SmartBlue Privacy Policy

(last updated January 2021)

We are committed to protecting the privacy and security of personal data. This policy tells you how we will collect and use your personal data, and what you should expect in respect of the personal information about you that we have collected.

We are SmartBlue Limited (Registered in England & Wales with Company No: 7178877). Our registered office is at Unit 75, 2 Lansdowne Crescent, Bournemouth, Dorset BH1 1SA, United Kingdom.

The person with responsibility for our data protection compliance is Andrew Treadwell (“the Data Protection Manager”), and he can be contacted via email at privacy@smartblue.co.uk or by telephone on 01202 788 227.

We are either the data controller or the data processor of the personal data that we keep and use. Where we are the controller, we are responsible for making sure that our systems, processes and people comply with the relevant data protection laws in respect of that personal data.
Where we are a processor of personal data on behalf of others, we will tell you who is the controller; it is the privacy policy for the controller that will provide you with the relevant information as to how your personal data is processed in that respect.

We will act in respect of personal data to comply with applicable data protection law and in particular the six principles of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”), which are:

Lawfulness, fairness and transparency;
Purpose limitation;
Data minimisation;
Accuracy;
Storage limitation;
Integrity and confidentiality.

You have rights in respect of how your personal data can be processed; these include the right to request:

a copy of your personal data;
that inaccurate data is rectified; and
that your personal data is, in certain circumstances, erased or restricted.

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner, which you can do by contacting the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) directly. Full contact details, including a helpline number, can be found on the ICO website (www.ico.org.uk). This website also has useful information on your rights and our obligations. However, please raise any concerns or issues with us first so that we may deal with this as quickly as possible for you.

COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL DATA

We collect and process data for the following reasons:

personal data collected and created in relation to our providing services; and
personal data relating to people who have asked for information services or marketing materials; and
personal data relating to our people (which means those people working for our firm, or providing services to us, or potentially working or providing services to us, including employees, consultants, temporary or casual workers and contractors).

All of our people are required to abide by our Privacy Policy when handling personal data, and are provided with appropriate data protection training. Any breach of data protection will be taken seriously, and may result in disciplinary action. Our Data Protection Manager will provide the advice and guidance to our people on data protection issues, as is required.

1. PROVIDING SERVICES

COLLECTION:

We will collect personal information which may include names, dates of birth, business information and required identification information and documentation for our customers and customer contacts. This will be done for the management of the commercial relationship with our customers. Additionally, we may collect and use additional personal data when a person is identified in matters on which we are advising.

We may collect this personal data from you directly, and also from third parties, including publicly available third party sources.

We will also collect personal information, including name and contact information, for individuals with whom we have a professional business relationship related to our provision of services.

USE:

We will use the personal data in the provision of services, including for the necessary administration of the relationship with our customer.

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:

in performance of a contract (the agreement to provide services); and/or
compliance with a legal obligation; and/or
vital interests of the data subject; and/or
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.

We may also use your personal data in the following situations, which are likely to be far less common:

where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests);
where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.

DISCLOSURE:

We may share personal data with third parties as is necessary in the provision of our services, including to third party providers who deliver services to support the operation of our business. We may also need to share your personal data with a regulator or otherwise to comply with the law.

In respect of all disclosures of personal data, we will only share the personal information which is necessary for the particular purpose for which it is provided, or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so, and we will ensure that the personal data is appropriately protected.

RETENTION PERIOD:

We will keep personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. Normally, our retention period for personal data collected for this purpose is a minimum of 6 years after the end of the period that we are providing services.

2. OUR EVENTS, NEWSLETTERS, OTHER INFORMATION SERVICES & MARKETING MATERIALS (“OUR INFORMATION”)

COLLECTION:

We will collect information such as name, email address, IP address (or similar unique identifiers) job title and the business that you work for together with the additional information that you provide to us.
We may collect this information from you (whether directly or via automated means such as our website) or from third parties (such as our customer).

USE:

Personal data will be used to provide you with our Information that you ask for, or that we think are relevant to the preferences that you may have given to us. We may analyse what areas of information are of interest to you so that we can better target the Information that we provide.
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:

with your consent; and/or
in performance of a contract (the agreement to provide services); and/or
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.

DISCLOSURE:

We may share personal data with third parties in respect of the provision of our Information, including to third parties who provide services to us, including IT, website hosting, email delivery and other services. In respect of all disclosures of personal data, we will only share the personal information which is necessary for the particular purpose for which it is provided, or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so, and we will ensure that the personal data is appropriately protected.

RETENTION PERIOD:

We will keep personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it. Any personal data that we have from you solely for the purposes of your receiving our Information will not be used once you have asked us to stop providing these to you (except to the extent that it is necessary to stop you receiving the Information).

3. OUR PEOPLE

COLLECTION:

We will collect names, addresses, contact details, education and employment history, identity and other background checks (which may include appropriate criminal and financial checks and confirmation of the right to work in the UK), marital status and information on next of kin and dependents, financial information (such as bank details and NI numbers), date of birth, gender, a copy of your passport and driving licence, performance information and compensation history, recruitment information (including references), salary, benefits, pension and annual leave information, disciplinary and grievance information, photographs, information about your use of our information and communications systems and CCTV footage or other information obtained through electronic means.

We may collect and use special categories of personal data as required in the carrying out of obligations and exercising specific rights of us or the data subject in the field of employment. This may include information relating to matters such as health, racial origin, religious belief and offences or alleged offences.

Personal data may be collected from you during the selection process (for example via your application form and CV) and during your employment (including holiday forms, expense claims, performance reviews, any disciplinary or grievance processes), or from third parties, including referees, health service providers, background check providers.

USE:

Personal data of our people will be used for HR administration and management, both in respect of the selection of people to work for us (including suitability, eligibility and/or fitness to work), and those who do work for us, to include learning and development, disciplinary and security (of people, offices and data) requirements, providing and liaising with benefits providers, business management and planning (including accounting and auditing), paying you and dealing with tax and NI deductions, assessing and deciding on salary reviews and compensation, conducting performance reviews and managing performance, others, preventing fraud, monitoring your use of our information and communications systems, ensuring compliance with our policies, and equal opportunities monitoring.

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:

In performance of a contract with you; and/or
compliance with a legal obligation; and/or
vital interests of the data subject; and/or
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.

We may also use your personal data in the following situations, which are likely to be less common:

where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests);
where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.

in limited circumstances with your explicit written consent; and/or
where we need to carry out our legal obligations and in line with our policies; and/or
where it is needed in the public interest (such as for equal opportunities monitoring or in relation to our occupational pension scheme), and in line with our policies; and/or
where it is needed to assess your working capacity on health grounds, subject to appropriate confidentiality safeguards.

Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed to protect your (or someone else’s) interests and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public. We may also process such information about our people (or former people) in the course of our legitimate business activities with the appropriate safeguards.

The special categories of personal data may be used in the following ways:

in relation to leaves of absence, to comply with employment and other laws;
in relation to your physical or mental health, or disability status, to ensure your health and safety in the workplace and to assess your fitness to work, to monitor, manage and administer benefits and absences;
in relation to your race, national or ethnic origin, religious, philosophical or moral beliefs, or your sexual life or sexual orientation, to ensure meaningful equal opportunity monitoring and reporting.

DISCLOSURE:

Personal data may be transferred to service providers who support the operation of our business (such as payroll service providers), to other third parties reasonably necessary in the conduct of our business (including insurers, professional advisors, regulators). These third parties may be acting as processor, or controller of personal data in their own right.

Personal data may also be shared with our customers in offering or in the provision of our services.

RETENTION PERIOD:

We will keep personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. We will normally keep personal data of applicants who we do not employ for six months after we receive it.

We will keep personal data of employees throughout your employment and normally for a minimum of six years after your employment ends.

Changes to your personal data
It is very important that the personal information that we hold about you is accurate and current. Please tell us if your personal information changes during your relationship with us.

DATA SECURITY

We have put in place 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 of our people and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and the ICO of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

WHERE WE STORE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We principally store data online within the UK. For customers in Australia, most data will be stored online within Australia, but some personal data may be transferred to the UK. For customers in the US, data will be transferred to the UK. Data will be stored online with appropriate security measures in place to restrict access and delete it at the end of our retention periods.

Personal data stored in the UK may be transferred outside of the UK by us or by processors acting on our behalf. Where the UK Government has decided that a particular country or international organisation ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (an “adequacy” decision), we can transfer personal data to that country/organisation.

For transfers to countries or organisations not considered adequate by the UK, we will ensure that personal data is adequately protected, as required by the UK GDPR. This would include by use legally approved standard contractual clauses in relation to transfers adopted to protect personal data.

YOUR RIGHTS

Under certain circumstances, you have the right by law to request:

access to your personal data. This enables you to ask to receive a copy of the personal data that we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
correction of the personal data that we hold about you.
erasure of your personal data.
object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on our legitimate interest and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
restriction of processing of your personal data.
transfer of your personal data to another party.

LINKS FROM OUR WEBSITE

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of third parties that we permit to make such links. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. We recommend that you check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on our website, so please ensure that you are viewing the correct version.

Please contact us if you have any questions, comments or requests regarding this Privacy Policy.