Privacy Policy

This is the privacy notice of Forth EMC Services Ltd (‘we’, ‘our’, or ‘us’).
Our registered office is at Unit 19A, Nasmyth Court, Livingston, EH545EG

Introduction
This notice describes how we collect, store, transfer and use personal data. It tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
In the context of the law and this notice, ‘personal data’ is information that clearly identifies you as an individual or which could be used to identify you if combined with other information. Acting in any way on personal data is referred to as ‘processing’.
This notice applies to personal data collected through our website, social media platforms and information you provide to us when enquiring about or engaging our services.
Except as set out below, we do not share, or sell, or disclose to a third party, any information collected without your consent.

Personal data we process
1.    How we obtain personal data
The information we process about you includes information:
•    you have directly provided to us
•    as a result of monitoring how you use our website or our services
•    that we gather from third party databases and service providers

2.    Types of personal data we collect directly
When you contact us or use our website we may ask you to provide personal data. This can be categorised into the following groups:
•    personal identifiers, such as your first and last names and your title.
•    contact information, such as your email address, your telephone number (work or personal if relevant) and your postal addresses for billing, delivery and communication
•    records of communication between us including messages sent through our website and email.

3.    Types of personal data we collect from third parties
We confirm some of the information you provide to us directly using data from other sources. We also add to the information we hold about you, sometimes to remove the need for you to provide it to us and sometimes in order to be able to assess the quality of the services you offer.
The additional information we collect can be categorised as follows:
•    information that confirms your identity
•    business information, including your business trading name and address, your company number (if incorporated), and your VAT number (if registered)
•    information that confirms your contact information

4.    Types of personal data we may collect from your use of our services
By using our website and our services, we process:
•    Information you provide on contact forms
•    information you contribute to our community, including reviews
•    your replies to polls and surveys
•    technical information about the hardware and the software you use to access our website and use our services, including your Internet Protocol (IP) address, your browser type and version and your device’s operating system
•    usage information, including the frequency you use our services, the pages of our website that you visit, whether you receive messages from us and whether you reply to those messages
•    transaction information that includes the details of the products services you have bought from us and payments made to us for those services
•    your preferences to receive marketing from us; how you wish to communicate with us; and responses and actions in relation to your use of our services.

5.    Our use of aggregated information
We may aggregate anonymous information such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Anonymous information is that which does not identify you as an individual. Aggregated information may be derived from your personal data but is not considered as such in law because it does not reveal your identity.
For example, we may aggregate usage information to assess whether a feature of our website is useful.
However, if we combine or connect aggregated information with your personal data so that it can identify you in any way, we treat the combined information as personal data, and it will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
The bases on which we process information about you
The law requires us to determine under which of six defined bases we process different categories of your personal data, and to notify you of the basis for each category.
If a basis on which we process your personal data is no longer relevant then we shall immediately stop processing your data.
If the basis changes then if required by law we shall notify you of the change and of any new basis under which we have determined that we can continue to process your information.

6.    Information we process with your consent
Through certain actions when otherwise there is no contractual relationship between us, such as when you browse our website or ask us to provide you more information about our business, including job opportunities and our products and services, you provide your consent to us to process information that may be personal data.
You may withdraw your consent at any time by instructing us enquiries@forthemcservices.co.uk. However, if you do so, you may not be able to use our website or our services further.
However, while we take your consent into account in decisions about whether or not to process your personal data, the withdrawal of your consent does not necessarily prevent us from continuing to process it. The law may allow us to continue to process your personal data, provided that there is another basis on which we may do so. For example, we may have a legal obligation to do so.

7.    Information we process because we have a legal obligation
Sometimes, we must process your information in order to comply with a statutory obligation.
For example, we may be required to give information to legal authorities if they so request or if they have the proper authorisation such as a search warrant or court order.
This may include your personal data.
How and when we process your personal data

8.    Your personal data is not shared
We do not share or disclose to a third party, any information collected through our website without your explicit consent.

9.    Job application and employment
If you send us information in connection with a job application, we may keep it for up to six years in case we decide to contact you at a later date.
If we employ you, we collect information about you and your work from time to time throughout the period of your employment. This information will be used only for purposes directly relevant to your employment. After your employment has ended, we will keep your file for six years before destroying or deleting it.

10.    Information obtained from third parties
Although we do not disclose your personal data to any third party (except as set out in this notice), we sometimes receive data that is indirectly made up from your personal data from third parties whose services we use.

11.    Service providers and business partners
We may share your personal data with businesses that provide services to us, or with business partners.
As examples:
•    we may pass your contact information to advertising agencies to use to promote our services to you

Use of information we collect through automated systems

12.    Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer's hard drive by your web browser when you visit a website that uses them. They allow information gathered on one web page to be stored until it is needed for use at a later date.
They are commonly used to provide you with a personalised experience while you browse a website, for example, allowing your preferences to be remembered.
They can also provide core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility; record how you interact with the website so that the owner can understand how to improve the experience of other visitors; and serve you advertisements that are relevant to your browsing history.
Some cookies may last for a defined period of time, such as one visit (known as a session), one day or until you close your browser. Others last indefinitely until you delete them.
Your web browser should allow you to delete any cookie you choose. It should also allow you to prevent or limit their use. Your web browser may support a plug-in or add-on that helps you manage which cookies you wish to allow to operate.
If you choose not to use cookies or you prevent their use through your browser settings, you may not be able to use all the functionality of our website.
We may use cookies in the following ways:
•    to track how you use our website
•    to record whether you have seen specific messages we display on our website
•    to record your answers to surveys and questionnaires on our site while you complete them

13.    Personal identifiers from your browsing activity
Requests by your web browser to our servers for web pages and other content on our website may be recorded through Google analytics.
This may include information such as your geographical location, your Internet service provider and your IP address. We also record information about the software you are using to browse our website, such as the type of computer or device and the screen resolution.
We use this information in aggregate to assess the popularity of the webpages on our website and how we perform in providing content to you.
   
14.    Re-marketing
Re-marketing involves placing a ‘tracking technology’ such as a cookie, a ‘web beacon’ (also known as an ‘action tag’ or a ‘single-pixel GIF’) to track which pages you visit and to serve you relevant adverts for our services when you visit some other website.
The benefit of re-marketing technology is that we can provide you with more useful and relevant adverts, and not show you ones repeatedly that you may have already seen.
We may use a third-party advertising service to provide us with re-marketing services from time to time. If you have consented to our use of such tracking technologies, you may see advertisements for our products and services on other websites.
We do not provide your personal data to advertisers or to third-party re-marketing service providers. However, if you are already a member of a website whose affiliated business provides such services, that affiliated business may learn of your preferences in relation to your use of our website.
Other matters

15.    Your rights
The law requires us to tell you about your rights and our obligations to you in regard to the processing and control of your personal data.
We do this now, by requesting that you read the information provided at http://www.knowyourprivacyrights.org

16.    Data may be processed outside the UK/EU/EEA
Our website and cloud storage are hosted outside the UK in non-EU countries.  Accordingly your data may be transmitted outside of the UK/EU/EEA.  We use two of the top tier cloud services/hosting companies and several layers of security is employed including encryption, firewalls and very limited user access.
Our own data is also stored on these platforms – we treat your data with the same level of security precautions we treat our own.

17.    Control over your own information
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and up to date. Please inform us if your personal data changes.
At any time, you may contact us to request that we provide you with the personal data we hold about you.
When we receive any request to access, edit or delete personal data we first take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you access or otherwise taking any action. This is important to safeguard your information.
After receiving your request, we will tell you when we expect to provide you with the information.
If you wish us to remove personally identifiable information from our records, you should contact us to make your request.
This may limit the service we can provide to you.

18.    Communicating with us
When you contact us, whether by telephone, through our website or by email, we collect the data you have given to us in order to reply with the information you need.
We record your request and our reply in order to increase the efficiency of our business .
We may keep personally identifiable information associated with your message, such as your name and email address so as to be able to track our communications with you to provide a high quality service.

19.    Complaining
If you are not happy with our privacy policy, or if you have any complaint, then you should tell us at:
enquiries@forthemcservices.co.uk
When we receive a complaint, we record the information you have given to us on the basis of consent. We use that information to resolve your complaint.
If your complaint reasonably requires us to notify some other person, we may decide to give to that other person some of the information contained in your complaint. We do this as infrequently as possible, but it is a matter for our sole discretion whether we do give information, and if we do, what that information is.
If a dispute is not settled then we hope you will agree to attempt to resolve it by engaging in good faith with us in a process of mediation or arbitration.
If you are in any way dissatisfied about how we process your personal data, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). This can be done at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about your concern before you approach the ICO.

20.    Retention period
Except as otherwise mentioned in this privacy notice, we keep your personal data only for as long as required by us:
•    to provide you with the services you have requested
•    to comply with other law, including for the period demanded by our tax authorities
•    to support a claim or defence in court
•    to enable on-going company marketing

21.    Review of this privacy policy
We shall update this privacy notice from time to time as necessary.
Last updated: 5/9/24