Privacy Notice

Privacy Statement
Birmingham Law Society is committed to ensuring the security and privacy of your data. In using this website, you are able to control when and if we collect your data. However, when you chose to share your data with us it enables us to send you relevant membership, educational and event information when requested. The purpose of this privacy policy is to inform you as to how we might process your data, more specifically to provide you information on:

  • Our contact details as the data processor, so that when required you can request further details on how your data is being used, and to request changes in the way we use your data.
  • Information about what data we might collect about you.
  • How your data might be collected.
  • How we might use your information.
  • Our legal right to process your data.
  • Your rights when it comes to how, when and if we process your data.
  • If and when data is shared with third parties and outside the EU.
  • How long we will keep your data.
  • How we ensure that your data is secure.
  • How you can make a complaint if you feel we have misused your data.

Our contact details
If you have any queries as to how we process your data, or you would like us to change the way we process your data please contact us on the information provided below:

Birmingham Law Society, Suite 101, Cheltenham House, 14-16 Temple Street, Birmingham, B2 5BG.
Main Number: 0121 227 8700
Email: info@birminghamlawsociety.co.uk

How we might collect your information
You may give us information about you by submitting the forms on our website (www.birmingham lawsociety.co.uk) or by corresponding with us by phone, email or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you register for events or to receive some of our e-marketing content or sign up to our E-newsletter, submit an enquiry via the contact us form, or contact us via email or phone.

What information might we collect
The personal information you give us may include, but is not limited to, your name, address, email address, phone number, job title, the name of your employer and your areas of law.

We intend to gather this information to communicate with you strictly on a corporate basis; we will not gather any information that will be used to communicate with you outside of any professional relationship. In particular we will only seek to collect corporate email addresses (such as name@org.co.uk or department@org.co.uk) unless your provide us with a personal email to use to communicate with you. To this end, we may also ask you for information on the organisation you work for or are associated to.

How we use cookies
The EU Cookie Directive is an amended privacy legislation requiring websites to obtain informed consent from visitors before they store information on a computer or any web connected device. This is storage is mostly done by cookies, which can then be used for tracking visitors to a site.

With the EU Cookie Directive, the user of a site will now be required to opt-in when using a website containing cookies. So the website has to block cookies, until visitors have given their informed consent to their use.

Cookies are files stored in your browser and used by web managers to analyse and improve their websites. Some features on this site will not function if you do not allow cookies. You can disable cookies by altering the settings of your browser and the website will still function.

If you agree to us using cookies to provide you with a more personalised experience we may collect the following technical information:

  • The IP address used to connect your computer to the internet.
  • The browser type and version you are using.
  • Where you are visiting us from.
  • The platform and operating system you are using.

Please note we may also collect other technical information not listed here in accordance with data protection law.

We may also collect information on how you have used our website including but not limited to:
Which URL you have come from and which URL you exited our site to (including date and time), the pages you have viewed, how quick those pages loaded, download errors, lengths of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling and clicks), forms you have submitted, methods used to browse away from the page, if you linked to the site from a search engine, the address of that search engine and the search term you used.

Information we receive from other sources
We may from time to time when necessary collect data from the following:

  • A place of study
  • Law Firms
  • The Law Society
  • Solicitors Regulation Authority
  • Universities

The above list is not exhaustive.

How we might use your information
Our intention is to collect and use corporate Personal Information as is reasonably necessary in order to enable you to make the most of the activities available on our website including to provide you with educational material, the ability to contact us, and for the purposes of maintaining customer/service quality.

If we use third parties to manage our online activity, including our website and email, your information may be processed by those providers to the extent strictly necessary for them to provide their services and not for their own purposes.

From time to time, if you have provided us with your corporate email address via the website, telephone, email or otherwise and at that time you did not refuse to receive marketing material from us, we may also send you relevant, informative information to your email address. And, on occasion and where requested, information on our services. Marketing emails will be sent to personal email addresses when these have been provided and we have been given consent to use.

How we ensure we have a legal right to process your data
We may process your personal information for carefully considered and specific purposes which are in our interests and enable us to enhance the services that we provide, but which we believe also benefit those whose data we process.

Our lawful basis for processing data
You are on our contact database as a recent member or contact of the Society, which means we are processing your data under either the Legitimate Interest 6(1)(f), clause of the General Data Protection Regulations. If you think this is not correct, or the information displayed isn’t accurate, then please contact us so we can put it right.

Although we can keep and process your details under these clauses, we still need your consent to keep you informed about things happening in the Society.

Your rights when it comes to how, when and if we process your data
You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will 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, via email and verbally.

Under data protection regulation you also have other rights in relation to how your data is used. These include:

  • You have the right to be informed on how we will process your data, which is the purpose of this policy.
  • You have the right to access any personal data that we might hold on you. If you would like access to the data we hold on you we will process your request free of charge and provide the data to you in a commonly used format within 30 days of receipt. However, where requests are deemed to be excessive we may charge a reasonable fee for accessing such data at our discretion.
  • Although we endeavour to ensure that all of the data we may hold on you is accurate and up to date, you have the right to rectify data if you feel it is inaccurate. You may make a request for rectification verbally or in writing and we will respond to your request within 30 days of receipt.
  • Under certain circumstances you also have right to request that we erase your data. You may request that we erase your data if you object to us processing your data and there is no overriding legitimate interest for us to do so. You may make this request verbally or in writing and we will respond to your request within 30 days.
  • In certain circumstances you may also restrict the processing of your personal data. This means that we may hold your data but we may not process it. Often this right is exercised when verifying the accuracy of data, when the data has been collected unlawfully and you request restriction, instead of erasure, when we no longer need the personal data but you need us to keep it in order to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim or if you have requested erasure of your data but we are reviewing if we have legitimate interest to hold it. You may make this request verbally or in writing and we will respond to your request within 30 days.
  • You have the right to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different services. You may make this request verbally or in writing and we will respond to your request within 30 days.
  • You have the right to object to us processing your personal data for direct marketing unless it is deemed that we have a compelling legitimate interest to do so. You may make this request verbally or in writing and we will respond to your request within 30 days.
  • Although we do not carry out automated decision making or profiling exercises you have the right to object that we do not do so in the future. You may make this request verbally or in writing and we will respond to your request within 30 days.

To make a request in relation to any of the above rights please contact us at:

Main Number: 0121 227 8700
Email: info@birminghamlawsociety.co.uk

How long we will keep your data
We will only keep your data for as long as necessary for us carry out a relationship as a membership organisation with you, until we no longer have legitimate interest to hold it, or until you make a legitimate request for us to delete your data. The data will hold will be reviewed on an annual basis.

How we keep your data secure
Birmingham Law Society uses all reasonable precautions to keep the information disclosed to us secure. Furthermore, we are not responsible for any breach of security or for any actions of any third parties that receive the information. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be posted so that you are always aware of the information that we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.

How you can make a complaint if you feel we have misused your data.
If you feel we have misused your data and have not taken appropriate actions to rectify any misuse, then you can report your complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Their contact details are as follows:

Information Governance department
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
0303 123 1113
https://ico.org.uk/