Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This privacy & security statement outlines how your personal information will be used and sets out some of the security measures taken in order to protect your privacy & security.

The names and details of the companies that offer services through this Atlaschoice website (the "Site") are set out in the Conditions of Use. Those companies are collectively referred to in this statement as "Atlaschoice", "we" or "us".

Your "personal information" means any information that we have obtained from you or third parties in connection with a service or product provided to you that is held now or at any time in the future by Atlaschoice.

Atlaschoice and the Atlaschoice Group as a whole take your privacy & security very seriously and promise to respect your personal information. Please read this privacy & security statement to see how we and the Atlaschoice Group will treat any personal information that is provided to us via the telephone, in writing or via use of this Site.

Please note that this is a general statement on how personal information is used by Atlaschoice.

2. Collection of Information

Information is collected lawfully and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 (as amended and updated from time to time). We may collect personal information directly from you when you ask for a quote or as a result of the purchase of a product or service from us. We will do our best to ensure that your details are accurate and kept up to date and we would ask you to assist us in doing so by notifying us of any changes to your personal information.

We are constantly striving to improve the quality of our service and the efficiency of our systems and so, from time to time we may use your personal information that you give us to help us to do this.

3. Exchange of Information

We exchange personal information with other approved organisations for underwriting and fraud prevention purposes and we may provide such information to others where required or permitted by law.

We will use and analyse your personal information for the following purposes:-
managing and administering products and services that are supplied. In the case of insurance products this will include underwriting reinsurance and claims handling purposes and this may include disclosing it to other insurers, reinsurers, regulatory authorities or to our agents who provide services on our behalf;
considering any applications for products you may make and to help in making credit-related decisions about you where appropriate;
servicing other relationships you may have within the Atlaschoice;
financial risk assessment, money laundering checks, compliance and regulatory reporting and fraud prevention;
assisting in making decisions on insurance proposals, other products and any claim made by you, members of your household, and others connected with your insurance proposals and claims; and
helping us to understand and develop new and innovative products and services.

Your personal information will only be disclosed to third parties outside of the Atlaschoice if:-
it is necessary for the performance of your agreement with us; or
you have given your consent; or
such disclosure is required or permitted by law; or
we are entitled to transfer rights and/or obligations as provided under the terms of any policy you may purchase; or
any such third party provides benefits or services to you under or in connection with our agreement with you; or
it is a credit reference agency or fraud prevention agency; and

any such third party has agreed to keep your personal information strictly confidential and use it for the purpose for which we provide it to them.

In future the way in which your personal information is viewed, recorded and used may change. In most cases these changes will result from enhancements in technology. Where we believe the changes may be to your disadvantage, we will give you at least 30 days notice of them by writing to you and also posting notice of such an amendment on this website. If you continue to use a product or service for a further 60 days after notification, we will consider that you have consented to that change (unless you write to us to inform us otherwise).

4. Fraud Prevention and Detection

In order to prevent and detect fraud we may at any time:-
share personal information about you across the Atlaschoice sites and with other insurers or financial institutions;
pass your details to Insurance Hunter, a central insurance application and claims checking system, whereby it may be checked against information held by Insurance Hunter and shared with other insurers; and
check your details with fraud prevention agencies. If you give us false or inaccurate information and we suspect fraud, we will record this and pass this information to fraud prevention agencies.

We and other organisations may also search and use fraud prevention and credit reference agency records to:-
help make decisions about credit and credit related services for you and members of your household;
help make decisions in connection to insurance proposals, insurance claims and other products for you and members of your household;
trace debtors, recover debt, prevent fraud and to manage your insurance policies;
check your identity to prevent money laundering, unless you furnish us with other satisfactory proof of identity; or
undertake credit searches and additional fraud searches.

5. Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register

We and other insurers pass information to the Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register run by Insurance Database Services Limited. In the case of motor and rescue policyholders we also pass information to the Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register run by the Association of British Insurers. The aim of such exchange is to help to check information that has been provided and also to prevent fraudulent claims. When dealing with a request for insurance we may search these registers.

If you take out a relevant policy you are required under the policy terms to 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 will pass information relating to it to these registers.

6. Use of personal information for marketing purposes

Unless you have informed us to the contrary, personal information held maybe used by us to carry out research and to inform you by letter or telephone of other products we or the Atlaschoice Group believe may interest you.

Please be assured that we will not make your personal details available to any companies outside the Atlaschoice to use for their own marketing purposes.

We may also contact you by e-mail or other electronic media to notify you of other products we believe may interest you. We shall only do so however if you have provided your consent to such contact. If you are contacted by such means in future we shall on each occasion ensure you will always be given the option to opt out of any further such communication.

If you have provided your contact information to us and would prefer not to receive marketing information or to participate in research, simply tell us next time you call. Alternatively, change your selection within the settings in "My Atlaschoice" or when you next obtain a quote online.

7. Dealing with other people

At the request of many of our insurance policyholders and to make the managing your policy more convenient, it is our policy to deal with a policyholder's spouse or partner (if named on the policy where applicable) who calls on behalf.

If you would like someone else to be able to deal with your policy for you on a regular basis please let us know. In some exceptional circumstances we may also deal with other people who call us on your behalf. If at any time you would prefer us to deal only with you, please call to let us know.

Please note that we will not reveal any credit or debit card numbers that we hold to anyone other than the policyholder.

8. Automatic Renewals

For customers who have taken out an insurance policy and who have taken advantage of our automatic renewal service we will retain your payment details in order to continue to deduct premiums when your policy in renewed.

9. Sensitive Information

In order to provide you with some of our products we may need to process sensitive information (such as information about health such as physical or mental health information or criminal convictions) about you and others who may be a party to the product or service purchased. We will not use sensitive personal data about you or others except for the specific purpose for which you provide it and to provide the services described in your policy. Please ensure that you only provide us with sensitive information about other people with their agreement.

10. Cookies

A cookie identifies your computer to a server that then enables information to be stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies allow a computer to be identified as corresponding to one that has accessed another website or visited Site previously. Cookies are commonly used on the Internet and do not harm your computer system.

The cookies used on the Site do not include any information that others could read and understand about you, such as your name, or any account or policy number. They contain no personal information about you.

We currently use a combination of first and third party cookies in the following ways:
To facilitate your ability to navigate through the Site.

To collate anonymous aggregated information that is used to manage and plan enhancements to our services. For example, cookies help us to understand the popular paths that users take through the Site and how often it is visited.

To evaluate the effectiveness of our advertising and promotions on third party websites by tracking whether these advertisements are clicked on by users. We use third party agents to assist in providing information on promotion delivery. We own and control the use of all data collected and it is not shared with any other third party. All data collected is anonymous and non-personal.

As a flag to help us recognise when we have already asked you to participate in any on-line market research and to prevent you from being asked to complete the same questionnaire every time that you visit the Site while any particular research work is being carried out.

11. Rejecting Cookies

If you do not want us to use cookies when you visit the Site, you can configure your browser not to accept them or opt-out. Please refer to your browser's 'help' facility.

If you choose to reject cookies once you have logged onto the Site, but after a cookie has already been sent you can do so. If you delete certain cookies however, you may experience difficulties in navigation of the Site.

By deleting cookies, information collected to date becomes redundant. We will still hold the information about the cookie on our system. However, we will not be able to identify your computer as its former holder the next time you visit the Site. The information we hold about that cookie becomes completely unidentifiable as soon as you have deleted it from your computer.

For more information on cookies and deletion of cookies please see http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/

12. Data Storage Security

Any personal information saved is held safely on our mainframe computer, with security systems preventing unauthorised access and we always ensure it is treated confidentially.

We take security very seriously and we use one of the strongest available security systems to protect your communications with us. Whenever you fill in an online form, such as a request for a quote, it is automatically protected using something called a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) between your computer and ours. SSL works in the following ways:

It prevents impersonation - you can tell that you are using a genuine SSL site by the padlock symbol at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on either the padlock or the image below will reveal our Registration Certificate that is issued by Verisign, a leading Internet security company.

It encrypts data - as soon as your computer has recognised our computer they encrypt all information that is passed between them. Data encryption means that no one else can read or change your information as it travels over the Internet.

It prevents scrambling - SSL uses a Message Authentication Code (MAC) to prevent anyone tampering with our Internet site. Your computer will always check this code before it takes a message from us. This means that if anyone tried to interfere with a message, your computer would not recognise the code and would alert you.

We are aware that there are minor problems with Microsoft Internet Explorer. Neither problem has any effect on the actual security in force on the Site, but may make it appear to you as if it is not fully secure.

Internet Explorer 4: The padlock symbol does not always appear at the bottom when it should. A full description of this error, number Q154621, is at http://www.support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q154/6/21.asp

13. Log In Security

We would like to remind you to keep any log in details and passwords you have secure at all times. Security details should only be entered on our secure website. We may use e-mail to direct you to a secure log in page on our Site or, where consent is given, to inform you of other products, but we will never ask you to reveal or send your security details to us via email.

Please be on your guard for suspicious e-mails. If you do receive an email asking you to submit account or security details (such as a credit card number, password or PIN number) or if you are suspicious in any way of any communication you are asked to provide over the internet in connection with Atlaschoice please contact us by phone on 020 7609 500.

14. Call monitoring and recording

We record telephone calls for monitoring and training purposes and to assist us in preventing and detecting fraud.