Last Updated: 8 April 2024
We created this Privacy Policy (“Policy”) to provide you with information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share any information relating to you (your personal data) in the context of providing legal consultancy services to you or your business, through your use of our website “https://atkalegal.com” (‘Website’) and through any of the other ways we interact. The services we provide to you (including the content) will be called the ‘Services’.
Please read this Policy carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. By visiting our Website you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Policy.
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS POLICY, DO NOT ACCESS OR USE OUR SERVICES OR INTERACT WITH ANY OTHER ASPECT OF OUR BUSINESS.
We are ATKA Legal Consultancy Limited, a private limited company incorporated in England and Wales with company number 13671850 and with our registered office at 17 Green Lanes, London, England, N16 9BS and a data controller when you visit our Website or use our Services.
“Personal Data” 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).
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:
● Identity Data includes first name, last name, any previous names, username or similar identifier, marital status, title, date of birth and gender [if you choose to give this to us].
● Contact Data includes billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.
● Financial Data includes bank account details.
● Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of Services you have purchased from us.
● Technical Data includes 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 our Website.
● Usage Data includes information about how you use our Website, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (‘URL’) clickstream to, through and from our Website (including date and time); products you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page.
● Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences [if you choose to give this to us].
We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data because this data will 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 Policy.
We do not collect, store and/or use ‘special category data’ about you except where we are able to do so under applicable legislation or with your explicit consent. This means 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.
If you fail to provide necessary personal data to us (we will let you know when this is the case, for example, by making this information clear in our registration forms), we may not be able to provide you with our Services.
When you use our Services or interact with us through some other means we collect personal data either directly from you or through you. We use different methods to collect data from and about you including:
a) When we communicate with you by email or other electronic correspondence, by telephone or using video conferencing software. You may give us your Identity Data and Contact Data by filling in contact forms on our Website or by corresponding with us by phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
● make a request for our Services;
● request marketing to be sent to you;
● provide us with feedback;
● networking (for example, at in-person or virtual events).
● otherwise through providing our Services and operating our business.
b) We also collect data from and about you via our Website:
● Through your actions (for example, when submitting a contact form, when submitting a job application);
● Through automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our Website, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. See our cookie policy for further details.
● Through third parties or publicly available sources. We will receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources.
We’re required by GDPR and UK GDPR to tell you the legal reasons we have for processing your personal data. Here’s why we might use your information:
● Consent: We may use your information if you have given us permission (i.e. consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose.
● Performance of a Contract: We may use your personal information when we believe it is necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations to you, including providing our Services or at your request prior to entering into a contract with you.
● Legal Obligations: We may use your information to follow the law, work with legal bodies, defend our rights, or show evidence in court.
● Legitimate Interests: We may use your information where it is necessary to conduct our business and pursue our legitimate interests, for example, to prevent fraud and enable us to give you the best and most secure customer experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights (both positive and negative) before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).
● Special Category Data: Where processing of “special category data” is necessary in the context of legal claims or where another legal ground other than explicit consent is available to us under relevant data protection legislation; or where our Services require us to process “special category data” and where we have obtained your explicit consent to do so. If we seek and obtain your consent, you may withdraw it at any time.
Why we collect | What we collect | Legal Basis if residing in the UK/EEA |
To check whether we can act for you as a new or existing client or across from you as a counter party or other third party on a matter involving a new or existing client, and carry out all of our regulatory compliance requirements, including conflicts of interest, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism, sanctions, fraud and background screening. | (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Financial | Depending on the circumstances: (a) Performance of a contract with you (b) Necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation (c) Public interest (d) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to detect and prevent the commission of fraud, money laundering and terrorism offences) |
To deliver our Services to you including engaging service providers, managing payments, fees and charges and collecting and recovering money owed to us. | (a) Identity (b)Contact (c) Financial (d)Transaction (e) Marketing and Communications | Depending on the circumstances: (a) Performance of a contract with you (b)Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us) |
To manage our relationship with you which will include notifying you about changes to our terms or this Policy. | (a) Identity (b)Contact (c) Marketing and Communications | Depending on the circumstances: (a) Performance of a contract with you (b)Necessary to comply with a legal obligation (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how customers and clients use our products and services) |
To administer and protect our business and our Website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) | (a) Identity (b)Contact (c) Technical | Depending on the circumstances: (a) Necessary to comply with our legal obligation (b)Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise) |
To use data analytics to improve our Website, Services, marketing, customer relationships and experiences | (a) Technical (b)Usage | Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our products and services, to keep our Website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy) |
To deliver relevant Website content to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the marketing we provide to you | (a) Identity (b)Contact (c) Profile (d)Usage (e) Marketing and Communications (f) Technical (a) | Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy) |
To send you relevant marketing communications and make personalised suggestions and recommendations to you about Services that may be of interest to you based on your interests | (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Usage (d) Marketing and Communications (e) Profile (f) Aggregated Data | Consent, having obtained your prior consent to receiving direct marketing communications |
Disclosures and other activities necessary to comply with legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g., to record and demonstrate evidence of your consent where relevant | (a) Identity (b) Contact (c) Marketing and Communications (d) Profile (e) Technical (f) Usage | Necessary to comply with our legal obligation |
When you use our contact form, you will be asked to indicate your preferences for receiving direct marketing communications from us via e-mail.
We may also analyse your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view of which services and offers may be of interest to you so that we can then send you relevant marketing communications.
We will get your express consent before we share your personal data with any third party for their own direct marketing purposes.
You have the right to opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by:
● contacting us at via our contact form.
● using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in emails.
In delivering our Services to you, we may share your personal data with:
● Third parties in order to undertake various activities or services on our behalf in supporting our Services. This includes:
Website support (e.g. Webflow), and
hosting and backend infrastructure (e.g. Webflow);
analytics and search engine providers (e.g. Google Analytics);
our professional advisers such as lawyers and accountants;
postal or courier providers who assist us in delivering documents related to a matter.
Please note this list is non-exhaustive and there may be other examples where we need to share with other parties in order to provide the Services as effectively as we can.
● If our business enters into a joint venture, purchases or is sold to or merged with another business entity, your information may be disclosed or transferred to the target company, or new business partners or owners or their advisors.
● We may use the information that you provide if we are under a duty to disclose or share your information in order to comply with (and/or where we believe we are under a duty to comply with) any legal obligation; or to enforce the relevant terms of service and any other agreement; or to protect our rights or the rights of third parties. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations such as credit agencies, law enforcement or government bodies or the courts in connection with a criminal investigation, suspected illegal activity, fraud prevention and detection or in legal proceedings.
Our service providers provide us with a variety of administrative, statistical, and technical services. We will only provide service providers with the minimum amount of personal data they need to fulfil the services we request, and we stipulate that they protect this data and do not use it for any other purpose. We take these relationships seriously and oblige all of our data processors to sign contracts with us that clearly set out their commitment to respecting individual rights, and their commitments to assisting us to help you exercise your rights as a data subject.
The EEA, the UK and other countries outside the EEA and the UK have differing data protection laws, some of which may provide lower levels of protection of privacy.
It is sometimes necessary for us to transfer your personal data to countries outside the UK and EEA. In those cases, we will comply with applicable UK and EEA laws designed to ensure the privacy of your personal data. As we are based in the UK, we will also transfer your personal data from the EEA to the UK.
Under data protection laws, we can only transfer your personal data to a country outside the UK/EEA where:
● in the case of transfers subject to UK data protection law, the UK government has decided the particular country ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an ‘adequacy regulation’) further to Article 45 of the UK GDPR. A list of countries the UK currently has adequacy regulations in relation to is available here. We rely on adequacy regulations for transfers to the following countries: e.g. the USA (under the EU-US data privacy framework).
● We may use specific standard contractual terms approved for use in the UK which give the transferred personal data the same protection as it has in the UK, namely the International Data Transfer Agreement or International Data Transfer Addendum to the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses for international data transfers; or
● there are appropriate safeguards in place, together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for you, or
● a specific exception applies under relevant data protection law.
We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.
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, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
Correspondence and enquiries: when you make an enquiry or correspond with us for any reason, whether by email or via our contact form, we will retain your information for as long as it takes to respond to and resolve your enquiry, and for 6 (six) further months, after which point we will delete your information.
E-mail marketing: when you opt-in to receive direct marketing communications from us, we retain the information you provide until you unsubscribe.
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to secure your information and to protect it against unauthorised or unlawful use and accidental loss or destruction, including:
● only sharing and providing access to your information to the minimum extent necessary, subject to confidentiality restrictions where appropriate, and on an anonymised basis wherever possible;
● using secure servers to store your information; verifying the identity of any individual who requests access to information before granting them access to information;
● using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software to encrypt any information you submit to us via any forms on our Website and any payment transactions you make on or via our Website; and
All of our partners, employees, consultants, workers and data processors (i.e. those who process your personal information on our behalf, for the purposes listed above), who have access to, and are associated with the processing of personal information, are obliged to respect the confidentiality of such personal information.
Please note that despite our efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can guarantee 100% security. Therefore, we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or unauthorised third parties will not be able to bypass our security measures and access, steal, modify, or collect your information. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Services is at your own risk. It is essential that you only access our Services within a secure environment.
A cookie is a small text file which is placed onto your device (eg computer, smartphone or other electronic device) when you use our Website. We use cookies on our Website. For further information on cookies please see our Cookie Policy.
We may contact you through email or your phone number. It’s important to note that if you choose to engage with us via third-party social media platforms, you will be subject to their privacy policy.
You have several rights which you can access free of charge. In certain circumstances, we reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee if your requests are unfounded or excessive. You have the right:
● Right to access: You have the right to request a copy of your personal data which you can obtain by contacting us using our contact form. When doing so we will provide you with a copy in a machine-readable format that you can easily transmit to another controller (Right to data portability).
● Right to rectification: You can ask us to change or complete any personal data we hold about you which is inaccurate or incomplete by contacting us through our contact form.
● Right to be forgotten/erasure: You have a right, under certain circumstances to ask us to delete any personal data we hold out you. Please note that there may be situations where we must retain your personal data after a request for erasure where we have a lawful basis for doing so.
● Right to restrict the processing of your personal data: You can request us to restrict our use of your personal data if you don’t believe your data is accurate, you believe the data processing is unlawful but you don’t want us to delete the data, we no longer need the data for its intended purpose but you require it for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claim, or you have objected to our use of your personal data and want us to restrict its use until we have decided your objection.
● Right to object to processing of your personal data: If we process your personal data based on our, or someone else’s, legitimate interest you can object to us using your personal data for that purpose. Please provide us with any information that you can based on which you believe your interest overrides ours. If you do, we shall reassess our legitimate interest based on the new facts that you have provided and if granted will stop using your personal data for this purpose. When objecting to our use of your personal data for direct marketing purposes we shall stop using your data for such purposes.
● Right to object to automated decision making and profiling: You have the right to be informed about the existence of any automated decision making and profiling of your personal data, and where appropriate, be provided with meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences of such processing that affects you.
● Withdrawal of Consent: Whenever you have given your consent to the processing of your personal data, you can withdraw that consent at any time, doing so is free of charge. You can withdraw your consent directly at the bottom of any marketing communication that we send you.
We are always happy to answer your queries regarding privacy. Please contact us by using our contact form.
If you have a complaint, please get in touch with us so that we can resolve any concerns.
If you are located in the UK, you also have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office if you believe your personal data has been processed in a way which does not comply with the applicable law. You may call the ICO helpline on 0303 123 1113 or visit their website here.
If you are located in the EEA and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you may also complain to your Member State data protection authority.
If you have any general questions about the Website or the information we collect about you and how we use it, you can contact us using our contact form.
Our Services may contain links to other external websites. We aren’t responsible for the practices, policies or content of such websites and suggest that you check their privacy policies to ensure that you are happy to continue browsing. We don’t make any guarantee regarding any such third parties, and we will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by the use of such third-party websites, services or applications.
We cannot guarantee the safety and privacy of data you provide to any third parties. Any data collected by third parties is not covered by this privacy notice. We are not responsible for the content or privacy and security practices and policies of any third parties including other websites, services, or applications that may be linked to or from Services. You should review the policies of such third parties and contact them directly to respond to your questions.
We update and amend our Policy from time to time.
Where we make minor changes to our Policy, we will update our Policy with a new effective date stated at the end of it. Our processing of your information will be governed by the practices set out in that new version of the Policy from its effective date onwards.
Where we make major changes to our Policy or intend to use your information for a new purpose or a different purpose than the purposes for which we originally collected it, we will notify you by email (where possible).
We will provide you with the information about the change in question and the purpose and any other relevant information before we use your information for that new purpose.
Wherever required, we will obtain your prior consent before using your information for a purpose that is different from the purposes for which we originally collected it.
