Change history for Experian Consumer Privacy Policy

November 2023

  • We've given clearer guidance on how other parts of Experian might use your data to improve the services we offer.
  • We've explained how we may use artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance our services.
  • We've removed references to 'Car Hub' and added references to 'other financial services providers' to support other comparison services we now provide.
  • We've provided information on how we collect feedback within our emails and how you interact with them.
  • We've made it clearer how long we keep your information for and when our analytics periods start.
  • Our Privacy Policy now provides more clarity on how we share your data with our marketplace comparison lenders.

September 2022

  • We’ve made some updates relating to credit score alerts
  • We’ve removed some references to car insurance, which we’ll stop offering from 1st November 2022.

August 2022

  • We’ve made changes to the "information we collect" section, to make it easier to understand.
  • We’ve added a new section within "how long we keep your personal information" so our data retention periods are clearer.
  • We’ve added details to the “how we use your information” section of how your information will be used as part of a new Experian product feature.

March 2022

  • We’ve added detail on how we will use your bank account information for Experian Boost.
  • We’ve added information on how we will retain your bank account details for up to 12 months in order for you to easily reconnect to Experian Boost.
  • We’ve added an explanation under “marketing” how we may occasionally invite customers to contribute information or data about themselves from within marketing emails.
  • We’ve updated how we will use your information when using our comparison services, to show you more relevant communications and products.
  • We’ve updated how we will use your information for analysis purposes to enable us to deliver our services efficiently and at scale.

September 2021

  • We’ve included that we may also confirm your details with other companies such as mobile phone network operators, for fraud purposes.
  • We’ve provided an explanation around how we may contact you, if you have used our insurance comparison service, to remind you that your insurance renewal is due and what your quotes could be.
  • We’ve updated the description of the personalised product updates feature, how we will use your information to assess your eligibility for third party products or services and the communications we may send.
  • We've updated the details on how we will use your information and, where applicable, combine this with information provided by third parties. The data may also be used to test product improvements or develop new products.
  • We've added more detail on how we may provide your personal information to third parties for fraud prevention purposes and how providers of financial products may use the data we share with them to improve the products and services offered to you.

January 2021

  • We’ve updated our description of Experian Boost to include more details on the communications we may send.
  • We’ve updated how we describe the use of your data in marketing, details of the partners we work with and how you can opt out.
  • We’ve added more detail on ‘pre-population’ – when we simplify applications for products from our marketplace pages by pre-filling some of the information required by lenders, brokers and insurers.
  • We’ve updated the section where we talk about reporting and analytics, including that, on occasion, we will share the results of our analysis with partners in order to improve our products and the offers that we can source for you.

October 2020

  • We’ve updated the privacy policy to describe a change to the length of time we retain data (reduced to 3 years from point of collection) if you opt into our optional open banking related services.

September 2020

  • We have added a section to explain when the ECS Privacy Policy applies and when other Experian privacy notices apply, with links to those privacy notices. We have also sought to explain how those privacy notices, and the processing of your data might be connected through Experian. You’ll also find a link to a new document explaining in particular how lenders use your credit information.
  • We have simplified and clarified the descriptions of how we process your data as well as other sections to make them easier to read and understand.
  • We have enhanced existing descriptions on data profiling.
  • We have updated information relating to how we use cookies and similar technologies.
  • We have updated our processing grounds for when your data is processed for the purpose of preventing and detecting crime, and made it clear that all processing done in our open banking products will be on the basis of contract.
  • We’ve added more detail to the section explaining how we may use your bank account information if you opt into our optional open banking services to cover the new uses related to the Experian Boost service we have launched.
  • We’ve updated the section explaining who we share your information with to include an additional Experian business function who may receive data if you opt into our optional Experian Boost open banking service.
  • We’ve added further explanation to how we use your data for reporting, analytics and tracking to describe the ID’s we create for linking data in different systems.

April 2020

  • We updated the privacy policy to include further descriptions about the data we collect if you opt into our optional open banking related services and how long we use that data.
  • We added more detail to the section explaining how we may use your bank account information within our optional open banking services to cover the new uses related to the Experian Boost service we are launching shortly.
  • We have clarified which processing activities do not use the bank account information collected within our open banking services where this is not already apparent.
  • We updated and clarified our processing grounds for certain activities.

December 2019

  • We’ve enhanced our existing ‘product eligibility alerts’ feature to help you identify opportunities to save money and benefit from new products as part of your Experian service. We have added further details to explain how we use your data to create these ‘personalised product updates’, and to show examples of the types of scenarios where we may be able to do this.
  • We’ve updated our policy to make it clear that data about when you interact with emails will only be used to improve your interactions with Experian.
  • We want to keep improving our product and services to help you manage your finances and find the right offers for you. We conduct analysis on our customers to help us to do this. We have clarified that we may share our analysis with selected lenders, insurers and brokers so they can determine whether they can improve the products or the terms under which their products are offered to Experian customers.
  • We've clarified the sections of our policy which explain how we will process your data, including why we may ask for special category data and when we will resubmit your quote details for renewal, in relation to our insurance comparison service.

April 2019

  • We've made it clearer what data we collect as part of our comparison service including how long we keep that information for.
  • There's a new section to explain how we will process your data, including why we may ask for special category data, in relation to our insurance comparison service that we expect to launch in 2019.

December 2018

  • We've made updates to reflect new open banking tools that we will be launching. These optional tools will allow you to share your bank statement data with Experian for services such as finding out how much you might be able to afford to repay on a mortgage.
  • There's a new section to explain how we will process your data to send you alerts or notifications when your Experian Credit Score changes. We expect to start sending these notifications before the end of 2018.
  • We updated the description of how we will use your data to personalise the experiences we offer to you and how we gain insight from email tracking to help us better target and improve messaging.
  • There's also more information about how we use your data to create a better understanding of our customers through analysis and what this analysis is used for.

May 2018

  • We updated the privacy policy to include information required under GDPR such as data retention periods and contact details for the data protection officer.
  • We expanded and clarified certain descriptions relating to the use of cookie and other data for personalisation of on-site experiences.
  • We added more detail to the section which describes how we keep your data secure.
  • We updated and clarified our processing grounds for certain activities.