Site address-Privacy Statement: Our website address is: https://buy-to-let.me.uk. This privacy policy confirms how we are committed to securely preserving your personal information. Inclusive any personal details you impart to us, what we learn by interacting with you as a customer along with your marketing choices. This privacy policy further advises you on your privacy rights and how you are protected.
Last Updated 1st November 2021.
Introduction
The Buy to Let News blog is a news and blog site which produces downloads, guides and ‘BTL’ news/commentary. This is not intended as and should neither be construed as investment advice. You can use the contact page and select compliance from the dropdown menu to contact us for general data protection queries.
Comments
Your input: When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. This is an extremely important part of site security adopted by millions of websites across the world to not only protect themselves from onerous spamming but also hackers.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment/s.
Media
Media (Images): If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
Cookie length: If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
How you are protected
As well as our Privacy Policy, your privacy is protected by law. The law states that your personal information can be used only if we have a proper reason to do so. This includes sharing it outside of IGN (Buy to Let News).
The law states we must have one or more of these reasons:
- To fulfil a contract we have with you, or
- When it is our legal duty, or
- When it is in our legitimate interest, or
- When you consent to it.
A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information. But even then, it must not unfairly go against what is right and best for you. Furthermore your personal data is protected by legal rights including:
- object to our processing of your personal data;
- request that your personal data is erased or corrected;
- request access to your personal data.
For more information or to exercise your data protection rights, please contact us using the ‘contact’ form as previously advised. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) https://ico.org.uk/concerns/, which regulates the processing of personal data.
Embedded content from other websites
Embedded content: Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website. Currently IGN do not use or rely on any embedded content as at 1st November 2021. If this changes this Privacy Policy notice will be updated.
Who we share your data with
IP address: If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
IGN does not currently introduce or arrange or recommend mortgages and/or financial services We therefore do not share your personal information with third parties such as lenders and other brokers, to arrange the supply of those services and products (as of November 1st 2021). However as and when this changes this Privacy Policy will be updated. If our business model changes we may, by law, be required to share your information with:
- Agents and advisers who we use to help run your accounts and services, collect what you owe and explore new ways of doing business
- HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities
- UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme
- Credit reference agencies
- Fraud prevention agencies
- Companies we have a joint venture or agreement to co-operate with
- Organisations that introduce you to us
- Companies that we introduce you to
- Companies you ask us to share your data with
In addition to the above, should we undergo a major company restructuring, then your data will be used by the new organisation in the same way as set out in this notice.
How long we retain your data
Retention of Data: If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What type of Personal Information we’ll gather
Some websites who introduce and interact with third party providers should you apply (mortgage/financial services) via a Limited Company. A limited company can and is often used as a tax efficient vehicle to purchase buy to let and HMO properties. These details can include but are not limited to name, occupation, date of birth, contact details and financial details.
Additionally, we may need to collect sensitive personal data for some products or to comply with legislation. We will only collect and use these types of data if we are specifically required to:
- Racial or ethnic origin
- Religious or philosophical beliefs
- Genetic and bio-metric data
- Health data including gender
- Criminal convictions and offences
Intermediaries/brokers/agents should only collect information to progress your case and only collect and process sensitive personal data where it is essential to finding the express product you have requested. Any broker/agent/intermediary will not explicitly request your consent to process this sensitive information as it is required by same to agreed services. If you do not want this sensitive detail to be shared as and where necessary it will be unlikely anyone will be able to progress your enquiry.
What rights you have over your data
Your Rights: If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where we send your data
SPAM detection: Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs)
We do not carry out credit and identity checks either on you as an individual or through a business (Ltd Co).
For your information you can find out more about the CRAs on their websites, in the Credit Reference Agency Information Notice. This includes details about:
- Who they are
- The data they hold and how they use it
- Their role as fraud prevention agencies
- How they share personal information
- How long they can keep data
- Your data protection rights.
Here are links to the information notice for each of the three main Credit Reference Agencies: