1. Purpose of this notice
This notice describes how we collect and use personal data about you in accordance with United Kingdom data protection legislation.
2. About us
Knightwood Legal is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, registration number 635351. Our principal work involves the provision of legal consultancy services and legal advice to government and public bodies in the United Kingdom and overseas.
For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 and this notice, we are the ‘data controller’. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you.
3. How we may collect your personal data
We obtain personal data about you, for example, when:
4. The kind of information we hold about you
Given the nature of our services, the type of personal data we hold or process primarily comprises:
5. How we use personal data we hold about you
We may process your personal data for purposes necessary for the performance of our contract with you/ your employer as our clients and to comply with our legal obligations.
We may process your personal data for the purposes necessary for the performance of our contract with you/ your employer as our clients. This may include processing your personal data where you are an employee, subcontractor, supplier or customer of a client.
We may process your personal data for the purposes of our own legitimate interests provided that those interests do not override any of your own protected interests, rights and freedoms. This includes processing for marketing, business development, statistical and management purposes.
Although given the nature of our work, we currently foresee no reason to do so, we may process your personal data for certain additional purposes beyond those stated above, but before doing so we will obtain your consent. In these limited circumstances where your consent is required for the processing of your personal data then you have the right to withdraw your consent to processing for such specific purposes.
6. Situations in which we will use your personal data
We may use your personal data in order to:
If you refuse to provide us with certain information when requested, we may not be able to provide you with legal services.
We may also process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in accordance with this notice, where we are legally required or permitted to do so.
7. Data retention
We will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it is collected under our agreement with you/your employer.
When assessing what retention period is appropriate for your personal data, we take into consideration:
In the majority of cases, we will not retain your personal data for longer than 6 years after the last date on which we provide services to you/ your employer
8. Change of purpose
Where we need to use your personal data for another reason, other than for the purpose for which we collected it, we will only use your personal data where that reason is compatible with the original purpose.
Should it be necessary to use your personal data for a new purpose, we will notify you and communicate the legal basis which allows us to do so before starting any new processing.
9. Data Sharing
We will share your personal data with third parties where we are required by law, where it is necessary to administer the relationship between us or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.
10. Use of third-party service providers
In order to practise and provide services to our clients we use third-party service providers. Currently these are providers of secure cloud storage for files and emails and web hosting. Our third-party service providers are required to take commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect your personal data. Given the nature of our work, beyond names and addresses, minimal personal data will in any event be processed by these third parties.
11. Other third parties
We may also need to share your personal data with a regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.
12. Transferring personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA)
Apart from the possible sharing of names and addresses in any communications sent to those with whom we are working in countries outside the EEA where necessary in order to perform our contracts and provide our advice, in the event that we collect personal data, this will not be shared outside of the EEA.
13. Data Security
Any information provided by clients is treated as confidential irrespective of any data protection duties. We have put in place commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.
14. Rights of Personal Data Subjects
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Should your personal information change, please notify us of any changes of which we need to be made aware by contacting us, using the contact details below.
Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please email us at information@knightwoodlegal.com.
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.
15. Right to withdraw consent
In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal data for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please email us at information@knightwoodlegal.com.
Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your personal information (personal data) for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.
16. Changes to this Notice
Any changes we may make to our privacy notice in the future will be updated on our website. This privacy notice was last updated on 24th May 2018.
17. Contact Us
If you have any questions regarding this notice or if you would like to speak to us about the manner in which we process your personal data, please email us at information@knightwoodlegal.com.
You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, at any time. The ICO’s details are:
Information Commissioner’s
Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745