The Blacktower Group was formed in 1986 to provide independent wealth management advice and a bespoke service for both individual and corporate clients. We value your privacy and are committed to protecting the privacy of all our clients, business partners and users of our services and website. We therefore ask that you please read our Privacy Policy before providing us with any information about you or any other person.
This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who enquire about or make an investment using the services of Blacktower Group. The policy also explains how we use that information, the conditions under which we may disclose information to others and how we keep personal information secure.
When using the terms “personal data”, “personal information” or simply “your information” in our Privacy Policy, we mean information that relates to you and allows us to identify you, either directly or in combination with other information that we may hold. The pieces of information are also known as “identifiers” and include a name, an online identifier, or a reference to one or more factors specific to your physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
When using the term “processing”, we mean any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction (so practically anything we do to your personal data is processing!)
When using the term “Blacktower Group”, we mean the group of companies forming part of the corporate structure of which the data controller (identified below) forms a part. This Privacy Policy is issued on behalf of Blacktower Group so when we mention ”Blacktower Group”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this Privacy Policy, we are referring to the relevant company in the Blacktower Group responsible for processing your data. We will let you know which entity will be the controller or processor for your data when you purchase a product or service with us.
If you are viewing this policy online, you can click on the below links to jump to the relevant section:
Blacktower Financial Management (International) Limited (“BFMI”) is the data controller of any personal data you provide and responsible for this website. BFMI is regulated and authorised by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission under Licence No. FSC 03647.
Our business is to help clients protect the financial assets they already have and advise them on how to manage and grow them to achieve their financial aspirations. We use our experience to find the right products for each individual’s circumstances; personal or business, both home or abroad.
Any questions regarding our Privacy Policy should be sent to:
Privacy Manager
Blacktower Financial Management (International) Limited
Waterport Place,
Floor 2 Unit 2.3,
Europort Road,
Gibraltar,
GX11 1AA
Phone: +350 200 42353
Fax: +350 200 42953
Questions can also be sent by email to: contact@blacktowerfm.com
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:
We also collect, use and share ‘Aggregated Data’ such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
In most cases, we do not collect any ‘Special Categories’ of personal data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences. However, in limited cases, we may need to collect such categories of data and if so will rely on a lawful basis (such as your explicit consent) to ensure that we can lawfully process that data only as may be required as part of an ongoing business relationship you have with us.
We collect information about you when you:
Other than from information you enter on our website, or provide on our documentation, we may also collect your personal data from documents you provide to us. For example, we may also ask you to provide evidence of your identity such as asking for a copy of your passport, driving licence, proof of residence or income. We are required to ask for this information to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) legislation such as the Proceeds of Crime Act 2015, to ensure we safeguard against and report any suspicious activity.
Monitoring
Please note that if you communicate with us electronically, including by e-mail, telephone or fax, this communication may be monitored and/or recorded to protect the interests of our business and our customers. This includes for the purposes of maintaining customer/service quality standards, detection of and/or prevention of crime and to ensure that Blacktower Group employees and Blacktower IFA’s comply with legal obligations.
If you fail to provide personal data
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with our services or those of a Blacktower IFA). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time
We use personal information about you in connection with the following purposes:
Provision of services and account management:
Service improvements:
Direct Marketing:
If you do not want your personal information to be used for marketing purposes, please contact us on the above details.
Where you are an existing client, we will rely on our legitimate interests as the lawful basis for processing your personal information for the purposes of direct marketing. To this end, it may be necessary to process your information so we can directly market in our legitimate interest. In addition, we consider it reasonable for you to expect you may receive marketing material from us in the same methods we normally communicate with you (e.g. via email) and that there is no disproportionate impact to your individual privacy rights in this case.
In this context, “legitimate interest” means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us on the above details.
Change of Purpose:
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us on the above details.
Automated decision-making
We do not use automated-decision making methods (including profiling), save that we may risk profile our clients in compliance with applicable anti-money laundering legislation.
Decisions as to how your data is processed are therefore based on your instructions to us under any agreement we may have with you, or on our initiative in order to fulfil our agreement with you or to comply with our legal obligations (and on an occasional basis, to further our legitimate interests as outlined in this Privacy Policy. This means decisions are not made by robots or computers, and therefore not ‘automated’. However, certain third parties may use certain automated decision-making tools or software. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of others and will take reasonable steps to bring such automated decision-making to your attention, but you are encouraged to become familiar with the privacy practices of any third parties you enter into any agreements with.
We retain your information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which we process the information as set out in this Privacy Policy. Records can be held on a variety of media (physical or electronic) and formats.
Retention periods are determined based on the type of record, the nature of the record and activity and the legal or regulatory requirements that apply to those records. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
However, we may retain your personal data for a longer period of time where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person or where we have a legitimate interest to do so for example, to manage your pension, tax and social security obligations etc.
You have certain rights under applicable legislation, and in particular under Regulation EU 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation or ‘GDPR’). We explain these below. You can find out more about the GDPR and your rights by accessing the European Commission’s website.
You have a right to be informed about the processing of your personal data (and if you did not give it to us, information as to the source) and this Privacy Policy intends to provide the information. Of course, if you have any further questions you can contact us on the above details.
You have the right to have any inaccurate personal information about you rectified and to have any incomplete personal information about you completed. You may also request that we restrict the processing of that information.
The accuracy of your information is important to us. If you do not want us to use your Personal Information in the manner set out in this Privacy Policy, or need to advise us of any changes to your personal information, or would like any more information about the way in which we collect and use your personal information, please contact us at the above details.
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
You have the general right to request the erasure of your personal information in the following circumstances:
We will proceed to comply with an erasure request without delay unless continued retention is necessary for:
Instead of requesting erasure, you also have the right to right to restrict processing of your personal information where:
You also have the right to object to processing of your personal information under certain circumstances, such as:
Exercise of this right may impact the services we can provide and we will explain this to you if you decide to exercise it. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms, and this may allow us to continue to (wholly or partly) process your personal information.
With respect to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use, or where the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party (or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract), you have a right to receive the personal information you provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or ask us to send it to another person.
As explained above, we do not use automated decision-making, but where any automated decision-making takes place, you have the right in this case to express your point of view and to contest the decision, as well as request that decisions based on automated processing concerning you or significantly affecting you and based on your personal data are made by natural persons, not only by computers.
You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us.
We will not contact you for marketing purposes unless:
You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us on the above details. On each and every marketing communication, we will always provide the option for you to exercise your right to object to the processing of your personal data for marketing purposes (known as ‘opting-out’) by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ button on our marketing emails or choosing a similar opt-out option on any forms we use to collect your data. You may also opt-out at any time by contacting us on the below details.
Please note that any administrative or service-related communications (to offer our services, or notify you of an update to this Privacy Policy or applicable terms of business, etc.) will solely be directed at our clients or business partners, and such communications generally do not offer an option to unsubscribe as they are necessary to provide the services requested. Therefore, please be aware that your ability to opt-out from receiving marketing and promotional materials does not change our right to contact you regarding your use of our website or as part of a contractual relationship we may have with you.
You also have a right to access information we hold about you. You can exercise this right at any time by contacting us on the above details.
We are happy to provide you with details of your personal information that we hold or process. To protect our customers’ personal information, we follow strict storage and disclosure procedures, which mean that we will require proof of identity from you prior to disclosing such information. This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated
Where the legal basis for processing your personal information is your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time by contacting us on the above details. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent
If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact us as set out above and we will then investigate the matter.
If we have not responded to you within a reasonable time or if you feel that your complaint has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you are entitled to make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner under the Data Protection Act, which is presently the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority (GRA). You may contact the GRA on the below details:
Gibraltar Data Protection Commissioner
Gibraltar Regulatory Authority
2nd Floor, Eurotowers 4
1 Europort Road
Gibraltar
Email: info@gra.gi
Phone: (+350) 200 74636
Fax: (+350) 200 72166
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in the country of your habitual residence, place of work, or the place where you allege an infringement of one or more of our rights has taken place, if that is based in the EEA.
We may pass your information to our Blacktower IFAs, business partners, administration centres, third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf, or to enable us to obtain a quote for you or provide you with other related services.
These third parties may include:
When we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.
We also work closely with various third-party product and service providers to bring you a range of wealth management solutions. When you enquire about or invest in one or more of these products or services, the relevant third-party provider will use your details to carry out their obligations arising from any contracts you have entered into with them. These third-party providers will share your information with us which we will use in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some, or all, of our business and assets or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation, or if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation. However, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected.
Transferring your information outside of the European Economic Area
There may be instances where as part of the services offered to you by Blacktower Group, the information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). The EEA includes the European Union countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Transfers outside of the EEA are sometimes referred to as ‘third country transfers’.
This may happen if any of our Platform providers are located in a ‘third country’ outside of the EEA. If we transfer your information outside of the EEA in this way, we will take steps to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this Policy. This may require us to take certain additional steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place if that third country is not deemed by the European Commission to offer an adequate level of protection for your privacy rights, which may include use of contractual safeguards to allow you to be able to enforce your rights and ensure these are preserved. In certain circumstances, we may need to ask you for your explicit consent to such third country transfers, and will always do so in writing and giving you full information about why we need your consent and your right to withdraw that consent at any time (together with the consequences of withdrawal).
Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the Europe and the US. For further details, see further information on the European Commission’s website: European Commission: EU-US Privacy Shield.
If you use our services while you are outside the EEA, your information may be transferred outside the EEA in order to provide you with those services.
At Blacktower Group, we take our responsibility to look after your personal information and privacy seriously. In today’s world, we have all seen a growing trend in cybercrime and security breaches. We have a number of security measures in place to help prevent fraud and cybercrime.
If we become aware that a personal data breach has occurred and is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of our clients, business partners or employees, we will inform them without undue delay.
We educate and train our employees on our information security, fraud prevention and privacy obligations annually. Information Security awareness also forms part of our new employee induction program.
We also educate our employees in identifying potential financial crime and internal fraud; any suspicious activity is reported to the Gibraltar Financial Intelligence Unit.
To keep your information secure and to protect our clients from fraud, Blacktower Group will only interact with you in the following ways. If in doubt, call our office or email us at info@blacktowerfm.com.
Physical controls – As well as protecting your digital information, Blacktower Group also protects its offices where personal data may be used and stored. This includes secure disposal of confidential waste and hardware, personal card access and locks on doors and file storage cabinets, with a ‘clear desk’ policy to ensure all information is locked away and protected.
Logical controls – Blacktower Group uses technical security measures to make sure our systems where we store and use personal information are protected from unauthorised access. Tools such as authentication controls, antivirus, firewalls, malware detection and back-up procedures are used across the business. Your personal information is contained behind secured networks and is only accessible by a limited number of persons who have special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. In addition, all sensitive/credit information you supply is encrypted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology.
We have a business continuity plan.
The key drivers in developing the business continuity plans are;
Whilst we take appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard your personal information, please note that we cannot guarantee the security of any data that you transfer over the internet to us.
Privacy Protections for Children Using the Internet
Protecting children’s privacy is important to us. For that reason, we do not collect or maintain information on our website from those we actually know are under the age of 16, nor is any part of our website targeted to attract anyone under 16. We request that all visitors to our website who are under 16 not disclose or provide any personal data and discontinue use of our website.
Third Party Links
This website may include links to third party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. The privacy policies of others may differ significantly from our Privacy Policy. Therefore, we encourage you to read the privacy statement/policy of each and every website you visit.
Review of this Privacy Policy
We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. Where we do so, we will notify those who have a business relationship with us or who are subscribed to our emailing lists directly of the changes, and change the ‘Last updated’ date above. We encourage you to review the Privacy Policy whenever you access or use our website to stay informed about our information practices and the choices available to you. If you do not agree to the revised Privacy Policy, you should discontinue your use of this website.
