Privacy Policy
At CompareFibre.co.uk we take your privacy and the security of your personal information seriously.
CompareFibre.co.uk is a broadband comparison website offering informative articles about broadband, listings of broadband providers’ details and offers, and tools to allow the testing of broadband speeds and the comparison of available broadband services within a postcode area or to a particular telephone number. Visitors may also choose to leave reviews for broadband suppliers, to contact us for advice via web interface, email or telephone, or to subscribe to an email newsletter offering additional useful information about broadband.
CompareFibre.co.uk is presently owned and operated by Amvia Ltd. This privacy policy governs the privacy of users who choose to make use of CompareFibre.co.uk. Please read this policy carefully. We may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. The last change was published on the 9th of October 2020.
Summary
Below is a summary of some of the main terms of this privacy notice:
- Use of our website is strictly subject to this privacy notice. If you do not agree to its terms you must not use this website
- We may collect different types of personal information about you when you use our website and services including your name, email address, postcode and phone number
- We will also collect information about how you use our website
- The section ‘How we use your information’ details all the ways we use your personal information, which includes:
- To look up broadband availability relevant to your location or telephone line
- To send you information that you’ve requested by email
- To give attribution or provide follow-up for reviews you submit for publication
- To improve our services and to conduct research
- To process an order you place through our website
- To tell you about other relevant products and special offers
- To send you relevant advertising
- We will share your information with other companies in our group, our suppliers and as required by law
- Some of your personal information will be stored outside Europe
- You can ask us any questions about your personal information at any time by emailing dpo@CompareFibre.co.uk
Introduction
This privacy notice provides you with details of how we collect and process your personal data through your use of our site www.CompareFibre.co.uk, including any information you may provide through our site when you purchase a product or service, sign up to our newsletter or take part in a prize draw or competition.
By providing us with your data, you warrant to us that you are over 13 years of age.
Amvia Ltd is the data controller and we are responsible for your personal data (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).
We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected and we strictly adhere to the provisions of all relevant Data Protection Legislation, including GDPR, ensuring all personal data is handled in line with the principles outlined in the regulation.
We have appointed a Data Protection Officer who is in charge of privacy related matters for us. If after reading this privacy notice you still have any questions about how we use your personal information, please email our Data Protection Officer at dpo@CompareFibre.co.uk or write to our Data Protection Officer at our registered address, below.
Contact details
Our full details are:
- Full name of legal entity: Amvia Ltd
- Email address: dpo@CompareFibre.co.uk
- Postal address: One North Bank, Sheffield, S3 8JY
If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We should be grateful if you would contact us first if you do have a complaint so that we can try to resolve it for you.
It is very important that the information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. Please let us know if at any time your personal information changes by emailing us at dpo@CompareFibre.co.uk
Information we collect and how we collect it
When you use our website or any of our other services we may collect personal information about you. The type of personal information we collect will vary depending on the services you are using.
In many instances, we ask for your consent to process this information (for example, when you register to receive our email newsletters); in other instances the lawful basis under which we collect and use your personal information may be that it is necessary for the performance of a contract or pre-contractual steps. In all other instances the legal basis under which we collect and use your personal information is that it is necessary for our legitimate business interests (for example, for monitoring and improving our services or to make sure that our marketing communications are relevant to you).
You have a right to object to this processing and the section “How to get your information corrected or request we stop using it” explains how you can do this.
We may collect:
- your postcode if you provide these when performing a broadband availability lookup or speed test, or when leaving a review or registering to receive email newsletters;
- your landline phone number if you choose to enter this to improve the accuracy of a broadband availability lookup;
- your IP address to match your likely broadband provider or geographic location, and to identify duplicate entries;
- your current broadband supplier should you enter this while testing your broadband speed or while leaving a review;
- the results of your broadband lookups and tests performed using our tools, stored against your IP address and other details of your broadband line;
- your phone number if you call a supplier’s call centre to place an order, or contact our phone desk for broadband advice;
- your email address if you want to save your comparison results to your email inbox;
- your email address or phone number and any identifying details provided when you request for us to contact you for a consultation or to answer a question;
- your email address and other details relating to your broadband availability when you register to receive our email newsletters;
- your review, name, contact details, IP address and any identifying details provided when you leave us reviews or testimonials;
- your name, address, email address and other personal information if you enter a prize draw or competition;
- your name and Facebook ID should you choose to login with Facebook in order to save speed test history across multiple devices or browsers;
- details of the pages you visit, the links you click, and the personalisation you choose to save to your browser through the use of cookies
In all instances where we collect your personal information, we act as a data controller.
The next sections explain how we use your personal information.
Postcode, phone number and IP address collection for broadband availability and testing
We may ask for your postcode and optionally your landline telephone number when offering our broadband comparison and testing services or offering help with technical problems. Unless you have asked for extra investigation, this information is used only to look up the availability of broadband products and services in your area. It will not be used to contact you. We use trusted third party API services to look up broadband availability information for the postcode and/or phone number you supplied to us.
Speed tests will record your detected IP address, your tested speed and any other information you entered on the form during this or previous visits within the last 30 days. Your saved information is held in a cookie and will be displayed on the form, you may click a link to change (forget) this data if you wish. We use a trusted third party reporting supplier to record the details of speed tests. We may also optionally request your postcode during speed tests in order to supply you with useful comparative information about the broadband speed estimates, products and services available in your area, as above.
Neither we nor our service providers will use the information collected to identify or contact you, unless you have specifically asked for this, for example through our web forms such as when requesting that we investigate a technical problem you have experienced.
Postcodes, phone numbers and other information from logs may from time to time be used for testing purposes when ensuring that our website continues to give high quality accurate results for a range of real world geographical and phone line details.
The results of broadband lookups and tests performed using our tools
We may record the results of tools you make use of, such as broadband availability or speed test results. These may be used for research purposes or to personalise your experience to continue to display relevant offers and information on other site pages, or when you return on subsequent visits.
If you have requested to receive our email newsletter, these results may be recorded alongside your email address and detected IP address in order to allow us to send you the most relevant and useful email content.
We use cookies to store the history of your broadband speed tests on a particular device and web browser for up to two years. If you log in with your Facebook account, we will also associate your speed test history with your Facebook identity, allowing you to view a combined history of test results from different devices and browsers. We do not store this information on Facebook’s servers.
We may aggregate and collate the data we record from availability lookups and speed tests in order to publish research on the state of broadband in the UK. These reports may be derived from details recorded from your form data, your detected IP address or geographical information derived from your postcode. These reports may report on trends in broadband nationally, across specific broadband providers, specific types of broadband or specific broad geographical areas etc. They will not identify individual site users.
Email address, phone number and personal information collection when you request for us to contact you
If you request that we email you a copy of your checker results, your email address and the name you gave us will be used to send you a copy of your broadband availability including any postcode and phone number you entered. Details of emails sent are stored by our server. We will not contact you further unless you have requested that we do so. In future we may offer emailed copies of other results or confirmations.
Our email newsletter is an opt in service, you may subscribe directly through sign up forms or by an opt in tick box on other forms, in all cases you will be sent a confirmation email link which you must accept before your free subscription is completed. If you have requested that we do so, our agents may also subscribe you to the list directly, in this case a confirmation will still be required.
While you are subscribed to the newsletter, we may contact you to provide you with details of broadband offers and promotions, including related services, we may also contact you about news stories related to broadband and about changes to the content and features of our website.
We may request that you also give us your postcode and/or phone number when you subscribe to our mailing list, as outlined above, these are only used for broadband availability lookups, so we may provide you with more relevant information about products and offers available in your postcode area or to your phone line, or to inform you of changes in the availability of broadband where you live. If you signed up for the newsletter through our speed test, we may record this information and whether your tested speed was slower than expected, and use this to offer more relevant emails.
By subscribing to our newsletter you are agreeing to be contacted by email and to have your details stored by our mailing list supplier, including supplementary information used to offer you more relevant emails. Our mailing list services are provided using a trusted third party service, MailChimp, who will store your details and track the links that you have clicked in emails to allow us to monitor the success of our campaigns. Our emails may contain promotional, sponsored or advertising content, and we will make every effort to ensure that this is accurate, useful and relevant to you. We and our service provider comply with the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations 2003 and other UK legislation relating to marketing emails. You can manage your subscription to our mailing list, including amending your details or leaving the list entirely, by use of the MailChimp website, by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails or by emailing us to request that we remove you from the list. MailChimp’s privacy policy can be viewed here.
From time to time we may offer competitions in partnership with trusted third parties such as broadband providers, if so your details may be passed to those third parties. We or our partner will only record the information necessary to administer the competition and will only ask for further details, such as those needed to send you your prize, if you are drawn as a winner. Terms and conditions of the competition will be supplied before you enter.
Personal information collected when you leave us reviews or testimonials, or contact us to give feedback or ask for advice
If you contact us through a web form or other email addresses, the details that you sent are stored on both our web server and on our email server. We may use parts of the messages you send us to help answer questions from other users of our services, or to produce frequently asked questions or other web, email or downloadable materials designed to help other visitors to our site. All identifying details will be removed and your message entirely anonymised before it is published, or if not we will seek your express permission.
When helping to solve technical problems with your broadband, we may ask for further information such as your street address, your broadband provider, your tested broadband speed, when you began your contract, or details of how your home broadband setup is configured. Street address information will only be used for broadband availability and status lookups when a postcode or phone number is not adequate. We will not ask for any unnecessary information, nor will we pass your contact details on to others without your permission.
If you send us positive feedback, we may ask your permission to use this feedback as a testimonial to be published on our site, in marketing emails or other promotional materials. All testimonials published on our site had the express permission of our users, or of the users of the third party service provider involved.
Our web contact forms and live chat services are run by trusted third party service providers, as is our email server. These service providers will not contact you for any purpose unless you or we have requested that they do so on our behalf. We and our service providers keep logs of messages sent through forms including the name and message you entered, the URL you were visiting from, your IP address and the web browser you used.
Reviews that you submit to us are stored on our website and vetted by a moderator. Approved reviews will be displayed publicly on the website under the name and location you gave and will indicate the broadband provider you reviewed. We reserve the right to edit reviews for length or to remove identifying, libellous or inappropriate content, or to refuse reviews for any reason. Reviews containing links will not be displayed. We may opt to make your review a feature review and give it additional prominence on our site or include it in the content of our email newsletter or other promotional materials.
We may contact you by the email address that you entered if there is a problem with your review or if we wish to use your review for any other purpose than those outlined here. We will not contact you further unless you have requested that we do so.
During the speed test or while leaving a review of your provider you may optionally rate the quality, reliability, customer service and speed of your broadband service. This information is collated and used to provide star ratings to help other visitors to our site make better comparisons between broadband suppliers. Ratings recorded during speed tests will not be displayed to other site users except as part of an average score. Ratings entered during a review will be displayed alongside your review.
Details of the pages you visit and the links you click, and personalisation using cookies
Our web server stores the URLs it has been visited from, as do trusted third party analytics and tracking services used to keep track of which links are clicked and ensure that we’re offering an effective service. This tracking may make use of cookies to distinguish between new and returning visitors, this information is tracked and recorded for statistical purposes. In order to ensure that results can be bookmarked and returned to, postcodes and phone numbers entered in our checker form are visible in these URLs. Neither we nor our tracking and analytics providers will use information encoded in checker URLs to identify you unless you’ve separately contacted us and asked us to investigate a problem with the results you’ve received.
From time to time we may use trusted third party tracking and analytics tools to test improvements to our website, serving different variants to different visitors and recording the performance of both. This tracking makes use of cookies to determine which version of the site to show to which users, and to determine whether the improvements have been successful.
We use our own tracking, trusted third party referral services and direct partnerships with certain broadband providers to keep track of which broadband products you sign up for after clicking through to other sites. This tracking may involve the use of time limited cookies. This allows us to track which types of offers and promotions are of most interest to our visitors, and to receive commission that allows us to continue to provide this website and its services.
When we link to other websites it should be noted that we do not have control over or responsibility for these other sites and cannot guarantee or verify their contents, despite our best efforts. Other sites will have their own differing privacy policies and terms and conditions, as such you should review these before trusting those sites with your personal information.
We may make use of social networks and social sharing tools provided by third parties. You may choose to use these social tools at your own discretion. Please note that social networks may track your usage of these tools and the sites with which you engage. Communication and interaction through social networks are governed by the privacy policies and terms and conditions of each respective social network, and may be tracked, recorded and displayed to other social network users.
By visiting CompareFibre.co.uk with cookies enabled, we assume that you want to use the services we offer, and that you accept our use of cookies. Cookies may be used for tracking, referral and personalisation purposes, such as remembering limited details and preferences between visits to improve your experience when returning to the site. Please refer to our Cookie Policy for further details.
Who we share your information with
In order to operate our website, we work with a number of third party services and technology partners. When you use our website and services you are consenting to us sharing your information for the following purposes:
Switching supplier
If you place an order with a supplier through our website we will share your personal information only with that specific supplier.
These suppliers are called Internet Service Providers. These companies supply broadband, phone, mobile and TV services to customers throughout the UK. These companies are based in the UK.
The supplier will collect additional personal information from you. Please note that you will be entering a contract directly with that supplier and we advise you to carefully read their privacy policy and their terms and conditions. We cannot be held responsible for the uses to which a supplier puts your personal information once you have left our website.
Broadband, home phone and digital TV availability check
If you use our availability checker to find suppliers in your area we will share your postcode with the company that helps us to maintain that service.
The postcode availability tool is a complex system and we use an external software development company to ensure that the system is kept accurate and up-to-date. The company is based in the UK.
We may also share your postcode with a company called ThinkBroadband. ThinkBroadband provides broadband availability data to price comparison websites. The company is based in the UK.
These companies will not share your information with any other company or use it for any other purpose.
Email communications
We use a company called Mailchimp who are based in the US to manage our email newsletter subscriptions and distribution.
Mailchimp will not share your information with any other company or use it for any other purpose.
Customer service
Service analysis and improvement – we use a number of companies to help us monitor the use of our website so we can improve it. We will share the information we collect with these companies only to provide the following services:
- Service monitoring – we use external companies to monitor the performance of our website so that we can ensure we keep it working as fast as possible and that we are alerted if there are any problems with it. These companies are based in the US
- Reports and analysis – we use an analytics service provided by Google to help us collate and analyse all the data that we collect through our website this company is based in the US.
These companies will not share your information with any other company or use it for any other purpose.
Prize draws, competitions, special offers and rewards
Sometimes we use other companies to help us manage prize draws and competitions and to fulfil special offers or rewards. In those circumstances, we will make this clear to you and will provide a link to that company’s privacy policy, which we advise you to read.
Broadband Speed Test
Our broadband speed tester is provided by a company called Netconnex Limited. If you test the speed of your broadband connection on our website then we will share your computer’s IP address with Netconnex solely to provide this service.
Netconnex is based in the UK. The company will not share your information with any other company or use it for any other purpose.
Website hosting
Our website is hosted by WP Engine. Any information that we collect when you visit our website or use our services will be shared with WP Engine. The company is based in the US but your personal information is only processed in the UK. The company will not share your information with any other company or use it for any other purpose.
Other companies
We will share your personal information with other companies if you have given your consent for us to do so.
We link to other companies’ websites from our website. We try to only include quality, safe and relevant links but we cannot guarantee or verify the content of any externally linked website. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that they should have their own privacy policies and we have not endorsed or approved those policies. We cannot be held responsible (and do not accept any responsibility or liability) for the uses to which any other company puts your personal information once you have left our website.
Where permitted by law, we may also disclose your personal information:
- if we sell our company;
- to comply with any legal obligation, or to enforce or apply our rights and other agreements; and
- to protect the rights, property, or safety of us, our customers, or others.
We may also exchange your personal information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Where we transfer your information
Some of the personal information we collect may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Union (EU). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EU who work for us or for one of our suppliers.
The only country outside the EU to which we transfer your personal information is the United States (US). When your personal information is transferred to the US we take steps to ensure that it is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy notice and appropriate legal and regulatory requirements. Many of the companies we use are certified by the Privacy Shield framework, which ensures an adequate level of protection for your personal information and respect for your rights. If US companies are not part of the Privacy Shield framework, then we engage with them using Model Contract Clauses approved by the European Commission. These contracts ensure those companies provide you with appropriate safeguards and enforceable legal rights.
Additionally, we have written agreements with all the companies based in the US to ensure they cannot process your personal information for any other purposes or share it with any other companies without our express permission.
By submitting your personal information to us, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing.
How we keep your information safe
Keeping your personal information secure is very important to us. Once we have received your personal information, we will use strict procedures and security measures to protect it.
We use a secure protocol (https://) to encrypt your information between your computer’s browser and our website. We protect our network with the latest firewall technology and we securely store personal information and encrypt it where necessary. We restrict the number of our staff that have access to any personal information and we have secure backup systems to ensure that any personal information cannot be lost or deleted. We train all our staff so that they understand the importance of keeping our customers’ personal information safe.
Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone and to choose a strong password (which should contain a mixture of letters and numbers).
Please bear in mind that no information sent over the Internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any personal information that you send to our website and it is sent at your own risk.
Automated decision making, including profiling
Our service does not make any decisions based on solely automated processing, including profiling that would produce any legal effects of similarly affect you.
If we introduce this technology in the future, we will notify you of this and update this privacy notice accordingly.
How to change your preferences
Our group will only send you emails or marketing communications if you have agreed to this but you can ask us to stop at any time.
If you no longer wish to be contacted by us, then you can let us know by emailing our data protection officer (dpo@CompareFibre.co.uk) or by writing to us at the address below.
All group marketing emails have a clear unsubscribe link and if you click it then we will automatically unsubscribe you and you will not receive any further marketing emails.
In addition, all group marketing emails have a clear preferences link and if you click it then you can update your marketing preferences and your personal details.
How to get your information corrected or request we stop using it
If you have any concerns about the accuracy of your personal information then you can contact us in writing by post or email (details below) and we will correct it.
If you want us to stop using your personal information then please contact us in writing by post or email (details below) explaining why you object to its use and what you want us to do. We will then respond appropriately to your request.
Please note that if you do not provide us with your personal information or object to us using it then this may prevent us from fulfilling certain requests (for example we cannot provide accurate information on the broadband services where you live without your postcode and we cannot help you with certain enquiries without your contact details).
How to find out what information we hold
You have the right to get a copy of the information we hold about you. This is known as a subject access request.
If you wish to make a subject access request then please contact us in writing by post or email (details below). You must provide your full name, address and a contact telephone number.
If we hold information about you we will:
- give you a description of it;
- tell you the legal basis for us holding it;
- tell you what we are using it for;
- tell you who it could be disclosed to;
- tell you how long we keep it; and let you have a printed copy of the information or, if you prefer, provide it to you in a commonly used electronic format.
We will do this free of charge and we will respond to you within one month or your request.
If you identify any inaccuracies in the information we send you then we will correct it.
Changes to this privacy notice
We update our privacy notice from time to time so we suggest you review it each time you provide any personal information.
Any changes we may make in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified elsewhere on the website.
How to contact us or make a complaint
If you have any questions or comments about this privacy notice then please write to:
The Data Protection Officer
Amvia Ltd
One North Bank, Sheffield, S3 8JY
Or email: dpo@CompareFibre.co.uk
If you are concerned about the way we may be handling your personal information, then you can raise your concern with a supervisory authority in the EU member state where you reside. In the UK this is the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Please inform us if any of your recorded personal details have changed, for example if you are subscribed to our newsletter and your email address or postcode have changed. If you believe that any information we have recorded is incorrect or incomplete, please let us know and we will make any necessary corrections.
This privacy notice was last updated 10th of October 2020.