Privacy Policy
Introduction
This is the privacy policy of SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd, referred to as we, us or our throughout this policy document.
SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.
This policy (together with any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998, the data controller is SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 2863579 with its registered office at 23 Sergeants Way, Bedford, MK41 0EH. The nominated Data Protection Officer is Gavin Spendlove.
Information we may collect about you
The personal information we may collect and process about you can include the following:
- Information that you provide by filling in forms on our website (our “Site”) www.sdgservices.co.uk. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our Site, subscribing to any service, posting material or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our site.
- If you contact us, we may keep record of that correspondence.
- We may ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
- Details of your visits to our Site including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, whether this is required for our own billing purposes or otherwise and the resources that you access.
- Name, address, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, IP address, location, appliance details and billing information.
Where we store your personal data
The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. Such staff maybe engaged in, among other things, the provision of support services. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our Site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our Site. Any transmission is therefore at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
Uses made of the information
We use information held about you in the following ways:
- Internal record keeping.
- To ensure that our service content is presented in the most effective manner for you.
- To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes.
- To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us including Gas Safe, NICEIC, OFTEC regulations.
- To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so.
- To notify you about changes to our service.
We may also use your data, or permit selected third parties to use your data, to provide you with information about goods and services which may be of interest to you and we or they may contact you about these by post or telephone.
If you are an existing customer, we will only contact you by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) with information about goods and services similar to those which were the subject of a previous sale to you.
If you are a new customer, and where we permit selected third parties to use your data, we (or they) will contact you by electronic means only if you have consented to this.
If you do not want us to use your data in this way, or to pass your details on to third parties for marketing purposes, please tick the relevant box situated on the registration form on which we collect your data.
Disclosure of your information
We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section S11596 Companies Act 2006.
We may disclose your personal information to third parties:
- In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets;
- If our business or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets;
- If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements;
- To protect the rights, property, or safety of SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Your rights
You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data.
You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at the aforementioned address.
Our Site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
Access to information
The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access request may be subject to a fee of £10 to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you.
Changes to our Privacy Policy
We may revise this privacy policy at any time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to review the then current privacy policy because it is binding on you.
Contact
Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to our Data Controller at the address above.
Data Protection Policy
Context and overview
Key details
- Policy prepared by: G Spendlove
- Approved by Directors: 22nd May 2018
- Policy became operational on: 22nd May 2018
Introduction
SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd needs to gather and use certain information about individuals.
These can include customers, suppliers, business contacts, employees and other people the organisation has a relationship with or may need to contact.
This policy describes how this personal data must be collected, handled and stored to meet the company’s data protection standards — and to comply with the law.
Why this policy exists
This data protection policy ensures SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd:
- Complies with data protection law and follow good practice
- Protects the rights of staff, customers and partners
- Is open about how it stores and processes individuals’ data
- Protects itself from the risks of a data breach
Data protection law
The Data Protection Act 1998 describes how organisations — including SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd – must collect, handle and store personal information.
These rules apply regardless of whether data is stored electronically, on paper or on other materials.
To comply with the law, personal information must be collected and used fairly, stored safely and not disclosed unlawfully.
The Data Protection Act is underpinned by eight important principles. These say that personal data must:
- Be processed fairly and lawfully
- Be obtained only for specific, lawful purposes
- Be adequate, relevant and not excessive
- Be accurate and kept up to date
- Not be held for any longer than necessary
- Processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects
- Be protected in appropriate ways
- Not be transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA), unless that country or territory also ensures an adequate level of protection
People, risks and responsibilities
Policy scope
This policy applies to:
- The head office of SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd
- All branches of SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd
- All staff and volunteers of SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd
- All contractors, suppliers and other people working on behalf of SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd
It applies to all data that the company holds relating to identifiable individuals, even if that information technically falls outside of the Data Protection Act 1998. This can include:
- Names of Individuals
- Postal Addresses
- Email Addresses
- Telephone Numbers
Data protection risks
This policy helps to protect SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd from some very real data security risks, including:
- Breaches of confidentiality. For instance, information being given out inappropriately.
- Failing to offer choice. For instance, all individuals should be free to choose how the company uses data relating to them.
- Reputational damage. For instance, the company could suffer if hackers successfully gained access to sensitive data.
Responsibilities
Everyone who works for or with SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd has some responsibility for ensuring data is collected, stored and handled appropriately.
Each team that handles personal data must ensure that it is handled and processed in line with this policy and data protection principles.
However, these people have key areas of responsibility:
- The board of directors is ultimately responsible for ensuring that SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd meets its legal obligations.
- The Data Protection Officer, Gavin Spendlove, is responsible for: o Keeping the board updated about data protection responsibilities, risks and issues.
- Reviewing all data protection procedures and related policies, in line with an agreed schedule.
- Arranging data protection training and advice for the people covered by this policy.
- Handling data protection questions from staff and anyone else covered by this policy.
- Dealing with requests from individuals to see the data SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd holds about them (also called ‘subject access requests’).
- Checking and approving any contracts or agreements with third parties that may handle the company’s sensitive data.
- Approving any data protection statements attached to communications such as emails and letters.
- Addressing any data protection queries from journalists or media outlets like newspapers.
- Where necessary, working with other staff to ensure marketing initiatives abide by data protection principles.
- The IT Service Provider, AvecSys, is responsible for: o Ensuring all systems, services and equipment used for storing data meet acceptable security standards.
- Performing regular checks and scans to ensure security hardware and software is functioning properly.
- Evaluating any third-party services, the company is considering using to store or process data. For instance, cloud computing services.
General staff guidelines
- The only people able to access data covered by this policy should be those who need it for their work.
- Data should not be shared informally. When access to confidential information is required, employees can request it from the Data Protection Officer.
- SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd will provide training to all employees to help them understand their responsibilities when handling data.
- Employees should keep all data secure, by taking sensible precautions and following the guidelines below.
- In particular, strong passwords must be used and they should never be shared.
- Personal data should not be disclosed to unauthorised people, either within the company or externally.
- Data should be regularly reviewed and updated if it is found to be out of date. If no longer required, it should be deleted and disposed of.
- Employees should request help from the data protection officer if they are unsure about any aspect of data protection.
Data storage
These rules describe how and where data should be safely stored. Questions about storing data safely can be directed to the data controller.
When data is stored on paper, it should be kept in a secure place where unauthorised people cannot see it.
These guidelines also apply to data that is usually stored electronically but has been printed out for some reason:
- When not required, the paper or files should be kept in a locked drawer or filing cabinet.
- Employees should make sure paper and printouts are not left where unauthorised people could see them, like on a printer.
- Data printouts should be shredded and disposed of securely when no longer required.
When data is stored electronically, it must be protected from unauthorised access, accidental deletion and malicious hacking attempts:
- Data should be protected by strong passwords that are changed regularly and never shared between employees.
- If data is stored on removable media (like a CD or DVD), these should be kept locked away securely when not being used.
- Data should only be stored on designated drives and servers, and should only be uploaded to an approved cloud computing services.
- Servers containing personal data should be sited in a secure location, away from general office space.
- Data should be backed up frequently. Those backups should be tested regularly, in line with the company’s standard backup procedures.
- Data should never be saved directly to laptops or other mobile devices like tablets or smart phones.
- All servers and computers containing data should be protected by approved security software and a firewall.
Data use
Personal data is of no value to SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd unless the business can make use of it. However, it is when personal data is accessed and used that it can be at the greatest risk of loss, corruption or theft:
- When working with personal data, employees should ensure the screens of their computers are always locked when left unattended.
- Personal data should not be shared informally. In particular, it should never be sent by email, as this form of communication is not secure.
- Data must be encrypted before being transferred electronically. The IT manager can explain how to send data to authorised external contacts.
- Personal data should never be transferred outside of the European Economic Area.
- Employees should not save copies of personal data to their own computers. Always access and update the central copy of any data.
Data accuracy
The law requires SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd to take reasonable steps to ensure data is kept accurate and up to date.
The more important it is that the personal data is accurate, the greater the effort SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd should put into ensuring its accuracy.
It is the responsibility of all employees who work with data to take reasonable steps to ensure it is kept as accurate and up to date as possible.
- Data will be held in as few places as necessary. Staff should not create any unnecessary additional data sets.
- Staff should take every opportunity to ensure data is updated. For instance, by confirming a customer’s details when they call.
- SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd will make it easy for data subjects to update the information SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd holds about them.
- Data should be updated as inaccuracies are discovered. For instance, if a customer can no longer be reached on their stored telephone number, it should be removed from the database.
Subject access requests
All individuals who are the subject of personal data held by SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd are entitled to:
- Ask what information the company holds about them and why.
- Ask how to gain access to it.
- Be informed how to keep it up to date.
- Be informed how the company is meeting its data protection obligations.
If an individual contacts the company requesting this information, this is called a subject access request.
Subject access requests from individuals should be made by email, addressed to the data controller at [email protected].
Individuals will be charged £10 per subject access request. The data controller will aim to provide the relevant data within 1 month.
The data controller will always verify the identity of anyone making a subject access request before handing over any information.
Disclosing data for other reasons
In certain circumstances, the Data Protection Act allows personal data to be disclosed to law enforcement agencies without the consent of the data subject.
Under these circumstances, SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd will disclose requested data. However, the data controller will ensure the request is legitimate, seeking assistance from the board and from the company’s legal advisers where necessary.
Providing information
SDG Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Ltd aims to ensure that individuals are aware that their data is being processed, and that they understand:
- How the data is being used
- How to exercise their rights
To these ends, the company has a privacy statement, setting out how data relating to individuals is used by the company.
This is available on request.