Privacy Policy

We obtain personal information about you if you choose to provide it – for example, to contact mailboxes or to register for certain services. Other information we collect will depend on the privacy settings you have set with your social media provider, so please review the privacy statement or policy of the applicable service.

When you register or submit personal information to Touchstone Accountancy we will use this information in the manner outlined in this Privacy Statement. Your personal information is not used for other purposes, unless we obtain your permission, or unless otherwise required or permitted by law or professional standards.

In some cases where you have registered for certain services we will store your email address temporarily until we receive confirmation of the information you provided via an email (i.e. where we send an email to the email address provided as part of your registration to confirm a subscription request).

Touchstone Accountancy generally collects only the personal information necessary to fulfill your request. Where additional, optional information is sought, you will be notified of this at the point of collection.

The law in Europe allows us to process personal information, so long as we have a ground under the law to do so. It also requires us to tell you what those grounds are. As a result, when we process your personal information, we will rely on one of the following processing conditions:

• Performance of a contract: this is when the processing of your personal information is necessary in order to perform our obligations under a contract;
• Legal obligation: this is when we are required to process your personal information in order to comply with a legal obligation, such as keeping records for tax purposes or providing information to a public body or law enforcement agency;
• Legitimate interests: we will process information about you where it is in our legitimate interest in running a lawful business to do so in order to further that business, so long as it doesn’t outweigh your interests; or
• Your consent: in some cases, we will ask you for specific permission to process some of your personal information, and we will only process your personal information in this way if you agree to us doing so. You may withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us info@touchstoneaccountancy.co.uk.

Examples of the ‘legitimate interests’ referred to above are:

• To prevent fraud or criminal activity and to safeguard our IT systems.
• To customize individuals’ online experience and improve the performance usability and effectiveness of Touchstone Accountancy’s online presence.
• To conduct, and to analyze, our marketing activities.
• To meet our corporate and social responsibility obligations.
• To exercise our fundamental rights in the EU under Articles 16 and 17 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, including our freedom to conduct a business and right to property.

In some cases, the personal data that we collect will also include special categories of data, such as diversity related information (including data about racial and ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs and other beliefs of a similar nature, trade union membership and data about sexual life and sexual orientation), or health data and data about alleged or proven criminal offenses in each case where permitted by law.

An IP address is a number assigned to your computer whenever you access the internet. It allows computers and servers to recognize and communicate with one another. IP addresses from which visitors appear to originate will be recorded for IT security and system diagnostic purposes. This information will also typically be used in aggregate form to conduct web site trend and performance analysis.

Cookies will typically be placed on your computer or internet-enabled device whenever you visit us online. This allows the site to remember your computer or device and serves a number of purposes.

On our web site, a notification banner will appear allowing you to manage your consent to collect cookies (cookie banner). Although most browsers automatically accept cookies, you can choose whether to accept cookies via the cookie consent banner or your browser’s settings (often found in your browser’s Tools or Preferences menu). If you wish to revoke your selection, you may do so by clearing your browser’s cookies, or by updating your preferences in the cookie banner.

If Touchstone Accountancy processes personal information about you, you have the following rights:

• Access and correction: you have the right to access to that data. If we agree that we are obliged to provide personal information to you, we will provide it to you free of charge. Before providing personal information to you, we may ask for proof of identity and sufficient information about your interactions with us that we can locate your personal information. If the information we hold about you is incorrect, you are entitled to ask us to correct any inaccuracies in the personal information.
• Object to processing: you have the right to object to us processing your personal information if we are not entitled to use it anymore.
• Other Rights: in addition, you may have rights to have your information deleted if we are keeping it too long, have its processing restricted in certain circumstances and/or to obtain copies of information we hold about you in electronic form.

You can make a request or exercise these rights by contacting us at info@touchstoneaccountancy.co.uk and we will make all reasonable and practical efforts to comply with your request, so long as it is consistent with applicable law and professional standards.

Touchstone Accountancy has reasonable security policies and procedures in place to protect personal information from unauthorized loss, misuse, alteration, or destruction. Despite our best efforts, however, security cannot be absolutely guaranteed against all threats. To the best of our ability, access to your personal information is limited to those who have a need to know. Those individuals who have access to the data are required to maintain the confidentiality of such information.

We also make reasonable efforts to retain personal information only for so long i) as the information is necessary to comply with an individual’s request, ii) as necessary to comply with legal, regulatory, internal business or policy requirements, or iii) until that person asks that the information be deleted. The period for which data is retained will depend on the specific nature and circumstances under which the information was collected.

We would like to send you updates and information about products and services of ours and other companies which may be of interest to you. If you have consented to receive marketing, you may opt out at a later date. You have a right at any time to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes or giving your information to other parties.

Touchstone Accountancy may modify this Privacy Statement from time to time to reflect our current privacy practices. Any changes to the processing of personal data as described in this Privacy Statement affecting you will be communicated to you through an appropriate channel, depending on how we normally communicate with you.