Privacy Statement

General

At Bank of Ireland Group we are committed to ensuring the privacy of your information.

We understand that as a customer or visitor using the All About Business Website, the privacy and the security of your information is very important to you. The purpose of our Privacy Statement is to outline Bank of Ireland Group's practices in this area.

PLEASE NOTE that this Privacy Statement is subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use of the All About Business Website. You can read the copy of the Terms and Conditions of Use by clicking here. We recommend that you read the Terms and Conditions of Use. If there is a conflict between the Terms and Conditions of Use and this Privacy Statement, the Terms and Conditions of Use shall prevail. Except as otherwise provided, terms used herein and defined in the Terms and Conditions of Use shall have the same meaning that is given to them in the Terms and Conditions of Use.

The contents of this Privacy Statement are subject to change and to being updated without notice from time to time.

The information we collect

As you browse through our Website, our web server collects information about your visit, not about you personally. We gather and monitor statistics such as, for example:

• the number of people who visit the Website;
• the date and time of visits;
• the number of pages viewed;
• the amount of time spent on the Website;
• the most popular sections of the Website

This information is anonymous and no attempt is or will be made to identify visitors. So, for example, on a specific day we can identify that our site has forty thousand visitors. However, we know nothing about these visitors in terms of e-mail addresses or any other personal information.

We only ask and will only ask for personal information from which you can be identified where the information is required for particular purposes e.g. registering for the newsletter , registering to upload material onto the site e.g. on-line pitches . Examples of details that may be sought include your name, address, e-mail address, etc. (Please note in this regard the paragraph headed Internet fraud below)

We only ask and will only ask for personal information from which you can be identified where the information is required for particular purposes e.g. registering for the newsletter , registering to use the blog, registering to upload material onto the site e.g. on-line pitches. Examples of details that may be sought include your name, address, e-mail address, etc. (Please note in this regard the paragraph headed Internet fraud below)

All information provided to us by you will be treated with the utmost confidentiality in accordance with all applicable legislative and regulatory standards. If you ever decide that you no longer wish us to keep or use information or you want the information to be revised or updated, please feel free to contact us. We will remove or amend the information as appropriate in accordance with applicable legislative and regulatory requirements.

Use of 'Cookies'

What is a cookie?

Cookies are small pieces of information, stored in simple text files, placed on your computer by a website. Cookies can be read by the website on your subsequent visits. The information stored in a cookie may relate to your browsing habits on the web page, or a unique identification number so that the web site can "remember" you on your return visit. Generally speaking, cookies do not contain personal information from which you can be identified, unless you have furnished such information to the web site.

How do Bank of Ireland use cookies?

Bank of Ireland uses cookies to collect information about visitors' use of the website, including things like connection speed, operating system details, the time and duration visits and IP addresses. The information collected by cookies enables Bank of Ireland to understand the use of its site, including the number of visitors it has, the pages viewed per session, time exposed to particular pages etc. This in turn helps to provide visitors with a better experience. All About Business will not attempt to personally identify visitors from their IP addresses.

Cookies will not be used to contact you for marketing purposes other than by means of advertisements offered within All About Business' website.

Cookies do not in any way compromise the security of your computer. Visitors can use this Website with no loss of functionality if cookies are disabled from the web browser.

How to disable cookies?

Below is information on how to disable cookies for some of the more popular web browsers.

Internet Explorer 5.0+

• Go to the 'Tools' menu
• Click on 'Internet Options'
• Click the 'Security' tab
• Highlight the 'Internet' zone (selected by default)
• Select security level 'High' for this zone
• Click on 'OK'

Mozilla Firefox

• Open the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
• Under the Privacy & Security category, choose Cookies. (If no subcategories are visible, double-click the category to expand the list.)
• Click the following radio button: Disable cookies

Netscape 6.0+

• Go to 'Edit' in the menu bar
• Click on 'Preferences'
• Click on 'Advanced'
• Select the 'Cookies' field
• Tick either 'Warn Me Before Accepting a Cookie' or 'Disable Cookies'
• Click on 'OK'

Disclosure of information

Bank of Ireland Group will not divulge customer information to a third party unless we have received customer authorisation OR we are required to do so by law.

Security of information

At Bank of Ireland Group, we understand how important the security and confidentiality of your information is to you. Keeping customer information secure is a top priority for Bank of Ireland Group. Our goal is to protect your information on the Internet in the same way as we would over the phone, in a branch or at an ATM.

Even so, Bank of Ireland Group cannot guarantee the privacy or confidentiality of information relating to you passing over the Internet.

Internet Fraud

A number of banking organisations and their customers have recently been the target of hoax e-mails that are aimed at gathering Internet/account details of the customers. Some of these hoax e-mails have encouraged or facilitated contact with hoax websites that purport to be (but are not) the website of the relevant banking organisation. To date the occurrence of such online fraud has not been extensive. However, we would always advise you to be cautious as regards disclosing your personal details. In particular, you should note that we will only ever request your personal details if: (i) you are seeking to initiate e-mail contact with us via this Website; or (ii) you initiate a request for a particular service via this Website and we require certain of your personal details to provide you with the requested service.

Hyperlinks

Some of the pages on this Website contain hypertext links to websites not maintained by Bank of Ireland Group. You are reminded that different Terms and Conditions of Use will apply to you as a user of such websites. In addition such websites may not attain the same privacy standards that Bank of Ireland Group maintains.