Privacy Policy

DATA CONTROLLERS

Data controllers decide what personal data is collected and how it is used. For the purpose of the General Data Protection Regulation, the data controller is Frank Smith & Co. Solicitors Limited.

Our registered office is: Essex House, 18 Rodney Road, Cheltenham GL50 1JJ.

You can find us on the Register of data controllers held by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/what-we-do/register-of-data-controllers/

PERSONAL DATA PROCESSING

Data processing includes obtaining, recording, using and holding personal data as well as erasure and destruction of data.

DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES

We follow six principles when dealing with your personal data.

We will ensure it is:

• processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner;
• processed for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes;
• adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary;
• accurate and kept up-to-date;
• kept for no longer than is necessary; and
• processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security.

We operate these principles alongside our duty of confidentiality to you.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

We may collect and process personal data about you from multiple sources:

Information you give us

This is information about you that you give us in many ways: by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise; or by filling in forms on our website www.franksmithandco.com (our site) or by engaging with our social media platforms.

Service Contracts

It includes information you provide when you contract or intend to contract with us to provide a service, subscribe to our services, or search for a service. You might also give us personal data when you participate in meetings, seminars or other events we arrange. The information you give us may include, for example: your name, address, e-mail address and phone number as well as financial information (if you have contracted for a service).

Employment Contracts

If you apply to work for us, we may need to collect other personal data from you, including for example: data about your education, qualifications and training, work experience and employment, salary and financial information.

We may need to process sensitive personal data as part of our recruitment process and in order to meet our responsibilities under employment legislation.

From our website

When you visit our site, or participate in functions on our website or social media platforms and also when you report a problem with our website, they are set up to collect some information about you automatically, this may include: technical information, including the Internet Protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, device, operating system and platform; and

information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL), real time information, clicks made through and from our site (including date and time), services you viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), methods used to browse away from the page, and where you visited our page from (such as search engines and social media).

When you call us

When you telephone us, we may record the phone number you use to call us automatically and also manually record any other information you give us.

Information we receive or obtain from other sources.

This is information we receive about you if you use any other services we provide. We will have informed you when we collected that data if we intend to share that data internally. It will often be combined with data collected from other sources. We will also have told you for what purpose we will share and combine your data. We work closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, payment and delivery services, land search agencies, credit reference agencies). We may also consult publicly available sources of information, such as the Companies House Register, which hold personal data about you.

If you apply for a job with us, our recruitment process may involve receiving or obtaining your personal data from employment agencies, social media or via recruitment-related websites.

HOW WE USE THE INFORMATION

We use information held about you in the following ways:

Information you give to us

We will use this information:

• to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us (or propose to enter into), and to provide you with the information and services that you request from us;
• to notify you about changes to our service; and
• for our legitimate business interests, for example:
• to provide you with information about other services we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about;
• to provide you, or permit selected third parties to provide you, with information about services we feel may interest you;
• to ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
• Information provided as part of a job application will be used to assess a candidate’s suitability for employment with Frank Smith & Co. It will help us ensure we have the relevant skills and experience to enable us to provide quality professional services to our clients.

Information we collect about you

We will use this information for our legitimate business interests, for example:

• to administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
• to improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
• to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
• as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure;
• to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
• to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our site about services that may interest you or them.

Information we receive or obtain from other sources

We will combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We will use this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

You agree that we have the right to share your personal information with:

• Any member of our company, Frank Smith & Co Solicitors.
• Selected third parties including:
• business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you;
• advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others. We do not disclose information about identifiable individuals to our advertisers, but we may provide them with aggregate information about our users
• analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site; and
• credit reference agencies for the purpose of assessing your credit score where this is a condition of us entering into a contract with you.

Information concerning a job application made by you will be shared with relevant recruiting managers and partners or staff in Frank Smith & Co who will have input into the screening, interviewing, and wider recruitment process.

We will disclose your personal information to third parties:

• in the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we will disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
• if we, or substantially all of our assets, are acquired by a third party; in which case personal data held by us about customers will be one of the transferred assets.
• if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Frank Smith & Co Solicitors Limited, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection, prevention of money laundering and credit risk reduction.

WHERE AND FOR HOW LONG WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. This includes staff engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of your order, the processing of your payment details and the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We aim to take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.

Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Our timescales for retaining personal data are driven primarily by the relevant legislation which applies to the sectors we operate in, the services we provide and the recruitment and employment activity we undertake.

For recruitment purposes, we retain personal data of shortlisted candidates. This helps us address our future talent needs. You may be contacted regarding alternative opportunities, but you can opt out of this arrangement at any time.

YOUR RIGHTS – Direct Marketing

When we send you direct marketing by post, or conduct marketing over the phone with you, we consider this to be in our legitimate business interest to do so. You can object to this processing of your personal data at any time and we will no longer market our services to you.

If we asked you to consent to direct marketing and did so, you can withdraw that consent at any time.

We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data.  You can also exercise the right to object, or withdraw consent, at any time by contacting us at: Office Manager, Frank Smith &Co Solicitors, Essex House, 18 Rodney Road, Cheltenham GL50 1JJ; by emailing reception@franksmithandco.com or by phoning us on 01242 801748; or via the Contact Form on our website.

YOUR RIGHTS – Access to your information

The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act and will be subject to a maximum fee of £10. Any such requests should be addressed to the Office Manager, Frank Smith &Co Solicitors, Essex House, 18 Rodney Road, Cheltenham GL50 1JJ; or by emailing reception@franksmithandco.com

Access requests connected with recruitment and employment activity should be directed to The Managing Partner, address as above or by emailing frank@franksmithandco.com

FURTHER INFORMATION

You can find more information about your rights under the Act on the ICO website: https://ico.org.uk/

OTHER WEBSITES

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

Any changes we make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on our website and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

CONTACT

This privacy policy can only be a summary of how we collect any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, and how it will be processed by us.

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to the Office Manager, Frank Smith & Co Solicitors, Essex House, 18 Rodney Road, Cheltenham GL50 1JJ; or by emailing christine@franksmithandco.com

Last updated 8th December 2023