop the site working as designed.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and above:

To adjust your cookies preferences follow the steps below.

• select the 'tools' menu
• choose 'internet options'
• select the 'security' tab
• press the 'custom level' button
• scroll down to 'cookies' and select your preference

Netscape Navigator 4 and above:

• select the 'edit' menu
• choose 'preferences'
• select the 'advanced' option
• select your 'cookies' preference

If you aren't using either of the above browsers, consult the help section on your internet browser.

For further information about browsers consult your software supplier.

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