Privacy Policy

FMLI’S DATA PROTECTION AND PRIVACY STATEMENT

At FMLI, client confidentiality is a top commercial priority as well as a legal obligation. Whether you are a client or a visitor, we want you to understand how we protect your privacy where we collect and use data about you, and how we safeguard that data.

 

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT BROWSING OUR SITE

Although FMLI uses website data to improve the products and services offered to clients and visitors, the data is reported anonymously and we do not associate personal information with the gathering of data. Such data may include the number of visitors, pages visited, length of stay, and the domain name of the site visitors connect from.

COOKIES

Cookies are small text files that a website transfers to a hard drive or browser to help you move faster through a particular website, or to track website usage. We do not use cookies to gather personal information such as a person’s name or email address. We do, however, use cookies to identify repeat visitors, to determine the path visitors take, to identify visitors who may have come to our site from a third party website, to measure the number of visitors, to see how visitors navigate the site and which resources they access. This helps us to develop new content and improve the way the website works. Although your browser might allow you to “reject” cookies, we require that you accept all cookies in order for our site’s features and security mechanisms to function fully. Third parties might also create cookies when you access their sites through links posted on our site. We do not have access to these cookies or any information that these cookies may contain. Please contact the third party site for more information on their policies regarding cookies. Although we expect third parties to adhere to our privacy policies and terms and conditions of use, we are not responsible for their actions or policies. For general information about cookies please visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

 

FMLI’S SECURITY TECHNOLOGY

If you submit information in one of our online forms, whether you are an FMLI client or a visitor browsing our site, we use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology to protect the information you submit. This technology protects you from having your information intercepted by anyone other than FMLI while it is being transmitted to us. We work hard to ensure that our site is secure and that it meets industry standards. In addition to encryption technology, we use other safeguards such as firewalls, authentication systems (e.g. passwords and personal identification numbers) and access control mechanisms to control unauthorised access to systems and data.

HYPERLINKS

Our site may contain hyperlinks or “links” to other sites, plug-ins and applications, and other sites may “link” to our site. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. Sites linking to and from our site may have privacy practices different from ours. This Website Privacy Statement applies solely to information collected by our site. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of sites you link to, and we have no control over the use or protection of information provided by you or collected by those sites. If you elect to link to a co-branded website or to a linked website, you may be asked to provide registration or other information. The information you are providing is going to a third party, and you should familiarise yourself with the privacy policy provided by that third party.

PRIVATE PERSONAL INFORMATION

In the event that visitors provide us with private personal information about themselves (e.g., name, address, phone number, email address) for the purpose of receiving information about our products and services, or if you are an FMLI client and we obtain from you or from other sources private personal information about you in the course of providing you with our products and services, we take the following steps to safeguard such personal information (“Personal Information”).

SECURITY PROCEDURES

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those staff, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a need to know. They only process your personal data on our instructions and are subject to a duty of confidentiality. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so. FMLI restricts access to Personal Information about you to:

 

  • those staff and advisors who need to know that information in order to provide the products and services you receive from us
  • those unaffiliated third parties whose access to such information is permitted or required by law and who need to know that information in order to assist us in providing you with the products and services you receive from us
  • those unaffiliated third parties whose access to such data is necessary in order for us to engage in joint marketing efforts with such unaffiliated third parties

 

To protect the security of personal data, we maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards for guarding the data we collect about you, and all our procedures are subject to the rules of the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

 

INFORMATION WE COLLECT

In providing you with advice, information, products and services, or information about such products and services, we may collect the following types of Personal Information:

 

  • information we receive from you on forms (including online forms). This information would include your name, address, contact numbers, etc.
  • information about your creditworthiness, credit history, and other information about you that we receive
  • information about you obtained in connection with our efforts to protect against fraud or other financial crime
  • Technical Data from analytics providers such as Google based outside the EU

 

Personal information means information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed. Through your use of this website, we may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you:

 

Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.

Usage Data includes information about how you use our website.

Aggregated Data includes statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

We do not collect any Special Categories of personal data about you (this includes details about race, ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, health, genetic and biometric data, criminal convictions and offences).

 

We only use your personal data where the law allows us to. Most commonly, we use your data where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests, or where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation. Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data, other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email, text or other message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

 

  • We may use your Technical Data to administer and protect our website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data. Such use is needed for our legitimate interests (to run our firm, provide administration and IT services, prevent fraud, conduct a business reorganisation, etc.), and to comply with any legal obligation.
  • We may use your Usage Data and Technical Data to deliver relevant website content to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the content. Such use is needed for our legitimate interests (to study how clients use our services, to develop them, to develop our business and inform market strategy).
  • We may use your Usage Data and Technical Data to use data analytics to improve our website, services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences. Such use is needed for our legitimate interests (to define types of client for our services, keep our website updated, to develop our business and inform our marketing).

 

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our firm in managing our business to enable us to give you the best service and most secure experience. We consider any potential impact on you (positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted by law).

 

We only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.

 

We only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of the data, the purposes for which we process the data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

 

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have with you. In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case. We may need to request specific information from you to confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the data (or to exercise any rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it.

INFORMATION WE DISCLOSE

We may disclose to unaffiliated third parties with which we are engaged in a joint marketing arrangement Client Information such as information we receive from you. This information would include your name, address, contact numbers, etc. We do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).


CATEGORIES OF PARTIES TO WHOM WE MAY DISCLOSE

We may disclose your personal information to the following types of third parties:

 

  • companies that perform marketing services on our behalf or to others with which we have joint marketing agreements to sell our products or services
  • publishers and other direct marketers of products related to financial markets law, such as newsletter or book publishers and software or trading system developers
  • other nonaffiliated third parties as permitted or required by law

 

We may have to share your personal data with certain parties:

 

  • External Third Parties (service providers acting as processors who provide IT and system administration services; professional advisers acting as processors including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers; HMRC, regulators and other authorities acting as processors who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances).
  • Third Parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

 

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. If you give us your express opt-in consent for marketing purposes, you can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing communications at any time by contacting us.

 

WEBSITE PRIVACY STATEMENT UPDATES

We may make changes to this Website Privacy Statement from time to time. We recommend that frequent visitors to our site reread this Statement periodically to learn of any updates and changes we have made to this Statement. Should you become an FMLI client by obtaining a user ID and password and completing client forms online, we will notify you of any changes we make to this Statement in the following manner. The first time you log on to our website after we have modified our Website Privacy Statement, we will require you to click through our revised Statement. You will not be able to access the client only part of our site until you agree to the terms of the revised Statement.

ONLINE SERVICES

If you register for our online products or services, we retain your user ID and password and other information about your use of our site in order that we may recognise you as a registered user. We may obtain your email address from you or from another source. We may send you (via email or otherwise) important information about our products and services. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us. If you have any questions about this notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us using the details on this website. You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection authority (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.

 

YOUR RIGHTS

 

Under certain circumstances, you may have rights in relation to your personal data:

Request access to your personal data (data subject access request). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data held about you and to check its lawful processing.

Request correction of data held about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data held about you corrected, though the accuracy of new data you provide may need to be verified.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask for deletion or removal of your personal data where there is no good reason for its continuing processing. You also have the right to ask for deletion or removal of personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing, where your information may have been processed unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. However, we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for legal reasons.

Object to processing of your personal data where reliance is on legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend processing your personal data: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you choose, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. This right only applies to automated information which you initially consented for us to use or where we used information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw consent. If you withdraw consent, we may not be able to provide certain services to you.

 

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us. You do not generally have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights), but we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is unfounded, repetitive or excessive, or we can refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

May 2018