BLUE TURTLE CONSULTANTS – “THE COMPANY”BLUE TURTLE CONSULTANTS – “THE COMPANY”

1. BACKGROUND: 

Blue Turtle Consultants understands that your privacy is important to you and that you care about how your personal data is used. We respect and value the privacy of all of our clients and will only collect and use personal data in ways that are described here, and in a way that is consistent with our obligations and your rights under the law.

2. Information About Us

Blue Turtle Consultants and its Managing Director Nerissa Williams are the controller and responsible for your personal data (in the case of individual clients) or your employees’ personal data (in the case of employers) (collectively referred to in this policy as “we”, “us” or “our”).

3. What Does This Notice Cover?

This Privacy Information explains how we use your personal data: how it is collected, how it is held, and how it is processed. It also explains your rights under the law relating to your personal data.

4. What is Personal Data?

Personal data is defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (EU Regulation 2016/679) (the “GDPR”) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier’.Personal data is, in simpler terms, any information about you that enables you to be identified. Personal data covers obvious information such as your name and contact details, but it also covers less obvious information such as identification numbers, electronic location data, and other online identifiers.The personal data that we use is set out in Part 6.

 5. What Are Your Rights?

Under the GDPR, you have the following rights, which we will always work to uphold:

a) The right to be informed about our collection and use of your personal data. This Privacy Notice should tell you everything you need to know, but you can always contact us to find out more or to ask any questions using the details in Part 12.
b) The right to access the personal data we hold about you. Part 11 will tell you how to do this.
c) The right to have your personal data rectified if any of your personal data held by us is inaccurate or incomplete. Please contact us using the details in Part 12 to find out more.
d) The right to be forgotten, i.e. the right to ask us to delete or otherwise dispose of any of your personal data that we have. Please contact us using the details in Part 12 to find out more.
e) The right to restrict (i.e. prevent) the processing of your personal data.
f) The right to object to us using your personal data for a particular purpose or purposes.
g) The right to data portability. This means that, if you have provided personal data to us directly, we am using it with your consent or for the performance of a contract, and that data is processed using automated means, you can ask us for a copy of that personal data to re-use with another service or business in many cases.
h) Rights relating to automated decision-making and profiling. For more information about our use of your personal data or exercising your rights as outlined above, please contact us using the details provided in Part 12.

Further information about your rights can also be obtained from the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113 or access their website at www.ico.org.uk 

If you have any cause for complaint about our use of your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

 6. What Personal Data Do We Collect?

We may collect some or all of the following personal data (this may vary according to your relationship with us:
• Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
• Contact Data includes billing address, delivery addresses, email address and telephone numbers.
• Financial Data includes bank account details where we need to review information as part of a case.
• Advice Data includes all information about you or your employees which you have disclosed in order to obtain advice and services from us.
• Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us such as training.
• Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, and details of the devices you use to access our website.
• 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 and your communication preferences.

We 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 and is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity as it is fully anonymised. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website article. 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 policy.

Special Categories of Personal Data may include:
• information about a person’s physical or mental health or condition (you may tell us about this or we may be assisting an employer to monitor sick leave and take decisions as to a person’s fitness for work or to otherwise advise in respect of managing that person in work);• racial or ethnic origin or religious or similar information (you may tell us about this or we may be advising an employer in relation to circumstances in work where these issues have been raised);
• information about a person’s sexual life (you may tell us about this or we may be advising an employer in relation to circumstances in work where these issues have been raised);
• whether you are a trade union member or not (you may tell us this or we may be advising an employer in relation to circumstances in work where these issues have been raised).

We do not share special category personal data with any third parties without your express written consent in the case of individual clients, unless required to share by law. In the case of data provided by clients about their employees, ex-employees, directors or ex-directors (or equivalent), applicants for jobs, volunteers, contractors, workers or agency workers, where we hold special categories of data about any such data subject we will be processing that data solely as necessary for our client (usually your employer) to undertake investigations, and always in line with data protection law.

Criminal records data

Information about a person’s criminal record or criminal proceedings may come to our attention because you tell us this or we may be advising an employer in relation to this issue, as regards recruitment decisions or decisions as to whether your employment should continue. Any processing we do of such data will be strictly in accordance with data protection law.

We use different methods to collect data from and about you including 

Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact, Transaction and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
• Use our services;
• Give us some feedback.

Automated technologies or interactions.As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your activity. We do not collect it directly ourselves but programmes such as Google analytics may collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. 

Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
• Another client who has referred you to us
• Another service provider who has referred you to us such as a solicitor, an accountant, a recruitment agent or an HR service provider.
Identity and Contact Data from publicly availably sources such as Companies House based inside the EU. For example, we will check Companies House to ascertain who the directors are of a client company.

7. How Do We Use Your Personal Data?

Under the GDPR, we must always have a lawful basis for using personal data. This may be because the data is necessary for our performance of a contract with you, because you have consented to us using your personal data, or because it is in our legitimate business interests to use it. Your personal data may be used for the following purposes:
• carrying out our contract with you – we need to consider the data when advising, in order to give the best and most appropriate service
• pursuing our legitimate interests or those of a third party except where such interests are overridden by the interests of fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject (such as being able to deliver the services your employer has contracted from us; to communicate with you and update you regarding our services) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests
• something you have freely consented to            

lawful bases for using special category data:
• explicit, freely given consent
• necessary for carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or data subject in the field of employment, in so far as based on law providing appropriate safeguards for the fundamental rights and interests of the data subject 
• data that has been manifestly made public by you

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to individual clients where marketing communications are sent to you via email. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

8. How Long Will We Keep Your Personal Data?

We will not keep your personal data for any longer than is necessary in light of the reason(s) for which it was first collected. Your personal data will therefore be kept for the following periods (or, where there is no fixed period, the following factors will be used to determine how long it is kept):
• We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of 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 personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
• In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.Examples of retention periods for client and third party data

Examples of retention periods for client and third party data

Type of data.

Records to be retained.

Length of retention.

Copies of data in regard to individuals currently employed by the client at the time of the investigation including but not limiting to; HR files, policies, procedures, performance and/or disciplinary records, medical information related to case documentation including service user, patient information or customer and third party details.

 

HR files, including employee contracts.

Copies of service user or patient information regarding the case.

Statements and witness testimonies, meeting data.

Copies of clients policies and processes in regard to their operations.

Scanned evidence relating to the case.

Contact details of witnesses, where appropriate.

Six years after the case is closed.  This takes into account that there is the possibility that any documents relating to an employee could be relevant to a Tribunal, County Court or High Court claim, for up to six years after termination of employment. The Information Commissioner considers this as acceptable on the basis that an employer is keeping information to protect against legal risk.

 

All original material should be given back to the client. All other copies must be permanently and irretrievably deleted at the end of the six years. The report and any appendices etc remain the property of the client and will be archived for the retention period, unless requested by the client.

Communications between the Company and the client or third parties

Emails, letters and faxes or reports etc

Until the case or piece of work has been closed or is finished. Where upon they will be permanently and irretrievably deleted if not used in the final report.

Reports regarding third party complaints against clients

Emails, report documentation and any evidence such as witness statements 

Once the case has been completed and the final report and appendices have been submitted to the client, the information provided to the client e.g. the report and its appendices will be retained for one year from the date of the case completion.

All other witness statements, emails and documentation will be destroyed immediately following completion of the case, unless they form part of the appendices.

When the year is up all copies of the report and appendices will be permanently and irretrievably deleted.

Records of how we handled requests under GDPR

Requests, correspondence, files etc

6+1 years

9. How and Where Do We Store or Transfer Your Personal Data?

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 employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they 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.

 We don’t transfer any client data in relation to the work we do for them outside of the UK

10. Do You Share My Personal Data?

Where working under contract for your employer, the personal data that is relevant to the final report will be shared in confidence with your employer. (The lawful base for this is the legitimate interests and if necessary, covered by the employment law special category provision).

We will not share any of your personal data with any third parties for any purposes, subject to one important exception.

In some limited circumstances, we may be legally required to share certain personal data, which might include yours, if we are involved in legal proceedings or complying with legal obligations, a court order, or the instructions of a government authority.

We will never sell the personal data of anyone who has been in contact with us

11. How Can I Access My Personal Data?

If you want to know what personal data we have about you, you can ask us for details of that personal data and for a copy of it (where any such personal data is held). This is known as a “subject access request”.

All subject access requests should be made via the contact details in Part 12.

There is not normally any charge for a subject access request or to exercise any of your information rights. If your request is ‘manifestly unfounded or excessive’ (for example, if you make repetitive requests) a fee may be charged to cover our administrative costs in responding.

We will generally respond to your subject access request within 30 days and, in any case, not more than one month of receiving it. Normally, we aim to provide a complete response, including a copy of your personal data within that time. In some cases, however, particularly if your request is more complex, more time may be required up to a maximum of three months from the date we receive your request. You will be kept fully informed of our progress

12. How Do I Contact You?

To contact us about anything to do with your personal data and data protection, including to make a subject access request, please use the following details for the attention of Nerissa Williams.

Email address: [email protected]

Telephone number: 01656864771

13. Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time. This may be necessary, for example, if the law changes, or if we change our business in a way that affects personal data protection.