Privacy

At Novas Insurance we are aware of the trust you place in us when you buy our products and our responsibility to protect your information.

This notice describes who we are, why we need to collect your information and how we will use it.

We will tell you who we share your information with and how we use it to improve the service we provide to our customers.

Security

Any personal data saved is held safely on our mainframe computer, with security systems preventing unauthorised access and we always ensure it is treated confidentially. For further information regarding our security provisions please see our note titled Further Security.

Privacy - Why we need your information

• We will use your information to give you quotations, and manage your insurance policy, including underwriting and claims handling. Your information comprises of all the details we hold about you and your transactions and includes information we obtain about you from third parties.
• We will only collect the information we need so that we can provide you with the service you expect from us. From time to time we may need to change the way we use your information. Where we believe you may not reasonably expect such a change we will write to you. When we do so, you will have 60 days to object to the change but if we do not hear from you within that time you consent to that change.

Who we will share your information with

Novas Insurance will share your information with the underwriters of our products. We will do that in order to provide you with the best possible products and service experience.

During the course of our dealings with you we may need to disclose some of your information to other insurers, third party underwriters, reinsurers, credit reference, fraud prevention, law prevention agencies and other companies that provide service to us or you, to:

• assess financial and insurance risks
• recover debt
• prevent and detect crime
• develop our products, services, systems and relationships with you
• understand our customers’ requirements
• rating and pricing.

We do not disclose your information to anyone outside the Group except where:

• we have your permission
• we are required or permitted to do so by law
• we may transfer rights and obligations under this agreement.

Where we transfer your information

From time to time we may require services from suppliers that are based worldwide and your information will be shared with them for the purposes of providing that service. Where we engage these suppliers we make sure that they apply the same levels of protection, security and confidentiality we apply. However, such information may be accessed by law enforcement agencies and other authorities to prevent and detect crime and comply with legal obligations.

Motor Insurance Database (MID)

Information relating to your policy will be added to the Motor Insurance Database (MID) managed by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB). The MID and the data stored on it may be used by certain statutory and/or authorised bodies including the Police, the DVLA, the DVANI, the Insurance Fraud Bureau and other bodies permitted by law for purposes not limited to but including:

• Electronic Licensing (Tax Discs);
• Continuous Insurance Enforcement;
• Law enforcement (prevention, detection, apprehension and/or prosecution of offenders);
• The provision of government services and/or other services aimed at reducing the level and incidence of uninsured driving.

If you are involved in a road traffic accident (either in the UK, the EEA or certain other territories), insurers and/or the MIB may search the MID to obtain relevant information.

Persons (including his or her appointed representatives) pursuing a claim in respect of a road traffic accident (including citizens of other countries) may also obtain relevant information which is held on the MID.

It is vital that the MID holds your correct registration number. It is our responsibility to update your policy to the MID. We fully comply with the agreements in place with the MIB to update your details within seven days; however it is important that you check your policy documents ensuring that the registration number is recorded correctly.

If it is incorrectly shown on the MID you are at risk of having your car seized by the Police. You can check that your correct registration number is shown on the MID at www.askMID.com.

If the registration number is not shown correctly on your policy documents, or you cannot find your car on the MID, please contact us immediately.

Sensitive Information

Some of the personal information we ask you for may be sensitive personal information, as defined by the Data Protection Act 2018 (such as information about health or criminal convictions). We will not use such sensitive personal data about you or others except for the specific purpose for which you provide it and to provide the services described in your policy documents. You will have been asked to agree to this when you first contacted us but please ensure that you only provide us with sensitive information about other people with their agreement.

Dealing with other people

It is our policy to deal with your spouse or partner who calls us on your behalf, provided they are named on the policy. If you would like someone else to deal with your policy on your behalf on a regular basis please let us know. In some exceptional cases we may also deal with other people who call on your behalf, with your consent. If at any time you would prefer us to deal only with you, please let us know.

Credit Reference Agencies

We carry out a consumer search when any application for insurance is submitted. This is done using public data to evaluate insurance risks and no financial information is reviewed as part of this process. There is no visible credit footprint and after 12 months is automatically deleted.

Keeping you informed

From time to time we may contact you with special offers or suggest products which may be of interest to you. If you would like not to receive any of these updates you can ask us to stop at any time by advising us through the contact page. You may also request a hard copy of our data retention policy by contacting us.

Access to your information

To prevent and detect fraud we may at any time:

You have the right to see the information we hold about you. This is called Subject Access Request, If you would like a copy of your information please request this via the contact us page and marking your enquiry for the attention of the Data protection Officer or write to us at Novas Insurance, Trymlee Station Road, Portbury, Bristol, BS20 7TN. Please 28 days for this information to be provided.

Further Security

We take security very seriously and we use one of the strongest available security systems to protect your communications with us. Whenever you request a quote, it is automatically protected using something called a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) between your computer and ours. SSL works in the following ways:

• It prevents impersonation - you can tell that you are using a genuine SSL site by the padlock symbol at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on either the padlock or the image opposite will reveal our Registration Certificate that is issued by Verisign, a leading Internet security company.*
• It encrypts data - as soon as your computer has recognised our computer they encrypt all information that is passed between them. Data encryption means that no one else can read or change your information as it travels over the Internet.
• It prevents scrambling - SSL uses a Message Authentication Code (MAC) to prevent anyone tampering with our Internet site. Your computer will always check this code before it takes a message from us. This means that if anyone tried to interfere with a message, your computer would not recognise the code and would alert you.