Privacy policy

Introduction

Gentili Stark Solicitors Ltd is committed to safeguarding the privacy of our clients and all individuals whose personal data we store and process.　

This Privacy Policy explains in detail the types of personal data we may collect about you when you interact with us. It also explains how we store and handle that data.

Gentili Stark Solicitors Ltd is the Data Controller. When this notice refers to ‘we’, ‘our’ or ‘us’ we are referring to Gentili Stark Solicitors Ltd. Our registered office is Niddry Lodge, 51 Holland Street, Kensington, London W8 7JB, UK.

For any questions regarding this Policy, contact us via email: contact@gentilistark.com.

Your Rights

Where we process your personal data you may have the right:

to be informed as to whether we hold data about you
to access that data
to have inaccurate data corrected
to have your data deleted

You can seek to exercise these rights via email to contact@gentilistark.com

The purposes for which personal data is collected can include:

when consent is given for one or more specific purposes
when necessary for the performance of an agreement
when necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
when processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interest pursued by us or a third party

We keep your data as long as is necessary in connection with the purpose it is collected for.

We will delete the information we hold about you as soon as we no longer need it or, where actionable, at your request.

Types of Personal Information We Collect

Your name, address and nationality
Email address and telephone number
Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g. your date of birth or passport details
Information relating to the matter in which you are seeking our advice or representation
Financial details relevant to your instructions, such as the source of your funds.

We may also collect other personal information, if relevant to why you have instructed us, including:

Your National Insurance and tax details
Your bank and/or building society details
Details of your spouse/partner, marital status and dependants or other family members
Details of you and your family members’ finances, savings, accommodation, income and expenses
Your employment status and details including salary and benefits
Your marital status and details of your spouse / partner and other family members
Your medical history or records
Details of disabilities you have if relevant to your case
Information to enable us to undertake a credit or other financial checks on you
Your nationality and immigration status and information from related documents, such as your passport or other documentation
Your travel and immigration history, both in the UK and overseas
Details of criminal convictions, including spent convictions
Your racial or ethnic origin, gender and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs
Details of your online presence; information on open social media accounts in the public domain where relevant to your claim
Other personal information, including sensitive personal information, which may be relevant to your immigration matter

Special Categories of Personal Information

Depending on the nature of our instructions, we may collect, store and use any of the following special categories of information about clients, prospective clients and/or about related parties to a matter:

physical or mental health, including any medical condition or disability
race or ethnicity
political opinions
religious or philosophical beliefs
trade union membership
sexual orientation or sex life
genetic information and biometric data

We will only use such special category personal data where it is necessary for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, and where you have either provided your explicit consent to such use or its use is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

How Your Personal Data Is Collected

We collect most of this information from you directly.

We may also collect information in the following ways:

From publicly accessible sources - e.g. Companies House
Directly from a third party - e.g. insurance providers, estate agents, trade unions or other introducers, credit reference agencies, client due diligence providers
From a third party with your consent - e.g. your bank or building society, another financial institution or advisor, insurance companies, consultants and other professionals we may engage in relation to your matter, your employer, professional body or pension administrators, your doctors, medical and occupational health professionals
Via our website – We use essential and analytics cookies

How We Use Your Personal Information

We will only use your personal data if we have a proper reason for doing so.

The information you provide will be used to provide services you request from us and enable us to deal with your enquiry and immigration matters.

We’ll therefore need to process that information for reasons such as

For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
To provide and improve our services to you; maintain and develop our relationship with you
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, such as anti-money laundering and conflict check
For our legitimate interests or those of a third party
Where, within your reasonable expectations, we consider such use of your information as not detrimental to you, it is necessary to fulfil our legitimate interests or those of a third party
Where you have given consent
To facilitate our internal business operations; monitor and analyse our business

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as your own rights and interests do not override this.

Suppose we need to process your sensitive information, such as your health records or trade union information, to proceed with your case. In that case, we’ll do so on the basis that processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of your legal claim.

You acknowledge that we are entitled to obtain, use, process, and disclose your personal information to enable us to discharge the services we have agreed to provide and other related purposes, including updating client records, analysis for management purposes, crime prevention, and legal and regulatory compliance.

We’ll need to process your personal data to conduct your claim or matter under our retainer. If you don’t provide us with this data, we won’t be in a position to assist you with your immigration matter.

We won’t use your personal data to carry out automated decisions about you - i.e. to use technology alone to make any processing decisions that carry legal effect.

Sharing Your information

Whilst acting for you, to assist with your case, we may share your personal information, including your name, contact details, personal circumstances and relevant information about your case with selected third party suppliers.

This will enable us to discharge the services which we have agreed to provide.

We may share your personal data with

Professional advisers who we instruct on your behalf or refer you to, e.g. barristers, medical professionals and agencies, accountants, tax advisors or other experts
Other third parties where necessary to carry out your instructions, e.g. UK and international courier services, translation or interpreting services, UK Visas and Immigration (the Home Office), HM Passport Office, HM Courts and Tribunals Service and third parties instructed on their behalf; or Companies House, a court, tribunal, third party insurers or defendant solicitor on a litigated matter
The person or organisation that referred you to us, such as a trade union or claims management company
Any insurance company that is providing financial assistance for your claim, such as a provider of legal expenses insurance or other third party funders
Insurers and brokers
External auditors, e.g. the Law Society to verify the quality of service provided by us under independent accreditations like Lexcel and the audit of our accounts
Our bank
External service suppliers, representatives and agents that we use to make our business more efficient, e.g. legal costs draftsman
The Legal Aid Agency if you are publicly funded
Online ID checking services in order to verify your identity under the Money Laundering Regulations or to meet other regulatory requirements

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal data if we’re satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal data. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal data to provide services to us and to you. We may share your information with third parties where:

You have consented for us to do so;
We are under a legal, regulatory or professional obligation to do so (e.g. in order to comply with anti-money laundering requirements)
It is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims
It is required or will assist us in providing our services

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

How we store your personal information

Information may be held at our offices, third party agencies, service providers, representatives and agents.

We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to access it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

How long your personal data will be kept

We will keep your personal data after we have finished advising or acting for you. We will do so for one of the following reasons:

To comply with your instructions
To respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf
To show that we treated you fairly
To keep records required by law

We will not retain your data for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data. As a general guideline we will not hold your data for more than six years after completion of your matter unless there is a specific need or you instruct us to do so. When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal data, we will delete or anonymise the data, both in its physical and digital form (as applicable).

Security

We take reasonable steps to hold information securely in electronic or physical form and to prevent unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. We store information in access controlled premises or in electronic databases requiring logins and passwords. We require our third party data storage providers to comply with appropriate information security industry standards. All partners and staff and third party providers with access to confidential information are subject to confidentiality obligations.

The transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our online services; any transmission is at your own risk.

Third Party Websites

Please note: This Privacy Policy does not apply to, and Gentili Stark Solicitors is not responsible for, any third party websites which may be accessible through links from this website. If you follow a link to any of these third party websites, they will have their own privacy policies and you will need to check these policies before you submit any personal data to such third party websites.

Transferring your personal data out of the EEA

Following Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union on 31 December 2020, The General Data Protection Regulation will no longer apply to us and any transfers of personal data outside the UK that we make will be made in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation.

To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA), for example:

If you or your family members are based outside the EEA
In order to submit immigration and passport applications, and immigration appeals, from outside the EEA
Where there is an international dimension to the matter in which we are advising you

These transfers are subject to special rules under European and UK data protection law.

Where the country to which we are transferring your personal data has not been assessed by the European Commission or Information Commissioner’s Office as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data, we will seek to ensure the transfer complies with data protection law and all personal data will be secure.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing - You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us at contact@gentilistark.com if you wish to make a request.

Marketing

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal information for marketing purposes. When we collect contact information from you (for example, when you provide us with your business card or when you are the person instructing us on behalf of your employer), we may add your details to our contacts database and to our mailing lists. You can exercise the right at any time by sending us an email to: contact@gentilistark.com

How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at contact@gentilistark.com.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk

Changes to this privacy statement

This privacy statement was published on 01.07.2021 . We may change this privacy statement from time to time and any changes will be published on our website.