Privacy Policy

Introduction

This online Privacy Policy describes how Linked Finance processes personal data, thereby giving individuals a better understanding regarding the types of personal information Linked Finance holds and how it handles such information. The aim of this privacy policy is to provide our users with a clear understanding of how, why and when we will process personal data and to outline our users’ rights in relation to this personal data

At Linked Finance, we take the security and integrity of your personal data seriously. We understand and acknowledge that, by using our website and services, you are placing your trust in us to protect personal data that you have in good faith disclosed to us. All personal data collected, processed and stored are treated with the highest degree of confidentiality and respect. We will always make the best effort to keep your personal data safe, secure, up-to-date. We will process your data fairly and transparently, taking every reasonable step we can to ensure that your privacy rights are protected.

About Linked Finance

Linked Finance is a trading name of Linked P2P Limited. Registered with the Companies Registration Office in Ireland, Company number 491763. Linked Finance is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland as a Crowdfunding Service Provider. Linked Finance is not covered by the Deposit Guarantee Scheme or the Investor Compensation Scheme in Ireland or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the UK.

Definitions

In this Privacy Policy, certain terms are used frequently and should be understood as follows:

“Linked Finance”, “we”, “us” or “our” means Linked P2P Limited, Linked Recoveries Limited and its employees in the Republic of Ireland.
“Processors”, “third-party services” or “providers” means certain outside agencies and service providers that Linked Finance use in order to provide services to you. These include, but not limited to, cloud-based software providers, credit rating agencies, email services and web hosting services.
“Users”, “you” and “your” means:
- Borrowers – Businesses or other commercial entities who have raised funding with Linked Finance and any relevant persons connected with such businesses, including employees, directors, partners, shareholders and beneficial owners.
- Applicants – Businesses or other commercial entities who have applied for funding with Linked Finance and any relevant persons connected with such businesses, including employees, directors, partners, shareholders and beneficial owners.
- Prospective Borrowers – Businesses or other commercial entities who may have an interest in raising funding with Linked Finance and any relevant persons connected with such businesses, including employees, directors, partners, shareholders and beneficial owners.
- Lenders –Individuals, businesses or other entities who have registered to lend with Linked Finance.
- Visitors – Individuals, businesses or other entities who visit LinkedFinance.com or other websites controlled by Linked Finance.
- Partners – individuals, businesses or other entities who work with Linked Finance and provide us with personal data relating to natural subjects in order for us to provide our services.

Scope

Linked Finance operates a P2P lending platform that facilitates the disbursement of business loans. In order to successfully operate our platform, we are required to collect and process data including personal data belonging to our users.

Acceptance

By accessing and using our website, platform and services, you confirm that you have read this Privacy Policy, that you understand it and that you agree to be bound by its terms. If you do not, you must immediately stop using our website and platform, and any services provided by us.

What data we collect

Personal data which we collect about you will depend on the nature of your relationship with Linked Finance. This may include but is not limited to:

Identity Data including title, name, date of birth, address(es), telephone numbers (landline), mobile number and email address.
Document Data used for identity verification purposes including scanned copies of photo identification (which includes Drivers License, Passport) or recent utility bills (dated within the last 3 months) for KYC purposes;
Company Data including business name, address, job titles, email address, work contact or mobile number and other company contact;
Financial Data including bank account details, your debit or credit card information, your credit rating information (which will be obtained from credit reference agencies following credit check) and other banking information.
Platform Data about your activity on the site including records of all access, lending, borrowing, payments, deposits and withdrawals.
Security Data used to secure your access to the site and information required in order to regulate access and safeguard your account.
Contract Data used to administer loan agreements between lenders and borrowers on the platform including details of parties to the contract and details of any guarantor.
Profile Data including information display names, comments and other publicly visible information you provide in relation to your use of the platform.
Marketing and Communications Data including your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.
Technical Data including IP addresses, cookies and other technical information relating to your use of our site.

Legal Basis for Personal Data Processing

We will process your personal data on the basis of performance of a contract. This includes carrying out an assessment of your credit worthiness as a business applicant and eligibility to access loan facilities once your application is successful.
Your personal data will be processed in instances where you consent to receiving electronic marketing from us.
Legal obligation – the processing is necessary for us to comply with the law.
Legitimate interests – we have a business or commercial reason of our own to use your information, known as a legitimate interest, which we tell you about and which does not unfairly go against your interests.

When and how we collect your data

We may collect the following information about you through the methods of contact you choose to use at the point of engagement:

information you provide through our website and through our registration, application and verification processes;
information you provide through communications with us, whether in writing (including by letter or email) or on the telephone (including by way of recorded calls), as such we may retain any and all correspondence with you;
information we obtain through your engagement with us or relating to us on social media, including on blogs, forums and through Facebook and Twitter; and
information provided on your behalf by your representatives or agents who engage with us on your behalf in the ways described above.

For applicants, borrowers and prospective borrowers, we may obtain information from outside sources to help us carry out our business functions. This information, which often contains personal data, includes:

information and reports from credit reference agencies, fraud prevention agencies, insolvency practitioners, debt advisers and tracing agents;
commercial databases and marketing databases; and
public records and other publicly available information sources.

When you access the website or our services, we may collect information about your device, your interaction(s) with the platform and our website, and email performance data. including, where available:

IP address;
operating system; and
browser type.

We may use this information for several reasons, including for marketing, for platform administration and for service improvement. Our Cookies Policy describes these processes in more detail.

We may, particularly in relation to borrowers, lenders or guarantors, be given sensitive personal data (such as medical information or criminal records). Where relevant, we will hold and process this data to allow us to make decisions about you and your accounts with us or with which you are connected. This may involve us sharing your sensitive personal data with your Agents.

If you provide information about other people (for example, if you represent a borrower and you provide information about directors, partners, members, shareholders or beneficial owners other than yourself) then you confirm:

you have provided a copy of this Privacy Policy to those persons and you have ensured that they are aware of and understand the contents of this Privacy Policy; and
that you have all relevant permissions and authority (i) to make all those disclosures, (ii) to act on their behalf and (iii) in relation to partners, members, shareholders or beneficial owners of borrowers, to allow us to make credit checks at credit reference agencies in respect of those persons.

Using your information

We collect, store and use your personal data:

to inform you of platform developments and activity and of changes to our products and services;
to develop and improve our services, products and business, including analysing and improving our credit risk models and our customer service offering;
to transfer money;
to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
to carry out statistical analysis and market research and testing;
to contact you (including by SMS and e-mail) with products and services which Linked Finance think may interest you (at all times taking into consideration your rights at law including your right to opt-out from receiving marketing from us);
to open accounts with us and to manage and maintain those accounts;
to update the records we hold about you from time to time;
to provide and administer the platform and our related services; and
for the prevention and detection of fraud or other illegal or criminal activity.

If you are a borrower (or a director, partner, member, shareholder, beneficial owner or guarantor of a borrower) your information may be used:

to ascertain your borrowing needs;
to assess your creditworthiness and to make credit-related decisions; and
to manage the collection process for missed payments, enforce a loan contract, or verify any payment plan submitted.

Disclosing your information

We may in line with our contractual or legal obligation disclose your personal data to other registered members of our platform:

to operate the platform and seek to match lenders and borrowers;
in the loan contract and personal guarantee, when lenders and borrowers are matched;
to provide transactional and performance information;
to provide updates (including if and when there are late repayments or if and when a risk-banding has been downgraded); and
to enforce (or where required, make preparations to enforce) any loan contract.

If you, as a registered member of our platform, receive information about another registered member, you are required to only use that information to communicate with Linked Finance about your loan contract with that member. You acknowledge that Linked Finance is not responsible for misuse of transactional or other information by Linked Finance members but you must inform Linked Finance promptly if you are the victim of any misuse of that information.

We may also disclose your personal data to:

to companies in our group and our affiliates;
to our suppliers, sub-contractors and third-party data processors (including card payment and direct debit payment processors, marketing and data analytics service providers, collection agents, tracing agents, insolvency practitioners, professional advisers and persons who provide us with the following services from time to time: identification and fraud check; marketing; technology; platform support; and back-up and business continuity);
with any third party you have asked us to share your personal data with, including social media sites if you have asked us to connect with your social media account;
to credit reference and fraud prevention agencies;
if we are unable to provide you with credit and if you consent, to third parties who may be in a position to arrange credit for you;
to a third party if it acquires all or part of our business or assets in connection with the acquisition, or to a successor in interest in the unlikely event of our insolvency, winding up or liquidation;
If we are required to do so by applicable law and regulation, governmental, tax or regulatory body or law enforcement agency;
if you are represented by an Agent, to your Agent; and
to any other person with your prior consent to do so.

Third parties who process your personal data on our behalf are only permitted to process your personal data in accordance with our instructions and we will take steps to ensure that the transfer and any on-going processing by those third parties is carried out securely and in accordance with applicable privacy laws.
Save as expressly provided above, or otherwise without your consent, Linked Finance will not share your personal data with any third party.

Overseas Transfers

We use various cloud-based software products and online tools to conduct our business. We endeavour to ensure that all such services provide standards of privacy and data protection concurrent with our own.

As part of our use of these services, your data may be transferred to other countries, including those outside the European Economic Area, either for storage purposes or if we engage suppliers, sub-contractors or third party data processors who are based or have operations overseas. We will always take steps to ensure that your information is protected and that those transfers comply with applicable privacy laws.

For How Long Will We Use Your Information

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Platform Data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes. In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you.
We will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

Your Rights

Under certain circumstances, the Data Protection law grants you the right right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to verify the lawfulness of processing.
Request correction to your personal data where inaccuracies exist. You can have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or erase your personal information where there is no justifiable reason for continued processing. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to processing
Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example the accuracy of your personal data is in question or ascertained.
Request the transfer of your personal information to another party provided certain conditions are met.

Please contact us in writing (see contact details below).
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your rights. We will endeavour to respond to your request within the one month legislatively allowed threshold. However there may be times when an access response may take longer than due to the nature of the request and the complexity. Where this happens, an additional two month threshold may apply but you will be informed within the first month that the response will take longer.

There are times when your access request may be declined. Where this happens, you have a right to formally lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission (DPC). The DPC can be contacted via telephone or online. You can also contact the DPC by post at;

Data Protection Commission
21 Fitzwilliam Square South
Dublin 2
D02 RD28
Ireland

Withdrawal of Consent

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, such as direct marketing, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact us in writing (see contact details below). Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

Security and other Third Parties

Linked Finance takes appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard the personal data that you provide to us, but we accept no liability if communications are intercepted by third parties or incorrectly delivered or not delivered.

If we transfer your information to third parties, we will take steps to ensure that the transfer and any on-going processing by those third parties is carried out securely and in accordance with applicable privacy laws.

The website and platform contain links to other websites operated by third parties. This Privacy Policy applies only to the personal data that Linked Finance collects and we are not responsible for personal data that third parties may collect, store and use through other websites.

You also have a responsibility to ensure that your information is kept secure. If you are a member of our platform, you must:

keep your login details secret;
log out of your account when not using it;
maintain good internet security (for example, be careful when using public WiFi or shared access internet connections); and
contact us immediately if you think your account has been compromised.

Amendments

This policy may be amended from time to time in order to comply with relevant laws and regulations or to meet our changing business needs. You are advised to review this page regularly to ensure you have the latest information in relation to how we process your data. By continuing to use our website, platform or services you agree to be bound by all such updates and amendments.

Contact Us

You can contact us at privacy@linkedfinance.com or by calling us on +353 (0)1 906 0300. Alternatively you can write to us at 43-45 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1, D01 X8R2 during regular business hours.