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Privacy Policy

This privacy notice tells you what to expect when Cameron Stephen & Co collect personal information. It applies to information we collect about visitors to our websites, the use of cookies, social media, telephone calls and email enquiries, users that submit data on our website, people who instruct us to use our services, people who are interested in our properties for sale, our complaints process, links to other websites and ways to contact us.

People who use our services

We are a law firm and provide legal advice and assistance to its clients. It is regulated by the Law Society of Scotland.

We offer various legal and estate agency services to the public.

We use some third parties who are necessary to assist you with providing these services including, but not limited to; surveyors, professional photographers, For Sale Board providers and professional bodies like Registers of Scotland. These third parties are only allowed to use the information in line to complete your service for the intended purposes.

We have to hold details of the people who have requested a service in order to provide it. However, we only use these details to provide the service the person has requested and for other closely related purposes. When people do subscribe to other general updates (e.g. our mailing list) they can cancel their subscription at any time and are given an easy way of doing so.

Our lawful basis for collecting data

There are different legal bases that we rely on to use your personal information, namely these are:

Performance of a contract

The processing is necessary for a contract you have with us, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into a contract.

Legal obligation

The processing is necessary for you and us to comply with the law (not including contractual obligations).

Legitimate interests

The processing is necessary for your or our legitimate interests.

Data protection principles

We comply with the data protection principles set out below. When processing personal data, we ensure that:

it is processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject (lawfulness, fairness and transparency)
it is collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with those purposes (purpose limitation)
it is all adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed (data minimisation)
it is all accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date and that reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay (accuracy)
it is kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed (storage limitation)
it is processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures (integrity and confidentiality)
We will facilitate any request from a data subject who wishes to exercise their rights under data protection law as appropriate, always communicating in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible form and without undue delay.

Visitors to our website

When someone visits our website, www.cameronstephen.co.uk, we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Use of cookies

You can read more about how we use cookies on our detailed in our Cookies Policy here.

People who contact us via social media

We utilise the following social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

If you send us a private or direct message via social media the message will be stored by the social media site for our attention. It will not be shared with any other organisations.

Messages sent to us directly via social media are kept for a reasonable time period in order for us to assist with your enquiry, after which they are deleted following a period of 3-month inactivity.

We are not liable for the content or personal data included in any reviews left against the organisation on social media e.g. Facebook or Google left by an individual user of these platforms.

We reserve the right to challenge or refute any allegations made against us on these platforms.

If you submit any explicit or inappropriate content on our social media sites you will be reported to the applicable platform and banned from the page.

People who email us

We monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses, phishing and malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.

We endeavour to reply to all emails as soon as possible. If you have any queries relating an email you have sent us, do not hesitate to contact us to discuss further.

Complaints Procedure

We are committed to providing a high-quality service. If you have any concerns, however, as to the manner in which the transaction is being, or was, handled or the fee that has been charged your complaint should, in the first instance, be directed to the Partner responsible for the matter.

Thereafter if you are not satisfied (or if you are not yet a client) you can contact our Client Relations Partner, Fiona Duff. We will ensure that any complaint is properly and objectively investigated and dealt with and that you are fully advised of all your rights.

If after investigation by the Client Relations Partner you are still not satisfied, you are at liberty to refer the matter to The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) who is the single gateway for all legal complaints in Scotland.

Visit the SLCC website: https://www.scottishlegalcomplaints.org.uk/.

The SLCC can be contacted at the following address:

Scottish Legal Complaints Commission
The Stamp Office
10 – 14 Waterloo Place
Edinburgh
EH1 3EG

Phone: 0131 201 2130
Fax: 0131 201 2131
Enquiries: [email protected]

If you are not happy with our response to a complaint made about your personal data, you are also entitled to submit a complaint to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Tel: 0303 123 1115.
Website: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/

If you are a client please refer to our Terms of Business for further relevant information on complaints.

People who make a complaint to us

When we receive a complaint from a person we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.

We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide.

We usually have to disclose the complainants identity to whoever the complaint is about. This is inevitable where, for example, the accuracy of a persons record or a transaction is in dispute. If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, we will try to respect that where possible. However, it may not be possible to fully handle a complaint on an anonymous basis.

We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.

Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to us we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to assess the level of service we provide.

People who are interested in our properties for sale

As mentioned above, we have to hold the details of the people who have requested the service in order to provide it. However, we only use these details to provide the service the person has requested and for other closely related purposes.

We have a legitimate interest in collecting your data (names, email address, telephone number) if you show an interest in one of our properties for sale and wish to view it as we are instructed by our client to sell and market their property professionally.

For health and safety purposes, we also must know who is attending our clients private properties. By providing us with your email address and telephone number, we are able to log your details on our system and keep you up to date on the property e.g. if it goes to a closing date or there is a price change. To ensure that viewings proceed smoothly we share the contact details of those viewing our clients properties with the person facilitating the viewing. This is highly recommended in today fast-moving market. We will only ever use your personal data to keep you up to date with any property or properties you show interest in and if you wish to be removed from the system just let us know.

Your Rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulations, you, as a data subject have a number of rights which are detailed below. Some of these only apply in specific circumstances and are qualified in several respects by exemptions in data protection legislation. We will advise you in our response to your request if we are relying on any such exemptions.

Access to personal data: You have a right to request information about the personal information that we hold about you. Should you wish to make such a request, please email us at [email protected]. You should include adequate information to identify yourself and such other relevant information that will reasonably assist us in fulfilling your request.
Correction of personal data: You can request us to rectify and correct any personal data that we are processing about you which is incorrect.
Right to withdraw consent: Where we have relied upon your consent to process your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent. To opt out of marketing, you can use the unsubscribe link found in the marketing communication you receive from us.
Right of erasure: You can request us to erase your personal data where there is no legitimate interest for us to continue processing. This right only applies in certain circumstances; it is not a guaranteed or absolute right.
Right to data portability: This right allows you to obtain your personal data that you have provided to us with your consent or which was necessary for us to provide you with our products and services in a format which enables you to transfer that personal data to another organisation. You may have the right to have your personal data transferred by us directly to the other organisation, if this is technically feasible.
Right to restrict processing of personal data: You have the right in certain circumstances to request that we restrict our processing of your personal data.
Right to object to processing of personal data: You have the right to object to our use of your personal data which is processed on the basis of our legitimate interests. However, we may continue to process your personal data, despite your objection, where there are compelling legitimate grounds to do so or we need to process your personal data in connection with any legal claims.
Rights relating to automated decision making and profiling: You have the right not to be subject to a decision which is based solely on automated processing (without human involvement) where that decision produces a legal effect or otherwise significantly affects you. This right means you can request that we involve one of our employees or representatives in the decision-making process. We are satisfied that we do not make automated decisions of this nature.


Security

We recognise that online security and data protection is an area of importance to all of our clients and users of our site, so it is important to us that you have confidence in the security of your personal details. We are committed to employing security measures to protect your information from access by unauthorised persons and to prevent accidental or unlawful processing, disclosure, destruction, loss, alteration and damage.

As some communications via the internet are not secure, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you disclose using your internet connection to us via any method of transfer. You accept the inherent security implications of using the internet and the Firm will accept no liability for any direct, consequential, incidental, indirect, or punitive losses or damages arising out of such an occurrence.

Links to other websites

This privacy notice does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit for further information.

Retention period

We retain personal information for as long as we reasonably require it for legal, business or archiving purposes.

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated in May 2019.

How to contact us

If you want to discuss any aspect of our privacy policy you can email us at [email protected] or write to:

Compliance
Cameron Stephen & Co
14 Constitution St
Edinburgh
EH6 7BT