Updated 5 May 2021

This privacy policy (‘the Privacy Policy’) applies to Clearpay Finance Limited (company number 05198026) (‘Clearpay’, ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’), and details how we collect, manage and use Personal Information, including but not limited to Personal Information collected on our websites, mobile applications, via email, cloud-based services, or controlled widgets embedded in communication platforms with a link to this Privacy Policy (“Websites”).  By “Personal Information” we mean information that is associated with a specific person and can be used to reasonably identify that person. Personal information does not include information that has been made anonymous, and cannot reasonably identify a specific person. It covers how we collect, use, and share that Personal Information as of the date that this Privacy Policy is posted. 

If we have collected personal data from you as a beneficial owner, director, other employee or trustee of a Merchant, please refer to our Merchant Privacy Policy.

Clearpay is committed to respecting the privacy of your Personal Information. We appreciate that individuals are concerned about the security of their Personal Information and we are committed to protecting any Personal Information in our custody or control. 

We are the data controller in respect of the Personal Information that you give to us and which we hold about you. This Privacy Policy applies when you sign up for, access, or use our services, features, technologies or functions offered on our Websites (including in respect of any request submitted by you to us, to use our product to pay for goods or services offered by a retailer) (collectively ‘Clearpay Services’) and in relation to Personal Information we may otherwise collect during the course of our business as set out in this Privacy Policy. 

If we propose to provide the Clearpay Services to you, it is a condition of you being assessed for that purpose that you provide us with the Personal Information that we request from you (or from the retailer who introduces you to us) which it is necessary for us to have for the purpose of providing the Clearpay Services to you, administering the agreement and for the other purposes described below. If you fail to provide us with the Personal Information we request from you, we will not be able to proceed with the checks that we need to perform to provide the Clearpay Services (as set out in this Privacy Policy) and, consequently, we will not be able to provide those services to you.

Clearpay’s retailers (which may include online market places), third party suppliers and commercial partners (together, ‘our Partners’) are independent of Clearpay and may have privacy policies which differ from ours. Our Partners are responsible for their own privacy policies and privacy practices. Please contact our Partners directly for further information on their privacy policies.

The Websites may also contain links to third party websites. These linked sites are not under our control and we are not responsible for content on these sites, nor are these sites subject to this Privacy Policy. Before disclosing your Personal Information on any third party website we recommend that you examine the terms and conditions and privacy policy of that site.

Clearpay may amend the Privacy Policy at any time. The updated version will be available by following the ‘Privacy’ link on the Websites. The revised version will be effective from the time we post it on the Websites From time to time Clearpay may highlight major changes to the Privacy Policy on its homepage, but we recommend you check the Privacy Policy regularly for changes. 

Collecting Personal Information

Clearpay strives to be fair and open about the way we collect information about you and what we intend to do with the information. 

We receive and store certain types of information from you when you interact with our Websites to deliver the products you request from us, and help improve your overall online experience.  

If you open a Clearpay account with us or use Clearpay Services, we may collect the following types of information:

• Contact information, such as your name, address, phone number, email and other similar information.

• Financial information, such as credit or debit card numbers that you link to your Clearpay account or give us when you use Clearpay Services.

• Detailed Personal Information such as your date of birth, driver’s licence number, or other identification information or documents.

We may also obtain information about you from third parties including our Partners and related companies, as well as credit reference and fraud prevention agencies, and publicly or commercially available sources for the purposes of complying with legal obligations which apply to us (eg. anti-money laundering laws). We do not obtain full credit searches, only searches to verify your identity.

You may choose to provide us with access to certain Personal Information stored by third parties such as social media sites (e.g., Facebook and Twitter). The information we may receive varies by site and is controlled by that site. By associating an account managed by a third party with your Clearpay account and authorising Clearpay to have access to this information, you agree that Clearpay may collect, store and use this information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We may also collect your Personal Information if you enter a competition or promotion we run (either directly or through our marketing agents or our Partners).

We may also collect Personal Information from you about the recipient of a third-party supplier gift cards purchased by you through our Websites using the Clearpay Services. This information may include the recipient’s name, email address and phone number.

In order to help protect you from fraud and misuse of your Personal Information, we may collect information about your use and interaction with our Websites or Clearpay Services. For example, we may evaluate your computer, mobile phone or other access device to identify any malicious software or activity.

We may also collect additional information from or about you in other ways, such as through contact with our customer support team, suppliers or service providers (whether via mail, email or through telephone enquiries), your responses to a market survey, and from interactions with Clearpay’s Partners or as otherwise notified to you at the time.

Using Personal Information

We may use Personal Information we collect about you for a number of purposes including (i) the performance of your contract or in order to process a contract request, (ii) our legitimate business interests, (iii) compliance with a legal obligation, or (iv) where you have provided consent (this will always be presented to you separately and you have a right to withdraw your consent at any time). Unless we tell you otherwise, our processing of your Personal Information will be for our legitimate business interests and this includes:

• To provide (or assess whether to provide) Clearpay Services - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the performance of the services that you request from us and, initially, to take steps to enter into the agreement for the Clearpay Services with you;

• To process transactions for the delivery of third party goods or services available through our Website – the use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the performance of the third party goods or services that you request from us or a third party requests from us for you to receive the benefit of the third party goods or services;

• For customer support - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the performance of the services that you request from us;

• To process transactions and send notices about your transactions - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the performance of the services that you request from us;

• To resolve disputes, collect fees, and troubleshoot problems - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the performance of the services that you request from us;

• To investigate and prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests in establishing any risks in providing services to you and to prevent, detect and prosecute fraud and other crimes;

• To enforce our rights against you - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests in our recovering any debt owed to us;

• To learn more about your level of satisfaction, your expectations of us and our Partners, and how we can meet them (for example, in relation to Clearpay Services, and the goods offered by Clearpay’s retailers) - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for our legitimate interests in understanding the customer journey and experience so that we can understand your needs and provide a better service to you, and to help us develop and improve our products and services;

• To customise, measure, and improve Clearpay Services and the content, layout, and operation of our Websites - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for our legitimate interests in understanding the customer journey and experience so that we can understand your needs and provide a better service to you, and to help us develop and improve our products and services;

• To understand your behaviours and make inferences, such as your preferred retailers, purchase and spending habits, to send tailored marketing and promotion offers to you. The use of your Personal Information in this way is based on your consent and you have the right to object to us processing your Personal Information for this purpose at any time. Please see the section below entitled “Marketing and privacy”.

• To confirm your identity for the purposes of anti-fraud, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws. If you apply to us for the provision of the Clearpay Services, when processing applications, we will use the Personal Information that you provide to us to obtain information about you from credit reference agencies and other partners to help us to provide our services. This includes information to check and verify your identity information (such as your ID documents) and prevent fraud and money laundering. We will record information about you with them to help make decisions about your application. Following the identity verification checks, if we determine that you pose a fraud or money laundering risk, we may refuse to provide the Clearpay Services that you have requested. A record of any fraud or money laundering risk will be retained by us - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary as we have a legitimate interest in preventing fraud and money laundering, and to verify identity, in order to protect our business and to comply with laws that apply to us. Such processing is also a contractual requirement of our providing the Clearpay Services to you;

• To understand your behaviours and make inferences, such as your preferred retailers, purchase and spending habits, to send tailored marketing and promotion offers to you. This includes the use of cookies and similar technologies on our site or app that we may use. For instance, uniquely identifying your browser or internet device, links you have clicked and content you have viewed on our site. We use this information to personalise your online experience, to analyse and measure our performance to improve our product and services, and so that we and our digital partners can show you relevant adverts on other sites. The use of your Personal Information in this way is based on your consent and you have the right to object to us processing your Personal Information for this purpose at any time. Please also see the section below entitled “Marketing and privacy. Details on our collection of Personal Information through the use of cookies and analytical services is set out in our Cookies Policy at https://www2.clearpay.co.uk/en-GB/cookies.

• For purposes necessary to make on our app or site work as you’d expect it to. This includes, secure identity verification and login, fraud prevention, and remembering your cookies choices. The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for our legitimate interests. Details on our collection of Personal Information through the use of cookies and analytical services is set out in our Cookies Policy at https://www2.clearpay.co.uk/en-GB/cookies.

• For other purposes to which you have specifically consented; and

• As required or permitted by relevant laws and regulations.

How we share Personal Information with other parties

We may share your Personal Information with:

• Companies within our group of companies (our “Group”) who may use and update your information to provide Clearpay Services, administer and manage the performance of your contract, customer support, assess lending risks, to recover debts, to prevent, detect and prosecute fraud and other crimes, and to manage our and any member of our Group’s relationship with you - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests in establishing any risks in entering in providing the Clearpay Services to you and any risks that arise subsequently, the ability for us to recover any debt owed to us by you and for the administration of the agreement with you. The Group also has legal obligations that it must comply with (such as to report fraud). 

• Our Partners and the suppliers and service providers who help with our business operations including in relation to fraud prevention, identity verification, payment collection, marketing, customer service, and technology services - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests in order to operate and protect our business and to comply with legal obligations that apply to us.

• Our retailers and third party suppliers in the United Kingdom and in other countries (including Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada), so that they can provide goods or services to you (or the recipient of third party goods or services) or respond to a complaint by you, or to help them improve the quality and standard of service they provide to you - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests for the administration of our agreement with you; to protect our business and to improve service standards.

• Our service provider which provides our outbound text messaging services and which may need to intercept messages between us and you from time to time; retain Personal Information contained in those messages or disclose your Personal Information to a government body or to a telecommunications network provider - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary to comply with legal obligations that apply to us or to our service provider.

• Financial institutions that we may partner with to jointly create and offer a product - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the purpose of our legitimate interests in maintaining our funding lines so that our business remains commercially viable.

• Collection agencies - If you fail to make payment when due, we may pass your information to a debt collection agency in connection with recovery of monies due under your agreement with us - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests in recovering any debt owed to us.

• Companies that we plan to merge with or be acquired by or who may invest in us - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests to ensure that we or our business remains commercially viable.

• Law enforcement, government agencies or officials, or other third parties to detect, investigate and prevent crime - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interest in preventing fraud and money laundering. Fraud prevention agencies may also disclose your Personal Information for the same purposes.

• Other third parties with your express consent or direction to do so.

Call Recording

We will record phone conversations with you - The use of your Personal Information in this way is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interest in the proper resolution of complaints, the improvement of our service standards and for staff training purposes. 

Location of your Personal Information

The information that we collect from you will be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). It will also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff will be engaged in, among other things, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. Further, if you transact with a retailer in another country (including Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada), we will disclose personal information to such locations. Where adequate protections for your information do not exist under the applicable laws of that third country, we (or the party transferring your information) will take necessary steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are put in place to maintain the same levels of protection as are needed under UK data protection legislation. Safeguards include imposing contractual obligations on the recipient of your information or subscription to ‘international frameworks’ that ensure adequate protection (for example, the European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses). Please contact us for more information about the protections that are in place.

Whenever fraud prevention agencies transfer your Personal Information outside of the European Economic Area, they impose contractual obligations on the recipients of that data to protect your Personal Information to the standard required in the European Economic Area. They may also require the recipient to subscribe to ‘international frameworks’ intended to enable secure data sharing.

By submitting your Personal Information, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Marketing and privacy

If you signed up to receive newsletters or other marketing communications from us, you can opt-out any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the message. You can also log-in to your account to opt-out and update your marketing preferences at any time. The use of your Personal Information to send you tailored marketing and promotion offers based on your behaviours and preferences is profiling. If you would prefer not to receive tailored marketing and promotions, you have the right to object and opt out of marketing communications. 

You may also opt out by use of the form on the Contact Us section of our website which can be found at https://help.clearpay.co.uk.

Job applicants

Where you have applied for a job with us, we will collect and use your personal data requested to review your application, determine suitability, and take any further necessary steps required to enter into an contract. We will obtain your consent for collection of special categories of data, such as your criminal record check.

Your Rights

Under data protection law you have certain rights including the right of access to your Personal Information. 

You have the right to (i) be informed about how your Personal Information will be used (at no cost to you), (ii) ask us to restrict processing, (iii) if it is technically feasible, transmit your Personal Information from our systems to a third party’s system in a safe and secure way, (iv) object to our use of your Personal Information where we are using it for the purposes of our legitimate interests as described in this Privacy Policy, (v) not to be subject to a decision when is it based on automated processing and it produces a legal effect or a similarly significant effect on you and if it does then you have the right to request a human intervention – please contact us using the contact details below for more information about exercising this right (vi) access your Personal Information at no cost (unless your request is unfounded or unreasonable), (vii) if your Personal Information is inaccurate or incomplete, then you can ask us to have it rectified, (viii) in certain circumstances, you have the right to ask us to delete your Personal Information. For more information or to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us using the contact details below.

Retention of your Personal Information

We will retain your personal information for as long as is necessary for our legitimate business interests, for legal and compliance reasons, and for reasons explained in this Policy. We will otherwise delete personal information where we no longer have a lawful purpose to do so.

Subject to the terms set out in the Clearpay Terms of Service, you can also close your Clearpay account through our Websites. If you close your Clearpay account, we may retain information from your account for a period of time to collect any fees owed, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, prevent fraud or risk, enforce our Terms of Service, or take other actions as required or permitted by law. When you provide your personal data to us to enter and for the performance of our services, we will retain it for 7 years after the application is made or the termination of our terms (where applicable), and where otherwise we have a lawful basis to do so. This includes for as long as is necessary for our for legal and compliance reasons.

Resolving your concerns

Please refer to our Websites for details of our complaints procedure.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office where your data has or is being used in a way that you believe does not comply with data protection laws.

How to find out more

If you have any queries or concerns about the way in which we use your information, or if you want details of the relevant fraud prevention agencies, you can contact us at:

Data Protection Officer

Clearpay Finance Limited

22 Long Acre, London, UK, WC2E 9LY

Or through the Contact Us section of our website which can be found at https://help.clearpay.co.uk.