Data Protection Policy
This Data Protection Policy sets out how ASG & Partners (“we”, “our”, “us”, “ASG”) handle the Personal Data of our customers, suppliers, employees, workers and other third parties.
This Data Protection Policy applies to all ASG Personnel (“you”, “your”). You must read, understand and comply with this Data Protection Policy when Processing Personal Data on our behalf and attend training on its requirements. This Data Protection Policy sets out what we expect from you in order for ASG to comply with applicable law. Your compliance with this Data Protection Policy is mandatory.
ASG have put in place a number of GDPR Related Policies and it is essential that you are familiar with these which include:
- Our Website Privacy Notice;
- Our Employee Privacy Notice;
- Our Retention Policy;
- Our Subject Access Request Policy;
- Our Breach Notification Policy.
You must also comply with all such Related Policies. Any breach of this Data Protection Policy may result in disciplinary action.
This Policy (together with our Related Policies) is an internal document and cannot be shared with third parties, clients or regulators without prior authorisation from the Data Protection Supervisor.
Scope
We recognise that the correct and lawful treatment of Personal Data will maintain confidence in the organisation and will provide for successful business operations. Protecting the confidentiality and integrity of Personal Data is a critical responsibility that we take seriously at all times. ASG is exposed to potential fines of up to EUR20 million (approximately £18 million) or 4% of total worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher and depending on the breach, for failure to comply with the provisions of the GDPR.
All individual business areas, departments, supervisors, are responsible for ensuring all ASG Personnel comply with this Data Protection Policy and need to implement appropriate practices, processes, controls and training to ensure such compliance.
The DSO is responsible for overseeing this Data Protection Policy and, as applicable, developing Related Policies.
Please contact the DSO with any questions about the operation of this Data Protection Policy or the GDPR or if you have any concerns that this Data Protection Policy is not being or has not been followed.
Personal data protection principles
We adhere to the principles relating to Processing of Personal Data set out in the GDPR which require Personal Data to be:
(a) Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner (Lawfulness, Fairness and Transparency).
(b) Collected only for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes (Purpose Limitation).
(c) Adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is Processed (Data Minimisation).
(d) Accurate and where necessary kept up to date (Accuracy).
(e) Not kept in a form which permits identification of Data Subjects for longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the data is Processed (Storage Limitation).
(f) Processed in a manner that ensures its security using appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect against unauthorised or unlawful Processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage (Security, Integrity and Confidentiality).
(g) Not transferred to another country without appropriate safeguards being in place (Transfer Limitation).
(h) Made available to Data Subjects and Data Subjects allowed to exercise certain rights in relation to their Personal Data (Data Subject’s Rights and Requests).
We are responsible for and must be able to demonstrate compliance with the data protection principles listed above (Accountability).
Lawfulness, fairness, transparency
Lawfulness and fairness
Personal data must be Processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the Data Subject.
You may only collect, Process and share Personal Data fairly and lawfully and for specified purposes. The GDPR restricts our actions regarding Personal Data to specified lawful purposes. These restrictions are not intended to prevent Processing, but ensure that we Process Personal Data fairly and without adversely affecting the Data Subject.
The GDPR allows Processing for specific purposes, some of which are set out below:
(a) the Data Subject has given his or her Consent;
(b) the Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with the Data Subject;
(c) to meet our legal compliance obligations;
(d) to protect the Data Subject’s vital interests;
(e) to pursue our legitimate interests for purposes where they are not overridden because the Processing prejudices the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of Data Subjects.
Ordinarily when we are dealing with our customer we will be processing their personal data in order to fulfil their order, so we will be processing it in accordance with a contract we have with them.
Data minimisation
Personal Data must be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is Processed.
You must ensure that when Personal Data is no longer needed for specified purposes, it is deleted or anonymised in accordance with ASG’s data retention guidelines.
Accuracy
Personal Data must be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date. It must be corrected or deleted without delay when inaccurate.
You will ensure that the Personal Data we use and hold is accurate, complete, kept up to date and relevant to the purpose for which we collected it. You must check the accuracy of any Personal Data at the point of collection. You must take all reasonable steps to destroy or amend inaccurate or out-of-date Personal Data.
Security integrity and confidentiality
Protecting Personal Data
Personal Data must be secured by appropriate technical and organisational measures against unauthorised or unlawful Processing, and against accidental loss, destruction or damage.
We will develop, implement and maintain safeguards appropriate to our size, scope and business, our available resources, the amount of Personal Data that we own or maintain on behalf of others and identified risks (including use of encryption and Pseudonymisation where applicable).
Reporting a Personal Data Breach
The GDPR requires Data Controllers to notify any Personal Data Breach to the applicable regulator and, in certain instances, the Data Subject.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected Personal Data Breach and will notify Data Subjects or any applicable regulator where we are legally required to do so.
If you know or suspect that a Personal Data Breach has occurred, do not attempt to investigate the matter yourself. Immediately contact the person or team designated as the key point of contact for Personal Data Breaches which is the DSO and follow the DATA BREACH RESPONSE PLAN in the Breach Notification Policy. You should preserve all evidence relating to the potential Personal Data Breach.
Data Subject’s rights and requests
Data Subjects have rights when it comes to how we handle their Personal Data. These include rights to:
(a) withdraw Consent to Processing at any time;
(b) receive certain information about the Data Controller’s Processing activities;
(c) request access to their Personal Data that we hold;
(d) prevent our use of their Personal Data for direct marketing purposes;
(e) ask us to erase Personal Data if it is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or Processed or to rectify inaccurate data or to complete incomplete data;
(f) restrict Processing in specific circumstances;
(g) challenge Processing which has been justified on the basis of our legitimate interests or in the public interest;
(h) request a copy of an agreement under which Personal Data is transferred outside of the EEA;
(i) object to decisions based solely on Automated Processing, including profiling (ADM);
(j) prevent Processing that is likely to cause damage or distress to the Data Subject or anyone else;
(k) be notified of a Personal Data Breach which is likely to result in high risk to their rights and freedoms;
(l) make a complaint to the supervisory authority; and
(m) in limited circumstances, receive or ask for their Personal Data to be transferred to a third party in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format.
You must verify the identity of an individual requesting data under any of the rights listed above (do not allow third parties to persuade you into disclosing Personal Data without proper authorisation).
You must immediately forward any Data Subject request you receive to your supervisor and comply with ASG’ Data Subject response process set out in the Subject Access Request Policy.
Direct marketing
We are subject to certain rules and privacy laws when marketing to our customers.
For example, a Data Subject’s prior consent is required for electronic direct marketing (for example, by email, text or automated calls). The limited exception for existing customers known as “soft opt in” allows organisations to send marketing texts or emails if they have obtained contact details in the course of a sale to that person, they are marketing similar products or services, and they gave the person an opportunity to opt out of marketing when first collecting the details and in every subsequent message. We rely on our legitimate interest as an organisation to market to our existing customers who have stayed with us. We retain customers’ personal data in accordance with our Retention Policy.
The right to object to direct marketing must be explicitly offered to the Data Subject in an intelligible manner so that it is clearly distinguishable from other information.
A Data Subject’s objection to direct marketing must be promptly honoured. If a customer opts out at any time, their details should be suppressed as soon as possible. Suppression involves retaining just enough information to ensure that marketing preferences are respected in the future.
Sharing Personal Data
Generally we are not allowed to share Personal Data with third parties unless certain safeguards and contractual arrangements have been put in place.
You may only share the Personal Data we hold with another employee, agent or representative of our group (which includes our subsidiaries and our ultimate holding company along with its subsidiaries) if the recipient has a job-related need to know the information and the transfer complies with any applicable cross-border transfer restrictions.
We will share personal data with our service companies in accordance with written contracts we have in place.
Changes to this Data Protection Policy
We reserve the right to change this Data Protection Policy at any time without notice to you so please check back regularly to obtain the latest copy of this Data Protection Policy. We last revised this Data Protection Policy on [DATE] [and made the following changes: [DETAILS OF CHANGES].
This Data Protection Policy does not override any applicable national data privacy laws and regulations in countries where ASG operates.
Interpretation
Definitions:
ASG Personnel: all employees, workers, directors, members and others.
Consent: agreement which must be freely given, specific, informed and be an unambiguous indication of the Data Subject’s wishes by which they, by a statement or by a clear positive action, signifies agreement to the Processing of Personal Data relating to them.
Data Controller: the person or organisation that determines when, why and how to process Personal Data. It is responsible for establishing practices and policies in line with the GDPR. We are the Data Controller of all Personal Data relating to our ASG Personnel and Personal Data used in our business for our own commercial purposes.
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 Supervisory Officer (DSO): means Danielle Brennan
EEA: the 28 countries in the EU, and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): the General Data Protection Regulation ((EU) 2016/679). Personal Data is subject to the legal safeguards specified in the 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 access. Personal Data includes Sensitive Personal Data and Pseudonymised Personal Data but excludes anonymous data or data that has had the identity of an individual permanently removed. Personal data can be factual (for example, a name, email address, location or date of birth) or an opinion about that person’s actions or behaviour.
Personal Data Breach: any act or omission that compromises the security, confidentiality, integrity or availability of Personal Data or the physical, technical, administrative or organisational safeguards that we or our third-party service providers put in place to protect it. The loss, or unauthorised access, disclosure or acquisition, of Personal Data is a Personal Data Breach.
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.
Pseudonymisation or Pseudonymised: replacing information that directly or indirectly identifies an individual with one or more artificial identifiers or pseudonyms so that the person, to whom the data relates, cannot be identified without the use of additional information which is meant to be kept separately and secure.
Related Policies: ASG’s policies, operating procedures or processes related to this Data Protection Policy and designed to protect Personal Data.
Sensitive 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, and Personal Data relating to criminal offences and convictions.
