Privacy policy

 BUILDING REPAIRS MAINTENANCE LIMITED

DATA PROTECTION POLICY/PRIVACY STANDARD

1.                   Interpretation

1.1                Definitions:

                        Company Personnel: all employees, workers, contractors, agency workers, consultants, directors, members and others.

                        Consent: agreement which must be freely given, specific, informed and be an unambiguous indication of the Data Subject's wishes by which they, by a statement or by a clear positive action, signifies agreement to the Processing of Personal Data relating to them.

                        Controller: the person or organisation that determines when, why and how to process Personal Data. It is responsible for establishing practices and policies in line with the GDPR. We are the Controller of all Personal Data relating to our Company Personnel and Personal Data used in our business for our own commercial purposes.

                        Criminal Convictions Data: means personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences.

                        Data Subject: a living, identified or identifiable individual about whom we hold Personal Data. Data Subjects may be nationals or residents of any country and may have legal rights regarding their Personal Data.

                        Data Protection Officer (DPO): the person required to be appointed in specific circumstances under the GDPR. Where a mandatory DPO has not been appointed, this term means a data protection manager or other voluntary appointment of a DPO.

                        Explicit Consent: consent which requires a very clear and specific statement (that is, not just action).

                        General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679). Personal Data is subject to the legal safeguards specified in the GDPR.

                        Personal Data: any information identifying a Data Subject or information relating to a Data Subject that we can identify (directly or indirectly) from that data alone or in combination with other identifiers we possess or can reasonably access. Personal Data includes Special Categories of Personal Data but excludes anonymous data or data that has had the identity of an individual permanently removed. Personal data can be factual (for example, a name, email address, location or date of birth) or an opinion about that person's actions or behaviour.

                        Personal Data Breach: any act or omission that compromises the security, confidentiality, integrity or availability of Personal Data or the physical, technical, administrative or organisational safeguards that we or our third-party service providers put in place to protect it. The loss, or unauthorised access, disclosure or acquisition, of Personal Data is a Personal Data Breach.

                        Privacy Notices (also referred to as Fair Processing Notices) or Privacy Policies: separate notices setting out information that may be provided to Data Subjects when the Company collects information about them. These notices may take the form of general privacy statements applicable to a specific group of individuals (for example, employee privacy notices or the website privacy policy) or they may be stand-alone, one-time privacy statements covering Processing related to a specific purpose.

                        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.

                        Special Categories of 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.

2.                   Introduction

This Privacy Standard sets out how Building Repairs Maintenance Limited ("we", "our", "us", "the Company") handles the Personal Data of our customers, suppliers, employees, workers and other third parties.

This Privacy Standard applies to all Personal Data we Process regardless of the media on which that data is stored or whether it relates to past or present employees, workers, customers, clients or supplier contacts, shareholders, website users or any other Data Subject.

This Privacy Standard applies to all Company Personnel ("you", "your"). You must read, understand and comply with this Privacy Standard when Processing Personal Data on our behalf and (where required) attend training on its requirements. This Privacy Standard sets out what we expect from you in order for the Company to comply with applicable law. Your compliance with this Privacy Standard is mandatory. Any breach of this Privacy Standard may result in disciplinary action. 

This Privacy Standard is an internal document and cannot be shared with third parties, clients or regulators without prior authorisation from the DPO.

3.                   DPO

The DPO is responsible for overseeing this Privacy Standard. That post is held by [NAME], [EMAIL ADDRESS].Philip Cooper, b_r_m@hotmail.co.uk.

Please contact the DPO with any questions about the operation of this Privacy Standard or the GDPR or if you have any concerns that this Privacy Standard is not being or has not been followed.

4.                   Personal data protection principles

We adhere to the principles relating to Processing of Personal Data set out in the GDPR which require Personal Data to be:

(a)           Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner (Lawfulness, Fairness and Transparency).

(b)           Collected only for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes (Purpose Limitation).

(c)            Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is Processed (Data Minimisation).

(d)           Accurate and where necessary kept up to date (Accuracy).

(e)           Not kept in a form which permits identification of Data Subjects for longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the data is Processed (Storage Limitation).

(f)             Processed in a manner that ensures its security using appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect against unauthorised or unlawful Processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage (Security, Integrity and Confidentiality).

(g)            Not transferred to another country without appropriate safeguards being in place (Transfer Limitation).

(h)           Made available to Data Subjects and Data Subjects allowed to exercise certain rights in relation to their Personal Data (Data Subject's Rights and Requests).

We are responsible for and must be able to demonstrate compliance with the data protection principles listed above (Accountability).

5.                   Lawfulness, fairness, transparency

5.1                Lawfulness and fairness

Personal Data may only be collected, Processed and shared fairly and lawfully and for specified purposes. The GDPR allows Processing for specific purposes, some of which are set out below:

(a)           the Data Subject has given his or her Consent;

(b)           the Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with the Data Subject;

(c)            to meet our legal compliance obligations;

(d)           to protect the Data Subject's vital interests; or

(e)           to pursue our legitimate interests for purposes where they are not overridden because the Processing prejudices the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of Data Subjects.

The legal ground being relied on for each Processing activity must be identified and documented.

5.2                Consent

A Data Subject consents to Processing of their Personal Data if they indicate agreement clearly either by a statement or positive action to the Processing.

Data Subjects must be easily able to withdraw Consent to Processing at any time and withdrawal must be promptly honoured. Consent may need to be refreshed if it is intended to Process Personal Data for a different and incompatible purpose which was not disclosed when the Data Subject first consented.

Unless we can rely on another legal basis of Processing, Explicit Consent is usually required for Processing Special Categories of Personal Data and Criminal Convictions Data.

Evidence of Consent must be captured and records kept of all Consents so that the Company can demonstrate compliance with Consent requirements.

5.3                Transparency (notifying data subjects)

The GDPR requires Data Controllers to provide detailed, specific information to Data Subjects depending on whether the information was collected directly from Data Subjects or from elsewhere. Such information must be provided through appropriate Privacy Notices which must be concise, transparent, intelligible, easily accessible, and in clear and plain language so that a Data Subject can easily understand them.

6.                   Purpose limitation

Personal Data cannot be used for new, different or incompatible purposes from that disclosed when it was first obtained unless the Data Subject has been informed of the new purposes and they have Consented where necessary.

7.                   Data minimisation

You may only Process Personal Data when performing your job duties requires it. You cannot Process Personal Data for any reason unrelated to your job duties.

When Personal Data is no longer needed for specified purposes, it must be deleted or anonymised in accordance with the Company's data retention guidelines.

8.                   Accuracy

The Personal Data we use and hold must be accurate, complete, kept up to date and relevant to the purpose for which we collected it. The accuracy of any Personal Data should be checked at the point of collection and at regular intervals afterwards. All reasonable steps must be taken to destroy or amend inaccurate or out-of-date Personal Data.

9.                   Storage limitation

Personal Data must not be kept in a form which permits the identification of the Data Subject for longer than needed for the legitimate business purpose or purposes for which we originally collected it including for the purpose of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements.

The Company will maintain retention policies and procedures to ensure Personal Data is deleted after a reasonable time for the purposes for which it was being held, unless a law requires such data to be kept for a minimum time.

10.                Security integrity and confidentiality

10.1            Protecting Personal Data

We will develop, implement and maintain safeguards appropriate to our size, scope and business, our available resources, the amount of Personal Data that we own or maintain on behalf of others and identified risks.  We will regularly evaluate and test the effectiveness of those safeguards to ensure security of our Processing of Personal Data.

You must follow all procedures and technologies we put in place to maintain the security of all Personal Data from the point of collection to the point of destruction.

You must maintain data security by protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the Personal Data, defined as follows:

(a)           Confidentiality means that only people who have a need to know and are authorised to use the Personal Data can access it.

(b)           Integrity means that Personal Data is accurate and suitable for the purpose for which it is processed.

(c)            Availability means that authorised users are able to access the Personal Data when they need it for authorised purposes.

You must comply with and not attempt to circumvent the administrative, physical and technical safeguards we implement and maintain in accordance with the GDPR and relevant standards to protect Personal Data.

10.2            Reporting a Personal Data Breach

The GDPR requires Controllers to notify any Personal Data Breach to the applicable regulator and, in certain instances, the Data Subject.

If you know or suspect that a Personal Data Breach has occurred, do not attempt to investigate the matter yourself. Immediately contact the DPO. You should preserve all evidence relating to the potential Personal Data Breach.

11.                Transfer limitation

The GDPR restricts data transfers to countries outside the EEA in order to ensure that the level of data protection afforded to individuals by the GDPR is not undermined.

12.                Data Subject's rights and requests

Data Subjects have rights when it comes to how we handle their Personal Data. These include rights to:

(a)           withdraw Consent to Processing at any time;

(b)           receive certain information about the Data Controller's Processing activities;

(c)            request access to their Personal Data that we hold;

(d)           prevent our use of their Personal Data for direct marketing purposes;

(e)           ask us to erase Personal Data if it is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or Processed or to rectify inaccurate data or to complete incomplete data;

(f)             restrict Processing in specific circumstances;

(g)            challenge Processing which has been justified on the basis of our legitimate interests or in the public interest;

(h)           prevent Processing that is likely to cause damage or distress to the Data Subject or anyone else;

(i)             be notified of a Personal Data Breach which is likely to result in high risk to their rights and freedoms;

(j)             make a complaint to the supervisory authority; and

(k)            in limited circumstances, receive or ask for their Personal Data to be transferred to a third party in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format.

The identity of an individual requesting data under any of the rights listed above must always be verified (do not allow third parties to persuade you into disclosing Personal Data without proper authorisation).

You must immediately forward any Data Subject request you receive to the DPO.

13.                Accountability

13.1            The Controller must implement appropriate technical and organisational measures in an effective manner, to ensure compliance with data protection principles. The Controller is responsible for, and must be able to demonstrate, compliance with the data protection principles. 

13.2            Record keeping

The GDPR requires us to keep full and accurate records of all our data Processing activities.

Accurate records must be kept and maintained reflecting our Processing, including records of Data Subjects' Consents and procedures for obtaining Consents.

13.3            Training and audit

We are required to ensure all Company Personnel have undergone adequate training to enable them to comply with data privacy laws. We must also regularly test our systems and processes to assess compliance.

You must undergo all mandatory data privacy related training.

13.4            Direct marketing 

We are subject to certain rules and privacy laws when marketing to our customers.

For example, a Data Subject's prior consent is required for electronic direct marketing (for example, by email, text or automated calls). The limited exception for existing customers known as "soft opt in" allows organisations to send marketing texts or emails if they have obtained contact details in the course of a sale to that person, they are marketing similar products or services, and they gave the person an opportunity to opt out of marketing when first collecting the details and in every subsequent message.

The right to object to direct marketing must be explicitly offered to the Data Subject in an intelligible manner so that it is clearly distinguishable from other information.

A Data Subject's objection to direct marketing must be promptly honoured. If a customer opts out at any time, their details should be suppressed as soon as possible. Suppression involves retaining just enough information to ensure that marketing preferences are respected in the future.

13.5            Sharing Personal Data

Generally, we are not allowed to share Personal Data with third parties unless certain safeguards and contractual arrangements have been put in place.

You may only share the Personal Data we hold with another employee if the recipient has a job-related need to know the information.

You may only share the Personal Data we hold with third parties, such as our service providers, if:

(a)           they have a need to know the information for the purposes of providing the contracted services;

(b)           sharing the Personal Data complies with the Privacy Notice provided to the Data Subject and, if required, the Data Subject's Consent has been obtained;

(c)            the third party has agreed to comply with the required data security standards, policies and procedures and put adequate security measures in place; and 

(d)           (if required) a fully executed written contract that contains GDPR approved third party clauses has been obtained.