Privacy Policy

We want you to feel confident about the privacy and security of your personal information. We are committed to safeguarding your privacy which includes our website visitors; this policy sets out how we will treat your personal information.

1. What information do we collect?
   
   We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal data:
   • (a) Information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website (including your IP address, geographical location, browser type, referral source, length of visit and number of page views);
   • (b) Information relating to any quotations you request or transactions carried out between you and us on or in relation to this website.
   • (c) Information relating to any purchases you make of our services including but not limited to payment details.
   • (d) Information that you provide to us for the purpose of registering with us.
   • (e) Information that you provide to us or we collect from you about yourself and other people for the purpose of obtaining our services including but not limited to email notifications and\or newsletters.
   • (f) Any other information that you choose to supply to us.
2. Cookies and IP addresses
   
   A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.
   
   Your IP address is a series of numbers which identify a computer on the internet. We use IP addresses and cookies to help diagnose possible service interruptions and administer our service and website.
   
   We may use both 'session' cookies and 'persistent' cookies on the website. We will use the session cookies to keep track of you whilst you navigate the website. We will use the persistent cookies to enable our website to recognise you when you visit.
   
   Session cookies will normally be deleted from your computer when you close your browser. Persistent cookies will remain stored on your computer until deleted, or until they reach a specified expiry date.
   
   We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of this website. Google Analytics generates statistical and other information about website use by means of cookies, which are stored on users' computers. The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google will store this information. Google's privacy policy is available at: http:\\www.google.com\privacypolicy.html.
   
   Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies. (For example, in Internet Explorer you can refuse all cookies by clicking "Tools", "Internet Options", "Privacy", and selecting "Block all cookies" using the sliding selector.) This will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites, including this one. Therefore, please ensure cookies are turned on in your browser.
3. Using your personal data
   
   Personal data submitted to us will be used for the purposes specified in this privacy policy, terms of use and terms of business agreement.
   
   We may use your personal information to:
   • (a) Primarily to fulfill your request or instruction for quotation requests and process and delivery of your policy. This data will be retained and may be used for any of the following purposes; accounting, processing adjustments and automatic renewals, payments, billing and auditing, claims, administrative and legal purposes, security and payment verification.
   • (b) Administer our website;
   • (c) Improve your internet browsing experience by personalising our website;
   • (d) Send to you information regarding a requested quotation or policy purchased via our website;
   • (e) Send you general (non-marketing) commercial communications;
   • (f) Send you email notifications which you have specifically requested;
   • (g) Send you correspondance and documentation to enable us to administer and renew your policy;
   • (h) Send to you our newsletter and advise you of other marketing communications relating to our business or the businesses of carefully-selected third parties which we think may be of interest to you by post, telephone email or similar technology. You can inform us at any time if you no longer require marketing communications, our contact details are listed below;
   • (i) Provide third parties with statistical information - but this information will not be used to identify any individual person;
   • (j) Deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you;
   • (k) Other uses as detailed in out terms of business agreement or as may be reasonably required to administer your insurance policy with us.
   Where you submit personal information for publication on our website, we will publish and otherwise use that information in accordance with the license you grant to us as detailed in our terms and conditions.
   
   We will not without your express consent provide your personal information to any third parties for the purpose of direct marketing.
4. Disclosures
   
   We may disclose information about you to any of our employees, officers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes as set out in this privacy policy.
   
   In addition, we may disclose information about you:
   • (a) To insurers and reputable third parties involved in the quotation process and delivery of your policy. We require all such third parties to treat your personal information as fully confidential and to fully comply with all applicable UK Data Protection and consumer legislation from time to time in place;
   • (b) To the extent that we are required to do so by law;
   • (c) In connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings;
   • (d) In order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk);
   • (e) To industry and public bodies (including the police) and agencies to process and administer this insurance and any upgrade to this insurance;
   • (f) To the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset which we are (or are contemplating) selling.
   • (g) Should you need to make a claim you may be required to disclose relevant personal data about yourself to Insurers, ourselves and\or appointed agents, including data which is deemed "sensitive" under the Data Protection Act 1998
   • (h) Insurers pass information to the Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register, run by Insurance Database Services Ltd (IDS Ltd) and in the case of road risk policies the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register, run by the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The aim is to help them to check information provided and to prevent fraudulent claims. When we deal with your request for insurance, we or your Insurers may search these registers. Under the conditions of your policy, you must tell us about any incident (such as an accident or theft) which may or may not give rise to a claim. When you tell us about an incident, we or your Insurers will pass information relating to it to the registers. Your policy details will be added to the Motor Insurance Database (MID), run by the Motor Insurers' Information Centre (MIIC). MID data may be used by the DVLA and DVLNI for the purpose of Electronic Vehicle Licensing and by the Police for the purposes of establishing whether a driver's use of the vehicle is likely to be covered by a motor insurance policy and\or for preventing and detecting crime. If you are involved in an accident (in the UK or abroad), other UK insurers, the Motor Insurers' Bureau and MIIC may search the MID to obtain relevant policy information. Persons pursuing a claim in respect of a road traffic accident (including citizens of other countries) may also obtain relevant information, which is held on the MID. You can find out more about this at www.miic.org.uk
   Except as provided in this privacy policy and terms of business agreement, we will not disclose your information or information of other people covered under the policy to third parties.
5. Credit searches
   
   Many insurance and financial services providers operate a credit scoring system and will carry out checks with credit reference and fraud prevention agencies. These checks will include electoral roll and credit information. The insurance checks are registered as general insurance searches and may be viewed by other companies when you apply for credit or insurance. Often the financial services quotes you request will only do a credit check once you have decided on a particular supplier. Every application you submit for a loan or credit card may affect your credit scoring so you may wish to keep applications to a minimum for your credit rating. Again, this is not happening specifically because you are using our service. This may happen regardless of whether you get a quote via the internet or phone for any of these services.
6. International data transfers
   
   Information that we collect may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which we operate in order to enable us to use the information in accordance with this privacy policy.
   
   Information which you provide may be transferred to countries which do not have data protection laws equivalent to those in force in the European Economic Areas (EEA).
   
   In addition, personal information that you submit for publication on the website will be published on the internet and may be available, via the internet, around the world.
   
   You expressly agree to such transfers of personal information.
7. Security of your personal data
   
   We will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information.
   
   Our website uses the industry standard secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption technology to ensure that all your personal and transactional information is encrypted before transmission. To check that you are in a secure area of our site look at the bottom of your browser and you will see a closed padlock. All this technology and our policies are to safeguard your privacy from unauthorised access\improper use and we will continue to update these measures as new technology becomes available from time to time.
   
   Of course, data transmission over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.
   
   Our security procedures mean that we reserve the right to ask for proof of your identity before we will disclose information about you, or to you, be this on our site or over the telephone.
   
   You are responsible for keeping your password and user details confidential. We will not ask you for your password.
8. Policy amendments
   
   We may revise our privacy policy from time-to-time. Revised privacy policy will apply from the date of the publication of the revised privacy policy on our website. It remains your responsibility to check this privacy policy whenever you access the site.
9. Your rights
   
   You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you. Provision of such information may be subject to the payment of a fee (currently fixed at £20.00). Further details can be found in our terms of business agreement.
   
   You may instruct us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes at any time. Please use the contact details listed below.
10. Third party websites
    We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other websites even if you access them using links from our site and we recommend that you check the policy of each site that you visit. In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party website, we cannot be held responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners or operators of the third party website from which you linked to our website and recommend that you check the policy of that third party website and contact the owner or operator of that site if you have any concerns or questions.
11. Updating information
    
    Please let us know if the personal information which we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.
12. Monitoring
    
    Monitoring or recording of your calls, emails, text messages and other communications may take place in accordance with UK law, and in particular for business purposes, such as for quality control and training, processing necessary for the entering into or the performance of a contract, to prevent unauthorised use of our telecommunication systems and web sites, to ensure effective systems operation, to meet any legal obligation, in order to prevent or detect crime and for the purposes of the legitimate interests of us as the data controller.
13. Contact
    If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our treatment of your personal data, please write to us by email to info@arkinsurance.co.uk or by post to Ark Insurance Group, 8 Orchard Court, Binley Business Park, Harry Weston Road Coventry CV3 2TQ. Please supply your full Business name, name, address and date of birth when contacting us in order that we can locate your file. We will make all reasonable efforts to delete your information from our files if it is deemed appropriate.
14. By using our site and by submitting information into our site or by any other means such as telephone you are giving us permission to use your data as described in this privacy policy.
15. Registration
    
    We will abide by the stated principles of the Data Protection Act at all times. Compliance with the Act is enforced by an independent authority called 'Information Commissioners Office' (ICO) and we are listed on their Data Protection Public Register. Our Registration Number: Z9477483