This policy was last updated on 01 April, 2025.
This Products and Services Privacy Policy covers GB Group Plc and our wholly owned subsidiaries ("GBG", "we", "us" or "our").
GBG’s wholly owned subsidiaries include, but is not limited to Acuant Inc, IDology Inc, Loqate Inc, GBG (Australia) Pty Ltd, Verifi Identity Services, Mastersoft Group Pty Ltd GBG (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, GBG Singapore Pte Ltd and PT Fraud Solutions (GBG Jakarta).
Please note, this is a global privacy policy. It is recognised there is not a consistent standard for privacy across the globe but to confirm GBG complies with applicable data protection law and will review any request based on what is required for your jurisdiction. Where additional disclosure is required for a jurisdiction, please select from the side menu for additional information.
This privacy policy sets out the personal data we collect and process about you through our products and services, the purposes of the processing and how you can exercise your privacy rights. If you would like to understand how GBG collect, use, disclose, and otherwise process personal data in connection with our websites and how we interact with you when facilitating our business, please see our General Privacy Policy.
You may be reading this policy because of a link provided by one of our third party data suppliers, one of our customers, or you simply want more information on processing in relation to our products and services.
It is important to note, our customers and data suppliers will have a lawful reason for processing your data and may have a separate relationship with you. They are separately required to provide you with information (for example through their own privacy policy) about how they collect and process your data.
GBG have subsidiaries and offices in a number of countries, which are detailed here. See ‘Contact Us’ to see how best to contact your regional representative with any questions about how GBG use your personal data.
This privacy policy is reviewed annually, or sooner if changes to regulation or how we process personal data require it.
GBG is a global organisation who set out to create trust in a digital world, where everyone can transact with confidence. Typically, customers use our products so they can verify the information that you give to them about yourself. We do this by matching third party reference data (which we receive from data suppliers) against the data you give about yourself to our customers.
This still sounds complex, so here are some examples as we believe it is often the easiest way to explain…
Address Verification Example:
Identity Verification Example:
More examples are included in the table below describing why we collect your personal data.
The personal data that we may collect about you broadly falls into the following categories:
Category |
Examples |
Basic identifying information |
Name Address Telephone Email Address Date of Birth |
Financial |
Bank account details |
Device |
IP, Geocode, Device ID |
Government Records |
Home Ownership, County Court Judgments, Insolvency |
Social |
Social Networks |
Image |
Photo on a passport or driving licence, self-taken photos |
Why we collect your personal data depends on the services we provide.
GBG Service |
Service description and why we collect your personal data |
Location Intelligence |
Address Capture & Verification – we can capture and verify addresses globally. Our service aims to create the best, quickest experience when you order online, whilst ensuring the company you are engaging with has the information they need to fulfil your request. For example, it is much quicker for you to enter a postcode/zipcode and be presented with a list of addresses to select from, as opposed to entering the full address. There is also the option where the company you are engaging with can verify if you have provided a valid email address or phone number so they can get in touch with you if needed. Some of our customers also take Geocodes, which is a unique identifier for your address, so the delivery company can easily find you to deliver the item you have ordered
Data Cleansing – we are all busy people and it’s often difficult to remember and very time consuming to contact all the businesses we engage with if any of our details or preferences change. These organisations also have a legal requirement to keep your data up-to-date, which is where we come in. We can help them identify if your details are no longer valid, such as if you have moved address or if someone in your household has died, for the purposes of reducing the risk of fraud or being contacted at what we know will be an upsetting time. GBG is also able to provide our customers with additional information about you to help them try to ensure that the information that collected from you remains accurate and relevant to the purposes for which you provided it to them. For clarity, data that we provide to our customers cannot be used by us or them to contact you for marketing purposes. An example of where this could be used is if you had a pension at an old address, we could provide our customer with a new address so they can contact you. It is a legal requirement for such organisations to try to reunify you with your assets, which is why they are entitled to keep your information accurate and up to date.
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Identity |
Identity & Age Verification – we can capture and verify your identity globally, making it easier for you to transact online. What this includes depends on the organisation you are engaging with. For example, we can verify the authenticity of your identity documents or check if you are over a particular age if you want to access a service which has age restrictions. Our customers do this because many of them must meet regulatory requirements and prevent fraud, so we help them to meet their requirements, with you in mind, to make things as simple and easy as possible.
Identity Intelligence & Tracing* –is used where a company has minimal or old information on you and they may need to contact you. Use cases include law enforcement, fraud, asset reunification and debt collection to identify and locate individuals in the United Kingdom. To give you an example, our product has helped assist police in locating a domestic abuse victim who needed help. A woman made a 999 call as there was an incident at a domestic address. The police used GBG’s product to identify three possible addresses. Patrols attended each address and the operator was able to hear the officers knocking on the door, confirming they were in the right place. A man was arrested and the woman treated for her injuries. *This product only processes personal data that belongs to residents of the United Kingdom.
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Fraud Prevention
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GBG or one of our wholly owned subsidiaries, may collect your data directly from you, from our third party suppliers, or from our customers, to help protect you and our GBG customers against fraud and help other third parties to detect and prevent fraud.
When we collect your data, we may use it to generate risk scores or create fraud and/or identity alerts, insights and reports. If collection is via our customers, we have requested you be informed of this via their privacy notices. We generate these risk scores and alerts via our fraud networks. Depending upon what has been agreed with you or GBG’s customer, this may be a data pool specific to a named GBG legal entity and/or your data may be shared across all GBG entities. The purpose of our fraud networks is to be able to gain insights from the data that is fed into them, for the purposes of fraud prevention.
To give you an example, Mary Christmas placed a large food order on the last shipping day before Christmas. Her name triggered fraud indicators: due to her name and timing, the retailer would have normally declined the order. However, the retailer used our service to determine that Mary Christmas was a legitimate customer. Mary Christmas's goods were dispatched and she/her family got to enjoy a lovely Christmas lunch.
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If you are based in a jurisdiction that requires legal grounds for us to be able to process your personal data, we process your information on the following grounds:
GBG’s customers will have their own lawful basis for processing your data and will have communicated this with you.
The table below identifies the legitimate interest that we rely on for each of our activities.
Activity/Purpose |
GBG's Legitimate Interest Summary |
Location Intelligence: Address Capture &Verification |
We have given a description of the types of services our customers provide in the table above, but in a nutshell, they help to ensure you receive the goods/services you have ordered and prevent fraud by ensuring your data is accurate and up-to-date. When operating as a controller, where relevant, GBG may use this Legitimate Interest of a third party as our lawful basis. We have given a description of the types of services our customers provide in the table above
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Identity |
Our services help to prevent fraud by ensuring you are who you say you are. Many of our customers must also meet a legal obligation when processing your personal data, such as ensuring you are old enough, or verifying your identity. When operating as a controller, where relevant, GBG may use this Legitimate Interest of a third party as our lawful basis. We have given a description of the types of services our customers provide in the table above.
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Fraud Prevention |
These services help to prevent fraud and allow our customer to meet their compliance obligations. When operating as a controller, where relevant, GBG may use this Legitimate Interest of a third party as our lawful basis.
We have given a description of the types of services our customers provide in the table above
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Where relevant, GBG maintain an up-to-date record of processing activities under our responsibility, which details for each of our processing activities, the lawful basis.
Where relevant, you are entitled to more information on the balancing test we have carried out when determining we are able to rely on legitimate interest as our lawful basis for processing your personal data.
If you have questions about this or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal data, please contact us using the contact details provided.
As explained above under "What do we do", we receive personal data about you directly, or from our customers and data suppliers. We also send your personal data to our customers and data suppliers, where there is a lawful reason to do so, in order to provide our products and services.
GBG Customers
We offer our products services to public and private organisations worldwide. These include:
Sector |
Examples |
Financial Services |
Banks, insurance providers, debt management companies |
eCommerce |
Retail (online shopping), online commerce platforms |
Gaming |
Online gaming |
Consumer Services |
Travel and leisure, media, car rental companies |
Public Sector |
Law enforcement, local government, education bodies |
Utilities |
Gas, electricity, water suppliers and switching/price comparison sites |
GBG Data Suppliers
We work with a number of trusted data suppliers. These include:
Data Supplier |
Further information |
Government / Public Authorities |
These bodies include authorities that provide driving licence information, passport information, citizen identification number, social security number, insolvency records (also in publicly available) or sanctions lists (also in publicly available). |
Regulated Financial Services Organisations / Firms |
These entities collect information about your financial status, but this data can also be used to help organisations like us verify your identity by confirming you are who you say you are, and where you live, or if you have lived at an address.
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Other Regulated Organisations / Firms |
These entities provide personal data which can help to verify you, reduce fraud or contact you directly..
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Commercial Organisations |
These entities provide your contact details, such as name, address, telephone number or email address, which we can then use to meet the request you have made to one of our Customers.
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Customer Data |
These customer entities have informed individuals that data will be provided to GBG to protect them against fraud, by generating risk scores or creating fraud and/or identity alerts, insights and reports.
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Publicly available, collected by a third party organisation or GBG |
This data is publicly available, typically on a website for public download. Examples include insolvency records, property information, sanction lists, PEPs information.
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Non personal / address data |
These entities provide information about deceased records, geocodes, co-ordinates, postcodes or zipcodes.
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We may also disclose your personal data to the following categories of recipients:
We retain personal data we collect from you, our customers and data suppliers 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 or for our customers to comply with applicable legal requirements, such as anti-money laundering), or for the duration that is set by our customers, which we do not control. We may also keep it to comply with our legal obligations, resolve any disputes and enforce our rights.
As explained above in the section “What do we do”, GBG access personal data in 2 ways. When we access personal data via a web service, our data suppliers hold the database therefore GBG does not see or have any control over this, other than via our GBG Audit Trail which we explain below.
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Data Retention |
Further Information |
GBG Audit Trail |
12 months |
Where appropriate, GBG may retain a copy of your personal data for a period of twelve (12) months to enable GBG to respond when an individual wishes to exercise a data subject right. |
GBG Fraud Networks |
Up to 10 years |
The exact retention duration depends on the relevant GBG fraud network and how often you engage with our customers.
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For the majority of GBG’s products and services, GBG’s customers make a choice as to how long they want to retain the data they have collected on you. Dependent upon where we are in the world, GBG’s role for this is typically as a processor, which means we operate under the instructions of the GBG customer if we host this on their behalf. GBG’s customer has an obligation to advise you in their privacy policy which will have been shared with you, how they collect and manage your personal data.
For data retention related to UK, click here.
Your personal information may be transferred to, and processed in, countries other than the country in which you are resident. These countries may have data protection laws that are different to the laws of your country.
Our group companies, data suppliers, customers and third party providers and partners operate around the world. This means that when we collect your personal data we may process it in any of these countries.
However, we have taken appropriate safeguards so that your personal data will remain protected in accordance with this privacy notice.
Where appropriate, these include implementing the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Agreement for international data transfers between our group companies, which require all group companies to protect UK and EEA personal data in accordance with UK and European Union data protection law.
We have implemented similar appropriate safeguards with our data suppliers, customers and third party providers and partners.
In our agreements with our customers, we are clear where data is processed so they can ensure you are adequately informed in their privacy notice.
For transfers specific to Australia and New Zealand, click here.
GBG is ISO27001 certified, with some areas of our business also covered by PCI-DSS, Cyber Essentials and/or Cyber Essentials Plus.
GBG’s Information Security Team is focussed on maintaining an information security program which covers everything you would expect and more.
This includes technical security measures (e.g. intrusion, detection, firewalls, monitoring), encryption of personal data, restricted access to personal data, protection of our physical premises and hard assets, maintaining security measures for our team members (e.g. pre-screening), a data-loss prevention strategy and regular testing of our security posture.
GBG’s 24 x 7 Security Operations Centre responds to any event or notification for investigation to uphold the security posture of GBG. Therefore, GBG have eyes and ears on the threats and threat actors that are likely to be attracted to GBG and the data that the organisation processes. GBG understands the critical need for technical and organisational control implementation to ensure GBG operates securely.
It depends on where you are based in the world as to the rights you have (in the US, this currently only includes California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, Iowa, Delaware, New Hampshire, Nebraska and New Jersey). GBG will fulfil all rights requests in line with applicable data protection law. Your rights may include:
Please keep in mind that dependent upon the applicable law, some of these rights are subject to an internal assessment that one of the grounds thereunder is satisfied.
Privacy rights vary among U.S. states. These rights are not absolute and may be subject to specific exceptions (e.g., personal data of individuals while acting in a commercial or employment contexts are excluded from data protection laws).
Please use our webform, or send via phone or post using the information provided in our “Contact Us” section of this Privacy Policy.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. We usually have one calendar month to respond, but this may vary depending on your location (for example, if you are in the US we have 45 days depending on your state of residence). If we are unable to comply with your request, we will provide you with an explanation.
Verification. Due to the confidential nature of your personal information, we may ask you to provide proof of identity when exercising the above rights to verify your identity, in accordance with applicable data privacy laws. This can be done by providing a copy of a valid identity document issued by the authorised body where you are a resident and is exercised for the purpose of ensuring that the individual making the rights request is in fact who they claim to be.
Authorised Agents. As defined in the applicable privacy law, you may use an authorised agent to exercise your rights on your behalf. If you are making any of the requests above through an authorised agent, we will request written authorisation from you and will seek to verify you as described above or we will accept a legal Power of Attorney. To make a request using an authorised agent, have your agent use our webform and upload documentation demonstrating authorisation from you. In the U.S., authorized agents can exercise some, but not all, privacy rights.
If you are a resident of a jurisdiction that allows you to appeal a decision we have made in connection with your attempt to assert a right under applicable Data Protection Laws, you may file an appeal of our decision by contacting us at DPO@gbgplc.com. Please ensure you provide us with the postal address in which you reside, accompanied with details for the basis of your appeal.
Your jurisdiction may allow you to file a complaint regarding any concerns with the result of your appeal request.
If you have any questions or requests in connection with this Products and Services Privacy Policy, please use this form or send an email to DPO@gbgplc.com. Alternatively, enquiries may be made to:
Jurisdiction |
Phone |
Address |
UK
Head Office for GB Group plc
Company Registration Number: 02415211 |
+44 (0) 1244 657277 |
Privacy & Data Compliance Team GBG |
EEA /Swiss (EEA Representative) |
+34 (0) 935 451 156 |
Privacy & Data Compliance Team GBG |
US |
1(833) 383-0085 |
Privacy & Data Compliance Team
GBG IDology 2300 Windy Ridge Pkwy SE United States |
Australia, New Zealand and APAC countries |
+61 (0) 3 8595 1500 |
Head of Privacy, APAC |
This UK – Data Retention Addendum was last updated on 01 April, 2025
At the point of collection, you will have been advised how long your personal data will be held for, which will be different to the retention period GBG state below.
A ‘data refresh’ is how often GBG get a copy of the personal data. The data supplier may provide GBG with a complete refresh, which is a new copy of the entire file. Some data suppliers only provide updates to a file (e.g. new records, updates to existing records or a request to delete records). GBG then apply these updates to a master file we hold. What this means is whilst GBG gets a new copy of the data, this database may contain much of the same data we have previously received. This explains why the data refresh is different to GBG’s data retention period
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Data Refresh |
GBG Data Retention Period |
Further Information |
Full Electoral Roll |
Monthly |
From 1992
The retention period will increase each year, up to 80 years. This will then be maintained at 80 years. Customer access is restricted for 6 years, with the opportunity to view earlier data providing they have a justification. |
This data is governed by the Representation of the People Act, therefore can only be used by our public sector/law enforcement customers. |
Open Register |
Monthly |
From 2003
The retention period will increase each year, up to 80 years. This will then be maintained at 80 years. Customer access is restricted for 6 years, with the opportunity to view earlier data providing they have a justification. |
Also known as the Edited Electoral Roll. |
Insolvency Data |
Weekly |
6 years |
We receive data from 3 sources: England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. They each send GBG any new records, amended records or records they would like us to delete. We then apply this to a copy of the database we hold. |
Postcode Address File (PAF) |
Daily |
Variable
GBG receives daily updates of PAF, which we hold for 2 weeks but we apply this to a copy of the database we hold where an address is retained for as Royal Mail keeps it on their master database (i.e., for as long as the property exists).
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PAF is address data provided by Royal Mail |
BT OSIS (UK Telephone Number Database) |
6 days week |
Variable
GBG receive updates of any new records, amended records or any records we need to delete and we hold these update files for 2 weeks. We apply the updates to a master database, so you will stay on this until BT ask us to remove you, which is typically when you cease having a landline telephone number. |
You may know this as the BT Phonebook. GBG must refer to it by its name as dictated by our licence. |
Commercial Data |
Weekly or Monthly |
2 Months |
GBG receive a full refresh of the data each month, but may receive a weekly update asking us to remove a record if an individual has exercised one of their data subject rights to our data supplier. |
This Australia and New Zealand Addendum was last updated on 01 April, 2025
GBG take the protection and security of your personal information very seriously and this addendum sets out our additional responsibilities under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (‘Australian Privacy Act’) and the Privacy Act 2020 (‘New Zealand Privacy Act’) relating to the processing and security of your personal information. We refer to the Australian Privacy Principles as the APPs and the New Zealand Information Privacy Principles as the IPPs. We refer to the Australian Privacy Act and the New Zealand Privacy Act together as ‘the Privacy Acts’.
This addendum sets out additional privacy notifications required for GBG's products sold in Australia and New Zealand.
The organisation you are interacting with should clearly outline to you where your data will be transferred, as this will have been detailed for them when contracting with GBG. GBG is a global organisation, therefore is capable of verifying your identity or an address globally as outlined in our Privacy Policy above.
GBG has taken appropriate safeguards and also conduct robust due diligence on data suppliers and third party providers to ensure data is protected. This means your personal information will be handled in accordance with the APPs and IPPs (at a minimum) in relation to the collection, use, disclosure, storage and destruction or de-identification of personal information.
Regions for transfer may include Europe, Africa & Middle East; Latin America; North America; East Asia; South Asia; and South East Asia.As an individual, we recognise it’s unlikely you’ll know the name of GBG’s product, however transfers and data retention based on the type of processing is outlined for information below.
GBG Product |
Service |
Data Collection |
Data Hosted |
Transfers |
Data Retention |
IDScan |
Identity Document Verification |
Australia New Zealand |
Australia |
N/A Australia |
Up to 31 days |
Customer Requested Support |
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UK Malaysia Turkey |
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GBG Go |
Identity Data Verification |
Australia New Zealand |
Australia |
Europe Africa & Middle East Latin America North America East Asia South Asia South East Asia |
This will be defined by GBG’s customer, 0-5 years maximum |
Identity Document Verification |
Australia New Zealand |
Australia |
N/A Australia |
This will be defined by GBG’s customer, 0-5 years maximum |
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Customer Requested Support |
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Australia UK Malaysia US Costa Rica |
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GreenID |
Identity Data Verification |
Australia New Zealand |
Australia |
N/A Australia |
Unless defined by the Customer, the data is deidentified after 12 months.
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Identity Document Verification * See IDScan |
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Cloudcheck |
Identity Data Verification |
New Zealand |
New Zealand |
New Zealand Australia
And if international services taken: Europe Africa & Middle East Latin America North America East Asia South Asia South East Asia |
7 days |
Loqate Harmony |
Address Verification |
Australia New Zealand |
Australia |
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0 or 30 days |
Email Validation |
Australia New Zealand |
Australia |
Germany Belgium US |
0 or 30 days |
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Phone Validation |
Australia New Zealand |
Australia |
Germany Belgium |
0 or 30 days |
Identity Document Verification may use biometric processing. Please refer to GBG’s Biometrics Notice for more detail.