Andrew Egan Associates takes your privacy seriously. For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, Andrew Egan is the Data Controller. Our office address is the Netqubate Business Centre 72-73 Bartholomew Street Newbury Berkshire RG14 5DU. We are authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA number 801959. This privacy policy explains when Andrew Egan Associates Solicitors collects personal information about you and how we will use your personal data. We want you to be fully informed about your rights, and how our firm uses your data.
We are only entitled to hold and process your data where the law allows us to do so. The current law on data protection sets out a number of different reasons for which a law firm may collect and process your personal data. These include:
The main purpose for our holding your data is to provide you with legal services under the agreement we have with you. This agreement is a contract between us and the law allows us to process your data for the purposes of performing a contract (or for the steps necessary to enter into a contract).
In specific situations, we require your data to pursue our legitimate business interests in a way which might reasonably be expected as part of running our business and which does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests. This may include to satisfy our external quality auditors or our regulators.
If the law requires us to, we may need to collect and process your data. For example, we can pass on details of people involved in fraud or other criminal activity.
In some situations, we can collect and process your data with your consent, for example, when you tick a box to receive email newsletters. When collecting your personal data, we will always make clear to you which data is necessary in connection with a particular service.
We normally collect your data when you provide it to us or when it is provided to us by others (for example, your opponent’s solicitors) during your case. You may give us your data by email; through an online web form; over the telephone; face to face; or by post.
We also collect data automatically with regard to each of your visits to our website including technical information.
Information you provide to us when you voluntarily give us your personal information for instance when:
Where we request information from you, we will collect the information set out in the relevant web pages, or as explained to you over the telephone or face to face.
We collect certain related technical information including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, logs (including, where available, the IP address and location of the device connecting to the online services and other technical information and identifiers about the device and the nature of the visit through and from our website) and other communication data, and the resources that you use.
On occasion, we acquire information from other companies, to collect information about how visitors to our website use the site. Information is also collected about how you arrived at our websites in the first place, including what links or adverts you have viewed or clicked on to reach us, or any search terms you have used. We do this to maintain and improve our website, getting a better understanding of visitor and client profiles and ultimately delivering a better experience. Information may be collected through the use of cookies or pixels.
We may use your data to notify you of our other services but only where we have your consent to do so.
We only use your data for the purposes of providing you with legal advice, assistance and where appropriate, representation and for reasons directly associated with those services (i.e. providing information to our regulators etc.). In particular:
We may use your data to notify you of our other services but only where we have your express consent to do so.
We also use data to communicate with our regulators or legislators and to obey laws, regulations and codes of conduct that apply to us.
We also use data to develop our business and services. In particular:
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.
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.
By law, we may not place cookies on your computer without your consent, unless they are strictly necessary to the operation of the service that we provide on the website.
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.
We use Google Analytics to monitor how our website is being used so we can make improvements. Our use of Google Analytics requires us to pass to Google your IP address (but no other information) - Google uses this information to prepare site usage reports for us, but Google may also share this information with other Google services. In particular, Google may use the data collected to contextualise and personalise the ads of its own advertising network. Related information:
If you have any queries about the cookies that we use, or would like more information, please contact andrew@andreweganassociates.co.uk
We take protecting your data very seriously. The data you give us may be subject to Legal Professional Privilege and is often extremely sensitive and confidential.
With this in mind we will treat your data with the utmost care and take all appropriate steps to protect it. We have clear data protection and information security policies and procedures in place (along with regulatory and other legal obligations to keep your data safe) and these are regularly assessed as part of our quality standards and compliance processes.
We protect our IT system from cyber attack. Access to your personal data is password-protected, and sensitive data is secured by encryption. We regularly monitor our system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks, and we carry out penetration testing to identify ways to further strengthen security.
We only keep your data for as long as is necessary for the purpose(s) for which it was provided. Normally this is for six years after your case or matter ends (enquiries where we do not take on your case are kept for only 18 months).
This is because we are required to keep client files for that period by our regulator and/or by the SRA. This also protects you should you be unhappy with our services and want to complain or even due us after your case ends.
For some cases we may decide that it is proper and appropriate to keep data for longer than six years, but we will notify you if we believe that your case falls into this category.
We sometimes share your personal data with trusted third parties, only where it is necessary for providing you legal services or for the effective operation of our legal practice.
We may, for example, share your data with barristers, experts, costs draftsmen, process servers, translators, secure file storage and destruction companies, auditors, and the company that securely hosts our off-site cloud storage servers.
We apply a strict policy to those recipients or data processors to keep your data safe and protect your privacy. In particular:
Your data is stored and processed within the European Economic Area (“EEA”). If we ever have to share your personal data with third parties and suppliers outside the EEA, we will seek your specific consent to do so.
The EEA includes all EU member countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
You have rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) which include the right to be informed what information we hold about you. In particular, you have the right to request:
You also have the right to request a copy of any information about you that we hold at any time.
If we choose not to action your request, we will explain to you the reasons for our decision.
For further details on your rights, please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/
Whenever you give us your consent to use your personal data, you have the right to change your mind at any time and withdraw that consent.
In cases where we are processing your personal data on the basis of our legitimate interest, you can ask us to stop for reasons connected with your individual situation. We must then do so, unless we believe we have a legitimate overriding reason to continue processing your personal data.
For information on how your information is used, how we maintain the security of our information, and to exercise your rights to access information we hold on you, please contact us. Similarly, if you believe that the information we hold is wrong or out of date, please let us know and we will update it.
The solicitor responsible for overseeing data protection compliance and all other compliance for the firm is the Principal, Andrew Egan, who can be contacted on 01635 890560 or andrew@andreweganassociates.co.uk
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 other websites. We cannot, therefore, 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 policy. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement or policy applicable to the website in question.
If you feel that your data has not been handled correctly, or you are unhappy with our response to any requests you have made to us regarding the use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”).
You can contact the ICO by calling 0303 123 1113. Alternatively, go online to www.ico.org.uk/concerns (opens in a new window; please note we cannot be responsible for the content of external websites).
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