Data Protection & Privacy Policy

Introduction

Macdonald Henderson Limited is a law firm and provides legal advice and assistance to its clients. It is regulated by the Law Society of Scotland.

The personal data that Macdonald Henderson Limited processes to provide these services relates to its clients and other individuals as necessary, including staff and suppliers’ staff.

This policy sets out our commitment to ensuring that any personal data, including special category personal data, which we process, is carried out in compliance with Data Protection Laws.

Macdonald Henderson Limited respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This policy will inform you as to how we look after your personal data and informs you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

Macdonald Henderson Limited is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this policy).

“Data Protection Laws” includes the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679; the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and all relevant EU and UK data protection legislation.

1. Data Protection Principles

We comply with the data protection principles set out below. When processing personal data, we ensure that:

it is processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’)
it is collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes (‘purpose limitation’)
it is all adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed (‘data minimisation’)
it is all accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date and that reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay (‘accuracy’)
it is kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed (‘storage limitation’)
it is processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures (‘integrity and confidentiality’)

We will facilitate any request from a data subject who wishes to exercise their rights under the Data Protection Laws as appropriate, always communicating in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form and without undue delay.

2. The Data we Collect About You

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:

Identity Data includes your name, marital status, title, date of birth, gender and identification documents.
Contact Data includes addresses, email address and telephone numbers.
Financial Data includes bank account details, statements and credit report details.
Transaction Data includes details about our services to you.
Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.

Special Category Data includes racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, an individual’s health, sex or sexual orientation or criminal convictions or offences

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with our services). In this case, we may have to cancel our services you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

3. How is Your Personal Data Collected?

We will collect data from and about you through the following methods:

Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you become our client and use our services.
Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources including analytics providers, search information providers such as credit report providers, providers of technical, payment and delivery services and from publicly available sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register.

4. How We Use Your Personal Data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data.

We process Special Category Data of clients and third parties as is necessary to provide legal services for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. We process Special Category Data of our employees as is necessary to comply with employment and social security law.

Most commonly, the purposes for which we will use your personal data are as follows:

To register you as a client, supplier or employee;
To manage payments, fees and charges;
To collect and recover money owed to us;
To manage our relationship with you;
To protect our business;
To improve our services, marketing and client relationships; and
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about our services that may be of interest to you.

We may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data.

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

5. Marketing

We will add your Contact Data to our marketing database, so that we can use this information to keep you informed about our developments and legal developments in areas that we consider may most affect you, and to send you invitations to seminars or other events we feel might be of interest to you. Sometimes we may need to hold Special Category Data in relation to special dietary requirements which you (or your directors, senior managers or employees) may have or in relation to any relevant health issues, such as allergies or disabilities requiring special arrangements. This information shall only be used for relevant purposes, such as in relation to the organisation of seminars, events and access.

We will not release any personal data which you provide to us to any unrelated person or third parties for any marketing purposes without your prior consent.

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at any time.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of our services to you.

6. Disclosures Of Your Personal Data

We may have to share your personal data with third parties such as:

Service providers acting as processors who provide IT and system administration services, storage services and compliance services.

Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.

HM Revenue & Customs, the Law Society of Scotland, regulators and other authorities who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.

Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

7. Data Security

We have put in place 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 personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

8. Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

9. Your Legal Rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data.

You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. All requests will be considered without undue delay and within one month of receipt as far as possible.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

10. Process & procedures

We will:

ensure that the legal basis for processing personal data is identified in advance and that all processing complies with the law;
not do anything with your data that you would not expect given the content of this policy;
ensure that appropriate privacy policies and guidance are in place advising staff and others how and why their data is being processed, and, in particular, advising data subjects of their rights;
only collect and process the personal data that we need for the purposes identified in advance;
ensure that, as far as possible, the personal data we hold is accurate, or a system is in place for ensuring that it is kept up to date as far as possible
only hold onto your personal data for as long as it is needed, after which time we will securely erase or delete the personal data;
ensure that appropriate security measures are in place to ensure that personal data can only be accessed by those who need to access it and that it is held and transferred securely.

We will ensure that all staff who handle personal data on our behalf are aware of their responsibilities under this policy and other relevant data protection and information security policies, and that they are adequately trained and supervised.

11. Responsibility for the processing of personal data

The directors of Macdonald Henderson Limited take ultimate responsibility for data protection.

If you have any concerns or wish to exercise any of your rights under the GDPR, then you can contact our data protection lead in the following ways:

Name: Managing Director
Address: Macdonald Henderson Limited, Standard Buildings, 94 Hope Street, Glasgow, G2 6PH
Email: info@macdonaldhenderson.co.uk
Telephone: 0141 248 4957

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

12. Monitoring and review

This policy shall be regularly monitored and reviewed, at least every two years.