Cookies and Privacy Policy

Your data and what we use it for

If you decide to apply for a product or service offered by us, you may be asked to provide personal details, including details that are classed as "sensitive", such as your medical history.

Your details will be used by us to process and administer your application for insurance cover and will be disclosed to the Introducer and the chosen Provider of any insurance product you purchase in order that they may administer the policy.

In order to deliver our services to you effectively we will send your details to third parties such as those that we engage for professional compliance, accountancy or legal services as well as product, platform and service providers, insurers and other intermediaries that we use to arrange financial products for you.

Where third parties are involved in processing your data on our behalf we’ll have a contract in place with them to ensure that the nature and purpose of the processing is clear, that they are subject to a duty of confidence in processing your data and that they’ll only act in accordance with our written instructions.  
Where required, we may also share your personal data with law enforcement agencies, courts, regulators and similar bodies; and advisers and other third parties in connection with a sale or reorganisation of our business. 

Where it’s necessary for your personal data to be forwarded to a third party we’ll use appropriate security measures to protect your personal data in transit such as secure file transfer and encryption. To fulfil our obligations in respect of prevention of money-laundering and other financial crime we may send your details to third party agencies for identity verification purposes.

More information on the types of information that may be collected

The type of information we may collect and process may include any of the below (where permitted by law):

• Personal details: Your name, age, gender, date of birth, marital status, nationality, height and weight, medical history, leisure activities and interests
• Information about the insurance policies you have applied for
• Contact Information: Your address, telephone numbers and email address
• Information about your family and home: Your family health or morbidity history, number of children and name, age and gender of children, your dwelling type, your household income, home valuation and household demographics
• Employment and experience information: Your employment history, job role, salary, employment benefit options
• Financial information: Details pertaining to your bank account, annual income, investment/savings, tax payer ID, credit history and transaction history
• Details of your interactions on our website
• Information to conduct our business:  Information relating to underwriting insurance products and managing and processing insurance claims, such as previous insurance records and claims histories, services relating to our businesses and your business dealings or relationship with us

More information on the purposes for which personal data is used

We use your personal information:

• Provide our services and manage products and services you have requested
• Review, process and manage claims
• Conduct data analysis, such as how you use our website, which helps us improve our services
• Help us prevent and detect fraud, money laundering, terrorism and other crimes
• Help develop new and improve existing services
• Operate and expand our business activities
• Carry out background checks, where lawful
• Perform administrative activities in connection with our services
• Exercise, defend and protect our legal rights or the rights of our clients or third parties
• Comply with legal obligations and to cooperate with regulatory bodies to which we are subject
• Research and development of new insurance products
• Audit our business

How long we will keep your data for and how we will protect it

We will retain personal data relating to a quote which does not result in an application for no longer than one year.

If you apply for life insurance, we will retain personal and sensitive data for six years (or longer if requested to do so by the regulator) for monitoring, compliance and to support your application and any subsequent enquiries. This will help us answer any enquiries from you or the chosen Insurer. After this period, all sensitive data will be deleted and basic personal data retained to answer future enquiries about the status of an application.

If a policy is put in force, for your protection and in the event of future claims or queries, we will securely retain all personal data relating to that application for a period of 50 years from the date it went on risk.

Data will be processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files stored on your computer when you visit some websites. To use our website properly you need to have our ‘essential’ cookies enabled.

Non-essential cookies are also used by us to monitor site usage and help improve everyone’s experience such as identifying and resolving errors. None of our cookies will directly identify you and nor will we store any personally identifiable information or any personal data via a cookie.

Our website, like most others, will store cookies on your computer to allow us to make your visit a better experience. If you’d prefer you can use your browser to prevent all cookies being set but please remember that by doing this you may lose functionality of some aspects of websites that rely on essential cookies to work. Please check your browser settings for more information.

Here is a list of the cookies most commonly used and what we use them for.

• Essential cookies. This type of cookie, such as session cookies allows our web servers to respond to your actions on the website, such as moving through online forms or browsing the website. The website wouldn’t work for you without them switched on.
• Non-Essential cookies. These cookies enable the function of Analytics and your site preferences. This software helps us take and analyse collective visitor information such as browser usage and new visitor numbers. Analytics information is not held at individual customer level and helps us to improve the website and your experience. Some cookies are persistent and will remain on your computer after you exit the site to remember your settings. You are able to switch these off with no loss of functionality.
• Essential Third party referral cookies. These cookies are set by third party companies which refer you to our website or advertise our products. We don’t control the setting of these cookies.
• Marketing cookies. These persistent cookies are used for targeted advertising. There are none on our site.
• Social Media Cookies. For websites used by individual customers, there may be the opportunity to ‘share’ content with friends through social networks – such as Facebook and Twitter. You may be sent cookies from these websites. We don't control the setting of these cookies, so we suggest you check the third party websites for more information about their cookies and how to manage them.

Your data rights and our obligations to you

You may ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you. To request a copy of the information we hold, please contact us at the address below. This includes the transfer of information to another organisation if feasible.

If any information we hold is inaccurate, you may ask us to rectify any inaccuracy and we will inform any third parties to whom the data has been provided.

In specific circumstances, you can ask us to delete information we hold. This will depend on the consent already provided to us and the status of the application. You can also object to, or ask us to restrict, the processing of your data.

You have the right to withdraw consent at any time. Please click withdraw my consent should you wish to do so.

If you are unhappy with the handling of your personal data, you have the right to refer the matter to the Information Commissioners Office who will thoroughly investigate your concerns. They are contactable on 0303 123 1113 or go to ico.org.uk/concerns/handling for more information. Please however contact us in the first instance as we may be able to resolve the issue directly.

External links

We do not accept any responsibility for the content or privacy practices of any website to which a hypertext link from our website exists. The links are provided "as is" with no warranty (express or implied) for the information provided within them.

How to contact us

In the event of any queries or feedback, please contact us at:

Direct Life and Pension Services Ltd
Friars House
52a East Street
Chichester
West Sussex
PO19 1JG
or call 0800 652 9754
e-mail info@directlife.co.uk

The Direct Life & Pension Services Ltd Data Protection Officer is Ryan Mustchin, Head of Compliance and Agency.