Privacy Policy

Here at Jennifer Melly Law we take your privacy very seriously. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal information. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom) and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.

UK Data Privacy/Data Protection Law changed significantly on 25th May 2018. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR for short) was a positive step towards you having more control over how your data is used and how you are contacted by us. At 11pm on 31st December 2020, EU GDPR will no longer apply to personal data held or processed within the UK. Instead, “UK GDPR” will apply to such data. The provisions of UK GDPR are essentially the same as EU GDPR and therefore the following rights continue to apply. We confirm that we do not normally hold or process your data outside the UK but if we do, we will ensure there are sufficient “adequacy” arrangements or “safeguards” in place to protect your rights.

Key Terms

It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this Policy.

We, us, our	Jennifer Melly Law
Personal information	Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual
Special category personal information	Personal information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership. Genetic and biometric data. Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation

 

Personal information we collect about you

We may collect and use the following personal information about you:

1. Your name and contact information, including email address and telephone number
2. Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g. your date of birth
3. Your gender information, if you choose to give this to us
4. Location data, if you choose to giveth to us
5. Your billing information, transaction and payment card information
6. Your personal or professional interests
7. Your professional online presence, e.g. Linkedln profile
8. Your contact history, purchase history and saved items
9. Information from accounts you link to us, e.g. Facebook
10. Information to enable us to undertake credit or other financial checks on you
11. Information about how you use our website, IT, communication and other systems
12. Your responses to surveys, competitions and promotions

This personal information is required to provide products and/or services to you. If you do not provide personal information we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing products and/or services to you.

 

How your personal information is collected

We collect most of this personal information directly from you in person, by telephone, text or email. However, we may also collect information:

1. From publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies House or HM Land Registry;
2. Directly from a third party:

• Sanctions screening providers;
• Credit reference agencies;
• Customer due diligence providers;

3. From a third party with your consent, e.g. your bank or building society
4. From cookies on our website – for more information on our use of cookies, please see our website
5. Via our IT systems, e.g.

• Reception logs;
• Automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, CCTV and access control systems, communications systems, email and instant messaging systems;

 

How and why we use your personal information

Under data protection  law, we can only use your personal information if we have a proper reason for doing so, e.g.

1. To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
2. For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
3. For our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
4. Where you have given consent

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 information for and our reasons for doing so:

What we use your personal information for	Our reasons
To provide products and/or services to you	For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
To prevent and detect fraud against you or Jennifer Melly Law	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party. i.e. to minimise fraud that could be damaging for us and for you
Conducting checks to identify our customers and verify their identity. Screening for financial and other sanctions or embargoes. Other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business. e.g. Under health and safety regulation or rules issued by our professional regulator	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

What we use your personal information for	Our reasons
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, i.e. 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 trade secrets and other commercially valuable information To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Statistical analysis to help us manage our business. e.g. In relation to our financial performance, customer base, product range, or other efficiency measures	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. 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 detetct criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Updating and enhancing customer records	For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g. making sure we can keep in touch with our customers about existing orders and new products
Statutory returns	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assesments	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you
Marketing our services and those of selected third parties to: - Existing and former customers - Third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services - Third parties with whom we have had no previous dealings	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to promote our business to existing and former customers
Credit reference checks via external credit reference agencies	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to ensure our customers are likely to be able to pay for our products and services
External audits and quality checks, e.g. the audit of our accounts	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

The above table does not apply to special category personal information, which we will only process with your explicit consent. We will ask for your explicit consent at the appropriate point in your matter.

Special Categories and Criminal Convictions Data

Further to our lawful bases for processing personal data we rely on further conditions contained within the Data Protection Act 2018 (as amended by the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 and 2020) for processing these types of data.  These conditions are contained in Schedule 1, Part 3 of the Act. The primary condition we rely on is known as “legal claims” where;

This condition is met if the processing—

(a) is necessary for the purpose of, or in connection with, any legal proceedings (including prospective legal proceedings),

(b) is necessary for the purpose of obtaining legal advice, or

(c) is otherwise necessary for the purposes of establishing, exercising or defending legal rights

We would normally also rely on another condition in Schedule 1, Part 3 of the Act known as “consent” where, due to the nature of these types of data we would obtain your consent prior to processing them.

If our reason for processing data is in connection with the Schedule 1, Part 2 of the Act, condition 18, safeguarding of individuals and children at risk. This is because the processing will be necessary for the purposes of;

(a) protecting an individual from neglect or physical, mental or emotional harm, or

(b) protecting the physical, mental or emotional well-being of an individual,

In this condition;

(a)        in the circumstances, consent to the processing cannot be given by the data subject;

(b)        in the circumstances, we cannot reasonably be expected to obtain the consent of the data subject to the processing;

(c)        the processing must be carried out without the consent of the data subject because obtaining the consent of the data subject would prejudice the provision of the protection

Also, due to the nature of these data types, we comply with Schedule 1, Part 4 of the Data Protection Act which requires us to have an appropriate written policy explaining our security procedures, and data retention periods and we are required to retain this policy document and produce it to the Information Commissioner on request. Our policy is set out in the firm’s Information Management & Security Policy.

Personal Information about other Individuals

If you give us information on behalf of someone else, you confirm that the other person has appointed you to act on their behalf and has agreed that you can:

1. Give consent on their behalf to the processing of their personal data
2. Receive on their behalf any data protection notices
3. Give consent to the transfer of their personal data abroad and,
4. Give consent to the processing of their sensitive personal data g. health information

 

Who we share your personal information with

We routinely share personal information with:

1. Third parties we use to help deliver our products and/or services to you, e.g. payment service providers
2. Other third parties we use to help us run our business, e.g. marketing agencies or website hosts;
3. Third parties approved by you, g. social media sites you choose to link your account to or third party payment providers;
4. Credit reference agencies;
5. Our insurers and brokers;
6. Our banks

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal information if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal information. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers relating to ensure they can only use your personal information to provide services to us and to you. We may also share personal information with external auditors, e.g. in relation to the audit of our accounts.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some personal information with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a restructuring. Usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

 

Where your personal information is held

Information may be held at our offices and those of our third-party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see above: ‘Who we share your personal information with’).

Some of these third parties may be based outside the European Economic Area. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal information when this occurs, see below: ‘Transferring your personal information out of the EEA’.

 

How long your personal information will be kept

We will keep your personal information while we are providing services to you. Thereafter, we will keep your personal information for as long as is necessary:

1. To respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;
2. To show that we treated you fairly;
3. To keep records required by law.

We would normally keep a file of papers and your data for at least six years after your matter has been completed because of certain legal obligations. We will advise you in the closing letter we send to you the specific period we will keep your file for depending on the nature of your matter. If you require further information, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us‘) below.

 

Transferring your personal information out of the EEA

To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal information outside the European Economic Area (EEA), e.g.

1. With your and our service providers located outside the EEA;
2. If you are based outside the EEA;
3. Where there is an international dimension to the services we are providing to you;

These transfers are subject to special rules under European and UK data protection law.

The EEA comprises the EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. If we supply data outside of the EEA we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the data is protected to an equivalent standard and will seek your consent to do so. If data is required to be sent to the USA we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the US Privacy Shield protects your data to an equivalent standard to the GDPR.

 

Your rights

You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:

Access	The right to be provided with a copy of your personal information (the right of access)
Rectification	The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal information
To be forgotten	The right to require us to delete your personal information - in certain situations
Restriction of processing	The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal information - in certain circumstances, e.g. if you contest the accuracy of the data
Data portability	The right to receive the personal information you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used 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 information being processed for direct marketing (including profiling) - In certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information, e.g. processing carried out for the purpose of 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 effects 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:

1. Email, call or write to us -(see ‘How to contact us’ below) and
2. Let us have enough information to identify you (e.g. your full name, address and customer or matter reference number);
3. Let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill); and
4. Let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

 

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality. If you ask that we send your personal information via unsecure email this will be done at your own risk.

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

If you want detailed information from Get Safe Online on how to protect your information and your computers and devices against fraud, identity theft, viruses and many other online problems, please visit www.getsafeonline.org. Get Safe Online is supported by HM Government and leading businesses.

 

How to complain

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you may raise about our use of your information. The General Data Protection Regulation gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner (ICO). Further details on how to raise a concern about our information rights practices with the ICO can be found on the ICO’S website: https://ico.org.uk/concerns or by telephone: 0303 123 1113.

 

Changes to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Notice was published on 24/05/2018 and last updated on 25/05/2021.

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect emerging ICO guidance requirements of the amended Data Protection Act 2018 and any other relevant changes in the law or regulations, adequacy decisions e.g., following BREXIT. We will also seek to learn from any published cases of Data Protection breaches

 

How to contact us

Please contact us by post, email or telephone if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the information we hold about you.

Our contact details are:

Jennifer Melly Law

45 Alfred Street

Neath SA11 1 EH

Tel: 01639 630057

Email: jennifer@jennifermellylaw.com

Do you need extra help?

If you would like this notice in another format (e.g. audio, large print, braille) please contact us (see ‘How to contact us‘ above).