Privacy Policy
We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.
We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal data about you. When we do so we are subject to the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (EU GDPR) in relation to products and services we offer to individuals and our wider operations in the European Economic Area (EEA).
1. Key terms
It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:
2. Personal data we collect about you
We may collect and use the following personal data about you:
- your name and contact information, including email address and telephone number and company details
- information to check and verify your identity, e.g. your date of birth
- your gender, if you choose to give this to us
- location data, if you choose to give this to us
- your billing information, transaction and payment card information
- your personal or professional interests
- your professional online presence, e.g. LinkedIn profile
- your contact history, purchase history and saved items
- information from accounts you link to us, e.g. Facebook
- information to enable us to undertake credit or other financial checks on you
- Information about how you use our website, IT, communication and other systems
- your responses to surveys, competitions and promotions
We may collect and use this personal data to provide services to you. If you do not provide personal data we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing our services to you.
3. How your personal data Is collected
We collect most of this personal data directly from you either in person, by email and/or via our website and related apps.
However, we may also collect information from other sources such as:
- from publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies Registration Office, Property Registration Authority, Companies House;
- directly from a third party e.g. sanctions screening providers, credit reference agencies, customer due diligence providers;
- from a third party with your consent, e.g. your accountant, bank or financial advisor
- from cookies on our website—for more information on our use of cookies, please see our cookie policy.
- via our IT systems e.g. from door entry systems and reception logs; through automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, CCTV and access control systems, communications systems, email and instant messaging systems;
4. How and why we use your personal data
Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a proper reason, e.g.:
- where you have given consent;
- to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
- for the performance of a contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract; or
- for our legitimate interests or those of a third party.
A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. We will carry out an assessment when relying on legitimate interests, to balance our interests against your own.
The table below explains what we may use your personal data for and why.
Where we process special category personal data, we will also ensure we are permitted to do so under data protection laws, for example:
- we have your explicit consent;
- the processing is necessary to protect your (or someone else’s) vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent; or
- the processing is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
5. Marketing
We may use your personal data to send you updates (through the Assiduous application or by email, text message, telephone or post) about our products and services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new products and services.
We have a legitimate interest in using your personal data for marketing purposes (see above ‘How and why we use your personal data’). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you marketing information. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this separately and clearly.
You have the right to opt out of receiving marketing communications at any time by contacting us at support@assiduous.tech or using the unsubscribe link in emails.
We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you ask us to provide further products and services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.
We will always treat your personal data with the utmost respect and never share it with other organisations outside of our group for marketing purposes.
6. Who we share your personal data with
We routinely share personal data with:
- companies within our group;
- third parties we use to help deliver our products and services to you, e.g. payment service providers;
- other third parties we use to help us run our business, e.g. marketing agencies or website hosts;
- third parties approved by you, e.g. social media sites you choose to link your account to or third party payment providers;
- credit reference agencies;
- our insurers and brokers;
- our banks;
We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you.
We may also need to:
- share personal data with external auditors, e.g. in relation to ISO or Investors in People accreditation and the audit of our accounts;
- disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
- share some personal data with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a restructuring—usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible, however, the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.
If you would like more information about who we share our data with and why, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
7. Where your personal data is held
Personal data may be held at our offices and those of our group companies, third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents as described above (see above: ‘Who we share your personal data with’).
Some of these third parties may be based outside the EEA/UK. For more information, including on how we safeguard your personal data when this happens, see below: ‘Transferring your personal data out of the EEA/UK’.
8. How long your personal data will be kept
We will keep your personal data while you have an account with us or we are providing products and services to you.
Thereafter, we will keep your personal data for as long as is necessary:
- to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;
- to show that we treated you fairly;
- to keep records required by law.
We will not keep your personal data for longer than necessary. Different retention periods apply for different types of personal data. When it is no longer necessary to keep your personal data, we will delete or anonymise it.
9. Transferring your personal data out of the EEA and UK
To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the EEA/UK, e.g.:
- with our offices or other companies within our group located outside the EEA/UK;
- with your and our service providers located outside the EEA/UK;
- if you are based outside the EEA/UK;
- where there is an international dimension to the services we are providing to you.
Under data protection law, we can only transfer your personal data to a country or international organisation outside the EEA/UK where:
- the European Commission or the UK government has decided the particular country or international organisation ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data (known as an ‘adequacy decision’);
- there are appropriate safeguards in place, together with enforceable rights and effective legal remedies for data subjects; or
- a specific exception applies under data protection law
These are explained below.
Adequacy Decision
We may transfer your personal data to certain countries, on the basis of an adequacy decision. These currently include:
- all European Union countries, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway (collectively known as the ‘EEA’);
- Gibraltar; and
- Andorra, Argentina, Canada, Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Israel, Isle of Man, Japan, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland and Uruguay.
The list of countries that benefit from adequacy decisions will change from time to time. We will always seek to rely on an adequacy decision, where one exists.
Other countries we are likely to transfer personal data to do not have the benefit of an adequacy decision. This does not necessarily mean they provide poor protection for personal data, but we must look at alternative grounds for transferring the personal data, such as ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place or relying on an exception, as explained below.
Transfers with Appropriate Safeguards
Where there is no adequacy decision, we may transfer your personal data to another country if we are satisfied the transfer complies with data protection law, appropriate safeguards are in place, and enforceable rights and effective legal remedies are available for data subjects.
The safeguards will usually include using legally-approved standard data protection contract clauses.
10. Your rights
You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:
For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:
- email or write to us—see below: ‘How to contact us’; and
- provide enough information to identify yourself (e.g. your full name, address and customer or matter reference number) and any additional identity information we may reasonably request from you;
- let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.
11. Keeping your personal data secure
We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.
12. How to complain
Please contact us if you have any query or concern about our use of your information (see below ‘How to contact us’). We hope we will be able to resolve any issues you may have.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner and they may be contacted at https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/individuals.
13. Changes to this privacy policy
This policy was published in March 2023 and last updated in March 2023. We may change this privacy notice from time to time—when we do we will inform you via our website.
14. How to contact us
You can contact us by post at NovaUCD Belfield Innovation Park, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, N01OT or email at support@assiduous.tech.