Privacy Policy

1. Purpose of this notice

This notice describes how we collect and use personal data about you, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and any other national implementing laws, regulations and secondary legislation, as amended or updated from time to time, in the UK (‘Data Protection Legislation’).

Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

2. About us

SKS Business Services is a firm of Accountants offering Accountancy, Tax and Business Advisory, and support services.

For the purpose of the Data Protection Legislation and this notice, we are the ‘data controller’. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal data about you. We are required under the Data Protection Legislation to notify you of the information contained in this privacy notice.

We have appointed a Data Protection Officer. Our Data Protection Officer is our Data Protection Point of Contact and is responsible for assisting with enquiries in relation to this privacy notice or our treatment of your personal data. Should you wish to contact our Data Protection Point of Contact you can do so using the contact details noted at paragraph 12 (Contact Us), below.

3. How we may collect your personal data

We obtain personal data about you, for example:

• when you request a proposal from us in respect of the services we provide;
• when you or our clients engage us or your employer engages us to provide our services and also during the provision of those services;
• when you contact us by email, telephone, post, our website or social media (for example when you have a query about our services); or
• from third parties and/or publicly available resources (for example, from your employer or from Companies House).

4. The kind of information we hold about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:

• Identity Data includes first name/s, maiden name, last name, user name, client matter number or similar identifier, photographic identification, marital status, title, date of birth and gender. Identity data also includes information about your professional identities such as your job title, email address, phone number and addresses, your professional experience and previous job roles and responsibilities.
• Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address, and telephone numbers.
• Financial and Transaction Data including but not limited to the bank account and payment card details, information relating to investments, income sources, payslips, receipts, pension plan contributions, and gift aid. It also includes details about payments, invoices, and bills to and from you and other details of products and services you have engaged us to deal with or have purchased from us.
• 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.
• Profile Data includes your username and password, purchases made by you, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
• Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products, and services.
• Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us.

We may also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as 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 your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data) other than background data that you might give us relating to your general health which may impact on tax planning advice that we give you, we will obtain your explicit consent to process such information. Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

We do not knowingly collect data relating to children and grandchildren other than background data that you may give us in the course of tax planning advice discussions, we will obtain your explicit consent to process such information.

5. How we use personal data we hold about you

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

• Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
• 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.
• Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.

Please refer to the Glossary at the end of this policy which provides further information to the lawful grounds of processing.

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.

Purpose/Activity	Type of data	Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
To register you as a new client	(a) Identity(b) Contact	Performance of a contract with you
To respond to your enquiry or request for information	(a) Identity(b) Contact	Necessary for our legitimate interests (to respond to enquires we have received)
To provide our services and process payments including:(a) Manage payments, fees and charges, payroll services (b) Collect and recover money owed to us	(a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Financial and Transaction (d) Marketing and Communications	(a) Performance of a contract with you(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us)
To manage our relationship with you which will include:(a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy (b) Asking you to provide feedback	(a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Marketing and Communications	(a) Performance of a contract with you(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how clients use our products/services)
To enable you to provide feedback on our service	(a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communications	(a) Performance of a contract with you(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how clients use our products/services, to develop them and grow our business)
To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data)	(a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Technical	(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise)(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you	(a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Profile (d) Usage (e) Marketing and Communications (f) Technical	Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how clients use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, marketing, client relationships and experiences	(a) Technical(b) Usage	Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of clients for our products and services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about services that may be of interest to you	(a) Identity(b) Contact (c) Technical (d) Usage (e) Profile (f) Marketing and Communications	Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business)

 

Marketing

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or purchased services from us and you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.

Opting-out

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by emailing our Data Protection Officer at info@khansaccountants.co.uk

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a matter you have engaged us for or other transactions.

Cookies

This website uses cookies. A cookie is a small text file stored in your computer containing text data. We use cookies for certain functions to improve the usability of the website. However, enabling cookies in your web browser is necessary if you wish your selections to be remembered for future visits on the same computer. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. For more information about cookies and instructions on how to adjust your browser settings to restrict or disable cookies, see the IAB website at www.allaboutcookies.org. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

6. Data retention and retention of records

6.1 Data retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it is collected.

When assessing what retention period is appropriate for your personal data, we take into consideration:

• the requirements of our business and the services provided;
• any statutory or legal obligations;
• the purposes for which we originally collected the personal data;
• the lawful grounds on which we based our processing;
• the types of personal data we have collected;
• the amount and categories of your personal data; and
• whether the purpose of the processing could reasonably be fulfilled by other means.

6.2 Change of purpose

Where we need to use your personal data for another reason, other than for the purpose for which we collected it, we will only use your personal data where that reason is compatible with the original purpose.

Should it be necessary to use your personal data for a new purpose, we will notify you and communicate the legal basis which allows us to do so before starting any new processing.

6.3 Retention of records and data

During the course of providing the Services we will collect information from you and others acting on your behalf. We will keep records and data in either hard copy or electronic form until the termination of the engagement and return / delete records at the time of termination. However, we will destroy or delete what we believe to be non-essential hard copy or electronic data after a period of 6 years has passed. We recommend that you retain your records for at least 6 years from the end of the tax or accounting year to which they relate.

7. Data sharing

We may share your personal data with the parties set out below:

Internal third parties such as other companies in our group of companies acting as joint controllers or processors and who are based both inside and outside the UK and provide outsourced services, IT and system administration services.

• External third parties such as:
• Service providers who provide IT and system administration services.
• Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
• HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other legal and governmental authorities 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 policy.

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.

8. Rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction

Your duty to inform us of changes

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Should your personal information change, please notify us of any changes of which we need to be made aware by contacting us, using the contact details below.

Your rights in connection with personal data

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive details of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are processing it lawfully.

• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

• Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below). Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

• Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a 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 basis as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data in the following scenarios: (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 it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please email our Data Protection Officer at info@khansaccountants.co.uk

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

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 is another appropriate security measure to ensure that personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

9. International transfers

As part of our service offering, we may from time to time transfer personal data to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

• We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission.
• Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe, such as Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission.
• Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to that afforded in the EEA to personal data shared between the Europe and the US.

10. Changes to this notice

Any changes we may make to our privacy notice in the future will be updated on our website at: https://khansaccountants.co.uk/privacy-policy/

This privacy notice was last updated on 3 August 2019.

11. Glossary

LAWFUL BASIS:

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both 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 to by law).

Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to.

12. Contact us

If you have any questions regarding this notice or if you would like to speak to us about the manner in which we process your personal data, please email our Data Protection Officer at info@khansaccountants.co.uk or telephone our Data Protection Office on 020 8898 8675.

You also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, at any time. The ICO’s contact details are as follows:

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Telephone – 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745

Website – https://ico.org.uk/concerns