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Privacy and cookies notice
Published: 17th June 2023
Introduction
Equal Experts (“EE”, “us” or “we”) is the data controller in relation to the processing of your personal data in compliance with our obligations under the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and is registered as such with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
EE is committed to protecting the privacy of our clients. This privacy notice is intended to set out the basis upon which any personal data or information we collect from you, or that you provide to us, may be collected and processed by (or on behalf of) EE.
It applies to use of our website, our professional services as a management consultancy business (Service) or during any communications with you.
How we collect your personal data
Personal data is any information about an individual from which you can be identified. It does not include data where it is not possible to identify you (such as anonymised data).
Your personal data generally comes from the way you engage with us, for example, when you:
- Attending meetings and/or during telephone calls to us;
- Corresponding with us by email, in which case we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses;
- Sign up to receive a newsletter or to attend an event;
- Supply us with your personal information as part of the recruitment (e.g. sending us your resume) or supplier engagement process;
- Use our website, during which other personal data may be collected, such as your IP address (please see section on cookies, below).
What we collect
The categories of information that we may collect directly from you include:
- Contact details e.g. name, e-mail address, postal address, telephone number, the name of the company you work at
- Information about your knowledge, skills and experience
- Recordings of calls you make to us
- Device information e.g. IP address
Sensitive information
‘Sensitive (Special category)’ personal data includes information about racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.
We will not collect sensitive (special category) personal information from visitors to our website, our clients or our employees, except where you have explicitly provided it (e.g. a CV).
How we use your personal information and the basis on which we use it
We may use your personal information for the following purposes:
| Subject Matter | Purpose/Activity | Lawful basis for processing |
|---|---|---|
| Operating our Services | We process your personal information to provide the services you have requested. | This is so we can comply with our contractual obligations to you. |
| Communicating with you | We may use your personal information when we communicate with you, for example, responding to a query or e-mail you have sent us or update you about changes to our policies. We may also record your name and e-mail if you have asked not to be contacted, so we don’t do so. | It is in our legitimate interest that we are able to provide you with appropriate and personalised response, including when not to contact you. |
| Marketing | We may use your personal information to send you marketing messages such as newsletters. | Where you receive newsletter it is on the basis of our legitimate interests and you may opt out at anytime. |
| Recruitment | We may use your personal information to process your resume as part of a job application that you may make to us. | It is in our legitimate interest to recruit new employees to join our team and where we have a legal obligation to do so. |
| Preventing fraud | We may use your personal information such as device information to protect, investigate, and deter against fraudulent, unauthorised, or illegal activity. | It is our legitimate interest to protect our business and where we have a legal obligation to do so. |
| Improving our Services | We analyse information about how you use our Services to provide an improved experience for the users of all our Services. We may use your data to enable client feedback and improve the overall quality of our service delivery, including through client satisfaction surveys and project management. | It is in our legitimate interest to conduct research and analytics in relation to the running of our Services so we can understand any issues with our Services and improve them. |
As described in this policy, personal information will be retained by us and will not be sold, transferred or otherwise disclosed to any third party, other than for the purpose of lawful processing. Personal information may be anonymised / pseudonymised for the purpose of research to inform our marketing and development strategies or where such disclosure is required by law or court order.
If your personal information changes or you no longer wish to receive a particular communication from us please let us know and we will correct, update or remove your details. This can be done by emailing privacy@equalexperts.com.
Security
In providing services to you, we may process personal data as a controller or on your behalf as a data processor. Where we act as processor on your behalf we will only process personal data for the purposes outlined above or otherwise in accordance with your instructions, and only keep it for as long as it is needed for that purpose.
We use up-to-date data storage and security controls to protect your personal information from unauthorised access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorised modification or unlawful destruction or accidental loss. All our employees and any third parties we engage to process your personal information are obliged to respect the confidentiality of your information.
How and when we share your personal information to third parties and internationally
We may share your personal information to our subsidiary companies which operate in 7 countries for the activities and purposes as listed in the table at 6.1 above.
Such subsidiary companies include:
- Equal Experts India Private Ltd based in Pune, India
- Equal Experts Germany Gmbh based in Berlin, Germany
- Equal Experts Portugal Lda based in Lisbon, Portugal
- Equal Experts (SA) Pty Ltd based in Cape Town, South Africa
- Equal Experts BV based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Equal Experts Australia Pty Ltd based in Sydney, Australia
- Equal Experts Inc based in New York, USA
These countries that our subsidiaries operate in may have data protection rules that are different from your country. When transferring data across borders, we take measures to comply with applicable data protection laws related to such transfer. In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal information in response to lawful requests from officials (such as law enforcement or security authorities).
We will use your personal information solely for the purpose for which it was provided and share it with EE staff and consultants on a ‘need to know’ basis. We will not use your data for other purposes without your explicit consent.
We use cloud based applications and providers for information storage. Data is by preference stored in the EU, but may be transferred for hosting/storage to the United States. We only use suppliers who implement the same level of security controls (or stronger) as we do ourselves.
Where applicable law requires a data transfer mechanism, we use one or more of the following safeguards to transfer personal data internationally:
- Transfers to certain countries or recipients that are recognised as having an adequate level of protection for personal data under applicable law;
- EU Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office – copies of which can be found at commission.europa.eu and ico.org.uk respectively; or
- Other legal methods available to us under applicable law.
We will not sell your information to a third party.
Cookies
Like most providers of online services, EE uses cookies to provide, and improve our Website, including by remembering your preferences and recognizing you when you visit our website. To accomplish these purposes, EE also may link information from cookies with other personal information EE holds about you.
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
| Cookie Subgroup | Cookies | Cookies used |
|---|---|---|
| www.equalexperts.com | OptanonConsent, OptanonAlertBoxClosed | 1st Party |
| hubspot.com | __cfduid | 1st Party |
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
| Cookie Subgroup | Cookies | Cookies used |
|---|---|---|
| equalexperts.com | _ga, hubspotutk, __hssrc, _gid, __hstc, __hssc | 1st Party |
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
| Cookie Subgroup | Cookies | Cookies used |
|---|---|---|
| youtube.com | GPS, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, YSC | 3rd Party |
| doubleclick.net | test_cookie, IDE | 3rd Party |
| ads.linkedin.com | lang | 3rd Party |
| www.linkedin.com | bscookie | 3rd Party |
| linkedin.com | lidc, lang, lissc, bcookie, UserMatchHistory | 3rd Party |
| soundcloud.com | sc_anonymous_id | 3rd Party |
How can you control cookies?
Browser and device controls. Some web browsers provide settings that allow you to control or reject cookies or to alert you when a cookie is placed on your computer. The procedure for managing cookies is slightly different for each internet browser. You can check the specific steps in your particular browser help menu. You also may be able to reset device identifiers by activating the appropriate setting on your mobile device. The procedure for managing device identifiers is slightly different for each device. You can check the specific steps in the help or settings menu of your particular device.
What happens if I disable all cookies?
The changes you make to your cookie preferences may make browsing our Website a less satisfying experience. In some cases, you may even find yourself unable to use all or part of our Website.
More information
To find out more about how cookies work, how to manage and delete them and to see which ones have been set please visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.
Your rights
Under the GDPR, you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information we hold about you. For further information, please visit ico.org.uk.
If at any time you wish to exercise your rights as a data subject in relation to information we hold about you as an individual please contact us by email to privacy@equalexperts.com or by mail to the address above.
Complaints or queries
EE tries to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. For this reason, we take any complaints we receive about this very seriously. We encourage you to bring it to our attention if you think that our collection or use of your information is unfair, misleading or inappropriate. We would also welcome any suggestions for improving our procedures.
This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of EE’s collection and use of personal information. However, we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below.
If you want to make a complaint about the way we have processed your personal information please do so by email to privacy@equalexperts.com. If you are not satisfied with the response we give you then you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (www.ico.org.uk), which is the statutory body which oversees data protection law in the UK.
If we change our privacy policies and procedures, we will post those changes on our website or otherwise notify you to keep you aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we may disclose it.
Data Controller Details
We are the data controller in relation to the processing of the personal data that you provide to us and responsible for such personal data. If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our privacy practices, please contact us at the following:
Data Protection Officer
Tel: 0203 603 7830
Email: privacy@equalexperts.com
This Privacy and Cookies Notice was last updated on 1st June 2023