Data privacy

DATA PROTECTION AND PRIVACY NOTICE
Universal Traders Sacco Ltd is committed to keeping your personal data private. We shall process any personal data we collect from you in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2019 and the Data Protection (General) Regulations, 2021 (the “General Regulations”). Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
This policy provides information on how Universal Traders Sacco processes your personal data. Our focus and commitment to respecting your privacy and safeguarding your personal data remains priority.
Your Personal Information Collected
We receive your personal data when you provide it to us, examples when opening an account, getting into a contract with us (Loan)and data you send to us in order that we can contact you. We may also receive data from others, such as suppliers or other parties we work with, or because you have given another party consent to share data with us or from others, such as public sources like newspapers, public registers and websites.
We may collect data through our website, face-to-face and electronic communication (including telephone conversations) in order to provide our services to you.
The type of data we collect

We may collect, store, and use the following categories of personal data about you:

  • Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses.
  • Personal information such as passport photos, Date of birth, Gender, Marital status,
    employment status, and Next of Kin
  • Financial information
  • Copies of your identity documents such as IDs or passports
  • Information we obtain from third parties, such as information that we obtain when
    verifying details supplied by you and information collected from publicly available
    sources such as Companies Registry. Such third parties may include fraud prevention
    agencies, banks, merchants and credit reference agencies.
  • Other information about an individual that you or they disclose to us when
    communicating with us
  • CCTV footage and other information obtained through electronic means in our
    premises

In addition, we may collect, store and use information about you while you access our
services through online means (Cookies), such as the browser or device you use to access our
sites and platforms.

 

You have rights when it comes to how we process your personal data. These include rights
to:

  • be informed about how we process your personal data.
  • access to your personal data that we hold in a machine-readable format.
  • object to the processing of your personal data.
  • seek correction of false and misleading personal data about you.
  • seek deletion of false and misleading personal data about you.
  • not be subjected to automated decision-making without human intervention.
    You can exercise your rights by making a written request to us at info@universaltraders.co.ke

Your request will be promptly attended to. Where we are unable to honour your request due
to the nature of the processing or to protect our own legitimate interests, we shall inform you
of the reason for our denial of your request.

How We Use Your Information

We use your data for the following purposes;

  • To carry out our obligations from any contracts entered into between you and us or to take steps to enter into an agreement with you.
  • To meet our regulatory compliance and reporting obligations
  • To provide our services to you, manage your accounts and our relationship with you
  • To respond to your queries and complaints to us and any other requests that you may
    have made to us
  • To keep you informed about products and services you hold with us and to send you
    information about products or services (including those of other companies) which
    may be of interest to you unless you have indicated at any time that you do not wish
    us to do so.
  • To prevent, detect, and investigate fraud and alleged fraud practices and other crimes
  • To verify your identity in order to protect you and your assets
  • For assessment, statistical, market and product analysis and market research. [We may
    use this information to prepare statistical reports to be shared internally. We compile
    these reports from information about you. The information in these reports is never
    personal.
  • To evaluate, develop and improve our services to you and other members
  • To protect our business interests and to develop our business strategies
  • To contact you, by post, phone, text, email and other digital methods. This may be for
    reasons such as to collect any debts owing to us
How We Use Your Information

UTS shall from time to time, share your personal data with third parties. Such disclosures
will be done in accordance with the law and, where necessary, with your consent or upon
reliance on necessity, in which event, we will notify you. Below are some of the
circumstances under which your personal data may be shared:

  1. The Government (and Government agencies): Your personal data may be shared with law
    enforcement agencies and other regulatory bodies where such disclosure is mandated by the
    law.
  2. Credit reference bureaus: Depending on the services we offer you, we will share credit
    information relating to you with credit reference bureaus.
  3. Court orders: Your personal data may be shared if a court order is obtained requiring that
    such information be shared.
  4. Service providers: Your personal information may be disclosed to our service providers
    where necessary to provide certain services to you or to protect our legitimate interests
    (including in the enforcement of a legal claim).

We will not, under any circumstances share or sell your personal data with any third party for
marketing purposes and you will not receive offers from other companies or organisations as
a result of sharing your personal data with us, without your consent.

Data Retention

We retain personal information we collect from you where we have an ongoing legitimate
business need to do so and in line with relevant laws and our Records Policy (for example, to
provide you with a product service you have requested, you continue to be a member of
universal traders Sacco or to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements).


When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information,
we will either delete or anonymize it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your
personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your
personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

Children

We strongly believe in protecting the privacy of children. In line with this belief, we may
only collect and maintain personal information regarding persons under 18 years of age
where consent of the parent/guardian is given.

Updating this Privacy Policy

We may update or amend this Privacy Policy from time to time, to comply with law or to
meet our changing business requirements. When we update our Privacy Policy, we will take
appropriate measures to inform you, consistent with the significance of the changes we make.
Any updates or amendments will be posted on the privacy statement as captured in this
application. By continuing to access and use of our services will be subject to these updates
and amendments.