Privacy & cookie policy

Strong Mortgage Solutions ("We") are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This policy (together with our terms of use and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. By visiting www.strongmortgagesolutions.co.uk you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

Data protection

Collecting information and protecting your privacy

Our aim is to offer advice that helps you plan your financial future. To provide such advice, we need to know about your personal situation and your Adviser may request sensitive and private information about you, for example, your income, current financial arrangements, health, family commitments and any legal proceedings you may be involved in. Much of the information you provide will, as part of your application, be passed to the company whose products you apply for and details of how they use your information are included in their data protection literature.

If you are unable or unwilling to provide some, or all, of this information your Adviser will be unable to provide you with advice suitable for your circumstances. We do not collect personal information from third parties.

Openwork is committed to protecting your privacy. As we would like you to be a lifetime client, we need to earn your trust and assure you that we will keep your personal information confidential and secure and only for as long as is necessary. The criteria we use to determine how long this period is can be obtained from Openwork’s Data Protection Officer at the address below.

We will use it with care and it will only be shared in the ways explained here, or if we are required to by Law or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Your personal information will only be held for as long as necessary and collected for the purposes of providing advice in respect of the range of products and services outlined in the Initial Disclosure Document or Client Proposition Brochure provided by your Adviser. In addition, we will make every effort to ensure that the information you provide is recorded accurately and that it is only passed to companies who comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). If it is required to send your information abroad, we will only do so to countries within the European Union (EU) or to a third country that the EU has determined provides an adequate level of protection and where you are able to exercise your rights to access your personal information under the GDPR.

Controlling and using your personal information

A Data Controller is someone who determines the purposes for and the manner in which your personal data should be processed. Strong Mortgage Solutions, as an Appointed Representative (your Adviser) and the companies whose products you buy are all Data Controllers. Your Adviser will have given you their contact details and Strong Mortgage Solutions contact details are shown below.

We use your information in a variety of ways:

• To introduce you to a range of products and services offered by the companies we are associated with (or may be associated with in the future).
• To help with administration.
• To contact you with details of changes to products you have bought.
• For business analysis and research.
• For marketing products and services we think may be suitable for you (unless you ask us not to send you this information).
• To comply with the Law and/or FCA requirements.
• To verify your identity by searching publicly available records held by credit reference agencies.
• To prevent fraud and money laundering we may pass your details to other companies, public bodies including the police or to an insurer’s database. Insurance companies can search databases for any relevant information that exists about you.

We therefore process your data because it is necessary for:

• the performance of a contract to which you are a party.
• compliance with legal obligations to which we as the controller are subject.

None of the information gathered about you will be used in automatic decision making.

Your health details

If you apply for some types of insurance (eg. life insurance, pensions, sickness etc.) you will be required to provide details of your health. Under the GDPR, this is regarded as sensitive personal data.

Your Adviser will have access to your medical details unless you prefer to complete a medical statement of health in private. If this is the case, please send it with your application marked for the attention of the “Consultant Medical Officer” in a sealed envelope.

We do need your explicit consent to collect and process your health details, which of course you may withdraw at any time.

Mortgage credit checking

If you apply for a mortgage your information will be passed to the lender, who will carry out a credit check. You will also have to provide details of any criminal convictions you may have had. These details will be passed to the lender to carry out any necessary checks.



Marketing and sharing your information

The information you give us will be added to any other details we hold about you. Strong Mortgage Solutions will never sell your details to a third party, but we may share your information with carefully selected companies we are associated with. Therefore, we (or they) may contact you (by post, email, telephone or other appropriate means) to tell you about products, services or offers we believe may interest you. The products and services may not be related to financial services. You can ask us not to contact you for this reason, at any time, by writing to us at our Head Office. This will not affect your relationship with your Adviser.

We may have to pass your details to another Adviser if, for example your Adviser is ill or you need advice in a different product area. If your Adviser leaves we may pass your details to another Adviser so that we can continue to provide you with a high standard of service.

We may send your information to third parties that are carrying out work on our behalf.

Your data protection rights

You have certain rights under the GDPR. These include the right to:

• Ask for a free copy of your personal information in a portable format.
• Stop us sending you marketing material about products and services.
• Have any incorrect information we hold about you corrected.
• Ask us to restrict processing of your personal data.

As the processing of your personal information is necessary for a legal obligation placed upon us by the FCA and may be required for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, we will not be able to permanently delete your personal information until the end of the period we have deemed necessary.

How to get more information

If you would like further details on how we use your personal information or if you have any data protection queries, please write to:

The Data Protection Officer
The Openwork Partnership
Washington House
Lydiard Fields
Swindon
SN5 8UB

You may receive more information about data protection from the companies that we have introduced you to.

We may record telephone calls so we can check we have acted on your instructions correctly and to ensure we are giving you appropriate service. We may also monitor calls for security and training purposes.

Complaints

If you have any complaints about the way we or your Adviser have handled your personal information, please contact the Data Protection Officer at the address given above.

You also have the right to refer your complaint to the Information Commissioner.

Openwork Foundation

The Openwork Foundation takes data privacy very seriously. Please click here for details of their privacy policy and how they use any data you may provide to the Openwork Foundation.

Cookies

We and our trusted partners use cookies and other technologies in our related services, including when you visit our Site or access our services. 

A "cookie" is a small piece of information that a website assigns to your device while you are viewing a website. Cookies are very helpful and can be used for various different purposes. These purposes include allowing you to navigate between pages efficiently, enabling automatic activation of certain features, remembering your preferences and making the interaction between you and our Services quicker and easier. Cookies are also used to help make sure that the advertisements you see are relevant to you and your interests and to compile statistical data on your use of our Services. 

The Site uses the following types of cookies:

a. 'session cookies' , which are stored only temporarily during a browsing session in order to allow normal use of the system and are deleted from your device when the browser is closed; 

b. 'persistent cookies', which are read only by the Site, saved on your computer for a fixed period and are not deleted when the browser is closed. Such cookies are used where we need to know who you are for repeat visits, for example to allow us to store your preferences for the next sign-in; 

c. 'third-party cookies' , which are set by other online services who run content on the page you are viewing, for example by third-party analytics companies who monitor and analyse our web access.

Cookies do not contain any information that personally identifies you, but Personal Information that we store about you may be linked, by us, to the information stored in and obtained from cookies. You may remove the cookies by following the instructions of your device preferences; however, if you choose to disable cookies, some features of our Site may not operate properly and your online experience may be limited.

We use a tool which is based on the Snowplow Analytics technology to collect information about your use of the Site. The tool collects information such as how often users access the Site, which pages they visit when they do so, etc. The tool does not collect any Personal Information and is only used by our Site hosting and operating service provider to improve the Site and services.