Privacy Policy

The proprietor of the website located at www.mearsash.com (“the Site”) and the Data Controller for the purposes of Data Protection Act 1988 is Mears Ash Limited, 28 Ashington Road, London, SW6 3QJ (“Mears Ash”, “we”, “us”, “our”). Unless specified otherwise in this Privacy Policy, any capitalised terms in this document shall have the meaning given in our Website Terms of Use.

We are committed to protecting the privacy of users of the Site (“you”). This Privacy Policy is designed to tell you about our practices regarding the collection, use and disclosure of information that you may provide via our Site in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. In general, you can access and browse the Site without identifying who you are or revealing any personal data about you. We will ensure that any personal data received from you will be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

Whenever you use the Site, you consent to the collection, use and disclosure of that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Ways that we Collect Information including Personal Data

The Site allows users to view information about us, our services and our clients.

When you access some areas of the Site you will be required to actively submit information in order for you to benefit from specific features. You will be informed at each information collection point what information is required and what information is optional.

Some of this information may be personal (information that can be uniquely identified with you, including your full name, address, email address, phone number) (“personal data”). This personal data will be provided by way of an online form completed by you on the Site or, if you are one of our clients, by entering your Login.

Personal data about you may also be collected if you contact us with queries or to request further information about our services. We only collect personal data when you choose to supply it to us.

Automatic Collection of Information

Information is also gathered without you actively providing it, through the use of various technologies and methods such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and cookies. These methods do not collect or store personal information.

An IP address is a number assigned to your computer by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), so you can access the Internet. It is generally considered to be non-personally identifiable information, because in most cases an IP address is dynamic (changing each time you connect to the Internet), rather than static (unique to a particular user’s computer).

We use your IP address to diagnose problems with our server, report aggregate information and determine the fastest route for your computer to use in connecting to our site and to administer and improve the site.

Cookies

Cookies are small files that are often created when you visit a website and which are stored in the cookie directory of your computer. A cookie often includes an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies do not damage your computer. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser’s preferences allow it but, to protect your privacy, your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites. You do not have to accept cookies. You can decide if you want to accept cookies by changing the settings on your browser to either accept all cookies, reject all cookies or notify you when a cookie is set. Switching off cookies will still allow you to view the majority of information available on our website, however, you may not be able to make full use of our online services.

We use cookies to track users’ progress through the site, allowing us to make improvements based on usage data. The information in a cookie does not contain any personally identifiable information you submit to our site.

There are two types of cookie. Persistent cookies remain on your computer for a specified time.

We use persistent cookies to:

• identify that a user has returned

• collect information about how the website is used that allows us to make improvements to it.

Session-specific cookies are deleted when you leave the website. We use session-specific cookies to:

• hold the information given while using some of our online services and tools.

• hold your login details when you are logged into our online services.

• collect information about how the website is used that allows us to make improvements to it.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) provides in depth information about cookies.

Page Tagging

We use JavaScript page tags to aggregate and analyse customer usage patterns on our website. This provides us with data on your site usage and behaviour. We use this information to make changes to the layout of the website and to the information in it. This process does not collect any personal or identifiable information about users. You can disable JavaScript on your computer, however, disabling JavaScript may affect your ability to access some of our online tools and services.

Sometimes we tag pages on the site when we are promoting various campaigns. These tags enable us to recognise a unique cookie on your browser, which in turn enables us to learn which advertisements bring users to our web site. With this technology, the information that we collect and share is anonymous and not personally identifiable. It does not contain your name, address, telephone number, or email address.

Monitoring of Email

We may monitor email communications with Mears Ash Limited (this includes any Mears Ash Limited member of staff). Any such monitoring will take place in accordance with the law.

Web Statistics

We use log files generated by our web servers to analyse site usage and statistics but the files do not identify any personal data. Log file analysis helps us to understand usage patterns on our website and to make improvements to our service.

Purpose of Collection

Except as otherwise stated, we may use information you provide via the Site to improve the content, to customise the Site to your preferences, to communicate information to you (if you have requested it), for internal marketing and research purposes, and for the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy.

In particular, we may collect your personal data for the purpose of contacting you:

• to provide you with further information about our services (including by way of a newsletter or marketing material) or an estimate.

• in relation to potential employment by us.

• to set up customer records for the provision of our services.

We may also use your personal data to better understand who uses the Site and the pages they access so as to be able to improve the Site from time to time.

From time to time, we may also use your personal data to contact you for market research or client care survey purposes or to let you know about other services we may be able to provide to you.

You will have the opportunity to opt-out of such communications by sending an email to privacy@mearsash.com. Please put “Unsubscribe” as the subject and include your email address, name and company name in the email.

You hereby agree to and authorise Mears Ash to use the personal data you provide to us for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.

If we transfer management, ownership or hosting of the Site to a third party, you agree that we may also transfer your personal data and any other information about you to such third party without your further or additional permission, provided that such third party agrees to the same terms of this Privacy Policy.

We will not disclose any information you provide via the Site to any other third parties except where:

• such disclosures are necessary to fulfil our service obligations to you in which case we will require such third parties to agree to treat it in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

• required by applicable laws, courts orders, or government regulations (for example to prevent or detect crime).

• you give us permission to do so.

Security

Information provided by you to us via the Site or email, including your personal data, will not be transmitted via secure transmission method, unless otherwise stated on the Site (for example, any files uploaded in the FTP area of the Site will be transferred by an encrypted and secure transmission method). Even where information is transmitted via the Internet in encrypted form there can be no absolute guarantee that any information carried over the Internet is secure. Information and data transmitted may be intercepted by third parties, lost, redirected, corrupted or changed.

Once we have collected your personal data, we will employ reasonable security measures in the storage of your personal data to guard against any unauthorised access to or disclosure of your personal data in accordance with legislation such as the Data Protection Act 1998. Wherever possible we will use adequate security software and secure login procedures.

Links to Other Websites

This site contains links and references to other websites. Please be aware that this Privacy Policy does not apply to those websites and we encourage you to read the Privacy Policy of every website you visit. You acknowledge that we have no control over the information practices and activities of third party websites such as cookies, and the collection or solicitation of personal data.

Updating Personal Data

If the personal data we hold about you is inaccurate in any way, you may have it completed, rectified, amended and/or deleted.

You should contact us to update, or request access to your personal data via:

• Address: 28 Ashington Road, London SW6 3QJ

• Email: privacy@mearsash.com

We reserve the right to refuse to provide you with a copy of your personal data, subject to the Data Protection Act 1988 and will give you reasons for the refusal.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, we must provide you with a readable copy of all personal data which we hold about you, within 40 days of receiving your written request for such copies (“a subject access request”). The Data Protection Act 1998 allows us to charge a fee of up to £10 for this. Evidence of your identity (for example, your current passport, driver’s licence or current bills) will be required before any personal data held by us will be disclosed to you.

Notification of Changes to our Privacy Policy

We will post details of any changes to our Privacy Policy on the Site to help ensure you are always aware of the information we collect, how we use it, and in what circumstances, if any, we share it with other parties. Changes to our Privacy Policy will apply and have effect from when we post the policy as amended on the Site. As any changes will be binding on you from when you first access the Site with the amended Privacy Policy, you should check the policy from time to time to make sure you are aware of any changes. Regardless of any changes made to this Privacy Policy, we will always use your personal data in accordance with the current Privacy Policy, unless you give your express consent for us to do otherwise.

Governing Law

This Privacy Policy will be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the law of England and Wales and the parties hereby submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.

Last updated October 2015