Your privacy rights when
you’ve been enrolled into
Nest

As a trustee, Nest has a legal obligation to provide pensions and other benefits in relation to its members and must comply with the legal obligations applicable to it (such as trust law, pensions law and our Order and Rules). In order to meet these requirements, we need to process your personal information. 

In addition, Nest is also a public corporation, whose function is to be the trustee of the Scheme. In carrying out this function, we will need to process your data in order to run the Scheme in line with our powers.

To meet these obligations, we’ll use your personal information to:

• allocate pension contributions made by your employer
• pay your pension
• administer your Nest account
• communicate and interact with you in relation to your Nest account. This can be by phone,  webchat, email, post, secure mail, app
• provide services and information you request from us in relation to your Nest account
• inform you about changes to our services
• improve our service offering, including through surveys and research activities, data reporting and insight creation
• ensure we run a scheme that is compliant with regulation and legislation
• see if and when you have opened secure messages we send you, in your Nest account
• prevent and detect crimes such as fraudulent activities

When Nest needs to use information about your health or other sensitive personal information, we may ask for your consent. However, from time to time, there may be cases where due to legal reasons or public interest, Nest can use this personal information without your consent. 

Nest may also use your personal information in order to establish, exercise and defend its legal rights.

We’ll use your personal information to provide you with other information you’ve consented to receive. You can easily withdraw your consent at any time. We explain how you can do so, each time we ask for your consent.

For example: when logging into your Nest account for the first time, you will be asked whether you are happy to receive news and other information about Nest that may interest you. If you have consented to receive such information, you can withdraw your consent at any time by logging into your Nest account, selecting “edit profile” and changing your marketing preference.

We may also use your personal information to see if and when you open emails or links we send you, where you have consented to receive them.

If you use our website, you’ll see a message asking you to consent to the use of non-essential cookies, at your first visit. If you consent to the use of cookies, we’ll also use your personal information to monitor the traffic and performance of our website. Our app does not use non-essential cookies, but we do ask for your consent to use your mobile device type and location to help us understand app use and improve features.

If you want more information about cookies we use or if you’d like to change your cookie settings, please go to our cookies policy page.

Including: date(s) of joining Nest, starting and stopping contributions at each of your registered employers, qualifying earnings, pension opt in/out records, intended retirement date, contribution history, investment history and choices, retirement pot value, annual statements.

We’ll keep this information for 15 years after the earliest of:
(a)  the date we pay out your retirement pot in full  
(b)  the date you transfer your retirement pot out of Nest
(c)  date of your death or 150 years from your birth where we’ve not been notified of your death

This excludes information in relation to opting out which we’ll keep for 15 years following the earliest of: 
(a)  the date we receive the notice that you asked to opt out  
(b)  the retirement date in respect of your retirement pot.

Including: taking money out for retirement, transfers-out and distribution of death benefits, nomination of beneficiary form or similar forms for other beneficiaries or personal representatives, beneficiary ID information, incapacity information including medical evidence.

We’ll keep information in relation to transfers-out or the selection of benefits payable by Nest for the main retention period.

We’ll keep information in relation to the payment of your retirement pot after your death for 15 years after the date of the last payment out, or 150 years from your birth where we’ve not been notified of your death.

We’ll keep information in relation to incapacity for 15 years after the date of the decision confirming you meet the incapacity requirements.

Including: complaint information, pension sharing order, earmarking order, losing rights to your retirement pot (whether due to expiry of time or on grounds of loss to the employer or Nest arising from criminal, negligent or fraudulent activity by the member).

We’ll keep information in relation to complaints for 15 years from the later of:  
(a)  the date of Nest’s decision in relation to your complaint
(b)  the date we pay out your retirement pot in full 
(c)  the date you transfer your retirement pot out of Nest.

We’ll keep information in relation to a pension sharing order or earmarking order for the main retention period.

We’ll keep information in relation to losing rights to your retirement pot for 15 years from the date of losing the rights. This excludes the record that you’ve lost the right to your retirement pot which we’ll keep for the main retention period.

If the right to your retirement pot isn’t lost in full, we’ll keep your information 15 years from the later of: 
(a)  the date of losing the right to what’s in your retirement pot 
(b)  the date you transfer out the remaining balance of your retirement pot 
(c)  the date of the payment in full of the remaining balance of your retirement pot.

Any other personal information we collect, not described in any of the categories above will be brought to your attention with a specific message at the point of collection from you.

We’ll keep it for 15 years after the earliest of:
(a)  the date we pay out your retirement pot in full, 
(b)  the date you transfer your retirement pot out of Nest, or
(c)  the date of your death or 150 years from your birth where we’ve not been notified of your death.

We need to pass your personal information as requested and required, to The Pensions Regulator, the Pensions Ombudsman, the Department for Work and Pensions and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, in accordance with our legal, regulatory and statutory obligations, for compliance purposes. 

In order to comply with our legal, regulatory and statutory obligations, sometimes we also need to pass your personal information to third parties such as courts, law enforcement agencies, our insurers, our auditors and our professional advisers.

As part of the legal requirements when looking after the Scheme, Nest has to be able to develop a Scheme that aims at meeting, on an on-going basis, the needs of its members, participating employers, and intermediaries. In order to do so, Nest needs to conduct research and surveys. Some of those activities may require us to use your personal information.  

When conducting such activities, we may need, from time to time, to share your personal information with other government bodies or departments, as well as with third party research partners (such as universities, think tanks, etc.). Wherever appropriate, we’ll use aggregated datasets, or anonymisation or pseudonymisation techniques to limit personal information use to what is strictly necessary for the purpose of each project.

We also use market research agencies and survey providers to help us carry out these activities. We seek to ensure that we have the necessary safeguards and security measures in place, when we do so.

When we outsource any processes, we ensure any supplier or contractor we use has adequate security measures in place. We also require them to comply with data protection principles as part of our contract with them. When we share data with third parties, they may be a processor acting on instructions from us or a controller in their own right.

Most of our scheme administration is carried out by our outsourced supplier, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). As part of their services, some of your personal information may be processed from India. Where this occurs, Nest relies on model contract clauses (if you want more information, please see the section below ‘Transfers outside the UK’).

In the course of providing scheme administration services, TCS uses other processors, such as:

• data centre hosting providers, based in the UK and the EEA
• letter printing and postal service providers
• software providers, such as email campaign providers
• identity checking service providers

Where this occurs, Nest requires sufficient guarantees from TCS that appropriate technical and organisational measures are in place with all processors and that their standard of security with regard to the processing of your personal information is satisfactory to Nest.

When you transfer to another pension scheme, we’ll need to share some of your personal information with that pension provider/pensions advisor, as authorised by you.

In certain circumstances, we may need to disclose your personal information to other trusted third parties, who will receive it as controllers in their own right (such as auditors, consultants, legal advisers, identity and bank checking service providers). In such cases, we will ensure that the appropriate contracts and safeguards are in place.

Nest uses analytics providers in order to provide valuable information and insight into the performance and use of our website and apps. We also share information about your use of our site and apps with those analytics providers. You’ll find more information in our cookies policy.

From that page, you'll also be able to manage your preferences and be able to opt in or out from cookies that are not essential to the operation of the website.

For the app, you will be able to manage your preference when you log into the app.

We may also share your personal information with any other third party where you have given your consent.

Some of the services TCS are providing are carried out from India. In order to make sure that your data is secure when transferred to India, Nest uses the Model Contract Clauses which includes the UK's international data transfer agreement (ITDA) or the EU's standard contractual clauses (EU SCCs) supplemented by the ITDA addendum.

The administration of the Scheme and your Nest Account can be done using modern technology such as smartphones and tablets. In such cases, your personal information can be accessible from those devices. Where this occurs, Nest may access and review your personal information while transiting via countries outside the UK. Nest will carry out a risk assessment and seek to implement strong security controls to protect your data both in transit to, and on Nest devices.

As mentioned above, Nest conducts research into the way our customers interact and save with us, using third party processors such as market research agencies, survey providers and third party research partners.

When those third parties are not based in the UK, Nest carries out a risk assessment to determine whether appropriate safeguards are in place (taking into account the level of security, volume of data and sensitivity of data) and seeks to ensure that the necessary safeguards are written into a contract.

When procuring new suppliers that may be processing personal information, Nest conducts a risk assessment into where and how personal information will be processed and to determine what safeguards are appropriate, such as, for instance, entering into Model Contract Clauses (and/or any replacements applicable in the UK) or relying on adequacy decisions.

In order to administer the Scheme and your Nest account, it is important that we have accurate and complete information about you. We encourage you to notify us of any changes regarding your personal information, as mentioned just below.

You can correct the information we hold about you by logging into your Nest account, then selecting “edit profile”.  

You can also contact us at Nest, Nene Hall, Lynch Wood Business Park, Peterborough, PE2 6FY.

Subject to certain conditions, you have the right to request access to the personal information that we hold about you. This is commonly called a “data subject access request”. 

If possible, you should specify the type of information you would like to see to ensure that our disclosure meets your expectations. We must be able to verify your identity. Your request shall not impact the rights and freedoms of other people, e.g. privacy and confidentiality rights of other individuals.

In addition to your right to access or rectification of your personal data that we hold about you, you also have the right to make a request (under certain circumstances) to:

• restrict or object to the processing of the personal information we hold about you (see Note1)
• erase your personal information (see Note1)
• receive personal information about you that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format where we use it with your consent (‘right to data portability’) (see Note2)
• withdraw your consent for us to process your personal information, where based on consent (see Note3)

Note1: It is important to note that your request to restrict or object to processing or erase your personal information doesn’t automatically lead to a requirement for the processing to stop, or for your personal information to be deleted. For instance, we may not be in a position to erase your personal information, if for example, we need it to (i) comply with a legal obligation, or (ii) exercise or defend legal claims.

Note2: In addition, the right to data portability only applies in certain circumstances such as where the processing relies on consent. When Nest processes your personal information for the purposes of scheme administration (as explained above), in most instances, it does so in order to comply with its legal obligations. In this case, the right to data portability will not apply.

Note3: If you do decide to withdraw your consent we will stop processing your personal information for that purpose going forward, unless there is another lawful basis we rely on – in which case, we will let you know.

To make a request under these rights you can: 

• write to us at Nest, Nene Hall, Lynch Wood Business Park, Peterborough, PE2 6FY; or 
• email us at support@nestpensions.org.uk

The information provided in this privacy notice is in addition to any other privacy information we may give you on this website or via other channels (paper communication, secure message, webchat, telephone etc.).

If you want more information about the use of cookies on the Nest website, please view our cookies policy.

If you want to contact us, you can 

• by phone on 0300 020 0090 
• write to us at Nest, Nene Hall, Lynch Wood Business Park, Peterborough, PE2 6FY 
• email us at support@nestpensions.org.uk
• contact our data protection officer at dpo@nestcorporation.org.uk

If you have concerns about the way we handle your personal information and you think we haven’t dealt with them properly, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office or raise a complaint

• by phone on +44 303 123 1113
• by writing to Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF
• via their website at www.ico.org.uk/concerns