Your security and privacy
Confidentiality
- All personal information about you will be treated as private
and confidential (even when you are no longer a customer) except
where disclosure is made at your request, with your consent in
relation to arranging your insurance or where we are required to by
law.
- We may provide information about you to other companies within
the Police Mutual Marketing Group so that they can provide details
of products and services which they feel may be appropriate to you.
The other companies within the group are currently Police Mutual
Investment Services Limited, Police Mutual Insurance and Financial
Services Limited, Police Mutual Financial Services Limited and
Police Housing Fund Limited.
Use of cookies
- Cookies are small data files that our server asks your computer
to temporarily store. When a cookie is stored on your computer, it
makes it possible for us to provide better functionality for
you.
Information collected by using cookies
- We use cookies to aid the processing of our online quote and
buy service and monitor how visitors use our site so that we can
continue to improve the service we provide. These cookies are only
used to identify general visitor behaviour and will not establish
personal information.
Option to decline the use of cookies
- You may avoid receiving cookies altogether by disabling cookies
in your web browsers. Find out more about how to do this using
Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. Please note, you may
experience difficulties with our online quote and buy service if
you disable cookies.
Security
- Our online quote and buy facilities make use of the latest
security to safeguard your details by:
- Applying the highest level of security encryption available. We
use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) between your computer and ours. This
uses 128-bit encryption so you can be confident that your details
are safe. This works in the following way:
- It prevents impersonation.
- It encrypts data - as soon as your computer has recognised
our computer they encrypt all information that is
passed
between them. Data encryption means that no one else
can read or change your information as it travels over
the
Internet.
- Verisign Security Certification. This secure site programme
verifies the authenticity of the site and confirms that security is
active.
What you can do about security
- PCs are an important part of daily life that can contain
valuable information. It is important that you protect your
PC and the information it may hold.
- We strongly advise all of our members to use both anti-virus
software and a firewall to protect their PC when accessing the
internet. We would remind members who have already installed
anti-virus and firewall software that it is essential to regularly
update the software by taking downloads from the software
supplier. Failure to do so may leave your PC vulnerable to
attack. Further information is available from your software
supplier.
- From time to time vulnerabilities are discovered in web
browsers, however these can be eliminated by regularly downloading
security updates and patches supplied by the software
developer.
Emails
- Email is a great way to communicate, but unfortunately
fraudsters also use the medium to target victims. Any emails
automatically sent from the Police Mutual web site will be from one
of the following email addresses:
- Applications@pmas.co.uk
- Enquiries@pmas.co.uk
- Online@pmas.co.uk
- Registrations@pmas.co.uk
- Don't open emails from unknown senders. If you are in
doubt about the source of an email, it is advisable to delete
it. It is advisable to never open unexpected
attachments.
- Police Mutual will never email you to request personal
information. If you receive an email asking for
personal information, please call us on
0845 88 22 999.
Online Statements facility
- Secure sessions - Our online statements
facility uses the same SSL 128-bit encryption as for our online
quote and buy facilities. In addition, all data held in our
databases is additionally encrypted using a private key. When
you log in to our online statements facility you will be in a
secure session - you know you are in a secure session when a
padlock appears in the lower right hand corner of the browser
window.
- Format of statements - Statements are held on
the system in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. In order to view
these documents you will need to download a copy of Adobe
Acrobat.
- Security - If you share your computer or other
people have access to it, you should logout and close your browser
windows as you leave the secure area. There is a possibility
that, depending upon the settings of your computer, some of your
statements may remain in the cache (memory) of your computer after
you have logged out of the system. We recommend that you
clear your browser history after you have come out of the secure
area.
- Session time-out - If you forget to log off or
your computer remains inactive for a period of time during a
session, then our system automatically logs you out.
- Identification - We use log-ins and passcodes
to make sure we are dealing with you. Online access to your
statements is only possible once you have identified yourself using
your User Id, passcode and memorable information. The first
time you access your account you will also have to enter your
activation key. This will have been provided to you by Police
Mutual in the format of a letter through the post to your
registered address. It is vital that you do not share your
passcode with anyone else, and we recommend that you try not to use
the same passcode for other online services.
- Lost or forgotten passcodes - If you lose or
forget your passcode or memorable information, the system has a
facility for you to reset them. You will be asked to provide
your member number and to answer two of the security questions you
were asked at the time your registered for the account.
- Automatic lockout - After a number of
incorrect attempts to log in, we disable online access to your
account. To re-activate your account, you should contact
Police Mutual on
0845 88 22 999.
- Secure messaging - Within the system we have
the ability to send you a secure message. If we send you a
secure message, the system will automatically send an email to your
registered address. The email will come from
online@pmas.co.uk. When you receive an
email, simply log in to the online statements facility and follow
the appropriate links. The information contained in the
message itself never leaves our system and is encrypted, and
therefore can only be read by yourself.
Telephone calls
- All telephone calls are recorded and may be monitored.
Data protection
- The Police Mutual Marketing Group of companies includes Police
Mutual Assurance Society Limited, Police Mutual Investment Services
Limited, Police Mutual Insurance and Financial Services Limited,
Police Mutual Financial Services Limited and Police Housing Fund
Limited.
- We will not share any information with companies outside the
Police Mutual Marketing Group for marketing purposes.
- The information you provide on forms, or during any telephone
calls, may be held by the relevant company in the Police Mutual
Marketing Group and may be used for customer administration,
research and analysis purposes and marketing of products we
consider may be of interest to you. Where you have provided us with
a renewal date for a general insurance product this information
will be forwarded to our relevant general insurance partner for
processing at the appropriate time.
- You have a right to ask for the information we hold about you
and to have any inaccuracies corrected.
- If you would prefer not to receive any marketing information
from us, please let us know by calling our contact centre on
0845 88 22 999.
Links to other sites
- We may link our site to other relevant sites. Where this is the
case our Privacy Policy will not apply once you enter their
site.
Terms of use
- This site is owned and operated by Police Mutual Assurance
Society Limited. Our address is Alexandra House, Queen Street,
Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS13 6QS. Our telephone number is
0845 88 22 999.
Limitation of liability and disclaimer
- Although we make every effort to ensure that the information in
this site is both accurate and up to date, we accept no liability
for any loss or damage (including consequential loss) due to any
inability to use the site, omissions or inaccuracies.
- We can give no warranty that the site is free of viruses or can
be used with any computer, software or browser systems.
Availability of services
- All the products, services and policies described in this site
are subject to availability and may be withdrawn, or amended
without notice.
Copyright
- All designs, graphics, photographic images, material (including
any copies or arrangements) and all software, underlying source
code, any material sent to you by email or any other form and all
other material on this website are copyright Police Mutual
Assurance Society Limited or used under licence.
Use of content
- You may print individual pages on paper, store individual pages
electronically on disk, or display individual pages on a computer
screen for your own personal and non-commercial use.
- You may not store the content of this site on a server (or any
other storage device connected to a network), reproduce, copy,
distribute, disseminate or modify the content of this site, or use
the content of this site for any commercial, illegal or immoral
purpose.
UK only
- Police Mutual is a UK financial services organisation and this
site is for the information of UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man
residents only.
Industry and regulatory bodies
- Police Mutual Assurance Society Limited is a member of the
Association of British Insurers. Police Mutual Investment Services
Limited is a member of the Investment Management Association.
Police Mutual Assurance Society Limited, Police Mutual Insurance
and Financial Services Limited and Police Mutual Investments
Services Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial
Services Authority (FSA).
Complaints procedure
- Police Mutual Assurance Society Limited strives to provide its
customers with the highest level of service and would like to know
if you are not satisfied with any aspect of this. Should you wish
to make comments of any kind about our service please contact us at
Alexandra House, Queen Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS13 6QS.
We will take any complaint seriously and endeavour to handle it
fairly, consistently and promptly.
- If you are not satisfied with the way in which we have dealt
with your complaint or you remain dissatisfied, the Financial
Ombudsman Service may be prepared to review your complaint. No
charge is made for this service and you should write to:
The Financial Ombudsman
Service
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wall
London
E14 9SR
Telephone 0845 080 1800
- Please always quote your policy number as it will enable your
complaint to be dealt with promptly.
Compensation
- We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot
meet our obligations. The level of compensation depends on the type
of business and the circumstances of the claim. Further information
is available from the Financial Services Authority or the Financial
Services Compensation Scheme.
Genetic test policy
- In accordance with the Association of British Insurers' policy
on genetics and insurance, you do not need to tell us about any
genetic test result you have had if this application for insurance,
taken together with any other insurance plans you already have for
this type of insurance, totals to:
- £500,000 or less for life insurance.
- Above this limit, you may need to tell us about certain genetic
test results when applying for insurance. We will only be
interested in genetic test results where the Government's Genetics
and Insurance Committee (GAIC) has approved them for insurers'
use.
- To check if this applies to you, please visit the ABI website
at www.abi.org.uk for
details of the current position.
- Currently, the only test results which have been approved by
GAIC are for Huntington's Disease. However, you must tell us if you
either have a family history of, are experiencing symptoms of, or
are having treatment for, a medical condition including any
genetically inherited condition.
Competitions
- We may from time to time run special promotions on this site.
These will be subject to additional rules and conditions, which
will be made available at the time.
Changes to terms
- We reserve the right to amend these terms of use at any time,
without prior notice.
English law
- These terms of use are governed by English law.
Last updated: 4/17/2008