Privacy Policy

Underwood Solicitors LLP (we or our) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This policy (together with our Terms of website use and any other documents referred to on it and, where applicable, our terms of business) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 2018 (the Act) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the data controller is Underwood Solicitors LLP of 40 Welbeck Street, London W1G 8LN.

INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT FROM YOU

We may collect and process the following data about you:

  • Information you give us. You may give us information about you by filling in forms on our site underwoodco.com (our site) or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. Most of the information that we collect from you will be done so directly. We may collect information from certain third parties. The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, financial and credit card information, personal description and photograph.
  • Depending on the nature of your instruction we may also collect details of your dependents, your employment status including salary information) if such information is relevant, nationality and immigration status, employment records (where relevant), racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs and medical records.
  • With regard to each of your visits to our site we may automatically collect the following information:
    • 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, operating system and platform;
    • information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time); products 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), and methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our customer service number.

COOKIES

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Cookie policy.

USES MADE OF 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 and to provide you with the information and services that you request from us;
    • to provide you with information about other services we offer that are similar to those that you have already instructed us in connection with or enquired about;
    • to notify you about changes to our service;
    • to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
  • Information we collect about you. We will use this information:
    • to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our site about goods or services that may interest you or them.
  • Information we receive from other sources. We may combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We may us this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).

DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

We do not share your data or sell your information to third parties for marketing purposes.

We may however have to share your personal data with the parties set out below:

  • Business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you.
  • External third parties such as those that provide help run or support our internal IT systems.
  • Auditors and other professional advisers such as barristers.
  • Third party service providers for the purposes of carrying out identification and money laundering cheques. In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
  • If Underwood Solicitors LLP or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it 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 in order to enforce or apply our Terms of website use (or terms of business, if applicable to you) or other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Underwood Solicitors LLP, our clients, our staff, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of protection against fraud.

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.

Generally we do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). If we need to do so, e.g. for the purposes of obtaining specialist overseas advice we will discuss this with you at the time and we will seek to put specific measures in place for the protection of your personal data. If in relation to third party service providers e.g. cloud data storage services based in other countries then we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe.

TRANSMISSION OF PERSONAL DATA

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.

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 members, employees, 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.

HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR DATA

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, insurance 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.

YOUR RIGHTS

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.

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.

If you believe the information we process about you is incorrect you may request a change to your information having it corrected or deleted. 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. If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data you can contact us on dp@underwoodco.com  and we will investigate the matter further.

This statement will be kept under review and may be updated from time to time.

ACCESS TO 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.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

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

CONTACT

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to dp@underwoodco.com.

 

November 2022