Privacy policy
Welcome to www.HomeServe.com (the 'Website'). We are HomeServe Membership Limited, a company registered in England under registration number 02770612 ('HomeServe', 'we', 'our' or 'us' for short). Our registered office is at Cable Drive, Walsall WS2 7BN and our parent company is HomeServe PLC which is registered at the same address under company number 02648297. Our registration number on the data protection register is Z7078512.
'You' and 'your' means you as a user of our Website for whatever purpose. Most people visiting our site will do so as an existing (or prospective) customer or to find out about and apply for jobs that are advertised in the recruitment section of the site.
We are committed to protecting your privacy. This privacy policy ('Privacy Policy'), which supplements our Terms of Use, is intended to inform you how we gather and use information about you. The Privacy Policy is important so please do take a minute to read and understand it.
Your personal information will be held and used in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 (the 'Act'). If you want to know what information we collect and hold about you please see the section regarding 'How Can You Access and Correct Your Information' below. HomeServe Membership Limited is the data controller of your information for the purposes of the Act.
What information do we collect?
When you visit our Website we generally collect two types of information about you; "Personal" and "Non-Personal".
Personal information
As the name suggests, Personal information is about you as an individual. We ask you to provide us with Personal information when you apply for a product, request a service or register an interest on our recruitment pages. Here are some examples of the types of Personal information that we usually ask for:
- Name
- Address
- Telephone number(s)
- Date of birth
- Payment details (Direct Debit, credit/debit card number)
- Property type
- Boiler details (make and model – only applicable to heating policies)
- Email address
(Please note that this is not an exhaustive list).
Non-personal information
This relates to information that is collected as you browse our Website. You cannot be identified as an individual from this type of information. Please see below for more details on how we collect and use this type of information.
How do we collect information about your visits to our Website?
Our Website utilises a standard technology called 'cookies' and also web server logs to collect information about how our Website is used. (Please see the explanation below, 'What are Cookies?' for further details about cookies). Information gathered through cookies and web server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent on our Website, and the websites visited just before and just after our Website. We or our subcontractors may also use small pieces of code called 'web beacons' or 'clear gifts' to determine which advertisements and promotions users have seen and how users responded to them.
What are cookies?
A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier. When you visit a website, that site's computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser's preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites.
Cookies and HomeServe.com
HomeServe uses cookies to collect anonymous information about visitors to our Website, such as visitor numbers to each of the pages on our site and the browsing habits of the user such as how long they may spend on a specific page or what tabs they clicked on.
You can read further information about the way cookies are used on HomeServe.com at the links below:
Further information on how to delete and control cookies on your computer is available from www.aboutcookies.org.
How do we use information we collect from cookies?
As you browse on our Website, we use cookies to differentiate you from other users in order to prevent you from having to log in more than is necessary for security or to display advertisements that you may be interested in. Cookies, in conjunction with our web server's log files, allow us to calculate the aggregate number of people visiting our Website and which parts of the Website are most popular. This helps us gather feedback in order to constantly improve our Website and better serve our users and customers. Cookies do not allow us to gather any personal information about you.
How do we use the information that you provide to us?
We use the information we collect in the following ways:
- To ensure that the content of our Website is presented in the most effective manner for you and your computer.
- To identify products or services for which you may be eligible and/or interested in.
- To deal with any applications for products or services that you make (which may include contacting you about them).
- To notify you about any changes to our products or services.
- For the purpose of administering your products and services, offering you renewals and training and statistical analysis, which may require us to pass your information to our group companies, underwriters of our policies and/or to our service providers.
- Providing you have given your consent (via an "opt-in" or "opt-out" when we collect the information), we may contact you with information about products, services and special offers that we feel may be of interest to you or ask you to participate in one of our customer satisfaction surveys.
We may pass your Information to other carefully selected third parties:
- To provide products and services you have asked for, which may include providing information to members of your household, your representatives and other concerned people (such as landlords).
- To our subcontractors or other parties that we may use to provide services to you in connection with our agreement with you.
- If we buy or sell any business or assets in which case we may disclose your information to the seller or buyer of such business or assets.
- If we are under a duty to disclose or share your Personal information to comply with any legal obligation or in order to enforce or apply our terms and conditions and other agreements or protect the rights, property, or safety of our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies, governmental departments and organisations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
- We have a number of 'affinity agreements' with third parties whereby they introduce our products and services to their customers. In those circumstances we will share details of the products and services that have been bought, and also liaise with them in respect of claims handling and on occasion to help resolve individual complaints.
You have the right to ask us not to process your Personal information for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (at the point at which you provide, or we collect, your Personal information) if we intend to use your Personal information for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any carefully selected third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to opt-out of receiving marketing material from us by ticking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your Information. You can also exercise this right at any time by writing to us at the address provided in the ‘How Can You Access and Correct Your Information’ below.
In addition, if you choose to correspond with us by email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses.
How do we protect your information?
We do our best to maintain the highest standards of security, encrypting your Personal information using Secure Sockets Layer SSL, 128 bit encryption services, however even with this the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. For this reason, we request that you do not send Personal information to us by email. If you choose to use email, we cannot be responsible for loss or interception of it that is beyond our control; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information we will use strict procedures and security features to prevent unauthorised access.
How can you access and correct your information?
You may ask to receive a copy of the Personal information that we collect online and/or maintain in our database about you by writing to us at:
Freepost RLYC-LXAL-GEEH
FAO: Data Protection Officer, Customer Relations Department,
HomeServe
Cable Drive
Walsall
WS2 7BN.
We will require a small fee of £10 for providing this information and may require proof of your identity.
You may also ask us to correct any Personal information that we hold about you by writing to the same address and providing us with details of the inaccuracy.
What about other websites linked to this Website?
We are not responsible for the practices employed by websites linked to or from our Website nor the information or content contained therein. Often links to other websites are provided solely as pointers to information on topics that may be useful to the users of our Website. Please remember that when you use a link to go from our Website to another website, our Privacy Policy will no longer apply. Your browsing and interaction on any other website, including websites which have a link on our Website, are subject to that website's own rules and policies. Please read the rules and policies relating to that website before proceeding.
Your consent
By using our Website you consent to our collection and use of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. If we change our privacy policies and procedures, we will post those changes on our Website to keep you aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it.
Where do we store your information?
The information that we collect from you may be transferred to and stored at a destination outside the European Economic Area ('EEA'), for example some of our IT systems are run on servers hosted in the USA. If you are applying for a position within one of Homeserve's offices which is outside of the EEA, then your Personal information will be transferred to, and processed by that local office. By submitting your Personal information, you agree to such transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your Personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.