DATA PROTECTION PRIVACY NOTICE
Our Privacy Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about visitors to our Website, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.
We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you remain happy with its content. By using our Website, you are agreeing to be bound by this Privacy Policy.
1. The business of COLIN D. HARRIS, of Sovereign House, 1 Albert Place, London N3 1QB trading as Harris & Co. Notary Public (“Business”, “we”, “us”, “our”). The Business is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) under number Z9951069.
2. If you have any questions about this privacy notice (“Notice”), please contact us by email cdh@harrisandco.co.uk
3. The Business will process your and third parties’ personal data, as further explained below, in the course of providing you with notarial and associated services including access to our website and online features (“Services”) https://www.harrisandco.co.uk
4. We will let you know, by posting on our website or otherwise, if we make any changes to this Notice from time to time. Your continued use of the Services after being notificed of such changes will amount to your acknowledgement of the amended Notice.
5. PLEASE NOTE: You shall and you hereby agree to indemnify the Business and its affiliates and their officers, employees, agents and subcontractors (each an “Indemnified Party”) from and against any claims, losses, demands, actions, liabilities, fines, penalties, reasonable expenses, damages and settlement amounts (including reasonable legal fees and costs) incurred by any Indemnified Party arising out of or in connection with any breach by you of the warranties included in paragraphs 8 & 9.
What is Personal Data?
6. “Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, known as ‘data subject’, who can be identified directly or indirectly; it may include name, address, email address, phone number, IP address, location data, cookies and similar information. It may also include “special categories of personal data” such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a data subject, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation.
7. The Business may process personal data and special categories of personal data which you provide in connection with the Services about yourself and other data subjects, e.g. individuals whose details are included in any materials provided by you to the Business. The Business may obtain information about you and other data subjects from third party service providers, such as due diligence platforms. If you use our online Services, the Business may collect information about your devices including clickstream data.
8. The provision of certain personal data is mandatory in order for the Business to comply with mandatory client due diligence requirements and consequently to provide the Services. You warrant on a continuous basis that such personal data is accurate, complete and up to date. Failure to comply may result in documents being rejected by the relevant certification authorities, held invalid in the destination country or other difficulty to successfully completing the Services.
9. In relation to personal data of data subjects you warrant to the Business on a continuous basis that:
(a) where applicable, you are authorised to share such personal data with the Business in connection with the Services and that wherever another data subject is referred to, you have obtained the explicit and demonstrable consent from all relevant data subjects to the inclusion and use of any personal data concerning them;
(b) to the extent this is required in connection with the Services, such personal data is accurate, complete and up to date; and
(c) either you provide your explicit consent and warrant that each data subject has provided explicit consent for the transfer of personal data to foreign organisations in connection with the Services as set out at paragraph 18, or that an alternative legal gateway for such transfer (such as transfer necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract concluded in the interest of the data subject) has been satisfied.
How do we use your personal data?
10. The Business will only process personal data, in accordance with applicable law, for the following purposes:
(a) responding to your queries, requests and other communications;
(b) providing the Services, including, where applicable, procuring acts from foreign organisations;
(c) enabling suppliers and service providers to carry out certain functions on behalf of the Business in order to provide the Services, including webhosting, data storage, identity verification, technical, logistical, courier or other functions, as applicable;
(d) allowing you to use features on our website, when you choose to do so;
(e) ensuring the security of the Business and preventing or detecting fraud;
(f) administering our Business, including complaints resolution, troubleshooting of our website, data analysis, testing of new features, research, statistical and survey purposes;
(g) developing and improving our Services;
(h) complying with applicable law, including Notary Practice Rules, guidelines and regulations or in response to a lawful request from a court or regulatory body.
The legal basis for our processing of personal data for the purposes described above will typically include:
• processing necessary to fulfil a contract that we have in place with you or other data subjects, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraphs (a), (b), (c) and (d);
• processing necessary for our or a third party’s legitimate interests, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraphs (a), (b), (c), (e), (f) and (g), which is carried out on the basis of the legitimate interests of the Business to ensure that Services are properly provided, the security of the Business and its clients and the proper administration of the Business; and
• processing necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraph (h).and
• any other applicable legal grounds for processing from time to time.
Disclosure of personal data
11. There are circumstances where the Business may wish to disclose or is compelled to disclose your personal data to third parties. These scenarios include disclosure to:
• our subsidiaries or associated offices;
• our suppliers and service providers to facilitate the provision of the Services, including couriers, translators, IT
consultants and legalisation and other handling agents, webhosting providers, identity verification partners (in order to
verify your identity against public databases), consultants, for example, in order to protect the security or integrity of our
business, including our databases and systems and for business continuity reasons;
• public authorities to carry out acts which are necessary in connection with the Services, such as the Foreign,
Commonweath and Development Office;
• foreign organisations to carry out acts which are necessary in connection with the Services, such as Embassies,
Consulates and High Commissions;
• professional organisations exercising certain public functions in relation to the notaries profession, such as Chambers
of Commerce;
• successor or partner legal entities, on a temporary or permanent basis, for the purposes of a joint venture,
collaboration, financing, sale, merger, reorganisation, change of legal form, dissolution or similar event relating to a
Business. In the case of a merger or sale, your personal data will be permanently transferred to a successor company;
• public authorities where we are required by law to do so; and
• any other third party where you have provided your consent.
International transfer of your personal data
12. We may transfer your personal data to a third party in countries outside the country in which it was originally collected for further processing in accordance with the purposes set out above. In particular, your personal data may be transferred to foreign organisations such as foreign Embassies located in the UK or abroad. Such organisations will process personal data in accordance with the laws to which they are subject and international treaties over which the Business has no control.
13. If the Business transfers personal data to private organisations abroad, such as subcontractors, it will, as required by applicable law, ensure that your privacy rights are adequately protected by appropriate technical, organisation, contractual or other lawful means. You may contact us for a copy of such safeguards in these circumstances.
Retention of personal data
14. Your personal data will be retained for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes listed above or as required by the law. For example, the Notaries Practice Rules require that notarial acts in the public form shall be preserved permanently. Records of acts not in public form shall be preserved for a minimum period of 12 years. Please contact us for further details of applicable retention periods. Personal data may for reasons of security and convenience be stored on remote data facilities but in an encrypted form.
Security of personal data
15. The Business will implement technical and organisational security measures in order to prevent unauthorised access to your personal data.
16. However, please be aware that the transmission of information via the internet is never completely secure. Whilst we can do our best to keep our own systems secure, we do not have full control over all processes involved in, for example, your use of our website or sending confidential materials to us via email, and we cannot therefore guarantee the security of your information transmitted to us on the web.
Data subject rights
17. Data subjects have numerous rights in relation to their personal data. For further information about your data protection rights please visit the ICO website https://www.ico.org.uk/
• Right to make a subject access request (SAR). Data subjects may request in writing copies of their personal data.
However, compliance with such requests is subject to certain limitations and exemptions and the rights of other data
subjects. Each request should make clear that a SAR is being made. You may also be required to submit a proof of your
identity and payment, where applicable.
• Right to rectification. Data subjects may request that we rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Right to withdraw consent. Data subjects may at any time withdraw their consent to the processing of their personal
data carried out by the Business on the basis of previous consent. Such withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of
processing based on previous consent.
• Right to object to processing, including automated processing and profiling. The Business does not make automated
decisions. The Business may use third party due diligence platforms which provide recommendations about data
subjects by automated means. We will comply with any data subject’s objection to processing unless we have a
compelling overriding legitimate ground for the processing, the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence
of legal claims or we have another lawful reason to refuse such request. We will comply with each valid opt-out request
in relation to marketing communications.
• Right to erasure. Data subjects may request that we erase their personal data. We will comply, unless there is a lawful
reason for not doing so. For example, there may be an overriding legitimate ground for keeping the personal data, such
as, our archiving obligations that we have to comply with.
• Restriction. Data subjects may request that we restrict our processing of their personal data in various circumstances.
We will comply, unless there is a lawful reason for not doing so, such as, a legal obligation to continue processing your
personal data in a certain way.
• Right to data portability. In certain circumstances, data subjects may request the controller to provide a copy of their
personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and have it transferred to another provider
of the same or similar services. To the extent such right applies to the Services, we will comply with such transfer
request. Please note that a transfer to another provider does not imply erasure of the data subject’s personal data
which may still be required for legitimate and lawful purposes.
• Right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority. We suggest that data subjects contact us about any
questions or complaints in relation to how we process personal data. However, each data subject has the right to
contact the relevant supervisory authority directly.
Interruptions and Omissions in Service
18. Every effort is made to ensure that our Website is accurate, secure and accessible at all times. However, Web and Internet connections can fail from time-to-time which is beyond our control. Although rare, service breaks are typically temporary amounting to as little as a matter of minutes in some cases. We do not accept any liability arising from any such errors, omissions, interruptions or delays or any ongoing obligation or responsibility to operate this Website (or any particular part of it) or to provide the service offered on this Website. We may vary the specification of this site from time to time without notice.
Your Use of our Website
19. You may only use this Website for lawful purposes when seeking information. You must not under any circumstances seek to undermine the security of the Website or any information submitted to or available on it. In particular, but without limitation, you must not seek to access, alter or delete any information to which you do not have authorised access, seek to overload the system via spamming or flooding, take any action or use any device, routine or software to crash, delay, damage or otherwise interfere with the operation of this Website or attempt to decipher, disassemble or modify any of the software, coding or information on the Website.
Information on our Website
20. Whilst we make every effort to ensure that the information on this site is accurate and complete, we do not accept any liability arising from any inaccuracy or omission in any of the information on our Website or any liability in respect of information on our Website supplied by you, any other site user or any other person.
Choice of Law and Jurisdiction
21. The use of this Website and any agreements entered into through this Website are to be governed by English law. The courts of England are to have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute arising out of or in connection with the use of this Website or any agreement made through this Website.
22. Data Protection Acts 1998 (GDPR and UK DPA May 2018)
This Act of Parliament which set out principles relating to the use of data to ensure that the rights of the person who is the subject of the data are protected under the law, the forthcoming GDPR European Directive on data protection and the UK Government’s Data Protection Act (DPA) which will come into force at the same time.
Review of this Policy
23. We keep this Policy under regular review. This Policy was last updated in February 2021.