1. Introduction

This Privacy Notice explains in detail the types of personal data we may collect about you when you interact with us. It also explains how we’ll store and handle that data, and keep it safe.

We know that there’s a lot of information here but we want you to be fully informed about your rights, and how A Patel & Co Accountants Ltd uses your data.

We hope the following sections will answer any questions you have but if not, please do get in touch with us.

It’s likely that we’ll need to update this Privacy Notice from time to time. We’ll notify you of any significant changes, but you’re welcome to come back and check it whenever you wish.

 

2. Explaining the legal bases we rely on

The law on data protection sets out a number of different reasons for which a company may collect and process your personal data, including:

Consent

In specific situations, we can collect and process your data with your consent.

For example, when you tick a box to receive email newsletters.

When collecting your personal data, we’ll always make clear to you which data is necessary in connection with a particular service.

Contractual obligations

In certain circumstances, we need your personal data to comply with our contractual obligations.

For example, if you request a report from us for delivery, we’ll collect your address details to deliver your information, and pass them to our courier.

Legal compliance

If the law requires us to, we may need to collect and process your data.

For example, we can pass on details of people involved in fraud or other criminal activity affecting the Company to law enforcement.

Legitimate interest

In specific situations, we require your data to pursue our legitimate interests in a way which might reasonably be expected as part of running our business and which does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests.

For example, we will use your business history to send you or make available personalised offers.

We also combine the browing/use history of many visitors to identify trends and ensure we can keep up with demand, or develop new products/tservices.

We will also use your address details to send you direct marketing information by post, telling you about products and services that we think might interest you.

 

3. When do we collect your personal data?

  • When you visit our websites to download dataor review services.
  • When you visit the Practice and leave your contact details.
  • When you book any appointment with us.
  • When you engage with us on social media.
  • When you contact us by any means with queries, complaints etc.
  • When you ask us to email you information about a product or service.
  • When you choose to complete any surveys we send you.
  • When you fill in any forms.
  • When you’ve given a third party permission to share with us the information they hold about you.
  • We collect data from publicly available sources (such as Land Registry) when you have given your consent to share information or where the information is made public as a matter of law.
  • When you use visit our Practice which may have CCTV systems operated for the security of both customers and Staff. These systems may record your image during your visit.

 

4. What sort of personal data do we collect?

  • Details of your interactions with us in our Practice or online.For example, we collect notes from our conversations with you, details of any complaints or comments you make, details of requests you made, services you show interest in, web pages you visit and how and when you contact us.
  • Copies of documents you provide to prove your age or identity where the law requires this. (including your passport and driver’s licence). This will include details of your full name, address, date of birth and facial image. If you provide a passport, the data will also include your place of birth, gender and nationality.

For example, We may need you to provide proof of identity if you request access to your personal data.

  • Details of your visits to our website and which site you came from to ours.
  • Information gathered by the use of cookies in your web browser.
    Learn more about how we use cookies and similar technologies.
  • Personal details which help us to recommend items of interest.For example, You might share information on your business requirements which allows us to recommend appropriate services.We’ll only ask for and use your personal data collected for recommending items of interest and to tailor your experience with us. Of course, it’s always your choice whether you share such details with us.
  • Your comments.
  • Your image may be recorded on CCTV when you visit our Practice.
  • To deliver the best possible web experience, we collect technical information about your internet connection and browser as well as the country and telephone code where your computer is located, the web pages viewed during your visit, the links you clicked on, and any search terms you entered.
  • Your social media username, if you interact with us through those channels, to help us respond to your comments, questions or feedback.

 

5. How and why do we use your personal data?

We want to give you the best possible customer experience. One way to achieve that is to get the richest picture we can of who you are by combining the data we have about you.

We then use this to offer you services that are most likely to interest you.

The data privacy law allows this as part of our legitimate interest in understanding our customers and providing the highest levels of service.

Of course, if you wish to change how we use your data, you’ll find details in the ‘What are my rights?’ section below.

Remember, if you choose not to share your personal data with us, or refuse certain contact permissions, we might not be able to provide some services you’ve asked for.

For example, if you’ve asked us to let you know when we introduce a new service, we can’t do that if you’ve withdrawn your general consent to hear from us.

Here’s how we’ll use your personal data and why:

  • Our staff will use your personal data for one or more of the following reasons
    • To perform their duties to deliver the work/service we have promised and contracted to do for you.
    • To contact you about your account and any after ongoing services we are providing for you.
  • To respond to your queries, refund requests and complaints. Handling the information you sent enables us to respond. We may also keep a record of these to inform any future communication with us and to demonstrate how we communicated with you throughout. We do this on the basis of our contractual obligations to you, our legal obligations and our legitimate interests in providing you with the best service and understanding how we can improve our service based on your experience.
  • To protect our business from fraud and other illegal activities. This includes using your personal data to maintain, update and safeguard your account.
  • To protect our customers, premises, assets and Partners from crime, we may operate CCTV systems in our Practice which record images for security. We do this on the basis of our legitimate business interests.
    • To process payments and to prevent fraudulent transactions. We do this on the basis of our legitimate business interests. This also helps to protect our customers from fraud.
    • If we discover any criminal activity or alleged criminal activity through our use of CCTV, fraud monitoring and suspicious transaction monitoring, we will process this data for the purposes of preventing or detecting unlawful acts. We aim to protect the individuals we interact with from criminal activities.
    • With your consent, we will use your personal data, preferences and details of your transactions to keep you informed by email, web, text, telephone about relevant services and financial news/products.Of course, you are free to opt out of hearing from us by any of these channels at any time.
    • To send you relevant, personalised communications by post in relation to updates, services and products. We’ll do this on the basis of our legitimate business interest.You are free to opt out of hearing from us by post at any time.
    • To send you communications required by law or which are necessary to inform you about our changes to the services we provide you. For example, updates to this Privacy Notice, product recall notices, and legally required information relating to your orders. These service messages will not include any promotional content and do not require prior consent when sent by email or text message. If we do not use your personal data for these purposes, we would be unable to comply with our legal obligations.
  • To develop, test and improve the systems, services and products we provide to you. We’ll do this on the basis of our legitimate business interests.

For example, we’ll record your browser’s Session ID to help us understand more when you leave us online feedback about any problems you’re having.

  • To comply with our contractual or legal obligations to share data with law enforcement.

For example, when a court order is submitted to share data with law enforcement agencies or a court of law.

  • To send you survey and feedback requests to help improve our services. These messages will not include any promotional content and do not require prior consent when sent by email or text message. We have a legitimate interest to do so as this helps make our products or services more relevant to you. Of course, you are free to opt out of receiving these requests from us at any time by by updating your preferences in the message sent.
  • To build a rich picture of who you are and what you like, and to inform our business decisions, we’ll combine data captured from services you have requested, as we have described in the section What Sort of Personal Data do we collect? We’ll do this on the basis of our legitimate business interest.

To process your Information/accounts/services deliveries

Sometimes, we’ll need to share your details with a third party who is providing a service (such as delivery couriers).  Without sharing your personal data, we’d be unable to fulfil your request.

 

6. Combining your data for personalised direct marketing

We want to bring you services that are most relevant to your interests at particular times. To help us form a better, overall understanding of you as a customer, we combine your personal data gathered as described above, for example your interaction online and at our Practice. For this purpose we also combine the data that we collect directly from you with data that we obtain from third parties to whom you have given your consent to pass that data onto us – such as the Land Registry mentioned above.

 

7. How we protect your personal data

We know how much data security matters to all our customers. With this in mind we will treat your data with the utmost care and take all appropriate steps to protect it.

We do not personally hold any payment data.  We do not record any personal payment information such as credit card details provided to us at the Practice.

Access to your personal data is password-protected and we do not hold sensitive data such as payment card information.

 

8. How long will we keep your personal data?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it is collected.

When assessing what retention period is appropriate for your personal data, we take into consideration:

  • the requirements of our business and the services provided;
  • any statutory or legal obligations;
  • the purposes for which we originally collected the personal data;
  • the lawful grounds on which we based our processing;
  • the types of personal data we have collected;
  • the amount and categories of your personal data; and
  • whether the purpose of the processing could reasonably be fulfilled by other means.

 

9. Who do we share your personal data with?

We sometimes share your personal data with trusted third parties.

For example, delivery couriers, technicians visiting your home, for fraud management, to handle complaints, to help us personalise our offers to you and so on. 

Here’s the policy we apply to those organisations to keep your data safe and protect your privacy: 

  • We provide only the information they need to perform their specific services.
  • They may only use your data for the exact purposes we specify in our contract with them.
  • We work closely with them to ensure that your privacy is respected and protected at all times.
  • If we stop using their services, any of your data held by them will either be deleted or rendered anonymous.

Examples of the kind of third parties we work with are:

  • IT companies who support our website and other business systems.
  • Operational companies such as delivery couriers.
  • Direct marketing companies who help us manage our electronic communications with you.
  • Google/Facebook to show you products that might interest you while you’re browsing the internet. This is based on either your marketing consent or your acceptance of cookies on our websites. See our Cookie policy for details.
  • Data insight companies to ensure your details are up to date and accurate.

Sharing your data with third parties for their own purposes:

We will only do this in very specific circumstances, for example:

  • For fraud management, we may share information about fraudulent or potentially fraudulent activity in our premises or systems. This may include sharing data about individuals with law enforcement bodies.
  • We may also be required to disclose your personal data to the police or other enforcement, regulatory or Government body, in your country of origin or elsewhere, upon a valid request to do so. These requests are assessed on a case-by-case basis and take the privacy of our customers into consideration.
  • We may, from time to time, expand, reduce or sell the business and this may involve the transfer of part or the whole business to new owners. If this happens, your personal data will, where relevant, be transferred to the new owner or controlling party, under the terms of this Privacy Notice.  For further information please contact us.

To help personalise your journey through our website we currently use the following companies who will process your personal data as part of their contracts with us:

  • Taxcalc

 

10. What are your rights over your personal data?

An overview of your different rights

You have the right to request:

  • Access to the personal data we hold about you, free of charge in most cases.
  • The correction of your personal data when incorrect, out of date or incomplete.
  • The deletion of the data we hold about you, in specific circumstances. For example, when you withdraw consent, or object and we have no legitimate overriding interest, or once the purpose for which we hold the data has come to an end (e.g. the end of a warranty).
  • A computer file in a common format (e.g. CSV or similar) containing the personal data that you have previously provided to us and the right to have your information transferred to another entity where this is technically possible.
  • Restriction of the use of your personal data, in specific circumstances, generally whilst we are deciding on an objection you have made.
  • That we stop processing your personal data, in specific circumstances. For example, when you have withdrawn consent, or object for reasons related to your individual circumstances.
  • That we stop using your personal data for direct marketing (either through specific channels, or all channels).
  • That we stop any consent-based processing of your personal data after you withdraw that consent.
  • Review by a Partner of any decision made based solely on automatic processing of your data (i.e. where no human has yet reviewed the outcome and criteria for the decision).

You can contact us to request to exercise these rights at any time by emailing us or by informing us verbally at our Practice.

If we choose not to action your request we will explain to you the reasons for our refusal.

Your right to withdraw consent

Whenever you have given us your consent to use your personal data, you have the right to change your mind at any time and withdraw that consent.

Where we rely on our legitimate interest

In cases where we are processing your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest, you can ask us to stop for reasons connected to your individual situation.

We must then do so unless we believe we have a legitimate overriding reason to continue processing your personal data.

Direct marketing

You have the right to stop the use of your personal data for direct marketing activity through all channels, or selected channels. We must always comply with your request.

Checking your identity

To protect the confidentiality of your information, we will ask you to verify your identity before proceeding with any request you make under this Privacy Notice.

If you have authorised a third party to submit a request on your behalf, we will ask them to prove they have your permission to act.

11. How can you stop the use of your personal data for direct marketing?

There are several ways you can stop direct marketing communications from us:

  • Click the ‘unsubscribe’ link in any email communication that we send you. We will then stop any further marketing emails.
  • Write to A Patel & Co Accountants Ltd, 341 Derby Street, Bolton, BL3 6LR.

Please note that you may continue to receive communications for a short period after changing your preferences while our systems are fully updated.

 

12. Contacting the Regulator

If you feel that your data has not been handled correctly, or you are unhappy with our response to any requests you have made to us regarding the use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

If you are based outside the UK, you have the right to lodge your complaint with the relevant data protection regulator in your country of residence.

 

13. If you live outside the UK

For all non-UK customers

This Privacy Notice will only be available in English.

By using our services or providing your personal data to us, you expressly consent to the processing of your personal data by us or on our behalf. Of course, you still have the right to ask us not to process your data in certain ways, and if you do so, we will respect your wishes.

Sometimes we’ll need to transfer your personal data between countries to enable us to supply the goods or services you’ve requested. In the ordinary course of business, we may transfer your personal data from your country of residence to ourselves and to third parties located in the UK.

By dealing with us, you are giving your consent to this overseas use, transfer and disclosure of your personal data outside your country of residence for our ordinary business purposes.

This may occur because our information technology storage facilities and servers are located outside your country of residence, and could include storage of your personal data on servers in the UK.

We’ll ensure that reasonable steps are taken to prevent third parties outside your country of residence using your personal data in any way that’s not set out in this Privacy Notice. We’ll also make sure we adequately protect the confidentiality and privacy of your personal data.

We’ll ensure that any third parties process your personal data only in accordance with their legitimate interests. These third parties may be subject to different laws from those which apply in your country of residence.  Please note that we do not take active steps to ensure that any overseas recipient of your personal data complies with the laws which apply in your country.

14. Any questions?

We hope this Privacy Notice has been helpful in setting out the way we handle your personal data and your rights to control it.

If you have any questions that haven’t been covered, please contact our customer care team who will be pleased to help you:

  • Email us on info@apatelaccountants.co.uk
  • Or write to us at

A Patel & Co Accountants Ltd
341 Derby Street
Bolton
BL3 6LR

This notice was last updated on 14/10/2019