Privacy

How we use your personal information

Last updated May 2018

Your information will be held by ABS Software®.
More information on this can be found at www.abssoftware.co.uk.

How we use your personal information

ABSSoftware®. This privacy notice is to let you know how ABS Software® promises to look after your personal information.

This includes what you tell us about yourself, what we learn by having you as a customer, and the choices you give us about what marketing you want us to send you.

This notice explains how we do this and tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Our Privacy Promise

We promise:

· To keep your data safe and private.

· Not to sell your data.

· To give you ways to manage and review your marketing choices at any time.

Data Protection law has changed on 25 May 2018

This notice sets out most of your rights under the new laws. We’ll update it when changes come into effect.

Who we are

ABS Software® is a software development house. This is who you will have a relationship with, when you take out a product or service with us.

You can find out more about us at www.abssoftware.co.uk.

If you have any questions, or want more details about how we use your personal information, you can ask us using our secure online contact form.

Or you can call us on 07985571670 +44 7985571670 from outside the UK).

How the law protects you.

As well as our Privacy Promise, your privacy is protected by law. This section explains how that works.

Data Protection law says that we are allowed to use personal information only if we have a proper reason to do so. This includes sharing it outside ABS Software®.

The law says we must have one or more of these reasons:

· To fulfil a contract we have with you, or

· When it is our legal duty, or

· When it is in our legitimate interest, or

· When you consent to it.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information. But even then, it must not unfairly go against what is right and best for you.

If we rely on our legitimate interest, we will tell you what that is.

Here is a list of all the ways that we may use your personal information, and which of the reasons we rely on to do so. This is also where we tell you what our legitimate interests are.

What we use your personal information for

Our reasons

Our legitimate interests

• To manage our relationship with you or your business.

• To develop new ways to meet our customers’ needs and to grow our business.

• To develop and carry out marketing activities.

• To study how our customers use products and services from us and other organisations.

• To provide advice or guidance about our products and services.

• Your consent.

• Fulfilling contracts.

• Our legitimate interests.

• Our legal duty.

• Keeping our records up to date, working out which of our products and services may interest you and telling you about them.

• Developing products and services, and what we charge for them.

• Defining types of customers for new products or services.

• Seeking your consent when we need it to contact you.

• Being efficient about how we fulfil our legal duties.

• To develop and manage our brands, products and services.

• To test new products.

• To manage how we work with other companies that provide services to us and our customers.

• Fulfilling contracts.

• Our legitimate interests.

• Our legal duty.

• Developing products and services, and what we charge for them.

• Defining types of customers for new products or services.

• Being efficient about how we fulfil our legal and contractual duties.

• To deliver of our products and services.

• To make and manage customer payments.

• To manage fees, charges and interest due on customer accounts.

• To collect and recover money that is owed to us.

• To manage and provide treasury and investment products and services.

• Fulfilling contracts.

• Our legitimate interests.

• Our legal duty.

• Being efficient about how we fulfil our legal and contractual duties.

• Complying with regulations that apply to us.

• To detect, investigate, report, and seek to prevent Data loss.

• To manage risk for us and our customers.

• To obey laws and regulations that apply to us.

• To respond to complaints and seek to resolve them.

• Fulfilling contracts.

• Our legitimate interests.

• Our legal duty.

• Developing and improving how we deal with data breaches and security, as well as doing our legal duties in this respect .

• Complying with regulations that apply to us.

• Being efficient about how we fulfil our legal and contractual duties.

• To run our business in an efficient and proper way. This includes managing our financial position, business capability, planning, communications, corporate governance, and audit.

• Our legitimate interests.

• Our legal duty.

• Complying with regulations that apply to us.

• Being efficient about how we fulfil our legal and contractual duties.

• To exercise our rights set out in agreements or contracts.

•Fulfilling contracts.

Use of Personal Information

We use many different kinds of personal information, and use them together like this.

Type of personal information

Description

Financial

Your company financial position with us, status and history.

Contact

Where you work and how to contact you.

Socio-Demographic

This includes details about your work or profession

Transactional

Details about payments to and from your accounts with us, and support claims you make.

Contractual

Details about the products or services we provide to you.

Locational

Data we get about where you are, such as may come from your mobile phone, the address where you connect a computer to the internet in connection with business software supplied to you.

Behavioural

Details about how you use our products and services.

Technical

Details on the devices and technology you use.

Communications

What we learn about you from letters, emails and conversations between us.

Social & Business Relationships

Your business, employees and other relationships.

Open Data and Public Records

Details about you that are in public records, such as the Electoral Register, and information about you that is openly available on the internet.

Usage Data

Other data about how you use our products and services.

Documentary Data

Details about you that are stored in documents in different formats, or copies of them. This could include things like your passport, drivers licence or birth certificate if maintained in business software supplied by us.

Special types of data

The law and other regulations treat some types of personal information as special. We do NOT collect and use these types of data even if the law allows us to do so:

• Racial or ethnic origin

• Religious or philosophical beliefs

• Trade union membership

• Genetic and bio-metric data

• Health data including gender

• Criminal convictions and offences

Consents

Any permissions, consents or preferences that you give us. This includes things like how you want us to contact you, whether you get paper Invoices, or prefer large-print formats.

National Identifier

A number or code given to you by a government to identify who you are, such as a National Insurance number.

Where we collect personal information from

We may collect personal information about you (or your business) from information you have provided ABS Software® and from these sources:

Data you give to us:

· When you apply for our products and services

· When you talk to us on the phone or via video links

· When you use our websites, mobile device apps, web chat or video services

· In emails and letters

· In support claims or other documents

· In reviews and meetings

· In customer surveys

· If you take part in our competitions or promotions.

Data we collect when you use our services. This includes the amount, frequency, type, location, origin and recipients:

· Payment and transaction data.

· It also includes other data about how you use those services. We gather this anonymous data from devices you use to connect to those services, such as computers and mobile phones,

· using cookies and other internet tracking software.

Data from third parties we work with:

· Companies that introduce you to us

· Social networks

· Fraud prevention agencies

· Payroll service providers

· Public information sources such as Companies House

· Agents working on our behalf

· Market researchers

Who we share your personal information with

We may share your personal information with individuals within ABS Software® and these organisations:

· Agents and advisers who we use to help run your accounts and services and explore new ways of doing business

· Any party linked with you or your business’s product or service

· Companies we have a joint venture or agreement to co-operate with

· Organisations that introduce you to us

· Companies that we introduce you to

· Market researchers

We may need to share your personal information with other organisations to provide you with the product or service you have chosen:

· If you use direct debits, we will share your data with the Direct Debit scheme.

We may also share your personal information if the make-up of ABS Software® changes in the future:

· We may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business, or our assets. Or we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them.

· During any such process, we may share your data with other parties. We’ll only do this if they agree to keep your data safe and private.

· If the change to our business ownership happens, then other parties may use your data in the same way as set out in this notice.

How we use your information to make automated decisions

We sometimes use systems to make automated decisions based on personal information we have – or are allowed to collect from others – about you or your business. This helps us to make sure our decisions are quick, fair, efficient and correct, based on what we know. These automated decisions can affect the products, services or features we may offer you now or in the future, or the price that we charge you for them.

Here are the types of automated decision we make:

Pricing
We may decide what to charge for some products and services based on what we know.

Tailoring products and services
We may place you in segments with similar customers. These are called customer segments. We use these to study and learn about our customers’ needs, and to make decisions based on what we learn. This helps us to design products and services for different customer segments, and to manage our relationships with them.

Opening accounts
When you open an account with us, we check that the product or service is relevant for you, based on what we know. We also check that you or your business meets the conditions needed to open the account. This may include checking age, residency, nationality or financial position.

Approving credit
We use a system to decide whether to allow payment terms to you or your business, when you apply for credit such as a thirty day payment period. This is called credit scoring. It uses past data to assess how you’re likely to act while paying invoices from us. This includes data about similar accounts you may have had before.

Credit scoring uses data from three sources:

· Your application form

· Credit reference agencies

· Data we may already hold.

It gives an overall assessment based on this.

Your rights
As a person/company you have rights over automated decisions.

· You can ask that we do not make our decision based on the automated score alone.

· You can object to an automated decision, and ask that a person reviews it.

If you want to know more about these rights, please contact us.

Credit Reference Agencies

We carry out credit and identity checks when you apply for a credit payment period for you or your business. We may use Credit Reference Agencies to help us with this.

If you use our services, from time to time we may also search information that the CRAs have, to help us manage those accounts.

We will share your personal information with CRAs and they will give us information about you. The data we exchange can include:

· Name, address and date of birth

· Credit application

· Details of any shared credit

· Financial situation and history

· Public information, from sources such as the electoral register and Companies House.

We’ll use this data to:

· Assess whether you or your business is able to afford to make payments

· Make sure what you’ve told us is true and correct

· Help detect and prevent financial crime

· Manage accounts with us

· Trace and recover debts

· Make sure that we tell you about relevant offers.

We will go on sharing your personal information with CRAs for as long as you are a customer. This will include details about your settled accounts and any debts not fully repaid on time.

When we ask CRAs about you or your business, they will note it on your credit file. This is called a credit search. Other lenders may see this and we may see credit searches from other lenders.

You can find out more about the CRAs on their websites, in the Credit Reference Agency Information Notice. This includes details about:

· Who they are

· Their role as fraud prevention agencies

· The data they hold and how they use it

· How they share personal information

· How long they can keep data

· Your data protection rights.

Here are links to the information notice for each of the three main Credit Reference Agencies:
Callcredit
Equifax
Experian

Sending data outside of the EEA

We will only send your data outside of the European Economic Area (‘EEA’) to:

· Follow your instructions.

· Comply with a legal duty.

· Work with our agents and advisers who we use to help run your accounts and services.

If we do transfer information to our agents or advisers outside of the EEA, we will make sure that it is protected in the same way as if it was being used in the EEA. We’ll use one of these safeguards:

· Transfer it to a non-EEA country with privacy laws that give the same protection as the EEA. Learn more on the European Commission Justice website.

· Put in place a contract with the recipient that means they must protect it to the same standards as the EEA. Read more about this here on the European Commission Justice website,

· Transfer it to organisations that are part of Privacy Shield. This is a framework that sets privacy standards for data sent between the US and EU countries. It makes sure those standards are similar to what is used within the EEA. You can find out more about data protection on the European Commission Justice website.

If you choose not to give personal information

We may need to collect personal information by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you.

If you choose not to give us this personal information, it may delay or prevent us from meeting our obligations. It may also mean that we cannot perform services needed to run your accounts or policies. It could mean that we cancel a product or service you have with us.

Any data collection that is optional would be made clear at the point of collection.

Marketing

We may use your personal information to tell you about relevant products and offers. This is what we mean when we talk about ‘marketing’.

The personal information we have for you is made up of what you tell us, and data we collect when you use our services, or from third parties we work with.

We study this to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you.

We can only use your personal information to send you marketing messages if we have either your consent or a ‘legitimate interest’. That is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information. It must not unfairly go against what is right and best for you.

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages by contacting us at any time.

Whatever you choose, you'll still receive statements, and other important information such as changes to your existing products and services.

We may ask you to confirm or update your choices, if you take out any new products or services with us in future. We will also ask you to do this if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

If you change your mind you can update your choices at any time by contacting us.

How long we keep your personal information

We will keep your personal information for as long as you are a customer of ABS Software® .

After you stop being a customer, we may keep your data for up to 10 years for one of these reasons:

· To respond to any questions or complaints.

· To show that we treated you fairly.

· To maintain records according to rules that apply to us.

We may keep your data for longer than 10 years if we cannot delete it for legal, regulatory or technical reasons. We may also keep it for research or statistical purposes. If we do, we will make sure that your privacy is protected and only use it for those purposes.

How to get a copy of your personal information

You can access your personal information we hold by writing to us at this address:
ABS Software® Customer Service Recovery 82 Murray Road Ipswich IP3 9AQ or emailing ‘enquiries@abssoftare.co.uk with the subject “Customer Service Recovery”

Letting us know if your personal information is incorrect

You have the right to question any information we have about you that you think is wrong or incomplete. Please contact us if you want to do this.
If you do, we will take reasonable steps to check its accuracy and correct it.

What if you want us to stop using your personal information?

You have the right to object to our use of your personal information, or to ask us to delete, remove, or stop using your personal information if there is no need for us to keep it. This is known as the ‘right to object’ and ‘right to erasure’, or the ‘right to be forgotten’.

There may be legal or other official reasons why we need to keep or use your data. But please tell us if you think that we should not be using it.

We may sometimes be able to restrict the use of your data. This means that it can only be used for certain things, such as legal claims or to exercise legal rights. In this situation, we would not use or share your information in other ways while it is restricted.

You can ask us to restrict the use of your personal information if:

· It is not accurate.

· It has been used unlawfully but you don’t want us to delete it.

· It not relevant any more, but you want us to keep it for use in legal claims.

· You have already asked us to stop using your data but you are waiting for us to tell you if we are allowed to keep on using it.

If you want to object to how we use your data, or ask us to delete it or restrict how we use it or, please contact us.

How to withdraw your consent

You can withdraw your consent at any time. Please contact us if you want to do so.

If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. If this is so, we will tell you.

How to complain

Please let us know if you are unhappy with how we have used your personal information. You can contact us using our secure online contact form.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Find out on their website how to report a concern.

Future formats for sharing data

The Data Privacy laws will change on 25 May 2018. From that date you will have the right to get your personal information from us in a format that can be easily re-used.

You can also ask us to pass on your personal information in this format to other organisations.

We are working with our industry to improve the way your data is shared. We’ll update this notice with more details before 25 May 2018.

To find out more about how we use cookies please see our cookie notice.