Privacy, Social Media and Cookie Policies
Last updated June 2021
Berkshire PE is committed to protecting you and any information that we collect about you. This privacy policy explains what information may be collected and how it will be used when you access any of our social media channels, and should be read in conjunction with our social media terms of use below.
By using our social media channels and providing us with, or posting personal information to our social media channels you are agreeing that you accept these terms. If you disagree with any of these terms you should not access our social media channels.
Cookies
When you access our social media channels, we will use cookies. Cookies are files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to the device you use when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies perform lots of different and useful jobs, such as remembering your preferences and generally improving your online experience.
For information about the cookies that Berkshire PE use, we strongly suggest that you read our cookie policy below. The external social media platforms may also be using cookies which will be subject to their own terms and conditions.
Information that we collect and how it will be used
When you use any of our social media channels we may record and retain information (anonymous or otherwise) about you. This may include your use of our sites and the frequency of your visits. The individual social media channels may also be permitted to share certain information with us in accordance with your personalised privacy settings on those channels.
Any information you provide through our social media channels may be shared with other Berkshire PE, and any third parties who are acting on our behalf to enhance your user experience of our social media channels, provide you with customer assistance and/or provide you with information about our products and services. We are always striving to understand our customers better, so we may also record comments and opinions that you make publicly on our social media channels.
If we transfer your information outside of the European Economic Area (EEA), we will require that it is protected to at least UK standards.
Changes to our privacy policy
We keep our privacy policy under regular review and will reflect any updates within this policy. We suggest you periodically review this notice for any changes that may affect you. .
Social Media Terms of Use
1. Berkshire PE (“we”, “us” and “our”) has an active presence on a number of external social channels including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn (“our social media channels”). Our social media terms of use (terms) are intended to help ensure that we are able to engage with our customers and other users of our social media channels in a respectful environment.
2. Please read these terms carefully before you engage with our social media channels, as your use of the social media channels (including those which are accessible on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram) indicates that you accept these terms and agree to comply with them. If you disagree with any of these terms you should not engage with our social media channels.
3. By providing us with or posting personal data to our social media channels you are agreeing that we may use the information as set out in our social media privacy policy, above.
4. If there are any additional or varied terms and conditions for a particular application or promotion through our social media channels, we will provide you with the new or additional terms and conditions at that time.
5. Because social media and our use of it, is always evolving, we may amend these terms at any time. You should frequently check this webpage to review the current terms because they are binding on you. These terms were last updated in October 2018.
External social channels
6. While Berkshire PE has official profiles on external social media channels this does not mean that we endorse those channels or the companies that own them, or that we are responsible for their products or services.
7. If you access external social media channels, you do so at your own risk and Berkshire PE is not responsible for any losses or other damage you suffer as a result of its use.
8. The social media channels we use have their own terms and conditions and you need to comply with those terms as well as ours.
Protecting your privacy
9. Any personal data which you do provide us with is covered under our social media privacy policy (detailed above).
10. We want you to be safe when using the internet and mobile applications, so please don’t include any account, logon, financial or other personal details when posting content on our social media channels. We will only ever ask for your contact details in a private message if we need to assist you with our products or services. We will never ask for your account information or direct you to a web page or page that asks for this information.
11. Please be aware that:
(a) our social media channels are public and any contribution you make will be available for anyone to see; and
(b) messages sent over the Internet or via mobile applications may not be completely secure as they are subject to possible interception or loss or possible alteration.
This is not within our control and so we are not responsible for them and will not be liable to you or anyone else for any damages or otherwise in connection with any message sent by you to us or any message sent by us to you over the Internet or through a mobile application.
12. For more details on how to keep safe online please visit www.getsafeonline.org.
Your use of our social media channels
13. You may not use our social media channels for illegal purposes or otherwise misuse our social media channels (including, without limitation, by hacking or impersonating us, or in any way not permitted by these terms).
14. Our social media channels have been created to allow you to communicate with us and about us. You may share and comment on content that we post to our social media channels, provided that you do not amend it and that you cite us as the source.
15. Unless otherwise stated, all trademarks, company names, logos and images used on our social media channels and copyright in the content of our posts (except where other contributors are acknowledged) are the intellectual property of Berkshire PE (or our affiliates, partners or licensors). You must not copy these or misuse them in any way, or use these for commercial purposes without our consent or an appropriate licence.
16. We will assume that any material you post to our social media channels is not confidential. You retain all of your ownership rights in your content, however you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty free licence to freely use, copy, edit, alter, reproduce, publish, display and/or distribute such material for any and all commercial and non-commercial purposes in any media or through any distribution method.
17. When you submit materials to our social media channels, you confirm that you are entitled to submit the content and that the content is accurate, not confidential, and not in violation of any contractual restrictions or other third party rights.
18. When posting content please be polite, respectful, relevant, accurate where stating facts and civil to others, even if your views differ. Your content must be your original work and comply with the law of England and Wales and any country from which it is posted.
19. You agree not to post or transmit any material:
(a) that is threatening, defamatory, obscene, indecent, offensive, pornographic, abusive, liable to incite racial hatred, discriminatory, menacing, scandalous, inflammatory, blasphemous, in breach of confidence, in breach of privacy or which may cause annoyance, distress or inconvenience; or
(b) for which you have not obtained all necessary licences and/or approvals; or
(c) which constitutes or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise be contrary to the law of or infringe the rights of any third party, in any country in the world; or
(d) which is technically harmful (including, without limitation, computer viruses, logic bombs, Trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data or other malicious software or harmful data).
20. You agree to compensate us fully if we suffer loss and damage as a result of your failure to abide by these terms.
21. The language of our social media channels is English and contributions should be made in English. We are unable to respond to content in other languages. This may mean in some instances that we need to remove material if we cannot be certain of its content.
Management of our channels
22. We reserve the right to contact you where we have received complaints about your content, and we may ask you to remove certain content where such content does not comply with these terms or the law. We also reserve the right to moderate any content posted to our social media channels. Where we moderate content before it is posted to our social media channels, we may, at our discretion, refrain from publishing certain material transmitted or posted by you. Similarly, where we moderate content after it is posted to our social media channels, we may choose to remove material transmitted or posted by you. For example, if we consider the material transmitted by you to be inappropriate for any reason, we may choose to refrain from posting this or delete this from the relevant social media channels(s) (although we shall not be required to do so). We shall be under no obligation to notify you of such decision. Further, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to all or any of our social media channels in the event that you fail to comply with these terms. Please note, however, that sometimes it may not be possible to moderate our social media channels and our social media channels may potentially be abused by third parties and therefore we cannot promise that no unsuitable third party content will appear on our social media channels.
23. Our social media channels are used to keep in touch with you and they are managed by our employees or partners, or agents selected by us. We regularly update and monitor our social media channels, however we may not always be able to read all messages or reply individually to messages received via these channels.
Links to third party websites or pages
24. Links to third party websites or pages on our social media channels are provided solely for your convenience or as part of the nature of how external social networks operate. We do not control them and are not responsible for such websites or their content or availability. We do not endorse or make any promises about them, or any material on these websites or pages nor any results that may be obtained from using them. Any access of third party content you choose to make is entirely at your own risk.
25. Links to downloadable software sites that may be available on social media platforms or third party websites that are linked on our social media channels are not provided, endorsed or checked by us, and we are not responsible for such software or liable for any difficulties or consequences associated with downloading the software.
Access
26. We do not guarantee that our social media channels, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. From time to time, we may at our discretion change, suspend or permanently withdraw all or part of our social media channels without prior notice. For example, we may do so if we are experiencing technical issues relating to our social media channels. You are, of course, free to stop using our social media channels at any time.
Disclaimers and liability
27. The following clauses exclude or limit our legal liability for our social media channels. You should read them carefully.
38. Our social media channels may contain complex information. We have tried to make it as clear, easy to use and as accurate as possible. However we do not warrant that any content posted by us is accurate, complete, or up to date. We will have no liability to you if it is not.
29. We aim for open, respectful communication on the relevant topics within our social media channels. While, where possible, we do conduct some moderation, we do not control and are not liable for content posted by third parties. Any use or reliance on such content or materials posted is at your own risk. We do not endorse, support, represent or guarantee the completeness, truthfulness, accuracy or reliability of any content posted by third parties. You understand that by using our social media channels, you may be exposed to content that might be offensive, harmful, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate, or in some cases, postings that have been mislabelled or are otherwise misleading. We will not be liable in any way for such content.
30. Please keep in mind that other users of our social media channels who provide content may claim expertise or standing that they do not, in fact, possess. You should give careful thought before following any advice posted by other users who are not verifiable as representing us.
31. No endorsement or approval of any third parties or their advice, opinions, information, content, products or services is expressed or implied by the display of information or advertisements by external social media channels alongside our content or logos and we have no control over the content of such third party advertisements.
32. We are not responsible for: (i) losses not caused by our breach; (ii) failure to perform or provide any services where such failure is due to events beyond our control; (iii) indirect losses which are a side effect of the main loss or damage and which are not reasonably foreseeable by you and us at the time of entering into these terms, for example loss of profits or loss of opportunity; (iv) loss or damage in connection with any third party website, applications or software linked from our social media channels; (v) loss or damage due to viruses or other harmful code which may infect your device.
33. Nothing in these terms shall exclude or limit our liability for:
(a) death or personal injury caused by negligence; or
(b) fraud; or
(c) misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter; or
(d) any liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.
34. If you breach these terms and we take no action against you, we will still be entitled to use our rights and remedies in any other situation where you breach these terms.
35. If any part of these terms is disallowed or found to be ineffective by any court or regulator, the other provisions shall continue to apply.
Governing law
36. These terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Hong Kong
Our Cookie Policy
Our Cookies policy explains how we use cookies and other internet tracking software. It also explains the choices you can make about whether we can put some types of cookies on your PC, tablet or mobile phone.
In this policy, where we say 'cookies' it can also mean other software that collects data while you use our websites and mobile apps.
Data we collect will be held by Lloyds Bank. We use this data to:
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Protect you from fraud and keep improving security
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Study how people use our websites and apps and our other services, so we can improve them
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Decide which of our products, services and offers may be relevant for you
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Tailor the marketing you see on social media, apps and other websites.
We may share this data with other companies in the Group. We also share some data with outside organisations. Some of them may place their own cookies on your device when you visit our website. You can find out more about how we share data – and who we share it with – in our Privacy Policy.
We do not sell data to organisations outside our Group.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small files that are sent to your PC, mobile phone or tablet when you visit a website. They stay on your device and are sent back to the website they came from when you visit it again. Cookies collect data and send it to us while you use the site. These are written into mobile apps and web pages that you go to on your device.
Session and persistent cookies
All cookies are either session cookies or persistent cookies.
Session cookies last for the length of your visit to a website. They delete themselves when you close your browser.
Session cookies can help with security. For instance, they can keep you logged on as you move around a website.
Persistent cookies stay on your device when you close your browser.
They are used for many jobs. For instance, they can remember your User ID for websites where you log on. They can also store your choices for when you go back to a website.
Organisations find them useful to see how people use their websites. They can also be used to tailor the ads and marketing you see on social media, apps and other websites.
First and third party cookies
Whether a cookie is first or third party depends on where it comes from.
First party cookies are set by websites you go to.
Third party cookies are set by outside organisations. For instance, you may be on a website that has ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ buttons for social network sites. If you click one, the social network site will put a ‘third party’ cookie on your device. That cookie may then collect data about you and send it to them too. You will need to set your privacy choices on their site, to tell them how they can use your data.
We use our own cookies and others from companies we work with such as social media, search engines, other advertising networks, and our business partners.
Essential cookies and cookies you can choose
Different types of cookies do different jobs on our website. Some are needed to make the website work. We need your consent to use others that are not essential. You can change your choices at any time. Just click the 'Cookies' link at the end of any page.
Performance and marketing cookies
Berkshire PE is changing its websites to make sure we ask for your consent to use these cookies. It will take some time to update all our systems. Until then, you won't be able to make your choices on some websites run by companies within our Group. This means you may still see tailored marketing from us but only if you have opted in top receive such marketing from us. We will update this cookies policy as soon as the work is complete.
Keep in mind
Multiple users
If more than one person uses your device, the choices set up by other people will apply to you as well unless you change them. For example, if you share a computer with your family, you may see ads based on sites they have visited as well as sites you have visited.
Cookies with more than one use
Some of our cookies collect data for more than one use. We will only use these cookies for their essential purposes unless you have given your consent to any other uses they have.
Cookies that are already on your device
Turning off one or more types of cookies will not delete any that have been downloaded in the past. We may still use data we collected up to that point, but will stop collecting new data.
Managing cookies choices in your browser
You can turn off or delete cookies in your browser. If you do this, it may affect sites that use similar cookies to us.
Cookies choices you set in your browser replace any you set on a single website. For instance, if you run an ad blocker on your browser, you won't see ads that are tailored to you, even if you have turned on marketing cookies.