Open a share account

Privacy Policy ~ Borrowers

Introduction

Welcome to Shared Interest Society's privacy notice.

Shared Interest Society (or "SI") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Please use the Glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy notice.

1.IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE

Purpose of this privacy notice

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how SI collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you make an enquiry, apply for one of our lending products (both buyers and producers) (referred to as "Borrowers") or sign up to our newsletter.

This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children when processing personal data of our Borrowers.  

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

Controller

SI is made up of two legal entities, Shared Interest Society Limited and Shared Interest Foundation. This privacy notice is issued on behalf of both the Shared Interest Society and Shared Interest Foundation so when we mention "SI", "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy notice, we are referring to both these entities responsibility for processing your data.  Shared Interest Society Limited is the data controller and is responsible for this website.

We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the data privacy manager using the details set out below.

Contact details

Full name of legal entity:Shared Interest Society Limited

Email address: companysecretary@shared-interest.com

Postal address: Shared Interest Society

Pearl Assurance House

7 New Bridge Street West

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 8AQ

Telephone number: 0191 233 9100

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

Changes to the privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Third-party links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

2.THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:

  • Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, portal username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
  • Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address project address, email address, telephone and fax numbers.
  • Financial Data includes bank account details.
  • Transaction Data includes details about your borrowing, payments to and from you and other details of lending products you have obtained from us.
  • Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data (including portal), browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
  • Profile Data includes your username and password, lending products provided to you, your borrowing facility, interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.  
  • Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, lending products and services.

We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions (except as required to identify Politically Exposed Persons), trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

3.HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

  • Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:

          (a) apply for our lending products;

          (b) create an account on our website;

          (c) subscribe to our newsletters or publications;

          (d) request marketing to be sent to you;

          (e) enter a competition, promotion or survey; or

          (f) give us some feedback.

  • Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Please see our cookie policy [LINK] for further details].
  • Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:

Technical Data from search and analytics providers such as Google based outside the EU.

Identity and Contact Data from publicly available sources such as Companies House, credit reference agencies and the Electoral Register based inside the EU.

To meet our legal requirements in relation to anti-money laundering legislation and standard "Know Your Customer" internal procedures.

4.HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

Purpose
Activity


To register you as a new Borrower enquirer

Performance of a contract with you


To process your application for lending products and arrange for delivery of your loan including:

(a)  Manage our loan to you

(b)  Manage the loan payments, fees and charges

(c) Collect and recover money borrowed from us

(a) Performance of a contract with you

(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover investments and debts due to us)


To manage our relationship with you which will include:

(a) Obtaining updates and notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy

(b)  Asking you to leave a review or take a survey

(c)  Manage your request for newsletters and providing us with updates

(a) Performance of a contract with you

(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

(c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers use our lending products)


To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data)



(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise)

(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation

To use data analytics to improve our website, lending products, marketing, customer relationships and experiences


Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our lending products, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)

To make suggestions and recommendations to you about lending products that may be of interest to you


Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our lending products and grow our business)

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising.

Third-party marketing

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside of SI for marketing purposes.

Opting out

We do not send marketing messages to our Borrowers.  Should we do so in future then you will have the opportunity to opt out of receiving marketing messages from us.

Cookies
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our COOKIE POLICY.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis, which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

5.DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above.

  • Internal Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
  • External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
  • Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

6.INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

We may share your personal data within SI's overseas offices. This could involve transferring your data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Some of our employees and offices are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of some of your personal data may involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.

This data is only collected for the purpose of creating and assessing proposals for financing, including know-your-customer requirements, is sometimes handled by our colleagues in our regional or country offices. This is the case when the funding application originates via one of these offices, or when the risk assessment of a funding proposal is supported by specialised staff in one of these offices. All of our offices, wherever located, are subject to our common data protection policy, including technical requirements for keeping data secured.  This data does not relate to employees, investors, donors, investor enquirers or job applicants.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission. For further details, see European Commission: Adequacy of the protection of personal data in non-EU countries.
  • Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission, which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe. For further details, see European Commission: Model contracts for the transfer of personal data to third countries.  
  • Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the Europe and the US. For further details, see European Commission: EU-US Privacy Shield.

Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.

7.DATA SECURITY

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

8.DATA RETENTION

How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see [Request erasure] below for further information.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

9.YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.  

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

10.Glossary

BORROWERS means individuals, charities, companies or organisations that apply and accept an offer of a lending product from SI under our lending terms and conditions.

Borrower enquirers are individuals who have made enquiries with SI but not borrowed at this time although they may become borrowers in due course.  

LAWFUL BASIS

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us

Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

THIRD PARTIES

External Third Parties

  • Service providers acting as processors based within the EEA who provide IT and system administration services.
  • Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based within the EEA who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
  • HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom.

EUROPEAN UNION

If you are in the European Union, you may address privacy-related inquiries to our EU representative pursuant to Article 27 GDPR:

EU-REP.Global GmbH, Attn: Shared Interest
Hopfenstr. 1d, 24114 Kiel, Germany
shared-interest@eu-rep.global
www.eu-rep.global

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE  

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact the Company Secretary at email companysecretary@shared-interest.com.  

Update cookies preferences