Privacy policy - Eatons Solicitors

Privacy & Data Collection Policy

Please read this Privacy Notice carefully as it sets out how Eatons solicitors will use your personal information. If you have any questions about this policy or the use of your data, please contact us on 01274 728 327 or email us at enquiries@eatons-solicitors.co.uk.

Here at Eatons solicitors, we take your privacy very seriously. This Policy explains how we may collect and process your personal data whether you are one of our employees, a client (existing or prospective), a visitor to our website or a careers applicants or a third party.

You should ensure that you read this Policy (Eatons Privacy & Data Collection Policy) together with our Client Care Guide and our Legal and Regulatory Information, Privacy and Terms Policy (available on the website) any documents referred to within those documents.

By using the website, you consent to the collection, use and transfer of data under these terms. Any changes to our policies will be posted to this site. You should check this page from time to time to ensure you fully understand the changes made as these change the agreement between us and are binding on you.

Data protection

In line with the Data Protection Act 2018 amd the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the General Data Protection Regulation "GDPR"), Eatons solicitors are data controllers of your personal data. Eatons solicitors are registered in the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) Register under number Z9358933.

What is personal information?

Personal information is data that can be used to identify or contact a single person.

Who is collecting your data?

Eatons solicitors of 34 Darley Street, Bradford, BD1 3LH will be the "controller" and the "processor" of the data taken from you. We have appointed a Data Protection Officer, who is the point of contact for enquiries relating to how your personal data is processed. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at the following address:

Mr Graeme Brown
34 Darley Street
Bradford
BD1 3LH
Email: graeme.brown@eatons-solicitors.co.uk

What data will Eatons collect and why?

Due to the nature of our area of work, namely providing legal services, we are required to process personal data for a range of different people. This includes our clients, people involved in or connected to legal matters we dealing with, people we employ, people our staff have dealings with and other third parties who we engage with directly or indirectly verbally, by email or in writing or through our website. We may also gather information from publicly available sources such as electoral rolls, companies house and/or telephone listings.

We have to process personal information to enable us to provide legal services including advising and acting on behalf of our clients. We also process personal information in order to maintain our own accounts and records, promote our service and to support and manage our employees. The amount of data we will obtain will depend on the nature of our relationship with you e.g. browsing our website, sending us an online enquiry, instructing or dealing with us or joining us as an employee.

We will only request information that is necessary to enable us to carry out the services requested however we do need to tell you about the legal grounds we will be using and processing your data.

Generally speaking, we will usually only use your personal data for the purpose of:

1) Performing a contract we enter into with you;
2) If we have your consent or for our legitimate interests (e.g. whilst acting for a company/entity you are employed by or connect to) or for improving our services to individuals; or
3) For compliance with our legal and regulatory responsibilities.

Should you not agree to provide your personal data then we may not be able to provide you with the services you have requested.

Reason for collecting and processing the data	Legal basis for collecting the data
To allow us to carry out our duties to you, provide the services and respond to enquiries	To perform the requirements of a contract
To monitor and record data from use of our website and our services	For the legitimate interest of improving our services and the experience of using our website and services for individuals.
To provide fee estimates online	To perform the requirements of a prospective contract
To provide responses to verbal enquiries via the telephone system.	To perform the requirements of a prospective contract
To deal with and respond to complaints	To meet a legal obligations
To administer and bill any services provided to you and to process payment for the same.	To perform the requirements of a contract
To provide legal updates, marketing options or host events.	Only where we have your consent to do so.
To process testimonial requests and/or client questionnaires	For the legitimate interest of improving our services and the experience of using our website and services for individuals.
In the capacity as an employer and for use in Human Resources	To perform the requirements of contractual obligations and also for legal obligations.

We detail some common examples below.

Sending us an enquiry through the website using the careers contact form or the general "contact us" form – This is an email sent to us after you have input your details into the form. This information is used to allow our advisors to contact you to provide a response to your query. All the details contained on the emails are stored on our secure sever facility and deleted when no longer required. This information is required to process your request and is to enable us to complete the performance of a contract/prospective contract. This information is not shared with any third party at this stage.
Sign up to a newsletter and/or marketing communications or attending an event we host – If you "opt in" or request legal updates from us and/or marketing literature from us then we will collect the minimum information required such as your name and email address. This will allow us to undertake the tasks requested. The legal process for us processing this information is on the grounds that you have provided consent for the same. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting our Admin Department on enquiries@eatons-solicitors.co.uk or writing to us at 34 Darley Street, Bradford, BD1 3LH.
Once you have instructed Eatons, we will need to obtain and keep information in order to progress your matter. The legal basis for obtaining and processing your data is performance of a contract (the retainer between you and Eatons). This data may include specific but also non specific data taken from you which includes your name(s), addresses, family members names, telephone numbers, email address, financial details, date of births, national insurance numbers, GP details, medical history, employment details and history, criminal convictions, IP address, Bank details/card details, social media posts and/or usernames, photographs, your racial or ethnic origin, your political opinions, your religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature, your trade union membership, your physical or mental health or condition, the commission or alleged commission by you of any offence, and any proceedings for any offence committed or alleged to have been committed by you, the disposal of such proceedings or the sentence of any court in such proceedings.
We may also need to collect and process your personal data for the purpose of verifying your identity, administrating bills and invoices and meeting our legal, regulatory and contractual obligations arising from any relationship we have with you.

Eatons do not profile their client base. We do not send out communications without a request from the data subject unless we have a legitimate reason to contact you.

What will Eatons do with the data?

Eatons will process the data taken from you to enable us to supply the services that you have instructed us on. Within this process, we will also use your data for the purposes of billing you and contacting you where necessary. We may also use the data to help us improve our services as a business.

Will Eatons share your data?

Eatons will not share your data for marketing purposes. The data we will hold will be stored on our computers in the UK on a secure sever facility. We may also occasionally make available information on our database about you to a third party with whom we are acting jointly on your behalf for which we will similarly have your consent. You can change this by withdrawing your consent at any time by contacting our Admin Department on enquiries@eatons-solicitors.co.uk or 34 Darley Street, Bradford, BD1 3LH.

We may have to, on occasion, share your data with a third party, other organisation(s) and our suppliers. These companies are obliged to keep your data secure as well. These parties include our support teams who process information, invoices and payments and provide support services on our behalf including our IT services, file storage facility, HMRC and accountants. We will only disclose your information where we need to do so to provide the product or service you have requested, where we need to do so to carry out our duties to our client or where we are required to do so in order to comply with the law or the requirements of a regulatory authority.

We may also need to share your data with other third party companies in the conduct of your matter. Examples of these third parties include:

Barristers
The other party to your claim and their representatives
Search providers
Accountants
Experts
Mediators
Costs Draftsman
Family or representatives of the person whose personal data we are processing
Current/past or prospective employers
Educators or examining bodies
Healthcare professionals or social and welfare organisations
Business associates
Trade associations
Professional bodies
Supplies and service providers
Ombudsman and regulatory authorities
Employment and recruitment agencies
Complainants
Enquirers
Financial organisations
Debt collection and tracing agencies
Credit reference agencies
Private investigators
HMRC
Central government
Courts and tribunals

(This list is not exhaustive)

When we have to transfer your personal data to a third party, we will limit the data we send to that strictly required for the matter at hand.

We do not generally use any suppliers outside of the UK which we would transfer your data to.

Retention of your details

We are obliged by our regulators and our internal retention procedures, to retain your files and your personal data for a set period of time. Generally, we will only hold your data for as long as it is necessary to provide the services and as long as is required by our regulators however if there is a possibility that you may have a legal claim against us, then we will hold your information for the duration of any statutory period associated with such legal claims.

If you have any concerns about how long we will retain your data, please contact us using the details below.

Is my data safe?

We have security measures in place within our firm to ensure that your data is as secure as we can make it. The use of information on the internet is never completely secure however we employ security measures to protect your data from access by unauthorised persons and against unlawful processing or accidental loss. In order to avoid a breach of this security, we use physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and protect the information we collect and store. This includes the locking of cabinets, rooms, data encryptions and electronic password protection. Any transmission of your data by you on our website is at your own risk.

If at any point you become aware of a security breach, please do notify us immediately by emailing enquiries@eatons-solicitors.co.uk.

What rights do I have?

Can I see what information you hold about me?

You can request details of all data we hold about you by submitting a subject access request to the Data Protection Officer, at the address provided above. We aim to comply with such a request from you within one month of the request being made. Where we cannot provide you with this information within one month; we shall inform you of this and provide the reasons why this cannot be achieved; at which point, we shall have a total of 3 months to comply with this request.

Can I correct the information held by you?

In the event that your data is incorrect; you have the right to have this rectified by us. In the event that any of your data is incorrect, please contact the Data Protection Officer at the address provided above.

Can I object to the information being held by you?

You have the right to object to our processing of your data. Please note, that where we need to process your data for reasons such as the defence of claims, we shall not be required to cease processing your data. In the event that you wish to object to us processing your data, please contact the Data Protection Officer at the address provided above.

Can I insist on your deleting my data?

You have the right to request that we delete your data provided that; we no longer require your data; or there is no legitimate legal basis for us to process your data; or we have unlawfully processed your data; or the data must be erased in order to comply with the law.

If you have grounds to request that we delete your data -and you wish to do so- please contact the Data Protection Officer at the address provided above. We shall not charge a fee for your data to be deleted from our databases.

Can I complain about the way you are handling my data?

You have a right to complain about the way we are holding or using your data and should you wish to do so, you should write to us at Data Protection Complaints, Eatons solicitors, 34 Darley Street, Bradford, BD1 3LH or email us at enquiries@eatons-solicitors.co.uk. If you remain unsatisfied with our response, you can refer the matter to the Information Commissioner's Office. Information on how to do this can be obtained from www.ico.org.uk.