Privacy Policy
This statement sets out how and why Seddons collects, stores and uses personal data.
This statement sets out how and why Seddons collects, stores and uses personal data.
SEDDONS PRIVACY POLICY
Privacy statement
This statement sets out how and why Seddons collects, stores and uses personal data – it also confirms that the lawful basis for our processing of personal data is that it is in our legitimate interests; a contractual obligation or to meet a legal obligation. We do not use automated decision making (commonly known as “profiling”) to make decisions which affect data subjects.
For the purpose of the General Data Protection Regulation, Seddons Law LLP (Seddons) is a data controller. Seddons is a limited liability partnership, incorporated in England and Wales practising the law of England and Wales, and authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (‘SRA’). Seddons trades from 5 Portman Square London, W1H 6NT. A list of Members (commonly referred to as "Partners") is available on request. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (Reg. No. 00656643).
We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. Should you have concerns which we are unable to adequately address then you should contact the UK data protection authority – the Information Commissioners’ Office - https://ico.org.uk.
We may revise this statement at any time by amending this page. Some of the provisions contained in this Privacy Policy use may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site. This policy does not form a contract between an individual and Seddons.
Our Privacy Compliance Officer is Alexander Egerton. He is your point of contact should you have any issues regarding this policy or how we are processing your data.
If you:
then we ask that you contact our Privacy Compliance Officer. In some cases we may not be able to give you access to personal information we hold regarding you if making such a disclosure would breach our legal obligations to our client or if prevented by any applicable law or regulation.
Personal data we will collect
Personal data we may collect depending on why you have instructed us
This personal data is required to enable us to provide our service to you. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.
This personal data is required to enable us to provide our service to you. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.
How your personal data is collected
We collect most of this information from you, direct or via a secure online client portal. This includes:
However, we may also collect information:
Use of Data
How and why we use your personal data
Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so, e.g.:
A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.
The table below explains what we use (process) your personal data for and our reasons for doing so:
What we use your personal data for |
Our reasons |
To provide legal services to you |
For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract |
Conducting checks to identify our clients and verify their identity |
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies |
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Ensuring business policies are adhered to, e.g. policies covering security and internet use |
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you |
Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control |
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price |
Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information |
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to protect our intellectual property and other commercially valuable information |
Statistical analysis to help us manage our practice, eg in relation to our financial performance, client base, work type or other efficiency measures |
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price |
Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems |
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you |
Updating and enhancing client records |
For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract |
Statutory returns |
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments |
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Marketing our services to: |
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to promote our business to existing and former clients |
Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies |
For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, i.e. for credit control and to ensure our clients are likely to be able to pay for our services]] |
External audits and quality checks, eg for Lexcel, ISO or Investors in People accreditation and the audit of our accounts |
For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, i.e. to achieve or maintain accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards |
The above table does not apply to special category personal data, which we will only process with your explicit consent.
If we consider that is may be of benefit to you we reserve the right to share your personal data with other departments in our practice. We will also contact you with details of events and other information which again we consider to be of benefit. and we may contact you about these by post or telephone or email. You can tell us how you would like us to process your data or opt out of this service.
Who we Share your Data With?
We may also disclose your personal information to third parties:
Where your personal data is held
Information may be held at our offices, third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see ‘Who we share your personal data with’).
Some of these third parties may be based outside the European Economic Area. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this occurs, see below: ‘Transferring your personal data out of the EEA’.
How long your personal data will be kept
We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you. We will do so for one of these reasons:
We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data
Transferring your personal data out of the EEA
To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA), eg:
These transfers are subject to special rules under European and UK data protection law.
These non-EEA countries do not have the same data protection laws as the United Kingdom and EEA. We will, however, ensure the transfer complies with data protection law and all personal data will be secure. Our standard practice is to use standard data protection contract clauses which have been approved by the European Commission.
If you would like further information please contact our Privacy Compliance Officer (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
Promotional communications
We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about legal developments that might be of interest to you and/or information about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new services or products.
We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal data for promotional purposes (see above ‘How and why we use your personal data’). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.
We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never sell OR share it with other organisations for marketing purposes.
You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:
We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business
Anti-money laundering Information
In the United Kingdom there are laws and regulations are designed to combat money laundering. Broadly, money laundering can arise if a person acquires, retains, transfers, uses or controls the proceeds of a crime for the benefit of a criminal activity. References to money laundering include references to terrorism.
In order to fulfil our obligations we are obliged to verify the identity of new clients, and in certain circumstances existing clients. In addition, our internal requirements from time to time may require that we conduct background checks on new or existing clients. These may necessitate verification procedures of the identity and good standing of clients, one or more of their directors or employees or other representatives. This includes the identity of clients' or potential clients' shareholders, beneficial owners, management, directors or officers and/or other relevant information. This may possibly include evidence of source of funds, at the outset of and possibly from time to time throughout our relationship with clients, which we may request and/or obtain from third party sources. The sources for such verification may comprise documentation which we request from the prospective client or through the use of online sources or both.
In some circumstances we may decline to, or may not be permitted to, proceed to act until such procedures have been completed. In other circumstances we may agree to commence acting whilst these procedures are carried out. We reserve the right to decline to act or, if appropriate, cease to act should these procedures not be completed to our satisfaction. We may also be required to make detailed enquiries about any unusual transactions such as the transfer of large amounts of cash.
Where we instruct counsel or other professionals on behalf of clients they may request us to provide them with copies of evidence of identity of clients or their representatives which we have obtained from you or from other sources. We will be entitled to send such copies to them if we so decide, unless you specifically advise us not to do so.
Prospective clients
In the case of information which may be given to us by you as a prospective client, or as an existing client in respect of a prospective transaction, dispute or other matter, we will assume unless you notify us to the contrary before the relevant information is given to us and we accept the position, that (a) such information will be confidential (b) (b) such information is not subject to confidentiality obligations owed to a third party or (c) if such information is subject to a confidentiality obligation owed to a third party that it is not being given to us in breach of such obligation. We will carry out conflict checks as soon as reasonably practicable to ensure that we do not accept instructions in circumstances where this gives rise to a conflict of interest.
Information collection and use via email
To the extent permitted by law, we may monitor electronic communications for the purposes of ensuring compliance with our legal and regulatory obligations and internal policies.
We may also collect email traffic headers ("from", "to" and timestamp fields) for analysing patterns of network traffic and managing client relationships. xcluded.
Information collection and use through our website
You do not have to give us any personal information in order to use most of our website. However, if you wish to take advantage of some of the more special, personalised services that we make available (attending, events, or applying for employment opportunities) you will need to disclose to Seddons certain information.
Seddons is the sole owner of the information collected on our website. We do not sell, share, or transfer this information, except as set out in this statement. We use your information to improve our marketing, for administration and to provide legal services. We may employ the services of a third party to help us in certain areas, such as website hosting. In some cases that third party may receive your information. Furthermore, we may be required to disclose your information by any applicable law or regulation. However, at all times Seddons will control and be responsible for the use of your information.
Cookies
We have a separate cookie policy
IP addresses
We use IP addresses to analyse trends, administer the website, track users' movements, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.
Links
This website contains links to other websites. Please note that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of other websites. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this website.
Security
We take all appropriate steps to protect your information both online and off-line. If you would like information on our security procedures please contact us using our contact form.
Subject to the basis upon which we lawfully process your personal data you may have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:
Access |
The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data |
Rectification |
The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data |
To be forgotten |
The right to require us to delete your personal data—in certain situations |
Restriction of processing |
The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal data—in certain circumstances, eg if you contest the accuracy of the data |
Data portability |
The right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party—in certain situations |
To object |
The right to object: —at any time to your personal data being processed for direct marketing (including profiling); —in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data, eg processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests. |
Not to be subject to automated individual decision-making |
The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you |
For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us or see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:
Please contact our Privacy Compliance Officer, Alexander Egerton, by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.
Alexander Egerton
Seddons
5 Portman Square
London
W1H 6NT
Telephone 020 7725 8030