Personal and business data

Data protection

If you choose to complete one of our on-line forms, the personal information you provide will be used solely by the Bank of Scotland Group in the UK to enable us to answer your queries. You should note that we do not supply any information about you to anyone unless we believe it is lawful to do so.

You have a right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. If you require a copy please write to the Data Privacy Team, Bank of Scotland Corporate, 1st Floor West, Tower House, Chester CH88 3AN. If you believe that the information we hold about you is inaccurate you may write to us and ask us to correct it.

For further details on how we will use your information, please view our Data Protection Policy.

Using your personal information

For Commercial customers this brochure gives an overview of how we use your personal information.

Bank of Scotland Commercial Privacy statement

For Corporate customers this brochure gives an overview of how we use your personal information.

Bank of Scotland Corporate Privacy statement

Identity theft

Your identity is a valuable commodity but you may not be the only person using your own personal details. Your identity can be stolen and used in a variety of ways. This is commonly known as identity theft (or identity fraud) and is the fastest growing type of fraud in the UK.

The following website offers advice on how to protect you and your business from the risk.
www.identityfraud.org.uk

Cookies

A cookie is a small piece of information that a website places on your computer's hard drive. Any information that is supplied by cookies can help us to provide you with a better service and assists us to analyse the profile of our visitors. You can find out more about cookies on the website http://www.aboutcookies.org.

Browser settings can be adjusted to prevent cookies being placed on your PC if desired; though this may affect the performance of certain areas of the site. Cookies may also be removed on an individual basis from your computer.

How to find and control your cookies

If you're using Internet Explorer 6 or above:

Choose Tools, then
Internet Options
Click on Privacy Tab
Click on Custom Level
Click on the 'Advanced' button
Check the 'override automatic cookie handling' box and select Accept, Block or Prompt for action as appropriate.

If you're using Firefox:

Choose Tools, then
Options
Select Privacy
Select Cookies
Click on Custom Level
Choose your preferred settings.

If you're using Google Chrome:

Click on the "Tools" menu and select "Options"
Click the "Under the Bonnet" tab and locate the "Privacy" section, and choose the "Content settings" button.
Click the "Cookie settings" tab and choose your preferred settings.
Google Chrome allows all cookies by default, but you can restrict the behaviour of first-party and third-party cookies or even block them completely.
Click on the Close button when you've finished.

If you're using Safari:

Choose Preferences from Safari menu
Select Security icon
Cookie settings are shown in window
Choose your preferred settings.

How to delete your cookies

If you're using Internet Explorer 8:

Click "Safety" on the Command bar
Select "Delete Browsing History"
Select the option for cookies and click Delete

Alternatively, Internet Explorer 8's new InPrivate browsing feature allows users to browse the internet without recording information from visited sites (including cookies). To use InPrivate mode:

Click "Safety" on the Command bar
Select "InPrivate Browsing"

If you're using Internet Explorer 7 or above:

Exit Internet Explorer 7, and then exit any instances of Windows Explorer
Click Start, click Run, type inetcpl.cpl, and then press ENTER
On the General tab, click Delete under Browsing History in the Internet Properties dialog box
In the Delete Browsing History dialog box, click Delete Cookies
In the Delete Cookies dialog box, click Yes.

If you're using Internet Explorer (all other versions):

Internet Explorer saves cookies in more than one location, depending on the version of the browser and the version of Microsoft Windows being used.

The best way to find and delete them is to close Internet Explorer then use your file management software (such as Windows Explorer) and search for a folder called 'cookies'.

If you're using Firefox:

Click on Tools, then Options (or Edit | Preferences on Linux)
Select Privacy
In the Cookies panel, click on Show Cookies
To remove a single cookie click on the entry in the list and click on the Remove Cookie button
To remove all cookies click on the Remove All Cookies button

If you're using Google Chrome:

Click on the "Tools" menu and select "Options".
Click the "Under the Bonnet" tab, locate the "Privacy" section and click the "Clear browsing data" button.
Select "Delete cookies and other site data" to delete all cookies from the list (alternatively, you can remove all cookies created within a specific time period by selecting the period you want from the dropdown list).
Select "Clear browsing history" to delete traces of which websites you've visited.
Select "Clear download history" to delete records of which files and programs you've downloaded.
Select "Empty the cache" to delete cached website pages.
You can also delete saved passwords (which log you into websites) and saved form data (such as your name and address).
Then click on the "Clear browsing data" button.
Click on the Close button when you've finished.

If you're using Safari:

Choose Preferences from Safari menu
Select Security icon
Press Show Cookies button
Select the Cookies to be deleted from the list
Press Delete button

How to see your cookie code

Just click on a cookie to open it. You'll see a short string of text and numbers. The numbers are your identification card, which can only be seen by the server that gave you the cookie.

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