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Privacy policy

Introduction

Ford Sinclair Limited (“Ford Sinclair”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from) and when we provide corporate communications consultancy and services. This policy will tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

This privacy notice is provided in a layered format so you can click through to the specific areas set out below. Please also use the Glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy notice.

1.    Important information and who we are
2.    The data we collect about you
3.    How is your personal data collected
4.    How we use your personal data
5.    Disclosures of your personal data
6.    International transfers
7.    Data security
8.    Data retention
9.    Your legal rights
10.   Glossary

1.    Important information and who we are

Purpose of this privacy notice

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how Ford Sinclair collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website when you fill out an enquiry form or sign up for email alerts.

This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.

Controller

Ford Sinclair Limited is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as Ford Sinclair, the “Company”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).

If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us using the details set out below.

Contact details

Our full details are:

Registered office: 
Ford Sinclair Limited 
358 Roman Road,
Mountnessing,
Essex CM15 0TZ

privacy@ford-sinclair.co.uk

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

Changes to the privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes

We may change this policy by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective Monday 21 May. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Third-party links

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications or store cookie files on your computer in order to deliver its service(s). Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect, store or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit. 

2. The data we collect about you

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you, which may fall into the following categories depending on your interaction with Ford Sinclair:

  • Website users
  • Awards and events contacts
  • Suppliers (potential and existing)

We have then grouped together the data types within these categories as follows:

  • Identity Data includes first name, last name.
  • Contact Data includes company name, email address and telephone numbers.
  • Financial Data includes bank account and payment card details and data about your transactions with us.
  • Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
  • Profile Data includes your username or similar identifier and password, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
  • Usage Data includes information about how you use our website, products and services.
  • Marketing and Market Research Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us; participating in surveys and providing feedback to us; and receiving news from us and our third parties; and your communication preferences.
  • Communications Data includes all communications we have with you whether by email, post, phone or otherwise.

We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.

3. How is your personal data collected?

We use different methods to collect data from and about you. These methods are dependent upon your interactions with Ford Sinclair as follows:

Website users

  • Contact forms and sign up for email alerts. If you fill out a contact form or sign up to receive our newsletters, we will collect certain personal information in order to be able to respond to your enquiry or send you further communications.
  • Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie declaration for further details.
  • Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below.
    • Technical Data from the following parties:
      • Analytics, storage, tools and media providers based in and outside the EU;
      • IP tracking service providers based within the EU;
      • automated quality control tools based within the EU;
      • automated security and compliance tools based outside the EU;
      • social media and media networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and Vimeo based outside the EU; and
      • email distribution and survey providers based outside the EU;
  • Identity and Contact data from providers of hosting services provided inside the EU.

Awards and events contacts

  • Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact, Communications, Marketing and Market Research and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
    • apply for our products or services;
    • subscribe to our service or publications;
    • request marketing to be sent to you;
    • enter a survey or give us some feedback; or
    • provide information with regards to our awards and events in terms of sponsorship, nominations or attendance.
  • Sponsorship opportunities. In considering or becoming a sponsor at one of our awards or events, you may give us your Identity, Contact, Communications, Marketing and Market Research and Financial Data.
  • Nominees at awards. You may give us your Identity, Contact, Communications. Marketing and Market Research Data by filling in forms on one of our awards websites and nominating companies or people for certain awards. This may include providing Identity and Contact Data of those companies or people you are nominating for awards and may also result in the photographing or filming of those companies or people you nominate at the awards. It will also mean that the sponsor of that award category, main sponsor and an associated sponsor may contact any company you nominate as part of the submission process.
  • Voting panel. In participating as a judge on a voting panel for one of our awards and events, you may give us your Identity, Contact, Communications, Marketing and Market Research Data. Your photograph may also be taken as part of your panel participation for display on the awards website or in the awards brochure.
  • Table bookings at awards and events. You may give us your Identity, Contact, Communications, Marketing and Market Research and Financial Data when you secure and pay for tables at our awards and events. As a table host and/or administrator, you will be responsible for providing the Identity and Contact Data of your guests and gaining their consent in doing so.
  • Attendance at awards or events. In attending our awards or events, your table host may share your Identity and Contact data with us. Photography and filming may also take place at the awards event, which means photographs or video may be taken which feature you and which may be used for marketing purposes after the awards or event.
  • Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below.
    • Identity and Contact Data from data brokers, aggregators or industry bodies based inside the EU.
    • Identity and Contact Data from email distribution providers based outside of the EU.
    • Identity and Contact Data from publicly available social media sources such Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
    • Identity and Contact Data from publicly availably sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based inside the EU.
    • Identity and Contact Data from customer relationship management tools.

Suppliers (potential and existing)

  • Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact, Correspondence and Financial Data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
    • provide us with a quotation for your products or services;
    • deliver a product or service to us;
    • subscribe to our service or publications;
    • request marketing to be sent to you;
    • take part in a survey; or
    • give us some feedback.
  • Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties as set out below.
    • Identity and Contact Data from other suppliers and contacts within the industry and largely based within the EU;
    • Identity and Contact Data from potential clients based inside the EU.

4. How we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
  • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Click here to find out more about the types of lawful basis that we will rely on to process your personal data.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.

Purposes for which we will use your personal data

We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

To register you as a new sponsor, voting panel judge, table host, attendee or supplier

Type of data:
a.    Identity
b.    Contact
c.    Financial
d.    Communications

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
Performance of a contract with you

To receive and progress an awards nomination via one of our awards websites

Type of data
a.    Identity
b.    Contact
c.    Communications

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
Necessary for our legitimate interests to carry out awards and events and contracts and associated products and services

To process and deliver our products and services including:

a.    Manage payments, fees and charges
b.    Collect and recover money owed to us

Type of data
a.    Identity
b.    Contact
c.    Financial
d.    Marketing and Market Research
e.    Communications

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
a.    Performance of a contract with you
b.    Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us)

To manage our relationship with you which will include:

a.    Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy
b.    Asking you to take part in a survey
c.    Providing latest news or updates on our events

Type of data
a.    Identity
b.    Contact
c.    Profile
d.    Marketing and Market Research
e.    Communications

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
a.    Performance of a contract with you
b.    Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
c.    Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated, to keep our contacts up to date about Ford Sinclair and our events and to study how contacts use our products/services)

To enable you to complete a survey

Type of data
a.    Identity
b.    Contact
c.    Profile
d.    Usage
e.    Marketing and Market Research
f.    Communications

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
a.    Performance of a contract with you
b.    Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how contacts use our products/services and/or find our events, using the findings to develop and grow our business)

To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods or services that may be of interest to you

Type of data
a.    Identity
b.    Contact
c.    Technical
d.    Usage
e.    Profile
f.    Communications

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business)

To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data)

Type of data
a.    Identity
b.    Contact
c.    Technical
d.    Usage
e.    Profile

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
a.    Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise)
b.    Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
c.    Necessary to carry out awards and events and contracts and associated products and services

To deliver social media tools to our website, where relevant to enhance the user and business experience and provide relevant information

Type of data
a.    Identity
b.    Contact
c.    Profile
d.    Usage
e.    Marketing and Marketing Research

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
a.    Performance of a contract with you
b.    Necessary to carry out awards and events and contracts and associated products and services

To use data analytics, IP tracking and automated quality control tools to improve our website, products/services, marketing, relationships and experiences

Type of data
a.    Technical
b.    Usage
c.    Profile

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
a.    Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of clients for our products and services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)

To deliver relevant website content and marketing, research, events information or communications information to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the marketing, research or communications information we serve to you

Type of data
a.    Identity
b.    Contact
c.    Profile
d.    Usage
e.    Marketing and Market Research
f.    Communications
g.    Technical

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
a.    Necessary for our legitimate interests (to provide important company, events information and news, to study how clients use our products/services, to deliver relevant events, to develop our relationships with contacts, to grow our business and to inform our marketing and communications strategy)

To deliver awards and events which may photograph or film you at the event for inclusion in marketing and promotional collateral for Ford Sinclair and its awards and events

Type of data
a.    Identity
b.    Communications

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
a.    Performance of a contract with you
b.    Necessary for our legitimate interests to carry out awards and events and contracts and associated products and services

To deliver awards and events using a guest booking system which may require a username and password

Type of data
a.    Identity
b.    Contact
c.    Profile
d.    Usage
e.    Communications

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
a.    Performance of a contract with you
b.    Necessary for our legitimate interests to carry out awards and events and contracts and associated products and services

To provide charity envelopes for guests to make a charitable donation, which includes Gift Aid information and communications preferences

Type of data
a.    Identity
b.    Contact
c.    Financial
d.    Communications

Lawful basis for processing including basis of legitimate interest
a.    Performance of a contract with a charitable organisation
b.    Necessary to carry out the charitable aspect of an awards event
c.    Bound by the privacy policies of the relevant charity

Marketing

We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing, market research and communications. We have established the following personal data control mechanisms:

Promotional offers from us

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us, purchased goods or services from us or expressed an interest in our products and services or if you have attended one of our events and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.

Third-party marketing

We will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside of Ford Sinclair for marketing purposes.

Opting out

You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us.

Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase or experience or other transactions.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site about aspects of your visit. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our cookie declaration.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

5. Disclosures of your personal data

We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in section 4 above.

  • Internal Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
  • External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
  • Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

6. International transfers

Wherever possible we do not transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Some of our external third parties are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data may sometimes involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

  • We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission. For further details, see European Commission: Adequacy of the protection of personal data in non-EU countries.
  • Where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between Europe and the US. For further details, see European Commission: EU-US Privacy Shield.

Please contact us if you would like further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.

7. Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

8. Data retention

How long will you use my personal data for?

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

By law we have to keep basic information about our clients and contacts (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being clients and/or contacts for financial and legal purposes.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see Request erasure below for further information.

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. Please click on the links below to find out more about these rights:

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

No fee usually required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What we may need from you

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time limit to respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

10.    Glossary

LAWFUL BASIS

Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.

Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.

THIRD PARTIES

External Third Parties
  • Design, marketing and production service providers, operating in the EU, who provide design and marketing communications and set design, photography and filming before, during or after one of our events.
  • Charitable organisations with whom we raise funds at some of our awards and events and share money and gift aid information.
  • Hotel partners, where we host our awards and events, who provide venues and hospitality to our guests.
  • Joint venture partners, with whom we organise our awards and events, who assist with the planning and implementation of our awards and events.
  • Digital service providers acting as processors, operating in the EU, who provide a number of services, including but restricted to hosting, SSL, data analysis, CRM, video streaming, social media and sharing services.
  • Professional advisers acting as processors including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers based in the United Kingdom and the US who provide consultancy, banking, legal, insurance and accounting services.
  • HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities acting as processors based in the United Kingdom who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
  • Marketing services providers acting as processors including mailing and survey companies operating in and outside of the EU who provide distribution, reporting and analysis of emails and surveys.

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

You have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  • Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
  • Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
  • Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
  • Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
  • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.