Privacy Policy

At Powell Williams LLP, we’re committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Policy explains:

1. Who are we?
2. How do we collect information from you?
3. What type of information is collected from you?
   • What are cookies?
   • How do we use cookies?
   • How can you disable cookies?
4. What conditions do we rely on for processing data?
5. How is your information used?
6. How do we keep data safe?
7. How long do we keep data?
8. Who has access to your information?
9. What are your choices and options?
   • Don’t want to keep in touch?
   • Want to access and update your information?
   • Want to object to data being processed?

We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this policy occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to matthewcarswell@powellwilliams.co.uk.

1. Who are we?

Powell Williams LLP is an independent building and project consultancy that works predominately within the commercial real estate industry and is regulated by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Our Head Office address is Powell Williams LLP, 150 Minories, London, EC3N ILS.

2. How do we collect information from you?

We obtain only basic and non-sensitive information from you, and only that which you choose to supply to us, during our general day-to-day business dealings in order, to be able to keep in touch with you and operate our business. The majority of our data subjects are clients, work referrers, contractors, suppliers or those in the employ of Powell Williams, and those we have an existing, relevant and appropriate relationship with.

3. What type of information is collected from you?

The personal information we collect might include your name, company name, address, email address. For visitors to our website, our cookie policy is as follows:

• What are cookies?
  As is common practice with almost all professional websites, our website (at www.powellwilliams.co.uk) uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve your experience. This policy describes what information they gather, how we use that information and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We also detail how you can prevent these cookies from being stored, however, this may downgrade or ‘break’ certain elements of the site’s functionality.

• How do we use cookies?
  We use cookies for a variety of reasons, as follows:
  Email newsletters related cookies:
  Our website offers newsletter or email subscription services and cookies may be used to remember if you are already registered and whether to show certain notifications which might only be valid to subscribed/unsubscribed users.
  Third party cookies:
  In some special cases we also use cookies provided by trusted third parties, such as, Google Analytics, which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solutions on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content. For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see here https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usageWe also use social media buttons and/or plugins on our website, that allow you to connect with your social network in various ways. For these to work, the following social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram (where we use them on our website) will set cookies through our site which may be used to enhance your profile on their site or contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies.

• How can you disable cookies?
  You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser Help for how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of ours and many other websites that you visit. Disabling cookies will usually result in also disabling certain functionality and features of this site. Therefore it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.

4. What conditions do we rely on for processing data?

In all appropriate circumstances, we rely the lawful reason of Legitimate Interests under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), by which to process personal information. In broad terms, this means that we can process your personal information, if we have a genuine and legitimate reason and, we are not harming any of your rights or interests. Before doing this, however, we will also carefully consider the necessity of any processing and balance any potential impact on you and your rights.

Under the terms of GDPR ‘processing’ means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction.

5. How is your information used?

We process personal information for certain legitimate business purposes, which include some or all of the following:

• to conduct the running and effective operation of our business, and for internal administrative purposes
• carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into by us and our clients or other stakeholders
• where the processing enables us to enhance, modify, personalise or otherwise improve our services and/or communications for the benefits of our clients and contacts
• to identify and prevent fraud
• to enhance the security of our network and information systems
• to better understand how people interact with our website
• to provide communications which we think will be of interest to you
• to determine the effectiveness of promotional campaigns and advertising
• during the recruitment process and
• any period of employment (where additional necessary details will be processed).

We always strive to ensure that any processing is compatible to the purposes it was originally collected for. We do not undertake any kind of profiling or automatic-decision making processing.

6. How do we keep data safe?

We have achieved the Cyber Essentials Plus Accreditation. The scheme provides security controls that are independently tested, so that client and firm-wide information is safe from common cyber-attacks, and showcases the firm’s ongoing commitment to meet the highest security standards possible. For further information, please refer to our Data Breach Policy.

7. How long do we keep data?

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory and regulatory obligations for between 6 or 12 years. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

8. Who has access to your information?

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties. We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Third Party Service Providers working on our behalf: We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example, our outsourced IT service provider with regards in relation to our client extranet site). However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service.

Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties for them to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or unless we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

We may transfer your personal information to a third party, as part of a sale of some, or all, of our business and assets to any third party or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation, or if we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our employees or clients. However, we will take all steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

Please note our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to Powell Williams LLP‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites, even if you access them using links from our website.

9. What are your choices and options?

• Don’t want to keep in touch?Whilst we very rarely send out direct marketing emails or postal communications, you do have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive direct marketing information from us ever. If you do not want to receive any future direct marketing communications from us, please contact Matthew Carswell on the details above.

• Want to access and update your information? The accuracy of your information is important to us. If you want to know what data we hold, or if you change email address, or any of the other information we may hold is inaccurate or out of date, please contact Matthew Carswell on the contact details above.

• Want to object to data being processed? You also have the right to object to us processing your data if you wish, and if this is the case, please contact Matthew Carswell on the contact details above. Please bear in mind that if you object this may affect our ability to carry out the legitimate interest tasks listed above, for your benefit.