Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Alden Legal Limited (hereafter referred to as ‘we’) is registered in England and Wales with Company No. 10604212. Our registered office (and our correspondence address) is 25 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AL. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA No. 656244).

The person with responsibility for our data protection compliance is Joanne Wheeler (“the Data Protection Compliance Manager”) who can be contacted via email at joanne.wheeler@wearealden.com or by telephone on +44 (0) 20 3488 3335.

We are the data controller of the personal data that we keep and use. We are responsible for ensuring that all of our procedures and those who use them are compliant with the relevant data protection laws in respect of that personal data.

We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of information provided to us in course of our business and information we receive through our website. This Privacy Policy sets out the ways in which we collect and use your personal data. It also explains what rights you have to access or change your personal data.

2. Data Sources

We collect data from the following sources:

  • From you or your representatives directly where you contact us in writing, by e-mail, in person, by telephone, through our website, at meetings with us or by any other method. This may be where you are seeking legal advice from us or where you are registering to attend events or subscribe to publications issued by us;
  • From agents or third parties where you may be involved in a matter we are instructed in;
  • From other organisations which have referred you to us, for example, other solicitors, accountants, financial advisers, insurance companies, financial institutions;
  • Online public sources or registers such as Companies House;
  • Where you apply for a role or work experience opportunity with us;
  • When you attend our seminars or other hosted events;
  • When we add you to our mailing lists to receive news about us.

3. The data we collect

We may collect the following types of personal information about you:

  • Contact information – including that enabling us to identify and contact you e.g. name, address, email address and telephone number;
  • Identification information – for example passport details, information from a third-party AML check provider, Companies House information;
  • Work experience – including positions, roles and responsibilities;
  • Creditworthiness – to establish whether to enter into or continue a business
    relationship with you;
  • Use of our website – information about the pages you look at and how you use them; 1
  • Correspondence – this will include letters and emails, SMS and other electronic communication and may in some cases include audio recording of telephone conversations;
  • Subscription information – if you subscribe to a newsletter or similar publication;
  • IP address information – your computer’s IP address allows us to track your usage
    of our website.
  • Special categories of personal information – we do not normally collect
    information of this nature. This would include, for example, information relating to race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation and political opinions, trade union membership or health related issues.

4. Using your information

We only ever use your personal information if and to the extent that applicable law allows.

Therefore, we will only process your personal information if:

  • it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or the organisation you work for;
  • it is necessary in connection with a legal obligation;
  • you have given your consent (where necessary) to such use or the organisation you work for has obtained your consent (where necessary) to share your information with us; or
  • if we (or a third party) have a legitimate interest which is not overridden by your interests or your rights and freedoms. Such legitimate interests include the provision of legal services, running the firm’s business and marketing relevant services directly to you.

Please note, therefore, that we may use your personal information in order to:

  • comply with our legal obligations;
  • deliver legal services to you and/or the organisation for whom you work;
  • run our business (e.g. carry out administrative or operational processes, including recruitment);
  • improve the services and products that we offer to you or the organisation for whom you work;
  • send you marketing materials and invite you to events (where consent has been given); or
  • process and respond to requests, enquiries or complaints received from you.

5. Keeping your information

We will only ever keep personal information about you for as long as is necessary to address the purpose for which it was collected. This includes complying with any legal, regulatory, accounting or reporting requirements. In relation to the provision to you of legal services this will be in accordance with our retention and destruction policy unless we agree otherwise with you, in writing. To find out more about the firm’s retention and destruction policy please contact us.

6. Sharing personal information

There are times when we may need to share your information with third parties. Those third parties may include:

  • regulators, government agencies, courts and other similar regulatory and official third parties;
  • those who provide services on our behalf and may need access to your information – for example an IT supplier may have access to your personal information when providing IT support or hosted cloud services or a mailing company may process the personal information of our contacts for us.

We may also share your personal information with third parties where:

  • we have your consent to doing so or the organisation for whom you work has consented for us to do so;
  • we have appropriate contractual arrangements in place with those third parties (including our professional advisers and auditors and suppliers to whom we outsource certain support services such as word processing);
  • we are under a legal, regulatory or professional obligation to do so (for example, to comply with anti-money laundering requirements);
  • it is necessary for the purpose of, or in connection with, legal proceedings or in order to exercise or defend legal rights; or
  • it is appropriate to disclose the information to parties with whom we have promotional arrangements (such as jointly hosted events or seminars) and we have your consent to do so.

Please note that we will never send marketing communications via SMS or call you without your specific consent and we will not pass on or sell your details to a third party.

7. Transferring your personal information internationally

Please note that the nature of the services we provide may require that we transfer personal information about you to locations outside the UK or the European Economic Area. You should be aware that the level of information protection in countries outside the EEA may be less than that offered within the EEA.

If this is necessary, we will always try and implement the most appropriate measures to ensure that your personal information remains protected and secure in accordance and we will advise you in the event that we are doing so.

8. Keeping your information secure

In order to keep your information secure, we use a variety of technical and organisational measures and will always take appropriate steps to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorised modification or unlawful destruction or accidental loss consistent with applicable law. These include:

  • Secure access to our offices.
  • Secure lockable desks and cupboards. Desks and cupboards are kept locked when not
    in use if they hold confidential information of any kind.
  • Secure methods of information disposal including the shredding of paper documents and the secure deletion of electronic information.
  • Secure policies for the use of electronic equipment.
  • Firewalls and encryption.
  • Ensuring that all employees are trained in the importance of data security.
  • Satisfactory password protection where appropriate.
  • Secure transmission of information and data in such a way that it cannot be unlawfully intercepted.

All our partners, staff and third-party service providers who have access to confidential information (including personal information) are subject to confidentiality obligations.

Please always be aware, however, that information sent over the internet is rarely completely secure and whilst we will always take the most appropriate steps to protect your information, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted electronically and accept no responsibility for any damage or loss caused.

9. Your rights

You have, in most cases, the following rights in relation to the information that we hold about you:

  • the right to request rectification of information that is inaccurate or incomplete;
  • the right to erasure of your information (sometimes referred to as the “right to be forgotten”);
  • the right to object to, or restrict, the way in which we are dealing with and using your
    information; and
  • the right to request that your information be provided to you in a format that is secure and suitable for re-use (known as the “right to portability”).

Please note, however, that there may be limitations placed upon this by circumstances, such as when we need to retain data for legal purposes or to perform our services for you.

You have the right to make what is known as a Subject Access Request to find out details of the information that we hold about you, and the uses to which it is put. Such requests can be made in any form, but it is easier and safer if they are made to us in writing.

Subject to the performance of our contractual services to you, you have the right to withdraw consent that you may have provided to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for a specific purpose at any time. Once the firm has received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purpose or purposes you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so.

You will not, in general, have to pay a fee to exercise any of your individual rights set out in this Privacy Policy unless the use you make of this provision becomes excessive and we are
entitled in law to make such a charge.

10. Links to other sites

Our web site may contain links that will direct you to other websites or services that are operated and controlled by third parties. We have no control over these third parties, and your use of their websites and features are subject to their privacy policies. We cannot be held responsible for the privacy practices or business practices of any third-party web site.

11. Cookies

Our web site uses cookies. These are small files created and stored on your browser or the hard drive of your computer by websites that you visit to help the website operate properly, grant appropriate access to previous users and to monitor website traffic. Cookies are generally only visible to the website that serves them and not to other websites.

Cookies are used on our Website to ‘remember’ information so that it can be passed from page to page and to collect website statistics. This data collected can help to improve our website and the services that we offer.

You can, if you wish, delete or disable cookies within your browser. The process will usually be explained in your internet browser’s ‘Help’ menu. Please be aware, however, that if you disable cookies then, whilst you may be able to browse all of our website, some of the cookies we use may be essential for the website to operate and some features may, therefore, not be available to you. Unless you have adjusted your browser settings so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon as you visit our Website.

12. Changes to this policy

We reserve the right to change the terms of this Privacy Policy at any time, by prominently posting notice of the amendment on this Site. To the extent permitted by law, these changes will apply from the time they are posted.

13. Further information

In the event that you are not happy with the way in which we have processed or dealt with your information or responded to your question, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Further details about how to complain can be found at https://ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone 0303 123 1113. 5