Privacy Policy
We have developed this policy because we want you to feel confident about the privacy and security of your personal information.
BT Group plc is the holding company for an integrated group of businesses that provides voice and data services in the UK and overseas. British Telecommunications plc is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and holds virtually all businesses and assets of the BT group.
BT has five customer-focused lines of business: BT Global Services, BT Consumer, BT Business, BT Wholesale and Openreach. BT Consumer, BT Business, BT Wholesale and Openreach operate mainly within the UK, where BT is the largest communications services provider to the residential, business and wholesale markets, supplying a wide range of communications products and services, including voice, data, internet and multimedia services, and offering a comprehensive range of managed and packaged communications solutions.
BT Global Services provides a range of products and services, including communications, networked IT and consultancy services to address the needs of major corporations, governments and multi-site global organisations.
When we refer to 'we' or 'our' or 'BT' we are referring to BT Group plc (which includes British Telecommunications plc) and its subsidiaries, or any of them, as the context requires.
We have developed this policy because we want you to feel confident about the privacy and security of your personal information. BT is registered under the data protection laws in the United Kingdom and takes all reasonable care to prevent any unauthorised access to your personal information.
When we refer to 'personal information' in this privacy policy, we mean information, which identifies an individual, or is capable of doing so. Accordingly, we may hold and use data about you in your capacity as a consumer, a business customer, as an individual acting on behalf of a business customer, as a shareholder, supplier or in any other capacity, for example, when you visit our websites.
Please read this privacy policy carefully. If you are visiting any of our websites or using any of our services, by continuing to do so, you indicate your agreement to our use of your personal information as set out in this privacy policy.
This privacy policy only applies to how BT deals with your personal information. It does not apply to any other company or to any other company's websites even if you access them through BT. If you disclose your personal information to other companies your information will be dealt with according to their privacy practices.
We may ask you for information to enable us to provide a service to you and we collect this information by telephone, written correspondence or via a website. We may ask you for information including your name, private/business address, contact telephone numbers, email address. We may also ask you for other information that relates to the service you are using or ordering. For example, the address where the service is installed and who for.
• When you (or someone using your telephone line) make a telephone call or send a fax that uses our telephone network or
connect to the world wide web, we keep a record of that call (including the number called) to enable BT to charge for it.
We also receive from other operators information about calls made over our network, where we need that information for
connecting and billing purposes.
• If someone abuses or damages the telephone network, for example by making offensive or nuisance calls, we may keep
information relating to that abuse.
• We have information about your use of our services (such as the amount of time you spend on-line), which we use to manage
our network, and for billing. We may also use this information for marketing products and services but we will give the option
to opt out of receiving this material.
• If you enter into any of our competitions or promotions, we may ask for information about you, which will be made clear at the
time you enter. We will also inform you of the purposes for which the information you provide may be used.
• We may ask you from time to time about what use you make of the services we provide, what other services you would like us to
provide in the future.
• We collect information from visitors to our websites to help us to make improvements to the websites and to the services we
make available. We know, for instance, how many visitors there are to each website, when they visited, for how long and to
which areas of our website they went. We may share this information with carefully selected marketing agencies who work on
our behalf. You or any other individual cannot be identified from the information we share as the data is aggregated and
anonymised.
We do not use this information to:
• Identify individuals visiting our website; or
• Analyse your visits to any other websites; or
• Track any Internet searches which you may make while on any of our websites.
• We may receive personal information about you from other companies and organisations (for example, for marketing
purposes) and we rely on these third parties to obtain your consent for us to use this information.
• We receive information from other telecommunications operators about their customers to enable us to enter their
details (together with our own customer's information) in telephone directories. We also make telephone numbers
available on directory enquiry services unless customers (BT or other licensed telecommunications operators) have
chosen to be ex-directory.
• Please note that when you order goods and services from BT we may make enquiries about you for credit reference
purposes. These enquires include searching records held by Experian / Equifax or any other credit reference agency.
At all times where your information is disclosed to us we will protect it in accordance with this policy and keep it secure.
As a normal part of our business we share with other communications companies information for connecting and charging for calls over each other’s networks.
We sometimes use other companies to provide services to you or to provide services to us. To enable them to do this, we may need to share your personal information with them. When we do so, these companies are required to act in accordance with the instructions we give them and they must meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act to keep the information secure.
We may share your personal information with other parts of BT to enable them to conduct their own businesses and to market their products and services to you. We provide this information in accordance with our code of practice on the disclosure of customer information. This code limits BT's ability to share information in this manner and is intended to prevent BT gaining unfair competitive advantage over its competitors.
We may share your personal information with other companies so that they can contact you with details of other products or services you may be interested in. We will only do this if you have agreed to this and where the companies agree to use your personal information for that purpose only. If you have agreed to receive information about products and services from another company and later decide not to you will need to contact that company yourself to let them know. You can of course ask us not to continue to provide your personal information to any more companies in future.
We may provide information, in response to properly made requests, for the purposes of the prevention and detection of crime, and the apprehension or prosecution of offenders. We may also provide information for the purpose of safeguarding national security. In either case we do so in accordance with the Data Protection Act. We also provide information when required to do so by law, for example under a court order, or in response to properly made demands, under powers contained in legislation.
If there is a change (or prospective change) in the ownership of BT or any of its assets, we may disclose personal information to the new (or prospective) owner. If we do so, we will require them to keep it confidential.
If you believe the personal information we hold on you is incorrect you may amend it by following the procedure set out below in 'How can I change the personal information BT holds about me'?
The time period for which we keep information varies according to what the information is used for. In some cases, there are legal requirements to keep data for a minimum period. Unless there is a specific legal requirement for us to keep the information, we will retain it for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the data was collected or for which it is to be further processed.
Countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) are required to have a similar standard of protection of personal data but this is not always the case in countries outside of the EEA. We do sometimes transfer data outside the EEA but before doing so take steps to ensure that your data will be given adequate protection as required by the Data Protection Act.
If you want specific information i.e.:
• copies of fault reports
• copy invoices
Then you must contact your BT Wholesale Account Manager.
If you are asking for a full subject access request then put your request in writing, enclosing a cheque for £10 made payable to BT plc and send to British Telecommunications PLC, PP M3042 DSAR, Colindale House, The Hyde, Colindale, London NW9 6LB.
Please remember, under the Data Protection Act 1998, only individuals have the right to know what information we hold on them. The Act does not apply to limited companies and therefore most business customers will not be eligible for the release of information using this process.
You will also need to provide the following information so that we can process your request:
• The relevant account number/s
• The relevant telephone number/s
• The relevant address/s
• The date and time if requesting a call recording or eChat transcript (see also note below)
If you have any information such as reference numbers, dates and times of contact then please include them in your request.
(BT does record some calls and e-chats for Quality and Training purposes, however, not all calls are recorded. Calls and e-chats are only held for a short period of time. If you want a call recording or e-chat transcript it is essential that you provide the information requested above, otherwise we will not be able to proceed with your request).
Once we have all the relevant information we will process your request within the 40 day time limit allowed under the terms of The Data Protection Act.
If the information we hold about you is inaccurate, please let us know and we will make the necessary amendments and confirm that these have been made.
You may choose not to receive marketing information from BT and, if you are already receiving such information from us, you can ask us to stop at any time.
We are serious about guarding the security of your personal information and the details of any transactions made. We take appropriate organisational and technical security measures to protect your data against unauthorised disclosure or processing. We use a secure server to store the information you give us when you register or make an order (including your credit card details and your password). Any personal data you send us on-line is securely encrypted.
Please note that your billing account number is a sensitive piece of information. Please be sure to keep this information safe, and do not share it with others. For access to information such as e-billing ordering and fault services, company admin, extra proof of identity and authorisation may be needed.
We may change our privacy policy from time to time. New policies will be published on our web sites.
BT's privacy policy also applies to information collected when you use any of our websites.
You do not have to register to access most of our websites. However, if you provide information via the 'contact us' or any of the other interactive features, you indicate your consent to our use of your personal data in the manner described in this privacy policy.
• If you do register on one of our websites, we may ask you to provide personal details such as name, address, e-mail address,
telephone number, company and, where appropriate, BT account number. We also ask you to choose a password, and to
complete a password security question and answer, in case you forget your password for any reason.
• Once you have registered on one of our websites, we may keep a record of your use of any of the services made available via
that particular website. (Please see 'When does BT use cookies' below for more information on how we do this).
• If you choose not to register with us and only browse our websites, we may gather information to help make your visit to our
website more satisfying. However, this information will not identify you personally. (Please see 'When does BT use cookies'
below for more information on how we do this).
• If you do not wish to register, you will still be able to use and order some of the services offered via our websites. We will only
ask you to provide such information as necessary to enable us to carry out the transaction in question. We will not use that
information for any other purpose. You should note that some services are only available if you register on the website first.
If you have registered for any of the services available through our websites you may choose to cancel that registration at any time. You can do this by sending us an e-mail to btwholesale.direct@bt.com.
Please ensure you include details of the service which you wish to cancel. Your personal details will then be deleted from our website database.
If you have registered you have direct control over information in your personal profile on our website. You can access and change this information at any time by using the 'profile' link.
Over and above what BT does to safeguard your privacy and security online, there are a number of things you can do to protect yourself from Internet fraud:
• Choose a password (letters and digits) you can remember but others will not guess, change it regularly and, if you do write it
down, keep it somewhere safe and secure.
• When you have finished your session on our website, make sure you prevent your details being seen by anyone that you do
not wish to see them. So, if you have registered and logged in, remember to log off.
• Clear any cache so there is no record of any transactions left on screen - Internet Explorer lets you do this.
• We also recommend you then close your browser so any history of the session is cleared. As an extra precaution, your session on
btwholesale.com will time out if you have not used the site for 40 minutes.
• We collect information from visitors to our websites to help us to make improvements to the websites and to the services we make
available. We know, for instance, how many visitors there are to each website, when they visited, for how long and to which areas
of our website they went... You or any other individual cannot be identified from the information as the data is aggregated and
anonymised.
We do not use this information to:
• Analyse your visits to any other websites (except that we do track you if you go to websites carrying our banner, but we do not
identify personal details while we do this); or
• Track any Internet searches which you may make while on our website.
What are cookies?
A 'cookie' is a text file containing small amounts of information which a server downloads to your personal computer (PC) or mobile when you visit a website. The server then sends a cookie back to the originating website each time you subsequently visit it, or if you visit another website which recognises that cookie.
There are different types of cookies which are used to do different things, such as letting you navigate between different pages on a website efficiently, remembering preferences you have given a website, and improving your overall experience. Others are used to provide you with advertising which is more tailored to your interests, or to measure the number of site visits and the most popular pages users visit.
Some cookies are allocated to your PC only for the duration of your visit to a website, and these are called session based cookies. These automatically expire when you close down your browser. Another type of cookie known as a 'persistent'. These cookies would remain on your PC for a period of time.
What are the new rules?
Website operators already have to give users information about the cookies they use and why they use them. Now they also have to have your consent to use them. In order to comply with these new rules, we have developed a system of classifying the different types of cookies which we use on btwholesale.com, or which may be dropped by third parties through our websites. This system of classification is based on the purpose the cookies are used for, and also determines the way we will ask for your consent to use them. The classification explains more about which cookies we use, why we use them, and the functionality you will lose if you decide you don’t want to have them on your PC. We have also designed a series of icons which represent the different categories of cookies, and these icons link through to a more detailed description of those cookies and their purpose. The icons are shown on a ‘sliding scale’ which you can use to adjust your choices about the types of cookies which you agree to have on your PC at any time as the tool bar which displays these icons is always visible on the footer on all the pages you view on btwholesale.com.
Cookies
When clicking the 'login' button you are also agreeing to the use of certain types of cookies. None of the information stored in these cookies is used for advertising on other websites. The cookie types are:
Functional - Remembers choices you make to improve your experience.
Performance - Collects anonymous information on the pages you visit.
Strictly necessary - Enables services you have asked for
How we ask for your consent
When you visit btwholesale.com for the first time after we introduced these icons we will show you a notice which tells you that we use cookies, why we use them, and how you can change which cookies you chose to accept using the sliding scale toolbar and clicking on the icons. If you enter btwholesale.com having seen this notice without making any changes to the existing cookie settings we have provided we will take this as your agreement to those settings as we have told you about them and we assume you are happy with them. If you change the settings using the icons on the sliding scale, you are giving your consent to use those which you have not disabled.
However, one of the categories of cookies which we have identified is those which are 'strictly necessary' to enable us to provide you with any service which you have requested from us to be delivered online. We do not need to ask for your consent to use these, as we would not be able to provide the service you had asked for without them.
A further category of cookies which we have identified we have called 'Performance cookies' and we use these only to improve our site or measure response rates. All information collected by these cookies is anonymous and does not in any way impact on your privacy. We need to use them to maintain our site’s effectiveness and ease of use, so we have not provided an opportunity for these to be disabled, and by using our site and online services you are agreeing that we can place these types of cookies on your PC.
Using the sliding scale and icons
You can access the cookie classification and icons wherever the 'cookie preferences' tool bar appears. To make your choices, just slide the bar to the icon which represents a type of cookie based on its function. If you click on the icon you will see a detailed description of the type of cookie represented by that icon, why we want to use them, and what would happen if you don’t chose to accept them. We also give a list of the individual cookies we use in each category in the ‘more about cookies’ section, so that if you check your internet settings, you know what these are if you have agreed we can use them.
Browser Settings
In addition to using the icons, cookies can also be removed from your PC using browser settings but there will still be some deterioration in the service you receive (for example, you may receive many pop up boxes containing the same advertisements or you may not be able to access a page you earlier personalised). Your browser lets you choose whether to accept, not to accept or to be warned before accepting cookies. These settings can be found in the advanced preferences.
Further information
The categorisation and icons are also used in a 'cookie code' developed by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) for use by website operators to comply with the new rules. More information can be found at www.allaboutcookies.org.
Third party Internet sites that you can link to from BT's websites are not covered by our privacy policy, so we urge you to be careful when you enter any personal information online. BT accepts no responsibility or liability for these sites.
Other companies which advertise or offer their products or services on our website may also allocate cookies to your PC. The types of cookies they use and how they use the information generated by them will be governed by their own privacy policies and not ours.