Innes & Mackay Privacy Notice
Innes & Mackay Ltd is a law firm regulated by the Law Society of Scotland. We are a data controller. We shall collect and use personal information about you in the course of operating our business and providing legal and estate agency services. This means we can determine the purposes, conditions and means of processing your personal data provided either through our website or when you instruct us to provide a quotation or act on your behalf. We may ask you for additional personal information during the course of your transaction, which shall be collected, stored and used in accordance with this privacy notice.
What information we collect
We collect any information relating to you that can directly or indirectly identify you whether you are a client or prospective client. The information may be obtained directly from you through our website, third party website, email, telephone call, meeting with you or other channels. We may sometimes obtain information from people who are connected to you such as family members, employers, professional advisors etc or details that are available publicly. The person/s whose information is collected is sometimes referred to as data subjects.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of examples of information that we may require to collect and process:
- Name, address, telephone number, email address
- Photographic Identification
- National Insurance Number
- Family details
- Financial details
- Employment details
- Physical health details
- Mental health details
- Ethnic origin
- Date of Birth
- Genetic or biometric data
- Religious or Philosophical beliefs
- Sexual orientation/sex life
How we use the information that we collect
We require to collect your personal information so that we can perform our service agreement/contract with you. We are also under a legal obligation to process certain information relating to you for the purpose of complying with our obligations to the Law Society of Scotland, Anti Money Laundering Regulations, performance of a transaction carried out in the public interest and any other applicable legal requirement which may be relevant to our service agreement/contract with you. We will use your personal information to:
- Provide you with legal advice, including for example, communicating with you by email, letter and/or telephone, etc
- Represent you as your solicitor and or estate agent
- Acting as a curator ad litem or Reporter, mediator, corroborator, attorney, guardian
- Investigate and address any concerns expressed by data subjects, whether clients or third parties
- Maintain our list of contacts
- Promote our services by sending clients communications with information for upcoming events and legal updates
- Invite our clients as guests to events
- Keep accounting and client ledger records
- Check for potential conflicts of interest
- any other reason required to allow us to perform our service agreement/contract with you or legitimate purpose by law
If you do not provide us with all the personal information that we need to collect then this may affect our ability to provide you with legal advice.
Where we process your information in pursuit of our legitimate interests e.g. promote our services, invitation to events etc, you have the right to object to us using your personal data. If you wish to object, please contact our data processor on 01463 232273. If we comply with your objection, this may affect our ability to undertake the tasks required to benefit you as a client.
How we share your personal information
Your data will normally be protected by legal professional privilege unless the data becomes public in the course of the service agreement/contract we have with you. In certain circumstances we may be required to share the information that we collect to a third party. A non-exhaustive list of which include:
- Solicitors on the other side of the transaction
- Scottish Court Service
- Financial institutions and advisors
- Surveyors
- Registers of Scotland
- Scottish Legal Aid Board
- HMRC and the Department of Work and Pensions
- The Office of the Public Guardian
- The Mental Welfare Commission
- Local and National Authorities
- NHS
- The Law Society of Scotland
- Estate Agents
- Accountants
- Our staff
- Any third party who you have authorised us to contact on your behalf
- Any other parties required by law, in the course of the service agreement/contract with you or in the general administration of our business
How we store your personal information
We store personal data according to good practice and standards set by our regulators the Law Society of Scotland, HMRC and any guidance that may be issued by the Information Commissioners Office. We take appropriate measures to secure personal data and protect it from loss, unauthorised disclosure or damage. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information given that no information system is one hundred percent secure. Where you send information to us we cannot be responsible for the networks that we do not control which include the internet and wireless portals.
Some of our suppliers may have access to the personal data that we process when working with in the operation of our business for example an IT company providing software support. We do however, ensure that adequate procedures and protocols are in place for our suppliers.
We keep our clients’ personal data for the following periods:
- Family Law Department – Five years after final completion of the transaction
- Private Client Department – Twenty years after completion of the transaction
- Conveyancing Department
Purchase – Ten years after completion of the transaction
Sales – One year after completion of the transaction
- Estate Agency – One year after completion of the transaction
We will review and possibly delete your personal information following a period of 10 years after you have ceased to be our client.
Your rights
You can exercise any of the following rights by writing to our Data Controller at Kintail House, Beechwood Business Park, Inverness, IV2 3BW. When doing so please provide a note of your full name, address and details of the information that you require. We reserve the right to request further information from you to clarify the terms of your request or confirm your identity.
Your rights in relation to your personal information are:
- You have a right to request access to the personal information that we hold about you by making a “subject access request”
- If you believe that any of your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, you have a right to request that we correct or complete your personal information
- You have a right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information for specific purposes
- If you wish us to delete your personal information, you may request that we do so
- Opt out of receiving marketing communications
Any requests received by Innes & Mackay Ltd will be considered under applicable data protection legislation. If you remain dissatisfied, you have a right to raise a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office at www.ico.org.uk
Changes to the Privacy Notice
We keep this notice under regular review and we will notify you by posting notice of the changes on our website www.innesmackay.com.
This Notice was last updated May 2022.
Contact Us
If you have any queries in relation to this notice please do not hesitate to contact us at Innes & MacKay, Kintail House, Beechwood Business Park, Inverness, IV2 3BW or email reception@innesmackay.com.
Further information
Detailed information about your rights under the Data Protection legislation can be found at www.ico.org.uk.