Legal

• 1.It is important that you are aware of where we stand in relation to your personal data. We take the privacy of our website users very seriously. We want to make sure that we are looking after you and your information as best we can and we ask that you read this Privacy Policy ('the Policy') so that you know how we will use your personal data.

• 2.For the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998, The Bank ('we' or 'us') is the 'data controller' (i.e. the company who is responsible for, and controls the processing of, your personal data).

Personal data we may collect about you

• 3.We may obtain personal data about you (such as your name, address, telephone number and email address) when you use this website.

• 4.We may monitor your usage of this website. This may include monitoring how many times you visit, which pages you go to, traffic data, location data and the originating domain name of a user's internet service provider. This information helps us to build a profile of our users and therefore improve our services to you. Some of this data will be personal data (such as the data described in Paragraph 3 above) but some will be aggregated or statistical, which means that we will not be able to identify you individually.

• 5.We will hold your personal data on our systems for as long as is necessary without limitation; or in any event personal data will not be kept for longer than six years after the termination of your membership.

How we may use your personal data

• 6. We will use your personal data for the following purposes:

  • 6.1.to help us identify you and any accounts you hold with us; to help us administer and maintain accurate membership records; statistical analysis and market research; customer profiling; customising this website and its content to your particular preferences; to notify you of any changes to this website or our services which may affect you and to respond to any queries or questions raised by you or other users of the website; Essentially, to help provide you with a better service!

  • 6.2.marketing—see 'Marketing and opting out' below;

Marketing and opting out

• 7.We may share (only if you don’t mind!), your personal data with organisations who are our business partners and we or they may contact you, unless you have asked us or them not to do so, by post or email about products, services, promotions, special offers or charitable causes which may be of interest to you.

• 8.If you prefer not to receive any further marketing communications from us, you can opt out at any time. See further 'Your rights' below.

Disclosure of your personal data

• 9. We may disclose your personal data to:

  • 9.1.other companies within our group;

  • 9.2. our agents and service providers (e.g. providers of web hosting or maintenance services);

  • 9.3.law enforcement agencies in connection with any investigation to help prevent unlawful activity;

  • 9.4.our business partners in accordance with the 'Marketing and opting out' section above;

  • 9.5.if our business is sold or integrated with another business your details may be disclosed to our advisers and any prospective purchasers and their advisers and will be passed on to the new owners of the business subject to terms of confidentiality no less onerous than those contained in this policy.

Your rights

• 10.You have the right to ask us to stop processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. We don’t mind and all that we ask is that you;

  • 10.1. put your request in writing (an email sent to email address with a header that says 'Unsubscribe' is acceptable);

  • 10.2.provide us with enough information to identify you (e.g. account number, username, registration details);

  • 10.3.if your objection is not to direct marketing in general, but to direct marketing by a particular channel (e.g. email or telephone) please specify the channel you are objecting to.

Keeping your data secure

• 11.As we have said, we want to keep your data secure. We will use technical and organisational measures to safeguard your personal data, for example:

  • 11.1.access to your account is controlled by password and username which are unique to you;

  • 11.2.we store your personal data on secure servers.

• 12.Whilst we will use all reasonable efforts to safeguard your personal data, you acknowledge that the use of the internet is not entirely secure and for this reason we cannot guarantee the security or integrity of any personal data which are transferred from you or to you via the internet.

Use of Cookies

• 13.We may also obtain information about your online movements and use of the internet. We do this by placing a 'cookie' on your computer's hard disk. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser to enable our systems to recognise your browser. Cookies are used for several reasons:

  • 13.1.to recognise you whenever you visit this website;

  • 13.2.to speed up access to this website (so you do not have to log on each time);

  • 13.3.to store your personal preferences;

  • 13.4.to build a profile about you;

  • 13.5.to better target our marketing and advertising campaigns. Again, we use this information to improve our services to you!

• 14.The vast majority of web browsers accept cookies. However, you can change your browser settings so that cookies are not accepted. If you do this, you may lose some of the functionality of this website for which we are not responsible.

Monitoring

• 15.We may monitor and record communications with you (such as telephone conversations and emails) for the purpose of quality assurance, training, fraud prevention and compliance.

Our contact details

• 16.We welcome your feedback and questions after all, the site is designed for you. If you wish to contact us, please send an email to dearalice@thebank.co.uk or dearrob@thebank.co.uk or you can write to us at 16/18 Berners St London W1T3LN or call us on + 44 7612 8000

• 17.We may change this Policy from time to time. You should check this Policy occasionally to ensure you are aware of the most recent version which will apply each time you access this website.