PRIVACY POLICY

Gloucestersphere Accountants Limited understands that your privacy is important and that you care about how your personal data is used and shared online. We respect and value the privacy of everyone who visits our website and will only collect and use information in ways that are useful to you and in a manner consistent with your rights and our obligations under the law.

This Policy applies to our use of any and all data collected by us in relation to your use of our website. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully and ensure that you understand it. Your acceptance of our Privacy Policy is deemed to occur upon your first use of our website. If you do not accept and agree with this Privacy Policy, you must stop using our website immediately.

Information About Us

Our website, www.gloucestersphere.co.uk, is owned and operated by Gloucestersphere Accountants Limited, a limited company registered in England under 10206722, whose registered and trading address is 13 Water Wheel Close, Quedgeley, Gloucester GL2 4XH.
We are regulated by Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

Scope – What Does This Policy Cover?

This privacy policy applies to our processing of personal data.

It applies only to your use of our website and does not extend to any websites that are linked to/from our website (whether we provide those links or whether they are shared by other users). We have no control over how your data is collected, stored or used by other websites and we advise you to check the privacy policies of any such websites before providing any data to them.

Your rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) you have a number of rights with regards to your personal data which this policy and our use of your data has been designed to uphold:

Right to be informed
Right of access
Right of rectification
Right to erasure
Right to restriction of processing
Right of data portability
Right to object
Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

You can exercise your rights at any time by contacting us using the contact details below. More information on these rights can be found at the Information Commissioner’s Office website https://ico.org.uk.

Some rights can only be exercised under certain circumstances, if we are unable to comply with your request we will contact you to explain our reasoning.

If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your data, or you would like to exercise any of your rights, then please contact us using the details provided below.

If we are unable to help, or you are not satisfied with our response, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO can be contacted:

– By post – The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

– By telephone – 0303 123 1113

– Via their website – www.ico.org.uk

What Data Do We Collect?

Some data will be collected automatically by our website (for further details, please see section 12 on Our use of Cookies and Our Cookie Policy) other data will only be collected if you voluntarily submit it, for example, when becoming a client, making an enquiry or to be included on our mailing list.

We may collect some or all of the following data:

Contact information such as full name, business/Company name, email addresses, telephone numbers and social media contact details;
Personal information such as National Insurance Number, Unique Tax Reference, photo driving licence and passport, marital status, gender etc
Personal and business financial records
Historic information from your previous accountant
demographic information such as post code, preferences and interests;
System information such as IP address, web browser type and version and operating system;
a list of URLs starting with a referring site, your activity on our website, and the site you exit to

How Do We Use Your Data?

All personal data is processed and stored securely and we do not keep your data longer than is necessary.
We use your data to provide the best possible services to you. This includes:
- Providing and managing your access to our website and services;
- Providing and managing your account on our website;
- Personalising and tailoring your experience on our website and services;
- Supplying our services to you;
- Personalising and tailoring our services for you;
- Responding to communications from you;
- Supplying you with email newsletters that you have subscribed to (you may unsubscribe or opt-out at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email);
- Market research;
- Analysing your use of our website and services to enable us to continually improve our website and your experience;
- We may also send you information that we feel is useful to you eg. Ways to reduce your tax liability.

Lawful basis

We will only process your data where we have a lawful basis under the GDPR to do so.

Our use of your data will always have a lawful basis either because:

You have consented to our use of your personal data; or
It is necessary for our performance of a contract with you; or
We are complying with a legal obligation
It is necessary in pursuit of our legitimate interest. Where our processing of your data is based on our legitimate interests, we will have ensured that such processing is necessary and we will not do so where our interests are over-ridden by yours.

How and Where Do We Store Your Data?

We only keep your data for as long as we need to in order to use it as described above in section 5, and/or for as long as we have your permission to keep it.
Where possible we will process your personal data within the EEA. If your personal data does need to be transferred outside the EEA, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure your data is looked after properly. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
Data security is of great importance to us, and to protect your data we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure data collected through our website and our services.

Steps we take to secure and protect your data include:

Securing and protecting our property;
Only processing data on encrypted connections;
Using Strong passwords on all data storage and software;
2-step login authentication wherever possible;
Data held is backed up
Notwithstanding the security measures that we take, it is important to remember that the transmission of data via the internet may not be completely secure and that you are advised to take suitable precautions when transmitting to us data via the internet.

Do We Share Your Data?

Depending on the service that we provide for you we may need to share your personal data with other parties. These parties are also subject to data protection legislation and principals.

Examples of parties that we may need to share data with are:

- HMRC
- Companies House
- Social media sites
- Our insurers
- Banks and other financial institutions
- Credit reference and fraud prevention agencies
- Analytics providers
- Advertising networks
- Our regulators and governing bodies
- Mortgage and insurance brokers
- Cloud accounting software providers
- Data processors
- Courts and legal authorities if required to do so by law

We may sometimes contract with trusted third parties to supply services to you on our behalf. These may include payment processing, delivery of goods, search engine facilities, advertising, marketing and IT Services. In some cases, the third parties may require access to some or all of your data. Where any of your data is required for such a purpose, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data will be handled safely, securely, and in accordance with your rights, our obligations, and the obligations of the third party under the law.
We have a legal obligation to take steps to prevent fraud and to comply with anti-money laundering legislation and it is in our legitimate interests to do so. We therefore need to collect and store your personal data to ensure that we meet these obligations and will request evidence to verify your identity at such times as we consider necessary. We use electronic verification procedures with a credit reference agency to perform these checks and a trace of the search will be left on your record but it will not impact your credit rating.
We may compile statistics about the use of our website including data on traffic, usage patterns, user numbers, sales and other information. All such data will be anonymised and will not include any personally identifying information. We may from time to time share such data with third parties such as prospective investors, affiliates, partners and advertisers. Data will only be shared and used within the bounds of the law.
In certain circumstances we may be legally required to share certain data held by us, where we are complying with the requirements of legislation, a court order, or a government department. We do not require any further consent from you in order to share your data in such circumstances and will comply as required with any legally binding request that is made of us.

Your Right to Withhold Information

You may access certain areas of our website without providing any data at all. However, to use all features and functions available you may be required to submit or allow for the collection of certain data.

You may restrict your internet browser’s use of Cookies. For more information, see section 12 and Our Cookie Policy.

Cookies

Our website may place cookies on your computer or device. Cookies are small pieces of information placed on your computer to allow a website to recognise you when you visit. They help us collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns but should not contain any personal data (other than the cookie itself which is defined as personal data under GDPR).

We use cookies to facilitate and improve your experience of our website and to provide and improve our services. Our website also uses analytics services provided by Google, which also use Cookies. Website analytics refers to a set of tools used to collect and analyse usage statistics enabling us to better understand how people use our website. For more details, please refer to our cookie policy.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may change this Privacy Policy as we may deem necessary from time to time, or as may be required by law. Any changes will be immediately posted on our website. We recommend that you check this page regularly to keep up-to-date.

How to contact us

You can contact us by:

Telephone – 01452 260960

Email – [email protected]

Post: Data Protection Officer, 13 Water Wheel Close, Quedgeley, Gloucester GL2 4XH