Why should you read this document?
We take your privacy very seriously and we ask that you read this privacy notice carefully as it contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use and share personal data, your rights in relation to your personal data and on how to contact us and supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.
Please ensure you have also read the following:
Cookies & Similar Technologies
Website Terms Of Use
Disclosure Document Services & Costs
Your Personal Data
During the course of dealing with us, we will ask you to provide us with detailed personal information relating to your existing circumstances, your financial situation, and in some cases your health and family health history (Your Personal Data). Our Customer Privacy Notice document is important as it allows us to explain to you what we will need to do with Your Personal Data, and the various rights you have in relation to Your Personal Data. We ask that you read this Privacy Notice carefully.
Who we are
Smart Cover Online is a trading style of The Protection Network Limited. Smart Cover Online collects and uses personal data about you, The Protection Network Limited collects uses and is responsible for certain personal data about you. When we do, we are required to comply with data protection regulation, and The Protection Network Limited is responsible as a data controller of that personal data for the purposes of those laws.
Smart Cover Online and The Protection Network Limited provide you with advice and guidance on Insurance Related Products regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Smart Cover Online is a trading style of The Protection Network Limited, a company registered in England and Wales No 11001265. Registered office: 7 Bell Yard, London WC2A 2JR.
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under Firm Reference Number (FRN) 803469.
Web: www.smartcoveronline.co.uk
What do we mean by “Your Personal Data”?
Your Personal Data means any information that describes or relates to your personal circumstances. Your Personal Data may identify you directly, for example: your name, your address, your date of birth, health information and lifestyle information, criminal conviction or offence information, your national insurance number. Your Personal Data may also identify you indirectly, for example, your employment situation, your physical and mental health history, or any other information that could be associated with your cultural or social identity.
In the context of providing you with assistance in relation to your Insurance, Building & Contents, Private Medical, Income Protection and Accident and Sickness requirements Your Personal Data may include:
The basis upon which our firm will deal with Your Personal Data
When we speak with you about your Insurance, Building & Contents, Private Medical, Income Protection and Accident and Sickness requirements we do so on the basis that both parties are entering a contract for the supply of services.
In order to perform that contract, and to arrange the products you require, we have the right to use Your Personal Data for the purposes detailed below.
Alternatively, either in the course of initial discussions with you or when the contract between us has come to an end for whatever reason, we have the right to use Your Personal Data provided it is in our legitimate business interest to do so and your rights are not affected. For example, we may need to respond to requests from mortgage lenders, insurance providers and our Compliance Service Provider relating to the advice we have given to you, or to make contact with you to seek feedback on the service you received.
On occasion, we will use Your Personal Data for contractual responsibilities we may owe our regulator, The Financial Conduct Authority, or for wider compliance with any legal or regulatory obligation to which we might be subject. In such circumstances, we would be processing Your Personal Data in order to meet a legal, compliance or other regulatory obligation to which we are subject.
The basis upon which we will process certain parts of Your Personal Data
Where you ask us to assist you with for example your insurance, in particular life insurance and insurance that may assist you in the event of an accident or illness, we will ask you information about your ethnic origin, your health and medical history (Your Special Data). We will record and use Your Special Data in order to make enquiries of insurance providers in relation to insurance products that may meet your needs and to provide you with advice and guidance regarding the suitability of any product that may be available to you.
If you have parental responsibility for children under the age of 13, it is also very likely that we will record information on our systems that relates to those children and potentially, to their Special Data.
The arrangement of certain types of insurance may involve disclosure by you to us of information relating to historic or current criminal convictions or offences (together “Criminal Disclosures”). This is relevant to insurance related activities such as underwriting, claims and fraud management.
We will use special Data and any Criminal Disclosures in the same way as Your Personal Data generally, as set out in this Privacy Notice.
Information on Special Category Data and Criminal Disclosures must be capable of being exchanged freely between insurance intermediaries such as our Firm, and insurance providers, to enable customers to secure the important insurance protection that their needs require.
How do we collect Your Personal Data?
We will collect and record Your Personal Data from a variety of sources, but mainly directly from you. You will usually provide information during the course of our initial meetings or conversations with you to establish your circumstances and needs and preferences in relation to Insurance, Building & Contents, Private Medical, Income Protection and Accident and Sickness requirements. You will provide information to us verbally and in writing, electronic communications, and The Protection Network Limited and Smart Cover Online Limited website.
We may also obtain some information from third parties, for example, credit checks, information from your employer, and searches of information in the public domain such as the voters roll. If we use technology solutions to assist in the collection of Your Personal Data for example software that is able to verify your credit status. We will only do this if we have consent from you for us or our nominated processor to access your information in this manner. With regards to electronic ID checks we would not require your consent but will inform you of how such software operates and the purpose for which it is used.
What happens to Your Personal Data when it is disclosed to us?
In the course of handling Your Personal Data, we will:
Sharing Your Personal Data
From time to time Your Personal Data will be shared with:
In each case, Your Personal Data will only be shared for the purposes set out in this Customer Privacy Notice, i.e. to progress your enquiry and to provide you with our professional services.
Please note that this sharing of Your Personal Data does not entitle such third parties to send you marketing or promotional messages: it is shared to ensure we can adequately fulfil our responsibilities to you, and as otherwise set out in this Customer Privacy Notice.
We do not envisage that the performance by us of our service will involve Your Personal Data being transferred outside of the European Economic Area.
Security and retention of Your Personal Data
Your privacy is important to us and we will keep Your Personal Data secure in accordance with our legal responsibilities. We will take reasonable steps to safeguard Your Personal Data against it being accessed unlawfully or maliciously by a third party.
We also expect you to take reasonable steps to safeguard your own privacy when transferring information to us, such as not sending confidential information over unprotected email, ensuring email attachments are password protected or encrypted and only using secure methods of postage when original documentation is being sent to us.
Your Personal Data will be retained by us either electronically or in paper form for a minimum period of 6 years following the advice/service you receive from us, although your data could be held for a longer period where this may be needed to meet the requirements of our regulatory bodies.
Your rights in relation to Your Personal Data
You can:
How to make contact with our Firm in relation to the use of Your Personal Data
If you have any questions or comments about this document, or wish to make contact in order to exercise any of your rights set out within it please contact:
Data Protection Officer
7 Bell Yard, London WC2A 2JR
If we feel we have a legal right not to deal with your request, or to action, it in a different way to how you have requested, we will inform you of this at the time.
You should also make contact with us as soon as possible on you becoming aware of any unauthorised disclosure of Your Personal Data, so that we may investigate and fulfil our own regulatory obligations.
If you have any concerns or complaints as to how we have handled Your Personal Data you may lodge a complaint with the UK’s data protection regulator, the ICO, who can be contacted through their website at https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/ or by writing to Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Smart Cover Online Limited is a trading style of The Protection Network Limited, 7 Bell Yard London WC2A 2JR which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority Firm Reference Number 803469. The Protection Network Limited is Registered in England and Wales No 11001265. Registered office as above. The Protection Network are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The guidance contained within this website is subject to UK regulatory regime and is therefore primarily targeted at customers in the UK. All data collected within this website is handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which includes information on the use of cookies. All business is transacted in accordance with our Terms Of Business. If you choose to take a policy using this website you will be transferred securely from this website to our partners website Cignpost Life. If you purchase cover through Cignpost Life the policy is administered and underwritten by iptiQ Life S.A. authorised by Le Commissariat aux Assurances in Luxembourg. Deemed authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Details of the Temporary Permissions Regime, which allows EEA-based firms to operate in the UK for a limited period while seeking full authorisation, are available on the Financial Conduct Authority’s website.