Privacy Notice

Updated February 2024

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and related UK data protection legislation, we are committed to protecting the confidentiality and security of the information that you provide to us.

This Privacy Notice is designed to help you understand how we collect and use your information.

We may collect information from you about other people, for example, family members who may drive your car or who may be included on a travel or household insurance policy. If you give us information about another person it is your responsibility to ensure and confirm that:

If you have any questions or queries about this policy please contact us.

Who we are

"Penguin Insurance Services Limited" (also referred to in this Notice as “we", "us", or "our") means Penguin Insurance Services Limited

How to contact us:

For any questions or concerns relating to this Privacy Policy or our data protection practices, or to make a subject access or any other request regarding the information we hold, please contact us at:

Penguin Insurance Services Limited
Pixmore Centre
Pixmore Avenue
Letchworth
Herts
SG6 1JG

Tel: 01462 658777

Why we need and how we use your personal information

We only collect, use and store your information where we have lawful grounds and legitimate business reasons to do so.

Our lawful basis for processing your personal data may include one or more of the following:

Additionally, in some circumstances we may process personal data on the basis that an individual has provided their express consent, for example, for marketing to an individual by email or SMS.

Please note that consent provided by an individual may be withdrawn by that individual, at any time, by contacting us using the contact details above.

We collect, use and store your personal information in order to fulfil requests for quotes, products and services as part our insurance broking, claims handling and risk management business. It may also be used to verify your identity, to administer payments and to enable us to carry out anti-money laundering and other financial crime checks where required. If you pay by instalments your information may also be used to arrange credit.

The use of your data is essential for us to check your identity, to enable you to enter into an insurance contract and for the insurance to operate (in the event of a claim, for example). We may also use it keep our records up to date, to notify you about changes to our service and to help us in develop new products and services.

If you do not provide the information required we are unlikely to be able to arrange your insurance and may not be able to provide certain services to you.

We may monitor calls, emails, text messages and other communications with you. When you contact us we may keep a record of that correspondence and any information provided to us during that or any subsequent communication.

Marketing

We would like to keep you updated about our relevant products and services by email, SMS and/or telephone on the basis of our legitimate interests or, where necessary, having obtained the appropriate consent.

Once you have lapsed a policy and are no longer a client, we may contact you with details of products and services which we feel may be of benefit to you.

It is the right of individuals to opt-out of or unsubscribe from any marketing material. Full details of how this can be done will be included within each marketing communication. You may also opt-out by contacting us at the above address.

If we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes we will only do so with your consent. Your consent will be obtained specifically at the appropriate time.

If you have already consented and wish us to stop using your information for this purpose or any other purpose then please contact us.

Nature of personal information

Personal data is any information that may identify a living individual. We collect personal information such as name, contact details, date of birth, gender, marital status, financial details, employment details and other personal details depending on the nature of the insurance and other services we offer.

We may collect and use special category data including information about criminal convictions and health of an individual in relation to providing our insurance services. This information may be shared with insurers, insurance product providers and our third-party service providers necessary for the provision of our services to you.

Our lawful basis for processing special category data you provide, is that of substantial public interest, as designated under Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018, therefore, we do not need your consent when we process this data. However, where consent is necessary under the UK GDPR we shall obtain your consent prior to processing such information.

We will process this data in strict accordance with this Privacy Notice. The data will be retained for 7 years (the duration of your policy with us, plus six years,) as required by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and in line with British Insurance Brokers Association guidance to support our ability to manage your policy, provide you with consultancy and advocacy services, respond to complaints, demonstrate compliance with FCA rules and to support our ability to defend against legal claims.

Sharing information

We will only supply your personal information to other parties where such a transfer is a necessary part of the activities that we undertake, where you give us consent or where we are required to do so by law or regulation (e.g. where the disclosure is necessary for the purposes of the prevention and/or detection of crime).

As an intermediary we must disclose personal information to insurance companies, underwriting agencies, business partners and other parties in order to provide our products and services and to enable you to enter into insurance contracts.

Examples of other parties include other insurance intermediaries, loss adjusters, regulatory bodies, legal and accountancy firms involved in the claims handling process. We may also share your personal information with fraud prevention agencies such as the Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register and Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register.

We may pass information relating to your insurance policy and any incident to the operators of these registers, their agents and suppliers.

For motor insurance we share it with the Motor Insurance Database (MID) which may be used to establish whether a driver is insured to drive a vehicle and/or for preventing or detecting crime. If you are involved in an accident in the UK or abroad, the MID may be searched to obtain relevant policy information. You can find out more at www.mib.org.uk

We may also disclose your information to service providers engaged to perform services on our behalf. Such service providers are contractually restricted from using or disclosing the information we give them except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or to comply with legal requirements.

We only share your information if we are satisfied that our partners or suppliers have sufficient measures in place to protect your information in the same way that we do.

We may also disclose personal information to new owners of our business in the event that we are subject to a merger or acquisition. Disclosure may also be made to enable company audits, regulatory inspections or to investigate a complaint, suspicion of fraud or a security threat.

We never share your information outside our organisation for marketing purposes.

You understand that we may disclose the information you provide to relevant other parties for the purposes described in this Notice.

Transfer of personal data outside the UK

Certain personal information held on our Information Technology systems may be transferred across geographical borders in accordance with applicable law.

By providing us with your information, you consent to the collection, international transfer, storage, and processing of your information.

These transfers are governed by European Union (EU) standard contractual clauses or equivalent data transfer agreements to protect the security and confidentiality of personal information.

How long we keep information about you

We will keep your information for as long as it is required to enable us to provide quotations, administer your insurances, offer renewal and respond to any claims or complaints (which may arise after the period of insurance has expired).

This will usually be a minimum period of seven years or otherwise as determined by law or regulation. Once we decide that we no longer need your information it will be securely and confidentially destroyed.

Your data protection rights

You have certain legal rights under UK data protection law and regulations, summarised as follows:

If you want to invoke any of these rights please write to us at:

Penguin Insurance Services Limited
Pixmore Centre
Pixmore Avenue
Letchworth
Herts
SG6 1JG

Tel: 01462 658777

Withdrawal of consent

Where you have provided your specific consent to the use of personal data, you may withdraw that consent
by contacting us:

Penguin Insurance Services Limited
Pixmore Centre
Pixmore Avenue
Letchworth
Herts
SG6 1JG

Tel: 01462 658777

Information from other sources

We may use legal public sources such as the electoral roll and other third party sources such as credit reference agencies to obtain information about you, for example to verify your identity or check your credit history.

We also obtain information about you from credit reference agencies and similar third parties. Some personal information may be provided to us by third parties such as insurance companies, other insurance intermediaries and motor vehicle licensing authorities. In some cases you will have previously submitted your personal information to them and given them approval to pass this information on for certain purposes.

Such information will only be obtained from reputable sources which operate in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation.

We and/or other parties may use your information for purposes such as statistical and trend research and analysis which may include computerised processes which profile you. Automatic profiling helps us understand, predict and forecast customer preferences and to improve the products and services we offer and to assess which products might be most suitable for you.

Our Website & Cookies

We use cookies to make your experience of the Penguin Insurance Services Limited website as good as it can be. If cookies are disabled you may not find your experience of the site very good or in some circumstances the site may not be accessible at all. Please note we do not use cookies to collect personally identifiable data. By using this website you agree to us using cookies, if you do not want cookies to be used please use your browser to delete or control cookies. For more information on how to control your cookie settings and browser settings, or how to delete cookies, please visit www.aboutcookies.org.uk.

How to make a complaint

If you wish to make a complaint about how we hold or use your data, please contact us:

Penguin Insurance Services Limited
Pixmore Centre
Pixmore Avenue
Letchworth
Herts
SG6 1JG

Tel: 01462 658777

If you are dissatisfied with how we deal with your complaint, you may contact the Information
Commissioner's Office:

The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel: 08456 30 60 60
Website: www.ico.gov.uk

We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time for example, to keep it up to date or to comply with legal requirements. The latest version of this policy can be found at www.penguininsurance.co.uk