Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy tells you how we will use this information and how you can contact us about this. For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the ‘Act’), the data controllers are Coface in the UK, and other companies within the Coface UK Group namely – Coface UK Services Limited and Coface Receivables Finance Limited, all of Egale 1, 80 St. Albans Road, Watford, Hertfordshire WD17 1RP (the ‘Group'). We will collect personal information about you when you access our website or provide personal information to us.
The Group is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy (together with our terms & conditions sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.
IP addresses and Cookies
We may collect information about your computer, including your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to monitor the performance of our site and of Cofanet where you are a registered user of that site. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.
We may also obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies are small text files automatically sent by us to your system, stored on your system and then sent back to us by your system each time that you access our site. Cookies help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service. They enable us:
• To estimate our audience size and usage pattern.
• To store information about your preferences, to allow us to enhance the user experience of our site and of Cofanet.
• To speed up your searches.
• To recognise you when you return to our site.
You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you access our site. For further information about managing and disabling cookies, you can refer to your browser's help section or user guide. Alternatively, the Interactive Advertising Bureau has produced a guide which explains to users how cookies work and can be managed.
Information we may collect from you
We may collect and process the following data:
• Personal data that you provide to us when you complete an application, enquiry or renewal form and in relation to any of the products or services provided by the Group.
• Information that you provide by registering on Cofanet, our gateway to Coface’s offering of online credit management solutions which offers secure direct access to Coface systems and allows you to manage your customer and supplier portfolios. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use Cofanet.
• Details of transactions you carry out through our site and of the fulfilment of your orders.
• Details of your visits to our site and the resources that you access.
• We will also process your personal data when you report a problem with our site.
• If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
The Group will also collect and process the data about buyers, debtors and debts in accordance with the data protection policy stipulated by the client, which remains the data controller of those data. The client will make its data protection policy clearly known and available to the Group to abide by. Where no such data protection policy is made known to the Group, it shall not be liable for any breach under the client’s data protection policy.
Uses of your information
We use data held about you in the following ways:
• To carry out the Group’s business activities such as, administration, marketing and prospecting, accounts and records, debt management, factoring, credit insurance, credit assessment, credit referencing, surety, research and legal services, including internal auditing, account, and compliance.
• To maintain your account and to deal with your service requests as well as carrying out research and analysis to improve our products and services.
• To process your payment details, including providing your payment details to banks and to other relevant third parties in order to obtain payment.
• To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
• To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes.
• To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.
• To allow you to register to use Cofanet.
• To notify you about changes to our service.
• In exceptional circumstances, we may use and/or disclose your information as required or permitted by law, regulations or order, including to the police or other appropriate authorities, to investigate complaints made by or against you or to protect or defend ourselves.
Marketing
You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) 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. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at the address below.
Where we store your information
The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (the ‘EEA’). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us, for a member of CreditAlliance or for one of our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other things, assisting with relevant aspects of providing you with the services you have requested from us, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. Data Protection laws in countries outside the EEA may not offer the same level of protection as in the EEA, and you may have fewer legal rights in relation to your information. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. The Group will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
The Group, or another company within the Coface Group, or responsible third parties associated with our business, may keep your information for a reasonable period for the on-going pursuance of our business activities as stated above. All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to Cofanet; any transmission is at your own risk. We will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
Disclosure of your information
We may disclose your personal information to any member of the Group, including our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, and to members of CreditAlliance. We may disclose your information to third parties:
• That carry out market research activities.
• For the purposes of sending out our client newsletter, in which case we may disclose your personal data to a third party service provider to carry out this service on our behalf.
• For the purposes of assessment of risk or performance in a connection with connection with a contract, including to within our group of companies or to members of the other CreditAlliance network.
• To carry out credit checks.
• In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
• If any company or substantially all of its assets of the Group are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms & conditions, or terms and conditions of supply and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of any part of the Group, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Security
Appropriate technical and organisational security shall be taken to prevent unauthorised access to or disclosure of your information. However, we do not guarantee that we will eliminate all risk of misuse of your personal information by intruders. Where you have been provided with a log in ID and choose a password for access to Cofanet, you are responsible for keeping your password secret to prevent unauthorised access to and use of your account. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
Your Rights
By completing and returning any of the forms of the Group you consent to us processing the relevant personal data for the uses set out above, and consent to us transferring your information to countries outside the EEA.
Our site may, from time to time, contain links to other websites within the Coface Group or to other third parties. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
Access to your information
The Act gives you the right to access personal data held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access request may be subject to the legally permitted fee to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you. We will adhere to all statutory time limits in responding to such requests. Where you require access to information we hold about you, we will require you to put your request in writing and provide proof of identity.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page. Please check regularly to ensure that you are aware of any changes.
Contact
Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to The Data Controller, Coface, Egale 1, 80 St. Albans Road, Watford, Hertfordshire WD17 1RP.
