Hey all,
As we approach the critical date weāre dotting the Is and crossing the Ts on all of our policies and procedures. We want to make the policies that we share publicly, such as this Privacy Policy, as easy to understand and readable as possible.
Itās important to us that users understand what we do and why, and how it might impact them.
Itās written in plain English, short enough to read in one sitting and easy to navigate. Thatās the theory, anyway - let us know if you have any thoughts!
This might also be a good thread to share examples of companies simplifying legal-ese and helping normalise readable agreements between companies and users. We know Monzo does this very well.
A quick note on what we want to achieve here - collecting views on clarity and readability, rather than the substance of the policy. Drop me a line if you have questions on the latter, though.
Hereās the next iteration of our Privacy Policy:
Privacy Policy (including Cookies)
Reading time: 4 minutes
TL;DR
The bite-sized summary of our policy is that we collect your personal information and statistics in various ways to help make our stockbroking services the best they can be and to keep you up to date with the latest goings on at Freetrade HQ.
We share this data with select third parties to help us achieve these aims only, and not for any other reason. For the detail, read on!
Who we are
Freetrade Limited (āFreetradeā, āweā, āourā, āusā) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Firm Reference Number: 783189). Your privacy and the security of your personal data is extremely important to us. This document is our Privacy Notice to you.
If you have any questions about this notice please email us or write to us at 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE. You can also ping us on live chat through the app!
Our Information Commissionerās Office registration number is ZA179260.
What information we hold about you
- Information submitted through our mobile application or our website - for example, when you sign up for an account and provide details such as your name and address, or data we collect about how you use our products;
- Details of your transaction history, such as the shares youāve bought and sold over time; and
- Information which is tied to your usage or settings on your phone or computer - for example, the mobile network you use, your IP address or operating system.
We are committed to making sure that the data we collect and retain about you is always adequate, relevant and not excessive.
Please let us know if your information changes so that we can ensure the data we hold is accurate. You can do this by emailing us or writing to us at 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE. You can also ping us on live chat through the app!
How we use your information
To offer the services you instruct us to carry out as outlined in the Terms & conditions, we use your information to:
- Help manage your account and resolve any problems;
- Track and analyse the performance of the services we provide you and other users with a view to improving them;
- Make regulatory or governmental reports based on your activity where necessary;
- Help prevent illegal activities;
- Market and communicate our products and services where we think these will be of interest to you. You can always unsubscribe from receiving these if you want to; and
- There may be times when you give us sensitive information such as any physical or mental health details. Weāll only use this information in strict accordance with the law with a view to giving you the best service possible.
Our basis for processing your information (the reason why we need it) is always lawful and as a result of:
- Our commitment to uphold contractual agreements between us;
- If we have your permission to do so;
- To comply with legal or regulatory obligations; or
- If we deem that doing so benefits you or us and does not infringe on your rights to privacy. This is known as a ālegitimate interestā.
Who will we share it with?
We may disclose your personal information to:
- Anyone who works for us if they need it to do their job;
- Select third parties that support us in offering services to and communicating with you;
- Certain authorities to detect and prevent terrorism or other illicit activities; and
- Anyone who you give us explicit permission to share it with from time to time.
We may also do so if we must to comply with the law, or to enforce the Terms & conditions or other agreements between us, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of us, our users, or others.
Our internal systems consist of Slack, G Suite and Intercom, amongst others. Our community runs on Discourse.
Rights
You have the rights:
- To access the personal data we hold about you
- To obtain a copy of the data and request that we delete it.
If you want to action this, please email us or write to us at 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE. You can also ping us on live chat through the app!
Things we donāt do
- We donāt share identifiable personal data with third parties for their direct marketing; and
- We donāt keep your personal information for longer than we are compelled to by regulation. Weāll then delete it securely and safely.
Where your data is stored
The data we collect from you may be transferred to and stored somewhere outside the European Economic Area (āEEAā) if we have specific agreements and/or due diligence in place.
In certain circumstances it may also be processed by staff outside the EEA who work for us or a select third party.
Cookie Policy
Like almost everyone else on the internet, we use cookies and you should be conscious to accept this when using our mobile application or website.
As well as delicious snacks, cookies also refer to small text files used to store information on web browsers. Other technologies, including data we store on your web browser or device, identifiers associated with your device, and other software, are used for similar purposes. We refer to all of these instances as cookies.
Note that cookies do not store any of your financial details.
Cookies help both us and select third parties to improve our website and mobile application and give users a better experience. We use them to:
- Keep track of how often users come to our website and see how they interact with it (Google Analytics);
- Let users chat to us and ask question (Intercom);
- Let users share content and posts they find interesting (social plugin tools like AddToAny);
- Manage the waitlist queue as effectively and efficiently as possible (KickoffLabs); and
- Perform analysis on how people interact with our job listings so we can hire the best talent (Workable).
If you wish to block cookies you can do this in your browserās settings. Alternatively, just search āhow to block cookiesā. This may make using our site slightly less fun.
Changes to this policy
We continuously review our policies and procedures in order to improve. Weāll let you know about any important changes being made here.