Security

All our information and client confidential data complies fully with the requirements of General Data Protection Regulations: 2018.  We have a framework of policies, procedures and training in place covering data protection, confidentiality and security and regularly review the appropriateness of the measures we have in place to keep the data we hold secure.

Any questions regarding this Privacy Policy and practices should be sent by email to info@absaccountancy.co.uk or by writing to The Data Protection Officer, ABS Accountancy Limited, 2 Fairfield Road, Buxton Derbyshire, SK17 7DW.

When and how we share personal data and locations of processing

We will only share personal data with others when we are legally permitted to do so.  When we share data with others, we put contractual arrangements and security mechanisms in place as appropriate to protect the data and to comply with our data protection, confidentiality and security standards.

We have taken steps to ensure all personal data is provided with adequate protection and that all transfers of personal data outside the EU are done lawfully. Where we transfer personal data outside of the EU to a country not determined by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data, the transfers will be under an agreement which covers the EU requirements for the transfer of personal data outside the EU, such as the European Commission approved standard contractual clauses.  The European Commission approved standard contractual clauses are available here.

This website complies with all UK national laws and requirements for user privacy.  Our website is secured with SSL and all personal data we collect from our website is fully encrypted.

ABS ACCOUNTANCY LTD is dedicated to protecting the confidentiality and privacy of information entrusted to us. We comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act 2018. Please read this Privacy Policy to learn about your rights, what information we collect, how we use and protect it.

It’s strongly committed to each visitors’ right of privacy. The following statements explain how we protect our visitors/users information gathered via our website. By using this website, you are deemed to have accepted the following terms and conditions. If you do not wish to be legally bound by these, please do not access or use the website. We reserve the right to change these terms and conditions at any time without any prior notice, and you are advised to regularly review these terms to ensure you are aware of any changes. Your continued use of the Website after such changes are posted will be deemed agreement on your part.

Whilst every effort has been made in the preparation of this site, to ensure that the most current, correct and clearly expressed information possible has been used. Nonetheless inadvertent human errors can and do occur, and applicable laws, rules and regulations often change. Information displayed on our Website is not intended for use without prior professional advice.

The information on this site is intended to afford general guidelines on matters we belief may be off interest to our users. The application and impact on laws can vary, however, from case to case, based upon the specific or unique facts involved. Accordingly, the information on this site is not intended to serve as legal, accounting, financial or tax advice. We encourage our users to consult with on off our professional advisors for advice concerning specific matters before making any decision. In the event of dispute all matters will be subject to the jurisdiction of UK English courts. This disclaimer and the following terms and conditions are governed by and to construed in accordance with the laws of England & Wales.

No part of the text or graphics on this site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including by photocopying, facsimile transmission, recording, re-keying, or using any information storage device or retrieval system, without the prior written permission from ABS Accountancy.

ABS Accountancy is not responsible for the content of any external website.

Privacy

As a visitor, you do not have to submit any personal information in order to use the website. The website only collects personal data that is specifically and voluntarily provided by visitors. Such information may consist of, but is not limited to, your name, company name, e-mail address, and telephone number.

We may also store and maintain any content that you provide, including but not limited to postings on a blogs, forums and other relevant social media applications and its associated services that we may provide. ABS Accountancy will only use any such personal data for the purposes in which you have provided it.

Whilst we have made every effort to provide accurate and up to date information on our website, the law is constantly changing and affects each person or business in different ways. The information contained within this website is no substitute for specific advice and we will not accept liability if you rely solely on information gained from the website.

By accessing this website you agree to the general terms and conditions set out below.

Cookies & Web beacons

ABS Accountancy collects standard Internet log information including your IP address, browser type and language, ISP and geographic location. To ensure that our website is well managed and maintained to facilitate navigation, we or our service provider may also use cookies (small text files, which are stored in a users browser.) Or Web beacons (electronic images that allow the website to count visitor numbers who have accessed a particular page) Additional information on cookies and other tracking technologies can be found at http://ico.org.uk/for_organisations/privacy_and_electronic_communications/the_guide/cookies. We will not store, save or collect personal information.

We cannot guarantee that our Website is free from viruses or other malicious code. You therefore agree that it is ultimately your responsibly to satisfy yourself that your own information technology/equipment used to access the Website is protected against such viruses and/or codes.

How do we collect personal data?

We store personal data on our  servers in the EU,

Whilst using our website, software applications or services, you may be required to provide personal information (name, address, email, account details, etc.). We will use this information to administer our website, applications, client databases and marketing material. We will ensure that all personal information supplied is held securely in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, as adopted into law of the United Kingdom in the Data Protection Act 2018.

We only use your personal information for the specific purpose on which it was provided, except where you have indicated you would like to receive other information. When requesting material or asking someone to contact you, you might be given the option to receive other information from us which may be of interest.

Directly. We obtain personal data directly from individuals in a variety of ways, including obtaining personal data from individuals who provide us their business card, complete our online forms, subscribe to our newsletters and preference centre, register for webinars, attend meetings or events we host, visit our offices or apply for open roles. We may also obtain personal data directly when, for example, we are establishing a business relationship, performing professional services through a contract, or through our hosted software applications.

Indirectly. We obtain personal data indirectly about individuals from a variety of sources, including recruitment services and our clients. We may attach personal data to our customer relationship management records to better understand and serve our business clients, subscribers and individuals, satisfy a legal obligation, or pursue our legitimate interests.

Third party organisations that provide applications/functionality, data processing or IT services to us

We use third parties to support us in providing our services and to help provide, run and manage our internal IT systems.  For example, providers of information technology, cloud based software as a service providers, identity management, website hosting and management, data analysis, data back-up, security and storage services.  The servers powering and facilitating that cloud infrastructure are located in secure data centres around the world, and personal data may be stored in any one of them.

Privacy notice relating to clients and products and / or services offered and provided

Where we need to process personal data to provide professional services to our clients, we may share personal data in our deliverables (such as the reports we create).

• What categories of personal data do we collect?

We may obtain the following categories of personal data about individuals through direct interactions with us, or from information provided through client engagements, from applicants, our suppliers and through other situations including those described in this Privacy Policy.

Examples of sensitive personal data we may obtain include:

• Contact details (e.g., name, company name, job title, work and mobile telephone numbers, work and personal email and postal address);
  • Professional details (e.g., job and career history, educational background and professional memberships, published articles);
  • Family and beneficiary details for insurance and pension planning services (e.g., names and dates of birth);
  • Financial information (e.g., taxes, payroll, investment interests, pensions, assets, bank details, insolvency records);
• CCTV our sites collect images of visitors. Our policy is to automatically overwrite CCTV footage within 30 days;

We typically do not collect sensitive or special categories of personal data about individuals. When we do need to process sensitive personal data, it is with the consent of the individual unless it is obtained indirectly for legitimate purposes. Examples of sensitive personal data we may obtain include:

• Dietary restrictions or access requirements when registering for in-person events that reveal religious beliefs or physical health;
  • Personal identification documents that may reveal race or ethnic origin, and possibly biometric data of private individuals, beneficial owners of corporate entities, or applicants;
  • Expense receipts submitted for individual tax or accounting advice that reveal affiliations with trade unions or political opinions;
  • Adverse information about potential or existing clients and applicants that may reveal criminal convictions or offences information;
  • Information provided to us by our clients in the course of a professional engagement;
• Diversity and equal opportunity information.

Children We do not intentionally collect information from individuals under 13 years of age, we may occasionally receive details about children attending performances and other events we host with their parents or guardians (e.g., arena hospitality suites, galas, art exhibits).

We may process geographical locations you enter when seeking an office near you.

• What lawful reasons do we have for processing personal data?
• Contract – We may process personal data in order to perform our contractual obligations;
• Consent- We may rely on your freely given consent at the time you provided your personal data to us;
• Legitimate interests– We may rely on legitimate interests based on our evaluation that the processing is fair, reasonable and balanced.

These include:

1. Delivering services to our clients– To deliver the professional services our clients have engaged us to provide;
2. Direct marketing– To deliver timely market insights and speciality knowledge we believe is welcomed by our business clients, subscribers and individuals who have interacted with us.

Law enforcement or other government and regulatory agencies or to other Third parties as required by, and in accordance with, applicable law or regulation

Occasionally, we may receive requests from third parties with authority to obtain disclosure of personal data, such as to check that we are complying with applicable law and regulation, to investigate an alleged crime, to establish, exercise or defend legal rights.  We will only fulfil requests for personal data where we are permitted to do so in accordance with applicable law or regulation. Why do we need personal data?

We aspire to be transparent when we collect and use personal data and tell you why we need it, which typically includes:

• Providing professional advice and delivering reports related to our tax, advisory, audit and assurance, pension scheme administration, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions and other professional services. Our services may include reviewing client files for quality assurance purposes, which may involve processing personal data for the relevant client;
  • Promoting our professional services, products and capabilities to existing and prospective business clients;
    Sending invitations and providing access to guests attending our events and webinars or our sponsored events;
    Personalising online landing pages and communications we think would be of interest based on interactions with us;
  • Administering, maintaining and ensuring the security of our information systems, applications and websites;
  • Seeking qualified candidates, and forwarding candidate career inquiries to our People team, which may be governed by different privacy terms and policies;
  • Processing online requests, including responding to communications from individuals or requests for proposals and quotations;
  • Contacting journalists regarding company press releases, invitations to annual press parties, highlighting messages that may be of interest on specific industry topics;
  • Helping support clients to run a series of development programs for education and learning purposes to inform leaders in the healthcare, civil service and other industries;
• Complying with legal and regulatory obligations relating to countering money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud and other forms of financial crime.

Data Sharing

Why might you share my personal data with third parties?

We will share your personal data with third parties where we are required by law, where it is necessary to administer the relationship between us or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so, such as other member firms, where necessary for administrative purposes and to provide professional services to our clients

Which third-party service providers process my personal data?

“Third parties” includes third-party service providers [and other entities within our group OR the members of our firm’s network]. The following activities are carried out by third-party service providers: [IT [and cloud] services, professional advisory services, administration services, marketing services.

All of our third-party service providers are required to take commercially reasonable and appropriate security measures to protect your personal data. We only permit our third-party service providers to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

What about other third parties?

We may occasionally share personal data with trusted third parties to help us deliver efficient and quality services. These recipients are contractually bound to safeguard the data we entrust to them. We may also need to share your personal data with our regulator or to otherwise comply with the law.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information or to exercise any of your other rights. This helps us to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. No fee is required to make a request unless your request is clearly unfounded or excessive. Depending on the circumstances, we may be unable to comply with your request based on other lawful grounds.

Security of your information

The General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, as adopted into law of the United Kingdom in the Data Protection Act 2018. accepted standards of technology and operational security have been implemented to protect personal information from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction.

However, no data transmission over the internet can’t be entirely secure, as a result, while we will take every reasonable endeavour to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee that any information you submit to us will be free from unauthorised access, use, intrusion or destruction. Therefore, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information, or your use of our website.

We hold all data securely and We shall only process the client personal data:

• in order to provide our services to you and perform any other obligations in accordance with our engagement with you;
• in order to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations; and
• where it is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests and those interests are not overridden by the data subjects’ own privacy rights;
• You have the right at any time to request a copy of the personal information we hold on you;
• Should you wish to receive a copy of this, or would like to be removed from our database, unless there is a Legitimate or a legal requirement that prevents us from doing so. Please contact us at info@absaccountancy.co.uk

All employees, subcontractors and principals are required to keep personal information confidential and only authorised personnel have access to information.

You can ask to review the personal information we hold about you and ask to change or delete any of this information. You can do this by email info@absaccountancy.co.uk.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner as a data controller. Details of our registration can be viewed at http://www.ico.gov.uk/, under registration code ZA145429

What about personal data security?

We have put appropriate technical and organisational security policies and procedures in place to protect personal data (including sensitive personal data) from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction. We aim to ensure that access to your personal data is limited only to those who need to access it. Those individuals who have access to the data are required to maintain the confidentiality of such information. We may apply pseudonymisation, de-identification and anonymisation techniques in efforts to further protect personal data.

If you have access to parts of our websites or use our services, you remain responsible for keeping your user ID and password confidential. Please be aware that the transmission of data via the Internet is not completely secure. Whilst we do our best to try to protect the security of your personal data, we cannot ensure or guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk.

How long do we keep your data for?

We will not retain your personal information longer than necessary. We will hold onto the information you provide either while your account is in existence, or as needed to be able to provide the Services to you, or (in the case of any contact you may have with our Customer Care team) for as long as is necessary to provide support-related reporting and trend analysis only.

If legally required or if it is reasonably necessary to meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, prevent fraud and abuse, or enforce our Terms and Conditions, we may also retain some of your information for a limited period of time as required, even after you have closed your account, or it is no longer needed to provide the Services to you.

Links

This website may provide links to other websites from time to time. Linked sites are not under our control and the provision of a linked site is not evidence of any endorsement by us of the material held there. We do not accept responsibility in any way for the content of any linked site, or any link contained within a linked site, or for any material you may encounter when you leave this website (whether knowingly, or not).

ABS Accountancy makes no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy or any other aspect of the information or the content and security of any website that are linked by way of hyperlink or otherwise to this website.

You may link to our Website provided that such link does not involve:

• Unauthorised use of our logo;
• Any false claim (actual or implied) of endorsement by, or other relationship with ABS Accountancy;
• Framing or embedding of any pages of our site; or
• Other infringement of any trademarks, copyright and/or other intellectual property rights.

Emails

We do not guarantee that any email sent to us will be received or that the contents will remain private during transmission. If you are concerned about this, please consider other means of communication. You are responsible for ensuring any electronic message or information you send to us is free from any virus or defect that may harm our systems in any way.

Blogs, forums and other social media

This website may host various blogs, forums and other social media applications or services that allow you to share content with other users. Any personal information or other information that you contribute to any Social Media Application can be read, collected and used by other users of that Social Media Application over whom we have little or no control.

Any comments submitted in connection with our blogs, forums and Social Media platforms are submitted on the basis that we will review and may edit such comments prior to publication, and not all submissions will be published. Publication is entirely at the discretion of ABS Accountancy or other agencies appointed by us. We accept no responsibility or liability in relation to any other the material posed or published. You are entirely liable for all activities conducted by you or others authorised by you or otherwise on your behalf.

All communications which we receive from you in connection with our blogs or social networking platforms and any material that you transmit or post or submit via tis website will be deemed non-confidential and non-proprietary and we reserve the right to use the content of such communications for any purpose. In relation to such contributions you grant us a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sub-licensable right to incorporate it in other works in any media now known or later developed in the future.

By submitting your contribution, you also agree to use this website only for the lawful purpose and in a manner that does not restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of this website by any third party. Prohibited behaviour includes, without limitation, conduct which is deemed unlawful or which may cause distress, harassment to any person and the submission or transmission or consent which is defamatory, abusive, obscene, offensive, pornographic, indecent, discriminatory, inflammatory or in breach of confidence or privacy or which in the opinion of ABS Accountancy may cause offence to any person or damage our reputation. You must not use any abusive or aggressive language, swear, threaten, harass or abuse any other person including other users.

You must not intentionally or knowingly violate any laws, rules or regulations. You also agree to waive any moral rights in your contribution for the purposes of its submission to and publication on the Website and other purposes. You also agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless ABS Accountancy against any claim, liability, cost, damage or loss we may incur including without limitation legal fees as a result of any violation by you of the provisions specified above.

No user must post nor recommend any other website nor refer to specific URLS (website addresses) where those linked websites would damage any of the above provisions. No user must post any advertisement on the Website or any social networking profiles.

Changes to our privacy policy

We may modify or amend this privacy policy statement from time to time at our discretion. When we make changes to this statement, we will amend the revision date at the bottom left of this page. We encourage you to periodically review this privacy statement to be informed about how we are protecting your information. This Privacy Policy was last updated: 1 March 2019.

Disclaimer and limitation of liability

The information on this Website has been carefully prepared, but it has been written in general terms and should be seen as broad guidance only. The information cannot be relied upon to cover specific situations and you should not act, or refrain from acting, upon the information contained therein without obtaining specific professional advice. Please contact ABS Accountancy to discuss these matters in the context of your particular circumstances. ABS Accountancy, its employees or principals and agents do not accept or assume any liability or duty of care for any loss arising from any action taken or not taken by anyone in reliance on this information or for any decision based on it.

If any of these terms and conditions are determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by reason of the laws of any state or country in which these terms are intended to be effective, then to the extend and within the jurisdiction in which that term is illegal, it shall be severed and deleted from these terms and conditions and the remaining terms shall survive, remain in force and effect and continue to be binding and enforceable.

Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. As the ABS Accountancy website can be visited from locations around the world with different laws from those of England, when you access the website you agree that the laws of England will apply to all matters relating to your use of the website. You and we also agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts with respect to such matters. Notwithstanding this, we reserve the right to bring enforcement proceedings in any court or courts including, if appropriate, in the courts of your country or residence.

Visitors’ questions

If you have particular questions or concerns regarding our website, please direct them to our Webmaster via email to webmaster@absaccountancy.co.uk.

Professional Indemnity Insurance

To contact our professional indemnity insurer, Hiscox, please write to Thomas Lowe at ABS Accountancy, 2 Fairfield Road, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 7DW. The territorial coverage of the policy is worldwide.

What are your data protection rights?

Your data protection rights are highlighted here.

• Access– You can ask us to verify whether we are processing personal data about you, and if so, to provide more specific information;
• Correction– You can ask us to correct our records if you believe they contain incorrect or incomplete information about you;
• Erasure – You can ask us to erase (delete) your personal data after you withdraw your consent to processing or when we no longer need it for the purpose it was originally collected;
• Processing restrictions – You can ask us to temporarily restrict our processing of your personal data if you contest the accuracy of your personal data, prefer to restrict its use rather than having us erase it, or need us to preserve it for you to establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim. A temporary restriction may apply while verifying whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to process it. You can ask us to inform you before we lift that temporary processing restriction;
• Data portability– In some circumstances, where you have provided personal data to us, you can ask us to transmit that personal data (in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format) directly to another company if is technically feasible;
• Automated Individual Decision-making– You can ask us to review any decisions made about you which we made solely based on automated processing, including profiling, that produced legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affected you;
• Right to Object to Direct Marketing including Profiling– You can object to our use of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, including profiling. We may need to keep some minimal information to comply with your request to cease marketing to you;

Right to Withdraw Consent– You can withdraw your consent that you have previously given to one or more specified purposes to process your personal data. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. It may mean we are not able to provide certain products or services to you and we will advise you if this is the case.

We recognise that transparency is an ongoing responsibility so we will keep this privacy statement under regular review.

Data controller and contact information

All employees, subcontractors and principals are required to keep personal information confidential and only authorised personnel have access to information.

You can ask to review the personal information we hold about you and ask to change or delete any of this information. You can do this by email info@absaccountancy.co.uk.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner as a data controller. Details of our registration can be viewed at http://www.ico.gov.uk/, under registration code ZA145429

We are generally controllers for the personal data we process, however, we may provide some services, such as payroll services, as a processor (in which case our client is the controller).  If you have any questions about this privacy statement or how and why we process personal data, please contact us at:

Data Protection Officer 10 Fairfield Road Buxton Derbyshire SK17 7DW