Data Protection Privacy Notice

Sukhpal Matharoo Notary Public of Apex Notaries (“Business”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) under number Z1778593.
If you have any questions about this privacy notice (“Notice”), please contact us by email – smatharoo@apexnotaries.co.uk
The Business will process your and third parties’ personal data, as further explained below, in the course of providing you with notarial and associated services including access to our website and online features (“Services”).
We will let you know, by posting on our website or otherwise, if we make any changes to this Notice from time to time. Your continued use of the Services after notifying such changes will amount to your acknowledgement of the amended Notice.
PLEASE NOTE: You shall and you hereby agree to indemnify the Business and its affiliates and their officers, employees, agents and subcontractors (each an “Indemnified Party”) from and against any claims, losses, demands, actions, liabilities, fines, penalties, reasonable expenses, damages and settlement amounts (including reasonable legal fees and costs) incurred by any Indemnified Party arising out of or in connection with any breach by you of the warranties included in paragraphs 8 & 9.

What is Personal Data?

“Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, known as ‘data subject’, who can be identified directly or indirectly; it may include name, address, email address, phone number, IP address, location data, cookies and similar information. It may also include “special categories of personal data” such as racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a data subject, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.
The Business may process personal data and special categories of personal data which you provide in connection with the Services about yourself and other data subjects, e.g. individuals whose details are included in any materials provided by you to the Business. The Business may obtain information about you and other data subjects from third party service providers, such as due diligence platforms. If you use our online Services, the Business may collect information about your devices including clickstream data.
The provision of certain personal data is mandatory in order for the Business to comply with mandatory client due diligence requirements and consequently to provide the Services. You warrant on a continuous basis that such personal data is accurate, complete and up to date. Failure to comply may result in documents being rejected by the relevant certification authorities, held invalid in the destination country or other difficulty to successfully completing the Services.
In relation to personal data of data subjects you warrant to the Business on a continuous basis that:
a. where applicable, you are authorised to share such personal data with the Business in connection with the Services and that wherever another data subject is referred to, you have obtained the explicit and demonstrable consent from all relevant data subjects to the inclusion and use of any personal data concerning them;
b. to the extent this is required in connection with the Service, such personal data is accurate, complete and up to date; and
c. either you provide your explicit consent and warrant that each data subject has provided explicit consent for the transfer of personal data to foreign organisations in connection with the Services as set out at paragraph 18, or that an alternative legal gateway for such transfer (such as transfer necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract concluded in the interest of the data subject) has been satisfied.

How do we use your personal data?

The Business will only process personal data, in accordance with applicable law, for the following purposes:
a. responding to your queries, requests and other communications;
b. providing the Services, including, where applicable, procuring acts from foreign organisations;
c. enabling suppliers and service providers to carry out certain functions on behalf of the Business in order to provide the Services, including webhosting, data storage, identity verification, technical, logistical, legalisation, translation, courier or other functions, as applicable;
d. allowing you to use features on our website, when you choose to do so;
e. ensuring the security of the Business and preventing or detecting fraud;
f. administering our Business, including complaints resolution, troubleshooting of our website, data analysis, testing of new features, research, statistical and survey purposes;
g. developing and improving our services;
h. complying with applicable law, including Notary Practice Rules, guidelines and regulations or in response to a lawful request from a court or regulatory body.

The legal basis for our processing of personal data for the purposes described above will typically include:
a. processing necessary to fulfil a contract that we have in place with you or other data subjects, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraphs 9 (a), (b), (c) and (d);
b. processing necessary for our or a third party’s legitimate interests, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraphs 9 (a), (b), (c), (e), (f) and (g), which is carried out on the basis of the legitimate interests of the Business to ensure that Services are properly provided, the security of the Business and its clients and the proper administration of the Business;
c. processing necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, such as processing for the purposes set out in paragraph 9 (h); and d. any other applicable legal grounds for processing from time to time.

Cookies

What exactly are cookies?

In order to collect the information including personal data as described in this Notice, we may use cookies and similar technology on our website. A cookie is a small piece of information which is sent to your browser and stored on your computer’s hard drive, mobile phone or other device. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. This enables you to decide if you want to accept it or not. However, some of the Services offered through our website may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. For further information, please see our Cookie Policy.
Cookies can be first party or third party cookies.
* First party cookies – cookies that the website you are visiting places on your device.
* Third party cookies – cookies placed on your device through the website but by third parties, such as, Google.

The cookies placed on our website

We use the following cookies on our website:
a. Strictly necessary cookies. These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around our website and use its features. Without these cookies, services you have asked for cannot be provided. They are deleted when you close the browser. These are first party cookies.
b. Performance cookies. These cookies collect information in an anonymous form about how visitors use our website. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the website when they are using it and the approximate regions that they are visiting from. These are first party cookies.
c. Functionality cookies. These cookies allow our website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in, if applicable) and provide enhanced, more personal features. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise. The information these cookies collect may be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites. These are first party cookies.
d. Targeting or advertising cookies. These cookies allow us and our advertisers to deliver information more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as to help measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. They remember that you have visited our website and may help us in compiling your profile. These are persistent cookies which will be kept on your device until their expiration or earlier manual deletion.
e. Social Media cookies. These cookies allow you to connect with social media networks such as LinkedIn and twitter. These are persistent cookies which will be kept on your device until their expiration or earlier manual deletion.
We may combine information from these types of cookies and technologies with information about you from other sources.

Cookie consent and opting out

We assume that you are happy for us to place cookies on your device. Most Internet browsers automatically accept cookies. However, if you, or another user of your device, wish to withdraw your consent at any time, you have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying your browser setting. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of our website, our platforms and services. We request that you accept the pop-up when using our website to indicate your acceptance of our cookies. If you, or another user of your device, wish to withdraw your consent at any time, you can do so by altering your browser settings otherwise we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies from our website. For more information please visit www.allaboutcookies.org and http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/. Please see our Cookie Policy for more details.

Disclosure of personal data

There are circumstances where the Business may wish to disclose or is compelled to disclose your personal data to third parties. These scenarios include disclosure to:
a. our suppliers and service providers to facilitate the provision of the Services, including couriers, translators, IT consultants and legalisation and other handling agents, webhosting providers, identity verification partners (in order to verify your identity against public databases), consultants, for example, in order to protect the security or integrity of our business, including our databases and systems and for business continuity reasons;
b. public authorities to carry out acts which are necessary in connection with the Services, such as the Foreign Office;
c. foreign organisations to carry out acts which are necessary in connection with the Services, such as Embassies, Consulates and High Commissions;
d. professional organisations exercising certain public, governance and archiving functions in relation to the notaries profession, such as Chambers of Commerce, The Notaries Society and the Faculty Office;
subject to your consent, our advertising and marketing partners who enable us, for example, to deliver personalised ads to your devices or who may contact you by post, email, telephone, SMS or by other means;
f. successor or partner legal entities, on a temporary or permanent basis, for the purposes of a joint venture, collaboration, financing, sale, merger, reorganisation, change of legal form, dissolution or similar event relating to a Business. In the case of a merger or sale, your personal data will be permanently transferred to a successor company;
g. public authorities where we are required by law to do so; and
h. any other third party where you have provided your consent.

International transfer of your personal data

We may transfer your personal data to a third party in countries outside the country in which it was originally collected for further processing in accordance with the purposes set out above. In particular, your personal data may be transferred to foreign organisations such as foreign Embassies located in the UK or abroad. Such organisations will process personal data in accordance with the laws to which they are subject and international treaties over which the Business has no control.
If the Business transfers personal data to private organisations abroad, such as subcontractors, it will, as required by applicable law, ensure that your privacy rights are adequately protected by appropriate technical, organisation, contractual or other lawful means.

Retention of personal data

Your personal data will be retained for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes listed above or as required by the law. For example, the Notaries Practice Rules require that that notarial acts in the public form shall be preserved permanently. Records of acts not in public form shall be preserved for a minimum period of 12 years. Please contact us for further details of applicable retention periods. Personal data may for reasons of security and convenience be stored on remote data facilities but in an encrypted form.
20. We may keep an anonymized form of your personal data, which will no longer refer to you, for statistical purposes without time limits, to the extent that we have a legitimate and lawful interest in doing so.

Security of personal data

The Business will implement technical and organisational security measures in order to prevent unauthorised access to your personal data.
However, please be aware that the transmission of information via the internet is never completely secure. Whilst we can do our best to keep our own systems secure, we do not have full control over all processes involved in, for example, your use of our website or sending confidential materials to us via email, and we cannot therefore guarantee the security of your information transmitted to us on the web.

Data subject rights

Data subjects have numerous rights in relation to their personal data. For further information about your data protection rights please visit the ICO website.
a. Right to make a subject access request (SAR). Data subjects may request in writing copies of their personal data. However, compliance with such requests is subject to certain limitations and exemptions and the rights of other data subjects. Each request should make clear that a SAR is being made. You may also be required to submit a proof of your identity and payment, where applicable.
b. Right to rectification. Data subjects may request that we rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
c. Right to withdraw consent. Data subjects may at any time withdraw their consent to the processing of their personal data carried out by the Business on the basis of previous consent. Please also note that unless you have been informed otherwise, the lawful basis for processing your personal data will not be consent, but will be one of the reasons set out in paragraph (in the section How do we use your personal date). Such withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on previous consent.
d. Right to object to processing, including automated processing and profiling. The Business does not make automated decisions. Profiling may be carried out for Business administration purposes, such as monitoring trends in user visits of our website, and in order to deliver targeted ads. The Business may use third party due diligence platforms which provide recommendations about data subjects by automated means. We will comply with any data subject’s objection to processing unless we have a compelling overriding legitimate ground for the processing, the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or we have another lawful reason to refuse such request. We will comply with each valid opt-out request in relation to marketing communications.
e. Right to erasure. Data subjects may request that we erase their personal data. We will comply, unless there is a lawful reason for not doing so. For example, there may be an overriding legitimate ground for keeping the personal data, such as, our archiving obligations that we have to comply with.
f. Data subjects may request that we restrict our processing of their personal data in various circumstances. We will comply, unless there is a lawful reason for not doing so, such as, a legal obligation to continue processing your personal data in a certain way.
g. Right to data portability. In certain circumstances, data subjects may request the controller to provide a copy of their personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and have it transferred to another provider of the same or similar services. To the extent such right applies to the Services, we will comply with such transfer request. Please note that a transfer to another provider does not imply erasure of the data subject’s personal data which may still be required for legitimate and lawful purposes.
h. Right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority. We suggest that data subjects contact me (smatharoo@apexnotaries.co.uk) about any questions or complaints in relation to how we process personal data. However, each data subject has the right to contact the relevant supervisory authority directly.

If you are unhappy with the way in which we have processed your data you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113 or at www.ico.org.uk/concerns.

Appendix 1 – Appropriate Use Policy

1. About this policy

1.1 This is the “appropriate policy document” for Apex Notaries (“Apex Notaries”) setting out how we will protect Special Categories of Personal Data and Criminal Convictions Data.

1.2 This policy supports Apex Notaries’ Data Protection Policy.

1.3 This document meets the requirement of the Data Protection Act 2018 that an appropriate policy document be in place where Processing Special Categories of Personal Data and Criminal Convictions Data in certain circumstances.

2. Definitions

Controller: the person or organisation that determines when, why and how to Process Personal Data.

Criminal Convictions Data: personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences, including Personal Data relating to criminal allegations and proceedings.

Data Subject: a living, identified or identifiable individual about whom we hold Personal Data. Data Subjects may be nationals or residents of any country and may have legal rights regarding their Personal Data.

Data Privacy Impact Assessment (DPIA): tools and assessments used to identify and reduce risks of a data processing activity. A DPIA can be carried out as part of Privacy by Design and should be conducted for all major system or business change programmes involving the Processing of Personal Data.

DPA 2018: the Data Protection Act 2018.

UK GDPR: the retained EU law version of the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679) (UK GDPR).

Personal Data: any information identifying a Data Subject or information relating to a Data Subject that we can identify (directly or indirectly) from that data alone or in combination with other identifiers we possess or can reasonably possess. Personal Data includes Special Categories of Personal Data.

Privacy Notice: a separate notice setting out information that may be provided to Data Subjects when Apex Notaries collects information about them.

Processing or Process: any activity that involves the use of Personal Data. It includes obtaining, recording or holding the data, or carrying out any operation or set of operations on the data including organising, amending, retrieving, using, disclosing, erasing or destroying it. Processing also includes transmitting or transferring Personal Data to third parties.

Special Categories of Personal Data: information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or similar beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health conditions, sexual life, sexual orientation, biometric or genetic data.

3. Why we process Special Categories of Personal Data and Criminal Convictions Data

3.1 We process Special Categories of Personal Data and Criminal Convictions Data in order to fulfil the contractual requirements to provide agreed notarial services to you.

4. Personal data protection principles

4.1 The UK GDPR requires personal data to be processed in accordance with the six principles set out in Article 5(1). Article 5(2) requires controllers to be able to demonstrate compliance with Article 5(1).

4.2 We comply with the principles relating to Processing of Personal Data set out in the UK GDPR.

5. Compliance with data protection principles

5.1 Lawfulness, fairness and transparency

Personal Data must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the Data Subject.

We will only Process Personal Data fairly and lawfully and for specified purposes. The UK GDPR restricts our actions regarding Personal Data to specified lawful purposes. We can Process Special Categories of Personal Data and Criminal Convictions Data only if we have a legal ground for Processing and one of the specific Processing conditions relating to Special Categories of Personal Data or Criminal Convictions Data applies. We will identify and document the legal ground and specific Processing condition relied on for each Processing activity.

When collecting Special Categories of Personal Data and Criminal Convictions Data from Data Subjects, either directly from Data Subjects or indirectly (for example from a third party or publicly available source), we will provide Data Subjects with a Privacy Notice setting out all the information required by the UK GDPR in a privacy notice which is concise, transparent, intelligible, easily accessible and in clear plain language which can be easily understood.

Lawful Processing basis	Processing condition for Special Categories of Personal Data
Data concerning health With the consent of the Data Subject (Article 6 (1) (a)) or compliance with a legal obligation (Article 6 (1)(c)), where necessary for the performance of a contract with the Data Subject (Article 6(1)(b)) for the purpose of satisfying the data subject’s particular notarial requirements.	Article 9 (2) (a) UK GDPR – Explicit consent.
Racial or ethnic origin data With consent of the Data Subject (Article 6 (1) (a)) or compliance with a legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)) or occasionally for the purpose of satisfying the Data Subject’s particular notarial requirements.	Article 9 (2) (a) UK GDPR – Explicit consent.
Criminal Convictions Data Where the Data Subject has given consent to the processing of their criminal convictions data for the purpose of satisfying their particular notarial requirements, under Article 6(1) (a). Where necessary for performance of a contract (Article 6 (1) (b)).

5.2 Purpose limitation

Personal Data must be collected only for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes. They must not be further Processed in any manner incompatible with those purposes.

We will only collect personal data for specified purposes and will inform Data Subjects what those purposes are in a published Privacy Notice. If we use Personal Data for a new compatible purpose then we will inform the Data Subject first.

5.3 Data minimisation

Personal Data shall be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is processed.

We will only collect or disclose the minimum Personal Data required for the purpose for which the data is collected or disclosed. We will ensure that we do not collect excessive data and that the Personal Data collected is adequate and relevant for the intended purposes.

5.4 Accuracy

Personal Data must be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date. It must be corrected or deleted without delay when inaccurate.

We will ensure that the Personal Data we hold and use is accurate, complete, kept up to date and relevant to the purpose for which it is collected by us. We check the accuracy of any Personal Data at the point of collection and at regular intervals afterwards. We take all reasonable steps to destroy or amend inaccurate or out-of-date Personal Data.

5.5 Storage limitation

We only keep Personal Data in an identifiable form for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or where we have a legal obligation to do so. Once we no longer need Personal Data it shall be deleted or rendered permanently anonymous.

We will ensure Data Subjects are informed of the period for which data is stored and how that period is determined in any applicable Privacy Notice.

5.6 Security, integrity, confidentiality

Personal Data shall be Processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the Personal Data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful Processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures.

We will implement and maintain reasonable and appropriate security measures against unlawful or unauthorised Processing of Personal Data and against the accidental loss of or damage to Personal Data.

5.7 Accountability principle

We are responsible for, and able to demonstrate compliance with these principles.

We will:

Ensure that records are kept of all Personal Data Processing activities, and that these are provided to the Information Commissioner on request.
Carry out a DPIA for any high-risk Personal Data Processing to understand how Processing may affect Data Subjects and consult the Information Commissioner if appropriate.
Have internal processes to ensure that Personal Data is only collected, used or handled in a way that is compliant with data protection law.

6. Controller’s policies on retention and erasure of personal data

We take the security of Special Categories of Personal Data and Criminal Convictions Data very seriously. We have administrative, physical and technical safeguards in place to protect Personal Data against unlawful or unauthorised Processing, or accidental loss or damage. We will ensure, where Special Categories of Personal Data or Criminal Convictions Data are Processed that:

The Processing is recorded, and the record sets out, where possible, a suitable time period for the safe and permanent erasure of the different categories of data in accordance with our Records Management Policy.
Where we no longer require Special Categories of Personal Data or Criminal Convictions Data for the purpose for which it was collected, we will delete it or render it permanently anonymous as soon as possible.
Where records are destroyed we will ensure that they are safely and permanently disposed of.

Data Subjects receive a Privacy Notice setting out how their Personal Data will be handled when we first obtain their Personal Data, and this will include the period for which the Personal Data will be stored, or if that is not possible, the criteria used to determine that period. The Privacy Notice is also available from our DPM.

7. Review

7.1 This policy on Processing Special Categories of Personal Data and Criminal Convictions Data is reviewed every year.

7.2 The policy will be retained where we process Special Categories of Personal Data and Criminal Convictions Data and for a period of at least six months after we stop carrying out such processing.

7.3 A copy of this policy will be provided to the Information Commissioner on request and free of charge.

Dated:

Review date: 27 June 2024

Next review: 27 June 2025

Further information:

For further information about our compliance with data protection law, please contact Sukhpal Matharoo by email smatharoo@apexnotaries.co.uk