THE BANKS GROUP’S PRIVACY STATEMENT
The Banks Group is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This privacy statement (together with our terms of use and any other documents referred to in it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.

Please read the following carefully to understand how and why we process your personal data.

WHAT IS THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT ABOUT?
In conducting our business we sometimes need information about you, and some of that may be personal or private. For example we may need to know your name and address, details of how you would like to be contacted (eg your mobile phone number or your email address).

As we do this, we would like you to take some time to read this privacy statement. It will explain what information we might collect about you, why we collect it, what we may use it for, and who we may give it to. We’ll also explain your rights regarding your information and how we look after it while we have it.

DATA CONTROLLER
For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), the data controller is:
The Banks Group Ltd
Inkerman House
St John’s Road
Meadowfield Industrial Estate
Durham
DH7 8XL

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU AND WHY?
The information we collect about you may vary, but typically we need details like:

• Your name and address so we know who you are and which Banks Group project(s) is/are near your home – if any
• Your contact details including phone number or email so that we can keep in touch with you about our work and keep you informed about any issues you have raised

HOW DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION ABOUT YOU?
We may collect and store information about you when you interact with us. For example, when you attend an event or submit an enquiry, or apply for a job opportunity, or otherwise give us any other personal information.

We may also receive information about you from third parties for a specific purpose – but only if you have given them your permission to share your information with us.

You can engage with us through social media. When you engage with us through social media, you may allow us to have access to certain information from your social media account (eg name, email address, photo, gender, birthday, city, the posts, ‘likes’ or the tweets and/or re-tweets et al you make).

HOW WILL WE USE THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU?
The information you provide to us will be used for the following reasons:

• to manage our relationship with you
• to improve the way we go about our business
• provide information relating to us if you indicate that you want to receive regular communications
• provide aggregate information and statistics for the purposes of monitoring website usage in order to help us develop our website and projects. These statistics will not include information that can be used to identify any individual
• recruitment and selection purposes

WHO DO WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH?
We appreciate that you have provided your information to us and may not want us to share it with other people or organisations. We only share your information where we are permitted by you or where you have requested us to do so.

We may share your information with, for example:

• Any of your family, associates, or someone who represents you, where you have asked us to do so
• Employment and recruitment agencies, or current, past and prospective employers, where you require a reference from us
• Our employees who work on our projects
• External agencies like the police, fire service, or local councils in the event of an emergency situation, such as under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004
• Any person or organisation where we are required to because of a Court order, legal duty, or statutory obligation (such as a planning condition)

We are very careful to minimise such sharing.

HOW DO WE PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION?
When we use information about you we take all reasonable efforts to do so fairly and lawfully.

We never use information about you unless it is lawful for us to do so and we have a clearly defined purpose.

When we collect information about you we ensure that we minimise what we collect. We try to collect enough accurate and up to date information to ensure we provide you with the communication (eg project updates) you have requested, expect and no more. We try not to keep your information for longer than we need it and we ensure that the records we have about you are managed properly and deleted promptly and securely when we no longer need them.

We take appropriate care to secure the information we hold about you. We have robust technical security such as passwords and encryption. We also have policies and procedures to ensure your information is only available to our employees who need to see it to do their job.

Furthermore, we establish robust procedures and contracts to extend these protections to any other enforcement or regulatory bodies that we may be required by law to give your information to.

In everything we do with your information we try to be fair, lawful, and open, and we take seriously our obligations towards your privacy and the protection of information we hold about you. 

ON OUR WEBSITE
When visiting our website you may also be providing us with certain information via our use of ‘cookies’. You can find out more about this by reading our statement about cookies below.

No data transmission over the internet can ever be entirely secure. While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its security and you must be aware of this when using our websites.

Our website may contain links to other sites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these external resources have their own terms and conditions and privacy policies and that we cannot accept responsibility for their content.

This privacy statement applies only to The Banks Group’s website and business.

BY EMAIL AND PHONE
If you have contacted us by email, or provided an email address, we may use that to contact you if we need to.

You should also be aware that information conveyed by email could be deliberately or accidentally intercepted or corrupted. Whilst we make every effort to ensure that emails we send to you are free from viruses this cannot be guaranteed. We recommend that you scan all emails for viruses with appropriate and frequently updated virus checking software.

If you have given us your phone number (landline or mobile), we may use it to contact you if we need to, including sending texts.

Please let us know if your mobile phone number or email address changes so that we can keep this information up to date.

YOUR RIGHTS
You have certain rights under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). These are:

• The right to be informed via privacy statement such as this. The right of access to any personal information we hold about you.
• The right to rectification, we must correct inaccurate or incomplete data about you
• The right to erasure. You have the right to have your personal data erased and to prevent processing unless we have a legal obligation to process your personal information
• The right to restrict processing. You have the right to supress processing. We can retain just enough information about you to ensure that the restriction is respected in future
• The right to data portability. We can provide you with your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine readable format when asked
• The right to object. You can object to your personal data being used for profiling, direct marketing or research purposes
• You have rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling, to reduce the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human intervention

To request a copy of this information you must make a subject access request in writing via a letter to:

The Data Protection Officer, The Banks Group, Inkerman House, St John’s Road, Meadowfield, Durham, DH7 8XL

Or via email to: feedback@banksgroup.co.uk

To ensure that we can deal with your request as efficiently as possible you will need to include your current name and address, proof of identity (a copy of your driving licence, passport or two different utility bills that display your name and address), as much detail as possible regarding you request so that we can identify any information we may hold about you.

THE BANKS GROUP AND COOKIES
We collect statistics about your visit to our website. We use this information to track user activity which in turn helps us to develop and improve our website. These statistics do not contain personal data and cannot be traced back to an individual. We use ‘cookies’ to collect this statistical information. However, the cookies themselves do not store personal information.

By using our website (through any device) you agree that this cookies policy applies to that use in addition to any other terms and conditions which may apply.

WHAT ARE COOKIES?
Cookies are small text files that are used to record certain interactions on a site. They provide anonymous data that is not harmful to your computer. They are used to remember user preferences, login details or page customisation. Cookies can also be used to record anonymous information about how a visitor uses a site. For example, which pages are visited most often, times spent on these pages and most popular pages on the site.

OPTING OUT OF COOKIE USAGE
You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the websites below tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. You may find that some parts of the site will not function properly if you have refused cookies. Please be aware that if you do not configure your browser you are accepting cookies provided by The Banks Group website.

For further information visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org

HOW DO WE USE COOKIES?
We will use the information held about you for the purposes for which it was provided to us as stated at the point of collection.

We may also process your personal data in order to record and monitor your use of this website for internal purposes which may include analysis of usage, measurement of site performance and generation of reports.

We do not collect or compile personal data for dissemination or sale to outside parties for consumer marketing purposes or host mailings on behalf of third parties.

THE BANKS GROUP AND DATA PROTECTION
The Data Protection Act 1998 and EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) govern how we are allowed to use your personal information. We are registered under the Act and regulated by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

You can find our registration details here: The Banks Group Ltd (Registration Number: 2267400).

CHANGES TO THIS STATEMENT
We may update this statement from time to time. We encourage you to periodically review this statement so that you will be aware of our privacy practices. This statement was last updated on Thursday 21st December 2017.

HOW TO CONTACT US
Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to feedback@banksgroup.co.uk or call 0191 378 6100.