Data Protection and Privacy Policy

Karen O’Neill & Co respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we collect and process look after your personal data and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

1 CONTROLLER

Karen O'Neill & Co is the data controller and is responsible for your personal data. Karen is also the data protection officer (DPO) who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy notice. If you have any questions, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact Karen using the details below.

2 CONTACT DETAILS

We are Karen O’Neill & Co, Family Law Solicitors of 47 Wolborough Street, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 1JQ, telephone 01626 366399. Our DPO is Karen O'Neill, whose e-mail address is karen@karenoneill.co.uk.

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 Karen in the first instance.

3 YOUR DUTY TO INFORM US OF CHANGES

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

4 THIRD-PARTY LINKS

Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements.

5 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.

6 IF YOU FAIL TO PROVIDE PERSONAL DATA

Where we need to collect personal data e.g. 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.

7 HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED

Face to face or other direct contact - we need to collect personal data from you in order to fulfil our contract to provide legal services.

Third parties or publicly available sources - we may obtain data from publically available sources, such as the Electoral Roll, credit searches, or other online sources.

6 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 data (a) to enable us to fulfil our contractual obligations with each other (b) 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, and (b) where there are legal or regulatory obligations.

Generally we do not require your separate consent to process your personal data.

7 PURPOSES FOR WHICH WE WILL USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We will only use your personal data in accordance with our contractual relationship. We will not process your data for any other purpose than to provide you with a service, and related purposes such as updating and enhancing client records, analysis to help us manage our practice, credit management, statutory returns, insurance, legal and regulatory compliance.

8 CHANGE OF PURPOSE

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 compatible with the original purpose. If you wish us to explain how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us. If we ever need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and either seek your consent, or explain why your consent may be unnecessary.

9 DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We may have to share your personal data as follows for the purposes set out above:

a. External Third Parties such as:

o Service providers acting as processors based in the UK who provide IT and system administration services.

o Professional advisers acting as processors including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the UK who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.

o HM Revenue and Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors based in the UK who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.

b. Third Parties to whom we may sell, transfer, or merge parts of our practice or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If such a change happens to our practice, then the new owners may only 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.

10 INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

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

11 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 and 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.

12 DATA RETENTION - HOW LONG WILL WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA FOR?

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, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, together with the applicable legal requirements.

13 YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Your rights under the data protection laws in relation to your personal data are:-

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 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 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 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 services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

14 NO FEE USUALLY REQUIRED

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 is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

15 WHAT WE MAY NEED FROM YOU

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

16 TIME LIMIT TO RESPOND

Access to your personal data should be provided without undue delay and at the latest within one month of receipt of a request.

17 DEFINITIONS

Lawful Basis as a Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any particular impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

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