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Aberdeen Storage Units

Chalmers Base,

Aberdeen,

Aberdeenshire,

AB21 0SU

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Office Hours

Monday - Friday : 8:00 - 17:00

Data Protection Policy

Introduction

Colin Chalmers (the “Firm”) is a firm and provides storage services and deals in the letting and management of properties.

The personal data that the Firm processes to provide these services relates to its clients, tenants and other individuals, as necessary.

This policy (together with our terms and conditions of business and GDPR Privacy Notice) sets out the Firm’s commitment to ensuring that any personal data, including special category personal data, which the Firm processes, is carried out in compliance with Data Protection Law. The Firm processes the personal data of clients from all over the world, including the personal data of a number of non-EU citizens, but is committed to ensuring that all the personal data that it processes is done in accordance with Data Protection Law. The Firm ensures that good data protection practice is imbedded in the culture of our personnel and our organisation. A Glossary of terms relative to this Data Protection Policy is set out in the appendix hereto.

The Firm’s other data protection policies and procedures are:
• record of processing activities
• privacy notices (website, clients, employees)
• personal data breach reporting process and a breach register
• data protection impact assessment process
• IT and data security policies

Scope

The Firm recognises that the correct and lawful treatment of personal data will maintain confidence in the organisation and will provide for successful business operations. It is a critical responsibility that we take seriously at all times.

This policy applies to all personal data processed by the Firm and is part of the Firm’s approach to compliance with Data Protection Law. All personnel of the Firm are expected to comply with this policy and failure to comply may lead to disciplinary action for misconduct, including dismissal.

Data protection principles

The Firm complies with the data protection principles set out below. When processing personal data, it ensures that:
• it is processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (‘lawfulness, fairness and transparency’)
• it is collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes (‘purpose limitation’)
• it is all adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed (‘data minimisation’)
• it is all accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date and that reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay (‘accuracy’)
• it is kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed (‘storage limitation’)
• it is processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures (‘integrity and confidentiality’)

The Firm will facilitate any request from a data subject who wishes to exercise their rights under Data Protection Law as appropriate, always communicating in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form and without undue delay.

Types of Data we hold

Personal data is kept in files or within the Firm’s IT systems. The type of data held by the Firm includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Name, address, phone numbers
• National Insurance numbers
• Employer details, job title and job descriptions
• Copy passports and/or driving licences
• Copy utility bills
• Copy credit card bills/statements
• Bank account details and copy bank statements

Relevant individuals should refer to the Firm’s Privacy Notice and its terms of business letters for more information on the reasons for its processing activities, the lawful bases it relies on for the processing of data and data retention periods.

Process/procedures/guidance
The Firm will:
• ensure that the legal basis for processing personal data is identified in advance and that all processing complies with the law
• not do anything with your data that you would not expect given the content of this policy and the fair processing or privacy notice
• ensure that appropriate privacy notices are in place advising personnel and others how and why their data is being processed, and, in particular, advising data subjects of their rights
• only collect and process the personal data that it needs for purposes it has identified in advance
• ensure that, as far as possible, the personal data it holds is accurate, or a system is in place for ensuring that it is kept up to date as far as possible
• only hold onto your personal data for as long as it is needed, after which time the Firm will securely erase or delete the personal data – the Firm’s policy on data retention sets out the appropriate period of time
• ensure that appropriate security measures are in place to ensure that personal data can only be accessed by those who need to access it and that it is held and transferred securely
The Firm will ensure that all personnel who handle personal data on its behalf are aware of their responsibilities under this policy and other relevant data protection and information security policies, and that they are adequately trained and supervised.
Breaching of this policy by the Firm’s personnel may result in disciplinary action for misconduct, including dismissal. Obtaining (including accessing) or disclosing personal data in breach of the Firm’s data protection policies may also be a criminal offence.
Data Subject Rights
The Firm has processes in place to ensure that it can facilitate any request made by an individual to exercise their rights under Data Protection Law. All personnel have received training and are aware of the rights of data subjects. Personnel can identify such a request and know who to send it to.
All requests will be considered without undue delay and within one month of receipt as far as possible.
Subject access: the right to request information about how personal data is being processed, including whether personal data is being processed and the right to be allowed access to that data and to be provided with a copy of that data along with the right to obtain the following information:
• the purpose of the processing
• the categories of personal data
• the recipients to whom data has been disclosed or which will be disclosed
• the retention period
• the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office
• the source of the information if not collected direct from the subject, and
• the existence of any automated decision making
Rectification: the right to allow a data subject to rectify inaccurate personal data concerning them.
Erasure: the right to have data erased and to have confirmation of erasure, but only where:
• the data is no longer necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was collected, or
• where consent is withdrawn, or
• where there is no legal basis for the processing, or
• there is a legal obligation to delete data
Restriction of processing: the right to ask for certain processing to be restricted in the following circumstances:
• if the accuracy of the personal data is being contested, or
• if our processing is unlawful but the data subject does not want it erased, or
• if the data is no longer needed for the purpose of the processing but it is required by the data subject for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, or
• if the data subject has objected to the processing, pending verification of that objection
Data portability: the right to receive a copy of personal data which has been provided by the data subject and which is processed by automated means in a format which will allow the individual to transfer the data to another data controller. This would only apply if the Firm was processing the data using consent or on the basis of a contract.

Object to processing: the right to object to the processing of personal data relying on the legitimate interests processing condition unless the Firm can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override the interests of the data subject or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Special category personal data

This includes the following personal data revealing:
• racial or ethnic origin
• political opinions
• religious or philosophical beliefs
• trade union membership
• the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person
• an individual’s health
• a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation
• criminal convictions or offences

The Firm may require to process special category data of clients and third parties as is necessary to provide legal services for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

This policy sets out the safeguards we believe are appropriate to ensure that we comply with the data protection principles set out above. The Firm also has a data retention policy which sets out how long special category data will be held onto.

Sharing personal data

We will only share personal data with third parties where certain safeguards and contractual arrangements have been put in place. In addition, we only share the personal data we hold with third parties if:

a) we have a lawful basis for doing so;
b) sharing the personal data complies with the privacy notices provided to the data subject and, if applicable, consent has been obtained; and
c) the third party has agreed to comply with the Firm’s required data security policies and procedures and put adequate security measures in place.

We may share the personal data we hold with other agents if the recipient has a business-related need to know the information.

Responsibility for the processing of personal data
The Firm take ultimate responsibility for data protection.

If you have any concerns or wish to exercise any of your rights under the GDPR, then you can contact the data protection partner using the following information:

Contact: Data Protection Contact
Address: Chalmers Base, Blackburn, Aberdeenshire AB21 0SR
Email: info@colinchalmers.co.uk
Telephone: 01224 791132

Monitoring and review

This policy was last updated as at 24 May 2018 and shall be regularly monitored and reviewed, at least every two years.


APPENDIX – GLOSSARY

Data Controller: the person or organisation that determines when, why and how to process Personal Data.

Data Protection Acts 1998 and 2018: the Data Protection Act 1998 (for so long as it remains in force), thereafter to be replaced by the Data Protection Act 2018, as amended from time to time.

Data Protection Law includes the General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Acts 1998 and 2018 and all relevant EU and UK data protection legislation.

Data Subject: an identified or identifiable individual about whom we hold Personal Data.

Data Protection Officer (DPO): the person required to be appointed in specific circumstances under the GDPR. Where a DPO has not been appointed (as is currently the case with the Firm), this term refers to the data protection partner or refers to the Firm’s data protection/privacy team with responsibility for data protection compliance.

General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR: the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679.

Personal Data: any information identifying a Data Subject or information relating to a Data Subject that can be identified (directly or indirectly) from that data alone or in conjunction with other identifiers.

Personal Data Breach: the loss, or unauthorised access, disclosure or acquisition of Personal Data.

Privacy Notices: separate notices setting out information that may be provided to us which details why we collect information about Data Subjects and what we do with it.

Processing or Process: any activity that involves the use of Personal Data. It includes obtaining, recording or holding the data, or carrying out any operation or set of operations on the data including organising, amending, retrieving, using, disclosing, erasing or destroying it. Processing also includes transmitting or transferring Personal Data to third parties.

Sensitive or Special Category Personal Data: information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or similar beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health conditions, sexual life, sexual orientation, biometric or genetic data, and personal data relating to criminal offences and convictions.

Privacy Policy

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS PRIVACY NOTICE?

Colin Chalmers (the “Firm” or “we”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.

This privacy notice describes how we collect and use personal information about you, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

It applies to all prospective, new and continuing clients, customers, tenants and business contacts of the Firm (“Clients” or “you”).

The Firm is a “data controller”. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. We are required under data protection legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

THE KIND OF INFORMATION WE HOLD 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 (anonymous data).

There are “special categories” of more sensitive personal data which require a higher level of protection.

We may collect, process, store, and use the following (non-exhaustive) categories or potential categories of personal information about you:


• Personal contact details such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, and personal email addresses.
• Date of birth.
• Gender.
• Marital status and dependants.
• National Insurance number.
• Bank account details.
• Copy of Passport and/or driving licence.
• Employment details.


We may also collect, store and use the following (non-exhaustive) “special categories” of more sensitive personal information:

• Information about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions.
• Data revealing trade union membership
• Information about your health, including physical and mental health and any medical condition.
• Information about criminal convictions and offences.

HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED?

We collect personal information about Clients directly from you or through publicly available searches.

We may require to collect additional personal information in the course of providing services to new and continuing clients, customers, tenants and business contacts throughout the period of our relationship.

HOW WE WILL USE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

1. Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you.
2. Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
3. 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 information in the following situations:
1. Where we need to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests).
2. Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes.

Situations in which we will use your personal information

We need or may need all the categories of information in the list above primarily to allow us to perform our contract with you and to enable us to comply with legal obligations and complete legal transactions. In some cases we may use your personal information to pursue legitimate interests of our own or those of third parties, provided your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.

If you fail to provide personal information
If you fail to provide certain information when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you, or we may be prevented from complying with our legal obligations (such as to ensure compliance with anti-money laundering requirements).

Change of purpose
We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

HOW WE USE PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION

“Special categories” of particularly sensitive personal information require higher levels of protection. We need to have further justification for collecting, storing and using this type of personal information. We may process special categories of personal information in the following circumstances:

1. In limited circumstances, with your explicit written consent.
2. Where we need to carry out legal obligations and in line with our data protection policy.
3. Where it is needed in the public interest, in line with our data protection policy.
4. Where you have already made the information public.
Less commonly, we may process this type of information where it is needed in relation to legal claims or where it is needed to protect your interests (or someone else’s interests) and you are not capable of giving your consent, or where you have already made the information public.

Our obligations
We will use your particularly sensitive personal information in the following ways:

• We will use information to comply with applicable laws.

Do we need your consent?
In limited circumstances, we may require to approach you for your written consent to allow us to process certain particularly sensitive data. If we do so, we will provide you with full details of the information that we would like and the reason we need it, so that you can carefully consider whether you wish to consent.

INFORMATION ABOUT CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS

We do not envisage that we will normally require to hold information about criminal convictions. We may only use information relating to criminal convictions where the law allows us to do so. This will usually be where such processing is necessary to carry out our obligations and provided we do so in line with our data protection policy.

AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING

We do not envisage that any decisions will be taken about you using automated means, however we will notify you in writing if this position changes.

DATA SHARING

We may have to share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers.

We require third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

We may require to transfer your personal information outside the EU. If we do, you can expect a similar degree of protection in respect of your personal information.

Why might you share my personal information with third parties?
We will share your personal information with third parties where required for the purposes of any transaction on your behalf or by law, where it is necessary to administer the working relationship with you or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.

Which third-party service providers process my personal information?
“Third parties” includes third-party service providers (including contractors and designated agents). We envisage your personal information may require to be shared with the following third parties:
• Local Authorities and relevant courts or tribunals,
• Tenancy Deposit Protection Agencies
• Contractors employed by the Firm
• Revenue Scotland, and
• the Firm’s professional advisers and/or regulatory bodies (such as its accountants, legal advisers and bankers).

How secure is my information with third parties
All the above third parties are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow third parties to use your personal data for their own purposes unless they are separately permitted to do so by law. We only permit third parties to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Transferring information outside the EEA/EU
We do not expect to have to transfer the personal information we collect about you to countries outside the EU in order to perform our contract with you.

However, in such eventuality, to ensure that your personal information does receive an adequate level of protection we will put in place appropriate measures to ensure that your personal information is treated by all relevant third parties in a way that is consistent with and which respects the EU and UK laws on data protection.

DATA SECURITY

We have put in place measures to protect the security of your information. Details of these measures are contained in our data protection policy and terms and conditions of business.

Third parties will only process your personal information on our instructions and where they have agreed to treat the information confidentially and to keep it secure.

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

DATA RETENTION

How long will you use/hold my personal information for?
We will only retain your personal information 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 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 and regulatory requirements.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. Once you are no longer clients, customers, tenants and business contacts we will retain and securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data retention policy, taking into account applicable laws and regulations.

RIGHTS OF ACCESS, CORRECTION, ERASURE, AND RESTRICTION

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

Your rights in connection with personal information
Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information 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 information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
• Object to processing of your personal information 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.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This allows you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party.

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact our Data Protection Contact, in writing.

No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

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 the information (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

RIGHT TO WITHDRAW CONSENT

In the limited circumstances where you may have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact our Data Protection Contact. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

DATA PROTECTION PARTNER

We have appointed a Data Protection Contact to oversee compliance with this privacy notice. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the Data Protection Contact by email at info@colinchalmers.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.

CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will make a new privacy notice available when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.