Abbas Media Law’s Privacy Policy

This notice describes how we collect and use your personal data. All our data processing is carried out in accordance with our obligations under the UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Who we are

Abbas Media Law (“we”/“us”/“our”/“the firm”) is a law firm working principally in the television, film, advertising and publishing industries. The website abbasmedialaw.com (the “website”) is owned and operated by Abbas Media Law Limited and we are the data controller for this website.

Information Abbas Media Law may collect

We may collect the following personal data:

• Contact information: your name, position, role, company or organisation, telephone (including mobile phone number where provided) as well as email and postal address;

• Business information: data identifying you in relation to matters on which you instruct us or in which you are involved;

• Information about your academic history, professional qualifications and work history and any other information you have included in your CV;

• Subscriptions/preferences: when you subscribe to receive legal briefings, updates or newsletters such as zoom-in brief and zoom-in magazine as well as consent preferences to help us identify which materials you are interested in receiving;

• Social media: posts, likes, tweets and other interactions with our social media presence;

• Events data: attendance at and provision of feedback forms in relation to our events;

• Information from public sources: e.g. LinkedIn and similar professional networks, directories or internet publications;

• Information in connection with investigations or proceedings: where this is necessary to conduct the investigation or proceedings;

• Attendance records: to record your attendance at our offices for security purposes;

• Supplier data: contact details and other information about you or your company or organisation where you provide services to Abbas Media Law;

• Technical information: when you access this website and our technology services being IP address, browser type and version (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc.), time zone settings, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system you are using (e.g. Vista, Windows XP, MacOS, etc), device type, hardware model, MAC address, unique identifiers and mobile network information;

• Online data: when you access this website and our technology services, information about your visit including URL clickstream to, through and from our website (including date and time), information about your network as such as information about devices, nodes, configurations, connection speeds and network application performance; pages viewed or searched for, page response times, download errors, length of visits and interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, mouse-overs) and whether you click on particular links or open our emails.

• Special categories of personal data: such as disability for events and meetings.

• Criminal record data: where permitted by national law and appropriate to do so, such as the existence of a criminal record or the results of any relevant DBS checks.

• Client matter data: data relating to our clients and to third parties that our clients share with us when they instruct us to advise them in a particular matter. This may include a wide range of information about the people with whom our clients contract in connection with their programmes and the people who feature in their programmes.

Abbas Media Law does not collect personal data about your online activities across third party websites or online services.

Your communications with us

Abbas Media Law may also collect information that you choose to provide in communications with us. Please do not send us any confidential information until we have confirmed in writing that we represent or act for you. Unsolicited emails from non-clients do not establish a lawyer-client relationship, may not be privileged, and may be disclosed to others.

How Abbas Media Law Uses Your Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• Providing legal advice and services;

• Undertaking client due diligence (under anti-money laundering, screening and other crime prevention and detection laws and regulatory requirements);

• Collecting your name and contact details on entry to our office;

• Managing and administering our business relationship with you, your company or organisation;

• To assess job applications from prospective employees and contractors and to assess applications for work experience;

• Communicating with you by sending emails, newsletters and other messages to keep you informed of legal developments and our services;

• Managing suppliers;

• Client surveys and feedback;

• Providing legal training and other events;

• Processing competition entries and notifying you;

• Compliance with our legal and regulatory obligations as a law firm including auditing and reporting requirements;

• Website monitoring to optimise functionality;

• Protecting our online security by protecting our information assets and technology platforms from unauthorised access or usage and to monitor for malware and other security threats;

• Legitimate interest: to pursue the legitimate business interests listed in the Legitimate Interests section of this policy below.

Our reasons for using your personal data

We will process your personal data for a number of reasons:

• you have given us consent: for example where you share details for particular purposes;

• we have a contractual obligation to do so;

• it is necessary in order to deal with legal claims;

• it is necessary in order to comply with legal or regulatory obligations: for example, anti-money laundering legislation;

• processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests or those of a third party:  provided this does not override any interests or rights that you have as an individual.

We may not need to comply with certain aspects of data protection law if we believe that doing so would be ‘incompatible’ with an artistic or journalistic purpose, we are processing data with a view to publication, and there is a public interest in that publication. This is known as the ‘special purposes exemption’. We may, for example, process personal data under the ‘special purposes’ exemption in connection with the work we do for our clients in the television, film, advertising and publishing industries This is most relevant to those whose data we are processing without their knowledge.

Legitimate interests

We have legitimate business interests in:

• providing legal services;

• managing our business and relationship with you or your company or organisation;

• understanding and responding to inquiries and client feedback;

• improving our services and offerings;

• ensuring debts are paid;

• understanding how our clients use our services and websites;

• identifying what our clients want and developing our relationship with you, your company or organisation;

• enforcing our terms of engagement and website and other terms and conditions;

• managing our supply chain;

• ensuring our systems and premises are secure;

• operating suppressors to exclude you from direct marketing if you unsubscribe; and

• developing relationships with business partners.

Our reasons for using special category data

Special category data includes sensitive data such as data revealing your racial or ethnic origin, your political opinions, your religious or philosophical beliefs or trade union membership and data concerning your health, your sex life or your sexual orientation. We may also collect data about criminal convictions. We will process this data where:

• we have your explicit consent: for the particular processing;

• as permitted by applicable law;

• this is necessary to deal with legal claims;

• this is necessary for substantial public interest;

• this is necessary to protect your vital interests or those of another person.

Who do we share your data with?

• Screening service providers so that we can comply with legal obligations in relation to the prevention or protection of crime, anti-money laundering and other required checks;

• Other law firms including barristers and solicitors whom we instruct on your behalf;

• Other delegates at Abbas Media Law events;

• Suppliers who support our business;

• Law enforcement bodies and our regulators the Solicitors Regulation Authority in accordance with legal requirements or good practice;

• Your company or organisation in relation to us providing legal services;

• Advertising networks to support and display ads on our website, apps and other social media tools;

• Shared service centres such as our IT services;

• Appropriate parties in the event of emergencies;

• Third parties in the context of the acquisition or transfer of any part of our business or in connection with the business reorganisation.

Personal data about others

If you provide information to us about someone else (such as one of your employees) you must ensure that you are entitled to disclose that information to us, and where required by law, that the person understands that we may process that information in accordance with this Notice.

Security

Abbas Media Law attempts to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of your personal information. Abbas Media Law has implemented reasonable and appropriate administrative, technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information.

Where will your information be held?

Abbas Media Law is a UK based legal practice and will take steps to protect your information in line with locally applicable data protection requirements.  However, we sometimes work with those outside of the UK and therefore your information may be transferred out of your local jurisdiction or region. We may on occasion need to transfer your information outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). Countries outside of the EEA do not have the same data protection laws. Whenever we transfer personal data outside the UK, we will ensure that adequacy regulations or appropriate safeguards, such as standard data protection clauses that are recognised or issued in accordance with the UK data protection regime, are in place. If you would like further details please contact Abbas Media Law by email at info@abbasmedialaw.com.

How long do we keep your data?

We will only hold your personal information for as long as we continue to need it for the purposes set out in this policy.

In terms of personal data we use for marketing, we will keep this data for as long as we are able to market to you and if you withdraw your consent or opt-out of marketing communications, we will keep your contact details only to ensure that we do not contact you again for marketing purposes. If you send us your CV but your application is unsuccessful we may hold your CV for up to 2 years from the date you sent it to us.

Your Rights

Some of these rights will only apply in certain circumstances.

• Access: you are entitled to ask us if we are processing your data and, if we are, you

  can request access to your personal data.

• Correction: you are entitled to request that any incomplete or inaccurate personal data we hold about you is corrected;

• Erasure: you are entitled to ask us to delete or remove personal data in certain circumstances. There are certain exceptions where we may refuse a request for erasure, for example, where the personal data is required for compliance with law;

• Transfer: you may request the transfer of your personal data to another party;

• Restriction: you are entitled to ask us to suspend the processing of personal data about you;

• Objection: where we are processing your personal data based on a legitimate interests (or those of a third party) or for marketing purposes you may challenge this;

• Consent: where we are processing personal data with consent, you can withdraw your consent.

• Automated decisions: you may contest any automated decision made about you where this has a legal or similar significant effect and ask for it to be reconsidered.

If you want to exercise any of these rights or make a complaint, please contact Abbas Media Law in writing at info@abbasmedialaw.com.

You also have a right to lodge a complaint with the

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF 

www.ico.org.uk.

The ICO helpline number is 0303 123 1113.

Direct Marketing Opt-Out

You can opt-out of receiving direct marketing from us at any time.  You can do this by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link included at the end of any marketing email we send to you, or by contacting info@abbasmedialaw.com.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files downloaded by your browser and stored on your computer. They help make websites work, or make them work in a more efficient way. They also provide information to website owners to help them to improve their websites.

How we use cookies

Our website and newsletter (Platform) use cookies to improve your user experience. Cookies enable the website to remember personalised details and user preferences, they can also be used for analytics purposes. The data we collect through these technologies will also be used to manage your session.

We may use the information we obtain from your use of our cookies for the following purposes:

1. to recognise your computer when you visit the website and prevent you from having to accept/reject cookies repeatedly;

2. to track you as you navigate the Platform;

3. to improve the Platform’s usability;

4. for the administration of the Platform;

5. to analyse the use of the Platform; and

6. to personalise the website for you, including targeting advertisements which may be of particular interest to you.

What cookies we use

We and third parties use the following types of cookies when you use the Platform:

• Strictly Necessary cookies – these are essential to enable you to move around the Platform and use its features. The Platform will not function properly without these cookies.

• Functional cookies – these allow us to provide a better user experience on the Platform and prevent you from having to repeatedly enter the same information when using it.

• Analytics and advertising cookies – these help us to understand how users interact with our Platform. We use this information to optimise the Platform based on user behaviour and needs.

We use the following functional, analytics and advertising cookies: