Privacy Policy

Updated 22nd February 2021

Who we are

This statement covers the services provided by the BFG Associates website.

The purpose of this statement is to inform users of the BFG Associate website about what information is collected about them when they visit this site, how this information is used if it is disclosed and the ways in which we protect users’ privacy.

Our website address is: https://bfg-associates.co.uk

Confidentiality and security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

Information we collect from visitors

If you choose to supply us with your personal information (using contact forms), we may use it in the following ways:

  • To process your request/enquiry made via this website (lawful basis – legitimate business interest).
  • For internal record keeping (lawful basis – legitimate business interest).
  • To send you our email newsletter, if you opt into this service (lawful basis – consent).

We also gather information on how you use the site, using cookies and page tagging techniques (lawful basis – legitimate business interest).

Where your data is stored

Our website is hosted by Ionos Webhosting in the UK.   More information can be found using this link.

We also use a number of third-party systems to store your data (where applicable), all of which are GDPR compliant:

  • MailChimp is used to send further information about courses you have enquired about as well as our newsletter if you have signed up for this.  MailChimp Privacy Policy.
  • Our website is backed up using Updraft Plus and all backups are encrypted.

Keeping Your Data Secure

Sending information over the Internet without encryption is not completely secure and we can’t guarantee the security of your data while it is transit.  Any data you send is at your own risk.  We have procedures and security features in place to keep your data secure once we receive it.

Retention Period

Where we hold data from people who we have not had contact with for 5 years, that data will be deleted. 

When we provide services, we want to make them easy to use, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

  • recognising that you may already have given an email address/website when you leave a blog comment, meaning you don’t need to re-type that information for every comment you leave
  • measuring how many people are using our website via Google Analytics, so the website can be made easier to use, and more suited to your needs

You can manage these small files yourself.  You can find out how to do this, and learn more about Cookies in general here.

Our use of cookies

The following list outlines exactly what cookies this website uses, and what they are used for:

Google Analytics:

Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and what content is most popular. This helps to ensure that our website is responding to your needs in the best way possible. 

Google Services (YouTube, etc)

We use various Google services to allow users to view and share content more effectively. 

Newsletter

If you receive the HTML-formatted version of our email newsletter, your opening of the newsletter email is notified to us and saved. Your clicks on links in the newsletter are also saved. These and the open statistics are used in aggregate form to give us an indication of the popularity of the content and to help us make decisions about future content and formatting.

Embedded content from other websites

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.

Controlling your personal information

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the General Data Protection Regulations. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please contact (by email or letter):

Email: [email protected]

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please email us as soon as possible at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.  You may also ask us to delete information we hold about you at any time.

We will endeavour to respond within 48 hours.

If you receive email alerts because you have signed up for our newsletter, you can unsubscribe at any time by selecting the ‘unsubscribe’ link that appears in every email.

Disclosing your information

We may pass on your personal information if we have a legal obligation to do so, or if we have to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements.  This includes exchanging information with government departments for legal reasons.

We won’t share your information with any other organisations for marketing, market research or commercial purposes.

Data Breach

In the unlikely event of a data breach, you will be informed as soon as possible and you will be asked to change your password on our website, our online learning area and our portfolio system.

Changes to this privacy policy

If this privacy policy changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this page. Regularly reviewing this page ensures that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances if any, we will share it with other parties.

Copyright

This website and its content is copyright of BFG Associates – © BFG Associates 2021. All rights reserved.

Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following:

  • you may print or download to local hard disk extracts for your personal and non-commercial use only
  • you may copy the content to individual third parties for their personal use, but only if you acknowledge the website as the source of the material

You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or another form of the electronic retrieval system.