Privacy Notice

About BW Legal

BW Legal is a law firm regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and also the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). BW Legal takes data protection seriously and is committed to highest standards of data protection. This Privacy Notice provides important information about processing personal data. It is kept under review and updated from time to time. BW Legal processes personal data in accordance with data protection principles:

• Lawfulness, fairness and transparency;
• Data minimisation;
• Accuracy;
• Storage limitation;
• Integrity and confidentiality; and
• Accountability

Please contact us using the details below should you have any questions about the Privacy Notice.

BW Legal is a law firm appointed by its clients to collect debt on their behalf. BW Legal acts as a data processor in respect of data provided to us by clients under their instructions to us and a data controller in circumstances where data might be used for our own business purposes. BW Legal may be contacted by:

Post: BW Legal, Enterprise House, Apex View, Leeds, England, LS11 9BH
Phone: 0113 468 3000
Email: enquiries@bwlegal.co.uk
You can find out more about BW Legal on its website http://www.bwlegal.co.uk/

Purpose of Processing

BW Legal processes personal data for legitimate purposes including:

• Debt collection

This includes, for example, contact by letter, telephone, mobile phone, SMS and email and managing payments

• Exercising or having the right to exercise the lender’s rights and duties in relation to high-cost short-term credit

This may include taking legal action and enforcement activity

• Exercising/having right to exercise lender’s rights and duties under a regulated credit agreement (excluding high-cost short-term credit, bill of sale agreement, and home collected credit agreement)

This may include taking legal action and enforcement activity

• Debt Administration

This may include updating credit files, calculating interest and charges and managing payments

BW Legal may also process personal data for the following legitimate purposes:

• To comply with legal and regulatory obligations;
• To run the business in an efficient and effective manner;
• To manage conduct risk and ensure customers are treated fairly in accordance with the FCA Consumer Outcomes;
• To comply with data protection fundamental rights and freedoms including the right of access;
• To comply with the requirements of the Consumer Credit Act 1974;
• To Detect, investigate, report and otherwise seek to prevent fraud, money laundering, financing terrorism and other financial crime;
• To investigate, resolve and respond to complaints;
• For outsourcing to third party service providers such as printing, postage, debt collection, and litigation;
• For producing and analysing statistical information;
• To complete affordability assessments;
• Profiling;
• To undertake trace activity;
• For call monitoring; or
• If all or part of the business is transferred to new ownership

Legal Basis for Processing

BW Legal processes data on the following lawful reasons:

• Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract including:
  • Consumer credit contracts (including, for example, personal loans, credit cards and overdrafts);
  • Telecommunications (including, for example, mobile phone);
  • Utilities (gas, electric and water); and
  • Parking
• Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
  • This may include, for example, financial sanctions
• Processing is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests which include:
  • Reasonable Expectation e.g. steps are taken to recover outstanding debts
  • The existence of a relevant and appropriate relationship e.g. between a creditor and a debtor
  • Necessary for the prevention of financial crime including fraud and money laundering
  • Network and information security e.g. payments are made using an online system (customer portal)
  • Business interest e.g. monitoring payment arrangements, complaints data and other management information
  • Ensuring data accuracy e.g. validating current address
  • Service improvement e.g. average waiting time for calls to be answered
• Freely given Consent
  • This may include information about physical and mental health

Categories of Personal Data

BW Legal uses different types of personal data which may be grouped together as:

• Financial
• Contact
• Socio-demographic
• Transactional
• Locational
• Communication
• Public Data
• Special Categories
• Consent

Sources of Data

BW Legal obtains personal data from sources including:

• Original Creditors/Lenders;
• Credit Reference Agencies;
• Trace agencies;
• Publically available databases such as the Electoral roll;
• Other publically available information;
• Medical practitioners;
• Fraud prevention agencies;
• Service providers including debt collection and legal services;
• Law enforcement;
• Debt management companies;
• Debt advice/debt counselling agencies;
• Insolvency practitioners;
• Money advisors;
• Accountant in Bankruptcy;
• Banks/payment processors;
• Data subject and/or authorised representatives

Sharing Data

BW Legal may share your data with:

• Credit Reference Agencies such as Experian, Equifax and CallCredit
• Debt Management Companies
• Debt Advice/counselling agencies
• Insolvency practitioners
• The accountant in bankruptcy
• Service Providers (data processors) such a postal, debt collection and legal services
• The original creditor/lender
• HM Courts and Tribunal Service/Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service
• Regulators such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Law Society of Scotland, Financial Conduct Authority, Information Commissioner’s Office and OFCOM
• Scottish Legal Complaints Commission/Legal Ombudsman/Financial Ombudsman Service
• Law enforcement agencies such as the Police and National Crime Agency
• Trade associations such as the Credit Services Association
• HM Revenue and Customs
• Others, where you have provided permission to do so

Data Transfer

Personal Data is not transferred outside of the European Union (EU) without appropriate safeguards.

Automated Decision Making

BW Legal does not make decisions solely based on automated processing (including profiling) which produce legal effects or have a significant affect.

Data Storage

Customer data is retained for no longer than necessary. As such, data is retained for as long as an account remains open.

Upon account closure, data is retained for six years.

Data is deleted through appropriate technical safeguards when no longer required.

Your Rights

Information about your data protection rights is available in the Information Commissioner’s website https://www.ico.org.uk/

Please use the contact details set out above under “About BW Legal” if you would like to exercise your data protection rights.

If you have a complaint regarding data protection matters, you have a right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office. However, BW Legal would like an opportunity to respond to your complaint before you raise it with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Cookies

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You can be confident that this website does not make use of any cookies.

Last reviewed April 2018