Cooke, Young & Keidan LLP
Privacy Notice

Cooke, Young & Keidan LLP respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how and why we collect and process your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit if from) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you, and describes the following:

• What data we collect about you
• How we collect your personal data
• Why we collect your personal data, and how we use it (including the legal basis)
• Who we share your personal data with and why
• Which countries we transfer your personal data to
• How we keep your personal data secure
• How long we keep your personal data for
• Your rights regarding your personal data
• How to contact us with questions or requests
• Explanation of some legal terms used

Please do not send us any of your information if you do not want it to be used in the ways described in this privacy notice. 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.

This is Version: 3

Date: 25 November 2019

Material changes since last version: updated office details, sister website details and cookie policy.

We operate this site and www.cyklaw.tech and www.disputes.tech.

The data we collect 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).

In the course of our business, including your use of our website, when you contact or request information from us, when you provide us with information, or when you engage our services, we may collect personal information including:

• Identity Data including some or all of: first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth, address, employment, credit referencing, and gender.
• Contact Data including some or all of: workplace, role, job title, postal address(es), email address(es) and telephone number(s).
• Financial Information such as payment details
• Technical Data such as information from your visits to our website, or materials we send to you electronically, or communications we exchange with you including some or all of: 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, and usage data.
• Profile Data including some or all of: your username and password if you create an account on our website or on any extranet provided by us to you, events attended by you, invitations responded to by you, your stated interests, preferences (such as dietary preferences), any access requirements, feedback and survey responses.
• Any other information which you may provide to us, including as part of our anti-money laundering and client identification processes, and in the course of our provision of services to you.

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), or information about criminal convictions and offences, unless this has been expressly agreed with you, and is necessary for the provision of our services to you.

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 or may have to cancel the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with services). In this case we will notify you at the time.

How we collect personal data

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

• Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity and Contact Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you may provide when you:
  • send an email or letter or other communication to us, or instructing a third party to do so on your behalf;
  • create an account on our website;
  • subscribe to our service or publications;
  • request information to be sent to you;
  • complete a form;
  • give us some feedback; or
  • respond to an invitation.
• Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we put on your computer if you agree. On your first visit to this website you will have seen a pop-up to inform you that cookies are being used and providing you with information about the purposes for which cookies are being used and the means to opt-out of using cookies. This pop-up will not usually appear on subsequent visits to our website. Please be aware that use of our website after having seen this pop up will be considered to be clear and positive action on your part confirming your agreement to the use of cookies. Further information on how and why we use cookies, and how to withdraw consent to our use of cookies, appears in our Cookies Policy, which is accessible via our website.
• Third Parties. We may gather necessary current or historical information about you from third parties such as regulatory authorities, government agencies, credit reporting agencies, information or service providers, publicly available records. Such information will be collected if necessary to meet our legal or professional obligations, including as to client identification and anti-money laundering compliance. We may also gather information about you from your interaction with other websites owned and controlled by CYK, including www.cyklaw.tech and www.disputes.tech. Please review the specific privacy policies accessible via those websites for further information.

Why we collect your personal data, and how we use it (including the legal basis)

We will only collect and use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will collect and 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; or
• 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
• You have provided your consent to such use; or
• We consider such use of your information as not detrimental to you, within your reasonable expectations, having a minimal impact on your privacy, and necessary to fulfil our legitimate interests; or
• Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation; or
• To provide and improve our services, including handling the personal information of others on behalf of our clients in the course of providing our services; or
• To promote our services, including sending legal updates, newsletters, and details of events; or
• For the purposes of recruitment.

We will 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 you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

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 or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing. We may use your personal information 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 services, information, and events may be relevant for you (we call this marketing). You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or if you provided us with your details when you have completed a form, answered a survey, and in each case you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.

We will not share your personal data with any third-party for marketing purposes.

You can ask us (or third parties acting on our behalf) to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us at any time. Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of your use of or request to receive information regarding our other services, events, or resources.

When you use our website, you can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

Who we share your personal data with and why

We may share your personal data with certain trusted third parties with which we have contractual arrangements. These third parties may include specific third party service providers to which we outsource (in full or part) services, for example archival, auditing, reference checking, professional advisory (including legal – such as barristers – accounting, financial and business consulting), IT support, mailing house, delivery, technology, website, social media, research, banking, payment, client contact, data processing, insurance, forensic, litigation support, data room, case and practice management, marketing and security services, event hosting and organisation.

Where necessary for the purposes described in this privacy notice we may also share your personal information with regulatory authorities, courts, tribunals, government agencies and other law enforcement agencies. We will use reasonable endeavours to notify you before we do this, unless we are legally restricted from doing so.

In the future we may need to transfer your personal data to 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. When you leave our website, or follow a link we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website or application you visit.

Which countries we transfer your personal data to

Some of our external third party service providers (such as Google, Mailchimp, and Eventbrite) are based and/or transfer data outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA. Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we try to ensure that an equivalent degree of protection is afforded to it.

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 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 personal data shared between the Europe and the US.

How we keep your personal data secure

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.

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, or where we think it appropriate even in the absence of any legal requirement.

How long we keep your personal data for

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.

Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us. However, personal information provided in connection with the provision of our legal services will usually be retained for six years and in any event no longer than fifteen years unless we agree otherwise with you or there is a requirement for us to continue retaining the personal data, such as a regulatory or statutory requirement. In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see ‘request erasure’ below for further information.

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.

Your rights regarding your personal data

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data, including the right to do the following:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

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 successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. 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 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 that we have 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 the processing of your 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.

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 your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us. 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 is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data 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.