Web-Merchant Services Limited is fully committed to respecting the privacy of our customers. Your privacy and trust is important to our success as a business. How we collect, store and use the information we gather about our customers and prospects will be continually assessed against new technologies, business practices, and our customers' changing needs.

Web-Merchant Services Limited is registered under the Data Protection Act 1998: Reg No. Z3544745 and HM Revenue & Customs Anti-Money Laundering Registration No. 12709698.

1. Types of information we collect
2. Uses of the information collected
3. Checks made as part of the application
4. Credit card and financial information storage
5. IP address
6. Cookies
7. Session ID

Types of information we collect

There are two types of information gathered on our web sites;

1. Quantitative data, which is gathered through general Web logs, contains only aggregate information on what pages visitors access.
2. Individual data is collected via Web forms, including our Feedback Form, Application Forms and other similar forms.

Uses of the information collected

Personal information submitted via our Web based request forms is collected for the purpose of fulfilling information requests only.

From time to time we may contact you via email with offers and promotions that we think may be of interest. Users may request not to receive marketing emailings at any time by contacting Web-Merchant at support@web-merchant.co.uk.

We do not disclose your information to anyone outside Web Merchant except:

• when setting up a merchant facility
• where we have your permission; or
• where we are required or permitted to do so by law; or
• to other companies who provide a service to us or/for you
• where we may transfer rights and obligations under this agreement

We may use your business name and/or company logo on our corporate website purely for marketing purposes. We will not disclose any other information about you or your business. If you do not want us to use your business name please inform us via email.

Company (never financial) information collected through the merchant account process, once live, may be given to selected third parties. This information is given on a strictly confidential basis and for the sole purpose of providing merchants with competitive price structures.

Checks made as part of the application

As part of the application process, only done once we have received all the relevant documentation back, we perform two main checks.

1. MATCH Database - The MATCH File is maintained by MasterCard International and is the way by which MasterCard and Visa acquiring banks identify merchants, and the principals, which have been terminated for specific reasons.
   
   
2. Credit Checks - During our assessment of your application, we will use the services of credit reference agencies to confirm your home address and calculate your personal credit score.

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Credit card and financial information storage

The Web Merchant payment system uses a combination of both established and innovative techniques to ensure the security and integrity of all sensitive data. Furthermore, public web servers are certified by Thawte, a public Certificate Authority, ensuring that both the shopper and retailer can have confidence that nobody can impersonate our banking partners to obtain confidential information.

Data storage on our systems, and the communication between us, our partners and the worldwide banking networks, is regularly audited by the banking authorities to ensure a secure transaction environment. We also ensure that we stay up-to-date with the latest versions of any third-party code we use, and continually review our own proprietary code.

Any application form is also encrypted to the maximum strength supported by the merchants browser using 128 Bit SSL.

Once an application is either rejected, been inactive for more than 6 months or we have been asked to cancel it, we destroy or delete any and all information.

IP address

We collect "non-personal" information from you, such as your browser type, the URL of the previous web site you visited, your ISP, operating system, and your IP address. "Non-personal" information cannot be easily used to personally identify you. We may use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website. Your IP address also may be used to recognise customer traffic patterns and site usage. This information aids us in merchandising and in developing the design and layout of the site.

Cookies

We do not use cookies on this site for any of our forms or online applications. If at anytime we were to use them, under regulation 6 of the Data Protection Act 1998, Web-Merchant would be exempt from having to obtain consent as they would be needed for the following reasons:

• for the sole purpose of carrying out or facilitating the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network; or
• where such storage or access is strictly necessary to provide an information society service requested by the subscriber or user.

Session ID

All our online applications use session ID's. A session ID is a unique identifier in the form of a hash generated function that is sent from a secure server to a client to identify the current interaction session. The reason session ID are used is that the client only has to handle the identifier (a small piece of data which is otherwise meaningless and thus presents no security risk) - all session data is stored on a secure server linked to that identifier.