Privacy Statement

Who we are

This website is owned and operated by Asset Finance Specialists Ltd. Registered in England and Wales company number 12058060. Asset Finance Specialists take your data privacy seriously.

Who is collecting the data

Asset Finance Specialists is an independent finance broker based at 15 Rookswood Lane, Rockbeare, Exeter, EX5 2LG. Asset Finance Specialists is an appointed representative of AFS Compliance Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority No 625035.  Their privacy policy can be found at https://www.afsuk.com/afs-compliance/contact/privacy-policy/

Asset Finance Specialists is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) for the purposes of handling personal information.  Registered number ZA531209. Whenever personal data is held, processed, collected, recorded, stored or disposed of we will comply with the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998.

The Data Protection Act requires us to process your personal data fairly and lawfully. A copy of our terms and conditions can be sent you on request, (by email to hello@assetfinancespecialists.com) and a copy is sent during the application process. By agreeing to our terms and conditions you permit us to:

  1.  process your personal information for the purposes of managing and progressing your agreement;
  2.  maintain accurate, relevant and up to date records of your personal information;
  3.  disclose your information to such parties and organisations as we believe necessary to process your agreement;
  4.   maintain your records for as long as necessary;
  5.  disclose your information to third parties for the purposes of progressing your agreement;
  6.  contact you regarding other services offered by us if you have opted-in via our website or other marketing activities.

How to unsubscribe

If you have any concerns relating to this privacy policy or wish to unsubscribe from any marketing activities please contact:

The Data Protection Officer

Asset Finance Specialists

15 Rookswood Lane

Rockbeare

Exeter

EX5 2LG

Email: hello@assetfinancespecialists.com

What information is being collected

  1.  Data supplied direct from you by completing the enquiry form on our website:

your name, email address and phone number.

  1.  Data supplied direct from you by completing an application

Identity data: includes first name, maiden name, last name, marital status, title, date of birth, gender, passport (copy), driving licence (copy) and utility bills (copy)

Contact Data: includes residential address, billing address, email address and telephone numbers

Financial Data: includes bank details, details of your income and outgoings, net worth statements

Transaction Data: includes [details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.]

Marketing and Communications Data: includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.

  1.  Your website browsing activities. Like most website operators, we collect non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. Our purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how visitors use our website.
  2.  Depending on your settings or the privacy policy for other online services, you may give us permission to obtain information from your account with those services. For example, by choosing to send us locational data when accessing our website from your smartphone.
  3.   Your communication, correspondence and marketing preferences with Asset Finance Specialists.
  4.   Our website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

How is it collected

The data is collected from:

–  the information you provide us with on the Contact Page of our website;

–  the information that you provided us when completing an application.

–  additional information that you advise us about to help progress the application;

– Third parties or publicly available sources such as companies house, credit safe, & Experian.

–  like many sites, we use “cookies” to collect information.  Cookies are files which contain small amounts of data, which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Information on the cookies we use can be found in our cookies policy.

Why is it being collected

We collect your data:-

  • To progress your agreement/ application as requested by you;
  • To allow us to communication with you regarding the application including updates and progress of the application;
  • To allow us to contact the finance lenders to progress your application (a list of the finance lenders can be obtained by emailing hello@assetfinancespecialists.com)
  • To allow us to communicate with AFS Compliance who will utilise the information to find the best source of finance based on your circumstances. Their privacy policy can be found at  https://www.afsuk.com/afs-compliance/contact/privacy-policy/
  • To comply with our regulatory responsibilities.
  • To handle any complaints and pass the data to AFS Compliance.
  • We use cookies to personalise content; tailor and measure digital adverts; to enhance your experience when using our website.  By understanding how visitors use our site will allow us to review and improve it. You can instruct your browser to refuse cookies.

How will it be used

Your data will be used to:

  • Process your application in line with our terms and conditions.
  • To pass to AFS Compliance so that they may find the best source of finance based on your circumstances. All documents provided are uploaded to them via a secure portal.
  • To communication with you regarding the update and progress of the application.
  • To provide aggregated statistical information for analysis to facilitate improvements in our website and marketing activities.
  • To handle any complaint (complaints are handled by AFS Compliance and the information will be passed to them)

Automated decision making

Your data is shared with AFS Compliance who may use an electronic system to used personal information without human intervention. Please refer to their website for further information: https://www.afsuk.com/afs-compliance/

Who will it be shared with

We will share your data with;

  • Members of staff to progress the application.
  • AFS Compliance for them to find the best source of finance for you based on your circumstances.
  • Our accountants / auditors
  • Our solicitors
  • Our IT specialist – www.saasage.co.uk
  • Governmental bodies, Police, regulators, enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals and insurers where we are legally bound to do so
    • To exercise our own legal rights
    • Where we are required to do so for money laundering, prosecution and the prevention and detection of crimes.
    • For the protection of our employees

Embedded content from other websites 

Articles on this website may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behave in the exact same way as if the visitor had visited the other website. This website may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with the embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged into that website. If you follow a link from one of our websites to a third-party website, we cannot accept any responsibility or liability for those sites or the services that they represent. We recommend that you read their privacy policies before browsing their websites. We embed YouTube videos on our website.

Our website utilises the wordpress platform  – WordPress.com, to publish our website and blogs. These sites are hosted Go Daddy. Who can be contact via https://www.uk.godaddy.com/.  We use a standard WordPress service to collect anonymous information about users’ activity on the effectiveness of the site and help us to improve it. WordPress requires visitors who want to post a comment to enter a name and email address. We also utilise a number of plugins to word press for security, optimisation and analytical purposes.  These may also collect anonymous information.

International transfer of data In certain circumstances, 

We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

People who contact us via social media

If you send us a private or direct message via social media, the message will be handled internally in line with our Privacy Policy procedures. For information about retention periods, please see ‘How long we will retain your data for’ in this Privacy Policy.

People who email us

–  We encrypt and protect email traffic. Using our IT provider -Saasage.  A copy of their privacy policy can be seen at Https://saasage.co.uk/privacy-policy.

–  We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email that you send us is within the bounds of the law.

Customer satisfaction surveys 

To help improve our services, we may contact you to see whether you wish to participate in an anonymised customer satisfaction survey.  If you do not wish to take part in these surveys please contact using the details above.

How long will we retain your data

We will not retain personal information longer than necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it is processed, including the security of our processing, complying with legal and regulatory obligations (e.g. audit, accounting and statutory retention terms), handling disputes, and for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims in the countries where we do business, subject to the following maximum terms:

  1.  we will keep your enquiry details for 24 months where no service is provided;
  2.  we will keep analytics records for 6 years;
  3.  we will keep client records for 6 years where our services are provided;
  4.  we will keep information relating to a complaint for two years from closure.

How we protect your data

Asset Finance Specialists Ltd is totally committed to keeping your Personal Information secure. We have appropriate technical, administrative and physical procedures in place to protect personal information from loss, misuse or alteration, and ensure it is only accessible by those who have a business need.

However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is completely 100% secure. Whilst we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.  We use a third-party service www.saasage.co.uk  to help maintain the security and performance of our website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to our website.

Security measures

Technical measures:

Hardcopies: personal data that is held in paper form is kept in locked cabinets, within locked and alarmed premises and only kept as long as necessary.  Paperwork is scanned and then destroyed using a cross cut shredder.

Any hardcopies of documents are sent recorded delivery.

Training: all staff receive annual data protection training and ongoing compliance training.

What rights do you have over your data

Your rights

  1. Your right of access – you may ask for a copy of personal data we hold about you.
  2.  Your right to be forgotten – your right to request that we erase personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
  3.  Your right of rectification – your right to request us to update and correct out of date or incorrect personal data that we hold about you.
  4.  Your right to object – your right to opt-out of any marketing communications that we may send you and to object to us using or holding your personal data if we have no legitimate reasons to do so.
  5.  Your right to restrict processing – which means we would continue to keep the data secure but would not otherwise be able to use it.
  6.  Your right to data portability – your right to ask us to supply you with some of the personal data that we hold about you in a readable digital format and / or to provide a copy of the data to another organisation.

If you wish to exercise any of your rights stated above, please contact us using the ‘Contact Us’ details shown below.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information ( or to exercise any other rights) however we may charge a reasons fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive.

Job Applicants

If you apply for a role with us, we will collect the following information to enable us to process your application efficiently and provide you with additional information:

–  your full name;

–  your title;

–  your address;

–  your telephone number;

–  your email address;

–  other personal data (Including nationality and gender);

–  special category data (used for monitoring purposes, including ethnic origin, religion and sexual orientation);

–  any additional information required to process your application (including academic and professional qualifications, career history, skills and experience for the role applied for, your right to work, any disability (optional), and where you saw the vacancy advertisement);

Where we request special category data, you have the option in each case to select ‘other’ or ‘prefer not to say’.

If you are selected for interview, we have a legal obligation to collect and process information which proves your right to work including a work permit, copy of a passport or a copy of a visa.

Changes to this privacy policy

This privacy policy is dated August 2019 and will remain in effect with respect to any changes in its provisions in the future which will be in effect immediately after being posted on this page.  We reserve the right to update or change our Privacy Policy at any time and you should check this Privacy Policy periodically. You continued use of the service after we post any modifications on this page will constitute your acknowledgment of the modifications and your consent to abide and be bound by the modified Privacy Policy.

Business Transfer

If the company or substantially all its assets, were acquired, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur, and that any acquirer of the company may continue to use your Personal Information as in this policy.