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Privacy

The data controller for any personal information you give us is Scottish Equitable plc (now trading as AEGON Scottish Equitable). 

This statement explains AEGON Scottish Equitable’s policy on data protection and privacy.

Purpose of this website

This website is intended to provide a number of services to:

  • planholders
  • scheme members
  • employers
  • trustees, and
  • financial advisers

We’d only provide these services to those who they directly concern, and who have authorisation. We’d provide appropriate security accordingly.

The website also links to other AEGON services, which could include underwriting and valuations.

Use of personal information

We’ll only use the information you give us to provide the services we offer you. For example, to:

  • deal with your requests and enquiries
  • let you search our database for plans, schemes and client information
  • change client personal information when you ask us to
  • make fund switches to client plans that you’ve asked for

We don’t sell personal information collected through this website or use your personal data for any purposes other than those outlined above, unless you authorise it.

AEGON UK plc and its subsidiary companies (including Scottish Equitable plc) may send you marketing information. If you don’t want to receive this, please write to the Data Protection Officer, AEGON Lochside Crescent, Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh, EH12 9SE.

Where necessary, we’ll process ‘sensitive data’ (including any medical information) in accordance with the Data Protection Act (the Act). This could include information about your:

  • physical health or condition
  • mental health or condition
  • sexual life

If we collect medical data, we may use it to assess any claims you make under the plan, and we’ll hold it for as long as the plan lasts.  We may pass it to reassurers, private investigators, medical professionals and/or healthcare management companies (which would be used to arrange medicals).

We have a confidentiality policy in place, which means that we keep all medical information secure and only people who need to see it can access it.

We’re legally obliged to make information available to regulatory bodies or authorities such as the Financial Services Authority or the Revenue. We may also have to disclose information to comply with money laundering laws and for other purposes, for example detecting crime.

We’ll also share permitted relevant information with anyone acting on your behalf (for example your financial adviser) so they can fully carry out their role as your agent.

Use of personal information accessed by an organisation

We can receive individual planholders and/or scheme members’ personal information from, and provide it to, employers, trustees and financial advisers, as long as we have the appropriate authority. For example, we/they can:

  • request statement of benefits
  • update our records as part of a monthly or yearly renewal of a scheme
  • change their members’ personal information
  • get valuations of policy or membership benefits

How AEGON Scottish Equitable treats your personal data

We fully support and follow the principles of Data Protection, as set out in the Act. We make sure that our staff – and those acting on our behalf – get, use and disclose personal data lawfully and correctly. We don’t believe we can operate successfully otherwise. It’s also important in making sure everyone we deal with has confidence in us. This policy operates in all of our offices – both in the UK and overseas.

Specifically, the principles require that personal information will:

be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, won’t be processed unless specific conditions are met
be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and won’t be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes
be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which it’s processed
be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes
be processed in accordance with the rights of the individual under the Act
have in place appropriate technical and organisational measures against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data
not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area (EEA) (the countries of the European Union plus Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland) unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data or unless specific agreement has been sought from the individuals concerned

By using appropriate and consistent management and controls, we’ll:
meet our legal obligations to specify what we’re using the personal information for in the Scottish Equitable plc Data Protection Notification particulars, which you can find on the Information Commissioner’s website at http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/  
only collect and process information to the extent that we need it to operate or to comply with a legal requirement
make sure the information is accurate and of high quality
apply checks to determine how long the information is held for
make sure that the people we hold information on can fully exercise their rights under the Act
safeguard personal information by taking appropriate technical and organisational security measures
make sure that personal data isn’t transferred outside the EEA without suitable safeguards or agreement from the individual

Your rights under the Data Protection Act

You have a number of rights under the Data Protection Act, including:

  • the right to get copies of all the personal information that we hold on you, with only a few exceptions, and
  • the right not to receive direct marketing

If you want copies of information, just write to Data Protection Officer, AEGON Scottish Equitable, Lochside Crescent, Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh, EH12 9SE, enclosing your details, a description of the information you want and a cheque for £10. If you don’t want to receive direct marketing, just let us know by writing to the same address.

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of data stored on a user's hard drive containing information about the user. They work by setting data on the visitor’s browser to anonymously track the pages they visit on a website. We also use action tags (sometimes called web beacons).

We currently use cookies/tags on our websites to:

  • anonymously track participation in online surveys accessed on or from the AEGON Scottish Equitable website. We’ll set a cookie so that we remember whether you want to take part in a survey so we don’t have to ask every time you visit the site. We won’t store or collect any personal data.
  • anonymously track the usage of the website, either by AEGON Scottish Equitable or its appointed third party. We also use a third-party company to place adverts on the web, which link to the AEGON Scottish Equitable website. When someone clicks on one of these adverts and arrives at the AEGON Scottish Equitable website, we’ll anonymously track which pages they visit. This helps us to develop our site and online advertising and improve user experience.
  • anonymously track visitors’ usage of the AEGON Scottish Equitable website. When someone visits the site, we’ll track which pages they access so we can understand which pages are used most and use this knowledge to develop our site and improve user experience.

AEGON Scottish Equitable, and/or the third party, may use non-personal information about your visits to the website, for example date/time of visit, the cookie and the first three octets of the IP address. Neither AEGON Scottish Equitable nor the third party collects personally identifying information (PII).

You can find more information about cookies, including how to block them and/or delete them, at http://www.aboutcookies.org/.

Third-party use of information

You do have the option to transfer to websites that have links on our sites. If you choose to use one of these links, you may be asked for separate login IDs and passwords for these services. We won’t hold on to any information to do with that transfer.

Security

We currently operate our security requirements through our security policy:

  • Breaches in security are dealt with by the security policy.
  • All members of staff, including temporary members of staff, sign confidentiality agreements to make sure they treat the information with respect.
  • Staff can only access the systems that they need to do their job.
  • We make sure that personal information is only passed to those people and organisations that are entitled to know. We check to confirm that people are who they say they are, and that these organisations or people are allowed to have access to this information. Every business area has its own verification checks that relate to the data held and types of people who may need access.
  • We train all our staff in data protection every two years. This makes sure that members of staff know how to treat personal information and the risks involved if it’s poorly treated.

We’ve put security policies, rules and technical measures in place to protect the personal data that we have under our control from:

  • unauthorised access
  • improper use or disclosure
  • unauthorised modification
  • unlawful destruction or accidental loss

All our employees and data processors who have access to, and are associated with, handling our visitors' personal data are obliged to respect its confidentiality.