Privacy Statement and Cookie Policy

Privacy Notice 

For a full copy of our company (Plus Accounting) Terms of Business, please download here.

This policy applies to the following business:

Plus Accounting, Chartered Accountants, which is a trading name of Feist Hedgethorne Limited.  Feist Hedgethorne Limited is a limited company registered to carry out audit work and regulated for a range of investment business activities in the UK and Ireland by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Feist Hedgethorne Limited – Registered Office: Preston Park House, South Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 6SB. Registered in England and Wales: 4662643 VAT Number: 587 8258 74

The privacy policy explains how we use any personal information we collect about you when you use this website and our wider services.  Further information in relation to job applicant privacy can be found here.

What is personal data?

Personal data relates to any information about a natural person that makes you identifiable which may include (but is not limited to):

  • Names and contact information i.e. emails and telephone numbers (both mobile and landline)
  • National Insurance Numbers
  • Employment History
  • Employee Numbers
  • Credit History
  • Personal Tax
  • Payroll and Accounting Data

What is sensitive personal data?

Sensitive personal data refers to the above but includes genetic data and biometric data.  For example:

  • Medical Conditions
  • Religious or Philosophical Beliefs and Political Opinions
  • Racial or Ethnic Origin
  • Convictions
  • Biometric Data (e.g. photo in an electronic passport or driving licence)

What is a Data Controller?

For general data protection regulation purposes, the “data controller” means the person or organisation who decides the purposes for which and the way in which any personal data is processed.

The data controller is Plus Accounting, Chartered Accountants, Preston Park House, South Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 6SB.

What is a Data Processor?

A “data processor” is a person or organisation which processes personal data for the controller.

What is Data Processing?

Data processing is any operation or set of operations performed upon personal data, or sets of it, be it by automated systems or not. Examples of data processing explicitly listed in the text of the GDPR are: collection, recording, organising, structuring, storing, adapting, altering, retrieving, consulting, using, disclosing by transmission, disseminating or making available, aligning or combining, restricting, erasure or destruction.

What do we mean by Business to Business?

PLC, LTD, LLP incorporated partnerships, trusts and foundations, local authorities and government institutions.

What do we mean by Business to Consumer?

Private clients, sole traders and unincorporated partnerships.

What information do we collect about you and how?

Plus Accounting, as a Data Controller, is bound by the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

You agree that we are entitled to obtain, use and process the information you provide to us to enable us to discharge the Services (as defined in our Letter of Engagement and supporting Terms of Business) and for other related purposes including;

  • Updating and enhancing client records
  • Analysis for management purposes
  • Carrying out credit checks in relation to you (via our SmartSearch platform)
  • Statutory returns
  • Legal and regulatory compliance
  • Crime prevention

We collect information about you when you fill in any of the forms on our website or links within an email i.e. sending an enquiry, signing up for an event, filling in a survey, giving feedback etc. Website usage information is collected using cookies.

When submitting forms on our website we use a third-party software provider (SharpSpring) for automated data collection and processing purposes, they will not use your data for any purposes and will only hold the data in line with our policy on data retention.

Cookies are text files put on your computer to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information.  This information is then used to track visitor use of the website and to create statistical reports on website activity.  For more information visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the above websites tell you how to remove cookies from your browser.  Please note in a few cases some of our website features may not function because of this.

 Analytics – e.g. how visitors use our website

We use Google Analytics to store information about how visitors use our website so that we may make improvements and give visitors a better user experience.

Google Analytics is a third-party information storage system that records information about the pages you visit, the length of time you were on specific pages and the website in general, how you arrived at the site and what you clicked on when you were there. These cookies do not store any personal information about you e.g. name, address etc. and we do not share the data. You can view their privacy policy http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/

IP addresses

An IP or Internet Protocol Address is a unique numerical address assigned to a computer as it logs on to the internet. Plus Accounting do not have access to any personal identifiable information and we would never seek this information. Your IP address is logged when visiting our site, but our analytic software only uses this information to track how many visitors we have from particular regions.

Internet Based Advertising

We may use LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter advertising services and these would have tracking codes installed on our website so that we can manage the effectiveness of these campaigns.  We would not store any personal data within this type of tracking.

Social Media Platforms 

Communication, engagement and actions taken through external social media platforms that this website and its owners participate on are subject to the terms and conditions as well as the privacy policies held with each social media platform respectively.

Users are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate / engage upon them with due care and caution in regard to their own privacy and personal details. This website nor its owners will ever ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms and encourage users wishing to discuss sensitive details to contact them through primary communication channels such as by telephone or email.

This website may use social sharing buttons which help share web content directly from web pages to the social media platform in question. Users are advised before using such social sharing buttons that they do so at their own discretion and note that the social media platform may track and save your request to share a web page respectively through your social media platform account.

Shortened Links in Social Media

This website and its owners through their social media platform accounts may share web links to relevant web pages. By default some social media platforms shorten lengthy URLs to bit.ly web addresses.

Users are advised to take caution and good judgement before clicking any shortened URLs published on social media platforms by this website and its owners. Despite the best efforts to ensure only genuine URLs are published many social media platforms are prone to spam and hacking and therefore this website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any shortened links. 

How will we use the information about you and why?

At Plus Accounting we take your privacy seriously and will only use your personal information to provide the Services you have requested from us, detailed in your Letter of Engagement and supporting Terms of Business and as we have identified above.  We will only use this information subject to your instructions, data protection law and our duty of confidentiality.

For Business to Business Clients and Contacts our lawful reason for processing your personal information will be “legitimate interests”.  Under “legitimate interests” we can process your personal information if

  • we have a genuine and legitimate reason and;
  • we are not harming any of your rights and interests.

For Business to Consumer Clients and Contacts our lawful reason for processing your personal information will be “A contract with the individual” e.g. to supply goods and services you have requested, or to fulfil obligations under an employment contract.  This also includes steps taken at your request before entering into a contract.

We may receive personal data from you for the purposes of our money laundering checks, such as a copy of your passport, driving licence or data provided on an email.  This data will only be processed for the purposes of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, or as otherwise permitted by law or with your express consent and will be destroyed via our secure shredding on completion.

Our work for you may require us to pass your information to our third-party service providers, agents and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing the Services to you on our behalf.  However, when we use third party service providers, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the Services and we have contracts in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes.

We collect information on our website to process your enquiry, deal with your event and website profile registration, give advice based on survey data and improve our services.  If you agree, we will also use this information to share updates with you about our services which we believe may be of interest to you via email and our website mailing service.

We will not share your information for marketing purposes with companies so that they may offer you their products and services. 

Transferring your information outside of Europe 

As part of the services offered to you through this website, the information which you give to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Union (“EU”). For example, some of our third-party providers may be located outside of the EU.  Where this is the case we will take steps to make sure the right security measures are taken so that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this policy.  By submitting your personal data, you’re agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing.  Where our third-party suppliers are in the US we have ensured that their services fall under the “Privacy Shield” whereby participating companies are deemed to have adequate protection and therefore facilitate the transfer of information from the EU to the US. An example of this would be our event registration which is carried out with Eventbrite.

If you use our services while you are outside the EU, your information may be transferred outside the EU to give you those services.

Security precautions in place about data collected

When you give us personal information, we take steps to make sure that it’s treated securely. Any sensitive information (such as credit or debit card details) will comply with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and any card transactions are required to be processed via a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) and we complete an annual certification to ensure this is adhered too. When you are on a secure page, a lock icon will be visible.

Non-sensitive details (your email address etc.) are sent normally over the Internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. Where we have given (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, such as our Iris OpenSpace portal, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Profiling

We may analyse your personal information to create a profile of your interests and preferences so that we can contact you with information relevant to you. We may make use of extra information about you when it is available from external sources to help us do this effectively. We may also use your personal information to detect and cut fraud and credit risk.

Marketing

We would like to send you information about our services which may be of interest to you.  You may opt out at any point as set out below.

You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes.  To opt out please email: victoriak@plusaccounting.co.uk and your removal will be actioned within 24 hours.

How long will we hold your data for?

Marketing: We will hold your data for a period of 6 years with a review every 3 years.  You will have the opportunity to opt out or update or delete data at any point should you need to do so and details are set out in this policy as to how to do that.

Contracted Services: We will hold your data for 7 years in line with our regulatory requirements.

Access to your information, correction, portability and deletion 

What is a Subject Access Request?

This is your right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you.  If you would like a copy of some or all your personal information, please email or write to us at the following address: Plus Accounting, Chartered Accountants, Preston Park House, South Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 6SB.  We will respond to your request within one month of receipt of the request.

We want to make sure your personal information is accurate and up to date.  You may ask us to correct or remove information you think is inaccurate by emailing your account manager or writing to the above address.

Objections to processing of personal data

It is your right to lodge an objection to the processing of your personal data if you feel the “ground relating to your particular situation” apply.  The only reasons we will be able to deny your request is if we can show compelling legitimate grounds for the processing, which override your interest, rights and freedoms, or the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of a legal claims.

Data Portability

It is also your right to receive the personal data which you have given to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit that data to another controller without delay from the current controller if:

(a)    The processing is based on consent or on a contract, and

(b)    The processing is carried out by automated means.

Sending Documents to you

We will apply password protection to all documents that we send to you by email unless you specifically request otherwise. Alternatively, we will use our client portal to send documents to you, if you would prefer.

Your Right to be Forgotten

Should you wish for us to completely delete all information that we hold about you please contact:

Email: emmah@plusaccounting.co.uk or

In Writing to: Plus Accounting, Chartered Accountants Preston Park House, South Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 6SB

Other websites

Our website contains links to other websites.  This privacy policy only applies to this website so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.

Complaints

If you feel that your personal data has been processed in a way that does not meet the GDPR, you have a specific right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority.   The supervisory authority will then tell you of the progress and outcome of your complaint.  The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page.

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you:

By email: emmah@plusaccounting.co.uk

Or write to us at Plus Accounting, Chartered Accountants, Preston Park House, South Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 6SB

Our Privacy Statement

This privacy policy will explain how our organization uses the personal data we collect from you when you use our website.

Topics

Information about us

We are Plus Accounting,
Preston Park House, Brighton, BN1 6SB,
Company number: 4662643,
Registration location: England

For more information, please see our “contact us” page and/or the footer of this website.

This Website is designed and hosted on behalf of Plus Accounting by PracticeWEB a trading division of Sift Media Limited (company registration number 05923499) a subsidiary of Sift Limited (company registration number 03230061) who provide some of the information which is on this Website. This Website may have links to another website hosted by Sift Limited ("Sift Website") which enables you to access third party services.

In these terms and conditions: "Sift Limited" means Sift Limited (company registration number 03230061) whose registered office is is Charlotte Place, Queen Charlotte Street, Bristol, BS1 4EX and any company which is at the relevant time a subsidiary or holding company of Sift Limited and any subsidiary of any such holding company (and “subsidiary” and “holding company” shall have the meanings set out in sections 736 and 736A of the Companies Act 1985).

Your Data

What we collect

We do not collect any personal information about website users other than:

  • information provided by Users when completing forms on the website including but not limited to the contact and website registration form.
  • that facilitated by the use of "cookie" technology. "Cookies" are designed to enhance your online visit and permit you to access the full service within the website.

How we collect your data

Each time you visit our site or interact with the emails we send to you, we may automatically collect the following information:

  • technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet, your login information, browser type and version, operating system and platform.
  • information about your visit, including the URL clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time); pages, resources and/or products you viewed or searched for; page response times, errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction, and methods used to browse away from the page.
  • information about your interaction with our emails, including whether you have opened the email, the number of times the email is accessed, and your interaction with email content including the links you have clicked.

We may also build a picture of your digital data profile, by taking information on you from public sources, such as your publicly available social media information and other third party sources such as Companies House. We do this to help us direct more targeted information and content to you.

Data from other sources

We may receive information about you if you use any of the other websites we or any of our group companies operate or the other services we provide. We are also working closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers, credit reference agencies) and may receive information about you from them. We also receive information about you from third party telemarketing companies. We or our partners will only contact you where you have given the telemarketing companies your consent for us to do so.

Using your data

We may process your data because:

  • we are legally obliged to e.g. to confirm your identity.
  • the processing is necessary for the performance of the contract with you to provide our services; or
  • it is in ours or a third party’s legitimate interests to do so.

In some instances, we will rely on your consent to process personal data and when we do this, it will be flagged to you at the time.

If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by way of an email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not we use their information in this different manner. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

Data security & storage

This website takes every precaution to protect our users’ information. When users submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline, with the data being stored on secure servers located within the European Economic Area (“EEA”). There are technological and operational security systems in place that provide protection for personally identifiable information from loss or misuse.

When our registration form asks users to enter information, that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry – SSL.

Our primary hosting provider is certified to ISO 27001 . This family of standards helps us manage your information and keep it safe and secure.

While we will use all reasonable efforts to safeguard your personal data, you acknowledge that the use of the internet is not entirely secure and for this reason we cannot guarantee the security or integrity of any personal data that are transferred from you or to you via the internet.

If you have any questions about the security at our website, you can send an email to info@plusaccounting.co.uk.

Retention

We keep your personal information for as long as we need to for the purposes for which it was collected or (if longer) for any period for which we are required to keep personal information to comply with our legal and regulatory requirements.

Marketing

Plus Accounting would like to send you information about products and services of ours that we think you may like. If you have agreed to receiving marketing, you may always opt out at a later date.

You have the right at any time to stop Plus Accounting from contacting you for marketing purposes.

If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, please send an email to info@plusaccounting.co.uk.

Your data protection rights

Plus Accounting would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:

The right to access – You have the right to request Plus Accounting for copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.

The right to rectification – You have the right to request that Plus Accounting correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request Plus Accounting to complete the information you believe is incomplete.

The right to erasure – You have the right to request that Plus Accounting erase your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to restrict processing – You have the right to request that Plus Accounting restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to Plus Accounting’s processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.

The right to data portability – You have the right to request that Plus Accounting transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please email info@plusaccounting.co.uk.

Cookies

A cookie is a small text file written to your hard drive that contains information about you. Cookies do not contain any personal information about users.

The website provider Practiceweb uses cookies to personalise your experience of the website. Most web browsers allow you to control how cookies are accepted by adjusting your web browsers settings. If you set up your browser to reject the cookie, you may still use the website.

Services delivered via the website such as video or embedded content from external providers may also place cookies on your machine (computer).

By continuing to use this site you are deemed to be accepting the terms and conditions and consenting to the website placing cookies on your machine (computer) as set out in the Cookies information page.

Children

We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 13 and believe he or she has disclosed personal information to us, please contact us at info@plusaccounting.co.uk.

Where processing of personal data is based on consent, if we learn that this data belongs to someone under the age of 13, we will cease processing and will take reasonable measures to delete the applicable information from our records, unless the consent is provided by a parent or guardian.

Privacy policies on other websites

Where links are provided to other websites it should be noted that they are not and cannot be governed by our privacy statement. We cannot guarantee your privacy when you access other websites, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy.

Changes to our privacy policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so our users are always aware of the information we collect and how we use it.

This privacy policy was last updated on the 30th of September 2021.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about our company’s privacy policy, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Contacting appropriate authorities

Should you wish to report a complaint or if you feel that our Company has not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. Details are available here https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us.

Notices and disclaimers

These disclaimers also extend the above rights to our website provider www.practiceweb.co.uk – see service agreement, terms and conditions