Privacy Policy
Ardent website privacy policy
Ardent is a company registered in England & Wales (collectively referred to as Ardent Financial Planning, “we” or “us” in this policy).
Overview
This policy applies when you visit and interact with our website at Ardent and to the financial services that we provide to you. It contains information about:
– how we use your data;
– what personal data we collect;
– how we ensure your privacy is maintained; and
– your legal rights relating to your personal data.
More details are below
Ardent privacy policy
Introduction
This privacy policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit Ardent (the “Website”) (regardless of where you visit it from) as well as when you instruct us as a client (“Services”) and tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND WHO WE ARE
Purpose of this privacy notice
It is important that you read this privacy policy 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 policy supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
Controller
Ardent is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy policy).
Contact details
If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact us using the details set out below
Contact details
Our full details are:
Contact: Chris Tordoff
Email address: chris@ardenutk.com
Postal address: 80 Clifton, York YO30 6BA
Telephone number: 01904 655330
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
This version was last updated on 25th November 2021.
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.
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, last name.
- Contact Data includes email address.
- Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, 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 the Website.
- Profile Data includes your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
- Usage Data includes information about how you use the Website and services.
- Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
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 certain 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.
Information about connected individuals
We may need to gather personal information about your close family members and dependants in order to provide our service to you effectively. In such cases it will be your responsibility to ensure that you have the consent of the people concerned to pass their information on to us. We’ll provide a copy of this privacy notice for them or, where appropriate, ask you to pass the privacy information to them.
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 and Contact Data by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
- Request to use our services;
- Sign up to our newsletter;
- Complete forms on our website;
- Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with the Website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy (http://ardentuk.com/privacy-policy/#cookies) for further details.
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 for services 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 you have provided your express consent for us to use your personal
- Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.
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.
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 | Type of data | Lawful basis for processing |
| 1. Sending you a newsletter via email by using the ‘Sign up to our newsletter’ function on the Website
2. Providing your name, telephone number and email address in the ‘Request a callback’ function on the Website 3. When you contact us via email by clicking on the email address links or ‘get in touch’ links on the Website |
Identity
Contact |
Consent |
| To discharge our duties as your adviser | All information necessary to act as your financial adviser, including, but not limited to:
Identity |
Performance of contract |
| To manage our relationship with you which will include:
(a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy (b) Asking you to leave a review or take a survey |
Identity
Contact |
(a) Performance of a contract with you
(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
|
| To enable you to complete a survey | Identity
Contact |
(a) Performance of a contract with you
(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them and grow our business)
|
| To administer and protect our business and the Website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) | Identity
Contact
|
(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 deliver relevant Website content to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the content we serve to you | Identity
Contact
|
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy) |
| To use data analytics to improve our Website, products/services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences | Technical Usage |
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our products and services, 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 goods or services that may be of interest to you | Identity
Contact |
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business) |
Marketing
We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising. We use the following personal data control mechanisms:
Promotional offers from us
We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).
You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us by completing forms or submitting an enquiry via our website.
Third-party marketing
We will share your personal data with our marketing agency for marketing purposes.
Opting out
You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by checking or unchecking relevant boxes to adjust your marketing preferences or by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time.
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 seehttp://ardentuk.com/privacy-policy/#cookies
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. How long do we keep hold of your information?
During the course of our relationship with you we’ll retain personal data which is necessary to provide services to you. We’ll take all reasonable steps to keep your personal data up to date throughout our relationship.
We are also subject to regulatory requirements to retain your data for specified minimum periods. These are, generally:
- Five years for investment business
- Three years for mortgage business
- Indefinitely for pension transfers and opt-out business
- Three years for insurance business
These are minimum periods, during which we have a legal obligation to retain your records.
We reserve the right to retain data for longer where we believe it’s in our legitimate interests to do so.
You have the right to request deletion of your personal data. We’ll comply with this request, subject to the restrictions of our regulatory obligations and legitimate interests as noted above.
6. 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.
- 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.
- Regulatory Agencies for financial services.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions or in accordance with applicable laws.
7. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. ACCESS TO YOU DATA
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.
11. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
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.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time.
