Privacy Policy

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Privacy Policy

Financial Advice Service – Privacy Notice

We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy while being transparent about how we process your data. As a "data controller," we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you and are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this notice. It is important that you read this notice to understand how and why we use your personal data.

This privacy notice sets out how the personal data you provide to us (and the data collected by us) is handled, stored, and processed. It directs you to more detailed privacy notices for different types of data processing carried out by us.

This privacy notice applies to all products, services, and websites offered by the Company or its subsidiaries or affiliated companies. Occasionally, we may post product-specific privacy notices to explain our products in more detail.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please feel free to contact us through our website.

We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. This Privacy Policy sets out the basis on which any personal information we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully as it contains important information on our practices regarding your personal information and how we, as a data controller, will treat personal information you provide to us through the website, including the information we collect, what we do with the information you provide to us, and who we may share your information with.

Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

Financial Advice Service may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page periodically to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from 12 July 2024.

Data Protection Principles

We will comply with data protection law and principles, which means that your information will be:

- Used lawfully, fairly, and transparently.

- Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.

- Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.

- Accurate and kept up to date.

- Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.

- Kept securely.

What We Collect

We may collect the following types of information:

- Personal details such as name, telephone number, and address/location.

- Your requirement for an IFA

- Information such as your web request, your interaction with a service, Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request.

How Is Information Collected?

We collect your personal information through different methods including:

- Directly from you when you sign up for an account and through communications with us.

- Cookies.

- Log information.

- Affiliated services on other sites.

- Third-party applications such as widgets or add-ins.

- Location data from Location Finders and Mapping applications.

For What Use

We will only use your personal information 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.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal information other than in relation to sending third-party direct marketing communications to you via email. You have the right to withdraw consent to such marketing at any time.

For What Purpose

We need all the categories of information listed above primarily to allow us to perform our contract with you and to comply with our legal obligations. In some cases, we may use your personal information to pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. The situations in which we will process your personal information include:

- To register you as a client.

- To process enquiries and respond to requests.

- To communicate with you.

- To operate and improve the website and help make your experience better.

- To perform our service.

- To manage our relationship with you, including notifying you about changes to our contract or services or asking you to provide us with feedback.

- To administer and protect the business and this website.

- To follow up the referral with a survey assessing the service you have received from the IFA you have been referred to.

- To improve the quality of our services.

- To periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers, or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.

- From time to time, to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, or mail. We may use the information to customize the website according to your interests.

If You Fail to Provide Personal Information

If you fail to provide certain information when requested either by law or under the terms of a contract we have with you, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter with you (for example, to provide you with services). In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have with us, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

Change of Purpose

We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason that is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

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 respond to you as an individual by remembering previous data stored. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes, and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We periodically use traffic log cookies to identify traffic patterns anonymously. This can be optionally blocked by opting out of Google’s Analytics programme.

We embrace the EU Law regarding privacy and specifically that the use of cookies is required for the operation of some web services. The transactional nature of the website places it in this category and as such we will request explicit permission for the use of cookies at the earliest opportunity in the process and permit the complete destruction of transactional cookies once the transaction phase is over.

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

Externally 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 the website operating correctly and is an unsupported environment, and as such we offer no guarantee of the correct operation of the website.

What We Do with the Information We Gather

We only share personal information with other companies or individuals in the following limited circumstances:

- Where we have your consent. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.

- We provide such information to our subsidiaries, affiliated companies, or other trusted businesses or persons for the purpose of processing personal information on our behalf.

Any third parties will be bound by contractual provisions with us and only have access to personal data to perform the described purposes and may not use it for other purposes. Further, they must process the personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy and as permitted by the GDPR, the Data Protection Act 1998 and subsequently the Data Protection Act 2018 (subject to royal assent), the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, and the E-Privacy Regulations when it comes into effect.

- Making an introduction or referral to an IFA that you have requested.

- We have a good faith belief that access, use, preservation, or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to:

  - Satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request.

  - Enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigating potential violations thereof.

  - Detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues.

  - Protect against harm to the rights, property, or safety of the Company, its users, or the public, as required or permitted by law.

- If the Company becomes involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of some or all of its assets, we will ensure the confidentiality of any personal information involved in such transactions and provide notice before personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Security

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

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected