Privacy Policy

PURPOSE OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY

This Privacy Policy aims to give you information on how STS Solicitors collects and processes your personal data, including any data you may provide through our website when you contact us, instruct us or use our services. It is important that you read this Privacy Policy so that you are fully aware of how and why we use your data.
 
CONTROLLER

STS Solicitors is the controller and is responsible for your personal data. STS Solicitors is the trading name of ST Sisters Solicitors Limited, registered at Companies House in England and Wales under company registration number 8015676 and authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) under SRA number 567643. The firm’s registered address is at 27A Prayle Grove, London, NW2 1BA.
 
THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

The firm collects personal data of all prospective and current clients for the purpose of providing legal services. There may be circumstances whereby the firm collects personal data of individuals who are not a client of the firm but the data is provided by a client of the firm (who are authorised to disclose such data), in the course of providing legal services or pursuant to legal requirements.

We may collect, use and store different kinds of personal data about you which is required to effectively provide legal services or pursuant to legal requirements, which may include, but not be limited to:

  1. Identity Data
  2. Contact Data
  3. Financial Data
  4. Transaction Data


We collect personal data by way of telephone, email, post, through this website and in person.
 
IF YOU FAIL TO PROVIDE PERSONAL DATA

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.
 
HOW WE PROCESS 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:

  1. Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you where processing your personal data is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
  2. Where processing your personal data is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. Legitimate interests mean the interests 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 to by law).
  3. Where it is necessary for us to process your personal data to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

 
DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA

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

  1. Third Parties acting as processors or joint controllers where you are looking to or have instructed us to provide you with legal services and where it is necessary for us to share your personal data to give effect to those instructions and to provide you with legal advice;
  2. Service providers acting as processors or joint controllers based in England and Wales who provide archiving, file storage and data erasure or destruction services, credit references and search agencies, identity verification services and IT and system administration services;
  3. Professional advisers acting as processors or joint controllers including accountants, lawyers, bankers, financial advisors, auditors and insurers based in England and Wales who provide consultancy, banking, financial, legal, insurance and accounting services;
  4. HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors or joint controllers based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances;
  5. 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 Policy.


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 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.

HOW LONG WE RETAIN YOUR PERSONAL 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, or reporting requirements. By law we have to keep basic information about our clients for at least six years after they cease being clients for tax purposes. 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 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.
 
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.
 
YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

Your rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data are as follows:

  1. Request access to your personal data
    Commonly known as a “data subject access request” a request to access your personal data enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  2. Request correction of your personal data
    A request to correct the personal data that we hold about you 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.
  3. Request erasure of your personal data
    A request to erase your personal data 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, 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 for erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
  4. Object to processing of your personal data
    You may object to STS Solicitors processing your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest 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.
  5. Request restriction of processing your personal data
    A request to restrict the processing of your personal data enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:
    1. if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy;
    2. where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
    3. 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
    4. you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
  6. Request transfer of your personal data
    You may 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 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.
  7. Right to withdraw consent
    You may withdraw your consent to STS Solicitors processing your personal data 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.
  8. Right to Complain to the Information Commissioner
    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 (ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to deal with any concerns you may have before you approach the ICO, so would recommend that you contact us in the first instance.

  
THIRD-PARTY LINKS

This 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. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the Privacy Policy of every website you visit.
 
COOKIES

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HOW YOU CAN CONTACT US

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, these should be made in writing and marked for the attention of the Data Protection Officer and sent to our registered office at 27A Prayle Grove, London, NW2 1BA or emailed to us at info@stssolicitors.co.uk

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