Our Digital Privacy Statement

With GDPR now in force we want to assure all our clients that we take data security very seriously, unlike Facebook and co. Below is our data privacy statement in full –

Privacy

Simon Peters Associates are strongly committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected.   The information we hold about you is treated as confidential and is held and processed in accordance with current legislation.

The data controller is Simon Peters.

In most cases, where we are exercising professional judgement in our work, Simon Peters Assoc Ltd will be a data controller together with the client for personal data.

Changes to this statement

We may change this policy from time to time by updating this page and, as such, you should check this page regularly. This policy was last updated on 8 May 2018.

The reason we hold your personal data

 We may obtain, use, process and disclose personal data to:

• provide you with professional services;
• provide you with information about us and our services;
• develop our business and services;
• comply with legal, regulatory or professional body requirements.

What information do we hold?

We may collect a range of personal data according to the services we are providing:

• Contact and other personal details;
• Business activities;
• Family information;
• Income, tax, and other financial details;
• Investments and other financial interests;

Who we share your information with

We will only share your information when we are legally permitted to do so and then only when it is appropriate to do so in order to provide you with an effective service.  When we do share data we will put in place appropriate contractual and other arrangements to protect the data and comply with our legal obligations.

We may share personal data with:

• Trusted third parties such as sub-contractors for specialist advice or other services;
• Other professional advisers where specific consent is given;
• HMRC, law enforcement or other government and regulatory agencies, or other third parties where this is required by law;
• Professional institutes, regulators and independent review firms as part of our quality assurance processes;
• Our IT hardware and software application providers. This will be done solely for the purposes of testing, diagnosing and resolving hardware or software application issues. Data will be transported via secure means and we will have a data sharing agreement in place between ourselves and the software provider that ensures your data remains confidential.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so and we will not use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties.

Security and storage or personal data

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure.   In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we hold.

We retain personal data for as long as we consider it necessary for the purpose for which it was collected including as required by law or regulation. As a general rule we will retain client data indefinitely.  In the absence of specific legal, regulatory or contractual requirements we will delete data 7 years after we cease to act for a client.  Some data is deleted sooner.

Your rights

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you. If you would like a copy of the information held on you please write to Simon at 23 Lowther Rd, Brighton BN1 6LF or email simon@petersassociates.co.uk

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible, at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

Where we process personal data based on consent you have the right to withdraw consent at any time.  We do not generally process personal data based on consent as we can usually rely on another legal basis.  To withdraw consent to our processing of your personal data please email simon@petersassociates.co.uk

You may have other rights such as the right to deletion, or to restrict processing.  If you wish to exercise any of these please email simon@petersassociates.co.uk

Making a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office

If you’re not satisfied with our response to any query you raise with us, or you believe we are processing your personal data in a way which is inconsistent with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office – helpline number: 0303 123 1113

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.
We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.