Privacy Policy
This website safeguard.hsbc.com (the "Site") provides information on how members of the HSBC Group protect their customers from fraud and financial crime. The Site is owned by HSBC Global Services (UK) Limited. For the purpose of applicable data protection laws, the data controller is HSBC Global Services (UK) Limited of 8 Canada Square, London E14 5HQ (‘we, ‘us’ and ‘our’).
We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy (together with the Terms and Conditions and any other documents referred to in it) sets out how we collect and process your personal data in connection with the Site (the “Privacy Policy”). Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
Privacy
We know that you are concerned with how we deal with your personal data. This Privacy Policy demonstrates our commitment to your privacy and may change at any time in the future. You agree to revisit this page regularly and your continued access to or use of the Site will mean that you agree to the changes.
Information we may collect about you
We may collect and process the following personal data:
- Details of your visits to the Site (including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, and the resources that you access).
- Information about your computer (or mobile device), including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration or for our own commercial purposes. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns
We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with the Site. If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence. We may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them
Cookies
The Site uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of the Site. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse the Site and also allows us to improve the Site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Cookie Policy.
Where we store your personal data
The personal data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area ('EEA'). By using the Site, you agree to this transfer, storing and/or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
We maintain strict security standards and procedures with a view to preventing unauthorised access to your personal data by anyone, including our staff. We use leading technologies such as (but not limited to) data encryption, firewalls and server authentication to protect the security of your personal data. All HSBC Group members, all our staff and whenever we hire third parties to provide support services, are required to observe our privacy standards and to allow us to audit them for compliance.
Use made of your personal data
We may use your personal data in the following ways:
- To ensure that content from our Site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer (or mobile device)
- To allow you to participate in any interactive features of our Site, when you choose to do so
Disclosure of your personal data
Apart from in the situations described below, we will not share your personal data with entities outside of the HSBC Group.
We may disclose your personal data to third parties in the following situations:
- In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets
- If HSBC Global Services (UK) Limited or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets
- If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our Site Terms and Conditions and other agreements or to protect the rights, property, or safety of the HSBC Group, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction
Third Party Sites
The Site may, from time to time, contain links to other websites ('Third Party Sites'). If you follow a link to any of these Third Party Sites, please note that these Third Party Sites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these Third Party Sites.
Social media
We work with trusted third parties, including social network sites like Facebook, and with application developers who specialise in social media so we can connect to your social networks. Other social networks we use include Twitter and YouTube. All of these companies operate Third Party Sites. We provide access to this Site by third parties and business partners so we can generate interest in our products and services among members of your social networks and to allow you to share product and service interests with friends in your network.
We cannot control how your personal data is collected, stored, used or shared by these Third Party Sites or to whom it is disclosed. Please be sure to review the privacy policies and privacy settings on your social networking sites to make sure you understand the information they are sharing. If you do not want a Third Party Site to share information about you, you must contact that site and determine whether it gives you the opportunity to opt-out of sharing such information. We are not responsible for how these Third Party Sites may use information collected from or about you.
Access to personal data
Data protection laws in the jurisdiction in which you live may give you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with applicable laws. Any access request may be subject to a fee.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Any changes we may make to this Privacy Policy in the future will be posted on this page.
Cookie policy
Understanding how and why we use cookies
We use cookies on our website safeguard.hsbc.com ('Site') to distinguish you from other users of the Site. This helps us to improve your experience when using our Site and to ensure the Site performs as you expect it to. This Cookie Policy should be read together with theTerms and Conditions governing your use of the Site. For ease of reference, the same definitions used in the Terms and Conditions are adopted in this Cookie Policy. By continuing to browse the Site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
This Cookie Policy provides you with clear and comprehensive information about the cookies we use and the purposes for using them.
Please read the Privacy Policy above carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are sent to and stored on your computer, smartphone or other device for accessing the internet, whenever you visit a website. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user's device. We use the following cookies on this Site:
- 'analytics' cookies, to analyse how users use this site to help us make our website better for those who visit it regularly. They help us work out what users like and don't like and how we can improve things for you; and
- 'strictly necessary' cookies, which are essential to ensure performance of the site. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Site.
Local Sites may use cookies for a variety of other reasons including to determine preferences, let users navigate between pages efficiently, verify the user and carry out other essential security checks. Local Site cookie policies will explain how they use cookies.
More information about cookies can be found on All about cookies.
How cookies make our websites safer and easier to use
Cookies are used for a variety of reasons, such as to improve the functionality and performance of this Site.
When we include links to third party websites, please bear in mind they will have their own privacy and cookie policies that will govern the use of any information you submit. We recommend you read their policies as we are not responsible or liable for any third party's privacy practices.
How you can manage your cookies
The browsers of most computers, smartphones and other web-enabled devices are typically set up to accept cookies. If you wish to amend your cookie preferences for this Site, you can generally do this through your browser settings. Your browser's 'help' function will tell you how to do this.
However, please remember that cookies are often used to enable and improve certain functions on our Site. If you choose to switch certain cookies off, it is likely to affect how our Site works and you may not be able to access all or parts of the Site.
For more information about how to disable cookies, visit All about cookies.
More about your privacy
To find out more about how HSBC protects your privacy when using our website, see our website Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.