Our Privacy Policy

Welcome to Wonga. We believe you deserve the utmost respect when it comes to the security and use of your personal information, so we have described our Privacy Policy as clearly as possible in the summary below.

Our Privacy Policy applies to all current and former customers and may change from time to time. We reserve the right to update or modify this Policy at any time, with or without notice. Please also read the loan terms and conditions (sent via email during the application), which provide further details of our processing and should be read together with this Privacy Policy.

Your consent

By submitting your details and/or using our service you accept this Privacy Policy and expressly consent to the use and disclosure of your personal information in the manner described below. If you object to any of the potential uses described please don’t register.

Security

We recognise the need for appropriate protection and management of the personal and financial information you share with us. We protect that information using secure socket layer (SSL) encryption technology and by limiting employee access on a need-to-know basis. We store data in encrypted form on computers and control access via secure web pages. We employ firewalls and other security technologies to protect our servers from external attack.

Our security systems meet or exceed industry standards and we are constantly monitoring internet developments to ensure our systems evolve as required. We also test our systems regularly to make sure our security mechanisms are up to date.

Finally, we are subject to UK data protection laws, which we comply with fully and give the greatest respect.

Collecting your data

We collect information about you in two ways - directly from your online application and also from outside sources such as credit bureaus and customer service providers. We may use data that identifies you (your personal information) for a number of things including: statistical analysis; to develop and improve our products; to assess lending risks; to update your records; to identify which of our products, or our partners' products, might interest you; to identify and prevent fraud, money laundering and other criminal activities; to carry out regulatory checks and for market research.

Additional data collection

In addition to the personal and financial information you submit, we may collect information about your computer including, where available, your IP address, operating system and browser type - for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers.

This is statistical data about browsing actions and patterns and does not identify any individual. We may also obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies enable us to improve our service to you, estimate our audience size and usage patterns, store information about your preferences and recognise you when you return to our site.

You can set your web browser to refuse cookies, but if you do this you may not be able to enjoy full use of the site and you may not be able to take advantage of certain promotions we may run from time to time. Please note that third parties who advertise on our site may also use cookies, but we do not have access to, or control over them.

Sharing your data for service provision

We share the data you submit with third parties involved in the process of providing the services you request, such as lenders, credit bureaus, customer service providers and collection agencies. We have trusted relationships with these carefully selected third parties who perform services on our behalf. All service providers are bound by contract to maintain the security of your personal information.

Selling and disclosing your data to third parties

We may also sell your data (or otherwise pass it on) to selected third parties who may use it to contact you by post, telephone, email, SMS or other reasonable method in relation to offers they feel might interest you, whether or not we enter into an agreement with you. In addition, we may disclose your personal information to a third party:

• In the event 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 a business or assets)
• If our business or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party (in which case personal data held about customers will be one of the transferred assets)
• If we have a duty to disclose your personal data in order to comply with a legal request, or in order to enforce any of our terms and conditions

Because we work with some carefully selected partners outside of the UK - in order to offer you our loans service - we may also need to transfer your personal information abroad, to countries whose data protection laws are less strict than in the UK. If and whenever this is the case, we will ensure the information is held securely to standards as least as good as those in the UK and is only used for the purposes set out in this policy.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you have a right to access certain personal records we, credit reference agencies and fraud prevention agencies hold about you. This is called a ‘subject access request’, which you can make by writing to customercare@wonga.com. A fee may be payable, but we will not charge you until we have told you how much the fee is and what it is for, and you have told us you still want to proceed.

Contact from Wonga and third parties

As part of the application process, we ask you whether we may contact you about our products and services by telephone, post, email and SMS (or other reasonable method). If you ticked “yes” but no longer wish to receive such communications, please visit the My Account page, login and change your communication preference at any time, or follow the instructions in the message itself.

We may transfer your personal information to selected third parties (see “Selling and disclosing your data to third parties” above). If at any time you wish to stop receiving such contact from a third party, you will need to follow the instructions about unsubscribing provided at that time by the third party. Please note that we only partner with trusted companies who will respect your right to unsubscribe from any such marketing communications, but we will not be responsible for managing that process or any disputes.

Third party links

Our site may contain links to third party websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own terms and privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for them. By registering at Wonga you may receive follow-up contact and offers from third party companies and, while we only work with selected partners, we are not responsible for the services or representations of third parties.

Age

To register with us you must be 18-years of age or older. Minors are strictly forbidden from using the service.