Pride Beats Prejudice operates under the privacy policy of our supervisor, Tower Hamlets Law Centre: 

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Tower Hamlets Law Centre takes data protection and data security extremely
seriously. 

 

This Privacy Notice explains the types of personal data we may collect
about you. It also explains how we’ll store and handle that data and keep it safe.

We know that there’s a lot of information here, but we want you to be fully informed
about your rights, and how Tower Hamlets Law Centre uses your data. We hope the
following sections will answer any questions you have but if not, please do get in
touch with us.

Conditions for Processing Data
We are only entitled to hold and process your data where the law allows us to. The
current law on data protection sets out a number of different reasons for which a Law
Centre may collect and process your personal data. These include:

Contractual obligations
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 in to a contract). We may also need to process
your data to meet our contractual obligations to the Legal Aid Agency where you
receive legal aid to fund your case or advice.

Legitimate Interests
In specific situations, we require your data to pursue our legitimate interests in a way
which might reasonably be expected as part of running the Law Centre and which
does not materially impact your rights, freedom or interests. This may include to
satisfy our external quality auditors or our Regulators.

Legal compliance
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.

Consent
In some situations, we can collect and process your data with your consent.
When collecting your personal data, we’ll always make clear to you which data is
necessary in connection with a particular service.

When do we collect your data?
We normally collect your data when you provide it to us or when it is provided to us
by others. You may give us your data by email; through an online web form; over
the telephone; face to face; or by post.

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What sort of data do we collect?
We collect your name and contact details. This may include asking for and keeping
a copy of your passport / driving licence and proof of address.
We may gather details of your age; ethnicity; gender etc. in particular if required to
do so by the Legal Aid Agency where you are in receipt of Legal Aid. Where you
have Legal Aid, we may also gather financial information from you.
We also collect and hold information about your case or legal problem.

How do we use your data?
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 quality auditors; the
Legal Aid Agency etc.).

How do we protect your data?
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.

 

We regularly monitor our system for possible vulnerabilities and attacks to identify
ways to further strengthen security.

How long will we keep your data?
We only keep your data for as long as is necessary for the purpose(s) for which it
was provided. Normally this is for 6 years after your case or matter ends.

This is because we are required to keep client files for that period by our Regulator
and / or by the LAA. This also protects you should you be unhappy with our services
and want to complain or even sue us after your case ends.

For some cases we may decide that it is proper and appropriate to keep data for
longer than 6 years, but we will notify you if we believe that your case falls into this
category.

Who do we share your personal data with?
We sometimes share your personal data with trusted third parties. We only do this
where it is necessary for providing you legal services or for the effective operation of
our legal practice.

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For example, we may share your data with barristers; experts; translators; costs
draftsmen; secure file storage and destruction companies; auditors; the company
that securely hosts our off-site cloud storage servers.

Here’s the policy we apply to those organisations to keep your data safe and protect
your privacy:

• We provide only the information they need to perform their specific services.
• They may only use your data for the exact purposes we specify in our contract
with them.
• We work closely with them to ensure that your privacy is respected and
protected at all times.
• If we stop using their services, any of your data held by them will either be
deleted or rendered anonymous.

Where is your data processed?
Your data is stored and processed within the EEA. If we ever have to share your
personal data with third parties and suppliers outside the European Economic Area
(EEA) we will seek your specific consent to do so.

The EEA includes all EU Member countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and
Norway.

What are your rights?
You have the right:

• to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data. We are
giving you this Privacy Notice to inform you.
• of access to the personal data we hold about you, free of charge in most
cases.
• to correction of your personal data when it is incorrect, out of date or
incomplete.
• to have your personal data erased when, for example, you withdraw
consent for us to hold it, or object and we have no legitimate overriding
interest, or once the purpose for which we hold the data has come to an end.
• to restrict, in some circumstances, what we can do with your personal data
• to receive back, in some circumstances, the personal data you provided to
us in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format.
• to object, in some circumstances, to our processing of your personal data
• to protection, in some circumstances, from automated decision-making and
profiling.

To ask for your information, please contact our Chief Executive, Martin South.

If we decide not to action your request, we will explain to you the reasons for our
refusal.

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Your right to withdraw consent
Whenever you have given us your consent to use your personal data, you have the
right to change your mind at any time and withdraw that consent.

Where we rely on our legitimate interest
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 to your individual situation.
We must then do so unless we believe we have a legitimate overriding reason to
continue processing your personal data.

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 calling 0303 123 1113.

Or go online to www.ico.org.uk/concerns (opens in a new window; please note we
can't be responsible for the content of external websites)

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