How your personal information will be used by the CharterGroup

Purpose of this statement

We are committed to safeguarding your privacy.

This notice describes how we collect and use personal data about you, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’), the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (EU Directive) 2003 (‘PECR’), and any other national implementing laws, regulations and secondary legislation, as amended or updated from time to time, in the UK (‘Data Protection Legislation’).

Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

Any changes we may make to our privacy statement in the future will be updated on our website at: https://chartergroup.co.uk/privacy-policy/. This privacy notice was last updated on 25 May 2018.

This statement includes:

 

About the data controller

Chartergroup (“Chartergroup”, “the Group”, “we”, “us”, “our” and “ours”) is an accountancy advisory group. Our registered office is at 4 Beaconsfield Rd, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL1 3RD

For the purpose of the Data Protection Legislation and this notice, we are the ‘data controller’. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. We are required under the Data Protection Legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy statement.

We have appointed Nikki White as our Data Protection Point of Contact, responsible for assisting with enquiries in relation to this privacy statement or our treatment of your personal data. Should you wish to contact them, please use the contact details noted under ‘Contact us’, below.

 

How we may collect your personal data

We obtain personal data about you, for example, when:

  • you request information or a proposal from us in respect of the services we provide;
  • you or your employer or our clients engage us to provide our services, and also during the provision of those services;
  • you contact us by email, telephone, post, or social media (for example when you have a query about our services); or
  • from third parties and/or publicly available resources (for example, from your employer or from Companies House).

We collect and process personal data provided voluntarily via our website. The personal data we collect will be used to respond to your feedback or enquiry, or to send you any periodic information, invitations or updates you have subscribed to, or that are in-keeping with our legitimate interests under data protection legislation.

 

How we use cookies on our website

Our website uses cookies which may collect information about your computer, your visits to and use of this website (including your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views, and website navigation).

We may use both “session” cookies and “persistent” cookies on the website.

Session cookies will be used to keep track of you whilst you navigate the website. Session cookies will be deleted from your computer when you close your browser.

Persistent cookies are used to enable our website to recognise you when you visit. They will remain stored on your computer until deleted, or until they reach a specified expiry date.

Most browsers allow you to reject all cookies, whilst some browsers allow you to reject just third-party cookies. Blocking all cookies will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

Third party cookies

We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc on its website. Google Analytics sets a cookie in order to evaluate your use of the Chartergroup website and compile reports for us on activity on the website. We use this information to improve the performance of our website for users.

Google stores the information collected by the cookie on servers in the United States. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. By using the Chartergroup website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

For more information on the cookie set by Google Analytics, including information on how to opt out please go to: http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html

Website sharing tools

Our website has embedded ‘share’ buttons to enable users of the site to easily share articles with their friends and contacts through a number of popular social networks. These sites may set a cookie when you are also logged in to their service. Chartergroup does not control the dissemination of these cookies and you should check the relevant third-party website for more information about these.

 

What kind of information we may hold about you

The information we hold about you may include the following:

  • your personal details (such as your name or address);
  • details of contact we have had with you in relation to the provision, or the proposed provision, of our services;
  • details of any services you have received from us;
  • our correspondence and communications with you;
  • information about any enquiries or complaints you make to us;
  • information from research, surveys, and marketing activities;
  • information we receive from other sources, such as publicly available information, information provided by our clients, or information from other firms in the Chartergroup.

 

How we may use your personal data

We may process your personal data:

  • to respond to an enquiry or feedback about our services from you, including our website services;
  • in the performance of our contract with you or our clients, and to comply with our legal obligations. This may include processing your personal data where you are an employee, subcontractor, supplier or customer of our client;
  • for the purposes of our own legitimate interests, provided that those interests do not override any of your own interests, rights and freedoms which require the protection of personal data. This includes processing to help us improve our services or for marketing, business development, research, statistical and management purposes;
  • for certain additional purposes with your consent. You have the right to withdraw your consent to processing for such specific purposes; and
  • on more than one lawful basis, depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.

Where we need to use your personal data for a reason other than for the purpose for which we collected it, we will only do so where that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

Should it be necessary to use your personal data for a new purpose, we will notify you and communicate the legal basis which allows us to process your data.

 

When we may use your personal data

We may use your personal data in order to:

  • carry out our obligations arising from any agreements entered into with you (which will usually be for the provision of our services);
  • carry out our obligations arising from any agreements entered into between our clients and us (which will most usually be for the provision of our services) where you may be an employee, subcontractor, supplier or customer of our client;
  • provide you with information related to our services and our events and activities that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, provided you have consented to be contacted for such purposes, or as allowed under Data Protection Legislation;
  • seek your thoughts and opinions on the services we provide; and
  • notify you about any changes to our services.

If you do not provide us with certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered with you. Alternatively, we may be unable to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations.

We may also process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where we are legally required or permitted to do so.

In some circumstances we may anonymise or pseudonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use it without further notice to you.

 

How long we keep your 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.

 

Who we may share your data with

We will share your personal data with third parties where we are required by law, where it is necessary to administer the relationship between us or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.

“Third parties” includes third-party service providers and other entities within our group. The following activities are carried out by third-party service providers: IT and cloud services, professional advisory services, marketing services and banking services.

All of our third-party service providers are required to take commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect your personal data. We only permit our third-party service providers to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

We may share your personal data with other third parties, for example in the context of the possible sale or restructuring of the business. We may also need to share your personal data with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

We will only transfer the personal data we collect about you outside of the EEA if it is necessary to complete the work requested by you or our clients. If this happens, we will ensure that anyone to whom we pass your information agrees to treat your information with the same level of protection as if we were dealing with it.

 

Keeping your data secure

We have put in place commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. This includes ensuring that client personal data that is stored electronically is held in a secure datacentre in the UK.

In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you, and any applicable regulator, of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

 

Your rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Should your personal information change, please notify us of any changes of which we need to be made aware by contacting us, using the contact details below.

Your rights in connection with personal data

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive details of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are processing it lawfully.
  • Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you.
  • Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
  • Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and you want to object to processing on this basis. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes. If you ask us to stop sending you marketing materials and newsletters, we will keep a record of your contact details and preferences to enable us to comply with the request not to contact you.
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
  • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or another data controller if the processing is based on consent, carried out by automated means and this is technically feasible.

If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please email our Data Protection Point of Contact at Nikki.White@chartergroup.co.uk.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data, or to exercise any of the other rights above. However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information, or to exercise any of your other rights. This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

Right to withdraw consent

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal data for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please email our Data Protection Point of Contact Nikki.White@chartergroup.co.uk.

Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your personal information (personal data) for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

 

Contact us

If you have any questions regarding this notice or if you would like to speak to us about the way we process your personal data, please email our Data Protection Point of Contact at Nikki.White@chartergroup.co.uk or telephone them on 0345 030 6167.

You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, at any time. The ICO’s contact details are as follows:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

Telephone – 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745

Website – https://ico.org.uk/concerns