Device Data Privacy Policy

General information and contact details

Begini Ltd. (“Begini“, “we“, “us” or “our“) take the protection and security of your personal data very seriously. This privacy notice sets out the data we collect and process about you through our products and services, the purposes of the data processing and how you can exercise your privacy rights.

You may be reading this notice because of a link provided by an organisation you are engaging (our customer), or you simply want more information on data processing in relation to our products and services.

Please read this notice if and when an organisation of your choice (our customer) has assigned to us your consent to access your personal data as a part of Credit Score Services based on a separate agreement with us.

Our customer and data supplier (you have engaged with) will have a lawful reason for collecting and processing your data and may have a separate relationship with you. It is separately required to provide you with information (for example through their own privacy notice) about how it collects and processes your data.

We have offices in several locations, and our registered office address is at:

Begini Ltd
6.5 Kiln House,
Pottergate,
Norwich NR2 1DX

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) with registration number ZB307789.

If you have any questions about how we use your data, please contact our Data Protection Officer by email at privacy_at_begini.co 

We review this privacy notice on an annual basis, or sooner if changes to regulation require it or we change the way we process personal data.

This privacy notice was last updated on 26 May 2022.

What do we do?

Begini is providing products and services to help financial and other organisations to produce real-time credit decisions. We use mobile device metadata to produce the alternative credit score via our proprietary technology. This includes highly sophisticated algorithms and predictive analytics applied to metadata accessed via our mobile SDKs. We provide this alternative credit score only in relation to the service that you are applying for at the organisation of your choice (our customer). We do NOT share your alternative credit score with anyone else. This still may sound complex, so an example is often the easiest way to explain.

• You are going to receive a credit and/or other financial service from an organisation of your choice (our customer).
• In order to provide you with financial service, the organisation of your choice needs to assess your creditworthiness.  
• At our customer’s request Begini collects specific metadata from your mobile devices (via our products and services) and processes this data with Begini’s proprietary technology.
• Your data may be collected when you use the mobile application of the organization of your choice that has embedded Begini’s mobile technology (Begini Mobile SDKs);:
• We pass your alternative credit score (but in no event your personal data) to organisation of your choice (our customer).
• Organisation of your choice (our customer) then decides how it will respond to you, e.g. provide you specific financial service (loan, credit card etc.), decline your request etc.  
• Begini does not have visibility on, nor can we influence how organisation of your choice responds to you.

‍‍More examples are included below describing why we collect your personal data.

What data do we collect and why?

It’s simple. Unlike other companies, we do NOT collect data that directly identifies you, i.e. your name, phone number or email address. While collecting your data to calculate your alternative credit score, we use metadata to provide a segmented risk profile, generate an aggregated statistical information, and to improve and administer our current products and create new products. To protect your identity, we also remove all personal identifiers (if any) from the data we collect or aggregate and, in doing so, pseudonymise the information we collect. Any information we produce based on collected data cannot be reverse engineered to reproduce the original information collected. The processing of the information is done on Begini’s mobile technology (Begini Mobile SDKs). The above-mentioned techniques assist in keeping the data that is sent to our servers anonymous and secure and allows you to retain your raw information on your device.

Begini’s technology may access some or all of the following (or similar) data on your mobile device (your digital footprint):

• On mobile phone, – contacts, calendars, location, and photos;

While we cannot list out each and every type of data that we collect, our web technology collects (and uploads to our secured servers) only certain limited information. We’ve tried below to give you a general understanding of what types of data we collect and examples to help you see what we mean:

• Our mobile technology may count the number of calendar events scheduled and their time stamp. Only this information is sent to our servers, NOT the underlying raw data.
• While our mobile technology may scan and process your phone book contacts on your mobile device, the names and contact details are NOT sent to our servers.
• While our mobile technology may scan and process information about the photos stored on your mobile device, we will only extract geo-location information from image files. Your photos are NOT sent to our servers.

‍‍The digital footprint on your will be accessed only one-time, upon your application for specific financial service (loan, credit card etc.), and NOT persistently, NOT in the background, NOT in the foreground. The information collected by us is similar to the types of information captured by common web analytics tools.

‍Our legal basis for processing data

We collect your data only after we have also collected your consent to the collection, use or disclosure, as the case may be, of your personal data via the organisation you are interacting with (Begini Mobile SDKs). We will NOT and cannot extract or process your data without your consent.

‍We do NOT request for your data from our customers (organisations that you have engaged with) without your consent and do NOT collect or process it without your consent. We/organisation that you have engaged with will also ask you to click on a button that says “Yes, continue with credit analysis”, or similar, before commencing a credit scoring assessment on your mobile phone device.

‍You can be assured that we protect the information we collect. By using our products or services, you agree to the collection, use, and sharing of your data in accordance with this privacy notice. You may change and revoke your ‘access to data’ permissions at any time by using your phone/device settings.

‍How do we use your data?

We use your data to assess your creditworthiness for a service of your choice (loan, credit card etc.) with the organisation of your choice (our customer). Organisation of your choice may use Begini’s assessment as part of their decision process whether or not to grant you a loan or other financial service.

‍We also use your data to: –

• Obtain an assessment of your creditworthiness including but not limited to an assessment of the probability of default of your obligations in the framework of contracts for the provision of financial services;
• Assess your interest in receiving financial services through algorithms and mathematical modelling.

Who will we share your data with?

As explained above under “What do we do”, the data collected by our technology is NOT directly sent to the organisation of your choice (our customer). The organisation of your choice receives some limited pseudonymised information about you including the result of your credit scoring assessment.

‍I.e., we share the result of your credit assessment with the organisation you are applying for a financial service. The result of your credit assessment that we share, depends solely on your potential willingness to disclose your information in order to get the services you have requested the organisation of your choice. We also share your potential willingness to communicate directly with the organisation of your choice, if requested by the organisation. We do NOT share the raw data collected from you with any person including the organisation.

We may also share your data in the following ways: when required by competent authority or necessary to comply with a valid legal process; when required to protect and defend the rights or property of Begini, including the security of our products and services; when necessary to protect the personal safety, property or other rights of the public, Begini or its customers or employees; or in connection with a sale of all or part of our business. If we are involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, we will abide by this privacy notice, and any affected users will be informed if we transfer any personal data to a third party or if personal data becomes subject to a different privacy notice as a result.

How long do we retain your data for in our Products and Services?

We retain the data we collect from you for the length of time necessary to fulfil the specific purpose or purposes for which it has been collected (for example, to provide our customers with a service you have requested). We may also keep it to comply with our legal obligations, resolve any disputes and enforce our rights.

Once the respective purpose ceases to apply, we will either delete or anonymise the personal data or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal data has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your data and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

To implement and improve the functionality of Begini’s technology and to update the credit scorecards developed for our clients, we will keep your data for up to 3 (three) years unless you or organisation of your choice (our customer) request us to delete your data at an earlier date.

If you have questions about or need further information concerning how long we keep your data for, please contact us using the contact details provided below.

How to contact us if you’re not happy

We appreciate that at Begini we may not always get things right and it is regrettable for us as an organisation when we receive a complaint. We take all complaints seriously and can assure you we will do our best to deliver a satisfactory outcome. If you do wish to complain about how your personal data is used by Begini then please write to us at: privacy_at_begini.co 

You may also contact us by mail at:

Begini Ltd
6.5 Kiln House,
Pottergate,
Norwich NR2 1DX

‍Begini will investigate your complaint and aim to respond within 10 working days. This allows us time to investigate your complaint thoroughly.  

Your right to lodge a complaint with the Regulatory Authority

Where you believe that Begini have not taken our responsibilities with your data seriously, you have the right to complain to a regulator who governs your data protection depending of the country of your residence.

‍