Privacy policy.

Here at Channel Finance Group Limited, we are committed to respecting and protecting your privacy. Please take the time to review our full policy and explanation of exactly how your data will be used and stored.

Who are we?

Channel Finance Group are a whole market financial brokerage based at Channel House, 291 Springhill Parkway, Glasgow Business Park, Glasgow, G69 6GA. Our nominated representative for the purposes of data protection is Claire McLaughlan who can be contacted using the postal address given above or by email via Claire.McLaughlan@channelfinance.co.uk . We will be the Data Controller for the purposes of the UK data protection regime.

We act as a Broker for our customers. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The Information we collect about you - Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

Identity data Includes Name, Date of Birth, National Insurance Number, Driver’s Licence Number, Passport Number
Contact data Address, email address and telephone numbers.
Service Details - e.g. what services you require from us
Technical data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
Usage data includes information about how you use our website and services.
Marketing and communications data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

How is your personal data collected?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, and Contact Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:

o complete our enquiry form on our website,

o contact us by telephone or email to seek service information ; and

o when you instruct us to provide services for you by telephone or email and you become our client.

Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties including Technical Data from analytics providers such as Google based outside the EU, credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies

Cookies. Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them, refer to our Cookie Policy below.

About cookies

Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to your computer’s hard disk for record-keeping purposes. Cookies can make the internet more useful by storing information about your preferences on a particular site, such as your personal preference pages.

The use of cookies is an industry standard, and most websites use them to provide useful features for their customers. Cookies in and of themselves do not personally identify users, although they do identify a user’s computer. Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies.

If you would prefer, you can set yours to refuse cookies. However, you may not be able to take full advantage of a website if you do so.

How we use your personal information

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

Where we need to perform the contract, we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

We need your basic personal data in order to provide you with an accurate recommendation for your personal circumstances. The processing of your personal data may be necessary because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract. You do not have to provide us with personal data we request but if you do not provide us with the required personal data we may not be able to provide the required services to you.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

Disclosure of your information

We may share your information with selected third parties including:

Our employees
Commercial Lenders
Specialist Funders
Business partners
Suppliers
Solicitors
Accountants
Credit reference agencies
Fraud prevention agencies
Credit enforcement agencies
Data destructions agencies
IT Support companies
Marketing agencies
Sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with [them or] you, including without limitation any data processor we engage.
Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site.
Third party companies and organisations if we are under a duty to disclose your personal data in order to comply with a legal obligation.
Third party companies and organisations who offer services that may be of assistance to you where we cannot provide the service you require.
Lead suppliers (if a third party introduced you to us).
Any of the above may contact you directly.

In addition, we may disclose your personal information to third parties if:

In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our Terms of Use or terms and conditions of supply and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Firm Name, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below a description of all the ways we may use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

To respond to your enquiry raised using our enquiry form on our website;
To manage our relationship with you and progress services;
- Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy
- To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;
- To provide you with information about other products or services we offer that may be of interest to you;
- To provide you with information, products and services you request from us
- To approach lenders on your behalf to arrange the funding you require;
- To make lender decisions
- Fraud prevention
- For audit purposes;
- For credit reference checks;
- For Electronic Identity Verification;
To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data)
To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you
To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you

Our lawful bases for handling your personal data in the above ways are: (1) because it is necessary for performance of a contract with you; (2) because it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation; (3) because we have obtained your consent. Where we are relying upon your consent, you have right to withdraw such consent at any time by emailing our data protection representative. (4) because it is necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data. We do not process your data for automated decision-making or profiling purposes.

Where we store your personal data

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

All information you provide to us is stored on our UK secure server using encrypted SSL technology. For the purposes of IT hosting and maintenance, your personal data may be transferred to servers within the European Union.

There are circumstances where the data we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other things, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing.

Retention of your data

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for up to seven years after they cease being customers.

We will only keep your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Your data could be held for a longer period where this may be needed to meet the requirements of our regulatory bodies.

Other personal data will be retained for no longer than necessary to protect our commercial and operational interests, which include fraud prevention, use in legal proceedings and for taxation purposes.

Marketing

From time to time, we would like to contact you by post, email, telephone and text with details of Products, Information, News and Competitions. We will only contact you in this way and for these purposes if you have given your consent.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at Claire.McLaughlan@channelfinance.co.uk

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers, and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

Under the GDPR You have the following specific rights in respect of the personal data we process:

1. The right to be informed about how we use personal data - This Privacy Statement explains who we are; the purposes for which we process personal data and our legitimate interests in so doing; the categories of data we process; third party disclosures; and details of any transfers of personal data outside the UK

2. The right of access to the personal data we hold. In most cases this will be free of charge and must be provided within one month of receipt

3. The right to rectification where data are inaccurate or incomplete. In such cases we shall make any amendments or additions within one month of your request

4. The right to erasure of personal data, but only in very specific circumstances, typically where the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was originally collected or processed; or, in certain cases where we have relied on consent to process the data, when that consent is withdrawn and there is no other legitimate reason for continuing to process that data; or when the individual objects to the processing and there is no overriding legitimate interest for continuing the processing.

5. The right to restrict processing, for example while we are reviewing the accuracy or completeness of data or deciding on whether any request for erasure is valid. In such cases we shall continue to store the data, but not further process it until such time as we have resolved the issue

6. The right to data portability which, subject to a number of qualifying conditions, allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services

7. The right to object in cases where processing is based on legitimate interests, where our requirement to process the data is overridden by the rights of the individual concerned; or for the purposes of direct marketing (including profiling); or for processing for purposes of scientific / historical research and statistics, unless this is for necessary for the performance of a public interest task

8. Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

Please contact our data protection officer at Claire.McLaughlan@channelfinance.co.uk for more information about the GDPR and your rights under Data Protection law or if you have a complaint about data protection at Channel finance. Alternatively you may get in touch with our supervisory authority for data protection compliance at: www.ico.org.uk:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Changes to our privacy policy

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

Contact

Questions, comments, and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to Claire.McLaughlan@channelfinance.co.uk