Ansar London Limited (“Ansar”) is the legal practice of Usman Sheikh (“US”). US is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, registration number ZA553526. The services which Ansar offers are set out on our website www.ansar.london. When we hold an individual’s personal information we do so in accordance with all applicable legislation including the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA”) and UK GDPR (together the “Legislation”).
We know that you care about your personal data and how it is used, and we want you to trust that Ansar uses your personal data carefully. This Privacy Policy will help you understand what personal data is, what personal data we collect, why we collect it and what we do with it.
Please take a moment to familiarise yourself with our privacy practices and let us know if you have any questions by contacting our Information Management Officer (IMO). Our IMO is Usman Sheikh. You can contact him by telephone on 020 8993 4990, by email at office@ansar.london, or in writing at Ansar, 81 Gunnersbury Lane, London, W3 8HQ.
What is an IMO?
We have a designated person who is responsible for our data management. We call that person an Information Management Officer or IMO. That is not a statutory role. There is a formal obligation to have a Data Protection Officer or DPO in certain circumstances, but we do not meet those circumstances. Therefore, the first point of contact for any concerns you have in relation to your data is our IMO.
Your duty to inform us of changes
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 are unable to provide personal data
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 or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with legal advice). In this case, we may have to cancel a service you have with us, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
Our role as data controller
When we at Ansar make all the decisions about how your data is processed, we are acting as the data controller. However, when we are processing your personal data on behalf of a third party in accordance with their strict instructions, we are acting as a data processor. This Privacy Policy complies with our obligations to provide you with information as a data controller.
How do we collect your data?
How your personal data is collected depends on your relationship with us — for example if you are a client using our legal services, a visitor to our website, or a subscriber to our services. We use different methods to collect data from and about you including:
- Direct interactions. You may give us details of your identity, contact information and other financial data by speaking to us, filling in forms, or corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise — including when you create an account, subscribe to our services or publications, or request marketing.
- Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website we may automatically collect technical data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns using cookies, server logs and similar technologies.
- Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources, especially concerning anti-money laundering, identity checks, company directorships and similar. This may include Identity and Contact Data from sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register.
The purposes of the processing
We may need to use some information about you to:
- deliver the legal services, advice and support you have requested from us;
- manage those services we provide to you;
- train and manage the employment of our staff who deliver those services;
- help investigate any complaints you have about the services we provide;
- keep track of the amount of costs you may have incurred;
- check the quality of the services that we provide to you; and
- help with research and planning of new services.
We will only use your personal data when legally permitted: where we need to perform the contract between us; 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 or regulatory obligation; or, where we send you marketing material, we rely on your consent. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by emailing office@ansar.london.
The categories of personal data concerned
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you depending on your relationship with us, including:
- Identity Data — first name, maiden name, last name, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
- Contact Data — billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone number.
- Profile Data — which may include your username and password, full name, address of yourself and others in your family, your interests in our other services, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
- Transaction Data — details about facts relevant to the services that we are providing to you.
- Financial Data — bank account and payment card details.
- Technical Data — IP address, login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, operating system and other technology on the devices you use to access our websites.
- Marketing and Communications Data — your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
- Special Categories of personal data — race, ethnic origin, medical information, political information and criminal convictions, processed only where UK GDPR allows (for example checking your right to work, providing legal advice, or complying with legal obligations). By signing our Client Care Letter, you give explicit consent to us processing Special Categories of Personal Data.
Who we disclose personal data to
The recipients of your data depend on your relationship with us. In all cases they may include:
- Internal staff — our office-based and remote-working staff, who are subject to our data management policies.
- External consultants — for example consultant solicitors instructed on a semi-permanent or ad hoc basis, who are required to sign our contract for services.
- Third-party service providers — experts such as tax experts and barristers, and providers who help us deliver our services (for example digital dictation, bookkeeping or transcription). 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 them to use your personal data for their own purposes.
International transfers
From time to time, we may share your personal data with third parties who may be established outside the UK or European Economic Area (EEA). Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK/EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it, including by transferring only to countries with an adequate level of protection, or by using specific contracts approved for that purpose.
How long we keep your data
We expect to retain your data in electronic format and/or hard copy format for a limited period. Under Money Laundering Regulations and the Proceeds of Crime Act we are obliged to retain certain information for 5 years. In relation to a potential negligence claim the time limit is 6 years. We will typically not keep your files for more than approximately 6 years as a consequence.
Data security
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. 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.
Your legal rights
You have the following rights in relation to your personal data:
- The right to be informed that we are holding and processing your data.
- The right of access (a data subject access request) to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- The right to rectification of incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you.
- The right to erasure (the right to be forgotten) where there is no good reason for us continuing to process your data. We may not always be able to comply for specific legal reasons.
- The right to restrict processing in certain circumstances, including where you contest accuracy or need the data for a legal claim.
- The right to data portability, to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, where this right applies.
- The right to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and always where we process your data for direct marketing.
- Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling. We do not use your data to prepare automatic decisions without human interaction.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take longer if your request is particularly complex or you have made several requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
Complaints
If you have a complaint about how we have cared for your data, we would appreciate an opportunity to deal with your concerns before you approach the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the ICO, the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). Usman Sheikh’s ICO registration number is ZA553526.
Changes to this policy
Ansar will occasionally make changes and corrections to this Privacy Policy. If we believe that the changes are material, we’ll let you know by posting the changes on our website, sending an email to you, or writing a letter to you. Last updated: 6 December 2022.