You could hardly have missed the talk about GDPR. If you are running a business, you will already be undertaking your own procedures, and will already know what the content of this email is about! We are sorry to bother you with this, but along with all other organisations affected throughout Europe, we are trying to understand it and follow best practice as we understand it.

The GDPR comes into effect on 25th May 2018. We need to have complied with its requirements so far as we possibly can, and also to inform people of their rights. Here is what we have done to try to make sure that we hold appropriate data, keep it safe, use it as we and our customers agree and dispose of it appropriately if and when the time comes.

We will continue to review our processes to ensure that as more is understood about the GDPR and disseminated, that we are following best practice.

First your rights

Everyone has rights over their personal data.

1. The right to be informed
2. The right of access
3. The right to rectification
4. The right to erasure
5. The right to restrict processing
6. The right to data portability
7. The right to object
8. Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

These rights are explained in more detail on the website of the Information Commissioners Office.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/

The Privacy Notice

As an organisation that holds and processes your data we have to issue a Privacy Notice, telling you what we hold and why.  Our privacy Notice is published on our website at

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Please go there to read it in full. If you cannot access it through the web, please ask for a mailed copy.

What we do with your data

Essentially,

• the information we hold about our customers is limited to what is necessary to effectively to contact you to deliver the service to you that you have asked us to carry out, and to legally enable us to process these services, and process invoicing and timely payments. This is information that you have voluntarily provided us with, not information that has been acquired through a third party, or bought.
• IMPORTANT: If you provide us with contact information for access to sites you must ensure that you have the permission of the owner of that data to provide that information
• We keep this information on secure servers in our offices and on the cloud.
• We share some data with our alarms receiving centre EMCS again for the purpose of delivering a specific service asked for by you. They also have data in secure locations.
• We sometimes use this contact data to send customers relevant information and news about services and for market research to improve our services to our customers.

The Privacy Notice explains in more detail the legal basis for holding that information.

Permission Marketing - Advertising and Promotion

We all hate SPAM. Increasingly, advertising and promotion are employing more consumer-friendly  "Permission Marketing" techniques, giving people from the outset, the choice as to whether they wish to be marketed to or not. We have over the years received our share of spam, and are now increasingly using Permission Marketing to get our name out there, and to let existing customers know about new goods and services. However, there are times when an informational email gets the right information in the right place quickly and effectively. Additionally, we try to get round to all our customers in rotation, to review their needs and get feedback on our service and how it can be improved. Generally speaking this would take the form of a phone call to set up a meeting.

Withdrawing your permission to use your data

Essentially we need the contact data to deliver the service and include you as a paying customer. This information is a necessary part of the contract between us.

However, you could withdraw your permission for us to use the information to send you communications, or make contact with you for reasons not directly related to the carrying out of the service, or important safety issues. However, this might make it difficult to directly send you important product safety information or alert you to important legislation and how to deal with it. It would also make building strong customer relations more difficult for us, as we believe that two way open communication between us and our customers is very important.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Yours sincerely,

Jan Blackler

Director, Admin and Finance