Free Price Compare Privacy Policy

RBH LONDON LTD and FREE PRICE COMPARE UTILITIES LTD T/A FreePriceCompare.com is committed to protecting any information you provide by which you can be identified when using this website. You can be assured that it will remain with us and only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

RBH LONDON LTD and FREE PRICE COMPARE UTILITIES LTD T/A FreePriceCompare.com may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

Compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation 2021 (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and related laws, Free Price Compare is committed to the safeguarding of your personal information. The GDPR mandates the protection of 'personal data,' a term that encompasses any information about an identifiable individual. This can include but is not limited to, your name, email, home address, phone number, or any online identifiers.

As your trusted data controller, Free Price Compare (referred to as "we", "us", and "our" in our privacy policy) takes full responsibility for managing the personal information you entrust to us, ensuring its security and confidentiality in line with legal requirements.

You can contact FreePriceCompare.com by post at 113 Romford Road, London, E15 4LY, by telephone – 0203 475 7476 or you can email [email protected]

This policy applies to everyone who uses our website and/or comparison services.

This privacy notice explains the types of data we collect about you, the ways we use it, and the reasons behind it. You must take the time to read through it. By "services," we refer to the entire range of websites, apps, products, and services offered under our brand(s) and through various platforms.

For certain services, we might provide additional information on data handling, which should be considered and read alongside this privacy policy.

Please be aware that our services may include links to third-party sites. Since these are beyond our control, we recommend reviewing their privacy policies as well.

How Free Price Compare Gathers Your Personal Information

Directly from You: We primarily collect personal information directly from you when you interact with our Services. This can occur through various means such as visiting our website, using our mobile application, or engaging with us via other digital platforms under our management.

Through Our Product Partners: If you purchase a product or service featured on our Site from one of our partners, they may share information about your purchase with us. This process helps us track sales and continuously improve the services we provide to you.

From Our Channel Operators: Some of the service channels on our Site are operated by trusted partners. In these instances, we may receive personal information from these channel operators in line with this Privacy Policy. These operators, when collecting your data on our behalf, act as controllers of your personal information and adhere to their privacy responsibilities.

Via Our Suppliers: We occasionally rely on third-party suppliers to collect and process personal information for us, for example, IT service providers or market research agencies. We are committed to ensuring these suppliers adhere to high standards of data protection, thereby safeguarding your information.

How We Use Your Information

We utilise data to serve you better and operate our business effectively. Depending on your interaction with our services and the preferences you express, we employ your data for various purposes:

Providing Our Services and Fulfilling Your Requests

When delivering our services, we may use your data for the following:

• Verifying your identity and determining eligibility for our services.
• Facilitating the registration and security of your account.
• Enabling access to your supplier and estimated usage to simplify energy switching.
• Assisting in finding the best pricing and products.
• Directing you to our partners' websites.
• Processing transactions between you, us, or our partners.
• Monitoring sales and receiving payments from our partners.
• Creating profiles of your Free Price Compare service usage to personalise your experience.
• Keeping your data up to date.
• Cancelling your products with third parties upon your request (where feasible).
• Providing customer service and support.
• Enabling the use of social sharing tools.
• Fulfilling data rights requests you've initiated.

Improving and Promoting Our Services and Others

To enhance and promote our services, as well as those of our partners, we may use your data for various purposes:

• Conducting analysis and market research.
• Presenting our services effectively.
• Organising competitions, incentives, and surveys.
• Facilitating the development of better products.
• Processing any rewards we offer.
• Sending updates and service messages regarding your products and services.
• Informing you about our services and promotions via email, social media, SMS, and push notifications (where consented).
• Introducing you to other Free Price Compare services.
• Building, training, and enhancing models to understand your interests and those of others.
• Targeting advertising on this and other websites based on collected or created data.

Please note: We do not utilise profiling in a manner that could have legal or similar effects, such as determining credit eligibility.

Operating Our Business

In the course of operating our business, we may use your data for various purposes:

• Performing essential functions for running our services and business.
• Enhancing our business's security and fraud prevention measures.
• Generating reports for internal or external purposes.
• Complying with applicable legal and regulatory obligations.
• Conducting business audits.
• Safeguarding the interests of our business and partners.
• Assessing potential assets for acquisition or divestment.
• Pursuing other purposes not outlined in this privacy policy with your consent (from time to time) and as permitted by law.

On What legal grounds we can use your data?

Performance of a Contract – To provide you with our services and manage your account, we will:

• Share your personal information with or search our product partners' websites to get you the quotes or access the information needed to give you the relevant service from our third-party partners. This includes our eligibility checker, Credit Monitor, or insurance renewal services, which might involve a 'soft' credit check.
• Process any transactions between you and a third party.
• Manage, run, and administer your account.
• Send you an automatic confirmation email of your quote when you use our site to get a quote.
• Use your personal information to check if you're eligible for any offers or incentives we have, and if you meet the criteria, provide you with the offer or incentive. We do these activities because they are necessary to fulfil the contract we have with you or to take steps you've asked for to enter into a contract.

Consent We will process your personal information when you have specifically agreed to let us do so for certain reasons. For example:

• By agreeing to cookies for some advertising purposes.
• By agreeing to let us use your information for "audience" based targeting services on social media platforms.

You can take back your consent at any time, which won't affect any processing done before you withdrew your consent.

Legitimate Interests – We might use some of your personal information when the benefits of doing so are not outweighed by your rights or freedom. This is known as "legitimate interests" under UK privacy laws. Our legitimate interests for using your personal information include:

• Passing your information to our suppliers to get you quotes.
• Sharing your details with suppliers to save you from entering them again.
• Giving your data to partners that support our rewards and benefits scheme.
• Supplying energy information for your property.
• Sending email summaries of your quotes after you've used our services.
• Reaching out with renewal quotes when it's time.
• Contacting you for market research on our services and others.
• Conducting audits to maintain our high standards.
• Carrying out market research, statistical analysis, and developing new products.
• Ensuring our services are secure and accessible.
• Marketing: Informing you about products, services, and insights you might find interesting, including online advertising, developing marketing content, and refining our marketing strategies, while respecting your choice to opt-out of marketing communications.
• Third parties: We may from time to time if you have consented, supply your information to third parties for marketing or relationship management purposes. The main purpose is to allow third parties to provide you with information about goods and services which they think may be of interest to you based on the information you supplied and/or to maintain any existing relationship they may have with you through email, postal, SMS or over the telephone. Such information may be provided by marketing communications or advertising which is tailored to your interests. Be assured that any such parties will only be allowed to use your data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You will be able to remove your consent from this at any time.
• Preventing fraud.
• Commercial Enquiries: When you make an enquiry for any commercial (B2B) product, we will use legitimate interest to contact you about other business services.

Legal Requirements - Sometimes we need to use your personal information because the law says we have to. This could be to share information with courts, regulators, government bodies, or agencies to follow legal orders, help with legal cases, or prevent fraud and money laundering, possibly involving fraud prevention agencies. We might also need to process your information to handle requests you make about your data rights and to make sure we can fulfil these requests.

How We Gather Your Personal Information

We gather your personal information when you use our website, like registering an account or comparing products and services. If you contact us by phone, post, or online (including email, social media, and mobile apps), we'll collect information then too. We also collect details if you provide feedback, join in our market research, surveys, contests, prize draws, or promotions. Sometimes, we might get information about you from other third party sources or public records, as mentioned above in this privacy policy.

Communications You May Receive from Free Price Compare

At Free Price Compare, we communicate with our customers through various channels, with our messages falling into three main categories: "Direct Marketing Communications," "Service Communications," and "Third-Party Marketing Communications."

Direct Marketing Communications

We recognise that our customers have different preferences when it comes to receiving marketing materials. To accommodate this, we differentiate between our reminder notifications for quotes and renewals and our broader marketing initiatives, which encompass newsletters, updates on our latest deals, products, and promotional offers.

You have the flexibility to opt-in for our general marketing updates without receiving reminders for quotes and renewals, and vice versa. If you decide that you do not wish to receive either reminders for quotes and renewals or our general marketing communications, we will respect your decision and cease to send these direct marketing messages to you.

Should you choose to no longer receive direct marketing communications, including reminders for quotes and renewals, you can easily unsubscribe by following the instructions in the messages you receive or by contacting our customer service at [email protected]with your email address and specifying the communications you wish to opt out of.

This preference extends to marketing communications from affiliated Group companies as well.

Service Communications

Our service-related messages are delivered via SMS and email. These communications are essential and do not require your consent, as they include:

• Messages we are legally or regulatorily obligated to send (for example, regulatory updates we must share with you).
• Communications related to our service provision (like our "best price" email sent immediately after you use our service to confirm the best price for a product or service you've compared on our website).
• Communications necessary to provide services upon your request (such as password reset emails, should you need them to access our services and products).

Third-Party Marketing Communications

• Carefully selected offers and promotions from our trusted third party partners, designed to provide additional value and services relevant to your interests
• Updates and insights from industry partners on products and services that complement what you've compared or used through Free Price Compare, offering you a wider range of choices and opportunities.
• Exclusive invitations to participate in market research or surveys conducted by our partners, aimed at improving the products and services offered to you.

Free Price Compare on Social Media and their Data Security Measures.

Free Price Compare actively maintains profiles across various social media platforms. When you interact with our social media pages, we can access only the information you've made public on your profile, provided you're logged into your account. Additionally, any data you directly share with us, such as comments or messages, is processed to enhance our interaction.

Even if you don't have an account or aren't logged in, the social media platform may still process your data during your visit to our pages. These platforms offer us anonymous analytical insights to help us optimize your experience, although we do not receive detailed usage data from them. For detailed information about the data policies of these social media platforms, please refer to their Privacy Policies.

Moreover, platforms like Facebook may place cookies on your device when you visit our social media pages, regardless of your account status or login state. These cookies are used by the social media network to track your preferences and interests, enabling them to present personalized advertising. For more details on our cookie usage, please visit our Cookie Policy page.

How We Store and Retention of Data

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to achieve the objectives laid out in this Privacy Policy, or until you request its deletion, except where law requires or allows for a longer storage period.

Typically, we hold onto your details for the duration of your engagement with our Site or as long as you have an active account with us. If you apply for or purchase products or services through the Site, we must keep your information for a longer period for accounting reasons, which could extend up to six years after you provide it to us.

Should you register for any of our Services and then not use them for a considered reasonable period (the length of which may vary depending on the Service(s) you have signed up for), we may reach out to confirm if you wish to continue receiving our communications.

In cases where our product partners use your personal information to offer you a quote, they act as the data controller. However, they should only retain your information for a period deemed reasonable for providing you with the quote.

For those purchasing a product, the service provider will maintain your personal information according to their own retention schedules. Therefore, you are encouraged to review their privacy policies for more detailed information.

It's important to note that even if you request deletion of your personal information, or we proceed to delete it, it may remain on backup or archival media for legal, tax, or regulatory reasons.

What Measures Do We Implement to Ensure the Security of Our Site and Safeguard Your Information?

The safety of your personal information is a top priority for us at Free Price Compare. To enhance security, our Site employs HTTPS where necessary, creating a more secure environment for your information. Despite this, it's important to acknowledge that no method of transmitting data over the internet is 100% secure. To mitigate risks, sensitive data, such as credit card information, is encrypted to reduce the possibility of interception during its journey across the internet.

When you register to use certain parts of our Site, you'll go through a process that includes setting up a username, password, and possibly other identification details. It's crucial that you keep these details private and not share them with others. We encourage the creation of a strong password, incorporating a mix of letters and numbers, to further protect your account. Should you need to reset your password, this can only be done through the email address associated with your account, adding an extra layer of security.

In certain circumstances, it may be necessary for your personal information to be transferred outside the UK, whether within the EEA or to countries outside of it. We only undertake such transfers when the destination country has not been deemed "adequate" by the UK government, ensuring that appropriate safeguards, such as data transfer agreements approved by the UK, are in place in line with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. These measures are designed to maintain the security and confidentiality of your personal data, no matter where it is processed.

Understanding Your Rights Regarding Personal Information and How to Reach Us

You are entitled to various rights concerning your personal data, as established by data protection laws. These rights include:

• Access to Information: You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we have about you, often through a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR). We might need specific details from you to locate your data, such as any email addresses used on our Site and personal identification details to verify your identity. We aim to respond to these requests within one month, although more complex or numerous requests could take longer.
• Correction of Information: If your personal data is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to have it corrected. We handle these requests within a month, but similar to access requests, more complicated or numerous corrections might extend this timeframe. If we find your data to be accurate after review, we'll inform you why no changes will be made. For data controlled by our product partners, you would need to contact them directly for corrections.
• Erasure of Information: You can ask for your data to be deleted from our systems. There are certain exceptions to this right, which we will explain if relevant to your request.
• Restriction on Use: Under certain conditions, you have the right to block or limit our use of your personal data, such as during an investigation into its accuracy.
• Data Portability: This right allows you to ask for your data to be moved, copied, or transferred either to you or a third party in a structured, machine-readable format, under certain conditions.
• Right to Object: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, including for direct marketing or profiling related to market research. Upon objection, we will cease processing your data unless there are overriding legal reasons.

To inquire or exercise any of these rights, please contact our Data Requests Team by emailing us at [email protected].

If you're dissatisfied with how we handle a complaint about your data, you might have the option to escalate your complaint to the UK's Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

This Privacy Policy is governed by the laws of England and Wales, ensuring your rights and our obligations are clearly understood and respected.

Change to this Privacy Policy

As of 11 March 2024, we have updated our Privacy Policy. Please be aware that Free Price Compare reserves the right to revise or alter this policy at any moment, with all modifications promptly made available on our website. You'll find the date of the latest update noted here for your reference. Your continued use of our site after changes signifies your acceptance of our updated terms. If you disagree with any of the modifications, please refrain from using our services.