Privacy policy

Protecting your privacy - Policy

This privacy policy outlines the types of personal data held by Berners Marketing Limited, how we store and handle that data, and keep it safe.

Data protection principles

We respect the eight principles as follow:

1. Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully

2. Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes.

3. Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed.

4. Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.

5. Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.

6. Personal data shall be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under data protection rules in the UK.

7. Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.

8. Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.

Legal basis for processing personal data

The law on data protection sets out a number of different reasons why a company may collect and process personal data, including:

Consent

In specific situations, we can collect and process your data with your consent. For example:

when you become a client and ask us to manage your marketing activities; or
when you ask us to draft profiles for individual lawyers.

Contractual obligations

We may need your personal data to comply with our contractual obligations – for example in your capacity as the owner or director of an organisation that is a client or supplier.

Legitimate interest

As a small firm focused on marketing within the niche sector of the legal profession, we have a legitimate interest in demonstrating to law firms, their owners and marketing teams how to market a professional service using best practice direct marketing techniques.

In choosing to rely on a legitimate interest, we accept that we have an extra responsibility to consider and protect people’s rights and interests which include:

only processing such data as is necessary to achieve the legitimate interest; and
balancing this against an individual’s rights and freedoms.

Legal compliance

If the law requires us to, we may need to collect and pass on your data to law enforcement agencies.

Where we collect personal data

When you visit our websites (www.bernersmarketing.com and www.idahoflow.com) and request resources via a form.
When you contact us by phone or email.
When you engage with us on social media, such as via LinkedIn.
When you give us your business card.
When you book any kind of appointment with us or book to attend an event.
When you choose to complete any surveys we send you.
When data is made public as a matter of law – such as on a regulators website.
When you comment on or review our products and services - an individual may access personal data related to them, including opinions. So, if your comment or review includes information about the member of staff who provided that service, if requested, it may be passed on to them.
When a client organisation provides personal information, to enable us to prepare publicity material.

What personal data do we hold?

When preparing lawyer profiles, we may need to request a wide range of personal data in relation to your qualifications, experience and credentials. Some firms also ask us to request information on personal interests. Only approved information is made public, and background information is deleted from our files once approval has been confirmed.

We maintain libraries of professional portrait photographs on behalf of our law firm clients.

When managing law firm marketing, we may be provided with personal information held via third party software – this is held under password protection.

We hold the following information in our marketing database:

Name, job title, legal practice areas
Which services you have enquired about or purchased.

We also hold:

Details of your interactions with us via our website content management system; and
Social media usernames, if you share this information with us.

How do we use personal data

We use personal data as follows:

To respond to enquiries and requests for information about our services.
To set up new client accounts and to process payments.
To fulfil our obligations in regard to marketing the experts in the law firms which we work for.
To inform about services which are relevant to practising lawyers and marketing managers in law firms.
To inform about developments and research in the legal marketplace.
To provide options in regard to information which can be received.
To send surveys and feedback requests to help improve our services.
To send you relevant, personalised communications by post and email in relation to services and developments in legal marketing. We do this on the basis of our legitimate interest in growing our business within the legal profession. Recipients always have an opportunity to tailor their preferences to receive some, all or none of these. All such requests are responded to and acted upon promptly.

We do not and will not share your personal data with third parties without express permission.

How long will we keep your personal data

When we collect or process personal data, we only keep it for as long as is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.

At the end of that retention period, your data will either be deleted completely or anonymised, for example by aggregation with other data so that it can be used in a non-identifiable way for statistical analysis and business planning.

Some examples include:

Personal profile information from lawyers and law firms who instruct us.	Background information is deleted as soon as an approved profile has been uploaded online.
Other information from lawyers and law firms who instruct us, eg: photographs, client and contact data, logins.	This is kept for as long as we are under contract to the law firm, and for a period after the contract has concluded which will be agreed at that time.
Information from lawyers who we have met or connected with via social media.	This is kept for as long as we are in contact or remain connected, unless you request otherwise.
Information on prospective clients within law firms.	This is kept for as long as we are in contact or remain connected, unless you request otherwise.

When do we share your personal data?

Occasionally personal details may need to be passed to a third party to supply or deliver the service that you require – for example a website developer, mailing house or a photographer. We only provide the information required to perform specific services requested by or with the express permission of our clients on their behalf.

Software that we use in the course of providing marketing services to our clients include:

Website content management systems: eg Wordpress, Joomla, Exesios
Salesforce CRM
Enablermail and Mailchimp for email marketing
Hootsuite, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, Slideshare

We would disclose personal data requested by the police or other enforcement, regulatory or government body.

In the event that the owners sell this business, then this may involve the transfer of personal data.

Your rights over your personal data

You have the following rights:

The right to be informed of the data we hold and how it is used.
The right of access to this data.
The right to request the rectification of any errors.
The right to request erasure.
The right to request us to restrict processing.
The right to data portability.
The right to object.
Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

To stop receiving direct marketing

There are several ways you can stop or reduce direct marketing communications from us:

Click the ‘unsubscribe’ link in any email communication that we send you. We will then stop all further emails.
Click the ‘tailor my preferences’ link to specify which emailers you do or do not wish to receive.
You can also visit our website and tailor your preferences
Email info@bernersmarketing.com with any request.
Write to Berners Marketing, 2B Stafford Street, Eccleshall, Staffordshire, ST21 6BH.

Any questions

We hope this policy has been helpful in setting out the way we handle your personal data and your rights to control it.

If you have any questions that have not been covered, please email us at info@bernersmarketing.com

Contacting the regulator

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.

You can contact them by:

Telephone: 0303 123 1113.
Via https://ico.org.uk/concerns