Privacy Policy
Policy version: 22 August 2021
www.representlaw.com (our website) is provided by Represent Law Ltd trading as the Renters Alliance (‘we’, ‘our’ or ‘us’). We are the controller of personal data obtained via our website, meaning we are the organisation legally responsible for deciding how and for what purposes it is used.
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 any information relating to you (your personal data) in connection with your use of our website. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or a relevant regulator 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 UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
This version of our privacy policy is primarily written for adults, including parents and guardians of child users.
This privacy policy is divided into the following sections:
- What this policy applies to
- Personal data we collect about you
- How your personal data is collected
- How and why we use your personal data
- Marketing
- Who we share your personal data with
- How long your personal data will be kept
- Transferring your personal data out of the UK
- Cookies
- Your rights
- Keeping your personal data secure
- How to complain
- Changes to this privacy policy
- How to contact us
What this policy applies to
This privacy policy relates to your use of our website only.
Throughout our website we may link to other websites owned and operated by certain trusted third parties to [insert details (eg make additional products and services available to you)]. Those third party websites may also gather information about you in accordance with their own separate privacy policies. For privacy information relating to those third party websites, please consult their privacy policies as appropriate.
Personal data we collect about you
The personal data we collect about you depends on the particular activities carried out through our website. We will collect and use the following personal data about you:
- your name, address and contact information, including email address and telephone number and company details if applicable
- information to check and verify your identity, eg date of birth
- your gender, if you choose to give this to us
- location data
- details of any information, feedback or other matters you give us by phone, email, post or via social media
- your activities on, and use of, our website
- your contact history, purchase history and saved items
- information about how you use our website and technology systems
- your responses to surveys, competitions and promotions
If you do not provide personal data we ask for where it is required for us to see if we can help you, it may delay or prevent us from providing services to you.
We collect and use this personal data for the purposes described in the section ‘How and why we use your personal data’ below.
How your personal data is collected
We collect personal data from you:
- directly, when you enter or send us information, such as when you insert, eg register with us, contact us (including via email), send us feedback, purchase services via our website, post material to our website and complete customer surveys , and
- indirectly, such as your browsing activity while on our website; we will usually collect information indirectly using the technologies explain in the section on ‘Cookies[ and other tracking technologies]’ below
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, eg:
- 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
The table below explains what we use your personal data for and why.
What we use your personal data for |
Our reasons |
Create and manage your account with us |
To perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract |
Providing services to you |
To perform our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract |
Conducting checks to identify you and verify your identity or to help prevent and detect fraud against you or us |
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
To enforce legal rights or defend or undertake legal proceedings |
Depending on the circumstances: —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations —in other cases, for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to protect our business, interests and rights or those of others |
Customise our website and its content to your particular preferences based on a record of your selected preferences or on your use of our website |
Depending on the circumstances: —your consent as gathered by the separate cookies tool on our website—see ‘Cookies’ below —where we are not required to obtain your consent and do not do so, for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you |
Retaining and evaluating information on your recent visits to our website and how you move around different sections of our website for analytics purposes. This helps us to understand how people use our website so that we can make it more intuitive or to check our website is working as intended |
Depending on the circumstances: —your consent as gathered by the separate cookies tool on our website—see ‘Cookies’ below —where we are not required to obtain your consent and do not do so, for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you |
Communications with you not related to marketing, including about changes to our terms or policies or changes to the services or other important notices |
Depending on the circumstances: —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations —in other cases, for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you |
Protecting the security of systems and data |
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations We may also use your personal data to ensure the security of systems and data to a standard that goes beyond our legal obligations, and in those cases our reasons are for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to protect systems and data and to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for you and/or us |
Statistical analysis to help us manage our business, eg in relation to our financial performance, customer base, product range or other efficiency measures |
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service to you at the best price |
Disclosures and other activities necessary to comply with legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, eg to record and demonstrate evidence of your consents where relevant |
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations |
Marketing our services to existing and former customers |
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to promote our business to existing and former customers See ‘Marketing’ below for further information |
External audits and quality checks, eg for the audit of our accounts |
For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, ie to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards |
To share your personal data with members of our group and third parties in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition, asset sale, initial public offering or in the event of our insolvency. In such cases information will be anonymised where possible and only shared where necessary |
Depending on the circumstances: —to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations —in other cases, for our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to protect, realise or grow the value in our business and assets |
See ‘Who we share your personal data with’ for further information on the steps we will take to protect your personal data where we need to share it with others.
Marketing
We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new 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:
We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you ask us to provide further 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 sell it with other organisations outside Represent Group companies for marketing purposes.
For more information on your right to object at any time to your personal data being used for marketing purposes, see ‘Your rights’ below.
Who we share your personal data with
We share personal data with:
We or the third parties mentioned above may occasionally also need to share personal data with:
If you would like more information about who we share our data with and why, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
How long your personal data will be kept
We will not keep your personal data for longer than we need it for the purpose for which it is used.
Transferring your personal data out of the UK
Countries outside 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 share your personal data to countries outside the UK. In those cases we will comply with applicable UK laws designed to ensure the privacy of your personal data.
We will transfer your personal data to:
Under data protection laws, we can only transfer your personal data to a country outside the UK where:
Where we transfer your personal data outside the UK we do so on the basis of an adequacy regulation. In the event we cannot or choose not to continue to rely on either of those mechanisms at any time we will not transfer your personal data outside the UK unless we can do so on the basis of an alternative mechanism or exception provided by UK data protection law.
Any changes to the destinations to which we send personal data or in the transfer mechanisms we use to transfer personal data internationally will be notified to you in accordance with the section on ‘Change to this privacy policy’ below.
Cookies
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 and web beacons on our website. These help us recognise you and your device and store some information about your preferences or past actions.
For further information on cookies and web beacons, our use of cookies and web beacons, when we will request your consent before placing them and how to disable them, please see our Cookie Policy.
Your rights
You generally have the following rights, which you can usually exercise free of charge
Marketing
We may use your personal data to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about our services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new 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:
We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you ask us to provide further 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 sell it with other organisations outside Represent Group companies for marketing purposes.
For more information on your right to object at any time to your personal data being used for marketing purposes, see ‘Your rights’ below.
Who we share your personal data with
We share personal data with:
- other third parties we use to help us run our business, eg website hosts and website analytics providers
We or the third parties mentioned above may occasionally also need to share personal data with:
- external auditors, eg in relation to the audit of our accounts, in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations
- professional advisors (such as lawyers and other advisors), in which case the recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations
- law enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
- other parties in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition, asset sale, initial public offering or in the event of our insolvency—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).
How long your personal data will be kept
We will not keep your personal data for longer than we need it for the purpose for which it is used.
Transferring your personal data out of the UK
Countries outside 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 share your personal data to countries outside the UK. In those cases we will comply with applicable UK laws designed to ensure the privacy of your personal data.
We will transfer your personal data to:
- our service providers located outside the UK, and
Under data protection laws, we can only transfer your personal data to a country outside the UK where:
- 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.
- 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
Where we transfer your personal data outside the UK we do so on the basis of an adequacy regulation. In the event we cannot or choose not to continue to rely on either of those mechanisms at any time we will not transfer your personal data outside the UK unless we can do so on the basis of an alternative mechanism or exception provided by UK data protection law.
Any changes to the destinations to which we send personal data or in the transfer mechanisms we use to transfer personal data internationally will be notified to you in accordance with the section on ‘Change to this privacy policy’ below.
Cookies
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 and web beacons on our website. These help us recognise you and your device and store some information about your preferences or past actions.
For further information on cookies and web beacons, our use of cookies and web beacons, when we will request your consent before placing them and how to disable them, please see our Cookie Policy.
Your rights
You generally have the following rights, which you can usually exercise free of charge
Access to a copy of your personal data |
The right to be provided with a copy of your personal data |
Correction (also known as rectification |
The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal data |
Erasure (also known as the right to be forgotten) |
The right to require us to delete your personal data—in certain situations |
Restriction of use |
The right to require us to restrict use of your personal data in certain circumstances, eg if you contest the accuracy of the data |
Data portability |
The right to receive the personal data you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party—in certain situation |
To object to use |
The right to object: —at any time to your personal data being used for direct marketing (including profiling) —in certain other situations to our continued use of your personal data, eg where we use your personal data for our legitimate interests. |
Not to be subject to decisions without human involvement |
The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you We do not make any such decisions based on data collected by our website |
For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they do and do not apply, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below). You may also find it helpful to refer to the guidance from the UK’s Information Commissioner on your rights under the UK GDPR.
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please complete a request form—available on our website below. When contacting us please:
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.
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.
How to complain
Please contact us if you have any queries or concerns 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 UK’s Information Commissioner may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or by telephone: 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this privacy policy
We may change this privacy policy from time to time—when we make significant changes we will take steps to inform you, for example via email
If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please complete a request form—available on our website below. When contacting us please:
- provide enough information to identify yourself [(eg your full name, address and customer or matter reference number)] and any additional identity information we may reasonably request from you, and
- let us know which right(s) you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates
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.
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.
How to complain
Please contact us if you have any queries or concerns 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 Information Commissioner,
The UK’s Information Commissioner may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or by telephone: 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this privacy policy
We may change this privacy policy from time to time—when we make significant changes we will take steps to inform you, for example via email