Privacy & Cookies Notice

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. The information we collect on our website
  3. How we use your information
  4. Who we might share your information with
  5. How we keeping you updated on our business, products and services
  6. Your rights over your information
  7. How long we keep your information for
  8. Your data and Social Networks
  9. Security
  10. Cookies used by this website
  11. How to contact us

1. Introduction

Scrutton Bland Group refers to Scrutton Bland LLP, Scrutton Bland Insurance Brokers Limited and S Merrick Hill (Commercial) Limited and its associate SB Audit LLP.

We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. We take care to protect the privacy of our customers and users of our products and or services that communicate (online or offline) with us, in store, events, over the phone, through our mobile applications, websites and social media platforms.

We have therefore developed this privacy policy to inform you of the data we collect, what we do with your information, what we do to keep it secure as well as the rights and choices you have over your personal information.

2. The information we collect on our website

We only collect, process and store personally identifiable information in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 and used expressly for the purposes of responding to enquiries on the basis of recorded communication, preferences or indicated requests for marketing information.

If you contact us other than via our website and you give us permission to do so, we may keep a record of that correspondence, adding your information and enquiry details to our CRM system. From time to time we may also use third party services, to collect your information, for example for events bookings.

The data that we collect includes details of your journey through the Scrutton Bland website, as well as device-specific information such as IP address, mobile device, browser version, operating system, mobile network, device settings and geographical data. The type of information that we will collect on you, and you voluntarily provide to us on this website includes:

Contact Form

The primary instance where our website will ask you for personally identifiable information is our contact form. The contact form specifically, is powered by a popular WordPress plugin called Contact Form 7. Upon completing your information, you will be asked to consent to our data processing policy which is outlined within this document. 

Once submitted, your information will be processed and forwarded to us within a single email sent by the website application. Your information will not be stored within the website application’s database.

Hotjar

We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimise this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies (listed later in this policy) and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behavior and their devices (in particular device’s IP address (captured and stored only in anonymized form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), preferred language used to display our website). 

Hotjar stores this information in a pseudonymized user profile. Neither Hotjar nor we will ever use this information to identify individual users or to match it with further data on an individual user. For further details, please see Hotjar’s privacy policy.

You can opt-out to the creation of a user profile, Hotjar’s storing of data about your usage of our site and Hotjar’s use of tracking cookies on other websites by following this opt-out link.

3. How we use your information

4. Who we might share your information with

We may share your personal data with other organisations in the following circumstances:

5. How we keep you updated on our business, products and services

Email Marketing

From time to time we may send you relevant offers and news about our business, products and services in a number by email, but only if you have consented to receive these marketing communications. 

When interacting with our website, you may be asked if you’d like to sign-up to receive our email marketing communications and you will be asked explicitly to opt-in to receiving these.

You can change your Email Marketing subscription anytime by editing your preferences or unsubscribing altogether via the link at the bottom of any of our email marketing communications or by contacting us via the details at the end of this policy.


6. Your rights over your information

Right to Access Your Personal Information

You have the right to access the personal information that we hold about you in many circumstances, by making a request. This is sometimes termed ‘Subject Access Request’. If we agree that we are obliged to provide personal information to you (or someone else on your behalf), we will provide it to you or them free of charge and aim to do so within 30 days from when your identity has been confirmed.

We would ask for proof of identity and sufficient information about your interactions with us that we can locate your personal information.

Right to Correction of Your Personal Data

If any of the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or out of date, you may ask us to correct it.

Right to Stop or Limit Our Processing of Your Data

Under Article 21 of the GDPR, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data at any time. This allows you to stop or prevent us from processing your personal data, if we are not obligated to use it any more.

For more information about your privacy rights

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) regulates data protection and privacy matters in the UK. They make a lot of information accessible to consumers on their website and they ensure that the registered details of all data controllers such as ourselves are available publicly.

You can make a complaint to the ICO at any time about the way we use your information. However, we hope that you would consider raising any issue or complaint you have with us first. Your satisfaction is extremely important to us, and we will always do our very best to solve any problems you may have.

7. How long we keep your information for

We retain a record of your personal information in order to provide you with a high quality and consistent service. We will always retain your personal information in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 and never retain your information for longer than is necessary. Unless otherwise required by law, your data will be stored for a period of 5 years after our last contact with you, at which point it will be permanently deleted and therefore irretrievable.

8. Your data and Social Networks

When using this website, you may be able to share information through social networks like Facebook and Twitter. For example, when you ‘like’, ‘share’ or review our Services. When doing this, your personal information may be visible to the providers of those social networks and/or their other users. Please remember it is your responsibility to set appropriate privacy settings on your social network accounts so you are comfortable with how your information is used and shared on them.

9. Security


Data security is of great importance to Scrutton Bland and to protect your data we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure your collected data. 

We take security measures to protect your information including:

Physical & Managerial Security Procedures

Website Application and Hosting Security Procedures

10. Cookies used by this website

What are Cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of data, stored in text files, that are stored on your computer or other device when a website is loaded within your chosen browser. They are widely used to ‘remember’ you and your preferences, either for a single visit (through a ’session cookie’) or for multiple repeat visits (using a ‘persistent cookie’). They ensure a consistent and efficient experience for visitors, and perform essential functions such as allowing users to register and remain logged in. Cookies may be set by the site that you are visiting (known as ‘first party cookies’), or by other websites who serve up content on that site (‘third party cookies’).

What is Cookie Control?

You may notice that our website utilises a third party Cookie preference tool called ‘Cookie Control’. Cookie Control is a mechanism for controlling user consent and the use of cookies on this website application.

When (as the user) you consent to one of the optional cookie categories, Cookie Control will place a cookie to remember that decision. The name of the cookie will be the name of the category specified within the Cookie Control widget itself. That cookie will be removed when you (the user) revokes consent to that category.

What are ‘Strictly Necessary Cookies’?

These are the cookies that are essential for this website to perform its basic functions. These include those required to allow registered users to authenticate and perform account related functions, as well as to save the contents of virtual ‘carts’ on sites that have an e-commerce functionality.

Strictly Necessary Cookies are highlighted with a double asterisk (**) in the tables below:

Cookies set by WordPress

Cookie NameDescriptionDuration
wordpress_<hash> **On login, wordpress uses the wordpress_[hash] cookie to store your authentication details. Its use is limited to the admin console area, /wp-admin/2 years
wordpress_logged_in_<hash>  **After login, wordpress sets the wordpress_logged_in_<hash> cookie, which indicates when you’re logged in, and who you are, for most interface use.Session
wp-settings-<time>-<UID>  **WordPress also sets a few wp-settings-<time>-<UID> cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customize your view of admin interface, and possibly also the main site interface.Session
WordPress_google_apps_login **This cookie is set by the plugin ‘Google Apps Login for WordPress’ and may be present for users who login to WordPress via their Google or GSuite account.Session
wordpress_test_cookieUsed to check whether your web browser is set to allow, or reject cookies.Session
wpe-auth

Cookies set by Google Analytics

Cookie NameDescriptionDuration
_gaUsed to distinguish users.2 years
_gidUsed to distinguish users.24 hours
_gatUsed to throttle request rate. If Google Analytics is deployed via Google Tag Manager, this cookie will be named _dc_gtm_<property-id>.1 minute
AMP_TOKENContains a token that can be used to retrieve a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a Client ID from AMP Client ID service.30 seconds to 1 year
_gac_<property-id>Contains campaign related information for the user. If you have linked your Google Analytics and AdWords accounts, AdWords website conversion tags will read this cookie unless you opt-out. Learn more.90 days
_gaexpOptimize 360 – Used to determine a user’s inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in.90 days

Cookies set by Hotjar

Cookie NameDescriptionDuration
_hjClosedSurveyInvitesHotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor interacts with a Survey invitation modal popup. It is used to ensure that the same invite does not reappear if it has already been shown.365 days
_hjDonePollsHotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor completes a poll using the Feedback Poll widget. It is used to ensure that the same poll does not reappear if it has already been filled in.365 days
_hjMinimizedPollsHotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor minimizes a Feedback Poll widget. It is used to ensure that the widget stays minimizes when the visitor navigates through your site.365 days
_hjDoneTestersWidgetsHotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor submits their information in the Recruit User Testers widget. It is used to ensure that the same form does not re-appear if it has already been filled in.365 days
_hjMinimizedTestersWidgetsHotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor minimizes a Recruit User Testers widget. It is used to ensure that the widget stays minimizes when the visitor navigates through your site.365 days
_hjIncludedInSampleHotjar cookie. This session cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate funnels.365 days
_hjShownFeedbackMessageThis cookie is set when a visitor minimizes or completes Incoming Feedback. This is done so that the Incoming Feedback will load as minimized immediately if they navigate to another page where it is set to show.365 days
_hjidHotjar cookie. This cookie is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the random user ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.365 days

Miscellaneous Cookies

Cookie NameDescriptionDuration
complianceCookieUsed to distinguish your acknowledgement of our website’s Cookie Banner and subsequent policy (this document).14 days

How to change your Cookie preferences

The most popular web browsers typically provide additional tools to users for controlling or restricting cookies on their device.  To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, you can visit www.aboutcookies.org.

Find out how to manage cookies on popular browsers:

To find information relating to other browsers, visit the browser developer’s website.

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

11. How to contact us 

If you would like to exercise one of your rights as set out earlier in this policy, or you have a question or a complaint about this policy, the way your personal information is processed, please contact us by one of the following means:

Assigned Data Protection Officer: Paul Goddard
By email: paul.goddard@scruttonbland.co.uk
By post: Scrutton Bland, Fitzroy House, Crown Street, Ipswich IP1 3LG

Thank you for taking the time to read our Cookies Policy.

This Policy was last updated on 05/04/2023

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