Privacy Policy

This Privacy Statement sets out how WSM collects, uses and shares the information, including personal data, which you and people and entities connected with you provide to us and the information we collect in the course of operating our business and our websites.

References to “WSM”, “We”, “us” are to any or all of WSM Partners LLP and the other companies and entities that are associated with us. Our registered office is at Connect House 133-137 Alexandra Road London SW19 7LP and a full list of WSM entities is available at our registered office on request.

Information concerning the processing of personal data by licensed insolvency practitioners at WSM Marks Bloom LLP as appointment holders in insolvency procedures is covered by a separate Privacy Statement. To view this please click here.

This Statement describes:

The information that we collect

How we use the information that we collect

How we share information with third parties

Keeping your information and information security

Your choices and rights

Cookies

How to contact us and other important information

This privacy statement explains what information WSM gather about you, what we use that information for, and who we give that information to.  It also sets out your rights in relation to your information and who you can contact for more information or queries.

When you supply any personal information via any form WSM have legal obligations towards you in the way we use that data. WSM must collect the information fairly, that is, we must explain how we will use it and will tell you if we want to pass the information to another party.

The information that we collect

“Personal information” is any information that can be used to identify you or that we can link to you and which we have in our possession or control.

We will collect and process the following personal information about you:

Information that you provide to us

We will process personal information that you give to us including when you email us or contact us through various channels as follows:

Signing up for services: when you request we send you our newsletters, details of our seminars and events or information on the services we provide or when you contact us with queries or respond to our communications the personal information you provide may include your full name, title, telephone number, email address and content, date and time of your email correspondence and information about your employer or your business.

In connection with our provision of services: if you are a client of WSM you will provide us with personal information when you or the company or entity you represent becomes a client. If you are not a client we may collect or receive your personal information because you are involved in one of our client’s.

Recruitment application: when you apply for a role with us you may provide us with your full name, date of birth, nationality, education and qualification details, your gender, your CV, photograph, passport details, marital status, home address and home telephone number, mobile telephone number and other details set out in your application

Information we otherwise collect about you

We will also collect information about when you use our services or when we otherwise interact or correspond with you. We use various technologies to collect and store information when you visit our websites. We may, for example, collect information about the type of device you use to access the websites, your IP address and your geographic location, the operating system and version, your browser type, the content you view and features you access on our websites, the web pages and the search terms you enter on our websites. For information about how we use Cookies and the choices you may have, please see our Cookies Policy.

We have security measures in place at our offices, including CCTV and building access controls. The images captured are securely stored and only accessed on a need to know basis.  CCTV recordings are typically automatically overwritten after a short period of time unless an issue is identified that requires investigation.

We require visitors to our offices to sign in at reception and keep a record of visitors for a short period of time.  Our visitor records are securely stored and only accessible on a need to know basis.

Information we obtain from other sources

If you apply for a role with us we may collect personal information relating to past employment, qualifications and education, opinions from third parties about you, past employment history and other details about you, which will be provided to us by a third party that provides background screening services to us.

If we collect or receive your personal information in the context of our provision of services we might receive information from third parties such as your employer, other parties relevant to the services we are providing (e.g. financial advisors, banks, counterparties in transactions) and others such as regulators and authorities. That information could include your name, contact details, employment details and other information relevant to the services that we are providing to our client.

How we use the information we collect

We may do the following with your personal information:

• use it to provide services to the relevant client
• use it to engage in marketing and business development activity in relation to our services. This may include sending you newsletters, tax and accountancy updates, marketing communications and other information that may be of interest to you
• where you have applied for a role with us, to review and process your job application
• to comply with legal and regulatory obligations that we have to discharge
• use it to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights or for the purpose of legal proceedings
• record and monitor your use of our websites or our other online services for our business purposes which may include analysis of usage, measurement of site performance and generation of marketing reports
• use it for our legitimate business interests, such as undertaking business research and analysis, managing the operation of our websites and our business
• use it to look into any complaints or queries you may have, and
• use it to prevent and respond to actual or potential fraud or illegal activities.

Also, we may collate, process and share any statistics based on an aggregation of information held by us provided that any individual is not identified from the resulting analysis and the collation, processing and dissemination of such information is permitted by law.

Grounds for using your personal information

We rely on the following legal grounds to process your personal information, namely:

• Consent– we may (but usually do not) need your consent to use your personal information. You can withdraw your consent by contacting us (see below).
• Performance of a contract– we may need to collect and use your personal information to enter into a contract with you or to perform our obligations under a contract with you.
• Legitimate interest– we may use your personal information for our legitimate interests, some examples of which are given above.
• Compliance with law or regulation– we may use your personal information as necessary to comply with applicable law/regulation.

How we share information with third parties

We may share your personal information outside WSM with the following parties and for the purposes set our below:

• Third party agents/suppliers or contractors, bound by obligations of confidentiality, in connection with the processing of your personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Statement. This may include, but is not limited to, IT and communications service providers.
• Third parties relevant to the services that we provide. This may include, but is not limited to other professional service providers, regulators, authorities, governmental institutions and counterparties to transactions.
• To the extent required by law, regulation or court order, for example, if we are under a duty to disclose your personal information in order to comply with any legal obligation.

Keeping your information and information security

How long we hold your personal information for will vary and will depend principally on:

• the purpose for which we are using your personal information – we will need to keep the information for as long as is necessary for the relevant purpose, and
• legal obligations – laws or regulation may set a minimum period for which we have to keep your personal information.

We have a framework of policies, procedures and training in place covering data protection, confidentiality and security and regularly review the appropriateness of the measures we have in place to keep the data we hold secure.

We have security measures in place to protect our and our clients’ information (including personal data), which involve detecting, investigating and resolving security threats.  Personal data may be processed as part of the security monitoring that we undertake; for example, automated scans to identify harmful emails.

We will ensure that the personal information that we hold is subject to appropriate security measures.

Your choices and rights

You have a number of legal rights in relation to the personal information that we hold about you and you can exercise your rights by contacting us using the details set out below.

These rights include:

• Obtaining information regarding the processing of your personal information and access to the personal information which we hold about you.
• Please note that there may be circumstances in which we are entitled to refuse requests for access to copies of personal information. In particular, information that is subject to legal professional privilege will not be disclosed other than to our client and as authorised by our client.
• Requesting that we correct your personal information if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Requesting that we erase your personal information in certain circumstances. Please note that there may be circumstances where you ask us to erase your personal information but we are legally entitled to retain it.
• Objecting to, and requesting that we restrict, our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances. Again, there may be circumstances where you object to, or ask us to restrict, our processing of your personal information but we are legally entitled to refuse that request.
• In some circumstances, receiving some personal information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or requesting that we transmit the information to a third party where this is technically feasible. Please note that this right only applies to personal information which you have provided to us.
• Withdrawing your consent, although in certain circumstances it may be lawful for us to continue processing without your consent if we have another legitimate reason (other than consent) for doing so.
• Lodging a complaint with the relevant data protection authority, if you think that any of your rights have been infringed by us.
• We can, on request, tell you which data protection authority is relevant to the processing of your personal information.

Cookies

Click here for information on our Cookie Policy

How to contact us and other important information

If you would like further information on the collection, use, disclosure, transfer or processing of your personal information or the exercise of any of the rights listed above, please contact us. You can do this by email addressed to dataprotectionofficer@wsm.co.uk or in writing to Data Protection Officer, WSM Partners LLP, Connect House, 133-137 Alexandra Road, London, SW19 7JY