At MGFS we provide advice relating to financial products and services. This requires us to collect personal information from our clients based in the United Kingdom and internationally.

Collecting personal information about you is essential to our ability to conduct our business to the highest standard. We will only collect the information necessary for these purposes and we are committed to protecting that information.

Why and how we collect personal information

Generally, we need to collect Personal Information for a variety of reasons. These might include:

• Understanding your needs
• Determining your eligibility
• Continuing to offer you the full range of products and services that we believe meet your changing needs
• Conducting market and industry research
• Meeting our legal and regulatory obligations

How we store information

Any information we hold about you can be held on computer and/or paper files. Any information which you give us, including sensitive personal data, may be disclosed to selected third parties for the purposes of finding the best available product for you and processing your application. We may disclose information about you to insurance companies and other product providers, researchers and anyone whom we may use to process your application on our behalf, and fraud prevention agencies to prevent fraud.

Adequacy and relevance of information collected

We collect only the information we need for the purposes we have identified to you. We will only use fair and lawful means to do so. We collect this information from the following sources:

• Information we receive from you on applications or other forms and through other means of correspondence, such as the telephone, mail or the internet
• Information we receive from reporting agencies or other independent sources such as your employer

Consent and disclosure

We collect, use and share your personal information only for disclosed purposes related to the services we offer, and only with your consent, or as permitted or required by law. Your consent may be expressed in writing, or it may be given verbally or electronically. You may withhold or withdraw your consent for us to collect, use and disclose your personal information, as long as there are no legal or contractual reasons preventing us from doing so. Depending on the circumstances, however, withdrawal of your consent may impact our ability to continue to provide you with the services you have requested.

The disclosure of your personal information will be restricted to those who have a need for, and the legal right to, the information. If we receive a request to release your personal information, we will only do so upon satisfactory identification and proof of entitlement of the requestor, or as required or permitted by law.

Legitimate Interest

We may process your personal information for carefully considered and specific purposes which are in our interests and enable us to improve the services we offer, but which we believe also benefit our clients’.

We provide a weekly newsletter, The Weekly Windup, which contains only relevant market information which is tailored to our customers’ needs. We have a number of reasons that we can use (or ‘process’) your personal information. The legal basis on which we process your personal data in this circumstance is legitimate interests, to provide you with the most relevant information we can.

When we process your personal information for our legitimate interests, we will consider any potential impact on you and your rights under data protection and any other relevant law. Our legitimate business interests do not automatically supersede your interests – we will not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).

You can unsubscribe from our marketing emails at any time by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ button displayed in the footer of any email you receive from us. By doing this, you will no longer receive marketing communications from Enness Limited.

How we protect personal information

We are responsible for all personal information in our possession. In some instances, our employees, service providers, representatives, lenders, insurers and any of their service providers, may be located in other jurisdictions. Your personal information may then be subject to the laws of those other jurisdictions, as well as the laws of the jurisdiction where you live. As a result, your information may be disclosed in response to demands or requests from government authorities, courts, or law enforcement in those countries.

We have comprehensive security procedures to safeguard and protect personal information against theft, loss, unauthorised disclosure, copying, and unauthorised use or modification. These include organisational measures such as security clearances, appropriate policies and procedures and technological measures such as the use of passwords, encryption, firewalls and anti-virus software.

Retention of personal information

We will only keep your personal information in our records for as long as it is needed to fulfil the identified purposes, or as required or permitted by law. Personal information that is no longer required will be destroyed, erased or made anonymous. When we destroy personal information, we will use safeguards to prevent unauthorised access to the information during the destruction process.

Accessing and amending

We will make all reasonable efforts to ensure that any personal information we collect and keep is as accurate, complete and current as required for the identified purposes. To do so, we will rely to a large extent on you to provide us with accurate information and to inform us of changes, such as changes in your contact information. You have the right to access and verify your personal information maintained in our files and to request that any factually inaccurate personal information be corrected, if appropriate.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about webpage traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to client needs.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Analytical tracking

Our website has Google Analytics installed which allows us to track and compile anonymous visitor statistics. The information collected ranges from simple traffic volume to the type of browser you are viewing our website with. This information is valuable to us not just for marketing analysis and quantification, but to improve the usability, security and load speed of our website content. Google Analytics is a popular, secure, flagship webmaster product from Google. The privacy and security of Google Analytics data is a high priority at Google that you can read more about on Google’s Analytics Data Safeguarding page

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Complaints

If you have been unsatisfied with any part of the process in obtaining your mortgage and wish to make a complaint, please contact the Compliance Team at gs@mgfs.uk