​Privacy Notice for Website and Customers

AMG Surveyors Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (Company number 06877364) and having its registered address at 9 Holmfield Avenue, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 0BH (“we”, “us”, “our”), is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information.  This Privacy Notice outlines how we collect and use the information that we collect from you as one of our customers or through your use of this website.  It makes you aware of how and why your personal information will be used, namely for the purposes of the performance of our contract with you as our customer, and how long it will usually be retained for. It provides you with certain information that must be provided under the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA).

This Privacy Notice primarily covers how we use information relating to our customers, prospects, visitors to our website www.amgsurveyors.co.uk (“the Site”) and people who interact with or do business with us (such as our suppliers) (“you”, “your”).  In these cases, we will be the “data controller” for the purposes of data protection law. 

It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal information about you, so that you are aware of how and why we are using such information.

Data Protection Principles

There are six overarching principles of the GDPR with which we will ensure compliance when processing your personal data:

  1. Using the data lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way.
  2. Collecting the data only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes.
  3. The data is relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes.
  4. The data is accurate and kept up to date.
  5. The data is kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about.
  6. The data is kept securely.

What data is collected?

We collect information from you when you contact us, engage us for services, contract with us or use the Site. We will collect, store, and use the following types of personal information about you:

  • Contact details such as name, job title, mailing address, email and telephone number.
  • Demographic information such as postcode, preferences and interests.
  • Bank and transaction details such as details about payments to and from you and other details of products and services you have purchased from us.
  • Technical information such as includes 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 the Site.
  • Information about our service to you, purchases or orders made by you, your preferences and any feedback you give us.
  • Other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers
  • Other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers.

We do not normally collect “special categories” of sensitive personal data from our customers, suppliers or users of the Site. In the event you provide us with any special category data, we will take extra care to ensure your rights are protected.

Use of cookies

We use cookies, which are small files files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information.

Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

How we will use information about you:

We will use the personal information we collect about you:

  • To register you as a customer.
  • To perform our contract with you or deliver our service to you.
  • To manage our relationship with you, including notifying your about changes to our contract or services or asking you to provide us with feedback.
  • To personalize your experience by helping us better respond to your individual needs.
  • To administer and protect the business and the Site.
  • To improve customer service and the Site through your information and feedback.
  • To make suggestions or recommendations to you about similar services that may be of interest to you or to contact you for market research purposes.
  • For internal record keeping.
  • To contact you by email, phone, fax or mail.

Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purposed product or service requested.

Controlling your personal data

You may choose to restrict the collection or use of your personal data in the following ways:

  • Whenever you are asked to fill in a form on the website, look for the box that you can click to indicate that you do not want the information to be used by anybody for direct marketing purposes; and
  • If you have previously agreed to us using your personal information for direct marketing purposes, you may change your mind at any time.

Why do we need this information?

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal information in the following circumstances:

  • Where we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
  • 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.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal information other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message.

If you decide to opt-in to our mailing list, you will receive emails that may include company news, updates, related product or service information, etc.

You have the right to withdraw consent to such marketing at any time. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, we include detailed unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email.

If you fail to provide personal information:

If you fail to provide certain information when requested either by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that information 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 products or services).  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.

Automated decision-making:

You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making.

Data sharing

Where it is legally required or necessary in accordance with data protection law, we may share information with:

  • RICS;
  • Financial organisations;
  • Our auditors;
  • Survey and research organisations;
  • Professional advisers and consultants;
  • Police forces, courts, tribunals;
  • Professional bodies;

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information unless we have your permission or are required to do so by law. This does not include trusted third-parties with whom we may share your personal information, for example in the context of the possible service provision, operating the Site or conducting our business.

We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

All our third-party service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes. We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Third party links

The Site may contain links to other third party websites of interest. These third party sites have separate and independent privacy notices and cookie policies. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Nonetheless, we seek to protect the integrity of our site and welcome any feedback about these sites. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy notice applicable to the website in question.

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need-to-know. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected data security breach and will notify you and the Information Commissioner’s Office of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data retention

We will only retain your personal information 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. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal information are available from us via [email protected]. After this period, we will securely destroy your personal information.

What are your rights?

As the data subject, you have specific rights in relation to the processing of your data.

Under the GDPR, you have the right to find out if we hold any personal information about you by making a “subject access request” under data protection law.  If we do hold information about you, we will:

  • Give you a description of it;
  • Tell you why we are holding it;
  • Tell you who it has been disclosed to; and
  • Let you have a copy of the information in an intelligible form.

To make a request for your personal information, please contact us via [email protected].

Individuals also have certain rights regarding how their data is used and kept safe including the right to:

  • Object to processing of personal data that is likely to cause, or is causing, damage or distress;
  • Prevent processing for the purpose of direct marketing;
  • Object to decisions being taken by automated means;
  • In certain circumstances, have inaccurate personal data rectified, blocked, erased or destroyed;
  • The right for your personal information to be transmitted electronically to another organisation in certain circumstances;
  • Where the processing of your data is based on your explicit consent, you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time. This will not affect any personal data that has been processed prior to withdrawing consent; and
  • Claim compensation for damages caused by a breach of the Data Protection regulations.

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please contact us via [email protected].

Complaints

If you have a concern about the way we are collecting or using your personal data, we would ask that you raise your concern with us in the first instance by contacting us via [email protected].

Alternatively you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or write to Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, we will post those changes on this page, and/or update the Privacy Policy modification date below. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

This policy was last modified on 29th August 2018.