Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy sets out how we, GEC PR collect, store and use information about you when you use or interact with our website, www.gecpr.co.uk, and where we otherwise obtain or collect information about you. This Privacy Policy is effective from 25 May 2018.
Contents
- Summary
- Our details
- Information we collect when you visit our website
- Information we collect when you contact us
- Information we collect when you interact with our website
- Our use of automated decision-making and profiling
- How we collect or obtain information about you from third parties
- Disclosure and additional uses of your information
- How long we retain your information
- How we secure your information
- Transfers of your information outside the European Economic Area
- Your rights in relation to your information
- Your right to object to the processing of your information for certain purposes
- Sensitive Personal Information
- Changes to our Privacy Policy
- Children’s Privacy
- California Do Not Track Disclosures
- Copyright, credit and logo
Summary
This section summarises how we obtain, store and use information about you. It is intended to provide a very general overview only. It is not complete in and of itself and it must be read in conjunction with the corresponding full sections of this Privacy Policy.
- Data controllers: The Directors of GEC PR
- How we collect or obtain information about you:
- when you provide it to us e.g. by contacting us by signing up to our e-newsletter,
- from your use of our website, using cookies and similar technologies
- Information we collect could be: name, contact details, IP address, information from cookies, information about your computer or device (e.g. device and browser type), information about how you use our website e.g. which pages you have viewed, the time when you viewed them and what you clicked on, the geographical location from which you accessed our website based on your IP address, company name or business name (if applicable).
- How we use your information: for administrative and business purposes
- Disclosure of your information to third parties: only to the extent necessary to run our business, to our service providers, to fulfil any contracts we enter into with you, where required by law or to enforce our legal rights
- Do we sell your information to third parties (other than in the course of a business sale or purchase or similar event): No
- How long we retain your information: for no longer than necessary, taking into account any legal obligations we have (e.g. to maintain records for tax purposes), any other legal basis we have for using your information (e.g. your consent, performance of a contract with you or our legitimate interests as a business. For specific retention periods in relation to certain information which we collect from you, please see the main section below entitled How long we retain your information).
- How we secure your information: using appropriate technical and organisational measures such as storing your information on secure servers, encrypting transfers of data to or from our servers using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology, only granting access to your information where necessary.
- Use of cookies: We use cookies on our website. For more information, please visit our cookies policy on our website
- Transfers of your information outside the European Economic Area: We will only transfer your information outside the European Economic Area if we are required to do so by law OR in certain circumstances for client information we transfer your information outside of the European Economic Area, including to the following countries: The Maldives, India and the USA. Where we do so, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.
- Use of automated decision making and profiling: we do not use automated decision making or profiling
- Your rights in relation to your information
- to access your information and to receive information about its use
- to have your information corrected and/or completed
- to have your information deleted
- to restrict the use of your information
- to receive your information in a portable format
- to object to the use of your information
- to withdraw your consent to the use of your information
- to complain to a supervisory authority
- Sensitive personal information: we do not knowingly or intentionally collect what is commonly referred to as ‘sensitive personal information’. Please do not submit sensitive personal information about you to us. For more information, please see the main section below entitled Sensitive Personal Information.
Our details
The data controller in respect of our website are the Directors of GEC PR. You can contact the data controller by sending an email to [email protected].
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact the data controller.
Information we collect when you visit our website
We collect and use information from website visitors in accordance with this section and the section entitled Disclosure and additional uses of your information.
Information we collect when you contact us
We collect and use information from individuals who contact us in accordance with this section and the section entitled Disclosure and additional uses of your information.
When you send an email to the email address displayed on our website, we collect your email address and any other information you provide in that email (such as your name, telephone number and the information contained in any signature block in your email).
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest(s): responding to enquiries and messages we receive and keeping records of correspondence.
Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Reason why necessary to perform a contract: where your message relates to us providing you with goods or services or taking steps at your request prior to providing you with our goods and services (for example, providing you with information about such goods and services), we will process your information in order to do so).
Transfer and storage of your information
We use a third-party email provider to store emails you send us. Our third-party email provider is Outlook.
Contact form
When you contact us using our contact form, we collect name, email address, IP address. We also collect any other information you provide to us when you complete the contact form e.g. phone number or company name.
If you do not provide the mandatory information required by our contact form, you will not be able to submit the contact form and we will not receive your enquiry.
If you do not supply the optional information required by our contact form, (such as phone number) we will not be able to respond to your enquiry by phone.
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest(s): responding to enquiries and messages we receive and keeping records of correspondence.
Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Reason why necessary to perform a contract: where your message relates to us providing you with goods or services or taking steps at your request prior to providing you with our goods and services (for example, providing you with information about such goods and services), we will process your information in order to do so).
Transfer and storage of your information
Messages you send us via our contact form will be stored within the European Economic Area on our mailchimp or paper.li databases or email provider’s servers. Our third-party email or hosting provider is Microsoft
For further information about the safeguards used when your information is transferred outside the European Economic Area, see the section of this privacy policy below entitled Transfers of your information outside the European Economic Area.
Phone
When you contact us by phone, we collect your phone number and any information provided to us during your conversation with us.
We do not record phone calls.
Post
If you contact us by post, we will collect any information you provide to us in any postal communications you send us.
Information we collect when you interact with our website
We collect and use information from individuals who interact with particular features of our website in accordance with this section and the section entitled Disclosure and additional uses of your information.
E-Newsletter
When you sign up for our e-newsletter on our website or opt to receive news from us by entering your name and email address and clicking subscribe or ticking a box at checkout indicating that you would like to receive your e-newsletter, we collect name, company and email address
Transfer and storage of your information
We use a third-party service to send out our e-newsletter and administer our mailing list, MailChimp.
Information you submit to subscribe for our e-newsletter will be stored within the European Economic Area on our third-party mailing list provider’s servers. For further information about the safeguards used when your information is transferred outside the European Economic Area, see the section of this privacy policy below entitled Transfers of your information outside the European Economic Area.]
Use of web beacons [and similar technologies] in emails
We use technologies such as web beacons (small graphic files) in the emails we send to allow us to assess the level of engagement our emails receive by measuring information such as the delivery rates, open rates and click through rates and which our emails achieve. We will only use web beacons in our emails if you have consented to us doing so.
For more information on how we use web beacons in our e-newsletter emails, see our cookies policy which is available here on our website
Information collected or obtained from third parties
This section sets out how we obtain or collect information about you from third parties.
Information received from third parties
Generally, we do not receive information about you from third parties. The third parties from which we receive information about you will generally include group companies, affiliates or business partners.
It is also possible that third parties with whom we have had no prior contact may provide us with information about you.
Information we obtain from third parties will generally be your name and contact details and may include any additional information about you which they provide to us.
Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Reason why necessary to perform a contract: where a third party has passed on information about you to us (such as your name and email address) in order for us to provide services to you, we will process your information in order to take steps at your request to enter into a contract with you and perform a contract with you (as the case may be).
Legal basis for processing: consent (Article 6(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Consent: where you have asked that a third party to share information about you with us and the purpose of sharing that information is not related to the performance of a contract or services by us to you, we will process your information on the basis of your consent, which you give by asking the third party in question to pass on your information to us.
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interests: where a third party has shared information about you with us and you have not consented to the sharing of that information, we will have a legitimate interest in processing that information in certain circumstances.
For example, we would have a legitimate interest in processing your information to perform our obligations under a sub-contract with the third party, where the third party has the main contract with you. Our legitimate interest is the performance of our obligations under our sub-contract.
Similarly, third parties may pass on information about you to us if you have infringed or potentially infringed any of our legal rights. In this case, we will have a legitimate interest in processing that information to investigate and pursue any such potential infringement.
Where we receive information about you in error
If we receive information about you from a third party in error and/or we do not have a legal basis for processing that information, we will delete your information.
Information obtained by us from third parties
In certain circumstances (for example, to verify the information we hold about you or obtain missing information we require to provide you with a service) we will obtain information about you from certain publicly accessible sources, both EU and non-EU, such as the electoral register, Companies House, online customer databases, business directories, media publications, social media and websites including your own website if you have one.
Our use of automated decision-making and profiling
We use automated decision making and profiling on our website. We do not consider that this has any legal effect on you or similarly significantly affects you.
You have the right to object to our use of automated decision making and profiling described in this section. You can do that by opting-out of cookies and similar technologies in accordance with the method described in the relevant section below. If you do not want us to process your actual IP address (usually the IP address assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider) when you visit our website, you can use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or a free service such as Tor.
You can find out more about our use of cookies and similar technologies (including the legal basis on which we use them) and how to opt out from them in our cookies policy, which is available on our website.
Disclosure and additional uses of your information
This section sets out the circumstances in which will disclose information about you to third parties and any additional purposes for which we use your information.
Disclosure of your information to service providers
We use a number of third parties to provide us with services which are necessary to run our business or to assist us with running our business and who process your information for us on our behalf. These include the following:
- Telephone provider(s)
- Email provider(s)
- IT service provider(s)
- Web developer(s)
- Hosting provider(s)
Your information will be shared with these service providers where necessary to provide you with the service you have requested, whether that is accessing our website or ordering goods and services from us.
Disclosure of your information to other third parties
We disclose your information to other third parties in specific circumstances, as set out below.
Providing information to third parties such as Google Inc. Google collects information through our use of Google Analytics on our website. Google uses this information, including IP addresses and information from cookies, for a number of purposes, such as improving its Google Analytics service. Information is shared with Google on an aggregated and anonymised basis. To find out more about what information Google collects, how it uses this information and how to control the information sent to Google, please see the following page: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/]
You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the browser plugin here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Transfer and storage of your information
Information collected by Google Analytics is stored outside the European Economic Area on Google’s servers in the United States of America.
For further information about the safeguards used when your information is transferred outside the European Economic Area, see the section of this privacy policy below entitled Transfers of your information outside the European Economic Area.
Sharing your information with third parties, which are either related to or associated with the running of our business, where it is necessary for us to do so. These third parties include our accountants, advisors, clients, business partners, independent contractors, and insurers.
Accountants
We share information with our accountants for tax purposes. For example, we share invoices we issue and receive with our accountants for the purpose of completing tax returns and our end of year accounts.
Advisors
Occasionally, we obtain advice from advisors, such as other public relations professionals. We will share your information with these third parties only where it is necessary to enable these third parties to be able to provide us with the relevant advice.
Business partners
Business partners are businesses we work with which provide goods and services which are complementary to our own or which allow us to provide goods or services which we could not provide on our own. We share information with our business partners where you have requested services which they provide whether independently from, or in connection with or own services.
Independent contractors
Occasionally, we use independent contractors in our business. Your information will be shared with independent contractors only where it is necessary for them to perform the function we have hired them perform in relation to our business.
Insurers
We will share your information with our insurers where it is necessary to do so, for example in relation to a claim or potential claim we receive or make or under our general disclosure obligations under our insurance contract with them.
Sharing your information within our business’ group of companies, including Greg Evans Consultancy for internal administrative purposes, including client, customer and employee information.
Sharing your information with a prospective or actual purchaser or seller in the context of a business or asset sale or acquisition by us, a merger or similar business combination event, whether actual or potential.
Disclosure and use of your information for legal reasons
Indicating possible criminal acts or threats to public security to a competent authority
If we suspect that criminal or potential criminal conduct has been occurred, we will in certain circumstances need to contact an appropriate authority, such as the police. This could be the case, for instance, if we suspect that fraud or a cybercrime has been committed or if we receive threats or malicious communications towards us or third parties.
We will generally only need to process your information for this purpose if you were involved or affected by such an incident in some way.
In connection with the enforcement or potential enforcement our legal rights
We will use your information in connection with the enforcement or potential enforcement of our legal rights, including, for example, sharing information with debt collection agencies if you do not pay amounts owed to us when you are contractually obliged to do so. Our legal rights may be contractual (where we have entered into a contract with you) or non-contractual (such as legal rights that we have under copyright law or tort law).
In connection with a legal or potential legal dispute or proceedings
We may need to use your information if we are involved in a dispute with you or a third party for example, either to resolve the dispute or as part of any mediation, arbitration or court resolution or similar process.
For ongoing compliance with laws, regulations and other legal requirements
We will use and process your information in order to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject. For example, we may need to disclose your information pursuant to a court order or subpoena if we receive one or to the National Crime Agency in connection with suspected or potential money laundering matters.
How long we retain your information
This section sets out how long we retain your information. We have set out specific retention periods where possible. Where that has not been possible, we have set out the criteria we use to determine the retention period.
Retention periods
Server log information: we retain information on our server logs for six years.
Correspondence and enquiries: when you make an enquiry or correspond with us for any reason, whether by email or via our contact form or by phone, we will retain your information for as long as it takes to respond to and resolve your enquiry, and for up to seven years, after which point we will delete your information.
E-Newsletter: we retain the information you used to sign up for our e-newsletter for as long as you remain subscribed (i.e. you do not unsubscribe) or if we decide to cancel our e-newsletter service, whichever comes earlier.
Criteria for determining retention periods
In any other circumstances, we will retain your information for no longer than necessary, taking into account the following:
- the purpose(s) and use of your information both now and in the future (such as whether it is necessary to continue to store that information in order to continue to perform our obligations under a contract with you or to contact you in the future);
- whether we have any legal obligation to continue to process your information (such as any record-keeping obligations imposed by relevant law or regulation);
- whether we have any legal basis to continue to process your information (such as your consent);
- how valuable your information is (both now and in the future);
- any relevant agreed industry practices on how long information should be retained;
- the levels of risk, cost and liability involved with us continuing to hold the information;
- how hard it is to ensure that the information can be kept up to date and accurate; and
- any relevant surrounding circumstances (such as the nature and status of our relationship with you).
How we secure your information
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to secure your information and to protect it against unauthorised or unlawful use and accidental loss or destruction, including:
- only sharing and providing access to your information to the minimum extent necessary, subject to confidentiality restrictions where appropriate, and on an anonymised basis wherever possible;
- using secure servers to store your information;
- verifying the identity of any individual who requests access to information prior to granting them access to information;
- using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software to encrypt [any information you submit to us via any forms on our website and any payment transactions you make on or via our website
- only transferring your information via closed system or encrypted data transfers
Transmission of information to us by email
Transmission of information over the internet is not entirely secure, and if you submit any information to us over the internet (whether by email, via our website or any other means), you do so entirely at your own risk.
We cannot be responsible for any costs, expenses, loss of profits, harm to reputation, damages, liabilities or any other form of loss or damage suffered by you as a result of your decision to transmit information to us by such means.
Transfers of your information outside the European Economic Area
Your information will be transferred and stored outside the European Economic Area (EEA) in the circumstances set out below. We will also transfer your information outside the EEA or to an international organisation in order to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject (compliance with a court order, for example). Where we are required to do so, we will ensure appropriate safeguards and protections are in place.
Server log information
Information collected when you visit our website is transferred outside of the EEA and stored on the servers of our third-party hosting company Go Daddy.
Contact form and Email
Information you submit to us by email is transferred outside the EEA and stored on our third-party email provider’s servers. Our third-party email provider is: Microsoft.
Safeguard(s) used: our third-party email provider has self-certified its compliance with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield.
E-Newsletter
Information you submit to us when you sign up for our e-newsletter is transferred outside the EEA and stored on our third-party mailing list provider’s servers. Our third-party mailing list provider is Paper.li or Mailchimp.
Safeguard(s) used: our third-party mailing list providers have self-certified its compliance with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield
Google Analytics
Information collected by Google Analytics (your IP address and actions you take in relation to our website) is transferred outside the EEA and stored on Google’s servers. You can access Google’s privacy policy here: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/
Country of storage: United States of America. This country is not subject to an adequacy decision by the European Commission.
Safeguard(s) used: Google has self-certified its compliance with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield which is available here: https://www.privacyshield.gov/welcome. The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield is an approved certification mechanism under Article 42 of the General Data Protection Regulation, which is permitted under Article 46(2)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation. You can access the European Commission decision on the adequacy of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield here: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/international-transfers/adequacy/index_en.htm
Your rights in relation to your information
Subject to certain limitations on certain rights, you have the following rights in relation to your information, which you can exercise by sending an email to [email protected]
- to request access to your information and information related to our use and processing of your information;
- to request the correction or deletion of your information;
- to request that we restrict our use of your information;
- to receive information which you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format (e.g. a CSV file) and the right to have that information transferred to another data controller (including a third-party data controller);
- to object to the processing of your information for certain purposes (for further information, see the section below entitled Your right to object to the processing of your information for certain purposes); and
- to withdraw your consent to our use of your information at any time where we rely on your consent to use or process that information. Please note that if you withdraw your consent, this will not affect the lawfulness of our use and processing of your information on the basis of your consent before the point in time when you withdraw your consent.
- the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling which produces legal affects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
In accordance with Article 77 of the General Data Protection Regulation, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or of an alleged infringement of the General Data Protection Regulation.
For the purposes of the UK, the supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the contact details of which are available here: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
Further information on your rights in relation to your personal data as an individual
The above rights are provided in summary form only and certain limitations apply to many of these rights. For further information about your rights in relation to your information, including any limitations which apply, please visit the following pages on the ICO’s website:
- https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/; and
- https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/is-my-information-being-handled-correctly/
You can also find out further information about your rights, as well as information on any limitations which apply to those rights, by reading the underlying legislation contained in Articles 12 to 22 and 34 of the General Data Protection Regulation, which is available here: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/reform/files/regulation_oj_en.pdf
Verifying your identity where you request access to your information
Where you request access to your information, we are required by law to use all reasonable measures to verify your identity before doing so.
These measures are designed to protect your information and to reduce the risk of identity fraud, identity theft or general unauthorised access to your information.
How we verify your identity
Where we possess appropriate information about you on file, we will attempt to verify your identity using that information.
If it is not possible to identity you from such information, or if we have insufficient information about you, we may require original or certified copies of certain documentation in order to be able to verify your identity before we are able to provide you with access to your information.
We will be able to confirm the precise information we require to verify your identity in your specific circumstances if and when you make such a request.
Your right to object to the processing of your information for certain purposes
You have the following rights in relation to your information, which you may exercise in the same way as you may exercise by sending an email to [email protected]:
- to object to us using or processing your information where we use or process it in order to carry out a task in the public interest or for our legitimate interests, including ‘profiling’ (i.e. analysing or predicting your behaviour based on your information) based on any of these purposes; and
- to object to us using or processing your information for direct marketing purposes (including any profiling we engage in that is related to such direct marketing).
You may also exercise your right to object to us using or processing your information for direct marketing purposes by:
- clicking the unsubscribe link contained at the bottom of any marketing email we send to you and following the instructions which appear in your browser following your clicking on that link;
or
- sending an email to [email protected], asking that we stop sending you marketing communications or by including the words “OPT OUT”.
For more information on how to object to our use of information collected from cookies and similar technologies, please see the section entitled How to accept or reject cookies in our cookies policy, which is available on our website.
Sensitive Personal Information
‘Sensitive personal information’ is information about an individual that reveals their racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, genetic information, biometric information for the purpose of uniquely identifying an individual, information concerning health or information concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.
We do not knowingly or intentionally collect sensitive personal information from individuals, and you must not submit sensitive personal information to us.
If, however, you inadvertently or intentionally transmit sensitive personal information to us, you will be considered to have explicitly consented to us processing that sensitive personal information under Article 9(2)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulation. We will use and process your sensitive personal information for the purposes of deleting it.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
We update and amend our Privacy Policy from time to time.
Minor changes to our Privacy Policy
Where we make minor changes to our Privacy Policy, we will update our Privacy Policy with a new effective date stated at the beginning of it. Our processing of your information will be governed by the practices set out in that new version of the Privacy Policy from its effective date onwards.
Major changes to our Privacy Policy or the purposes for which we process your information
Where we make major changes to our Privacy Policy or intend to use your information for a new purpose or a different purpose than the purposes for which we originally collected it, we will notify you by email (where possible) or by posting a notice on our website.
We will provide you with the information about the change in question and the purpose and any other relevant information before we use your information for that new purpose.
Wherever required, we will obtain your prior consent before using your information for a purpose that is different from the purposes for which we originally collected it.
Children’s Privacy
Because we care about the safety and privacy of children online, we comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). COPPA and its accompanying regulations protect the privacy of children using the internet. We do not knowingly contact or collect information from persons under the age of 18. The website is not intended to solicit information of any kind from persons under the age of 18.
It is possible that we could receive information pertaining to persons under the age of 18 by the fraud or deception of a third party. If we are notified of this, as soon as we verify the information, we will, where required by law to do so, immediately obtain the appropriate parental consent to use that information or, if we are unable to obtain such parental consent, we will delete the information from our servers. If you would like to notify us of our receipt of information about persons under the age of 18, please do so by sending an email to [email protected].
California Do Not Track Disclosures
“Do Not Track” is a privacy preference that users can set in their web browsers. When a user turns on a Do Not Track signal in their browser, the browser sends a message to websites requesting that they do not track the user. For information about Do Not Track, please visit www.allaboutdnt.org
Copyright, credit and logo
This Privacy Policy is based on a General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/769) (GDPR) compliant template provided by GDPR Privacy Policy. For further information, please visit https://gdprprivacypolicy.org
The copyright in this Privacy Policy is either owned by, or licensed to, us and is protected by copyright laws around the world and copyright protection software. All intellectual property rights in this document are reserved.
Where we display the GDPR Privacy Policy logo on our website, this is used to indicate that we have adopted a privacy policy template provided by GDPR Privacy Policy as the basis for this Privacy Policy.