BACKGROUND:
Meridian understands that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used.Werespect and value the privacy of all of ourcustomers and will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a waythat is consistent with our obligations and your rights under the law.
1. Information About Us
Meridian Legal Systems Ltd is a limited company registered in England under company number 03015637.
Our Postal and Registered address: 39 High Street, Stamford, Lincs, PE9 2BB
VAT number: 620357272
Data Protection Officer: Jane Cooling
Email address:jane.c@meridianlegalsystems.co.uk
Telephone number:01780 482795
2. What Does This Notice Cover?
This Privacy Information explains how we use your personal data: how it is collected, how it is held, and how it is processed. It also explains your rights under the law relating to your personal data.
3. What is Personal Data?
Personal data is defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679) (the “GDPR”) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier’.
Personal data is, in simpler terms, any information about you that enables you to be identified. Personal data covers obvious information such as your name and contact details, but it also covers less obvious information such as identification numbers, electronic location data, and other online identifiers.
The personal data that we use is set out in Part 5, below.
4. What Are Your Rights?
Under the GDPR, you have the following rights, which we will always work to uphold:
a) The right to be informed about our collection and use of your personal data. This Privacy Notice should tell you everything you need to know, but you can always contact us to find out more or to ask any questions using the details in Part 11.
b) The right to access the personal data we hold about you. Part 10 will tell you how to do this.
c) The right to have your personal data rectified if any of your personal data held by us is inaccurate or incomplete. Please contact us using the details in Part 11 to find out more.
d) The right to be forgotten, i.e. the right to ask us to delete or otherwise dispose of any of your personal data that we have. Please contact us using the details in Part 11 to find out more.
e) The right to restrict (i.e. prevent) the processing of your personal data.
f) The right to object to us using your personal data for a particular purpose or purposes.
g) The right to data portability. This means that, if you have provided personal data to us directly, wewill use it with your consent or for the performance of a contract, and that data is processed using automated means, you can ask us for a copy of that personal data to re-use with another service or business in many cases.
h) Regarding your rights relating to automated decision-making and profiling:
We do not use your personal data in this way.
For more information aboutouruse of your personal data or exercising your rights as outlined above, please contact us using the details provided in Part 11.
Further information about your rights can also be obtained from the Information Commissioner’s Office or your local Citizens Advice Bureau.
If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
5. What Personal Data Do We Collect?
We may collect some or allof the following personal data (this may vary according to your relationship with us):
• Personal information such as your Name; Postal Address;email address;telephone number;
• Business name;Job title;Profession;
• We also automatically receive and record your IP address, cookie information and information regarding which pages on our website you access and when
• If you send your Curriculum Vitae to us we may also collect other personal details including your date of birth and National Insurance number.
• When we enter into a contract with you and need to process payment from you, we may also collect financial details including bank account details.
6. How Do We Use Your Personal Data?
Meridian takes your privacy seriously and we will only use your personal information in the following ways:
• to deal with your enquiries and fulfil your requests for certain services and information
• to send you communications which you have requested
• to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts we enter into with you
• to process payment from you
• to request feedback from you on the services we provide
• to notify you of changes to our services
• to comply with the law
• for marketing purposes
• to consider your suitability for employment purpose
• to monitor behaviour on our Website
Please be aware, if you choose to withhold your personal information when we require it, we may not be able to provide you with the services you have requested.
With your permission and/or where permitted by law, we may also use your personal data for marketing purposes, which may include contacting you by email and/or telephone and/or post with information, news, and offers on ourproducts and/or services. You will not be sent any unlawful marketing or spam. We will always work to fully protect your rights and comply with our obligations under the GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, and you will always have the opportunity to opt-out.
7. How Long Will You Keep My Personal Data?
We will not keep your personal data for any longer than is necessary in light of the reason(s) for which it was first collected. Your personal data will therefore be kept for the following periods (or, where there is no fixed period, the following factors will be used to determine how long it is kept):
We will retain your data for :
• As long as you are a customer of ours and thereafter for 5 years
• Legal and operational reasons, such as complying with UK tax rules, assisting us with complaints and to recognise your preferences for marketing contact.
8. How and Where Do You Store or Transfer My Personal Data?
Meridian are committed to making sure that your personal information is kept secure.
In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure and to protect against loss we use up-to-date industry procedures to keep personally identifiable information as safe and secure as possible. We will use our best endeavours to protect your personal information but we cannot guarantee its security on transmission to the Website. Any transmission is at your own risk.
We store your personal information on our servers based in the UK. Personal information is also backed up in encrypted format and stored within a secure location based in the UK.
We may also store your personal information with Microsoft Office 365, a cloud service provider who will store the personal information within the European Economic Union.
There may be occasions where we store or transfer your personal data within the European Economic Area (the “EEA”). The EEA consists of all EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. This means that your personal data will be fully protected under the GDPR or to equivalent standards by law.
Should you request it, we will comply with your preference for storing and transferring data in countries that are not part of the European Economic Area (the “EEA” consists of all EU member states, plus Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein). These are known as “third countries” and may not have data protection laws that are as strong as those in the UK and/or the EEA. This means that we will take additional steps in order to ensure that your personal data is treated just as safely and securely as it would be within the UK and under the GDPR .
Please contact us using the details below in Part 11 for further information about the particular data protection mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data to a third country.
9. Do You Share My Personal Data?
We will not share any of your personal data with any third parties for any purposes other than with your consent or the following exceptions.
In some limited circumstances, we may be legally required to share certain personal data, which might include yours, if we are involved in legal proceedings or complying with legal obligations, a court order, or the instructions of a government authority.
We may sometimes contract with third parties to supply software changes and/or services to you on our behalf. These may include payment processing, delivery, and marketing. In some cases, those third parties may require access to some or all of your personal data that we hold.
If any of your personal data is required by a third party, as described above, we will take steps to ensure that your personal data is handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the third party’s obligations under the law, as described above in Part 8.
If any personal data is transferred outside of the EEA, we will take suitable steps in order to ensure that your personal data is treated just as safely and securely as it would be within the UK and under the GDPR, as explained above in Part 8.
In some limited circumstances, we may be legally required to share certain personal data, which might include yours, if we are involved in legal proceedings or complying with legal obligations, a court order, or the instructions of a government authority.
We find that you actions on our websites violate any Terms of Use or usage guidelines for specific products or services.
10. How Can I Access My Personal Data?
If you want to know what personal data we have about you, you can ask us for details of that personal data and for a copy of it (where any such personal data is held). This is known as a “subject access request”.
All subject access requests should be made in writing and sent to the email or postal addresses shown in Part 11. To make this as easy as possible for you, a Subject Access Request Form is available for you to use. You do not have to use this form, but it is the easiest way to tell us everything we need to know to respond to your request as quickly as possible.
There is not normally any charge for a subject access request. If your request is ‘manifestly unfounded or excessive’ (for example, if you make repetitive requests) a fee may be charged to cover our administrative costs in responding.
We will respond to your subject access request within 21 days and, in any case, not more than one month of receiving it. Normally, we aim to provide a complete response, including a copy of your personal data within that time. In some cases, however, particularly if your request is more complex, more time may be required up to a maximum of three months from the date we receive your request. You will be kept fully informed of our progress.
11. How Do I Contact You?
To contact us about anything to do with your personal data and data protection, including to make a subject access request, please use the following details (for the attention of Jane Cooling):
Email address:jane.c@meridianlegalsystems.co.uk
Telephone number: 01780 482795
Postal Address: 39 High Street, Stamford, Lincolnshire, PE9 2BB
12. Changes to this Privacy Notice
We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time. This may be necessary, for example, if the law changes, or if we change our business in a way that affects personal data protection.
Any changes will be made available and published on our website and either you, or the representative named within our contract will be notified directly.
13. What is the legal reason which allows us to use your information in a certain way
Legitimate purpose
We collect and use your personal information for the legitimate business purposes of communicating with you to deal with your enquiries, fulfilling your requests for services and information, sending you communications which you have requested, notifying you of changes to our services, processing payment from you where applicable and monitoring behaviour on our Website to improve your browsing experience, help us to improve our Website and make our marketing campaigns more relevant.
Contract
We may also need to use your personal information to perform our contract(s) with you so that we can carry out our obligations arising from any contract(s) we enter into with you or take initial steps at your request prior to entering into a contract(s).
Consent
We may also use your personal information where you give us your express consent.
Legal obligation
We will use your personal information where we have to comply with the law e.g. we have to provide information to HMRC or to fraud agencies etc.
14. Curriculum Vitae
If you wish us to consider you for employment within Meridian, we will need to use your personal information contained within any Curriculum Vitae you send to us to consider your suitability for and to discuss with you such employment.
15. Other websites
This Website may contain links to and from other websites but please be aware that once you use any of these links to leave our Website, those other websites have their own privacy policies and we do not have any control over those other websites. We cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting other websites so when you link to those other websites, you should read their own privacy policies.
16. Cookies
Our Website uses Cookies. A Cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we put on your device when you visit our Website and which collects information about how you browse our Website. These Cookies allow us recognise your device, help us to make your browsing experience better and improve our Website.
